 Question is from Colin self as a trainer. What should you consider before leaving a big box gym to become an independent trainer? Oh good. What a what a I love this question. I know I love this question managing gyms It was like I would get trainers who it was always trainers I nobody else really did this in the gym, but they would get to a certain point with clients So they get a certain level of comfort and then they'd be like they start doing the math Yeah, I could make so much more money. Let's see the gym. It's charges $80 a session I'm getting paid $30 a session and then they do the math. I do 30 sessions a week Oh my gosh, I could be making this much money Doesn't work that way Here's what I always tell them if you're not crushing it in your gym If you're not like the best person in there bringing in the most sales with the most clients The odds that you'll success on your own or like yeah, I was like less than 5% You're not gonna succeed if you can't make it in a big box gym. That's the proving ground Oh, I mean you have everything every resource Accessible there at the big box gym. I mean you have all the forms you have all the potential clients like literally walking through the front door I mean like how much more do you need? To have a successful business if you're really motivated enough to produce and so again like it to sales point You do really have to prove yourself. You have to be You know one of the top ones in there that everybody knows it like you're very comfortable knowing and I mean even when I was like in that environment I remember like consulting with Adam quite a bit like it, you know What should I look out for like who's really killing it out there in the independent training world? Like all these things like where am I actually gonna market myself like what are the the venues for that? Like what kind of things like there's so many things to really consider You know even a presence online these days is humongous like a social media presence needs to be established like people need to be able to find you So I mean it's it seems daunting. It's not impossible Like it especially if you are, you know, very good at if you're very organized if you can really like, you know Manage yourself like that's something that I always, you know, probably manage myself better than anybody else So it was a good fit for me But it's definitely on that level where you know really consider where you are and your status right now in your gym Well, you were one of the top trainers at One of the biggest big box companies in the world You were one of the top trainers at 24 our fitness you left and you did well I would say successful independent trainers make up the top 1% of successful trainers That's it. I mean after that if you're not blowing it out at your big box gym You're not you're gonna crash and burn out in the open world. Well, this is kind of business 101 When you work for a big box gym They are providing the leads and opportunities for you Which is the single most challenging part about scaling any business No matter what we're talking about if you are trying to scale and build a business you need leads and opportunities and A company like 24 24 our fitness pays millions of dollars monthly To drive leads through the through the door Which you get the opportunity as a trainer in a big box gym to see if you can close and present and sell them on the idea that you're a good trainer and That if you can't prove to be the best at that when somebody is taking care of the most difficult part about building and scaling a business Then you you are really setting yourself up for failure to go out and try and figure that piece out Without the assistance of millions of dollars being advertised and funded to give you those leads and opportunities I remember when I was really upset that the company put a ceiling on my my overrides This is about like the eighth year that I was in the company and when I really became checked out that I was no longer gonna work for them and For me I had got used to a you know six-figure lifestyle And they were basically put a ceiling on how much money I could make and that really pissed me off and back then You you are not allowed to moonlight right as a trainer You couldn't go train somewhere else or run a boot camp While also working there and I chose to do it and when I did it though Because I was thinking okay. This could be my transition to moving out from 24-hour fitness I made a point to build my boot camp business without using a single client Yeah, that came from the gym you had to prove to yourself and it was exactly it wasn't about making money for me It was about proving to myself. Can I generate? Enough traffic to come to this boot camp class that I'm and where I'm not relying on this Lead generating machine that I'm currently working in and if I can't do that I better just fucking shut up and and take take the nonsense that I don't like that this company's laying out here for a New comp plan because I'm not good enough to go out there and do that So it was very important to me that I could do that I used to give the same advice to any trainers that are looking to transition from a big box To private is just because you build up your clientele at a big box Doesn't mean you're necessarily ready to go private like I would make a point To start to try and build a private business that is not sucking From the current one that you've been handed to from this this big box That's providing all the leads and see how difficult that is and learn to overcome that ie what Justin was saying Through marketing yourself through online social media find ways to build your business Not relying on those on any clients that you've recede from that big box take the training wheels off Absolutely, and if you can prove to yourself that you can do that then you'll probably be a trainer that will be have success when you go independent The biggest challenge I used to have with the trainers that work for me in the big boxes was how to get clients off the floor How to get new clients off the floor now? We're talking about a 35,000 square foot gym with Hundreds of workouts every single day the vast majority of these people didn't have a trainer They're already in the gym, and they're already the warmest leads you oh my god It doesn't get you more of that right they're already interested in what you have to fish in a barrel They're already interested in what you have to sell. They're working out. They're already working out They're in your house. You just go okay. Go talk to someone and get a client They'd be like, oh, I can't do that. I don't know to ask them. What am I gonna do? They're gonna say no now imagine trying to do that at the grocery store. Yeah, or at Starbucks That's what happens when you're independent by the way do all that when you're independent You don't got a big old gym with lots of people working out that you can go talk to you you go outside in the real world These are people golf courses. I'm going to you know clinics anything dude It's hard. So if you're not crushing it like in it This is what I tell you what I got to the point working in big box gyms Managing these gyms before I went off and open my own studio. I knew this was my thing I would go into a gym, and I would bet trainers and I'd tell them I need you to go talk to people on the floor. Oh, I can't do it I'd say I bet you in the next 30 minutes. I can get someone to purchase 10 sessions off the floor I would do this to trainers all the time just to show them that was possible And I was so confident that I could go do it It was easy in a gym when I went on my own those skills came very much in handy, but it was way more difficult I would have to go inside grocery stores set up outside the whole foods go to the coffee shop talk to business owners That's what you're doing. That's what you're doing. You're going out and you're talking to people That makes you feel uncomfortable. It's your fun. You're totally totally screwed Now if you're in a big box and you're murdering it You're crushing and the in the part that you're crushing the most at is that getting new clients That's what you're really really good at your odds are higher, but they're still not super great I'm just being very honest being an independent trainer is very difficult now There's no easy way into it now if you do it and you do it well Of course is extremely rewarding if you love fitness and you love helping people and you can make your own You know at some point you make your own schedule once you start to build a reputation Which take years by the way as an independent trainer takes years For referrals to start coming in and for you to be to have this reputation But if you do that then it is very rewarding, but it's definitely Nowhere near easy. I would say it's one of the more difficult things to do