And no, I’m not a multi-tasker.

Simply put, I have several key strategies (which I call “Rules”) that I use to be more productive every day and to multiply myself. Although I discuss these Rules in great detail in my book, I wanted to share the basic quick tip versons with you now. Without further ado, here are the top 5 Rules to become a more productive fitness professional:

Rule 1) Only Read Once. If you find a book, magazine, or article, pick it up once, read it down once, put it down and walk away. For example, if I find an article in a magazine about how to address chronic hip flexor problems in a client, I read it once knowing I will not be giving myself the chance to read it again. The mind is an amazing thing, and the fact that it knows it has one chance to learn the content ensures that I will take away the most important points and commit them to memory. Caveat: For the very important or difficult-to-understand items, I have a folder on my desk where I can shove it for later access, marked Study This. You’ll save tons of time by not reading and re-reading books, magazines and articles. For this same reason, I nearly never purchase books – I rent them from the library, again, knowing that I will only get to read them once.

Rule 2) Template. Everything I do, I save. For example, if I write a rotator cuff strengthening program, it is saved as 2 versions on my computer – the first version is in the clients folder, and the second version is saved in the workouts folder as “3daysweekrotatorcuffforathlete.doc” or something that describes the program briefly. Folks – if you plan on being in the fitness professional business for a long time, you better begin templating, because after just a few years, you’ll find you have pre-written programs for nearly every condition under the sun, and then all you need to do is tweak a template slightly for a new client. This is a huge time-saver, and works well for meal plans also.

Rule 3) Crowdsource. Crowdsourcing refers to “taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing them to a group of people or community, through an “open call” to a large group of people (a crowd) asking for contributions”. I’m not telling you to outsource your jobs to India or the Phillipines (that’s for fitness internet marketers, mostly). Instead, what you need to specifically do is crowdsource your marketing efforts. How many hours do you spend creating and hanging flyers and advertisements or making brochures for your personal training business? Here’s a hint: let your clients design your weight loss contests, special promotions and even your sales. For example, if you want to run a big personal training sale in February, tell your clients to make a flyer with a sale that appeals to them, and the best flyer is the sale for that month. This is also a great way to survey your audience, another smart marketing move.

Rule 4) Produce In Small Chunks. Every day write something or record something. Even if it is just half a page or 5 minutes of audio or a single video recorded exercise. If you are working in your business you are never going to reach massive success. But if you are working on your business, always creating, writing, producing content that can be licensed, used as a guide for employees or sold as a tool to your clients, you will find yourself far more productive and more successful. Imagine – if you recorded one high quality video each day for 365 days of the year, you would have a video library to sell, market or provide value within 1 year. Trust me, there are many fitness professionals who only *think* about doing such a thing, but never do it because it seems like such a huge task. Instead, produce in small chunks and you’ll get higher quality content that isn’t as intimidating for you to take on as an entire project.

Rule 5) Outline. Every Sunday night, I outline my week. Before I write an article, I outline the entire article. Before I write a book, I outline the book. Before I work on a client’s program, I outline the program (actually, they outline it for me, using a special questionnaire I talk about in my book). Outlines are funny things, because when you have an outline, you experience this uncontrollable urge to actually fill in the spaces and turn the outline into something useful and productive. If you launch into a task without seeing the beginning, the middle, the end, or the skeleton that holds it all together, you’re nearly guaranteed to produce something subpar. But if you outline, you’ll work faster and have a better end product.

And that’s a good place to end…because a better end product is the goal, right? If you can re-invent your clients’ bodies, health and persona, then you’re spending your time creating one of the best products there is – a happy person! These 5 rules will help: Only Read Once, Template, Crowd-source, Produce In Small Chunks, and Outline.

If you want more detail, more useful rules and guides, and over 150 pages jam-packed with more information just like this, check out my book “Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar”.

As busy fitness professionals, and fitness professionals who occasionally interact with our clients online, sometimes scheduling and engaging in a phone call with our personal training clients or coached athletes can be very difficult to do.

At the same time, we’ll occasionally receive e-mails and inquires from personal training clients or coached athletes that are just too involved and would take too much time for us to respond to in writing.

So as fitness professionals, or nutrition consultations, or coaches, etc., we are faced with a paradox…do you spend a ton of time scheduling a call with your client, calling your client, getting the introductions and niceties out of the way, and then attempting to close the call and say good-bye…all of which can be incredibly time-consuming.

OR

Do you take a half hour to sit down and write a mini-book response to their e-mail inquiry?

The correct answer is…neither. Listen in to learn why.

For more tips just like this, be sure and read my book, “Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar”. Get it in hard copy or electronic format today by clicking here.

In this post and video, I’m going to teach you how to record calls with iPhone. If you search around the internet, it is very difficult to find an actual app that can record iPhone calls, so this is a very good alternative. I completely understand that it requires one external piece of equipment, but it’s well worth the convenience.

Why?

I recorded an entire international phone call on my Skype app on iPhone and has it instantly accessible for a podcast just 5 minutes later. This is a pretty cool set-up if you want to podcast, etc. and be on the go while you’re doing it.

To record calls with iPhone, there is really no app that works unless you pay. Trust me, I’ve tried them all to record calls with iPhone, from iTalk Recorder to the paid app Recorder. My solution is far easier.

Here’s what you need to record calls with iPhone:

1) An iPhone (duh)

2) An AV Cable (cheap)

3) A digital recorder (in the video, I use the Zoom H2), although there are other options.

To record calls with your iPhone, plug the AV cable into the mic output of your iPhone, then the other end into the mic input of your digital recorder. If you want, you can also plug the USB cable from the digital recorder into your computer application for direct input of your audio to your computer.

And that’s how to record calls with your iPhone. It works. What do you think? Do you have a better solution? Just leave your comment below.

So for those of you who aren’t familiar with affiliate programs, they’re basically a mechanism via which you can make recommendations to your clients and receive a profit when your clients actually find enough value in your recomendation to make a purchase.

While fitness professionals can make fantastic added income by offering their clients, customers and lists recommendations on everything from gear and equipment to tanning salons and energy bars, there’s never really been a good nutrition affiliate program for fitness professionals (password is “wccgp” to actually see the protected post on that page).

