In case you haven’t been following along, this is the third part in a multi part series put together by my friend and colleague Chi Chiu.  The aim is to help fitness professionals understand behavior change so that they can bring about the very best in their clients.

In Part 1 of this series Chi introduced the concept of stages of change and discussed how these stages show how willing we are to change to achieve a certain goal. More importantly, he highlighted the fact that recognizing the stage and dealing with it can help you to get better results with your clients.

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In Part 2 of the series, Chi discussed the first step in dealing with those in the earliest stage called “The Window Shopper”.  Today, he’ll be covering the next step in dealing with those in this stage.  Take it away Chi….

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Step 2 – The Goal

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After you have created a safe environment, you can discuss goals. This is not about goal setting, which I will discuss in a later post on the Customer stage, but about counselling skills. I have seen many times a difference in what the client wishes and what the trainer thinks is necessary. The goal however, is neither. The goal is what you negotiate and agree upon together.

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It is perfectly normal that a client comes in with a goal in mind, but leaves with a different goal. This is great, because, you were able to make it safe enough that the client accepted your advice or was able to express himself better. With some creativity, you can usually connect or even integrate their goal with your goal. The important thing however, is that when their original goal changes for whatever reason, you need to be explicit about it for several reasons.

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1. You will be judged on your results and that’s why you need to agree upon your goal.
2. The client may have accepted the new goal without giving it real thought, and has a hard time explaining it at home to their spouse.
3. The client feels that a new goal has been forced upon him and that he has not been taken seriously.

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All these scenarios are important, but I’ve seen huge problems with the second scenario.  In this case the spouse, who may not agree that your client needs a personal trainer in the first place, has been given an opportunity to disagree further. Any social support from home is gone, which makes it harder to get results. The third scenario is also dangerous because most of the time you may think that you know what’s best for the client.  However you may not notice, because some personalities strive towards harmony all the time and they sacrifice their own needs, the client is left feeling bad afterwards without you knowing it. This requires some skills like funneling.

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Some clients talk a lot, while other clients need some encouragement and even then will not spill their guts. Both types of clients can be dealt with in the same manner with a technique called funneling.

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1. Start with an open question with ‘Can you tell me about…’
2. Then redirect the conversation by addressing a specific detail with an open question, starting with ‘what’ or ‘how’ and get even more specific if necessary with questions like ‘when’ and ‘where’.
3. Close the subject by summarizing and ask whether you understood it correctly. The only allowed answer is yes, everything else means, you need to go back to step 1 or 2.

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Just to give you an example…

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You (1): How can I help you?

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Client (2): I need to lose 15 pounds and I tried everything and always fails, and …

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You(3): Ok, so have tried it multiple times and you did not give, that means you have experience. Can you tell what worked the best for you?

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Client(4): I used a diet that was super and I lost 20 pounds, but I failed it a couple of times and jumped right back to where I started and then ….

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You (5): Excuse me for interrupting, but I find the success you had with the diet interesting, when did you follow this diet?

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Client (6): Well, two years ago for a period of six months, later that year for a period of three months and this year almost 5 months.

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You(7): That’s a very specific answer, good memory. So if I understand correctly, you have been successful before multiple times in losing weight on your own, without any help?

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Client(8): Yes

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You(9): Well, that’s a hard thing to do and you have done it a great job with the tools you had. You did not give up after the first attempt and that’s the kind of persistence we need to make it stick this time!

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At first you started with a question that could lead to anywhere and the answer was quite concrete at first, but the client started to wonder off in all directions, getting emotional over failed attempts, but clearly stated that something did work. You may find it very impolite to cut someone off, because they are venting. Now you are being soft instead of being safe. You need to cut off a person, that talks easily and runs off in all directions. You do it however by empathizing and complimenting before you change direction. Now you kept it safe and you regained control.

