Transcription
What's up, guys? Jeff and Alexis from Sorta Healthy coming to you with the Sorta Healthy podcast. And today we're talking about what personal training clients don't want.
First thing on our list of what clients don't want is a trainer that is a know-it-all. You know those people because they're the ones that are like, "Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day and you can do this." It's just not a good, you know, vibe.
Yeah, the first place I worked at as a trainer, there was a trainer there who the other trainers used to call Spock because you've probably never seen Star Trek, but Spock was a dude with no emotion who just like explained things in, you know, very calculated detail. And uh that's basically what this trainer did. So, if a client had to do push-ups, he would just be very stone-faced and he would make them do their push-ups and he would give them like 10 cues to try to uh do at once and the client would be like, "Oh my god, like what do I do? Like this is too much information coming at me at once." Not a whole lot of emotion, not a whole lot of empathy. And um just kind of spitting factoids at people all the time. That didn't really work out so well for Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock had a very tough time keeping his clients.
I'd say I feel like know-it-all and a person that are too technical are a little bit different though. Like a know-it-all I feel like is like in a conversation, the person thinks that they know everything and they want to basically tell you that you are wrong and they are right.
Right.
Whereas someone that is overly technical is also a know-it-all, but in like a slightly different I guess there's some overlap between the two. And I think both things are probably not good.
Yes. Yes.
Okay. So, what is an example of a know-it-all in your opinion then? The know-it-all trainer is the person that is, you know, everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, you can wake up 2 hours earlier, you can do XYZ, you can do this, you don't care enough about your goals, Mhm.
etc. That's the know-it-all trainer. The person that has all the answers or thinks they have all the answers for every single person's problems. I mean, that trainer just sounds like an That's a lot of trainers though, I feel like. And I have been that a few times in my career. Don't get me wrong. And I'm not saying that there isn't some like truth to that or, you know, need for that, but I feel like that is an example of a know-it-all. Right? Like someone that just thinks that they have every answer. Or someone asks you a question and instead of being like, "Hey, I'm not really sure." You know, again, they know the answer. A technical person, I think like you mentioned, can also be really annoying.
Yeah, very annoying. I remember when I started doing CrossFit years ago and different type of coaching compared to like what we do, right? But they made me use a PVC pipe to do every single movement for like months. And in hindsight, I think that was really great because it taught me how to do the stuff properly, especially like Olympic lifts. However, in the moment, I was a little frustrated because everyone else got to use weights and I had to use a PVC pipe because I couldn't do it right.
How long were you using that pipe for?
A couple months.
Jesus. How bad was your form?
Not that great.
All right. Yeah, listen, man. Like probably what they should have done is like, "Hey, pipe for a week and then let's just give you like something real light, some kind of, you know, baby barbell, you know?"
Yeah, baby Exactly. But And maybe it wasn't a couple months and it just felt like that long.
Crazy. Holy
It might have just felt like that long. But again, it was one of those things where like every time you did the movement, it wasn't right. And then you just start to feel bad about yourself.
Yeah, a lot of people probably would have quit. So, yeah, you're right. That's uh that's a little too much.
Right. And I feel like there are trainers like that, especially with big moves like squats or deadlifts Mhm. or stuff like that, right? Where if you're not doing it absolutely 110% perfectly, they really don't let you progress. And while I think that's great from a form perspective, I think it often makes clients feel like they're just not getting what they want out of the session.
Yeah, you're being a little too elitist, a little too kind of gatekeepery at that point. And there's a middle ground where maybe someone like uh Ms. Alexis over here uses the PVC pipe for a week, maybe a session or two, and then just give her something light assuming that her form is close to perfect, which I'm sure within a session or two it was pretty good. Maybe not perfect, but probably getting there. You don't want to be too rigid with the plan in general, right? So, you may have like some crazy periodized plan for your client and then your client comes in with uh sore back because they were lifting a couch [snorts] over the weekend. So, you have to be willing to deviate from that plan at a moment's notice. And I think a lot of trainers, again, they're so elitist with either their lifts or their programming and for whatever reason, they just can't figure that part out.
To the plan. Got to stick to the plan. Oh my god. I remember one time I had someone come in. She walked in the door and I was like, "How was your weekend?" You know, whatever. And she was like, "Well, I have four broken ribs."
[laughter]
All right, that's crazy though. What is that?
I I think I literally was like, "What are you doing here?"