If you’re not a registered dietitian, chef, or nutritionist, it can be very tough to teach your clients how to cook and eat properly. And even if you are a nutrition professional, how much time do you want to take teaching your clients how to sautee a chicken breast properly, or make a healthy casserole? It can be a time wasting conundrum.

Until now.

I’ve recently discovered a guy named Chef Todd, who has Web Cooking Classes. On his nutrition affiliate website, he actually offers something called a “Gold Partner” program, in which you make a commission on every new member you refer his way. (password is “wccgp” to actually see the protected post on that page)

It’s a win-win. Your customers and clients learn how to cook and eat healthy, they get better results from their fitness program, and you get paid for it.

The commissions on Chef Todd’s “Gold Partner” program are on recurring memberships, and they’re 40%. For his nutrition affiliate program ((password is “wccgp” to actually see the protected post on that page), he gives you tons of pre-written e-mails, articles, and even twitter messages that you can send out to your clients, customers and list.

Folks, when it comes to a nutrition affiliate program for fitness professionals, you can’t beat the Web Cooking Classes affiliate program . This is a no-brainer for any fitness professional.

What’s even more amazing is that Chef Todd, is extremely personable and will actually respond to your e-mails and help you sell his Web Cooking Classes to your clients. You are leaving tons of money on the table if you aren’t part of a nutrition affiliate program, and in my decade of experience, Chef Todd, is the gold-standard choice for fitness professionals.

Click here to check out Chef Todd’s “Gold Partner” Web Cooking Classes affiliate program now (password is “wccgp” to actually see the protected post on that page).

In my fitness career, there are a collection of personal training business books and personal training business development books that have really helped with growth in a fitness career. I’ll put links to them at the end of this post, but they include:

“The New Psycho-Cybernetics” – this book changed the way I approach tasks that may seem impossible…

“How to Win Friends & Influence People” – the quintessential guide to working with your clients and understanding/adapting to their personalities…

“Get The Edge by Tony Robbins” – this is an audio program; the best motivational audio I’ve ever heard in my entire life…

“Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us” – fantastic, small, easy-to-read book by Seth Godin – essential for leaders…

“The Magic of Thinking Big” – this book will redefine what you feel you are capable of achieving…

“The Go Giver” – learn how helping others will ultimately make you more successful…

“Getting Things Done” – the best productivity manual I’ve ever discovered…

“Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money” – if you actually do plan on success making you and your kids more money, then you must read this book…

Finally, you’ll notice that on the carousel below, I’ve also included my book: “The Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar”. It will allow you to take the concepts in all the other personal training business books and actually generate a successful fitness career. You can get it by clicking here.

In this article, I’m going to give you insight into some of the more popular iPod and iPhone nutrition and fitness apps that are currently available on the market. After you read this post, I’d like to hear what YOU think…

…specifically what would YOU want to see in the “perfect” iPhone or iPod nutrition or fitness app? Have you used any of these? In your opinion what is missing from these apps? Do you want me to make an app that fits your needs? Let’s talk about it…leave your comments below!

“Tap And Track”:

This is a Paid Calorie Tracker that allows you to create your own recipes/meals, without actually needing an internet connection, since the entire food database is offline. It works on iPod Touch and iPhone. It’s “selling” features are:

• A large and accurate database, verified by “nutrition experts” (not quite sure what that means, but there you have it)
• Ability to build your own recipes and custom foods
• Speed, no crashing, stability in the actual app
• Ability to use offline, so you can track your food when you don’t have a connection
• Full graphing capability
• Frequent updates to the food database
• Ability to export nutrition data as a “CSV” file that can be opened with a Spreadsheet in something like Excel
• Good customer support

What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the Tap And Track website.

————————————————

“RunKeeper”:

RunKeeper uses the GPS technology in your iPhone 3G/3GS to track your fitness activity, giving you comparable results to an expensive GPS watch (although I’d like to see some accuracy comparisons to see whether it’s as accurate as a Garmin). You can also enter your activities manually, including your treadmill runs too.

The interface of the app allows you to track how far you went, how long it took, what your pace/speed was, how many calories you burned, and the path you traveled on a map. Once your activity is completed, the data is synced to the RunKeeper website, where you can view a history of all of your activities, and cumulative totals of all of your vital stats. You can also share your progress with friends by posting your activities to Facebook and Twitter, and creating a profile page that allows people to view all of your public activities (interestingly, all my clients can do this already with the the TrainingPeaks software that I use to coach and train them…hmm…)

RunKeeper is only compatible with the iPhone 3G/3GS , but here are the features:

• Maps integration: See the exact path you traveled on a map, both on the device and on the website
• Music: You can listen to the iPod during your activity, and change tracks without leaving the RunKeeper application
• Audio Cues: Get time or distance-based updates through your headphones during your activity
• Interval Workouts: Create a workout built from intervals of time and/or distance, and let the audio cues coach you along
• Splits: You can see your split times in the app as you do your activities

What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the RunKeeper website.

————————————————

“MyPersonalDiet”

This is a fairly feature-rich and comprehensive diet application. MyPersonalDiet gives you tools to reach your weight goal by providing methods of to track your food and workouts, monitor your health and get clear assessments of your efforts and get results via a variety of charts. Key features include:

• Live GPS recording for your outdoor cardio workouts. See your current coordinates, heading, duration, distance, average speed, current speed, current altitude, battery life and route on Google Maps.
• The Today view shows how many calories you can consume for the remaining of the day while staying within your diet goals, and makes it easy to enter new meals, workouts or health data.
• The Journal shows multiple daily charts for any given day, such as energy consumption, weight, nutrients, and lets you review all the data you enter on that day.
• The Calendar provides snapshots of your weight and data entry for a month, making it easy to track your weight, and to find days you entered data.
• See various charts about your meals, workouts and health data, over any period of time: calories, calories (net), meal schedule, points, body weight, body fat, Carbs-Prot-Fat %, nutrients (e.g. carbs, protein, sodium, calcium, etc), blood pressure, blood markers (cholesterol, glucose, etc), workout duration, workout distance, average heart rate, body measurements.
• Set realistic goals, enter your own diet plan or choose among low carbs, high protein, low fat, etc., set lower and upper limits on any nutrients you want to track (e.g. maximum of 300g of carbs per day), even enter your target meal schedule and see how well you are following it.
• The food database is based on the latest US Dept of Agriculture food database, and we added hundreds of popular food restaurants (with more to come), for a total of almost 10,000 food items.
• Track your workouts. Select one of the 32 pre-defined activities or create your own, then enter the duration and MyPersonalDiet calculates the energy you burnt. You can also enter the distance, average heart rate and more.
• Enter health data: weight, body fat, heart rate (resting), mood, blood pressure, activity level, blood markers, body measurements, custom fields and a note.

