Here’s everything you need to know about adventure fitness programs and how you can incorporate them into your fitness business.

What is adventure fitness?

Adventure fitness is any kind of exercise program or class that incorporates adventure activities. For example, you can take your client rock climbing, running on a trail, or on a wildlife hike. Or, take a page out of Lighthouse Fit’s book and haul your clients to the beach with some kettlebells and sandbags for an intense workout by the water. 

Adventure Fitness is perfect if your clients are outdoor enthusiasts who are itching for a chance to interact with the world. Or, you can help clients discover a passion for these activities in their own lives. Whether you’re training a newbie hiker or coaching a professional skier, adventure fitness is a game changer.

Why should I add adventure fitness services to my business?

Alright, adventure fitness sounds exciting. But what is the value for you and your clients?

Adventure fitness activities promote a more active lifestyle for your clients and create a memorable social environment. Clients can build a community while achieving their fitness goals. It’s a great opportunity to kick start a fitness journey because it’s way more fun and engaging than lifting weights in a studio.

 Plus, adventure fitness training helps clients build confidence. They may worry less about perfecting a technique or getting injured as they get comfortable working out in the world.

Adventure fitness isn’t new. But it is rare to find these kinds of programs at traditional fitness trainers or gyms. So, it’s an opportunity for your business to stand out. You may be able to attract more clients with these unique offers.

What kind of adventure fitness programs can I add to my business?

There are many ways to add adventure fitness services to your fitness business. Maybe you’ll organize a group hiking class or add a rock climbing wall at your gym. You can also have adventure fitness programs that help clients get in shape for trips and sporting events.

 For example, businesses like Wildr offer programs to prep clients for the weeks leading up to a fitness adventure. They offer clients a 16-week strength and conditioning program to build endurance as a paddler for rafting and canoeing. Or clients can choose to join an 8-week ski training program where they improve their range of motion and endurance to prep for the ski season.

Adventure fitness experiences can also include interactions with animals like whale watching, snorkeling with sea creatures, and horseback riding, as well as giving clients an opportunity to interact with wildlife. 

Of course, the kind of adventure fitness programs you offer will depend on your location. Take advantage of parks, cliffsides, beaches, and hiking trails in your area. 

Do you live in a dense city? Don’t be discouraged! The best part about adventure fitness is that you and your clients aren’t confined to one region. In fact, adventure fitness travel experiences are growing in popularity.

What is adventure fitness travel?

With adventure fitness travel, you can up your health and wellness game while exploring the planet. Fitness retreats have always been a part of the industry, but adventure travel fitness takes it up a notch.

These “healthy holidays” make a huge impact on your clients. Adventure fitness travel experiences encourage clients to live a healthier lifestyle or act as a reward for months of sticking to a tight regimen. The experiences aren’t just fun and games (though that’s a plus). Clients see effective results in their physical and mental health. And some clients will prefer a more challenging experience.  Either way, it’s sure to be exhilarating.

For example, some businesses offer adventure fitness travel experience packages. Like them, you can:

• Host a retreat on a tropical island where clients can practice yoga and enjoy spa services
• Go to a nearby beach town to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, turn off your electronics, meditate, and workout
• Visit the ocean for surfing and sunshine
• Host a boating program at a nearby lake to help clients work on flexibility and endurance.
• Organize a horseback riding adventure, whether on a traditional trail or the beach.
• Take clients biking along lakes and mountains
• Take clients hiking, river rafting, and canoeing
• Organize a snowy mountain hike and chill out in the hot tub afterward for some relaxation.

 Adventure fitness travel should be a holistic experience. Clients want to get to know the area while taking part in your program or boot camp. For example, you can treat your clients to cooking classes to test the local cruising during your adventures. 

Just make sure your budget and time spent planning adventure fitness activities will be worth the income you bring in!

Ready, set, go!

Adventure is calling! You can attract new clients, motivate your client base, and get out of the gym with adventure fitness training. Your clients get unique opportunities to meet their health and fitness goals, and you spend more time doing what you love. It’s a win-win!

PocketSuite can help you manage your adventure fitness programs on the go. We’re the all-in-one to run and grow a fitness business.

We know it can be tough to weed through hundreds of fitness business books to find a real gem. So, whether you prefer your Kindle or an audiobook, we’ve got you covered.  

We put together our top book recommendations for fitness entrepreneurs in 2023. 

What books should fitness pros read in 2023? 

Fitness business books give you a leg up in the industry. A good business book provides practical knowledge to grow your business and the motivation to get it done. You get to learn from leaders in your field and keep up with the latest training techniques. 

And some fitness books allow you to earn CE credits towards your certification renewal i.e. you read the book and complete an exam. It’s a win-win. 

(Besides, reading is fun!)

Here are the best books for fitness professionals to read in 2023. 

#1 Change Maker: Turn Your Passion for Health and Fitness into a Powerful Purpose and a Wildly Successful Career

Change Maker is a highly-rated book by renowned exercise and nutrition specialist, John Berardi. In the book, Berardi acts as your guide through the sometimes confusing, always competitive health and fitness industry. 

Whether you’re a seasoned fitness professional or aspiring trainer, this book helps you create a path to business success. It breaks down the financial, emotional, and logistical issues of the fitness industry into six simple steps, such as choosing your specialty and attracting clients. It’s a helpful read for 

• Personal trainers, 
• Yoga instructors, 
• Nutritionists, 
• Physical therapists and 
• Health and wellness coaches. 

With a 4.4 rating on Goodreads, it’s sure to be a winner! 

John Berardi, Ph.D. CSCS, co-founded Precision Nutrition, one of the top nutrition certification programs for health and fitness pros. 

• Author: John Berardi
• Year Published: 2020
• Cost: $14.99 on Kindle

#2 Ignite the Fire: The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career

Ignite the Fire is a staple for fitness trainers around the world. And it’s no wonder why! In the book, Goodman gives an in-depth look at the fitness industry you won’t find anywhere else. Readers can expect a step-by-step guide to build their dream personal training business.  

Get your hands on this book if you want to learn how to:

• Find and attract loyal clients
• Create workout programs for new clients
• Manage client conflict and expectations
• Create multiple streams of income 
• Manage your public image and reputation as a personal trainer

Jonathon Goodman started training clients in 2005 and has built an impressive career. He’s written five books on personal training and business growth. So, also, check out his highly-rated Personal Trainer’s Pocketbook.

• Author(s): Jonathan Goodman
• Year Published: 2015
• Cost: $9.99 on Kindle

#3 Conscious Coaching: The Art and Science of Building Buy-In

Conscious Coaching dives into the physical and emotional aspects of being a strength and conditioning trainer. Bartholomew teaches you how to get your athletes across the finish line and achieve their goals. He emphasizes communication along with physical training. If you want to learn how to get the best results from your clients using proven training skills and human behavior techniques, this is the book for you! 

Readers leave with vital coaching skills that they can apply to practice immediately. While the book targets sports coaches, it’s a helpful read for all fitness professionals. 

Brett Bartholomew is a strength and conditioning coach for athletes across various sports and age groups. He has experience with Olympians, professional boxers, and Super Bowl players.

• Author(s): Brett Bartholomew
• Year Published: 2017
• Cost: $23.95 Paperback (Amazon)

#4 The Language of Coaching: The Art & Science of Teaching Movement

This book is for coaches that want to stand out from the crowd with excellent communication skills. Winkelman shows how to leverage communication to instruct your students. You’ll learn about the impact of detailed feedback and instruction on program results.  

Readers will enjoy 25+ movement sequences with visual aids. It’s a truly comprehensive guide for coaches that want to learn practical training cues and develop some of their own. 

The Language of Coaching is a must-read for newbies and professionals. You also have the opportunity to earn CE credits by reading this book and completing an exam.

Nick Winkel is currently head of athletic performance and science for the airing Rugby Football Union. He earned his Ph.D. from Rocky Mountain University in Utah. 

• Author(s): Nicklass Winkelman
• Year Published: 2020
• Cost: $31.16 (Kindle)

#5 How To Become a Personal Trainer (Successful)

You need more than certifications and an excellent physique to become a high-earning trainer. In How To Become a Personal Trainer, Hitchko emphasizes the importance of knowledge of human anatomy, business management skills, and mentorship. He encourages readers to expand their traditional ideas of what makes a personal trainer.

Readers can expect realistic perspectives on building a successful personal training business, including interviews from top trainers in the industry, like Brett Bartholomew and Meghan Callaway.