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By asking to elaborate on a previous successes you are actually inviting to self-complimenting (line 3), while learning what works for the client. The self-compliment invite did not pay off and the client wonders off again so you need to canalize the emotional tsunami by zooming into a detail (line 5). I also get the information I want. You may want to funnel it a bit more, but then you need to close the subject. You do it by summarizing, paraphrasing it with an emphasis on the positive achievements (line 7). How positive you are depends on the self-complimenting response of the client.  You close with a level 3 compliment, when credibility allows it.

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At the end of the session, you need to summarize again and when a goal change was negotiated, it must be a part of the summary with the reason for change and what the new goal is. The client needs to agree with the summary and you compliment again.

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The Window Shopper

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We have discussed several techniques, that you may find too cautious. That’s because they are geared towards the worst case scenario and that represents someone in window shopper stage. You learned from the previous post that Windows shoppers believe they have no problem and are usually pressured into visiting you. They expect to be judged, liked they have been by the person that pressured them in the first place.

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Instead they are being taken seriously and even received some compliments that they felt were genuine. Most clients will start to open up and may move up to the searcher stage. Their denial of the problem, may well in fact be a response to being pressured or be related to the insecurity of their own control over the problem. To admit that, they need to be in a safe environment and you can create that with the tools provided.

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It’s not always as smooth as I’ve shown above and  I’ll give you an example in my early years as a coach when I helped kids in weight loss programs. The parents from one 13 year old girl asked me to talk to her in the hopes of convincing her to stop smoking. Mind you, I really was not up for the task.

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Me: You know smoking is not healthy.

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Girl: Whatever, I smoke and I’m healthy.

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Me: You may be healthy, but others get sick from smoking.

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Girl: No way, all my friends smoke and they are all healthy.

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Me: You see that guy across the street, he smokes and he got sick.

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Girl: Yeah, but he is old!

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So much for education!

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This girl definitely did not believe she had a problem with smoking. I, on the other hand, had some serious problems. Although I was not experienced, I did figure out (after banging my head a couple times) that this was going nowhere. So I stopped with trying to ‘educate’ her.

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Instead I asked her a bunch of questions of how she ended up seeing me. And, of course, her parents had sent her.  I asked what her parents thought that she would get out of this arrangement. Her answer was typical and eloquent “don’t know”.  At the time, I did not know what to do with such an answer, but we will cover it on the next post. Then I asked her,  what her ideal world would look.  Because did not believe she had a problem, I wanted to know what an ideal world would like through her eyes. I was grasping at that moment.

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Her answer stomped me because her perfect world would be a world without her parents!!!  Of course, this is not that strange in puberty. But what I did not realize at the time was that just because she did not believe she had a problem with smoking, did not mean that she did not have a problem. She was a window shopper on the smoking issue and a searcher on the problem with her parents. One girl, multiple stages, which makes perfect sense (unless you confuse stages with types of people). Her problem with her parents was nothing serious, but a problem nonetheless. I started focusing on that part and I will elaborate on it in the next post, that revolves around the searcher.

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Winding Down

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We have covered a lot more than I anticipated in this post, but I hope you can understand why I needed this many words, to get a couple of concepts across. These are the foundation of good coaching. Even when you do most of it intuitively, those who have a better understanding of why they do what they will definitely be more successful. Even with all your talent, which I applaud you for, you can tweak your skills, to get even better.

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Safety first, gets a whole new meaning here and it starts with empathizing. You need to hold back on the education, because it may imply judgment of bad previous lifestyle choices, which may lead to a complete lockdown. If we want a chance to get something through their skull, we need to find the entrance and it lies in their hearts. Creating a safe environment will create the conditions necessary to relax more, while motivating by complimenting, will open up their heart.

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All this can be refined by using funneling techniques in our conversations. It’s both efficient to clients to talk sparingly and the ones you cannot seem to shut up. These are again skills that grow with practice and I want to leave you with an assignment that you can apply in every session, but also in every conversation you strike.

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1. Try to analyze when you needed to empathize instead of being positive.
2. Hold of the direct compliments, but focus more on indirect compliments.
3. Try to get from an indirect compliment to a level 3 compliment.
4. Try to detect any signs of change willingness and how you got there.
5. Evaluate any session / conversation and think of stuff to improve upon the next time.