What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the MyPersonalDiet website.

————————————————

“iFitness”:

This one was raved about by The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News and claims to be the #1 selling fitness app worldwide. iFitness provides images, videos & instructions of people performing over 260 exercises, sorted by body region or the exact muscle it targets. Simply choose a target, tap on an exercise, and you are presented with a picture of the exercise. Double tap to flip the image and reveal clearly worded instructions on the back – directing you step-by-step. For more difficult exercises, a single tap on the video icon brings up video instruction.

• You can add exercises to your custom workout list, and make several workouts for different days of the week. If they’re missing an exercise, you can add your own custom exercise to ensure your complete workout is there.
• To track progress, you tap the log icon and record your progress. Your data is saved, and can be sent to your email with just one finger tap.
• The app includes 12 routines that target everything from weight loss to strength building. For those who travel, there is an equipment-free routine. What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the iFitness website.————————————————

“CalorieTracker”:

Calorie Tracker can help you reach your diet, weight loss and fitness goals by tracking your daily calories and exercise. You set your weight management goals and track your calories and progress with a comprehensive online food journal containing over 625,000 food and fitness items.

The Calorie Tracker lets you look up or track your daily caloric, fat, carbohydrate and protein intake with the click of a button. You also have access to The Daily Plate at LIVESTRONG.COM, which offers a nutrition database of more than 625,000 food and restaurant items (apparently the other major competitors only have 7,000 items in their database.)

You can also find and track the amount of calories you can burn in a database of exercises and activities. Caloric burn is calculated based personally on your measurements (I’m not quite sure what this measurement calculation is based upon…).

What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the CalorieTracker website.

————————————————

“Fast Food Calorie Counter”:

Here’s an interesting one if you’re trying to reconcile your diet with your love for fast food. With this restaurant nutrition guide, you can keep your diet on track when you have to eat on the run. Whether you are on a fitness plan and counting calories, carbs, fiber, or fat grams, this guide claims that it will empower you to make better choices or allow you to “cheat” occasionally without feeling guilty. Here are the advertised features.

• 8,858 menu items from 72 top fast food restaurants.
• Nutritional information including calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and protein.
• “As you type” searching.
• Ability to sort foods.
• Ability to rearrange restaurants.
• Nutrition charts.
• Keeps track of calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and protein consumed for the day.
• Saves food eaten for each day for up to a year.
• View a quick summary by day, week, or a detailed description for any day of food consumed for up to a year.
• Create custom foods for your custom foods list for unique items.
• Create custom meals to quickly add multiple food items to a day.
• Icon shows how many calories have been consumed for the day.
• Setting allow user to specify daily value as their target for calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and protein.

What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the Fast Food Calorie Counter website.

————————————————

“FoodScanner”:

FoodScanner allows you to use your iPhone’s camera to scan UPC barcodes on the foods you eat, offering you a quick and easy way to find foods and track how many calories you eat throughout the day. Features include:

• Find foods by scanning UPC barcodes OR typing in food names.
• Works on any iPhone (2G, 3G, 3GS).
• View complete nutrition labels.
• Create new foods and attach photos and UPC codes.
• Store Favorite Foods for quick access.
• Keep track of total calories eaten every day.
• Growing nutritional database of 200,000 foods.

Optionally sync with a DailyBurn account for advanced nutrition analysis, history, and more. Backed by DailyBurn’s growing nutrition database of 200,000 foods and powered by Occipital RedLaser technology, FoodScanner claims to be “THE KILLER APP” for tracking your caloric intake. No signup is required to use FoodScanner, but you may choose at anytime to sync with a DailyBurn account to access nutrition history, advanced macronutrient breakdowns, calorie goals, and more.

What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the FoodScanner website.

————————————————

“GymTrainer”:

This one has 30+ workouts designed by “Certified Personal Trainers” inside, with workout routines designed to give you a workout with video and written instructions on how to perform every exercise, nutrition tips, and more. Instead of giving you a database of exercises you probably never heard of, GymTrainer focuses on giving you workout routines that get results. You decide what body part you would like to workout and let GymTrainer take care of the rest.

If you already have a custom workout routine, then input it into GymTrainer and have all your workouts in your pocket. I guess that takes the hassle out of taking a pen and paper to the gym. I wonder how long it takes to input your workout.

What do you think…would you use it? Leave your comment below, and click here to see the GymTrainer website.

————————————————

After you read this post, I’d like to hear what YOU think…

…specifically what would YOU want to see in the “perfect” iPhone or iPod nutrition or fitness app? Have you used any of these? In your opinion what is missing from these apps? Let’s talk about it…leave your comments below!

]]>

Here’s how this whole physical mail/making money thing works: I offer a service called the “Ben’s Body Transformation Club”…which you can read about by clicking here.

Every week, people from around the United States sign up and pay a small membership fee to get weekly postcard mailings from me with nutrition and training tips, and each weekly mailing includes access to a “secret” password-protected video and details page, where I demonstrate exercises, give recipe specifics, etc.

So here’s the cool part…

How do I actually send out the mail?

I use a simple and affordable program called “Send Out Cards”, which is technically a multi-level marketing company that you pay a one-time fee to join. They give you a slick online interface to send out pre-made or customized cards and postcards, along with a contact database and management system (so you can import your contacts from any other program, like 1shoppingcart or Aweber) and then you make a commission every time someone you refer clicks on your “Send Out Cards” link.

Well it’s actually very important that “Send Out Cards” is a multi-level marketing company, because here’s the deal…

…not only is my “Send Out Cards” affiliate link on every postcard that gets mailed out, but it’s also on the “secret page”.