Chris Hitchko has a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and has coached hundreds of trainers on growing their businesses

• Author(s): Chris Hitchko
• Year Published: 2021
• Cost: $14.99 (Paperback, Amazon)

#6 Secrets of Successful Program Design: A How-To Guide for Busy Fitness Professionals

In Secrets of Successful Program Design, Cosgrove and Rasmussen present a hands-on guide to creating lasting results for your clients. Readers learn to analyze their client’s starting points and develop an actionable program to crush their goals. It shows the full scope of program design, including pre-written workouts to give you a head start on customizing your business offers. 

This book is a handy guide for fitness professionals on a tight schedule. Plus, you can earn continuing education credits for reading this book and completing an exam. 

Alwyn Cosgrove is the co-owner of Results Fitness, a top gym in America. He’s written and contributed to several fitness books.

• Author(s): Alwyn Cosgrove and Craig Rasmussen
• Year Published: 2020
• Cost: $34.74 (Paperback, Amazon)

Our Top Pick

Fitness industry books are invaluable for aspiring trainers and seasoned pros alike. You can learn anything from improving your training techniques to attracting new clients. You just have to find the right one. 

PocketSuite is an all-in-one tool to run your fitness business. You can schedule clients, accept payments, and create an online store straight from your phone.

Want some ideas?

We compiled a list of trending ways to make your gym a thriving community hub.

What do customers want from a gym?

A gym is more than a place to work out. With the right offerings, you can turn your gym into a central part of your client’s life. Clients can discover new products, invest in their self-care and make connections at your gym. By adding a few additional services, you can make your gym members feel special, increase the longevity of your business and earn additional income.

Here are five services to offer at your gym to attract and retain clients.

#1 Food Stalls

More than likely, your clients have health and nutrition goals along with their fitness goals. You can cover all their bases by offering food and supplements at your gym.  

You can sell protein shakes, granola bars, and even fresh fruit bowls. Or partner with local food vendors. You earn some extra income, aid your clients’ health journey and get to see a mother small business flourish. It’s a win-win.

The sky’s the limit: do a vegan pop-up stand one day or a homemade frozen yogurt stall the next. After all, who can resist a post-workout treat? Yum!

And feel free to sell the prepackaged food and supplements on your online store.

#2 Equipment and Clothing Shop

Of course, you’ll score big with retail items. You can reel in more clients by selling attractive workout clothing and high-quality equipment in your gym. If you understand the kinds of styles favored by your clientele, you can show them that your gym is really made for them while increasing your profits.

You can also sell equipment your clients need for their classes, like resistance bands or yoga mats. When your clients commit and buy the gear, they will feel more strongly that they want to stay.

Also, you can form partnerships with exercise brands and set up a little pop-up shop at your gym. Maybe you’ll display a few pieces around the studio to catch your clients’ eye and earn some commission on the sale. Or, better yet, create your own branded products and sell them to clients.

Whichever method you choose, use the PocketSuite app to keep track of your in-store inventory and sell products online. 

#3 Massage Services

After an intense workout session, your clients will be begging for a deep tissue massage. Why not offer fitness massage by hiring or partnering with a local massage therapist? They can provide massages right in your fitness center if you have the space for a massage room. 

Gyms charge anywhere from $30-$250 for a massage session, depending on the length of service and luxury appeal of the space you’ve created. You have the potential to earn some extra cash while improving your client experience. And you’ll build trust by showing them your commitment to their health and safety. To maximize your income from massage services, educate your clients on the benefits of massage therapy. 

Offering bodywork can be a great signal if going premium and upscale is part of your gym strategy. By offering such services, you’ll be telling that premium gym customer that your gym is for them. It’s a perfect promotion to attract and retain clients.

If you can’t bring on an in-house massage therapist, feel free to hire a contractor. Local massage therapists are often seeking new ways to fill their client book, just like you. 

#4 Hair Styling Sessions

Gym clients show up to get fit, but they also want to look the part. You can take your gym services to the next level by offering hair appointments before workout sessions. 

If clients walk into the gym and see their classmates or coaches getting styled before a session, they’ll be tempted to stop by the stylist’s chair. It creates a sense of camaraderie and fun for your clients. 

The hair sessions shouldn’t be complicated. (No one expects a full blowout before a Pilates class). But braided styles, buns, and ponytails can go a long way. Just remember that hair sessions are best before a workout session. Stylists may not want to work on sweaty hair. 

So, reach out to local salons or independent stylists to form a partnership. They can hand out branded goodies and business cards at the end of the session. So, you both leave with happy clients.

#5 Retreats 

People often identify with their favorite fitness regime, and sometimes they want to have big peak experiences where they take a week or long weekend off work and really level up their skills on a fitness-focused retreat. 

If you offer fantastic yoga classes, lifting classes, or other classes, you may already have a community that would want to go on a retreat with you or one of your teachers. 

Remember, a fitness retreat is like a vacation, so the destination and accommodations should sound fun as well as be a fantastic place to practice yoga, focus on those highly technical gym lifts, or whatever physical practice your retreat will be built around. 

Some fitness pros who focus on classes make a considerable portion of their yearly income on these retreats for their most committed students. 

The Bottom Line

A gym is more than a workout spot. It can be a hub for clients to create unforgettable experiences. With a few additional services, you can level up your gym and attract new clients. 

PocketSuite can help you manage all that new business. You can book appointments, bundle subscriptions, and sell products all in one place. It’s the perfect tool to grow your fitness business.

Eddie Zhang opened a gym and discovered that the success of his space was dependent on the success of the trainers. That started a long road of becoming an amazing fitness coach helping trainers around the country succeed in getting booked solid and making their goal income. Listen for an amazing story and some great tips on building a business. Watch the episode on YouTube or subscribe on the podcast service of choice!

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Follow Eddie Zhang:

Website: http://www.TrainingGroundsGym.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iameddiezhang/

Full Booked Solid Podcast Transcript:

PocketSuite:

Welcome to the Booked Solid Podcast, a place for anyone with clients. I am your host, Hansa Bergwall. And thank you so much for joining us yet again. We have a fantastic guest for you with Eddie Zhang.

Eddie Zhang:

Hello.

PocketSuite:

He is a business mentor for fitness trainers in Columbus, Ohio. He’s a gym owner and he’s fantastic. So thank you for joining us today, Eddie.

Eddie Zhang:

Oh, pleasure to be here.

PocketSuite:

So why don’t you start at the very beginning for us. How did you get started on your entrepreneurial journey starting your first business?

Eddie Zhang:

Man, that is a great question. I have to rewind all the way back to probably around year 2020. No, sorry, year 2010 to 2011. Man, it’s been a long time. Back then I was just first starting to get into fitness and I was basically working at just a normal cubicle job. I literally had a cubicle and I was clocking in, clocking out my 40 hours every single week, and it just felt like something was missing. I was just like, “Man, is this really what the rest of my life is going to look like where I wasn’t really passionate about what I did?” It was was my first job. So you’re excited to get your first job and jump into the real world, and that quickly fades. The excitement fades real quick, and then you just start thinking, “Man, is this really how I’m going to spend the rest of my life?”

So I was working with a personal trainer at the time. I mean, he had his own struggles. He was struggling to make ends meet and he didn’t have a consistent client base or anything like that. But something I just noticed was that he was just really passionate about what he did. And on top of that, he was in a lot of ways more in control of his life than I was. That’s something I noticed where he could control his own schedule better. He could just make decisions that only affected him and such. That was something I was actually really envious of, and it kind of just opened my eyes to the power of entrepreneurship and running your own business and all that. So just by spending more time with him, the more people you spend your time around, you just start to think more like them.

I started wanting to become more a business owner. So I saw that he did not have his own gym and he wanted to, and he got all the money together. He pieced out all the equipment, found a location, and right before he was about to pull the trigger on opening his own gym, he kind of hesitated and he shared with me that he didn’t really want to spend his time managing a building and managing a gym. He wanted to be a coach, he wanted to be a trainer, he wanted to be hands on the floor working with people and such. So he kind of took a step back and that’s what got me thinking. In Columbus, Ohio back then, there was not a lot of places where a trainer could just have a gym to run their own business. And most of the gyms around here, they want to take a percentage of the revenue that you generated. They wanted more control over your schedule, what time you could use their gym space, what time you can’t and all that.

So there really wasn’t a lot of options for him. And that just really got me thinking, what if there was a gym specifically for coaches that did not want to personally guarantee hundreds of thousands of dollars, spend tens of thousands out of pocket to start their own gym? What if I just did it for them? What if I built the gym and I took care of the gym? And all they would have to do is just run their business and just focus on coaching their clients from there. So that’s kind of how my first business Training Grounds got started. You can get me talking and I can keep going and going, but I’ll just stop there.

