Stop training guys like this before too much of the sleaziness rubs off.

It’s true I’ve done a lot in my time in this business, from running my training business throughout New York’s boroughs, training models, CEOs, and Wall Street types, and more recently dominating the training in my area.  However, no matter how easy I try to make your road in this business through this site and programs, my road was anything but.

On that note, I got a guest article from fitness expert and long time reader Noah Dean about the hard road a friend of his took to getting his new training business launched.

It’s about his friend Dane Krager, who recently opened his own studio, Dane’s Body Shop. I thought this would be a great guest article to include for a change of pace.

Usually I bring you a one-sided, overly positive, and often self-serving views of the fitness world.  But this article should give you a good dose of the realities of this business and what a lot of us face.  It’s full of drama and is a good slice of life, which always makes for great reading.

I’m sure you’ll be able to see a little bit of yourself here, as I did.  And hopefully Dane and everyone else will be able to use Super-Trainer.com to make the road a lot easier from here on out.

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Through Super-trainer.com, Kaiser Serajuddin has put together a “must-have” when it comes to starting your own gym/studio. Unfortunately, there are those who are unaware of what Kaiser has to offer and go through hardships of starting a business that may have otherwise been avoided. This is the story of such a person. However, if Super-trainer.com had been in the mix, the near ‘Greek Tragedy’ that is the following story may not have been so full of, well, tragedy.

Dane’s Body Shop: A Diamond from the Rough

Every now and then we come across that one person who seems to have the answers to all life’s questions. No, not the sardonic, annoying, always-try-to-one-up-you guy, but the person who really does fit the mold of a confident, yet humble, polite, generous and motivated individual. You know, the man/woman who has been tempered by adversity and is destined to have a movie made about them (or at least a script written). Well this article is about that guy, and how he got that way.

I first met Dane Krager in the year 2000, at Angelo State University, a small school resting in the wilderness that is West Texas. He was an atypical jock to say the least: starting defensive end, sack record-holder, admired, driven, intelligent, and yes, ridiculously good-looking. Dane had been given the opportunity to play at the renowned University of Texas out of high school but chose to attend the small school in hopes of getting more playing time. Soon after graduating with a degree in English Literature, Dane was called to join the exalted National Football League. It seemed to most that he had the world at his fingertips. But, that wasn’t the case. In under a year, Dane had been cut from both the Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks; he had not played in one regular season NFL game. This was, in Dane’s eyes, a major personal failure.

After his chances with the NFL had come and gone, Dane moved back to his hometown of Austin, Texas where he lived in a small, one-bedroom apartment with his red lab, Cede. After a short stint interning at a local television station he decided to try out for the Austin Wranglers, a recently organized Arena Football team. During the last day of training camp, Dane asked if he could deep snap for one play, just for fun. When that single snap was a success, Dane learned that it was the only play that kept him from being dismissed from arena football. “I’m glad you showed me that, Dane.” the coach uttered, “We were about to cut you.”

But Dane’s humble beginning in arena football wasn’t an accurate predictor of things to come. After four years, Dane had served as team captain, “player of the week”, and appointed to the AFL All Ironman team… as the starting fullback and linebacker.

Unfortunately though, you can’t play football forever…

A lot of former athletes-turned-trainers fail to hit the BUSINESS side of fitness as hard as they hit their opponents.

In August of 2007, Dane retired from football and began working as a personal trainer. He found a fellow trainer who convinced Dane to let him play a part in the business, and the two started a boot-camp style training partnership. Dane completely poured himself into this endeavor. But after eight months of waking up at 4:30 a.m., investing all the start-up money, and paying his fellow “trainer” to… sleep in, Dane found himself at the losing end of the joint venture.  The business failed miserably; perceived failure number two.

Dane then decided to take the boot camp idea on as his own. With what he would refer to as a “complete lack of structure,” Dane began to train whomever, however, whenever, and for just about any amount of money. But without structure, his personal training appeared nothing more than a hobby, not a business, and a solid pool of clientele couldn’t be established. Dane was missing something, he felt lost. Enter failure three.

Although he hid it well, Dane was reaching his breaking point.

In the midst of this relatively chaotic time, a former coach called and offered Dane position with the Arizona Rattlers (another arena team). With not much to lose, he took the opportunity… sort of. During training camp, Dane stood, looking at all the young, resilient, gridiron “wannabe” heroes. And then something happened: he didn’t want to play anymore. The fire of aggression he had carried with him for so long was gone, blown out by a single epiphany. He was done. And not just with football. Dane was finished with the terrorizing depression he had suppressed since being cut from the NFL. He was done with the bitterness of losing his savings, time, and trust in others for a business that failed, twice. He was done carrying the anxiety of not knowing what the future held. In his own words, he was “just done.”

Immediately, Dane approached his coach and explained that he was quitting the game of football for good. He got in his truck and made the long trip from Phoenix to Austin. Then… he bought a plane ticket to Warsaw, Poland.

Even to me (a very close friend), I can’t understand what exactly was going through his mind during that long trip from Phoenix to Austin. I mean, who decides to randomly take a vacation to Poland? I learned in my interview with Dane however, this was no vacation. Dane explained, “I figured I could either invest what little money I had in stocks and hope for the best. Or, I could travel away from the world I knew, and hope for the best.” Personally, I still don’t get it. Dane didn’t even have an agenda. He was just going to see where his feet took him. It’s a concept that very few people would be willing to take past “I would do it”. Dane was searching for something; he just didn’t know what exactly it was.

Inspiration usually comes when you're as far away from your business as possible.

In the end, Dane’s random act of self discovery led him on a journey that would span three months and more than a dozen countries. By plane, train, boat, and “thumb”, Dane traveled to Poland, Egypt, Italy, France, Holland, Greece, and the Czech Republic; just to name a few. Sometimes he slept in a hotel, and sometimes he slept on the ground. Some meals were multiple courses, others were stale bread, and others were nothing at all. Some of the people he came across were warm, charming, and honest. Others he approached were warm, charming, and trying to steal all he had. But through his impulsive, 90-day experience, Dane found what he had been looking for; the one thing we’re all looking for.

Atop a mountain outside of Flam, Norway, Dane sat meditating. He began mentally piecing together his idea for another business to be meticulously assembled back in Austin. But this time it was different; this time it was about helping others. While in Egypt, the smiling faces of the local children had inspired Dane to “pursue something other than a bigger bank account.” He stated, “While spending time in Luxor, I learned that’s it’s not what you have, it’s how you perceive what you have. Many of the children owned nothing more than the torn clothes on their backs, but I’ve never seen a group of individuals more happy and content with their lives. I learned that if you have happiness, you have success.”

When Dane returned to the states, he “was ready.” Dane began saving every penny from various odd jobs. He leased a small, crumbling, auto-body shop near downtown Austin.  After several months of exhausting work to repair the facility (with help from his father), Dane’s Body Shop was open for business. Bu what exactly is the “business”?

Dane uses what he calls, a “synergistic/fusion approach in which clients will get Yoga, martial arts, strength conditioning, Pilates, Nutrition guidance, and more.” This slew of various fitness/wellness is vital for building a foundation for holistic wellness and is common among today’s personal trainers. But it’s the “more” that people don’t get from your run-of-the-mill instructor.

At the start of each session, Dane will seem like any other trainer. He’ll introduce himself, and then address the trainees in a tone typical of a man ready to coach you through a hellacious workout. You’ll hear the latest tunes from the local Austin bands in the background and smell the aroma of sweat, yoga mats, and maybe even old care engines. But as the workout continues, you will notice something about Dane that is rare in this field, a genuine sense of caring. You see, Dane has the understanding that everyone is fighting a never-ending battle. And he is honored, no, humbled by the fact that you have trusted him with your time, ambition, money, and wellness. Dane will push you to your physical limits, but keep you focused on your life goals (not just those that show up on a scale). And don’t be surprised if afterwards, he strikes up a deep, what-do-you-want-out-of-life conversation.

Why? The answer is simple. Because Dane’s Body Shop has an owner that sincerely wants you to achieve something extra. His experiences of failure and triumph, as well as his passion for helping others allow that desire to shine through. “Don’t get me wrong” Dane explained, “Anyone who commits to a session is going to shed unwanted pounds, improve their cardiovascular endurance, and/or lower their cholesterol, but I want to inspire them to make the most of their lives, starting with the physical and transcending to the mind.”

Dane and his dog Cede in front of Dane's Body Shop

And this is where this story ends; but is only the beginning of a new story.  I wish I could say that Dane’s influence will catch on around the world and that others will emphasize the aspects of wellness, fitness, and holistic tranquility like he does. But the truth is: Dane is THAT guy. Few others will ever have the rare combination of insight, wisdom, and genuine sense of love and caring that Dane Krager has. If you’re within 1,000 miles of Austin, TX, a trip to Dane’s Body Shop will be well worth your time.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well, other than turning to the never-fail cliché “hard work will pay off”, I’ll also recruit the “don’t make things harder than they have to be.”  Super-trainer.com is an invaluable source of business savvy that is literally just a click away.
Noah Dean, PhD, ACSM-PT

Most of what we fear is all in our head.

Now as a reader of Super-Trainer, you’re very well aware that I offer some high end programs that tackle different aspects of achieving breakthrough financial and personal success in fitness.

The new program to add to this library is STUDIO START-UP.  This program will show you how to open your own high-end, high-earning training studio, and do it for under $5,000.

My process for reaching the top as a trainer was to learn from the best of the best.  In creating and selling high-end programs, I’ve taken the same approach as well.

One of the guys I’ve (indirectly) learned from in this area is legendary direct response copywriter Joe Sugarman.  You may know Joe as the creator of Blue-Blocker sunglasses …

And there’s one passage I remember reading from one of Joe’s books that really struck a nerve with me; I think it completely sums up a major problem I hear about from a lot of trainers.  It’s their apprehension with stepping up and doing the things to take control of their training careers.

I think with the release of STUDIO START-UP, it would be great to share this anecdote from Joe.  And after it, you’ll find some more info about STUDIO START-UP.