So when someone reads the postcard, and realizes that“Send Out Cards” offers  very easy way for them to send out a Happy Birthday card to a family member, Christmas Card to everyone in their address books, or even a series of business-promotion physical mailings for their home or small business, then I am poised to profit.

It’s a win-win.

I can deliver a great product and weekly fitness and nutrition tips to people who want it and need it, and I make a commission when those people decide they want to use that same method to send cards to friends and family members.

As a matter of fact, just for reading this post and caring about your business, I’m offering you a free “Send Out Cards” account, along with a free “Send Out Cards” card that you can send. Click here or click below to check it out.

Want more? Just go to http://www.helpmybusiness.com !

I get alot of questions about how to record a podcast, how to publish a podcast, how to produce a podcast, how to make a podcast…you get the idea!

You’re going to be shocked when I tell you this: not only is podcasting easy, but it can be dirt cheap to accomplish, and you can easily become an audio celebrity in your niche! The picture to the left is an example of one of my websites that has a top ranked iTunes podcast, and I’m going to tell you exactly what I do in this article.

Consider this your quick, easy-to-read, “how to podcast” guide! Here’s what you need:

How To Podcast Option 1) If you already have a blog, which is incredibly easy to do if you read the article directly below this article, then you can download a free plugin called “BluBerry Powerpress”. You then simply upload any audio file to your blog using the clear instructions that come along with Powerpress. When you press publish, BluBerry will instantly help you deliver your podcast straight to iTunes.

I use a microphone called the Zoom H2 for recording. I then use the free software called Garageband that came with my Macbook for recording. PC users can use a free software program called Audacity. Either way, you simply plug in your microphone and press record!

How To Podcast – Option 2) Let’s say you don’t have a website, you don’t have a blog, you don’t want the hassle of creating all that yourself, and you simply want a podcast RIGHT NOW, today, with complete peace of mind that it’s all being done for you perfectly. In that case, I’d highly recommend an online service called NanaCast, who will do it all for you. NanaCast is extremely affordable, and they literally can have your podcast up within hours. The downside to this is that you don’t have as much CONTROL, but at least it’s all being done for you, quick and easy!

Either direction you decide to go, podcasting is a highly rewarding experience and once you learn how to podcast, you’ll expose yourself to a massive audience who can listen to you anytime, anywhere!

If you follow the three steps below to creating a highly profitable online triathlon coaching or fitness training website, you’re going find that it’s so easy, even a monkey could do it. Have fun!

Step 1: Get A Web Host

I personally use Bluehost for all my web hosting. Not only are they inexpensive, at $6.95 per month, but they have excellent customer service and a huge range of options, including some pretty good looking, pre-designed website templates and the ability to add things like blogs and forums to your website with literally one click.

If you use their WordPress blog that comes with easy one-click installation, I recommend you go with a site called Revolution for all your themes. This will knock your visitors socks off.

Step 2: Begin Producing Useful & Meaningful Content

There’s two great ways to begin producing useful and meaningful content.

-A Blog. You should really have a blog somewhere on your site for this. That’s why I like Bluehost, which has that “one Click” WordPress installation I was talking about.

-A Newsletter. No good website is complete without the ability for you to create a list of potential customers and also be able to provide that list with some type of newsletter or syndicated content. I’m personally a big fan of an easy-to-use system by Marketer’s Choice called “1shoppingcart“, mostly because you can both send newsletters and have a shopping cart, as the name suggests. Another really good newsletter system is called Aweber, which I also use for a couple of my websites.

Step 3: Monetize

I’m going to assume here that someday you actually want to start selling something! You need two things: a shopping cart system (like 1shoppingcart) and a credit card processing merchant (like the one I use at Authorize.net). You could even go for a simple “done-for-you” solution that combines the shopping cart and the credit card processing. I just started using just such a solution called: Practice Pay Solutions.

As a bit of a bonus, here’s five other crucial resources that will help you save time, look good and make more money!

1. Odesk for outsourcing and finding affordable assistants…

2. TrainingPeaks for managing clients and athletes…

3. Skype for communicating with clients via phone and chat, or recording calls…

4. PDF Creation Software for making good looking e-books…

5. Killer Covers for making really awesome covers for your e-books…

And of course, be sure to grab a copy of “How To Become A Triathlon Coach” & “Train For Top Dollar”, the ultimate one-two combo for learning everything you need to know for the triathlon coaching and fitness business!

Well folks…I just finished this brand new book – and you’re the first to find out if you’re reading this blog!

Introducing the complete career guide for triathlon coaches who want to make a living out of their passion: my new book “How to Become a Triathlon Coach”!

Inside, you’ll learn about triathlon coach certifications and education, tools to enhance your triathlon coaching business, and even how to make your own books and DVD’s!

You’ll get instant access the following 10 chapters that teach you how to get the best results from your athletes while making the money you deserve:

- Chapter 1: Triathlon Coach Certification & Education – learn exactly what you need to command respect and expert status in the triathlon industry…

- Chapter 2: Triathlon Coaching Business Plan Blueprints – get a step-by-step solution for actually putting everything together into a high income triathlon coaching busines…

- Chapter 3: Essential Tools of the Triathlon Coaching Trade – learn how to effectively coach with everything from power meters to online client management software…

- Chapter 4: Creating an Online Triathlon Coaching Business – a simple formula for instantly launching your website, a must-have for any triathlon coach…

- Chapter 5: Creating Your Own Books and DVD’s – learn how to design information products to establish your niche expert status and make money while you sleep…

- Chapter 6: Marketing Part I – Getting Clients In Your Community – where to find clients and how to ensure that you are the go-to coach for triathlon in your local community…

- Chapter 7: Marketing Part II – Getting Clients Online – how to navigate the huge world of the internet to actually find a goldmine of athletes to sign up for your triathlon coaching services…

- Chapter 8: Triathlon Coach Nutrition Consulting – the secrets to nutrition certifications, and how to effectively utilize a nutrition consulting service as part of your business plan…

- Chapter 9: How to Make Money With Nutritional Supplements – legal considerations, tips and tricks for enhancing your income with ergogenic and sports performance aids…

- BONUS Chapter 10: Top 10 Guerilla Marketing Techniques for Triathlon Coaches – this single chapter is worth the entire book! My final ten tips for dominating the triathlon coaching industry…

“How to Become a Triathlon Coach” is available as an audio book that you can listen to while you swim, bike, run or drive OR as a book that you can instantly download to your computer.