PocketSuite:

Yeah, that’s a great story. I’d love to hear about your first year of Training Grounds, how you got your first coaches to sign up and use your space and stuff like that.

Eddie Zhang:

Oh man. Yeah, that’s a story in itself. So obviously we had our trainer who needed the space, but we really started to run with the idea. I had one business partner of mine, he was my roommate at the time, and we were both working with him. So both of us wanted to try our hand at starting a business and such. We started connecting and talking with every coach in town. All the trainers at local gyms, all the trainers on social media, every trainer that we could get ahold of. We were just cold pitching basically our idea. We didn’t have anything to sell because there was nothing there yet. It was just an idea. And everybody was like, “This is a great idea. Oh my gosh, I would use this space. I would absolutely do it.”

So we really ran with it, and we put together some money, raised money from friends about our great idea. I don’t even know how I convinced people to give me money for this. We raised $145,000 from various friends, some invested as little as $5,000, some invested as much as $50,000. But we were like, “This is the next great big idea.” And then when we went out and we finally found a location and we deployed the money and we got everything set up, out of all the trainers that said they wanted to do it, two showed up. One was my coach, the other one the was just one coach. We had 30 or 40 people… Because we were trying to get bank financing for this and banks don’t finance startups, by the way, guys. But we were trying to show them, “Look, we already have 30 or 40 customers wanting to do this.” And out of the 30 and 40 signatures that we had, only two followed through. Only two followed through there.

PocketSuite:

Oh my God, that is such a fascinating story. So then what did you do? All these people who are like, “Yeah, I want this.” And then [inaudible 00:05:47].

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. It kicked our butts into overdrive. We realized that it was just like, “Okay, well, we have this space now.” And we’re bringing in maybe not quite $2,000 a month and our overhead was $10,000. We had a little bit of a runway because we set aside about three months worth of expenses, $30,000 in a bank. And we were like, “We’re about to blow through this very quickly.” When you have a clock, that 90 days goes by very, very fast.

PocketSuite:

Wow.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. We went back to reaching out to trainers again, and we hit up every single trainer and we were just like, “Hey, just let you know that we’re here.” It was basically the digital version of door knocking where on social media, we just hit up every single coach that we could ever just get in contact with. We invited them over for a tour of the gym. There was no pressure or anything. We were just like, “Hey, if you ever need a place or know a coach that might need their own gym space, keep us in mind.” Yeah, we had a lot of people come by and just check out the gym.

I used every social media platform possible. We had Instagram, we had LinkedIn. I signed up for whatever the pro version of LinkedIn was back then where you could search people by their job titles. So anyone that was a trainer that lived in Columbus, Ohio, I was cold messaging them. Everyone on Instagram that tagged themselves flexing at a gym, I would message them. I would actually go through this list weekly. So on Mondays, it would be all the lifetime fitnesses. Who posted themselves in the last week. If they looked like a coach, I was shooting them a message. If anyone new showed up, then I’d shoot them a message.

Then it was the Planet Fitness Day, and then there was the Small Gym Day or whichever. And I just kept reaching out to people and we ran through our reserve, and then we had to basically put our own money into it. So thankfully, my partner had a nice healthy doctor salary that he was helping with, and I still actually worked my full-time job at the same time too. So both of us were just contributing anywhere from a thousand to some months, $3,000 a month a piece into this place in order to keep it afloat. And slowly but surely, we started increasing our client roster. We had trainers coming in. We had trainers dropping off. I don’t think we broke even for… Well, I’m sorry, not broke even. We didn’t reach equilibrium where our revenue was equal to our expenses for two and a half years. Yeah.

PocketSuite:

Oh my God. That is some real staying power.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. Well, I mean, there was really no option. It was just like, “Well, we either call it quits here, and we’re on the hook for about half a million dollars of personal guarantees in terms of equipment, in terms of the lease space.” I knew I’d have to declare bankruptcy. It was just like, “Well, it’s either we quit now or we keep pushing ahead.” I think what really helped though was we saw that we could get coaches. It just wasn’t happening as fast as we wanted, but we were able to get coaches. It was a good idea, and it was a very sick, sick setup for the coaches. so we were able to get coaches to come and try us. Just the problem was not many of them stuck around, but we were slowly getting more than the coaches that were dropping off.

PocketSuite:

Yeah. I guess it’s hard to get people to really change their habits. People don’t always factor that in. Thank you for sharing. Entrepreneurial stories often involve those sort of [inaudible 00:09:21].

Eddie Zhang:

Oh yeah.

PocketSuite:

It’s good to hear them. Just so that people remember to have that [inaudible 00:09:27].

Eddie Zhang:

I don’t know a single entrepreneur that doesn’t have a rocky period. It may not be a rocky. I’ve heard people have rosy starts, but then rocky middles, rocky ends. If you’re listening and you’re in a rocky period right now, that’s totally normal. In fact, get used to it.

PocketSuite:

So at some point in there, I know that between being a gym owner, you became really invested in the success of the trainers who were at your gym and became a business mentor for these people. Because their success was tied with your success. Can you talk about how that started for you?

Eddie Zhang:

Actually, that’s a great question because that’s pretty much the continuation of the story itself is in order to… The way we looked at it was like, “Okay, we can get new trainers to come in here and try our gym all the time.” But our turnover rate was very high. Our turnover rate on average was six months. Meaning some coaches would try us for a couple months maybe and then drop off. Some coaches would-

PocketSuite:

When they dropped off, would they leave just because their business wasn’t strong enough to afford [inaudible 00:10:35]?

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah, exactly. It was just that. They weren’t making their ends meet. They weren’t covering their living expenses. So many of them, they were part-time trainers trying to make it full-time. Some of them were servers on the side trying to just cover the difference in order to live their lifestyle. Going through that myself at the time, I understood why it made somebody really think maybe I’m not supposed to do this and such. The way that we looked at it was like, “Okay, every time we seem to get a new coach in here, we’re barely keeping our head above water.” Because basically, a client would drop off. And I know any coaches listening right now probably remembers this, where anytime they seem to sign on four or five new clients, it’s three or four more drop off. It’s two steps forward, one step back and such.

So I started to really think about it and I was like, “Well, what if there was a better way to do this? What if we could help these coaches? Instead of constantly trying to sign up new clients for ourselves, new coaches, what if we could actually help them run their business and they actually stayed around longer?” They didn’t drop off. And that way we wouldn’t always be looking for new coaches and such. So that’s kind of where the idea of the business mentorship started. Within just Training Grounds with only the trainers at my gym, I reached out to all of them actually and saw, “Does anyone want help trying to grow their business? Totally free. I’m not charging anybody anything. I’ve just got some ideas that I think might be able to help and such.” Yeah, we started working directly with the coaches on basically what they were doing wrong on the business side of things.

Because I’ll tell you, what I quickly came to realize is that many of these coaches were incredible coaches. They know everything that there is to know about exercise science, human physiology, nutrition, macros. They know all that kind of stuff. But what they didn’t know was business. They didn’t know marketing. They didn’t know sales. They didn’t know human psychology. In fact, I’m going to throw this out there. They didn’t actually know what coaching was. A lot of these coaches think coaching is simply just, “Here’s a set of instructions, here’s your workouts, and you go off and do them. Or I’ll watch you go do them and tell you what to do.” And that, my friend, is not actually what coaching is. You’re going to get me started on a mini rant here.

PocketSuite:

Coaching [inaudible 00:13:08].

Eddie Zhang:

I’ll keep it short and simple, but if you’re actually going to coach someone, it’s not just giving somebody a set of instructions. Coaching is actually helping them. You have to actually help them execute on those instructions. Now, 99% of people, there’s nothing physically stopping them from following your instructions. What’s stopping them is always these limiting beliefs and these limiting ideas in their head, whether it is, “Am I good enough for this? Am I not good enough? Does this sound salesy? Does this sound pushy? What will other people think of this? What if nobody responds to my offer?” It’s head trash. There’s all this head trash inside of their head about what they should or they shouldn’t do, or what’s socially acceptable, what’s not, or whichever. So real coaching is more of… It’s almost like it’s psychology. It’s almost like what a therapist does.

Any fitness coaches listening to this will understand when I say that many times, they’re more a therapist to their clients than they are anything else. And that’s actually more in alignment with what coaching is because there’s nothing special about this set of instructions that any fitness coaches give their clients. Anyone can give them workouts. Anyone can give them nutrition advice. Anyone can give them these set of instructions. But if you can actually help your clients overcome any limiting beliefs or any limiting blocks that they have up here in their minds, that’s actually when they can actually start physically going out and following your instructions. Yeah. “Oh, I’m too busy. Oh, I don’t have time.” That’s not true. That’s actually not true at all.