To get the full scoop on the program visit the sales site at: mytrainingstudio.com

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Special Excerpt From Advertising Secrets Of The Written Word by Joe Sugarman

Limiting beliefs will keep even the most powerful animal chained up for a lifetime.

Have you ever looked at a circus elephant anchored to the ground?

If you have, you might notice that the elephant has a metal collar around its leg to which is attached to a small chain. And the small chain is attached to a small wooden peg driven into the ground. Pretty good protection?

Pretty lousy, if you ask me. That 12,000-pound elephant could very easily pick up its foot and with one fell swoop, yank the peg out of the ground and walk away. But the elephant
doesn’t. Why? I’ll explain.

When that elephant was still a baby, that same collar and chain and peg were used to hold the elephant in place. The restraint was sufficient to hold the baby elephant in place even if it wanted to break away. And break away is indeed what the baby elephant tried to do.

So every day while the baby was chained up, it would pull at the chain and pull and pull until finally a cut appeared on its leg exposing the sore sensitive layers of deep skin tissue. It hurt to pull like that and soon the baby elephant, realizing the effort was both futile and painful, stopped trying to escape.

Elephants Never Forget. As the baby elephant grew older, it never forgot that bad experience with the chain and the peg. And so whenever it was anchored down in a spot, it would think, “Hell, it’s impossible to break away and besides,it hurts.”

The large elephant had what I call an “assumed constraint”.

And all of us have the same problem to one degree or another. As we’ve grown older, those hurt feelings, the feelings of inadequacy and the wrong guidance we may have received from teachers or friends are still in our subconscious and whether we want to admit it or not, they really do affect us. If you understand the hurt and you understand the constraints we put upon ourselves, then you are better able to cope with breaking out of those assumed constraints and becoming anything you want to be and accomplishing anything you want to accomplish.

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What did you think of that?  Pretty deep stuff huh?  And you know what, I think for a lot of people, their limiting beliefs can be something as simple as the example Joe made of the chained up circus elephant.

Breaking through these perceived mental blocks to business success is one of the drives of the STUDIO START-UP PROGRAM.  The other drive is to give you a tactical blueprint to make your studio a reality, and do it on a shoestring budget.  You can find out more about the program below:

What Is The Studio Start-Up Program And Why Should Every Independent Trainer Intent On Having A Long And Lucrative Fitness Career Invest In It?

Congratulations on discovering the STUDIO START-UP PROGRAM and deciding to learn more about it. This is the program that hard working trainers that want a long and lucrative career in fitness have been looking for, but hasn’t been available until now.   If that’s you, this course will give you the step-by-step formula to opening your own high earning fitness studio, and do it for under $5,000.

The course achieves this mission by focusing on three factors:

1. The Start-Up Process: Trainers who purchase this course are guided through the set-up of their facility and their operating procedures. They are guided through any and all potential landmines such as finding a location, getting funding, managing start-up expenses, negotiations deals, implementing systems, and much more.

Through surveys and discussions with hundreds of personal trainers, we’ve identified the biggest hurdles stopping trainers from making the jump into opening their own facility.  This was taken into consideration during the creation of this course, and is the reason why the course is so heavily devoted to coaching trainers through the entire start-up process.

Trainers owning this program can expect mastery and a thorough understanding of the start-up process of studio ownership, even if this is there very first business venture.

2. Studio Set-up: In this course we also put forth a brand new fitness studio formula. The formula is based on the use of a minimal amount of traditional equipment.  It’s based on the observation of the biggest trends in both training techniques and studio set-up today.  This formula allows trainers to capitalize on the latest trends in training, while simultaneously keeping their start up costs at the lowest levels possible.

Our studio layout is at the forefront of the current move toward minimalist training environments and non-traditional exercises. With many trainers today relying more heavily on kettlebells, TRX equipment, Lebert brand products, and bodyweight conditioning, going “lower budget” actually puts you at the cutting edge, while saving considerable cash over the crippling costs of expensive gym equipment.

You will see evidence of this trend if you visit large corporate gyms such as Bally’s Total Fitness and Town Sports International Clubs (owners of the NYSC, BSC, PSC, and WSC gyms). Most of these gyms have now created designated training zones in their clubs. These sections are reserved exclusively for their training clients, who are their highest paying customers; yet these areas contain the least equipment of any other part of the gym. This brings further proof to the practicality of a minimalist gym environment.  This type of environment puts the emphasis on the training experience, rather than prohibitively expensive equipment.  This is good news for the trainer who is looking to open their facility with a minimum of up front costs.

Owners of the STUDIO START-UP course are taught to use their minimalist gym environments as a “positioning strategy” to command industry leading rates and customer loyalty while still keeping start-up costs extremely low. This is one of the ways the primary mission of this program, to show trainer how to create a successful high end studio on their first time out and do it for under 5K, is achieved; by showing them how to spend the least amount of money up front, but still command the highest rates at the same time.

In addition the course also puts forward an advanced structure for the administration of your training sessions.  This system is meant to allow the owner of the program to manage the business exclusively, and delegate day to day training activities to their staff. We leave it entirely up to the studio owner to decide there role in the day to day training, but have constructed our system to allow them to entirely delegate those tasks if they so desire.

3. Advanced marketing strategies: This course also goes places heavy emphasis on marketing strategies, which are essential for the success and longevity of a high-earning fitness business.  The approach that is taugt is direct response marketing, which is the science of measuring advertising expenditures versus total client value, to determine an exact formula for a consistent and predictable flow of qualified prospects.  The leading offline and online, paid and free advertising methods are covered in depth. Among them are postcards, print ads, google advertising, facebook advertising, daily-deal websites, joint ventures, and craigslist ads.

However, as most successful fitness business owners (and most small business owners in general) will tell you, there are usually just one or two marketing channels that work perfectly for their specific business and bring them the majority of their leads. The owner of this program is guided through the process of discovering what that channel will be for them.

In addition to marketing tactics already mentioned, there is a tremendous emphasis on customer psychology in the program. Understanding customer psychology is without a doubt the most important part of the marketing process. Owners of this program will gain this knowledge by learning how customers search for training services, what their decision making criteria are, and how they prefer to buy. This is all covered in extreme detail throughout this program.

With the scope of subjects covered in this program and the depth to which they are covered, this is probably the most ambitious program the fitness industry has seen to date. This is because opening a brick and mortar studio is an important step in any business owner’s career, and must be treated with utmost seriousness. The fact is without the correct base of knowledge from the outset, most fitness studios will fail. This course is meant to solve these issues, and by doing so allowing trainers to maximize their opportunities.

Why is this course a must for every trainer even thinking about opening their own fitness studio?

Despite the cost, uncertainty, and risk that comes with the decision to pursue a fitness studio, the fact is the benefits far outweight the downsides.  For those reasons, it’s imperative for any trainer with the desire for greater income, freedom, longevity, and respectability out of their fitness career to look into the possibility of owning their own facility.  To put it simply, life’s easier when you have your own place, for the following reasons:

Easier to manage employees: Gaining respect and obedience from employees is essential to the success of any business. Without it, it’s impossible to maintain the necessary standards of service without having to do all of the work yourself. If this buy-in from employees isn’t achieved, no business owner can ever expect to get the freedom from their business that they want. By having your own facility, you take advantage of the fact that all employees are conditioned to give greater respect and credibility to the owner of the facility where they are working, compared to any other work arrangement.

What are the pitfalls of opening a fitness studio and how does this course help solve them?

High Startup Costs: The biggest barrier to opening a facility are the tremendous overhead costs. That is precisely the problem the STUDIO START-UP PROGRAM is meant to solve; it is designed to bring the entire project to under $5K. In addition, the program provides several funding strategies to raise all of the necessary cash immediately.

High Equipment costs: Equipment costs are also a major drawback with opening a private facility. With most commercial equipment costing between 5K all the way 15K, just a few simple pieces of equipment can grow a training studio’s start up costs to over 50K. This makes opening a facility out of the reach of the majority of trainers, and makes it nearly impossible for the facility to ever achieve immediate profitability. Our blueprint completely eliminates this pitfall by giving owners of the program a model that is both high-end and extremely economical. They can immediately overcome the financial pressures of opening a facility and have the potential to earn a substantial profit from the get-go.

Employee hiring and management headaches: Employees are one of the biggest headache for any business owner, but are absolutely necessary if you want to achieve  freedom from your business by having it run without you. Much of the course is devoted to the hiring, managing, and delegating process, and the psychology behind it.

The absence of business systems: Without business systems, any fitness business will turn into chaos. Creating systems to run the marketing, training, and back-end upkeep are one of the focuses of the program.

Mindset and confidence: There’s still an entire mental and belief component to opening your first fitness facility. Despite your desire to finally have your own “gym”, knowing that you can do it is what will determine your success. This program addresses that by included a module on understanding the internal leverage points that make success possible for any trainer.  Even if the thought of opening your own facility seems a little outside your comfort zone right now, this module will show you how to make yourself up to the challenge.

I’m not sure if I want to open my own facility – will this course help me decide?

While opening a facility is the primary goal for most trainers, it’s not the only option for trainers today. This course also carries tremendous value as an exploratory resource meant to help trainers accurately decide if studio ownership is right for them by illuminating the different priorities, costs, and projects ahead. For that reason a trainer still in the deciding and planning phase of opening a studio will still find tremendous value in this course.

It is true that some trainers, after owning this course, may decide they do not want to pursue a fitness studio. In that case, it is well worth the investment in the ownership of the program to make this decision, rather then wasting tens of thousands of dollars and years pursuing studio ownership, only to discover it wasn’t what they ultimately wanted. This course will give you all of the information to make your decision on whether opening a training studio is right for you, and it is well worth the investment in the program, even if you decide not to take that road.

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For more even more information about the program and to order, visit the link below:

www.mytrainingstudio.com

Today I’ve got a killer article for you – probably the best piece of free fitness business building content you’ll see in while …

Whether you’re an independent trainer, studio owner, or you run your own bootcamps, there’s something good for you here.

It’s an interview with my friend Cynthia Conde (this one’s long, so you may want to put your phone on silent for a little while).

In case you don’t know who Cynthia is, she’s best known today for the Bridal Bootcamp reality show (which she just told me was renewed for another TWO seasons).