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Every session while training or talking, I have had the last few years, has been recorded and as I experimented with concepts and techniques from MI, SFBT and positive psychology, I got to see the results. Because I also teach this stuff, my students get to see my video’s and literally learn from my mistakes. That’s why I spent so much time analyzing this stuff and it has resulted in great gains in rehab, prehab, and performance cases. I wish nothing less for you and your clients and hope to see you again with the next post where we will discuss techniques to deal with the searcher stage.

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References

• Lester PB (2011), McBride S, Bliese PD, Adler AB.  Bringing science to bear: An empirical assessment of the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program. American Psychologist, Vol 66(1), Jan 2011, 77-81.
• Gaume J (2009), Gmel G, Faouzi M, Daeppen JB. Counselor skill influences outcomes of brief motivational interventions. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2009 Sep;37(2):151-9. Epub 2009 Mar 31.
• Pollak KI (2010). Physician communication techniques and weight loss in adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 39(4), 321-328.
• Stams GJ (2006), Dekovic M, Buist K, e.a. Effectiviteit van oplossingsgerichte korte therapie: een meta-analyse. Gedragstherapie. 39, 2, 81-94

The biggest mistakes female fitness professionals make and how you can avoid these costly errors.

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How to be taken seriously in our industry and become a leader in the field.

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That you have so much to offer in fitness, you just have to go after it.

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The ONE thing that will have the greatest impact on your business.

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Rachel’s secrets to get a book deal and get into magazines.

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In a post last week I mentioned that fitness industry superhero Alwyn Cosgrove was going to be putting on a webinar called The Death of Personal Training.  Well…on Monday night that seminar took place and, as many who signed up probably already know, there were so many people trying to log in that the webinar service actually crashed!  I think there was such a rush of people trying to log in that Alwyn was single handedly responsible for the following afternoon in Virginia.

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In case you missed out and weren’t able to see it, here is the link to the replay (no sign up needed):  The Death of Personal Training

However, the fact that there was such an influx of people trying to login for this webinar tells me that there are a heck of a lot of fitness professionals who want to improve their business.  The good news (in case you haven’t heard it yet) is that after the seminar Alwyn introduced a special offer in the form of a new program called From Counting Reps to Counting Revenue.  Frankly, I probably couldn’t do the program justice if I tried to describe it so go check it out for yourself.

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From Counting Reps to Counting Revenue  <– Get the deets here!

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For those who aren’t in the know, one thing that happens when you offer to help someone promote a product in the online world is that they typically send you something called “swipe copy” that you can use to help them sell the product.  In short, it is usually in the form or pre-written emails or blog posts that you can use to provide your readers content.  Quite often, this is why a lot of emails from those promoting products look pretty much the same and seem as though they aren’t very authentic.  It is because they aren’t.

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I’ve never really liked swipe copy and don’t use it.  I prefer to write my own reviews.  In this particular case, this is especially true for 2 reasons.

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1.  Alwyn’s Product is Legit and I want this review to be authentic!

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Alwyn has not only been there and done that, but he’s helped others transform their businesses too.  To me, this is more important than just doing it.  He and his wife Rachel have shown repeatedly with their mentorship groups that they can produce results not just with themselves, but with others.  THIS give the program credibility in my eyes.  I’ve already seen the first week of videos and they are fantastic!

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2.  I know what it is like to struggle.

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A lot of other people reviewing this product have wildly successful fitness facilities.  Many of them have done it right from the beginning and have never known what it is really like to worry about making lease every month, whether they’ll be able to make their car payment, or even feed themselves.  I, on the other hand, know this.

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When my wife and I launched our facility several years back we did it all wrong.  We didn’t have a business plan.  We funded it with a line of credit and some credit cards.  We didn’t know which numbers to track and if you’d asked me at any given time what we had made that day (or that month) I probably couldn’t have told you.

