Becoming a Fitness Instructor: 5 Important Factors
1. Just Get Started – The process is going to take time, I am here to help expedite it, and skip some of the “mistake phase”. However, there is no use or advantage in putting off taking the first plunge. Well Steve, what is that first step? You’re already doing it!
Research. We will talk about timelines in the course, but doing your research in order to map out your timeline is vital.
Find out; what fitness medium drives you, similar businesses/people who are doing it, community activities/businesses that overlap, certifications/qualifications that are needed. From there, we can map out our timelines, and look forward to the next steps.
2. Shadow/Network – Even if you do not have a specific qualification, you can always shadow. Fitness professionals are a very inviting community by nature, as we all joined this profession to help others.
Find local gyms, studios, coaches, etc, and tell them your story, and your interest in jumping into the industry. You will find that people are excited to take you under their wing and teach you. Even a few hours a week will really give great insight into developing your next steps.
3. Find your niche – Now that you’ve done your research, and started networking/shadowing, you can begin to assess the good and the bad teaching styles and fitness approaches.
Start to develop a mental picture of how you would run your ideal business, and the styles in which you would use.
This will help guide you on your path to differentiating yourself. I enjoyed helping clients break through the psychological boundaries in order to meet their physical goals. So, teaching large classes was not for me as I needed 1 v. 1 training to build stronger connections. It took shadowing and observing business models to come to grips with that.
4. Fundamentals – Always understand the base fundamentals in your fitness realm. You will continue to grow and learn as you come into contact with various clients and other fitness professionals, but you need to show a mastery of the basics in order to convey your professionalism.
Safety, physiological basics, and theories/concepts. If your goal is to be a Yoga instructor and you don’t know 8 key poses, and the muscles working/stretching in those poses you are still in-between step 1 and 2.
5. Focus on clients – The money will come. You have to first focus on helping people. The positive and altruistic energy you put out will in turn get you clients, which will lead to the $.
Too many times, people turn down small group classes or training sessions that don’t pay what they expect, not knowing what they’ve really lost was the experiences and opportunity to procure client(s) for life.
We will discuss the 80/20 theory in the course, but most of your money will come from a small percentage of your overall clientele. You have to be of the mindset, that each person/class could be the one in the future that provides most of your earnings.