But beyond that, shes’s just a hard working trainer that worked her way up from hustling in private gyms to what you’d have to consider the top of this business.

(I guess owning a chain gyms would be the top of the business, but in terms of being an indepenent trainer, a reality show running for three seasons is about as good as it gets.)

Unlike other reality TV stars, she wasn’t a wannabe actress that got a hook up from her agent.  Any day of the week, you can find here hard at work running her training business, or opening up the new studio THE FITNESS LOFT out here in Long Island, New York.

That’s just a little background – below, you’ll notice that we went very in depth with her in this interview, so if you didn’t know who she was before, you certainly will now.

But that’s not why this one’s important – it’s more important because of what YOU can get from it.  Because like I mentioned, Cynthia is about as in-the-trenches you’ll see a celebrity trainer get, and there are tons of lessons here on how she established herself, built her business, and then took it the next level.

She’s one of those people that really shows us that anything’s possible for anyone in this business.

This interview was originally recorded as part of a new high-end fitness business series I’m putting together called THE FIT-BIZ MASTERMIND (you can expect to hear more about that from me in a couple of weeks).

When recording it, I tried a new recording service and the quality was pretty bad.  But that’s fine, because since I recorded this, I’ve decided to change up the MASTERMIND considerably.  You can expect the future interviews to be about two hours.  They’ll go in depth into career building, income, and high level business strategies, so I’m really looking forward to bringing that to you.

You’ll get a sneak peak at the format here – I’ve got a ton of great content for you.

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NOTE:  In keeping up with the feedback on her show, I’ve noticed that some people have been saying she was too muscular for it.  People don’t realize that even on reality TV, she had a role to play, and that’s why she bulked up for the show.  But to make sure the world gets a balanced look at her, I’ve included a lot of attractive photo shoot pictures I have of her from the projects I’ve done with her.  I’ve included them here so Google picks them up, and the world can see a different side of her than the tough hard-core trainer we see on TV.

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Without further ado … get your pen an paper out, shut the door, and put your phone on silent – here’s the interview:

Super-Trainer.com Exclusive Interview With Cynthia Conde

Super-Trainer Editor Kaiser Serajuddin and Bridal Bootcamp Host Cynthia Conde

Full Transcript From the FIT-BIZ MASTERMIND (coming September 1st 2010)

Kaiser Serajuddin: Hi, this is Kaiser on the Fit-Biz Mastermind, this is where I talk to fitness industry superstars to get you real world info you can use right now to make more money and get more freedom out of your fitness business. Today, my guest is probably the hottest name in fitness right now. She’s the star of the TV show Bridal Bootcamp and it’s none other than Cynthia Conde. Cynthia, Welcome.

Cynthia Conde: Thank you Kaiser, thanks for having me.

Kaiser: It’s my pleasure and what did you think of that intro, that was pretty neat right?

Cynthia: I know, that’s the reason why I can’t talk, I’m like “Wow! That’s such a great intro” I’m like really, thank you I’m very flattered.

Kaiser: Yeah, I think I missed my calling… If Larry King was out of a job, I’d try out for that.

Cynthia: I think you’d make a great voiceover actor for sure.

Kaiser: There we go, so anyway you know you’ve been up to a lot of really neat stuff lately and I want to talk to you about that, about your training business, your training studio, basically how you’ve come up in this business. But, I think the first thing that we need to get out of the way, right away, something that’s probably on everybody’s mind is your show. It seems like every time I turnaround or turn on the TV, I’m hearing something new about it, so on your end, what’s the response been like.

Cynthia: Honestly the response has been, it’s been amazing. I mean, I’ve done so many national radio tours and TV appearances. Next week, I’m scheduled to be on Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and Don Imus in the Morning. It’s been amazing. I got contacted by Muscle & Fitness and Oxygen, and they want to do a spread on me, so it’s awesome, it’s been amazing.

Kaiser: Yeah, that makes total sense because I’ve been even a little shocked at just how much publicity this show’s been getting. I general, we’re used to these shows being on the airwaves and there is a new one that seems to be coming out every few days but this has take on a new life of its own. Has your life changed in any way because of the show, your life or your business?

Cynthia: You know to be honest with you, my life hasn’t changed much, I mean I’m still very driven, still very passionate about the industry, and I’m very focused on my gym business. The only thing that has changed is maybe more doors have opened and there have been more opportunities. Which obviously I’m just out there and I’m viewing them because this goes around once in your lifetime if it ever does and I just want to be able to jump on every opportunity that I have. So yeah. But, my life hasn’t changed that drastically. You know it’s season one, so I know that’s season two.

Kaiser: Oh, is there talk of a season two?

Cynthia: There is, we’re just waiting on the ratings and I should be hearing something shortly.

Kaiser: All right, all right, that sounds simple. That sounds real good. Now, in general, like I told you, I’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about the show, but not all of it’s been glowing reviews. Some of it’s been controversial in some ways. People talking about whether you’ve gone too far and in general things like that. Have you had to field any questions on that or have you faced any flak on your end?

Cynthia: I have; I mean, there’ve been a couple of controversial topics regarding the show. One of them being “were the girls being pushed too hard”? The show is called Bridal Bootcamp, and it’s a program that I designed based on the US Marine Corps. It’s supposed to be tough. The girls chose to be there, so there are many girls who we had to turn away because obviously we only had a certain amount of slots. So, they have to just suck it up and do the work, I mean it’s bootcamp, but they are competing for their dream wedding. So, that has been some controversy. There’s also been a little controversy on my size, that maybe I was a little bit too muscular on the show, but the beauty about…

Kaiser: Controversy on that?

Cynthia: There was a little controversy about that, I mean the producers wanted me to bulk up a little bit, you know bulk up a little bit and the beauty about that is that as trainers, as professionals, we know how to change our physique. So, if we want to cut up, if we want to bulk up, we know what we have to do through nutrition and training how to achieve that look. So, that’s just been one of the two things I’ve heard so far was whether we were pushing the girls too far with respect to the training techniques. The girls the first day, the first week there, I had all the girls do a cleanse, and a lot of the girls… Two weeks prior I told all the girls to eliminate sugar and caffeine from their diets because we were doing the cleanse, the cleanse of the first week there. A lot of the girls didn’t, one girl was drinking two liters of soda everyday and she just stopped cold turkey.

So that, combined with the diet, combined with the training, combined with the cleanse; a lot of the girls were just going into toxic overload, and as you guys saw in the first season, or not the first season the first episode, the girls were like vomiting some girls were vomiting, another girl had an episode of diarrhea, choke.

So, that’s the flak that I’ve been getting, but again the reality is that this is bootcamp and you were told to prepare before you started filming, and you’re competing for your dream wedding, so there you go.

Kaiser: Yeah. How much of that was editing and just playing it up and hyping it for TV and how much of it was reality?

Cynthia: The workouts, you can’t hide that. You’re training. The dieting, the workouts, the competition that was all…

Kaiser: I was mainly talking about the controversial stuff like the vomiting and the pain the girls were going through, do they play that up for the drama aspects, like did you see that when you were there?

Cynthia: What do you mean “play it up”?

Kaiser: No like did they edit it together to make it look more dramatic and to incite the controversy, or was it…

Cynthia: Well, yeah. The production company, they’re on the sidelines and they’re hoping, they’re waiting for a slipup. And once there is one, they’re all in it and they obviously want to create controversy because controversy sells. You know, on drama TV, reality drama train wreck TV is what people are tuning into. I guess again the training was real but the way they edit it, obviously they edit it to make it look more dramatic. So yeah, editing obviously make it more…

Kaiser: Yeah, yeah, that’s what I figured, yeah.

Cynthia: Yeah.

Kaiser: Now, one thing that we talked about before in some other interviews that you’ve done for Super Trainer is, there is a real big entertainment component to personal training, even if you’re not a celebrity trainer that people are paying to be entertained in some ways. They’re looking for a getaway from a normal life through their fitness programs, whether it’s a bootcamp or personal training. Always something that I know that you’ve tried to work into your programs, something that your new gym that I had a chance to tour with you recently, that really is a theme that you have going through it, the services you’re going to be offering. So, can you describe some of that philosophy that you have about the role that fitness plays in and particularly paid fitness services which is what we provide. What role does that play in the life of the customers that we’re dealing with?

Cynthia: We know, as fitness professionals, that the way to achieve your ideal body is you can have a basic workout, increase the intensity of your workout, eat your five meals a day, drink your water, do your cardio. We know what to do to achieve our ideal body. That’s what we could also offer to our clients. The problem is that clients are finicky and clients get bored easily. They’re tired of the same old weight training workout, same out cardio routine, same old diet practices. They’re looking for something different.

That’s the reason why there’s so many infomercials on nutrition and different exercise equipment, at home equipment, because, again, people are looking for something different, a quick fix, or an entertainment value, an entertainment factor, that they’re not getting from traditional weight training and cardio. That’s where we come in as fitness professionals.

We provide a service for them where we can come collectively or individually create different things, different fitness programs, that will entice our clients and bring them in through our doors. That’s what I’ve done with my facility. My facility, for me, I’m building my playground. I’m offering what a lot of different fitness studios are offering in one place.

I have the pole dancing, but it’s more like instead of sexy pole dancing, it’s more like an acrobatic pole dancing. I have trapeze. I have something called a hot room, where we do everything from hot yoga, hot kettlebell training, hot spinning. Then I have my indoor military bootcamp. I have navy SEAL training. Why do I offer all these things?

A, I find them to be personally entertaining and fun to do, but also I know that it will attract different clients. Say I’ll promote my bootcamp program. At the bootcamp, I’ll say well now you should try the hot room series. It’s just client retention. Keep your client motivated and wanting to do more and more different programs that are not being offered anywhere else.

Kaiser: That’s some brilliant stuff. I remember when you gave me the tour, that’s just really what struck out at me, how diverse the environment was. One question I have for you, even from a personal standpoint from my own knowledge is that, a lot of this stuff is stuff that you can’t learn out of a book. What is your inspiration in developing these programs? Where do you get the ideas? I know you travel frequently and are interested in a lot of different things. These ideas and this knowledge, where do they come from?