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What I did know was that some months paying the bills was easy and there was a few extra dollars in our pockets.  When times were tough it was hard to pay the bills.  When times were tough, we’d send out the occasional flyer that never seemed to have the response rate that people talked about on the internet.  We tried running bootcamps (which were okay), but we didn’t know enough to have upsells in place to really make these profitable.

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What we did have was passion!!!  (If you’re a fitness professional I KNOW you do too!)

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We loved helping people and we figured that by simply becoming the best at what we did our business would thrive and we’d make tons of money.  So we leased a place, slapped a sign above the door, bought some equipment, and went to work.  And work we did.  Most weeks we worked up to 60 hours.  We’d work mornings…and nights.  We lost touch with family and friends as we worked ourselves to the bone.  And when we tried to hire staff, the process was a nightmare and we either had to fire them or they quit and swiped the clients they had from us.  Basically, we hadn’t bought ourselves a business.  We’d bought ourselves a job.  And it was a crappy job with no vacation, little pay (after expenses), and no benefits.

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In the end, it came down to a point where my wife and I decided we wanted to have a family.  And we both knew we couldn’t do it with both of us working 60 hours per week with very little money…or at least that wasn’t the life we wanted for our family.  So we opted to close our doors, sell everything off, and walk away.  And since we didn’t have an exit strategy (as Alwyn discusses in his product) we literally lost tens of thousands of dollars and we’re still paying for that until today.

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Now I don’t want you to take this to mean we weren’t good.

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At the risk of sounding arrogant, we were not only good, but we were DAMN GOOD.  Darn near excellent actually!  Almost every single one of our clients lost fat, gained muscle, reduced pain, and improved their health while in our facility.  I have testimonials to prove it.  And our client retention was excellent!  But there weren’t enough new people coming through the door every day and we certainly weren’t maximizing the amounts we couldn’t been making from each client with upsells, other services, and so on.

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In short, when it comes to running a fitness business, being good simply is NOT good enough.  You can be the best in the freaking world, but if you don’t have good business practices, you’ll end up with your doors closed.

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Now for me, this actually ended up to be a blessing in disguise as I ended up with consulting gigs, doing work for a government funded bariatric medical program, and I’m still able to train clients out of a friend’s facility.  In fact, it wasn’t until we closed up shop and I was able to spend less time in my business that I became able to share my thoughts through my blog with the world.  And we had a beautiful daughter.

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But not everyone is so fortunate.  And to this day I regret not having done it right from the beginning.  Had we had the systems in place we could’ve run the facility, made money, and stepped away to grow our family at the same time.

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So let me conclude with this…

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I consider myself to be a good person to take exercise and nutrition advice from.  I know these areas like I created them myself.  I can get results with almost any client you put in front of me.  But I am probably the worst person to take business advice from.  As a business owner you MUST know both of these areas if you are to succeed.  And since I don’t know business (although I’ve learned a TON about it after the fact) I can’t really tell you how to run a facility.

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What I do know is that Alwyn knows fitness business.  If you currently own a fitness business you owe it to yourself to pick up his product and turn your business around so that you never have to struggle.  I say this sincerely because I’ve been there and I know how you feel.  I know some of you might balk at the price (it is $297) I can’t say enough times how much money and heartache you’ll be able to save yourself if you just get your business on the right path.  Please do yourself a favor and pick this up.

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Counting Reps to Counting Revenue  <– Get it Here!

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I should also note that there is a 100% guarantee on this product and if you don’t feel it is worth the money you’ve paid (I KNOW it will be), just ask and your money back and it will be returned with no questions.

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And finally, this product is ONLY on sale until Friday September 2nd and then it will be pulled off the market.  Yep…pulled.  As in gone.

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Counting Reps to Counting Revenue  <– Get it While You Can!

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If you are a fitness professional, you will not regret it.

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In the recent past I’ve had the incredible opportunity to communicate a few time via email with fitness industry superstar Alwyn Cosgrove.