Ready to make high-paid triathlon coach salary? Click here to check out “How to Become a Triathlon Coach” today!

Are you a triathlon coach? Aspiring triathlon coach? Interested in an endurance sports career or triathlon coaching career?

If so, then you should absolutely keep reading.

The sad truth is that there isn’t much information out there that helps you be a better triathlon coach, or even learn how to become a triathlon coach. As a matter of fact, just about everything there is to know about triathlon coaching can only be found by traveling to expensive conferences or buying big books.

What kind of triathlon coaching career advice am I talking about?

Take, for example, three ways that you could enhance your triathlon coaching business online, or offer more services if you have a triathlon coaching website:

1. E-mail Triathlon Coach Consulting: A client can go to my website and pay for a single e-mail consultation. Upon receiving notice of this purchase from my online shopping cart, an autoresponder sends an e-mail back to the client with the following message:

“Congratulations! You now have access to the nation’s leading expert on exercise, nutrition, and wellness. Your e-mail consultation with Ben Greenfield allows you to get answers to your most pressing fitness, diet, or health questions. Here is Ben’s personal e-mail address: ____________. Please limit your e-mail inquiry  to no more than 500 words. Upon receiving your question(s) via e-mail, Ben will respond with a detailed response within 48 hours. Thank you!”

I’ve rarely spent more than twenty minutes responding in an e-mail consultation, and the client is always satisfied.

2. Phone Triathlon Coach Consulting: Upon receiving notice of a phone consultation purchase from my online shopping cart, an autoresponder sends an e-mail back to the client with the following message:

“Congratulations! You now have access to the nation’s leading expert on exercise, nutrition, and wellness. Your phone consultation with Ben Greenfield allows you to get answers to your most pressing fitness, diet, or health questions. Please respond to this e-mail with A) a list of the best weekday and weekend times during which you have a 20-30 minute time availability and B) the best phone number to call you at during these times. You will then be contacted via e-mail within 48 hours to schedule your phone consultation. Thank you!”

Before I purchased an “unlimited minutes” cell phone plan, I would usually attempt to schedule phone consultations on the weekend to save money on cell phone bills.

3. Live Triathlon Coach Chatting: Upon receiving notice of a live chat purchase from my online shopping cart, an autoresponder sends an e-mail back to the client with the following message:

“Congratulations! You now have access to the nation’s leading expert on exercise, nutrition, and wellness. Your live chat with Ben Greenfield allows you to get answers to your most pressing fitness, diet, or health questions. Please  go to skype.com to download the free software that will allow you to chat live with Ben Greenfield. Upon activating the software on your computer, please respond to this e-mail with your Skype username. You will then be contacted via e-mail within 48 hours to schedule your live chat. Thank you!”

I usually limit live chats to no longer than 20 minutes.

What you charge for these services is up to you. You decide how much you’re worth. You’re in control. You’d be surprised at what people will pay.

Would you like to know how to coach effectively, and how to make more money doing it? How about how to run your triathlon coaching business, launch your triathlon coaching website, and even interact with your coached athletes, interpret their workouts, and get better results?

There is specific knowledge and a triathlon coaching system that teaches you all this, and much, much more. Next month, a brand new website will be launching over at the Rock Star Triathlete Academy, and that website will include everything YOU need to be a triathlon coach, including a complete analysis of your current business, step-by-step instructions for starting your triathlon coaching business, and exactly how to make your athletes faster and better.

So are you ready to enhance your triathlon coaching career?

Just click here to sign-up for free and I promise to keep you in the loop. The triathlon coaching advice will officially begin on January 31st, 2010.

Are you stumped about how to put together a New Year’s weight loss competition at your gym or personal training studio? Perhaps you’ve been assigned the project of designing a New Year’s program to increase revenue, but just don’t know where to start.

Congratulations – you’re about to learn exactly what to do!

The program below, which I designed while managing a small fitness facility, generated 96 participant sign-ups at a relatively small health club, with under $100 in start-up costs, but over 6K in start-up profit, then an additional 30K generated over the course of the year from people in the program going on to sign-up for individualized personal training!

OK, before I spill the beans on how to do this…remember:

Coming on Saturday, Dec 5, at 4pm EST/1pm PST is a live, online Q&A from Train For Top Dollar and hosted by Ben Greenfield. The topic is “How To Profit from an Online Personal Training Business”. This seminar is completely FREE to attend, and on Dec 5, all you need to do is go to http://www.trainfortopdollar.com (this website) and there will be a LINK to click on that takes you to the free online, live Q&A with Ben Greenfield. Come with all your questions, as the seminar will last a total of 1 hour. Set aside that Saturday afternoon on your calendar right now!

OK, let’s move on to exactly how you can massively profit from a New Year’s Weight Loss Challenge. Here’s how it works, worded in the way that you’ll want to describe it to your members and clients (by the way, you’ll be absolutely floored by the number of people who sign-up for a 3-5 day/week personal training program, just to win the challenge!):

“This is a weight loss program that will help you achieve breakthrough levels of fitness and a new body. All participants in this challenge will compete between Jan. 15 and Mar. 15 to lose the highest amount of fat. You can compete as a team of 4 persons, or as an individual. To help every participant achieve success, free individual 15 minute personal training sessions will be scheduled every month, and a group personal training session/Q&A will also be scheduled every month.

Participants will receive the biggest discounts of the year on personal training and nutritional supplements. Finally, at the end of the competition, the top three competitors in team, male & female division will receive grand prizes and gift baskets! Ready to start? Let the challenge begin!

General Overview

- Registration is $40/members, $50/non-members, and $120/team of 4 people.

- Upon signing-up, you, or your team, will be contacted by a personal trainer to schedule your 15 minute meeting, with weigh-in, photos, and trainer consultation.

- Follow-up meetings will be scheduled on a monthly basis, with the final weigh-ins/photos occuring on the week of March 12th.

