So you’ve decided to take your personal training business online? Naturally, you already know the ins and outs of designing sessions, creating training regimes and advising your clients on all matters to do with health & fitness. Yet that’s only half the challenge of being a digital personal trainer. The online space brings plenty of advantages and a world of opportunities, but it also requires a new mindset and a different way of doing things. While making this switch may seem intimidating, especially if you’re not a tech-savvy person, it’s actually quite simple if you follow a few golden rules. Without further adieu, here they are:
1. Keep it simple & get creative
One of the biggest ways that being a digital personal trainer differs from your role in a brick-and-mortar location is that your clients will generally be in their homes or some other location that is not as well equipped as a gym, studio or any kind of dedicated exercise space. In that sense, you’ll need to plan your sessions differently.
In practice, this means more bodyweight exercises and coming up with creative solutions for your clients. This could mean instructing them to fill up some water bottles to use as weights, using cushions or other household items as props and utilizing furniture or whatever physical features they have available in their chosen workout space to replace benches, bars, etc. Limits always force us to think creatively and this can often end up in more fun and effective workouts.
2. Plan around the screen
Another big difference between online personal training and the real world equivalent is the limitations imposed by screens. While this may be frustrating at first, it’s totally workable and you’ll learn to adjust accordingly soon enough. Some top tips to make this transition simpler include:
- Practice by making videos of yourself training or instructing so that you can watch them back and see how it looks. This will help you to get your setup right before training an actual client.
- Find a stable place to put your phone, laptop or tablet or consider using a gimbal or some other stabilization tool if you plan to move around with your device
- Make sure you’re in a well-lit area as even high-quality phone or computer cameras generally perform poorly in low-light conditions.
Harness the power of social media
Now that you’ve spread your wings and gone out on your own, you can no longer rely on the marketing muscle or long-time followers of your previous employers. Luckily, you don’t need them! The 21st century is undoubtedly the age of social media, and for all the talk about the various ways it is damaging society and turning people in to nervous wrecks, it’s still the most powerful marketing tool ever invented. It’s also free (for the most part) and allows anyone to have a go at building their own brand with very little startup capital.
Learning to harness this power is a key aspect of becoming a successful digital personal trainer. There is a wealth of information available on the web about how to do so. Besides reading articles or taking a course on how to make the most of social media, we also suggest having a look at what other ‘influencers’ are doing and trying to adapt some of their best ideas to your own online business.
Learn how to access new clients
Being a digital personal trainer gives you access to an entire worlds worth of clients, in theory at least. Besides growing your personal brand through social media, you need to learn how access clients through other online portals as well. The options are numerous, but if you’re serious about being your own boss and not just ending up working for another big company, joining an online marketplace is a great place to start.
That’s exactly why we created Heck Yeah, to empower health & fitness pros from every field to be their own boss and expand their access to a global clientele. When plying your services on the app, you have total control of your rates, schedule, calendar and every other aspect of your business. You’ll also find helpful tools and resources such as calendar integration, direct messaging and high-quality video calls. It’s everything you need to make a success of your digital personal training business, all in one place!