Cynthia: That’s interesting. Trade magazines. Even just reading muscle magazines, fitness magazines, a new trend. Once I read about something that interests me and that’s new and exciting in the fitness field, I’ll want to go try it. The last couple of months, this past winter, I was seriously into circus art. I read a tabloid magazine about this place in Brooklyn that offered aerial art, like trapeze classes, to people who are interested like in Cirque du Soleil. I started taking classes in Brooklyn and I started taking trapeze classes, I started taking stilts, I started doing trampoline. And I’m like holy smoke. I know that this is geared towards people who are interested in circus performance, but I was like this is amazing, imagine if this was offered at a fitness facility or a gym.

A couple of months later, who’s performing a stilt act? I don’t know if it was the VMAs or the Grammys, was Pink. She was doing this amazing, amazing performance using stilts. Doing inversions, and wrapping her body, and doing a 30 foot drop. I was like this is amazing.

So, in other words, what I do is I read about something and I’ll go try it. And if it strikes my fancy, I just figure out how I can implement that with my current clients or in my new facility. That keeps me abreast of everything that’s new in the fitness industry or that could be implemented in the fitness industry. Just by going out and trying it.

Kaiser: That’s very cool. It makes total sense. They say that marketing begins with intense curiosity. In your case, that’s kind of what drives you, you’re curious about something and you go find out more about it.

Cynthia: Curious and also passionate. It’s funny because right now, building my gym, it’s been one year of just one trial and tribulation after another with construction. When you’re under so much stress with the show, and the show going to air, and I’m writing two other books, and when should I release those?

You have all these pressures and all this craziness going on in your mind, and you forget about one thing as a trainer. You forget about why you’re in this industry in the first place. Your passion for fitness, and training, and helping people. When you start losing that and if you start looking at this as it’s just a business and I just want to make money, you lose your passion, and I feel that your business starts to suffer because of that.

Sometimes you just need to regroup, and get grounded again, and remember why you started. Why are you in this industry from the beginning? Why did you start? Why did you want to become a trainer? Why are you in this industry?

This past winter, I kind of like had this whole awakening. [laughs] A reevaluation of where I was and what I wanted to do. I started taking these classes again. You know, getting re inspired. Inspiring myself again and just letting my creativity just king of run wild.

Kaiser: Yeah, sounds really good. That’s really wise advice. I hope everybody caught that. Now, you talked about a few of the things you’ve got cooking right now. You have a couple of books. The big gym again, which is really an amazing place, I think it’s really going to be a huge success. The show like we talked about, they’re even talking about a season two.

With all this stuff I can kind of imagine that the people listening to this, the trainers listening to this right now, may be a little intimidated by everything you’ve got going on. But, the way it all started is with a very simple relationship that you had with a few facilities where you just rented space out of them. It didn’t start with all the fancy department…

Cynthia: Not at all.

Kaiser: … And all the classes and all of that. Can you talk a little bit about those initial deals that you made to get your business rolling and how that happened?

Cynthia: Simply put, Kaiser, it all started from just being a trainer on the floor at a Gold’s Gym. And just, again, being passionate about the fitness industry, and really wanting to be there, and really wanting to develop my clientele base. I just simply approached the trainer, the owner of the gym, one day. Because all he has was the [inaudible 0:16:02] trainers. There was not a company there or one person who controlled the training department. I said this place is really disorganized. He has a bunch of transient trainers that come in and out, no one really stays, no one really develops a clientele base.

So I approached him. I said, “Listen, would you be interested in allowing me to rent space from you and running your personal training company, personal training department, but as a business, not as an in house employee?” And he said yes. And he gave me a number what I had to pay for rent. And at that time, it was so low, it was ridiculous. And I just started developing my clientele base. And then pretty soon I was able to hire more trainers. Then I created Bridal Bootcamp back in 2001 and my business just started to develop and grow from there.

But then, I also saw other opportunities within the gym that were not fitness based, really. There was an opportunity to open up a pro shop. The guy who ran the pro shop sold it. He wasn’t making any money, so I went in there, and I started selling t shirts and wraps and cool clothing. And that started doing really well.

And then I had an opportunity… The person who was renting space for the juice bar at Gold’s Gym sold it as well, and I approached the owner. I said, listen, can I rent space and run a juice bar? I just always saw an opportunity where I can kind of stick my foot in.

And you know what? You ask. I just approached them. I asked could I rent the space? He said yes. When I took over the space for the juice bar I needed a partner. And at that time, I was training a client, this guy named Rich. And I said, “Rich, do you want to go 50 50 with me? Do you want to be a partner in this juice bar?” And he said yes. So, it just kind of worked out, but again, always looking for opportunities and just going out there and giving it a try.

I’m not afraid of failing. I’m just afraid of not trying. I don’t want to be in this industry and there’s nothing wrong with just being a trainer but if you’re going to be in the industry for a long period of time, you should strive to be more than a trainer. You should be an owner. You know the business. Why are you not that owner?

And again, you fail? So what? You fail. I had to close my pro shop business because the industry changed. I don’t know if you remember back in the days where there used to be in the gyms they would be selling these tank tops and these baggy pants and that was the fad back then. But as the years went on, that wasn’t popular anymore. So there wasn’t really a need to sell those clothing. So I wasn’t making money. So that folded. OK, so that went under. So what? I was constantly looking for something else.

And when I started running my Bridal Bootcamp, first I created it into a indoor military obstacle course in the gym, but pretty soon I wanted to expand outdoors. So then I went to the park. And there was another… in Astoria there was this big backyard like a parking lot.

And I was like, you know what? Because Astoria Park was too far from the gym and a lot of people didn’t want to travel, I approached the owner of the lot and asked him if I could rent space there and start doing bootcamp training sessions out there, and he was like, “Fine.” So again, just always looking for opportunities and just try to see what you can make out of them.

Kaiser: That’s really cool how this one deal kind of started your business overnight. I mean, we know it’s not overnight, but you had access to a captive client base so you had free reign over the gym and an exclusive deal. It’s just a really perfect situation. But, what are some of the pros and cons of making a deal like that? For someone that’s looking around approaching an independent facility to make a deal, what are some of the things they need to be aware of, and what are some of the…?

Cynthia: The pros and cons…

Kaiser: We spoke of the upside. So what are the cons, really, of it?

Cynthia: Well, the cons is, the onus is on you to bring in business. So when you have a slow month, you have the February to March. January’s always the boost. And you don’t have clients coming in. You still have to pay. You still have the overhead. You have to pay your rent. You have other expenses. And it’s up to you to drum up business. You can’t blame it on the front desk. You can’t blame it on the owner. You’re running the show. You have to make it work. You have to pay for the promotion. You have to get the word out there. So there is more responsibility and more stress.

However, look at the upside. First of all, you control the environment. You hire the people you want to be around. I need to be around people who are positive. I live off of positive enthusiasm. I don’t like people who are downers or who talk about other trainers. I cannot stand that. I don’t even want to be around that. And so I want to create my own environment. And I think that’s what really pushed me forward to push me as far as I’ve gone, because I’ve always wanted to be in a very positive environment. And sometimes when you’re working for the house, not sometimes, you can’t control who they hire.

So, the upside to that, the more positive is that, yes, you can control who you work with. You dictate what type of programs. You can control programs that you’re selling. And obviously you’re making the most money. To me, it’s a win win. I can deal with the cons.

Kaiser: Of course. Now, I’m going to go on into what you’re doing right now, which is opening a facility. I’m going to go into a few rapid fire questions about this. I know that opening a facility is really a goal of a lot of trainers. It is a worthwhile goal, whether someone wants to open a studio or a gym or something like that. My first question is a general one. You went from having a place where you had a captive audience. You had overhead, but it was minimal. Now you’re in charge of an actual huge space with all the expenses and all that yourself. Was that scary at all?

Cynthia: Was it scary? No. I don’t think it’s scary. I wanted it so bad. I’ve always wanted it. I was just eager to make it happen. And I’m not going into it thinking it’s not going to work. I’m going into it thinking, you know what? I’m going to make money. I’m not thinking like that. It is what it is. You’re right, there’s the overhead. There’s going to be days or months when it’s slow, but again, the onus is on me to drum up the business. I’m so excited. I’ve always wanted it. It’s my lifelong dream. No, it’s exciting.

I may change my mind. You know, I may say, man, when I get the slow month, I’m going to change my perspective on things at that moment, but I’m still very happy and excited to be where I’m at and doing what I’m doing.

Kaiser: How’d you find the location? Like I mentioned about 100 times so far, I’ve been there and it’s a really amazing location. How’d you go about looking for a place?

Cynthia: It’s an amazing location. I love that area of Long Island Manhasset. It’s a high end area. It’s really beautiful. I like going out there. I like going shopping out there to buy my food from the health food store out there. So, one day I was driving up the street, and it was last summer, and I see this huge For Sale sign. It was like, 7000 square foot facility available for rent. So I said, oh, this is too good to be true. That area of Manhasset, they call it the Gold Coast. So you can just imagine how expensive it is.

And I was looking in that area for gyms, and I found a 5000 square foot facility and on the ground floor they wanted $25,000 a month. I was like and it’s only 5000 square feet, that’s crazy, not including utilities. And I called up the broker, and he said it was for sale or to rent. And I went to go check this place out. He didn’t want to discuss the price over the phone, what the rent would be like.

And it was an amazing, amazing, amazing space. I mean, I gutted out the whole area. The ceilings were like 16 feet high. But before I go into that, I asked what the price was and it was an amazing deal. Not only was it like 7000 square feet including utilities, but there was also an adjacent rooftop that I could utilize for an outdoor deck.

Not only do I have 7000 square feet, but I’m building a 7000 square foot outdoor deck. I’ll have classes out there like yoga, even bootcamp, but also I can rent it out for parties. It’s an amazing, amazing place. I was extremely lucky to be in the center of a very high end area.