- A monthly 1 hour group meeting and personal training session will be available to all participants, with featured presentations by the entire personal training staff.

- Dates/times will be announced at the beginning of each month.

- Final winners will be determined based on total pounds of fat lost as a percentage of body weight. For standardized results, body weight and fat will be measured using a bioelectrical impedance scale.

Prizes & Discounts

- Significant personal training discounts are offered to all participants and teams who hire a personal trainer for the length of the competition. By signing up for training during the course of the challenge on a 3x/week, 2x/week or 1x/week basis, you receive a 20%, 15% or 10% discount, respectively. Each team receives an additional 5% discount on training (training done as a team).

- All participants will also receive an automatic 20% discount on all nutritional supplements.

- Prizes and gift baskets awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in team, male and female divisions.4. The first place finishers in all divisions will also have the option of before/after photos posted on a Wall of Fame at the end of the competition. Finally, all participants will receive the greatest prize – a brand new body!

Participant Instructions

Between January 8th and 15th, there will be a timesheet available at the front desk to schedule your first 15 minute weigh-in/fat%/photo. Required weigh-ins and personal trainer meetings will occur once a month, and will be scheduled on an individual basis. During the meeting, you can also find out your current ranking in the competition, and ask nutrition and fitness questions to your trainer. Wear a t-shirt and shorts to the weigh-in. For the first and last weigh-ins, if a photo is desired, both males and females will wear shorts or under-garments that do not cover more than 1/2 the thigh, and females will wear a sport bra, undergarment, or swim wear top. A handheld body fat % calculator will be used for testing body fat. For more accurate results, refrain from strenous exercise before the test, avoid diuretics like caffeine and alcohol for at least 24 hours before the test, empty bladder before test, and do not eat or drink large amounts for 3 hours leading up to the test.”

All prizes and gift baskets were solicited from local business, whose logos appeared on all marketing materials and prizes were displayed in a prominent place in the gym during the course of the challenge.

Next week, I’m going to show you the follow-up letter that went out to all gym members after the challenge was over – a follow-up letter that immediately generated another 20K in personal training revenue! If you like this type of information, you’ll definitely want to check out my book, “Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar”. Click here to get it now (link will open in new window)!

Are you a triathlon coach or in the fitness endurance market? Maybe you’re just trying to find out more about a triathlon coaching career or how to coach triathlon. By clicking here (link will open in new window), you can visit the USAT Webinar archives website and have complete access to any of the following webinars:

• Race to Your Fitness & Truly Compete with Bobby McGee
• Top 10 Triathlon Training Myths: De-mystified with Steve Tarpinian
• Race Day Nutrition for Endurance Athletes with Bob Seebohar
• Heart Rate Training with Mark Allen & Luis Vargas
• How to Make a Profit in the Triathlon Sports Market with Ben Greenfield
• Long Course Brick Workouts for Success with Lee Zohlman
• Training with Power – Power Basics with Angie Sturtevant
• Swimming Myths with Steve Tarpinian
• Cycling Technique-Improving your Power & Efficiency with Mark Allen & Luis Vargas
• Inflammation & Omega-3 Fats with Bob Seebohar
• The Tri Diet: Weight Loss & Lifestyle Change with Rich Julason
• Race Nutrition In Depth with Mark Allen & Luis Vargas
• Off Season Strength & Conditioning with Tim Crowley
• Successful Pacing for Successful Racing with Lee Zohlman
• Developing 5k & 10K Running Ability with Bobby McGee
• Metabolic Efficiency with Bob Seebohar
• Single Sport Training to Improve Your Weak Link with Tim Crowley
• Triathlon Training for Women with Sally Edwards & Cindy Miller

Whether you’re interested in an online triathlon coaching career or a local triathlon coaching business, these webinars are the best way to learn. In addition, you’re not going to want to miss USAT’s Art & Science of Triathlon International Coaching Symposium, where Ben Greenfield will be teaching from February 12-14, 2010, in Colorado Springs, CO. Just click here for more information on the coaching symposium (link will open in new window).

And be sure to jump-start your coaching and learning process by grabbing yourself a copy of Ben’s book, “Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar”. If you have the book, you’ll be way ahead of the game when you show up for any of the webinars or symposiums. Click here to get it now (link will open in new window)!

In this November 20 free audio episode, I respond to a question from Joy, who asks:

“I am meeting with an administrator at a Clinic to discuss starting a pilot wellness program.  I worked at a small business for a year doing one-on-one training and employee wellness (salary position). I believe I was compensated properly the first few months but at the end of the year realized I was greatly underpaid.  This is partly why I’m moving on to another company.  I believe this clinic has the funds to pay me appropriatly.  My question for you is, how do I figure a salary for wellness and personal training at such a large company?  I want to charge per session for one-on-one and per person for group sessions.  To start, they will not have a workout facility but will in about a year or two.  For now they would have me train in unused office space.  Could you give me any advice on how to propose my services to them based on your experiences working in corporate wellness?  Thanks so much!”

What do you think? If you have experience working in corporate wellness or corporate personal training, just leave a comment below with how you figure out what to charge for your services.

If you have a question you’d like to ask on the show, just e-mail ben@trainfortopdollar.com.

Coming on Saturday, Dec 5, at 4pm EST/1pm PST is a live, online Q&A from Train For Top Dollar and hosted by Ben Greenfield. The topic is “How To Profit from an Online Personal Training Business”. This seminar is completely FREE to attend, and on Dec 5, all you need to do is go to http://www.trainfortopdollar.com and there will be a LINK to click on that takes you to the free online, live Q&A with Ben Greenfield. Come with all your questions, as the seminar will last a total of 1 hour. Set aside that Saturday afternoon on your calendar right now!

In this free, November 2 audio episode from Train For Top Dollar, I discuss how to create a relationship with a local grocery store, and creating password protected websites. If YOU have a question for the Train For Top Dollar podcast, simply e-mail ben@trainfortopdollar.com .

Listener Moji asks: “I will be starting grocery tours shortly in local markets and/or grocery stores like Super target, Publix etc, anywhere where my clients that are local shop. Have you ever run into an issue with the store manager not wanting you to educate your clients?