Did she get into a street fight? Like what are we doing?
I don't even remember how it happened, but she fell at her house and fell on the floor and broke a bunch of ribs, right? And she was like, "I didn't want to miss my training session because I figured I could do something."
[laughter]
I was shocked.
Honestly, you probably should have missed your training session at that point.
I didn't even know what to say. My on-the-fly thinking skills had to come into play because when you have several broken ribs, I think and a bunch of bruises and other things, it's really hard to stick to the plan. Did you freak out there for a minute?
I did. I was kind of like,
"Shit."
Like, "What are you doing here?" What did you do with her? Just like leg extensions, bicep curls, calf raises?
I honestly don't even remember. I feel like it was a lot of like, "Does this feel okay? Does this feel okay? You know, how does this feel?" And and just trying stuff out because it was literally so She didn't even give me a heads-up. She didn't even text me and be like, "Hey, by the way, I broke some ribs. Can we modify the workout?" She just showed up. And that's what I'm talking [laughter] about. You got to be ready to change up that plan at a moment's notice because for all you know, your client, you know, got into a fistfight with a grizzly bear and they have like five broken ribs. That could happen.
Yeah. To be ready to go. Unless you are training specifically bodybuilders or people that want to be bodybuilders, I think the gym bro and broette type person is not the persona that most people want as their like mainstream trainer.
No, because who are you
[snorts]
dentists, high-powered CEO types, people who run their own businesses. Those are the types of people who have money to buy what you're selling. Those types of people don't really aspire to look like bodybuilders. They know it's not realistic. They know it's not going to happen. What they want is a normal fit person to guide them on the fitness journey, basically.
Right. Yeah, again, someone that isn't very rigid, very specific, you know, you need to do XYZ all the time. They want someone that understands their lifestyle and what they do and helps them make changes to just be fit and well-rounded.
Right, but now we're talking about the bro and broette, right? So, like if you're wearing a wife beater or [snorts] a tank top with little booty shorts on,
Yeah, that's not, yeah. um maybe that'll work out okay for you, but you're probably far better off dressing fitness professional, wearing that polo, wearing some nice athletic pants, just being professional, being a normal person who knows their That is what's going to work when you are working with these high-powered individuals who are trying to buy your services. No uh you know, bodybuilder mumbo jumbo. Nobody cares. The people that actually have money and want to buy what you're selling, they want someone who is a professional, normal person who knows their So, that's what you have to be. No bros, no broettes.
To add something to that. I lump like supplements and stuff into that type of trainer. Want to sell me some creatine, dog?
Yeah, we're the type of trainer that's like, "You need creatine. You need pre-workout. You need protein powder. You need I don't even know what else, right? All the things." And try to sell you on every single possible supplement that makes you, you know, potentially better. I feel like that's also the person that people don't want. They don't want to have to take a million one things or think that they need all those things to actually succeed.
Yeah, don't get me wrong. We like creatine. So, like if a client asks me about creatine, I would say, "Yeah, you might want to consider taking some creatine." We actually don't hate pre-workout. We're big caffeine fans in general. We like protein supplements, but when you shove them in somebody's face all the time, that's when you're a gym bro or broette. And that's not going to go so well for you most of the time with the clients that you want.
Think from a training style perspective, and we've talked about this before in other podcasts and videos, but the training style of a bro or broette likely doesn't match the training style that a general population client wants or needs. And that can be a bro or broette of different degrees, but for example, you know, most gen pop clients don't want to be doing five sets of three with five-minute breaks in between their lifts.
Yeah, that's They want to get in, they want to do their exercise, they want to leave. They want to, you know, take a minute in between, They want to do the reps, they want to get stronger, they want to do all those things, but they're not aspiring to, again, be able to do, you know, 400-lb one rep maxes and rest for 4 minutes in between each set. We had a trainer who was kind of training people like that for a little while, and do you remember the backlash that we received?
Like it. They didn't like that at all. So, we had to take this trainer aside and be like, "Hey, this is not how we taught you to train our clients. You know, you can mix your your own stuff in there, you can put your own spin on it, but they don't want to be taking a 3-to-5-minute breaks after, you know, whatever exercise they're doing. They are here for 45 minutes, they need to feel like they're getting as much value as possible, so do this thing, this thing, and this thing." And, of course, the trainer then went on to do well after we made those changes.