Kaiser: You talked about, near the beginning of our call, about some of the construction problems you’ve been having along the road. In general, what are the problems that have been, I don’t want to say slowing you down, you have to take your time with what you’re doing…

Cynthia: Oh no, it’s slowing me down. You’re right. No, you’re absolutely right. The problems were, because I’m in such a high end area, it’s a small town, the neighbors there are very, what is the word? Very picky. So, if there was excess noise, and we’re doing construction, if there was excess noise we would get a call from the building department. If the building department came over, they would stop us. I’m on top of a restaurant. Noise. We couldn’t work at certain hours because it was the middle of the day and they would be serving lunch. All those delays. A project that could have taken four months, it’s nine months later and now I’m opening a bunch of facilities.

You have to be aware that there’s going to be some kinks in the chain, especially when you’re doing construction. You know what, you learn. You just deal with it. Every day I pick up my phone and I’m afraid because it’s another problem, but you suck it up, you deal with it.

You resolve it. What I have gained is so much knowledge that my second project will be a breeze. I’ll know what kind of contractors to hire, I’ll know where to buy materials at a cheaper rate. I’ve made a lot of contacts within the construction industry, so that’s helped me. It’s been a valuable lesson. I’ve learned so much.

Kaiser: That’s a great point you made that the first time you do anything it is going to be tough, it’s going to take a lot longer. They always say it’s going to take twice as long and cost twice as much as you expected. That’s just to be expected. The next time it’ll be a lot easier. Besides the construction and the rent and some other obvious things, what are some other expenses and other things that you’re facing? Like you mentioned, it’s your dream and I’m sure a lot of the trainers listening, it’s their dream to open a facility too, so what else have you had to face?

Cynthia: Wait, say that one more time? I’m sorry?

Kaiser: I was wondering has there been any other hurdles, any other expenses, any other major considerations to think about?

Cynthia: You have to think of the suits. There’s a lot of permit suits that I had no idea. I knew there would have to be permits, but it’s just a lot of suits. You have to be aware of that. You need to make sure that you have reserved the cash when you open up your facility. God forbid, if you’re opening up in the slow months.. I’m opening up in the middle of July. Thank God I have a lot going for me that I have a show that’s coming. It’s now a national show so obviously it’s going to bring a lot of people through the door. I’m doing a lot of promotion at a local level but you need to have cash reserves.

When you don’t have cash reserves and you have to pay payroll, you have to pay rent. You need to make sure that you’re able to cover all of your expenses or you can go under quickly.

Just a lot of those types of things that I knew… obviously, I know I needed to have cash reserves, but I didn’t take out for opening up in the middle of the summer. So… But that’s cool. That’s OK.

[laughter]

Kaiser: All right, taking a step back and talking about the walls, the building itself. After talking about the training that’s going on there, I noticed that it’s very heavily group based. That’s where your background is, it’s in bootcamps. You were doing that before it was even a real major trend. Right now, most of the trainers that I’ve talked to are not even considering one on one training, even for their businesses. They’re thinking more group training and bootcamps. Can you talk about the role that’s played in your progress and the role it’s going to play in the new business?

Cynthia: Absolutely, one on one training is obviously a big part of my training studio, but it is all about group training. The amount of money you can make with the shear numbers is ridiculous. It just makes mathematical sense to train in groups. I think that’s the trend and I think that’s a smart trend. I think that if you are a personal trainer and you are doing one on one, you should start incorporating group training. Whether it’s in a facility or even do group training outside or outdoors, definitely think about doing that because the amount of money that you can make is going to double if not triple what you’re doing now.

Kaiser: One of the things you brought up right there is the money that groups are actually obviously inclined to a trainer ratio. In general, it seems to me that a lot of what you’re doing with your business through from the financial side is a lot of this gut instinct. Call it street smart, a lot of just having a nose for the marketing of it. Has that always kind of been your approach, that you follow your gut? I know a lot of trainers, they’re always looking for the new guru, the new person to follow or someone to get new information on it. What’s been your philosophy? What’s been your approach?

Cynthia: My philosophy is to just follow my gut. I know what I want, I know that I always wanted to be a business owner. I didn’t want to be… I wanted to be in business, I wanted to be in enterprise. I just followed my gut and just was never afraid to ask. I approached the general urge about establishing my own business personal training company within the gym. It’s just gut, you just got to go with your gut. Don’t be afraid to take a chance. Don’t be afraid to fall. You learn when you make mistakes. You don’t learn when you get applause. That’s pretty much always been my philosophy, to try to go out there and get what I want just by trial and error.

Kaiser: Let’s kind of come full circle and talk about the show again. How did you get the show? How did that process start? Who did you contact? You can even talk from the initial idea stage, how did this whole thing start?

Cynthia: This has been such a long process. It’s just been… that’s why I kind of say, wow it’s like a dream come true. That was a really tough, tough, tough, tough, tough road. Again, I created a program back in 2001 and the reason why I was able… from creating the program in 2001 and bringing it to where it is now… The person who helped me was actually a celebrity radio personality named Don Imus. He has his own morning radio show and he saw what I was doing with brides in the basement of my gym and he started talking about it on his show and promoting my program. From there, it kind of snowballed where I was getting calls from the local media, they wanted to do interviews with me about what I was doing with brides.

Again I just needed the opportunity. I said, “You know what? This would make an amazing book.” I could write a book on helping other brides achieve their goals through their wedding day via my program. I actually sought out a publisher, I said “Listen I have this program.” As a matter of fact, the publisher heard about my program though Don Imus and I was able to negotiate a deal, wrote the book.

After I wrote the book and it was published I said, “You know what this could be a great reality TV show.” There’s so many reality based TV shows out there. This has all of the elements, you have a “Biggest Loser” component, weight loss. You have a “Bridezilla” component with brides getting ready for their wedding. You can have drama obviously on the set.

So, I created a reality TV show treatment based on the principles of my program. Finding an agent was really difficult. I dealt with a couple different agents. A lot of the agents were shady or they couldn’t walk the walk. They weren’t able to get the meetings with the networks.

Finally, a couple of years ago the National Enquirer wrote an article about my program and a producer in New York read about it and they actually contacted me. They said, “You know what? We read about your program we heard about your program from Don Imus. We know what you’re doing with brides. Would you be interested in working with us in developing a reality TV show?” Then I said, “I actually have a treatment. I created a reality show treatment.”

I met with them and I gave them a reality show treatment. Based on that, we created what’s called a sale tape or a sizzle reel. We created a three minute sizzle reel in Astoria Park where I was dressed in full camo. I had 10 women, they were not brides, but they were clients of mine dressed in full camo. We did a whole bootcamp in Astoria Park and it was filmed.

From there, the producers hired an agent and they started shopping my reality TV show to the networks. Then finally, the budget was a little high for a reality TV show and a lot of networks loved it. Lifetime loved it. Oxygen loved it. E! Entertainment loved it. CBS was interested.

It was amazing, there were bears that were walking the grounds at night. There were alligators in the water. It was an unbelievable experience. I had never been in front of a TV camera before and all of the sudden there was a crew of 70 holding cameras in your face and everyone is fussing over you. It was just surreal, really, really cool.

Kaiser: Wow. Yeah, I remember it was all of a sudden. And yeah, in just a few weeks, it’s a sensation. Yeah. I guess that’s show biz, just how things can just change on a dime like that.

Cynthia: Yeah.

Kaiser: So yes, Cynthia. Just talking to you right now has been a really wild ride. We’ve covered, it seems like, years and years of worth of training history with you. And I think one thing that’s clear is that you’re not an overnight success story. But, it’s also clear that things can happen rapidly, or an instant opportunity can come your way. Things can just change and big things can happen. So, just with everything you’ve accomplished so far and pretty much rising to the top of this business, the way most trainers look at it.

What do you have on the horizon? What’s your next big goal, your next big, audacious thing that you want to make happen?

Cynthia: My next big goal is, I’m writing two more books. I can’t release the titles. And I’m already starting to pitch a reality TV show based on the two books. One is for post pregnancy fitness. And the other one, I can’t actually tell you what the book is about… because it’s a dead giveaway. But you know what? I do want to tell you one thing though. I don’t want trainers to feel like they’re… I discuss a lot of things, a lot of obstacles, a lot of issues that I’m overcoming or that I have to deal with.

But, one thing that really helped me build my studio was the fact that I utilized all my ex clients. It’s timing, timing, timing. I was able to open up my studio because I did get some financing, a business loan. And some of the proceeds from the show went for going to building my gym.

But also, I called in favors of all my clients from the past, all the electricians, and the HBAC guys, and the sprinkler contractors. And all those guys who always said, “Cynthia, the day you open up your gym. Don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of you.” And I did.

And I called all my clients. And these guys came in, and they did over 200,000 dollars worth of work for peanuts. So again, opportunities are out there. You’ve just got to open up your eyes and see them. And don’t be afraid to ask.

So, your dream of having your own fitness facility and having your own business is possible. You’ve just got to explore all options. And when you come to a road block or a dead wall, always think about the plan B. Because the plan B will help get you out of that jam.

Kaiser: All right Cynthia. That’s such a good way to end our call and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I’ve gotten a lot out of it personally. So, in general, trainers can learn a lot from lessons you’ve given them. And I think we all can sit back and look to see a lot more big things from you in the future. So thanks for coming on, and good luck with everything you have coming.

Cynthia: Kaiser, thank you so much. Anytime you need me, I’m here.

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You think that’s a nasty burnout? Try doing in-home training sessions for 10 years.

There are just so many traps, bad habits, and status quo behavior that fitness trainers can fall into, that this job can just downright suck at times.  That’s one of the reasons why you’ll find most trainers burning out faster than a bike at 11,000 RPMs with the front wheel on brake.

On of the culprits is ON LOCATION TRAINING: training clients in their homes and going to their locations.  This is a very common practice for trainers, and a very common business model for them.  Why not?  This is a service business so you should be eager to serve, right?

But this practice will shoot you in the foot ever time, and I’m going to come on right here and very publicly tell all trainers to put an end it to it (even if you long since dropped this practice, and have your own fitness training studio or home base, you’ll still get some value out of this).

Now if you’re a long time follower of this blog, you’ll know I’ve talked about on-location training before.  I talked about strategies to make it work and how I’ve done it in the past.  So you might be asking now, why would I do a complete 180?