PocketSuite:

Yeah. I mean, I get it with the in and out of the gym myself. It’s so hard to keep to a schedule. Okay. So explaining to people… Just talk about some early successes you had with a coach who wasn’t quite getting there in terms of their business and how you helped them turn it around.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. Actually our first coach, her name was Caitlyn. And I’ll actually share just a couple things that anybody can take that we helped her with in order to get them to see more results and such. So Caitlyn, like many coaches, they kind of just sat around and they were just hoping and praying that new clients would just show up. So they would post on social media, they would post photos of themselves, inspirational captions, be like, “You can do it,” those kind of things like that. But at the end of the day, nothing seemed to consistently work. Sometimes they would post something and a client would show up or somebody would reach out, but nothing was really consistent. When it comes to business, there is actually a science behind this where if you look at any business out there, they’re able to actually predict how many clients they’re going to get by doing whatever set of instructions or whatever strategy that they go out and implement.

But most people don’t have the right strategy. They don’t have the right system. They just simply see what other people are doing and then they copy it, and then they just sit back and they just hope and pray that it gets results and such. So it’s not necessarily that she was doing anything wrong. She was posting and she was showing up on social media and all that, but she wasn’t saying the right things. So for example, a lot of fitness coaches like to talk about their workouts and their nutrition and their accountability and things, but that’s actually not what gets people’s attention. So they’re doing the right things by posting and talking. They’re just not posting and talking about the right things. They’re posting and talking about all the technical things inside of their program about how they can help with this and how they can help with that. But what we did with her is we got her to stop doing those things and start speaking directly to… She wanted to work with more young women.

I actually don’t really like this word because… I don’t really like this word, but it is the word that people understand the most is, what is a trigger for the people that you’re trying to help? What is something that literally, when you talk about it, it’s bringing up past trauma, it’s like a trigger? And when I say past trauma, I don’t mean, “Oh my gosh, you were abused or you were a victim of domestic violence or whatever.” Yes, that’s definitely a form of past trauma, but trauma is really anything that upsets us about anything. So when it comes to fitness clients, what are the triggers that are getting people to basically stop their scroll and pay attention because you’re literally triggering them? So we got her to dial in on what the triggers for her audience we’re getting.

So some of these triggers might be… Since she was working with many young women at the time, they’re just coming out of college. A lot of these women were thinking that back in college, I could eat whatever I want. Back in college, I was fitting into all these small clothes. Now that I’m entering the workforce, all the clothes I’m buying are bigger. I have to watch what I eat more. So now she started posting and talking about these things. So instead of just workouts and nutrition, she’s talking about how uncomfortable it is to go out and buy new clothes as you enter the workforce, about how you’re trying to impress the people that are at your job, but nothing that you seem to put on fits you anymore. Nothing looks good on you or whichever. These are the things that her clients or audience were actually experiencing.

She’s triggering them by bringing up these past experiences that they’re encountering. From a human psychological point, they literally cannot ignore it. So instead of talking about workouts and nutrition and things that nobody cares about, she’s talking about the things that are actually triggering her audience. And all of a sudden they stop scrolling and they pay attention to what she’s actually saying. Because social media is nothing more than just a constant stream of information at you. And if you want your information to stand out, you have to get them to stop scrolling because most people just scroll through Instagram, double tap, scroll through, double tap, double tap. But they don’t actually pay attention to what you’re saying.

PocketSuite:

Yeah. So if anyone wants to try this at home, this is called persona based marketing. And I can attest. I’ve been marketing for 20 years that it’s very effective. And the principles being used here are that instead of just putting out general marketing information for everyone, you think about your perfect client. Maybe this is someone you know and is already a client, and you speak directly to them and you talk about the experiences they’ve had and that they’ll understand and that they will know are for them because that is your perfect client. That person will stop and go, “Oh, this person is talking to me, not to Tom, Dick and Harry over there on the other side of town that really are in a totally different life position.” And sometimes people don’t want to do this because they want to just say, “Well, everyone could be my client. And so I don’t need to talk specifically to this one specific group.” But if you talk to everyone, everyone will ignore you.

Eddie Zhang:

Nobody hears. Yeah.

PocketSuite:

You talk to someone specifically, they’ll pay attention and it really works.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. And the funny thing about that is too, is that even though you’re speaking to one type of person, you end up working with a lot more people other than that type of person too. And what generally happens, especially when it comes to Caitlyn, for example, she started speaking to these young girls who were entering the workforce and all that kind of stuff. But she started getting other people who could start resonating with… Maybe they weren’t picking out clothes for their workday, but they were picking out clothes for a family event or something like that. Then also her clients started referring people to her where it’s just like, “You got to work with my coach. You got to work with my coach. She’s been so helpful. She’s been so helpful.” So they start referring other people to her that weren’t necessarily who she was speaking to directly, but indirectly she was getting more clients as well.

So it’s funny how a lot of people don’t want to cut out a portion of the population because they can serve everyone, but that’s exactly what they end up doing when they don’t speak specifically enough. And yet when they speak specifically enough, they end up working with more people in the general population. So yeah, it’s funny.

PocketSuite:

Yeah, because it’s a real need that some people have, and sometimes more people will identify with that than you’d think from the vision that you had. Yeah, it’s really effective. And it’s also just helpful. I’m talking to you right now, not some gray amorphous cloud, and therefore this conversation is more pointed and interesting than if I were just talking into the ethers. I’m talking to you. So whenever you can imagine a you right in front of you that you’re talking to, you’ll speak more naturally. You’ll speak more specifically. It’ll just be much more engaging for anyone who happens to overhear.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. For most coaches, if you’re not sure where to start with that, most coaches start with just themselves. It’s like I’m speaking to the me from 5, 10, 15, whatever, two years ago that first got into fitness. What basically life experience… What can you post and what can you say that will basically trigger someone just like yourself from before you became a coach when you got into fitness? And so for her, that’s what made it so much easier for her because she was literally just speaking to herself. So it was very easy for her to come up with, “These were the things that I’m going through and these are the things that I’ve experienced, and these were my triggers.” And lo and behold, there were many other young girls just like her that really resonated with it.

PocketSuite:

So what happened with her business? Did she succeed? Is she still training and having a great time?

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. Actually, this was back in 2018 and within 90 days… It was four months. She went from about four, $5,000 a month to over $10,000, $11,000, $12,000 a month from there. And then she-

PocketSuite:

That’s a six figure income for a year. That’s great.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. No, it was really awesome. Believe it or not, she almost hit 2 million last year. So now she has a team.

PocketSuite:

What?

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah, now she has a team of… She had a team as high as eight coaches, a total of almost 18 people in her company between salespeople, virtual assistants, coaches, all that kind of stuff. She’s actually scaled back down a little bit because she’s still learning how to be a business owner and her problems are no longer getting clients, lead gen, marketing sales. Her problems now these days are just hiring correctly, how to make sure the team works together well, the culture of a team and those things. So she’s still going through growing pains, which I’m going to tell every entrepreneur, every fitness coach, listening that your growing pains never really stop. They just look different. Yeah.

PocketSuite:

Yeah. I’d rather have the growing pains if a multimillion dollar business than just trying to meet myself. So this sounds like a great success and trajectory. I’m so happy for her. I know from your story that being a business coach for fitness trainers has actually in the subsequent years become a bigger part of your business then the gym itself.

Eddie Zhang:

Yes.

PocketSuite:

Can you talk a little bit about that transition?

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. Once we started helping all the coaches in our gym, it started with Caitlyn and quickly we were helping almost every other coach. I would say about maybe half the coaches in our gym. The other half, I’ll just be honest, they just weren’t trying to be full-time business owners. They loved coaching, they wanted it to stay a hobby, but they openly admitted, “I don’t want this to be a full-time thing and turn it into more like a job.” They’re just like, “I just like doing this.” The ones that wanted this to be a full-time thing for them, our average retention rate went from, like I said, six months to basically over a year.

In fact, people didn’t leave unless they outgrew our space. We had seven coaches basically leave because they outgrew us and they needed their own gym. So they actually started their own gyms because they were outgrowing this gym space that I was renting to them. So we hit full capacity and we basically stayed anywhere around 90% capacity from 2018 all the way through. Even today. I would say today we’re about 80% capacity.