I feel like most of these what clients don't want things come down to like people. You can just be okay with the technical stuff, be really good with the social stuff, and you're probably going to kill it. You're probably going to make a great living as a trainer if you have that skill set. So, I'm not saying that's how it should be, but that's how it is. You have to have good social skills. That's just non-negotiable. Non-negotiable. We were talking earlier about We were just having a conversation about what to do like when clients cry or trauma dump or stuff like that during their session, and I feel like this comes down to social skills. Would you A, walk out the door, B, cry with the client, C, pat them on the back, or D, say I'm sorry?
[laughter]
I don't know. Hand them a resistance band and say, "Let's go." Tough [laughter] Get on with it. Right, but there are things like that that happen in sessions all the time. Yeah. And if you don't have decent enough social skills to deal with that stuff, Mhm. you're going to you're going to flail. I think for most people watching or listening, it's probably not that hard. However, it it still needs to be said that the social empathetic side of things is going to make or break you. Let's say you have a client that comes in twice a week on average, right? So, you're spending an average of let's just make it easy, we say 2 hours a week with that person Yep.
Every week. It's a shitload of time.
That's a lot of time. No one wants to spend 2 hours a week with someone that is weird or boring Spock. or
Nobody wants Spock. Won't talk to them or doesn't get to know them at all or doesn't, you know, think about anything. It just Nobody wants that. Alongside that, people do not want trainers that are flaky or unprofessional. While you have to have good social skills and good relationships with your clients, you can't be flaky or unprofessional. Those two are not like mutually exclusive. And it's pretty simple. So, when you have a session at 5:00, you are ready to go at 4:50, 4:55 at the latest. Like we said before, your dressing fitness professional, your presentation is there, you have a plan, right? You're not just winging it on the fly like, "Ooh, we're going to do some bicep curls today." You're actually recording what they're doing session to session, whether you're using an application, better probably not to be on your phone the whole time. That can kind of look a little bit suspect, so maybe use like a tablet if you're going to do it that way, or just use paper and pencil for one-on-one personal training sessions, probably still the easiest and best way to get things done. Again, make sure you're doing all those things, recording workouts so you can progress things over time, you're ready to go before the session starts, you actually have a game plan and progressions in mind. You have a long-term plan that's going to help them get to their goals, and the communication in the sessions needs to be professional as well. Are you checking in with them about nutrition? Are you checking in with them about how they're feeling session to session? Are you checking in to see if the exercise was tough enough? Did they feel it in the right place? These kind of questions should just be flowing out of your mouth.
Naturally. Naturally every single time you see them. I'm going to add something to this that goes along the flaky and unprofessional because I see it a lot on Reddit, and I've also seen it with trainers that no longer work for us. Um, which is trainers canceling sessions and or moving sessions so that they're more convenient for their schedule. I find that to be incredibly unprofessional unless it is something that a client has like explicitly said to you that they want. Like, for example, we have clients that maybe come at 10:15 in the morning, and they would really prefer 9:15, but it's always booked, so they can't get in there. But if it's not booked, you know, they want that time. In which case, if it's open, I'll say, "Hey, you know, do you want 9:15? I saw it's open." But I would never be like, "Hey, can you come in 2 hours earlier because I want to leave." I think there's a right and wrong way to do it, but I I hear what you're saying.
There is a right and wrong way to do it, but So, let me let me pose this solution to you. Let's say I it's 3:15 p.m., and my 4:15 client canceled.
Mhm. And I have a client at 5:15, and I could shoot my 5:15 client a text and be like, "Hey, so-and-so, my person at 4:15 canceled. If you want to come in a little bit early, no pressure, no worries if you can't make it. Just figured I would throw that out there."
That's okay to do.
Yes. However, what you're saying is just like straight-up kind of forcing them to do it or like strongly encouraging
Encouraging.
Which we've seen, and that's They're paying for your time, and if you have that appointment time booked and they can't do it, there should be no shade in that whatsoever.
Right. I feel like it just sometimes makes the client feel like their session is inconvenient to you when you try to
Yeah.
Move it.
What you're saying.
