9 min
With 19 years of experience under his belt, Sheldon McBee shares his inspirational personal training story to help you work what you could achieve.
His humble beginnings as a guy around campus who picked up personal training to help him get through his Master’s reached new heights when his career at Les Mills kicked off.
Taking a cue from our previous webinar on tips to grow and keep a successful fitness business , we decided to dive deeper into bridging the gap between the business and personal side of things.
We sat down with master trainer Sheldon McBee to unpack the intricacies of being a personal trainer while growing your client base.
Sheldon’s career is an exciting one, from having worked as an International Master Trainer at Les Mills for 10 years, to being the Personal Training Director for Universal Athletic Club and Director of Education for WOD U-Jam. If you’re looking to pave a path in the industry, you’ll want to pick his brain, trust us.
10 Traits a Personal Trainer Should Have
A good personal trainer is empathetic, educated, professional, and patient. But if you asked Sheldon McBee, he would step it up a notch and say, “You need a brain for business.”
You need to market your expertise and skills as a brand that will inspire people to be the best versions of themselves – and of course, there are no shortcuts.
As an industry veteran, Sheldon shares what he thinks are the 10 tips to grow your personal trainer business.
1. Just getting started? Arm yourself with knowledge and certs
Be a smart trainer by arming yourself with certifications to give merit to your program. In fact, take it a step further by learning complementary knowledge such as biomechanics and physiotherapy to add more value to your program.
This can help you have the all-important ‘hybrid approach’ that most people seek in personal training these days.
On top of that, whether you’re a complete novice or you’ve just gained a foothold in the fitness industry, make it a point to attend webinars and seek out relevant conferences.
Gaining knowledge is not only key in supporting your passion to help people reach their fitness goals, but it will also give you insight into management and operations that will help you grow your clientele.
2. … but certification isn’t the be all end all
Having a trove of certifications is cool and all, but carve out a business plan that’s relevant to your goals .
Discern your short, medium, and long-term goals; do you plan on taking things online, are you more of a studio or a big-box person? And what’s your customer retention plan?
On top of all of this, what are the consequences of the directions you plan on taking your career in? Sheldon encourages you to read up on your industry and address the parts you need to grow.
Really sweat the small stuff like business-building, operations startup, and retention to set yourself up for success. He highly recommends The One Thing and Known as reading material*.* Not a reader? He recommends Audible.
3. The avatar client
The avatar client is your ideal client. Identifying them will make your life as a personal trainer that much easier.
As it’s important not to pigeonhole everyone’s fitness journey, attributing more than just one or two characteristics will make for a more pragmatic client avatar.
Are they male or female? Starting from zero or athletes? New mothers looking to get back into shape will have vastly different goals than business professionals, and all your marketing, programming, and promotion should be catered to the goals of your avatar client.
Not addressing these needs risks your offering becoming diluted and missing the mark.
Bonus tip: The opportunity avatar
How can you identify who needs what and when? By using that introspective industry-insider noggin of his, Sheldon has identified the Opportunity Avatar.
This is the Gen X population (aged 40-55) who are approaching the cusp of older age but want to remain mobile and pain-free.
They have disposable income and are nutrition-focused. When carving out programming for any avatar, the key is to make sure that your promises are deliverable and that in a sea of automated, faceless mobile apps with watered-down knowledge, you remain accountable to your avatar.
4. Embrace the tech tide
One of the glaring changes in fitness is obvious: the inclusion of technology. Technology has really moved to the forefront of everything. Fitness apps and wearable tech has skyrocketed to the top of worldwide trends and isn’t going anywhere.
Even before the pandemic, online training and streaming were gaining momentum. From a director’s standpoint, there are two evolutions to training:
Training is becoming more intelligent
This is the burgeoning notion that training should be safe, corrective, and prescriptive. Trainers must disregard the generalist approach and assume a niche and specialized approach based on the avatar client.
By using tech, you can break new ground in training intelligently. Unlike 20 years ago, there are more opportunities than ever today to adopt a hybridized training program that allows you to, for example, host a live group event while simultaneously streaming for a virtual audience.
Social media is changing ideas of what fitness is
Whether you hate them or love them, those wide-eyed influencers on your feed are rewriting the narrative of health and fitness. They may or may not be experts, but their presence is nonetheless impacting you as a personal trainer.