PocketSuite:

That’s really interesting because you started with this idea that these coaches just need a space when really what ended up being the real business was like a place for mentorship and business growth.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah. Just having the space, I quickly realized, well, if you have the space, it’s not enough because you’re not going to be able to keep the space if you don’t know business and you can’t make money. That was the lesson that I learned was that there was a lot of great coaches out there, but not enough coaches are business owners. They don’t think like a business owner. So simply providing them with the equipment, providing them with the space is very much if a fitness coach just provided somebody with the workouts and, “Here’s a program. Here, go off and follow them.” But that’s not what your clients actually need. Your clients actually need your coaching in order to stay accountable. What am I doing wrong? How do I fix this? All that. So yeah, I quickly realized it was the same thing for us.

PocketSuite:

Okay. Tell me about how the business mentoring became a part of your business offering.

Eddie Zhang:

Oh, yeah. After we started helping the coaches in our gym and their business was stabilized and our gym was basically full, I was like, “Man, I know that there are other coaches out here.” We only helped seven or eight of the coaches here. I was like, “There’s definitely other coaches out there. There’s other trainers in our city. There’s other trainers in other gyms.” We decided to open up our mentorship for basically everyone out there that wanted our help. So we started marketing to just coaches around the city, and coaches know other coaches, coaches know other coaches on social media, just coaches know other coaches. So we started having a bunch of people start asking us, “Well, how are you helping your coaches make six figures? I never even thought we could make six figures and such.”

Yeah, we just started marketing the same channels on social media, but we just cast a wider net. Instead of focusing all of our marketing and our outreach on just local Columbus, Ohio, we started looking at other cities. We started asking just the coaches, “Hey, do you know anyone that might need help with their business?” It’s literally as simple as that sometimes. You just ask, “Do you know anyone that’s running a business and they’re struggling? Love to give them a couple strategies that they can use to get new clients.” And they’re like, “Oh, my friend runs a business. I don’t know what he’s doing to get clients.” We reach out. Sometimes they’re appreciative of… Literally, we’re just trying to give them value. So sometimes they’re appreciative of it. Others times they’re like, “No, I’m good on my own,” and we leave them alone. But we do that enough. Yeah, we filled up our mentorship to about 30 or so coaches at one point just helping them fix their business basically.

PocketSuite:

That’s really cool. Well, thanks so much for sharing your entrepreneurial journey and how a business space for trainers became a business mentorship and business coaching business. I think that’s so interesting. What you think people need is often not what they really need, and I love stories like that. So if anyone listening at home wants to get in touch with you, maybe is interested in business coaching for their fitness program, how would they do that?

Eddie Zhang:

The best place to reach out to me is on social media, so I’m still very much on Instagram. That’s my favorite platform to use. So I am @EddieZhang on Instagram. It’s really where I spend most of my time. I’m on Facebook a little bit too, but I spend like 90% of my time on Instagram.

PocketSuite:

So we’ll definitely include your Instagram handle in the show notes.

Eddie Zhang:

Yeah.

PocketSuite:

Thank you everyone for joining the Booked Solid podcast, a place for anyone with clients. Again, the best way to support the podcast, of course, is to run a business on PocketSuite. We make it easy to run a client-based business, and we help people succeed. On average, people make 30% more because they run it on PocketSuite. Also, we appreciate those five star reviews or telling anyone who might want to hear it about the podcast. And of course, Eddie, it’s always such a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you for joining us today.

Eddie Zhang:

Absolutely. If anybody’s still listening at this point, I’ll throw in a little bonus. If anyone wants to just get a couple of our strategies completely for free, just DM me PocketSuite, and that way I know you listened to the podcast and I’m more than happy to give you one or two of our top performing lead gen strategies.

PocketSuite:

Awesome. Yeah, do that. I think that would be great. All right. Thank you so much, Eddie.

Eddie Zhang:

All right. No problem.

Are you sold? Perfect!  

Keep reading. We put together the best strategies to grow an ecommerce business as a fitness trainer. 

6 Ways to Grow an Ecommerce Business as a Fitness Trainer

Service-based business owners often sell retail products alongside their classes and packages. As a trainer, you can launch an online store and sell useful products to your steady stream of loyal clients. 

Remember, it takes time for an online store to bring in consistent income. That’s why business owners use special techniques to maximize their income from ecommerce sales. This is known as an ecommerce growth strategy. And you’ll need a good one if you want your online store to thrive.

Check out these six strategies to grow your ecommerce store.

#1 Choose value-add products

The best strategy for ecommerce growth is choosing the right products to add to your inventory. A good product can improve your clients’ experience and boost your business revenue. 

The tricky part is finding products that keep up with industry trends and won’t break the bank to stock up on. Your products should be in demand and useful to your clients. For example, you can sell equipment they’ll need in your class, like a pair of grippy socks for a group barre class.

 If clients like your products, they’ll trust you more as a trainer. It’s a win-win. So, make sure they’re high quality. A shoddy product could hurt your business reputation and cause you to lose bookings. 

In general, fitness instructors and personal trainers sell: 

• Digital products, like courses and meal planners 
• Workout clothing
• Equipment, like dumbbells or resistance bands
• Nutritional supplements 
• Merchandise, like T-shirts and water bottles

Once you stock up on your products, add them to your Pocketsuite ordering site, and can keep track of your inventory in the app. 

#2 Upsell your products 

Upselling is a tried and true ecommerce growth strategy. More than likely, your online products pair well with your fitness services. When clients book you for an appointment, you can upsell products that will help crush their fitness goals. You know that your clients already have a use for or interest in the product, so they’re more likely to buy. 

At PocketSuite, you can attach products as add-ons to specific services, so your products can be upsold during checkout. They get one final nudge to add your goods to their cart. 

#3 Offer multiple payment methods

An ecommerce growth strategy is all about earning money. So make sure you can accept various payment methods. 

Clients expect to have multiple payment options. They want the convenience to pay as they please. Nothing worse than getting to check out and being met with limited payment options. Clients will abandon their cart even if they love your products. You’re leaving money on the table.

Accepting payments doesn’t have to be complicated. With PocketSuite, you can mark paid to accept cash or accept credit cards online and in-person with a card reader or even just your phone with Tap To Pay. 

#4 Diversify your marketing 

A strong marketing strategy is the key to growing any online store. Implement a consistent social media strategy and ecommerce growth is assured. You can use social media to push organic traffic to your store. Post about new product launches or use your products in your Instagram reels. And remember to share your online ordering link with your followers. 

But social media isn’t the only player in this game. You can promote your products through email marketing and even referrals. Your best marketing strategy can come from the products themselves. You can add your personal branding to water bottles, gear, and clothes. Your clients can wear your branded merch in and out of the gym. And you can use or wear your products during your sessions.

You’re sure to get some compliments (and hopefully, sales!)

#5 Follow-up with clients 

Lead nurturing is an effective ecommerce growth strategy. You grow your business by retargeting people who’ve already shown interest in your products and services. To get more sales for your online store, reach out to clients who booked you for classes or bought products from you in the past. It’s an easier sell because they’re already familiar with your brand.

In PocketSuite, you can launch an automated text campaign with product promotions that will be sent to anyone who buys items from your online store. 

#6 Pick the best ecommerce platform

It’s important to find the right online platform to grow your ecommerce business. You need a platform to automate those time-consuming store management tasks, like enforcing a cancellation policy or sending out tracking information. A good platform gives you more time to spend doing what you love.

Also, be sure to consider the platform fees, i.e., will they take a cut of your earnings? And make sure their fulfillment options align with your business. For example, if you sell to clients in person, you need to have shipping and pick-up as delivery methods. 

As a trainer, you need your ecommerce platform to work double duty. Ecommerce giants like Etsy and Shopify don’t offer special support for service-based business owners. On PocketSuite, you can book clients for services and set up an online store to sell products. You only need one app to get the job done. 

It’s Time To Checkout

An online store can take your fitness business to the next level. You can double your earnings by selling clients products to aid their fitness journey. To make your online store a success, you need a solid ecommerce growth strategy with diverse marketing and automation. You’ll also need an A+ booking and ecommerce platform. 

PocketSuite can help with that. We’re the all-in-one platform for fitness trainers to grow their business. You can book clients and sell products straight from your phone!

This article gives you expert tips to land clients from a fitness training consultation. 

What is a fitness training consultation?

Many trainers offer an initial consultation or session 0 before their first appointment with a client. This is a chance to get to know your clients and their goals. 

At the end of the consultation, you’ll understand your client’s expectations, and clients will have a clear picture of how you do business.