Would you ask permission from the store manager ahead of time, introduce yourself as a nutritional counselor/trainer and that you wanted to make sure the store was ok with me going around with my clients educating them about what to look for and what to stay away from? How has your experience been? I read in your book that you set up a table etc and then have people ask questions etc. I am not at that point yet if you like, but would like to get my feet wet with regards to doing grocery shopping tours. Did you call ahead of time to ask permission to tour their store and/or introduce yourself as well or what was your experience? Please advise.

I have an area within my website, called a subweb which I would like to password protect so that only my paying members see this area which is where I would store my pictures, videos, liability forms etc. To download are you recommending a free one that you downloaded from an online source or does 1shopping cart have this feature, I know they have that in one of their programs. May be you don’t have this but if you could help that would be great.”

Finally, you filled out the survey and here are the results:

Coming on Saturday, Dec 5, at 4pm EST/1pm PST is a live, online Q&A from Train For Top Dollar and hosted by Ben Greenfield. The topic is “How To Profit from an Online Personal Training Business”. This seminar is completely FREE to attend, and on Dec 5, all you need to do is go to http://www.trainfortopdollar.com and there will be a LINK to click on that takes you to the free online, live Q&A with Ben Greenfield. Come with all your questions, as the seminar will last a total of 1 hour. Set aside that Saturday afternoon on your calendar right now!

On August 22nd, in Toronto Canada, at one of the world’s largest fitness expos (Can-Fit-Pro), Ben Greenfield spilled all his money-making secrets to training with technology to a room of personal trainers and fitness business owners. As a special promotion for Ben Greenfield’s brand new book “Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar”, you can now view this entire video for free!

Just click below or click here to watch the video (video will open in a new window) or click here to listen to the audio/download the mp3 version. At several points in the video, Ben refers to the software that he uses to work with all his online personal training clients. That software is called TrainingPeaks, and you can learn more about it by clicking here. Part II of this series will tell your more about how to use online personal training software to work with your clients.

Remember to subscribe to the free Train For Top Dollar newsletter for more rare opportunities just like this, and leave a comment to this post if you have questions about what you see in the video!

Want to learn exactly how I got started in personal training and the secrets to how I run my fitness business today? Click here to read the personal training magazine PFP now and get over 50 tips for personal fitness professionals, along with a history of how I got started in personal training, and what the keys are to your ultimate success in a fitness career!

By the way, keep your eyes posted on this blog…

Next week, (October 2009) I’m distributing a 90 minute FREE video on “Using Technology to Profit in Personal Training”, and launching an online live video Q&A to answer your questions about running your business!

But I need a quick favor from you.

Enhancing your career as a fitness professional is one of my top priorities for this month. So that the free advice that I give is customized to be exactly what YOU want, please do this brief survey:

http://tinyurl.com/ylnaawn <– super quick, I promise!

It will take you 5 minutes, and allow me to provide you with WAY better fitness business advice. The survey will disappear within 72 hours, so PLEASE ACT FAST. Click that link up there.

I’ll be in touch after I get your survey response.

Ready to get Ben Greenfield’s brand new fitness business book mailed to your front doorstep? Healthy Learning publications has just released Train For Top Dollar as a new book, entitled “The Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar”! You can get your copy today by clicking here to visit their website.

Recognizing that multiple income streams are key to success in the fitness business, the “The Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar” identifies those streams and provides instruction on how to command your income.

Author Ben Greenfield examines the money-making arenas of face-to-face personal training; physician referral systems; online training; Web 2.0 technology marketing; outsourcing to local and overseas merchants; dietary supplement industry; nutritional consulting; book, audio, and DVD sales; corporate and home training; public appearances and marketing. Each chapter of “The Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar” makes learning how to train for top dollar as convenient as possible, by providing necessary step-by-step instructions, forms, templates, phone numbers, websites, real life examples, and insider tips and tricks.

The 155 page book “The Personal Trainers’ Guide to Earning Top Dollar” is now available from Healthy Learning Publications for just $19.95. Click here to get your copy today.

BONUS: Listen to Ben Greenfield’s audio explanation by clicking here.

Quick Question:

Are you a personal trainer or fitness professional who delivers services to your local city?

Are you an “online” exercise or nutrition consultant?

Are you a gym or studio owner?

Do you sell fitness e-books and information products?

Then I guarantee people are talking about you, your services, and your products. On the internet. With the advent of online social networking, it is now possible to have detailed conversations about fitness businesses, customer satisfaction, client results, gym cleanliness, exercise equipment maintenance, personal trainer capabalities and a host of other factors.

Rather than resorting to “Googling yourself” to find out what people are saying about you on the internet, why not use the following automated and easy-to-use tools? There are many similar tools out there, but these are the ones that I use on a daily basis in my own online and local fitness business.

1. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free service from Google that will send an e-mail to your inbox whenever people are talking about a phrase for which you’ve set an alert. So you can add your name, the name of your business, the name of your product, etc., and then tell Google to send you an e-mail alert when people mention that phrase in A) blogs; B) forums; C) a regular internet page; D) all of the above.

Here’s an example: Just the other day, I noticed that a Google alert which I had set for “allergy nutrition exercise” revealed a blog conversation on a working mother’s network. I immediately joined the conversation, gave a few tips, and left, in my comment signature, a link to “Shape21″, my food-allergy-free nutrition and exercise plan. Google analytics later showed over a dozen hits and 2 sales from that single post, which took 2 minutes of my time!

2. TweetLater

Using the free service at TweetLater, you can also set “Twitter alerts”, in which you receive a heads-up whenever someone twitters about a phrase for which you’ve set an alert. It is literally identical to Google Alerts, except it is for Twitter (TweetLater has a host of other useful functions as well). You would be surprised at the number of people who leave a personal training session, gym workout, or e-book website, then tweet to their friends about it.

Utilize this one-two conversation monitoring combo and you’ll be significantly more clued-in as to exactly what people are saying about you on the internet. Chapter 4 of my book “Train For Top Dollar” goes into these type of social networking tools in greater detail. You can get more of these instant tips and order the book “Train For Top Dollar” by clicking here.