Well first off, in those articles, I wanted to provide business info that you could use right now, whoever you are and wherever you are in your training business.  But what I realize now is that all I was doing was showing you how to make the best of a bad situation.  If on-location is your exclusive business model for your private practice, you’re limiting yourself and setting yourself up for failure.

On location is a model I would never go back to, no matter what the price, so you’d have to say I’m a bit of hypocrite for teaching it previously.   In fact, I would never sell my time for money in coaching in any way (although I do give it away for free on occasion – buy something from me and get on my customer list to find out).

Even when I was doing on-location (with Wall Street and super-model types in Manhattan), it wasn’t as lucrative as you might think.  When you consider prep time and commuting, a $250 session isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.   All things considered it turns into nearly three hours, which brings the hourly to less than $100 an hour.  The “in-home” aspect of it turns what should be an ideal situation to something not much better than average.

There is a very short list of places I'd go to do an in-home session.

Now there have been other occasions, when I used to visit the mansion community of Brookville Long Island, where I had 3-4 on location sessions back to back, some of them double booked.  This will make one on location visit worth more than $500 for a few hours, but even in this situation (the best of the best possibilities for high priced, on location private training) things still aren’t as good as they could get.  There’s just so much more potential for you as a trainer, that I’m going to tell you to give it up.  Let the rookie trainers that want to schlep their equipment all over the place have those clients; I recommend you find a different business model.

(And that fact is that even with the jet set, they’ll go out of their way to get the best, specialized services, no matter what the trouble or the price.  As long as you communicate your specialty and pre-imenince at it properly, you DO NOT have to be at their beck and call, nor should you.)

If you just got started being an independent trainer and are doing on-location to up your cash flow, here’s what you should do:

Find a home base;  establish your specialty; and make everyone come to you.  Sure some people will say no.  But if you’re afraid of that, then you’re not doing your job right.

Setting boundaries to how you do business gives you power and credibility.  As consultants and business owners, you become more in demand by the standards and boundaries you set.

Opening a studio can be a big part of getting that credibility  In terms of flipping the script and putting the power back on your side, it really has too many benefits to mention.  That will be too long a discussion to get into in this post, but if you’re looking for a real fitness career with real sustainability, this is one business model you might want to take a hard look at.

(And if for whatever reason, you think opening your own facility is prohibitively difficult or expensive, I have some news on that front I’ll share with you later this week.)

The more advanced and specialized the consultant you’re dealing with, the more hoops you have to jump through to work with them.  For example, if you had some rare illness, you’d probably fly half way around the world to find the right specialist, wouldn’t you?

When it comes to IN HOME training, what’s wrong with clients coming to YOUR place instead of you going to theirs?  That’s really flipping the script, and is something to think about …

Making them come to you is the first part of you getting the compliance for all of the other things you need to make your business viable.  Everything from setting your hours, administering your fitness program, and getting clients to adhere to your automated billing (EFT) plan all depend on you getting compliance from your clients.

If this doesn’t sound like the usual “service” emphasis put on training (which we talked about just last week), I don’t mean to confuse you.  Service is still what this business is about.   The irony is that MOST trainers go so far off the deep end, into being wishy washy and soft, that I think they take the whole SERVICE thing way too far, all the way into being SERVANTS.

Most trainers could learn a little more about how to be successful in a service industry from this guy.

If you know me, I always push for trainers to get more aggressive, more selfish, and feel more deserving.  Most trainers are viscous animals pumping serious weights, competing in sports, or training with a look to kill on theirr faces, but when it comes to selling, marketing, and putting in the standards to make your business highly profitable, these same trainers will run and hide.  That’s why I’m always going to encourage trainers toward the harder end.

If you’re an IN HOME trainer, and feel I’ve just maliciously attacked your entire business model, I didn’t mean to offend you (ok, maybe a little).  Not many people are really talking about the business side of this industry, so how could you possible know that there’s better out there for you?  But now that you do, you’ve got no excuses.

NOTE: I know a great many, even the majority of trainers might be offended by my editorial here.  That’s fine.  These are merely my observations from a potent career in this business and working with many of the industry’s movers and shakers.   If they’re not for you, no hard feelings, and I wish you well on your way.

So are you ready to step up?  Are you ready to draw the line in the sand?  To make this a real career?

Then make them come to you.  Find your home base, choose your specialty, and don’t do business the same way ever again.

There is a very short list of places I'd go to do an in-home session.

Now there have been other occasions, when I used to visit the mansion community of Brookville Long Island where I had 3-4 on location sessions back to back, some of them double booked.  This will make one on location visit worth more than $500 for a few hours, but even in this, the best of the best possibilities for high priced, on location private training, there are drawbacks which I’ll explain.  And there is just the potential for so much more of a better world out there for you as a trainer, that sorry, but I’m going to tell you to give it up.  Let the rooky trainers that want to shlep their equipment all over time have those clients.  I recommend you find a different business model.

No one ever got anywhere by following all the rules.

I’ve got another Super-Trainer fitness industry success story today, but I’ve got a feeling that some of you might not like this one …

It’s from a guy that didn’t go through the usual channels to get his own fitness studio up and running … didn’t spend years paying his dues … didn’t wait for permission or until everything was right …  doesn’t train clients one on one all day … doesn’t accept just anyone that walks in the door with a pulse and a credit card … decided to make it his business a lifestyle business where he dictates how things are done, not a “business as usual” …

Oh, and I haven’t told you the WORST PART: he’s done it all in less than a year!

See, I warned you that you wouldn’t like him, I’m talking about Omaha Nebraska’s own, Travis Stoetzel.

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On a side not, I remember the days when I had to contact trainers I wanted to profile here on the site.  Now it’s great that I can just tap my own network of success stories for these profiles (if you’re a trainer that’s achieved big things as a result of Super-Trainer, don’t hesitate to let me know).

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Travis is a guy that I’ve come to know and become in touch with, mainly because he’s purchased every product I’ve ever produced (Travis is a big consumer of fitness business specific products and has purchased the products of industry business coaches as well). The original TOP-LEVEL TRAINER PROGRAM (now off the market) helped Travis quit the gym.  Along with that program came a couple of coaching sessions (I don’t do that any more so please don’t ask), which Travis was very quick to jump on.  In that time I helped him take the next steps from independent trainer to even bigger goals.

Oh no Travis! You haven’t been a trainer for 10 years?  You haven’t been independent for five of those years?  You weren’t a fitness manager for five years?   You didn’t have $25,000 in start-up money?  You didn’t wait a couple of years to think about it? A big NO on all fronts ….

He got a program, and took action on what was inside – funny how you get results when you do that.

Travis is proof of a term I learned about called THE PHENOMENON, which was first popularized by legendary success author Earl Nightingale.  It’s the idea that at a point in a person’s life, they are capable of making more in 12 months than they did in the previous 12 years.

Some people don’t think this is possible and don’t even entertain the concept.  I was one of them for much of my life.  But once I got into business, I started to get out of that mindset, and since then have to varying degrees been able to achieve “the phenomenon” in multiple areas of my life.  I now use it as a core concept in developing high end fitness industry products – my products are designed to help you achieve THE PHENOMENON, plain and simple.

Once I heard about everything Travis was up to, I shot him some questions so I could put together an article everyone could learn from.  Here it is:

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Today I have another success story – a guy who got out of working for a big-box gym, got started with the TOP LEVEL TRAINER MANUAL, and has moved on to his own facility, bootcamps, and to expanding his business online, all in under a year.  He’s one of the most ambitious, hard working, and coolest guys I’ve met in this business, Travis Stoetzel.

Travis, what was your start in the business like?

I was always an athlete growing up. Being in and around sports was my life. When competition ended, I had to be around training so that’s when i took a job at a big corporate gym. I grew my business fast within the corp business, but I saw there was no way to expand and I was sort of stuck in “the man’s” world. I worked there for 2.5 years (2.5 yrs too long, LOL), then finally made the jump into my own biz where I could train by my rules and only train people that i wanted to train – athletes and serious people.

What was the mental turning point for you?

I started to think outside the box and some things I tried to do in the corp gym where shut down because it didn’t go along with what corporation wanted to do. Plus, when the economy when to crap, I had to really think outside the box.  I was charging $75 a session at the corp job but people couldn’t afford to pay that. So I started training these people “under the table” in bootcamps, charging a much lower price. They saw double the results and had 10 times the fun! I knew then I needed to get out of the big box gym. Plus, flipping tires, lifting with chains, and doing other “caveman” type things didn’t fly in the corp gym!

What is your training business like today?

I run a highly motivational bootcamp business called Forged Fit Camp. It’s for busy men and women looking to take their fitness and results to higher levels. I ONLY accept people that commit themselves and want to work hard. One thing I learned was to always do business on my own terms; that I way I never would have to go to a “job”. Aside from the bootcamps, I train athletes and super serious people in my gym called The Forged Athlete.  We train anyone from the ex athlete, weekend warrior, to professional football players. We’re a hard core, no BS, “underground” style garage gym. I love it!  Wouldn’t have it any other way!  On top of all of this, I’m starting to create my own online empire. I’ve started to branch out online and have a few projects in the making. My personal blog is currently at www.forgedstrength.wordpress.com. I’m really looking forward to growing that!

What went into the choice of your specialty?

I chose to specialize in training athletes and serious people because that’s exactly how I am and these types of people are the people I want to train and be around. Training in the corp gym was a negative experience because I had to train negative people. Now, since I only train serious people and athletes, it’s ALL positive and inspirational. The type of training we do is very OLD SCHOOL and rugged. It’s the new wave of training that will be surfacing more and more as the years come. I like to call my specialty of training a unique blend of underground training meets crossfit. I use everything that’s useful.

How does it feel to have a specialty that is directly in line with your own interests?

You NEVER work a day in your life! When you train at least It’s like I said before: I’m with people I actually WANT to train. If I was still stuck training people I HATED training at the corp gym on a day to day basis, I would probably be out of the training world and in construction somewhere, which wouldn’t be any fun at all! I did that growing up.

What are you doing now to grow your business?