It takes a lot of courage to start a fitness journey.  A fitness training consultation lets your clients know if they’re making the right choice. You want them to be able to trust you, so they’ll keep coming back. You’ll get more clients and make more money as a trainer.

You can do the consultation as a separate appointment or schedule 20 minutes or so before the first appointment. It may be better to separate them so you and your client have time to prep before the program begins.

Tips for a Successful Fitness Training Consultation

Fitness consultations can be a bit tricky. There’s so much to learn about your client in such a short time. But if you’re a brand new trainer, don’t stress! You’ll get the hang of fitness training consultations as your client list grows and you get more experience.

The most important thing is to walk into the consultation with a plan. It takes off the pressure and maximizes your time with the client. 

Here are five tips for nailing your fitness consultation.

#1 Ask the right questions 

During the fitness training consultation, you must gather enough information from your client to plan a routine. You need to learn about their health and fitness history and goals. For example, are they coming back after a long break, or is this their first time training? Are they looking to get in shape for a special event or just want to improve their overall health?

You should ask a mix of open and closed-ended questions. Here are some key questions to ask during the consultation:

• What motivated you to hire a trainer?
• Have you ever had a personal trainer? If yes, how was that experience? Why are you looking for a new one? 
• How often do you work out? How much time do you have to work out?
• What workouts/exercises do you enjoy? Which ones do you hate?
• What’s your ultimate goal for these sessions?
• When do you want to achieve this goal? Do they have a timeline?

Remember, it’s okay to follow up. You and your client are on a journey together. Don’t be afraid to ask questions after the consultation, especially if it will help them succeed.

#2 Location! Location! Location!

Clients are often afraid to book a new trainer because they don’t know what to expect. You can relieve their anxiety about the program by holding a fitness training consultation where you host workout sessions. This way, clients can get comfortable in the gym and familiarize themselves with the equipment. 

Let them walk you through their space if it’s an online fitness session. You can make recommendations to improve the room for a workout and adjust your routine to fit their space. This is also a great time to test your audio and video. Nothing is more frustrating than missing an appointment due to a technical problem.

#3 Have your forms ready 

The fitness training consultation will be a conversation for the most part. But you may want your client to fill out a form or two with essential questions, like medical history or allergy info. Allergy information is important if you include nutrition recommendations as part of your program.

Typically, trainers have clients fill out a physical activity readiness questionnaire (PAR Q). A PAR Q screens your clients for pre-existing health conditions in the heart, joints, etc.

And don’t forget to provide liability and payment agreement forms if they agree to continue with your program. Before the consultation, you can add an intake form to your PocketSuite booking site. 

#4 Do a Physical Demonstration 

It’s just a consultation, but you might have to get a bit physical. This is a good time to get a feel for your client’s range of motion, like performing an overhead squat assessment. 

You can find out if they struggle with physical impairments, shoulder pain, etc. And you may have to recommend them to a chiropractor or physical therapist before they can start your program. 

#5 Close The Sale

Now comes the fun part: landing your new client! Take everything you learned and hit them with a personalized pitch that they can’t refuse!

Remember to be honest about how your program will help them. Your client may have an unrealistic goal for their starting point or medical condition. It may be a tough conversation, but it’s better than filling them with false hope. Instead, suggest SMART goals that you can work towards together. And show them how you’ll keep track of their progress. 

Keep the notes from your consultation organized and review them regularly. They’ll help you manage your clients as your sessions continue.

One Last Tip

Fitness training consultations can start your trainer-client relationship off with a bang. You learn more about your clients and their goals in the initial consultation. More importantly, you build trust with your clients. After a successful consultation, you may have a client for life.

PocketSuite can help you manage those relationships. From bookings to payments to contracts, we have all the tools you need to run your business and communicate with your clients!

Keep reading! We dig into common problems users face when running their business on the Mindbody Business app and compare MindBody to PocketSuite. 

What Is Mindbody Business?

Mindbody Business is a business management software for gyms, spas, and salons. It allows business owners to sell classes and memberships, manage clients and receive payments. 

Mindbody also functions as a marketplace for health and wellness businesses. Potential clients have their own consumer app, where they can browse through hundreds of businesses on the platform and purchase fitness classes and beauty services or even join memberships. 

Mindbody is almost inescapable in the fitness, health, and wellness space. You might have used Mindbody to register for fitness classes at your local gym or even currently run your business on the platform. But, on both the business and consumer sides, there are pressing issues that can’t be ignored. 

Don’t take our word for it: Just look at the thousands of complaints from clients and business owners who use the app.

What’s the Problem With Mindbody Business?

On the surface, the Mindbody Business app seems like a great solution to run your business. But, the reality is much different.

Here are the top four reasons Mindbody Business may not be a good fit for your business.

#1 Complicated Features

The MindBody app boasts a long list of business management features, a personalized branded app, and a suite of marketing features to help you attract and retain clients. However, the most useful tools like short-term “boost campaigns,” automated drip campaigns, and feedback and review requests are only available to Ultimate or Ultimate Plus subscribers, i.e., Mindbody’s most expensive tiers. 

Customers report that the app is difficult to use or prone to breaking. According to reviews, even the most basic features, like booking, break often. And what’s the point of a booking app that doesn’t book correctly? It seems like what you’re left with is an over-complicated and frustrating experience. 

You can find business software that has the same functionality as Mindbody, is more user-friendly, and performs consistently. 

#2 Vague Pricing 

If you go with Mindbody Business, you choose between four tiers: Starter, Accelerate, Ultimate, and Ultimate Plus. But, the company no longer discloses business pricing on its website. So, you’ll have to request a quote or demo to determine the real cost of the software to your business. According to Trust Radius, Mindbody Business tiers range from $129 to $599 per month!!!.

Don’t put away your calculator just yet. You will be charged an additional 20% discovery fee each time a new client finds and purchases your services through the Mindbody consumer app. The fee won’t apply to returning clients or membership purchases. But still, it feels like you’re being punished for growing your business. Not only do they charge hundreds of dollars more than competitors, but they nickel and dime their customers too.

And these aren’t the only fees you’ll pay. For example, Mindbody’s strongest selling point is probably its suite of marketing features, like promoting an introductory offer so your service gets more visibility in the Mindbody app. But this will cost you extra (on top of an already hefty price tag).

Not to mention, a look at complaints on Better Business Bureau shows that some users were unknowingly locked into an annual plan with no option to cancel. And it’s unclear from their website whether Mindbody Business offers a monthly plan at all.

Their prices seem unreasonably high for small business owners, especially when you can find apps that perform better for a fraction of the cost. PocketSuite offers access to premium features for $24.99 per month.

#3 Poor Customer Service

With all the complexity and issues surrounding the MindBody business app, you might find yourself reaching out to customer service… a lot. But, based on dozens of reviews, it won’t help much. 

Mindbody Business’s customer support is severely lacking. It might take you a few days to hear back from an agent, and the responses aren’t always useful. Users report being bounced around between multiple customer support agents that can’t provide a solution to their problems. 

Unfortunately, Mindbody had a major layoff in October 2022. This follows its 2020 layoff, where over 700 employees were let go. And it seems that customer support suffered. From the outside looking in, Mindbody’s customer support comes off as chaotic and underserved.

This is detrimental to business owners. When you or your clients have an issue, you should be able to get in contact with the booking platform immediately and leave with a reliable solution. That’s why PocketSuite offers a range of support calls where business owners are guaranteed to connect with our customer success team.

#4 Unhappy Clients

A lot of business owners choose Mindbody because it’s also a marketplace. This means clients come to you, which draws in businesses that are still building their own client base. But does the software fulfill its promise to small business owners? 

If you’re considering Mindbody Business, make sure your clients will be happy with the software. If the app breaks or runs into issues, your clients may walk away. A quick look at their app store reviews shows that clients have lots of frustrations with the app, i.e., your booking software may be driving away customers.

The point of business software is to improve your client’s experience. Don’t risk isolating your clients and staff by choosing the wrong one. 

What’s the Alternative to Mindbody Business?

The Mindbody Business app makes sense if you run a large spa or gym with a complex payroll. But small businesses and solopreneurs might get lost in all the complicated features and will have little to no support.

Some users report leaving Mindbody to use multiple apps for booking and payments. But there’s a simpler, all-in-one option: PocketSuite!  PocketSuite was made with small businesses in mind. 

PocketSuite has features that MindBody doesn’t, like a dedicated business line and a link tree to organize all your business links (all included in the price of your plan). And we pride ourselves on providing an 11-star customer support experience.

Not to mention, we’re mobile-first, so you and your clients have access to everything on the go. 

Are You Happy With Your Booking App?