If you’re a fitness professional, personal trainer or nutrition consultant who is serious about enhancing your web presence, then you must know about how to get your fitness website ranked on Bing, the new Microsoft search engine, over at http://www.bing.com.

As you probably already know, getting high search engine rankings in Google is “The Holy Grail” of internet marketing and is crucial in helping your online and local customers to find you quickly and easily. But by this time next year, getting ranked in Bing will be just as, if not more important.

Here’s why: Microsoft has already spent over $80 million on a Bing search engine advertising campaign, and they’re putting tons of bells, whistles and features on Bing (like categories, mouse-overs and pop-ups, to name a few) that will make Bing an incredibly user-friendly and a highly popular search engine. Trust me, you want to get ranked number one on the new Bing search engine.

In this free audio Podcast for fitness professionals, I answer the tons of questions I’ve been getting from people who want to get ranked in Bing, including:

How do I get ranked in Bing?

How do I submit my website and get my website on Bing?

How do I rank number one on Bing?

How do I rank well on Bing?

What is a Bing search engine ranking?

What steps can I take to improve my Bing search engine ranking?

If you want to get a high search engine ranking in Bing and learn more about Bing search engine optimization (AKA Bing SEO), you won’t want to miss this free audio: Podcast Episode #16 from Train For Top Dollar.

Click here to listen in, and if you like this type of advice, be sure to check out my book for the modern fitness professional, which teems with over 150 pages of money-making and career tips for personal trainers, including two chapters that are completely devoted to websites, blogs, podcast, search engine rankings and much more! Click here to check out the book “Train For Top Dollar”…

I’m going to turn the tables. It is possible that the internet police may prosecute me for this, but rather than providing you with instruction, advice, and tips on having a career as a personal trainer, how to make money as a personal trainer and how to profit in the fitness business…

…I instead need advice from you.

You see, I want to give away a copy of a few of my DVD’s: “100 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism”. But I don’t just want to throw them to the wind. I know how to make a fitness DVD and I know how to sell a fitness DVD. But I want to actually profit from the publicity generated by a free fitness DVD giveaway, in this particular case, one which features me walking the viewer through 5 different body-weight workouts.

So, to make this idea about fitness product promotion worth your while, I’m going to give a 100% free copy of the money-making guide for fitness professionals, my 150+ page book “Train For Top Dollar”, to the person who…

…gives me the BEST comment (to this post) about HOW TO TURN A FREE FITNESS PRODUCT GIVEAWAY INTO MASSIVE FITNESS BUSINESS PROFITS AND PUBLICITY. Let’s see what you’re made of.

Ready, set, comment.

This is an incredibly useful way to keep Craiglist from “banning” your bootcamp or fitness class ad because it is the same as the one you posted a few minutes earlier. Just change the post title, put the ad code in, and you’re set.

Important: this is much different than just “adding an image” to your Craiglist posting. I know you’re smart enough than to have to read an article to figure that one out. Instead, this technique actually allows you to place an image in your ad BODY, as the primary content.

Step 1: Create an image that advertises your fitness class or bootcamp and put the image online somewhere. That means you need to load it up to Flickr, your own server, wherever – you just need an official URL for the image.

Step 2: Put the following line in the body of the Craiglist ad (obviously you need to change the youURL.com to wherever your image is located):

<img src=http://www.yourURL.com/images/logo.gif >

Step 3: If you want to link the image to a website, then do this:

<a href=”http://www.yourURL.com”><img
src=http://www.yourURL.com/images/logo.gif ></a>

Here is an example of how I did it:

Here are the details! Class is limited to 12 participants, so contact us soon.
<br>

<br>
<img src=”http://www.humanwellnesssolutions.com/FatLossSecrets.jpg”>

It looks like this:

Be sure to check out many more tips in my 153 page book “Train For Top Dollar”, which includes 10 chapters of jam-packed and very powerful marketing content for fitness professionals and personal trainers. It’s stuff you can implement immediately, and it’s not overpriced with some internet marketing scam for $297 or $197 or $97 or even $47.

It’s just twenty-five bucks. Click here to enjoy.

P.S. Have your own Craiglist tip? Just leave a comment…

Eye strain happens.

You know what it feels like. That headache back behind your orbital lobes that sometimes makes you feel like throwing up after you’ve been staring at web pages or word documents hours.

It makes you not want to workout, or makes your workouts feel like crap.

It makes you grumpy, and your family knows to avoid you after you’ve spent the day in front of a computer.

“It” is called Eye Fatigue or Computer Vision Syndrome, and you’re not alone. It happens to alot of internet marketers, computer workers, and anybody who stares at pixels and digital screens on a regular basis.

So here’s the deal. If you could completely eliminate it by making just ONE SIMPLE CHANGE, would you?

And what if that change made you look completely BAD ASS, like you just stepped out of “The Matrix”, or were the techie computer guy sitting in the back of the van during the kidnapping drug gangster ring bust?

You’d dig that, right?

I’d like to introduce you to a highly effective, wearable, fashionable, stylish solution that I have just discovered to actually eliminate all the damaging eye-strain that you can get from staring at a computer screen for several hours.

They’re called “Gunnar Optiks“, and they’re sweet, stylish glasses that not only look technically cool (AKA not geeky), but also will completely remove that computer-strain headache that you get when gazing into your laptop or desktop computer screen.

Who can use these specs?

-Internet Marketers

-Online Personal Trainers

-Nutritionists Writing Meal Plans

-Graphic Designers

-Anybody Who Stares at A Computer Screen For More Than Two Hours Per Day

You are at risk for computer vision syndrome.

You can destroy eye fatigue, computer vision syndrome, screen glare and headaches AND look cool at the same time. Click here to grab your Gunnar Optiks. You’ll love them, I promise.

If you care to count, I list 17 different benefits during the video, on why you need to blog for your fitness business and exactly how to do it, from initial set-up all the way to your first post.

Do you like the video? There’s much, much more. The entire Chapter 4 of my book, Train For Top Dollar, teaches you in even greater detail exactly how to start a blog and podcast. No guesswork, and tons of templates. Check it out by CLICKING HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE BOOK “TRAIN FOR TOP DOLLAR”. On the book website, there are tons more video chapter excerpts…