I do a ton of social media stuff. REFERRALS are huge within the business. One thing I’ve adopted within my bootcamps to really increase growth and retention is having challenges ALL the time! People want to work for something. It’s different for everyone but when you can INSPIRE and help change people’s lives, your business will grow BIG TIME! Other things I do are Facebook ads, Craiglists ads. Low cost stuff. My 3 BIGGEST things are these :

1) CARE about your clients – treat them like gold

2) HUSTLE – get off your butt and get in front of people

3) INSPIRE people – get them results and make them believe they can go further!

Of all the marketing channels and tactics, which one in particular has helped you the most?

WORD of mouth! Get your clients results and the rest is history!

Awesome work Travis – good luck and much continued success with your business.

Thanks Kaiser! I want to thank you for helping me start on this journey!  The TLT Program sits on my shelf right next to my computer and I can truly say, that got me taking the first steps to getting out of the corporate world my friend!  I look to grow my business online and reach your status some day!

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Here’s a video of Travis where you can get a glimpse of his place (btw he teaches you how to make home-made TRX’s here, which he’ll probably be getting a cease and desist for in the mail real soon).

And be sure to visit Travis blog -it’s hugely inspiring and will get you training yourself and your clients harder for sure – you can find it at:  http://forgedstrength.wordpress.com/.

And if you want to see what an extremely well done, personality driven, “long copy” website looks like, check his out: http://www.theforgedathlete.com/

Congrats again Travis, and thanks for coming on and sharing.  To anyone else that wants results like Travis, I promise to do my best and aggressively sell you my business products in the near future!  Talk soon.

It takes a special kind of trainer to be in charge of this body.

What’s up trainers …

While flipping through this month’s issue of Muscle & Fitness, past the photos of the juiced up circus side-shows and ads for NO EXPLODE, I saw something I wasn’t expecting:  a small article about Personal Training, from a real trainer, giving some non-traditional, real-world advice.

It was Gunnar Peterson’s monthly column in the magazine.  If you’re new to this game and don’t know who Gunnar is, he practically owns the term “celebrity trainer” in the dictionary.  The question isn’t who does he train;  it’s more like you’d have an extremely hard time finding an a-list star he hasn’t.

He was one of my original inspirations to get serious in this business; it was reading his book, THE WORKOUT while sitting in a Barnes & Nobles when I was flat broke, that showed me that becoming an independent personal trainer was a real, viable business (not the freak show I was used to at Bally’s).  Since then I’ve got to talk to him several times, he’s collaborated on fitnesss business products I’ve produced (and a new one coming soon), and has in ways been a mentor to me.

Well, the reason this article suprised me was because there was such little talk of actual “training” in it.  In that way, it’s very similar to Super-Trainer, in that although we deal with the fitness industry, there is hardly anything here that is exercise specific.   All of that stuff is important, and if you’re on my customer list you know that we do talk about product integrity.  But for the most part that’s not what this site is about.  This site is about moving your fitness services and products to as many people as possible, plain and simple.

And if you have a industry “purist” like Gunnar, who still does all of the training himself, echoing the same message in his talk about putting the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE first and foremost in the session, you know there’s something to it.  That’s exactly the point he made in his article – here it is so you can take a look:

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THE PETERSON PRINCIPLE

This guy's in a league of his own.

GUNNAR PETERSON, CSCS, CPT, is a Beverley Hills-based personal trainer with more than 20 years of fitness experience.

What qualities do the best trainers possess?

• Knowledge of training physiology, biomechanics, and kinesiology should be a given for a trainer just like food prep is for a restuarant’s head chef.

I expect a chef to know how to prepare the items on the menu the same way I expect a trainer to be qualified to guide someone through a workout.

But just as you remember the taste of the food when you leave a restaurant, consider your client’s overall feeling after the session.  Was it fun?  Too fun to be considered a workout?  Was it serious?  Are you a personal trainer and personable trainer, or are you just a trainer?

I believe you have to be as invested and interested in your clients as you want them to be in your services.  I try to provide an unbelievable overall experience: parking, music, cleanliness, lighting, and workout beverages, and I focus on ending each session on a high on a high note.  Personal training is a service industry, so I serve.

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Hope you caught that- he was giving you a BIG hint to the secret of his success right there.  Notice how he said technical knowledge is a given, but IS NOT the deciding factor.  What is, is CLIENT EXPERIENCE.  Customer psychology.  Those are the things he’s focusing on.   I hope that gives you an idea of where your head and focus should be at when planning how to sell and administer your services.

Although it was short, there was a lot of info in that article from someone who serves the most affluent and discerning clientelle, and has probably the highest priced training services, known to man.  I’d pay attention to the meaning in it.  And a word to the Muscle and Fitness editors: in the future, leave the fitness business stuff to us!

With some of the ridiculous exercises people are doing these days, the injury re-hab market will be booming.

Hey what’s up gang – Kaiser here and I’ve got another profile for you on the new movers and shakers in the world of personal training, fitness marketing, and the fitness business today.

The guy I have on now is someone I’ve got to know online for the past few months who’s becoming a rising star in the industry, and you’d have to say he’s doing it the right way.  It’s Rick Kaselj, an injury specialist in Vancouver British Columbia who runs Healing Through Movement, a fitness practice that helps clients specifically in the booming injury rehabilitation market.

As you can tell already, Rick’s done a few things right.  He’s specialized his practice for one thing, which allows him to be the go to guy for a certain segment of the population (rather than an also ran trying to please everyone).  And the fact that I know about him and have been in touch with him shows that he understands the value of networking in this industry.

Rick is also creator of numerous information products and maintains a highly informative blog for personal trainers, ExercisesForInjuries.com.  Contributing to Rick’s success is actively networking in the fitness industry, joining mastermind groups, and learning and following the newest and latest of what’s happening in the fitness business.

I asked Rick to come on and introduce himself to us in the form of a guest article, and here’s what he sent over – enjoy:

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When I opened up my email and saw an invitation from Kaiser Serajuddin for a guest article, I was blown away.

It was such an honor to be asked.

I guess opportunity comes to those that focus on the things they love and let the world know about.

Now What?

It was great to be asked to write an article, but what was I going to write about?

As I sit in my unfinished basement with my lazy dog and 12-day-old son sleeping, I have a few minutes to put keyboard to paper.

Well lets talk about – NNG.

The Hard Hitting Barbell Bending Rick Kaselj – NOT!

Reading over Kaiser’s Super-Trainer site, I wonder where I fit in.

I am NOT a young guy that wants help people get ripped or pumped.

I am NOT a former athlete that wants to train athletes become the best.

I am NOT a female that wants to help the world look and feel better.

I am a pain and injury guy.

I help people use exercise to over come their injuries so they can go back to doing what they were doing without pain.

I guess that is where I fit in the fitness industry and where my niche is.

The Canadian Way of Saying – “Niche”

My niche is injuries.

Before you say, why “injuries.”

Well let’s step back.

Do you know of anyone that does not have nagging aches, an old injury or pain?

Any one?

I didn’t think so.

We all have nagging aches, old injuries or pain.

I help people who have injuries (Pain) that are holding them back from reaching their goals (Desire).

What I mean by that is, the pain of their aches and injuries is holding them back from living their life or doing what they love.

You Are Not a Physical Therapist or a Doctor? Nope.

I am a fitness professional that gets clients that have been okayed by their doctor to start an exercise for their injury and I help them get to where they want to go.

Are You a Generalist or a Specialist?

I am a specialist.

I specialize in one thing.

I turn down everyone else or refer everyone else on.

How Can I Make a Living Being a Specialist?

Why become a specialist:

- Clients listen and follow what specialist says more than a generalist

- Clients will travel farther to see a specialist compared to a generalist

- Clients will pay more to see a specialist compared to a generalist

I may so, “No”, to the weightloss, performance or fitness client but I refer them onto other fitness professionals that can help them reach their goals.

Various Ways of Accessing Me

I see some clients one on one but I help a lot more people through my blog, books, ebooks, courses, manuals and DVDs.

I reach my client in on-on-one training but I can reach and help a lot more of my clients through all other ways of communicating.

This is done through

Read this Part and DO IT!

Be a specialist in one thing and create different way your customer can access you that is more than just face-to-face.

P.S. – Remember, you do not need permission to be a specialist, just become one.

P.S.S – What was that NNG thing:

- N – Know what you are NOT

- N – Focus on a niche

- S – Be a specialist

Rick Kaselj, MS

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As you can get a feeling about just from reading the article, Rick’s a great guy and knows his stuff.  Check out Rick’s site, subscribe, and find out more about his products here: ExercisesForInjuries.com.

Sometimes being a little foolhardy is part of being courageous (I'm talking about William Wallace, not this abusive jerk)

Here’s an editorial about the fitness business I wanted to put up here for a while, and there was an article on the cover of New York Post last month that reminded me all about it and summed it up perfectly.  I’m sure it was a cover story in your town as well …

It was all about this construction worker who went to Afghanistan fully armed in an attempt to catch Bin Laden by himself.   Once I stopped laughing, I realized that this story illustrated a mistake I’ve made multiple times in my career, and I just wanted to give you a heads up about it as well.  It’s a mistake a lot of personal trainers, bootcamp operators, and fitness entrepreneurs make, especially in the hyped up fitness marketing age we’re in today (which this site is a part of too, by the way).

It’s the difference between being brave, a risk taker, courageous, ambitious, and being FOOLHARDY.

What would you call this construction worker guy? Brave? Heroic? You know, you got to give him some credit.  He put himself on the line to make something happen.   He took action.  But I woudn’t call him brave or courageous at all.  What I’d call him is foolhardy.

A guy like this the definition of foolhardy.  Let me explain.  A lot of times in success literature, self help readings, sales, and business books, you’re going to hear people tell you to put good judgment and disbelief aside and take massive action; to burn your bridges, to do things outside of your comfort zone, to eliminate fear, and so on.  This is in some ways good advice, because for the most part people take too little risks, aim way too low, and end up taking no action at all because of it.

But realize this risk taking must be met in equal or greater measure with learning, planning, and preparation.  When you combine learning and preparation with action in the face of uncertainty, what you have is courage.  But without the learning and preparation what you have is foolhardiness.

This guy chose to die without falling for the promises of a sleezebag he didn't respect - there's a lesson in that.