Mindbody Business has long been the standard software for fitness, health, and wellness professionals. But it may be time to call it quits. With complicated features, unreasonable pricing, and subpar customer support, you’re bound to be left with frustrated clients. 

PocketSuite can fill in these gaps. We’re an all-in-one app to run your business and keep your clients happy!

There are dozens of events to choose from. So, we compiled a list of the top fitness trainer conferences in 2023. 

Which Fitness Conference Should I Attend in 2023?

Fitness trainers can take their pick from dozens of annual professional events. Professional groups and businesses host conferences across the country to bring together health, wellness, nutrition, and fitness experts. You can immerse yourself in seminars, live training sessions, and trade shows that will help grow your business.

Typically, you earn CEUs and CECs towards fitness certifications by attending these events. You can even watch some of the events online and earn credits from the comfort of your home.

Here are eight health and fitness conferences you can attend this year.

#1 IDEA World 2023

IDEA World, by IDEA Health and Fitness Association, invites over 150 fitness, business, and wellness experts to present industry-leading knowledge. You can learn about balance training, power vinyasa, designing a cycling program, or even developing your own personal fitness brand.

You won’t be stuck in a lecture hall for five days. The conference also features special events, including a welcome party, outdoor excursions, and a fitness and nutrition expo, where you can learn about new equipment, gear, and programs. 

Day one of the conferences features “pre-event” intensives , where you can work towards a speciality certification, like functioning aging or indoor cycling. There are also post-event intensives on anything from rowing to postnatal fitness. These events may have additional fees.

You can earn up to 24 CECs by attending this conference.

Date: July 12th – 16th

Cost:  Non-members: $599 for the full conference. There may be additional costs to attend intensive courses.

Location: Los Angeles, CA

#2 2023 NSCA National Conference

The National Strength and Conditioning Association hosts the annual conference for strength and conditioning enthusiasts. 

You get four days of education and networking opportunities, including CSCS certification exam prep and seminars on anything from pre-workout supplements, caffeine research, and strength training in Basketball.

Keynote speakers include:

• Andrea Hudy- Strength and conditioning coach for UConn Women’s Basketball team
• William Sands, a retired sports scientist with extensive research experience
• Dan Wathen, head trainer at Youngstown State University. 

You can earn up to 3 CEUs by attending this event.

Date: July 12 – 15, 2023

Cost: Non-members pay  $540 early bird, $570 regular, or $695 day-of ticket . Members get a discount rate.

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, or Virtual

#3 Aspires Longevity 2023

The Aspires Longevity event is for health and fitness professionals dedicated to creating a long-term healthy lifestyle for their clients. This event brings together nine presenters to explore:

• Aging wellness
• Functional fitness
• Lifestyle
• Medical Fitness

You learn about emerging research in physical fitness. mental health and mobility. It’s a good option if you work with clients who are older or have health conditions. 

You can earn 2 CECs by attending this online event. 

Date: May 5th

Cost: $69

Location: Virtual only

#4 Canfitpro Global Conference & Trade Show 

Canfitpro celebrates 30 years of its global conference. The event brings together 125 global experts to discuss research, techniques, and best practices in the fitness space. And don’t forget to stop by the trade show to browse emerging products and programs in the health and fitness space.

Also, you can take part in the subsequent Women Who Influence event. For one day of the conference (August 17th), hear specifically from female leaders in the fitness industry.

You can earn up to 12 CECs whether you attend online or in person.  

Date: August 16 – August 20th

Cost: Not available

Location: Toronto and Virtual

#5 ISSN Conference and Expo

The International Society of Sports Nutrition is a leader in sports nutrition and supplement research. And their fitness conference focuses on the science and research that inform fitness training. 

Attend this event to hear from certified trainers, researchers, and doctors on cutting-edge research and best practices in the health and fitness space. Seminar topics range from the risk of anabolic steroids to weight reduction supplements to postpartum athleticism. If you want to dive into sports science and nutrition, this is the event for you! 

You can earn CEUs and CECs towards NASM, CDR NSCA, ISSN, and ACSM certifications by attending this event.

Date: June 15th – June 17th

Cost: Non-members pay $399 (early bird) or $499 (regular) 

Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL

#6 The Fit Summit

The World Health, Fitness & Wellness Festival brings together health, fitness, and wellness professionals from around the world. This retreat-style festival offers everything from startup showcases to networking events and workout sessions.

Learn techniques from over 100 speakers and see how fitness professionals abroad are growing their businesses and improving their client experience.

You can earn up to 1.8 CEUs towards a NASM certification by attending this event.

Date: June 12th – June 15th 

Cost: $224 Us General or $1127 US VIP

Location: Singapore

#7 IHRSA 2023 

The Global Health and Fitness Association hosts its annual education and networking event for fitness pros. Learn from over 150 experts and innovators, from wellness industry professionals to fitness club managers, on running a successful fitness business. Topics include:

• Fitness business trends
• Attracting high-ticket clients
• Collaborating with Physicians as a fitness pro
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for fitness business leaders
• Pricing you services
• Recession-proofing a fitness business 
• AI in Health and Fitness
• Preventing Workplace Injuries 
• and much more!

And stop by the trade show to experience products, services, and equipment from over 300 exhibitors.

You can receive CEUs towards ACE, NASM, AFAS, NESTA, NCSF, and NSCA certifications by attending this event. 

Date: March 20-22 (You can still register for virtual content from the event through April 24th)

Cost: Virtual: $220 (non-members)  In-person: Not available

Location: San Diego or Virtual

#8 ACSMs International Health & Fitness Summit 

This fitness conference is hosted by the  American College of Sports Medicine. It features three lecture tracks, so you can choose which group of workshops and panel discussions best fit your interests: 

1. Science to Practice – This track takes research and puts it into practice for fitness routines. Explore topics like functional aging or postpartum corrective exercises.
2. Business of Fitness – This track highlights business management best practices for fitness professionals, from social media engagement to client retention to risk management.
3. Fitness Pro Focus – This track emphasizes self-improvement for fitness pro through education and professional development. You can get your cycling certification or learn how to prevent burnout.

You can earn up to 13.25 CECs in person and up to 18 CECs online. ACSM also offers a one-year membership with event registration.

Date: March 16th – March 18th

Cost: Non-members $489  in person or $419 online 

Location: Arlington, VA, or Virtual

Register Today! 

Fitness conferences are absolutely worth it! They give you an opportunity to improve your craft and grow your business. You connect with and learn from industry experts and other trainers. And you’re sure to learn new ways to help your clients.

You can take your fitness business even further with PocketSuite. We’re an all-in-one app to manage and communicate with your clients. From booking to payments to contracts, we have all the tools to run a successful business.

In this guide, we teach you seven ways to make more money as a personal trainer.

Tips to Increase Your Personal Trainer Salary

Some personal trainers are stuck working minimum wage, while others are earning six figures. Here’s how to increase your income as a personal trainer. 

#1 Become an Independent Trainer

If you’re still putting in hours as a gym instructor, you may be missing out on a wealth of opportunities. You have the potential to double your personal trainer salary by starting an independent fitness business.

As an independent trainer, you set your rates and work your own schedule. You have the freedom to teach how and when you want. Of course, it takes time to hit that six-figure income goal. But at least you have the potential to grow. As a gym instructor, you may be locked into one salary for life.

#2 Get Certified

You don’t need a certification to be a personal trainer. But with so much competition in the industry, you have to be certified to stand out and attract new clients. Not to mention you need a strong foundation to create effective routines and build a successful fitness business.

There are lots of popular certifications out there, so do your research. Choose a certification program that’s been accredited by National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA)

If you’re already certified, try a specialty. This way, you can expand your services and keep up with industry trends. Whether you become a NASM-certified personal trainer or specialize as a wellness coach, it pays off to continue your education. 

The good news is that you can transfer Continuing Education Credits between most cert programs. So, you may be able to pursue multiple certs at one time.

#3 Host Online Classes 

To double your personal trainer salary, take your classes online. Clients love online fitness classes with flexible schedules that they can do from the comfort of their homes. 

You can connect with clients all over the country. You don’t lose out on a session if a client moves or has to travel. And you get to travel too! All you need is a decent camera. You can create online classes in the PocketSuite app using our video conferencing feature.

You’ll increase your client base and make more money. It also means less money spent renting out gym space to host your classes. Just make sure the online program can be done comfortably in a small space with little equipment.

#4 Sell Products

To boost your personal trainer’s salary, try selling fitness products to your clients. You can offer water bottles, resistance bands, or even personalized goal trackers as add-ons to your classes. You know what your clients need to crush their fitness goals. So why not sell it to them directly?