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*Side note:  How freakin’ awesome is that???*

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In any case, during the process I discovered that he has a webinar coming up called The Death of Personal Training.  If you’re a fitness professional looking to establish yourself in this industry or you’ve already got your foot in the door and you’re hoping to make this your career I’d highly suggest that you listen to what Alwyn has to say.

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The underlying component of this seminar is the concept fitness industry has completely changed and over the past few years, the best ways to market, operate and train has been changing and that most fitness professionals are NOT changing to keep up.

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The statistics for fitness based small businesses are alarming!

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Within the first 5 years of business 80% of small fitness businesses are out of business!  And by 8 years 16 out of 17 of them have closed their doors.  In other words, just 94% of small fitness businesses are out of business in under 10 years!!!  Many will lose a lot of money.  Some will go bankrupt.  But almost all of them will close and if you’re not prepared for what is coming in the fitness industry you could very well be one of them.

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As the seminar title suggests, personal training as we know it is dying.

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The good news is that Alywn Cosgrove (one of the owners of the most profitable gym per square foot in the United States) knows what it takes to build a great business and he’s ready to share the blueprint for his business so you don’t have to become one of those statistics.

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In the Death of Personal Training webinar here’s what Alwyn is going to share with you:
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- why it’s the scariest and greatest time in the fitness industry to open and run a gym
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- how the fitness business model has drastically changed throughout the years and if you are not changing with it, you will be out of it soon

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- 5 steps to not only survive but dominate your marketplace
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- the turning point in his career that will help you take your business to the next level
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Interested yet?  Yeah…me too.  Here are the rest of the deets.

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Title of the webinar: The Death of Personal Training

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Presenter of the webinar: Alwyn Cosgrove

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Date of the webinar: Monday, August 22nd

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Time of the webinar: 8pm Eastern

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Alwyn assures me that this webinar is full of business building information, and could be the most important hour of your business’s life, so reserve your spot now:

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The Death of Personal Training Webinar <– Register Here for FREE

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Admittedly, I am not sure how many people Alwyn will be letting on the webinar, but I know a lot of people will be trying to get on (Alwyn is kinda big time you know?), so reserve your spot as soon as possible.  Oh…and if you can’t make yourself available for the webinar at 8PM on Monday don’t worry.  You’ll be able to download the webinar after that fact, but only if you register in advance.

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The Death of Personal Training Webinar <– Register Here for FREE

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So that’s it for today.  If you’re a fitness professional I can’t recommend this webinar strongly enough and I won’t belabor the point any longer.  I’m going to watch this webinar.  If you are a personal trainer, I’d suggest you do the same.

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Today I just wanted to drop a quick note to share a few things.

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1.  FitJerk Interview

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Today an interview was posted that I did with a guy that calls himself FitJerk.  If you hadn’t guessed by the name, he calls himself this because he’s delightfully pleasant, politically correct, and loves to sip tea and eat crumpets.  *Note the obvious sarcasm*.  He’s actually a straight shooter and doesn’t take BS from anyone which is part of what made the interview so cool to do.  If you want to check it out you can do so HERE.  (Some language in this interview not suitable for work or those who are offended by such things).

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2.  Thoughts on Intervals

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I was recently asked to write a piece for the Ontario Society for Health and Fitness Bulletin (which is an evidence based publication) on my thoughts on interval training for fat loss.  Interestingly, they paired it up with another article on the same topic that presented a different viewpoint.  You can check it out HERE.  (My stuff is on page 3).

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3.  Last call for Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body

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Yesterday I wrote a post on why I think MIRU is going to be solid.  So today I just wanted to remind you that the sale where you can save $70 on this product will end at the end of the day TODAY.  After that, the price will go from $77 to $147!

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Of course, if you’re still leery about shelling out the dough, I also want to remind you that there is a 60 day money back guarantee on this product so if you’re interested in checking out the product, I’d highly advise that you take advantage of the deal now before the price jumps.

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So that’s it.  Last call.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  :)

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Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body <– Get it now before the price goes up!

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