You best believe that your clients and potential leads are following them, so don’t sleep on having a social media presence.
5. Be specialized, not generalist (yet maintain a stable repertoire of clients)
You won’t get far in the fitness industry of today if you’re still utilizing a generalist mindset – unless you’re an established facility where clients simply fall into your lap. Generalists have no space in the future.
There’s simply too much competition out there right now; over the last 6 years, health clubs, studios, and online fitness channels have grown and are starting to level off.
To stay afloat amid the wildly customized and hyped-up competition, you have to make a specialized framework. Look at industry trends to find your niche. It’s fine to build on programs or training that have been proven to work, but there’s no reward in emulating them directly.
Try to quiet the noise and find the thing people are not talking about to stumble upon a futuristic thought that’ll make you stand out from the crowd.
Take time to decide on your avatar clients and build your business with fewer, but high quality leads that will stick. This way, you also won’t waste time and resources casting a wide net only to lose out to that post-pregnancy disco spinning studio next door.
6. Create opportunity through learning
Sheldon’s career at Les Mills kicked off when he learned how to give a class he took. Soon after, he responded to Les Mills’ call for top talent to teach their format to instructors.
He transitioned into a fitness video star, and the rest was history. He traveled for years under Les Mills to teach and met trainers from all corners of the globe, from South America to Europe and the South Pacific.
This is a period he looks back on fondly as he got to see first-hand how fitness trends pan out worldwide and learn what’s important to people around the world.
Taking that first step in learning something new opened up the door to one of the most exciting times in his career. Don’t brush aside something you’re not used to – it could lead to the greatest opportunity you never saw coming!
7. Create your personal brand
Be your own marketeer. This is a numbers game and networking is key in building up your clientele. So, don’t be afraid to practice your conversational skills in front of the mirror and toot your own horn every once in a while.
This will help create leads while also allowing you to brush up on your entrepreneurial skills. Approach your training with the mindset of building your own business inside your business – this will serve as your own personal brand that lasts a lifetime.
8. Put in the legwork to learn the industry side of things
At this point, it’s safe to say that if you want to be a successful personal trainer, you’ve got to be more than just a personal trainer. Sheldon has a Masters in Human Nutrition, is ACE certified, and had decades of experience.
But he’s also a business consultant, lecturer, global presenter, and content developer. His advice on how to outmaneuver the competition: be an industry expert.
Don’t just place an emphasis on having soft skills, being a terrific trainer, and having a wall full of certifications. The real development happens when you build your emotional intelligence and delve into the nitty-gritty of how the business operates.
On top of that, make sure to forge a rapport with your clients and really personalize your communication with them. By using platforms like Virtuagym, Sheldon has managed to find easy ways to streamline his responsibilities so he can focus on the aforementioned tasks.
9. Keep your organization relevant (despite he pandemic)
Sheldon noticed that after the lockdown, his client base began dwindling. He brainstormed and was inspired by a friend to run a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) campaign.
His goal was to remind people about the feeling of being face-to-face with a personal trainer or in a group class, and the energy and engagement that they missed.
The campaign was driven heavily by technology and used software like Virtuagym’s virtual training solutions . He invited members to talk about being back at the gym and handed the mic over to them to discern whether or not they felt safe.
Almost immediately, he saw an uptick of members returning to the gym, plus an increase in people who want to subscribe to virtual memberships and training .
The best part is that it was all done internally and on a shoestring budget via simple tools to create a campaign that was highly personable, authentic, and effective.
10. Keep your staff and colleagues motivated
Things like the FOMO campaign were propelled purely by internal effort. But, in order to get everyone on board, you have to get them involved in the decision-making process as early as possible.
Make them understand what’s needed for the business as a whole by showing them the facts and figures. Invite them to meetings and let them peep behind the veil of operations.
This aids their motivation to act and stay committed. As things play out, update them and let them give feedback. Make them part of the process instead of burdening them with top-down decisions in order to give them more control over situations.
If you’re interested in learning more about being a successful trainer, or if you’re looking to take your career in fitness to the next level, tune in to our FitNation event.
It features industry leaders, motivational speakers, and key figures in the fitness industry. And did we mention, Beyoncé’s personal trainer will be there too! Grab your tickets here .