For example, I describe our soldiers, many of which are life-long career soldiers, and the rest of which have gone through some of the most rigorous training in the world, as what you would have to call courageous.  They’ve gone through every measure possible to prepare; to not lose or die, but unfortunately many of them do get hurt and killed, despite all of their training.

Going in fully prepared, but still  in harms way and not knowing what to expect is courageous.  But going in untrained, unprepared and with the odds nowhere near your favor, is what you would have to call foolhardy.  It’s vital that you understand the difference, because the cause you’ll find behind most business failure is action on the side of foolhardiness, no bravery.

If you fail while being courageous, and it’s not a life and death situation of course, you’ll always be better prepared and wiser to make more correct decisions in the future.  This type of failure isn’t bad – in fact it’s very positive because it allows you to learn at a much faster pace than playing it safe.

But being foolhardy leaves you back at square one with little or nothing to show for it.  Truly understanding the difference is something that takes time, comes through trial and error, and through periods of failure and success.  Understanding that there’s a difference is vital before you go and do anything that’s too crazy, like quitting your gym job when you haven’t learned or studied a damn thing about how to become a personal trainer or fitness marketing.

In New York, you have to wake up every day and make sure you don't do anything stupid that's going to get you on the cover of the post.

But if you’ve done your homework, weighed the negatives, and are going in it with your head up, then you’ve set yourself to succeed no matter what.  This goes for anything in this business.  I’ve found that most studio owners go in grossly unprepared.  Same with starting a bootcamp.  As easy as any of these fitness business models sounds, starting one up without taking advantage of any of the valuable resources there are out there for you to do so is extremely foolhardy.

So the bottom line is there’s a balance.  You can’t sit holed up in the planning process without taking action.  This in fact is the mistake that I see most people making in the fitness business – they’re perpetual planners.

But if you’re a follower of this blog, understand the value in taking action, and are hell bent on making positive things happen, explode your income, and make a name for yourself in this industry, I’d just warn you about the other side; about being foolhardy.  But hey, even if you screw the whole thing up, I doubt anyone will ever put you on the cover of the New York Post because of it.

On the internet, you can be as hard core as you wanna.

If you’ve learned anything from this site, you’ll know that you can do anything and everything when it comes to expanding your fitness career; it’s not just limited to independent training, studio ownership, or bootcamps.  There’s everything from sports and conditioning, to specializing in a niche you’re passionate about, to scumbag internet marketing (or you could turn into an internet tough guy, kind of  like me).

Then there are other phases of the business that don’t involve transferring your knowledge or personality directly at all, but rather selling  fitness products.  Mark Lebert’s created an amazing business with that, with his LEBERT EQUALIZER.  And I have a new guest today that took his passion for bodybuilding and powerlifting into a full line of equipment and products, Daniel Emick, President and CEO of Hypertrophy Enterprises LLC.

Even if you’ve already “found yourself” in this business and are working full steam to blow up at it, this interview will prove useful in showing you what’s possible and the “get it done attitude” you need to make your business succeed.  And it never hurts to hear about how more people are succeeding at fitness.  Whatever the case, you’ll find this interview very valuable.

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Most trainers and fitness entrepreneurs think of information marketing as the only way to expand their fitness businesses. But product marketing is also a huge opportunity for someone that knows what they’re doing. And for those not inclined to do lots of writing and blogging, it’s truly passive income.  On that subject, I got none other than Daniel Emick on Super-Trainer.com for an interview to talk about his series of products, and in particular his marquee products, the Haulin’ Hooks family of grip products.

Hey Daniel – great to have you on Super-Trainer. I have to say I love the Haulin’ Hooks, and when I was heavy into powerlifting, I used to use them myself.  They’re high quality and functional for the needs of powerlifters at all levels. How did you get the idea for them?

Thanks for the great testimonial and the opportunity to be a featured guest on this site. The idea for the Haulin’ Hooks was spawned following a 20 year frustration with common weightlifting straps and hooks. And believe me as a competitive bodybuilder always pushing for more, I tried them all.   Unfortunately every type had a compromise of one sort or another whether it be one size doesn’t fit all, uncomfortable, poorly made, or flat our dangerous to use. That’s what urged me to create the ultimate no compromise grip aid that actually delivered on the promises we make.

What’s your history in the fitness industry?

I have 35+ years of experience in resistance exercise and performance nutrition, including 25 years of in the trenches experience in the world of Natural Bodybuilding. I was also a fitness club owner and operator, group & personal fitness trainer for 10 years.

After you had the idea, what were your first steps to getting this product made?

Well I jotted down everything this “Hold-On” had to achieve to blow away the competition, then got to work on a rough drawing. I then sought a local manufacturer to build prototypes for me and a year later I had our “Original” model to put to a test. A few changes here and there and before you know it, Haulin’ Hooks were created.

Once you have an idea, how do you make sure no one takes it? How do you protect your intellectual property, and how do you enforce it?

Well the first step in keeping an idea from getting ripped off is to keep your mouth shut! Nobody has to know that you’re working on the world’s next great invention although admittedly it can be difficult not to express your enthusiasm regarding it! I kept mine secret within my fitness club by using it in plain sight, but not letting on that it was the only one in existence.  People just assumed I had bought it somewhere, and when they used it, they wanted a set for themselves. I would tell them I would order them a pair as soon as I located the manufacturer…of course that happened when I got my first production run delivered after having sought, and been awarded full patent protection (a year long process)

How does someone go about getting products produced? I have noticed the price of your products are very affordable, and simultaneously the products and packaging quality is extremely high. Where and how do you get your products made to still give you the necessary profit margin?

Getting products produced is easy, but getting them built to a quality standard that is acceptable is not as much! Manufacturing at a low enough price for a solid profit margin it can add a new dynamic, which can lead to compromises here-n-there in the effort to hit the middle ground goals.

We keep the quality and costs of our Haulin’ Hooks where we like them by manufacturing in house (we outsource the patented Hooks themselves).

This gives us total control of quality control standards and keeps costs of manufacture within reason. It also affords us the ability to add or drop new models, features, and other product options to a very short time frame. This would not be possible if using an overseas manufacturer due to the logistics and time consuming correspondence.

What were the primary skills you needed or barriers you faced when getting started with your product line? What is the process like?

Before release, a diverse focus group is called in to review every product.

The primary skills needed when building our product line was an insiders expertise in the world of hardcore weightlifting! You simply cannot build the finest grip aid the world has ever seen unless you had personal, in-depth experience with the status-quo. And believe me this bodybuilder/club owner has been there, done that! The process in building our Haulin’ Hooks line again was rooted in my experiences in the craft; I fully understood the needs of the various subcultures within the weightlifting world so I set about devising a line of custom tailored grip aids suited expressly for each with their specific needs in mind.

Of course prior to finalization, all models were tested and refined via feedback gathered from those weightlifters, be it bodybuilders, powerlifters, lady figure competitors, or just lifters in general. An all important step in the process since they are the marker, and if they didn’t love them, everything else was in vain.

Good luck and continued success with your products. If the trainers and fit pros reading this want to check them out, where can they find them?

Thank you for the well wishes, you can bet we will be doing our God given best to do our part in the process.

All of our current Haulin’ Hooks models can be viewed online at our website: www.hold-ons.com. However we are in the process of completing our brand new site, which will include the debut of no less than (4) never been seen before, patented and patent pending NEW fitness tools that will definitely add some serious kick to those workouts! Our new site to accommodate all of the new and the existing products will be www.LPGmuscle.com the LPG is for Lift more, Pull more, Grow more.

Daniel W. Emick
President and CEO of Hypertrophy Enterprises LLC

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Just when you were almost done with your e-book, how did you like that loop I threw you for?!  From Daniel’s story, you have just one more career path available for all of us in fitness.  Not sure if everyone realizes that when they’re taking their certification tests, but it’s a pretty cool thing.

JUST ADDED:

Before this article went live, I contacted the General Manager I know from within the company, Carl Schusler, for some more info on their products, so you could get an idea of what a full product line looks like, and he sent me the following email:

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Kaiser,

Here’s some additional information on the latest products that we are coming out with.

The videos attached here can also be seen on our Youtube home page: http://www.youtube.com/user/HypertrophyLLC I have much more information that we are working on as far as bullet points and features for every product as we are having a new website being built.

First, the Physio-Twist: it is designed to combine an athlete, Physio ball, leverage and a weight stack for the express purpose of building extreme core torque capacity. Patent pending Physio-Twist delivers on the promise by providing athletes with a secure gripping platform from which to get it done.

For starters, Physio-Twists belt strap snap buckle can be instantly connected and adjusted to accommodate any commonly sized Physio ball.

Secondly, multi-user capacity is ensured as Physio-Twists gripping handles may be set to suit athletes arm length with a simple lift and pull/push of handle cam buckles.

Lastly Physio-Twists belt centered D-ring features heavy duty stitching and is placed to keep resistance attachment cable on track and around ball throughout exercise range of motion.

This is a link to a quick video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvZpJKNS5lU I am working on another one with a little more of the product in use.

We have adapted the patented hook design from the Haulin Hooks for a couple of other products, the E-Z Dip dumbbell dipping belt system that is shown on our existing website and we have a multipurpose strap coming out that we call the Delt Belt Upright Row that is a strap that can be attached to a cable machine for multiple exercises or drop a dumbbell into the patented hook and hook sleeves for silky smooth upright rows this is the video soon for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKXWHEsFCYM

This link is to an impromptu workout that Daniel Emick our inventor puts a young bodybuilder through using two of these new products, the Tri-Bells and the Rip-Cords.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3jaAD388g part one,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEtXhdC-Y_g&feature=related part two,

This link is for the Tri-Bells product to give you an idea on a couple of exercises.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEFbzqztxGo

This link is for the Lat Bar Pull Down System, we are currently working with manufacturers in order to bring this to market the bar system will work in conjunction with our Rip-Cords Product that is shown in previous videos (This is really popular at the local gym, we just took it back for some improvements last week and guys are missing it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCDto9H78Co

Please let me know if you have any questions on these.

Thanks,

Carl Schusler
General Manager
www.hold-ons.com
800-851-7892