 Next question is from Meg all phases fitness. What are some tips for building a team of trainers? Oh, man I like to I love this question You know, I I'll tell you the mistake. I made when I first started it managing trainers and then how I evolved The mistake I made early on was looking at the most edgy trying to get educated. Yes So like someone would come to me and oh, I have a master's in sports medicine or I have a bachelor's and you know Whatever and that would be the person that I would hire over The new dude or girl who comes in who just got a national cert, you know to in order to work there and it was a mistake because Number one, they didn't necessarily have more applicable knowledge than the guy or girl who had the cert certification Here's why you learn a lot with with that the formal education But we don't learn is how to apply it, which is everything it really is everything How to apply it is far more important than than passing tests and books and that kind of stuff number two Your ability to communicate to clients and your passion for what you were doing and your willingness to Get new clients motivate people to go that extra mile was far more valuable in terms of client success But also success to the gym than formal education It took me a year to figure this out I could see which trainers were doing great and which ones weren't doing that great and I'd see the skills that they had and I'm like Oh It's communication skills. It's applying their training. It's how good they work with people far more valuable than then You know all the schooling that they had. Yeah, I agree. This was it took me a long time to get to this place Where I felt like I could build a team that I didn't I felt like I could get to a place Like when I had Justin on the staff by that time in my career I got to a place where I felt like I really didn't have to work very much and the staff really carried the team But it took me a long time to figure that out one of the mistakes was thinking that education was everything I found out later on that I'd rather have somebody who had little to no education that I could mold into the trainer that I Wanted them to be totally versus inheriting somebody who was really really smart and did things their way The other thing that I used to make a mistake on was trying to make all of my trainers like me You know that was all I knew I had success. So the things I taught was okay. These are the things I'm successful I'm good at let me try and make this trainer like me or give them these attributes that I had That was also a mistake. It was or at least was fleeting I'd find somebody who was like me and then we'd do well for a while But then I'd burn out a bunch of other people that weren't later on I began to look at my staff more like a football team I have you know, I've got linemen here. I've got a running back here I've got a wide receiver here and and really celebrating their their strengths and what they're great at and focusing on that That is what served me really well was looking for that So if I was to jump into a gym and I had to build a team right now and I had nothing I would look for a handful of trainers that are young Minimal education that I could educate and teach and train So I'd have a little core of that group and then I'd actually go look for specialties I'd want to have the mobility guy the sports performance guy Or girl, okay, I'd want I'd want somebody who specializes in the nutrition person who's just dialed in or has So I'd want all these kind of specialty type people to compliment my core group of yeah Chameleons that could that I'm gonna develop that can train kind of anybody That's how I would build a team now And I think that would serve me better than going out and just looking for the smartest most experienced trainer Yeah, I like that, you know that approach. I think that Really what you're looking for characteristic wise Is somebody who can really problem-solve and think on the fly? And you know the communication skills are gonna carry them much further than their actual Knowledge coming into it a lot of this is is learning and being able to be confident and Convey your confidence to the clients and and and really like they they're the ones that are Believing in what you're you're doing with them And so that's really like the importance of it is to to establish these relationships the one-on-one relationships client to trainer and To to really be able to see how that Flourishes for them to that point that I think this is also what changed for me too. How I interviewed So early on it was just like it was trainer type questions You know, what would you do in the case this or give me a case study like that completely changed later on my career Like all behavioral based questions. Yeah, I wanted to get to the bottom of this person's character for the point that you're coming You're bringing up right now Justin is I want to learn about are you going to be able to problem-solve when you're put in this type of Situation, how do you react and I was looking for the right characters to build in there forget the education piece forget All the experience of being a personal trainer. Yeah, those things are nice If you don't have the right characteristics that I'm looking for for my team doesn't matter doesn't matter No, I do think it's good to have you know some elder people on staff with some wisdom that you know So it's at least one or two, you know so that you're not carrying all the load of having to like You know convey all that to each person Well that goes back to my point of like having these like special like if you got this bad-ass nutritionist bad-ass sports person Bad-ass mobility person they can help educate that core five or six that you have right? So if you got this young these young minds that I used to have them run classes for the rest of the Yes, that would have that your leaders Absolutely, because here's the truth the truth truth be told When you train the average person a very small percentage of your knowledge is ever gonna it can be applied to this person Really, you're working with most people are either Beginners or haven't worked out in a while. You're getting them to learn how to squat You're getting them to learn how to row you all your your advanced education You don't even use it. You don't need it in very small case in very you know Few cases you will but for the vast majority It's basic knowledge. You just need to know how to apply it and communicate it properly and work well with with people But what you said Adam is a hundred percent true You know you definitely want because you're gonna get the occasional client that comes in and says I want a trainer I got a bad car accident a year ago I've got a really bad movement on my right side. I finished rehab. What trainer do you have working with me for? You know for me. Okay in that case. I want my rehab trainer who's really really good and educated like you know in sports medicine That's the person will send you out with her. You know, you have the person. It's like, okay. I just had gastric bypass Surgery, you know, I'm looking to hire a trainer. Okay. Who's my my really really good personable excellent communicator Very empathetic trainer. That's the person that I won't work with this person But for the most part your clients are you know average person with these 30 pounds I've been eating, you know standard American diet, you know, whatever I need to start working out two days a week or whatever then you'll have your general core So I think what you said Adam was absolutely on point