And the products don’t have to be physical. Digital products, like ebooks, templates, and courses, are highly profitable. Your clients want more than a workout partner. They want your expertise and guidance. You have valuable information that can help them with other aspects of their life, like diet and self-image. You can create a guide on training for a marathon or building muscles at home. 

It takes time to create these products. But once they’re done, all you have to do is advertise them on your booking site and earn cash for years to come!  

#5 Create a Fitness Membership

Fitness memberships have taken over the industry. A fitness membership is like a community within your client base. Clients like to feel like they’re part of a supportive club that motivates them to crush their fitness goals. 

When clients subscribe to your membership, they pay a monthly fee for exclusive content and services. So, it’s a great way to boost your personal trainer salary. You can give members free products, live training sessions, ebooks, or discounts. 

#6 Become a Fitness Influencer

Are you good on camera? Perfect! You can increase your personal trainer salary by becoming a fitness influencer, i.e., build a social following and earn money from brand endorsements.

In general, fitness trainers perform well on social media. You have a wealth of interesting, helpful content built into your profession. 

To grow on social, you can post:

• Full-length training videos,
• Snippets of a routine, 
• Meal plans, 
• Your own health and fitness routine, 
• Progress pictures from your clients 
• Equipment Reviews and recommendation

The possibilities are endless. By now, you’ve had a few clients achieve phenomenal success from one of your programs. Those stories are client magnets. Highlight their before and after pics on your Instagram or start a YouTube series where you interview past clients about their journey. 

If you’re not familiar with social media, don’t spend too much time or money trying to perfect content. People prefer relatable, off-the-cuff videos anyway. Just remember to engage with your followers, whether by commenting in your Facebook group or answering questions on Instagram live. It gives you an opportunity to connect with potential clients.

#7 Boost Your Marketing Strategy

There’s so much to do when you run a fitness business. So marketing often takes a backseat. If you want to double your personal trainer salary, you need to make promoting your business a priority. 

You probably already have a website where clients go to book you or learn about your services. Take it a step further and start a blog to boost your website SEO score and push traffic to your site. This way, potential clients find you organically through your content. Or, you can look into paid advertisements on Google, Facebook, and other social media.

Whatever marketing strategy you choose, remember to connect with your current clients. This could be as simple as doing regular follow-up SMS texts from your PocketSuite business line. Or, you can send a congratulations text each time a client hits a milestone to build trust and show clients you care about their progress.

And remember to ask for referrals. Referral marketing is key to a small business. Your loyal and happy clients are your best asset to land more clients and earn more money!

The Bottom Line

Your personal trainer salary isn’t set in stone. You can take steps to hit your income goals. To make more money as a personal trainer, offer online classes, products, and membership. And make a push to market your fitness business online. 

PocketSuite can help you across the finish line. From bookings to payments to contracts, we have 5-star tools to manage a high-earning fitness business. 

How? 

Keep reading! We dive into the best ways to make money doing yoga. Whether you’re an aspiring yoga instructor or a seasoned pro, you’ll love these money-making tips.

Can You Make a Living Doing Yoga? 

Absolutely! According to Indeed, yoga instructors make about $30 per hour working at gyms and yoga studios. Independent yoga instructors can make six figures taking on their own clients. When you run your own yoga business, you set the rates and pocket all of the cash (minus the cost of studio space, travel, and equipment). 

How Do You Make Money as a Yoga Instructor?

#1 Offer In-person classes

Don’t be afraid to stick to the basics. You can earn good money teaching in-person yoga classes. In-person classes give you a chance to connect with clients and offer hands-on instruction.

Yoga instructors typically charge around $20 for an hour-long, in-person class. So, you can make at least $100 per hour for a session with 5+ students.  Schedule as many classes a day as you need to hit your income goals. Just be sure to leave buffer time for rest and self-care.

Here’s a tip: Look for yoga gigs at colleges and local businesses. Universities and corporate offices offer yoga classes and other wellness activities to help their students and employees relieve stress. If they’re not actively looking, take the initiative and offer your services. It could be the beginning of a profitable partnership.

#2 Offer Private Sessions

You can make more money as a yoga instructor by offering private sessions. Some clients are shy or busy, so prefer a private lesson on their own schedule. 

It’s okay (and highly recommended) to charge more for one on one yoga lessons. Some yoga instructors charge well-over over $150 for a private session. You might make less per hour than you would for a very large class. But it can be easier to build trust with your students (and get repeat bookings) with a 1:1 session. 

It’s a good idea to offer both group classes and 1:1 yoga sessions, especially if you’re just starting out. Over time, you might find that one fits your business better. 

#3 Host Online Classes 

You can attract more clients and earn more cash as a yoga instructor by taking your classes online. Clients want online fitness classes that can be done from the comfort of their homes. 

Virtual classes allow you to take on clients across the country. And you won’t lose out on a session if a client travels or moves. The best part: you don’t have to rent a studio or pay for gym space. It’s a low-cost way to get your yoga business off the ground. 

You can offer virtual classes in the PocketSuite app using video conferencing. All you have to do is connect your Zoom account. 

#4 Sell Products

When you’re neck deep in the yoga business, you’re bombarded with ads for yoga products every day. Why not flip the script and sell products yourself? 

You know what makes yoga gear worthwhile. And clients will trust your expertise. You can sell yoga blocks, mats, or protein bars to make more as a yoga instructor. 

You don’t have to go all in on one product. Try out a few different products and see what your clients gravitate towards. Recommend equipment that could help clients in the class. Or offer a bundle of products and classes as a package in the PocketSuite App.

You can even create your own products or merchandise to sell to your students. 

#5 Write Guest Posts

You can earn extra cash by writing guest posts for yoga, fitness, and wellness blogs. Bloggers need industry experts to write content for their sites. And you don’t have to be a pro writer to make a guest post.

Type “write for us + yoga”  in your search bar. You’ll find dozens of blogs ready to pay guest writers for their yoga expertise. Just make sure the time you spend on an article is worth the pay rate. 

Guest posting is a great way to market your business and establish yourself as an authority in the industry.  Most blogs give you an author’s bio with a link to your website or booking page.

If you’re up for the challenge, you can start your own blog where you write about yoga and wellness-related topics. With time, you’ll build an audience and make money from ads and affiliate marketing.

#6 Become a Yoga Influencer

As a yoga instructor, social media is the best place to market your business (for free!). Your social media page can be a portfolio, a booking site, and a consistent stream of income, if you become a fitness influencer. 

The good news is that you can create content on dozens of platforms. You can: 

• Create short videos with quick tips on TikTok  

• Film long-form workout videos for YouTube

• Post lifestyle photos and wellness quotes on Instagram 

• Or start a podcast about yoga

Once you build a following, you can earn money from ad revenue on your content and brand partnerships. Brands will pay you to promote their products to your audience, like smartwatches, yoga sets, or equipment. 

#7 Coach a Newbie Yoga Instructor

If you’re a seasoned yoga instructor, you can earn money teaching inspiring yoga instructors to grow their businesses. People want expert advice to take their small businesses to the next level. And you have it!

You can offer beginner consultations, teach them how to attract clients and budget their expenses or share your top tips for landing repeat bookings. As a coach, you’ll guide clients through every step of building a successful yoga business.

Also, if you’re tech-savvy, you can design websites, email campaigns, and marketing materials for yoga instructors and studios. 

#8 Create a Yoga Membership

Some yoga instructors create subscription-based memberships, where their clients get access to special content for a monthly price. You can give members access to:

• Live classes

• Yoga workshops and retreats

• Networking events

• Discounts and giveaways

• Special products

• Facebook groups

• Personalized routines and meal plans

Memberships are meant to build a sense of community. So, make sure to connect with your members and offer them value. If you treat your clients like they’re part of a V.I.P. club, they’re more likely to work with you again.

#9 Develop an Online Course 

Online courses are taking over the internet. And for good reason. They give you a chance to earn extra cash for your expertise. You can create courses on:

• Prenatal yoga techniques 

• Developing a yoga routine 

• Or building a high-earning yoga business 

The possibilities are endless. Just remember to provide value to your audience. A good online course can earn money for years to come.

The Bottom Line

If you want to earn more as a yoga instructor, it’s time to diversify your services. Most yoga instructors make money from online and in-person classes or by selling memberships, products, and courses to their clients.

At PocketSuite, we want to make running your business as relaxing as a yoga session. We have all the tools you need to onboard and manage clients. You can schedule appointments, send contracts and receive payments all in one app.