In which case, again, right, they're paying you for your time. So, if it's someone that you have a good relationship with and you know that maybe that time works better or they like that time, sure, right? Um, but it shouldn't be like an all-the-time thing, and you certainly shouldn't be canceling on clients all the time. I see people on Reddit who are always complaining about their trainer canceling their last four sessions or Yeah. you know, they keep moving my time. I don't know what that is. If your trainer if you're a trainer and you're doing that, I don't know what you're doing. I think I went like 10 years in a row without canceling like on a single client. It's wild to me that people just do that. Can I and I'm not [clears throat] tooting my own horn. I have a cast on my foot right now. You can't see it because it's under this table. How many hours did I take off of work? Uh, none. None. You've been scootering around the studio. Now, that's kind of silly. Okay. You probably shouldn't do that.
Saying that you have to do that, right? But I am saying there is a dedication to being there when you say that you're going to be there. Mhm. And not just canceling on clients or moving them because it's inconvenient to you. Well, if you want people to take you seriously, you have to be true to your word. Right. And you have to be professional, and I think everything we're saying ties into that.
Not saying you should be at work with a cast on. Um No, you really need to like figure that out. I don't know what the
The best thing to do, and I'm not saying you should do it. But my point is that, you know, there will be times where you don't feel that great or you have a headache or you were up a little too late, you should still be at work. Suck it up, buttercup.
Exactly.
Get in there. Get in there. When clients decide to hire a trainer, they come to a trainer, generally speaking, because they can't or won't do it on their own. That's like number one reason. They need someone to either tell them what to do or they want the time or etc. Clients don't want tons of homework or things to do outside of their sessions that are going to make them feel like a failure when they don't do them and you say something to them. There's a few things that move the needle quite a bit. We try to get clients to roughly 7 to 8,000 steps a day, especially on those days where they're not in the studio working out. And another thing that is really good, it doesn't always work out, is trying to get clients to food journal. Those two things help so much that basically it kind of makes everything else like not really matter that much. And there are some clients that will ask you for stuff to do outside of their training sessions, in which case you can give them stuff to do, but make it simple. Don't make it super complicated, you know, 85 supersets and and this and that and they need every piece of equipment in the book. Simple. Make it so that they can actually do it when they're not with you.
Yeah, anytime I've tried to create like an advanced or detailed program for clients to do outside of the facility, it doesn't get done. But when I make simple ones for people traveling or whatever, those have a pretty decent completion rate, so think about that. Yeah. We've talked about this before a lot, I feel like. Mhm. Which is that clients don't want someone who is super salesy. Was it ever even like something that worked? I don't know, but I can tell you this, in 2026, and I'm sure going forward as well, that whole used car salesman approach, it just doesn't work. You're going to turn people off right away, and you're going to sabotage any chance you have of signing the client on and keeping them long-term. So, I don't think we need to talk about this one much. Don't be salesy. Just be professional, have a good consultation process, and if you're able to do that and be comfortable in selling yourself, just presenting what you offer, you're going to be able to sign people on. And we're going to use this one to flow into the next one because I they go together in a lot of ways, I think. Which is contracts and long-term commitments. People are afraid of contracts and long-term commitments. Plain and simple.
Yeah, we've never really struggled to get clients to sign contracts, but we also have kind of done away with them, too, because they just haven't really mattered that much in our facility. No. The clients who are going to stay long-term, they stay long-term. And the clients who aren't going to stay long-term, they're going to quit either way, and you're not going to go after them if they have a contract and sign it. Let's just be honest.
No, I actually had a consultation a couple weeks ago where I was telling someone how we don't have contracts or commitments, and they were like, "For real?" And I was like, "No, for real." And he's like, "Every other place I've been to makes you, you know, sign something." And I was like, "Yep, we don't do that, you know, we don't feel like it brings anything to, you know, your success or anything like that. And she found that to be really different, number one, but also really eye-opening in that we don't I don't We don't force you to be there. We want you to be there because you want to be there. I don't want to force you to be there because you signed a piece of paper. We don't feel like having any type of contract makes somebody stay or not stay. If someone's going to leave, they're going to leave. If someone wants to stay, they're going to stay. Signing something doesn't really make a difference there. And quite honestly, I always feel like if someone doesn't want to be there anymore, they don't want to train with us, they you know, for whatever reason, I don't want to force them to be there because they signed a piece of paper. We've had contracts, and that was fine. We don't have them now. It's also fine. It just doesn't I don't know. You know what? Let us know down below in the comments on YouTube. Do you have contracts that you make your clients sign? Do you feel like it makes any real difference? I don't actually think it does, but I could be wrong on that. So, let us know your thoughts.
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