3 PART TRAINER SERIES BONUS EP - Episode 1 Successful Trainer Mindset

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth

Episode 3 PART TRAINER SERIES BONUS EP - Episode 1: Successful Trainer Mindset

Release Date: May 20, 2025
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews
Producer: Doug Egge

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Introduction to the Trainer Series

In this inaugural episode of the Mind Pump trainers and coaches series, host Sal Di Stefano welcomes listeners to a three-part exploration aimed at empowering fitness professionals. The series is designed to delve into the essential aspects that contribute to success in the training industry, starting with the Successful Trainer Mindset.

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Defining a Successful Trainer

Sal initiates the discussion by establishing what constitutes a successful trainer. According to him, a successful trainer or coach is someone who:

• Builds a Sustainable Career: They have a consistent and stable business model that supports them financially and emotionally.
• Loves What They Do: Passion for the profession fuels their daily actions and interactions.
• Transforms Lives: Their work positively impacts clients, leading to significant health and fitness improvements.
• Maintains Personal Well-being: Trainers prioritize their own health, serving as role models for their clients.

Sal emphasizes, “A successful trainer is a trainer or a coach or health practitioner who has built a career, they can support themselves, they do well, they love what they do, they change lives.” ([03:02]).

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Embracing the Right Mindset

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the mindset required to excel as a trainer. Sal and Adam discuss how mindset is pivotal, noting that even with impressive resumes, a lack of the right mindset leads to failure.

Sal Di Stefano: “The people who had the right mindset, the success rate was through the roof. The right resume, wrong mindset, fail every single time.” ([05:27]).

This sentiment underscores the primacy of personal attributes over formal qualifications in ensuring long-term success.

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Loving People and Cultivating Curiosity

Adam Schafer and Sal highlight the importance of loving people and possessing a genuine curiosity about them. Adam states:

“You have to have this appreciation for that or curiosity.” ([07:08]).

Sal expands on this by explaining that trainers encounter a myriad of personalities and situations. A trainer's ability to remain curious and interested in clients, regardless of personal differences, is crucial for maintaining effective and lasting client relationships.

Sal Di Stefano: “If you're curious and interested in people, this is a great job because you're going to meet so many different people.” ([08:05]).

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Adopting a Growth Mindset

The conversation transitions to the necessity of a growth mindset. Both hosts agree that continuous learning and adaptability are non-negotiable traits for successful trainers.

Sal Di Stefano: “You have to be growth minded and you have to be willing and enjoy the process of learning.” ([10:01]).

Adam shares his personal experience with imposter syndrome, emphasizing that embracing a growth mindset allows trainers to acknowledge gaps in their knowledge and seek solutions proactively.

Adam Schafer: “Be honest about where you're at and what you know because... I have to say, I don't know.” ([12:29]).

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The Essential Role of Sales Skills

A noteworthy segment is dedicated to the importance of sales skills for trainers. Sal argues that being comfortable with selling is not just beneficial but essential.

Sal Di Stefano: “Sales skills are extremely valuable for a coach and trainer and you need to be open and growth minded to that as well.” ([15:30]).

Adam humorously relates sales skills to personal relationships, illustrating that effective communication and persuasion are integral both professionally and personally.

Adam Schafer: “You have to convince them to eat a certain way, you have to convince them to exercise a certain time.” ([16:36]).

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Purpose-Driven Over Money-Driven

The hosts delve into the motivation behind becoming a trainer, emphasizing that being purpose-driven is more sustainable than being solely motivated by money.

Sal Di Stefano: “If you're just money driven, there's other careers that are going to be better for you.” ([18:23]).

Adam shares his journey from being money-driven to finding fulfillment through purpose, illustrating that aligning passion with profession leads to greater success and financial rewards.

Adam Schafer: “When I let go of the money thing, went back for purpose, then comes the most money I've ever had in my life.” ([19:34]).

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Prioritizing Health Over Aesthetics

Sal emphasizes that true trainers prioritize client health over mere aesthetic goals. This approach ensures that clients achieve long-term wellness rather than short-lived physical changes.

Sal Di Stefano: “You prioritize their health because you know if their health improves, so will their aesthetics.” ([23:25]).

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Meeting Clients Where They Are

An effective trainer must meet clients at their current fitness and health level, setting realistic and achievable goals tailored to each individual's starting point.

Sal Di Stefano: “Look at where they're at and you start there.” ([32:40]).

Adam reinforces this by linking curiosity to understanding each client's unique behaviors and patterns, enabling personalized and effective coaching strategies.

Adam Schafer: “We have to find a better way to go about it. Maybe instead of challenging yourself to do all these crazy things, we commit to one thing that we know you can do that you like doing that you can be consistent with.” ([33:33]).

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Sustainability Over Speed in Client Progress

Finally, the discussion centers on the importance of ensuring that client progress is sustainable rather than focusing on rapid but fleeting results. Sal asserts:

Sal Di Stefano: “Your success with your clients is defined by their ability to maintain their results. It is not defined by how fast you got them results.” ([33:33]).

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The Trainer Oath: Taking Responsibility

One of the standout moments is the introduction of a Trainer Oath, a commitment akin to the Hippocratic Oath in medicine. The oath underscores the trainer's responsibility for their clients' successes and failures, promoting accountability and continual improvement.

Sal Di Stefano: “You are responsible for all your clients' successes and failures.” ([28:00]).

Adam echoes this by highlighting the importance of internal accountability over blaming clients for setbacks.

Adam Schafer: “Everything is my fault. So no matter what, do not defer blame to your client.” ([30:21]).

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Conclusion and Next Steps

The episode concludes with Sal teasing part two of the series, which will cover effective diet and exercise strategies that clients love. Additionally, he promotes an upcoming webinar for trainers and coaches focused on closing deals and selling personal training effectively.

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Notable Quotes

• Sal Di Stefano: “If you don't have the right mindset, you're not going to be very successful.” ([04:40]).
• Adam Schafer: “If you're just money driven, there's other careers that are going to be better for you.” ([19:34]).
• Sal Di Stefano: “The most important word that I heard is curiosity.” ([08:05]).

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Mind Pump serves as a foundational guide for trainers and coaches, emphasizing that success in the fitness industry is deeply rooted in the right mindset, continuous personal growth, and a genuine passion for helping others. By fostering these attributes, trainers can build sustainable and impactful careers, ultimately transforming the lives of their clients.

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Transcript

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[Adam Schafer]

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[Sal Destefano]

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[Adam Schafer]

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[Sal Destefano]

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[Justin Andrews]

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump.

[Sal Destefano]

Mind pump.

[Justin Andrews]

With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schafer and Justin Andrews.

[Sal Destefano]

Welcome to our three part series for trainers and coaches. This is part one. We're going to talk about the successful trainer mindset. Part two, diet and exercise strategies that people love that actually work. And then part three, of course, the most valuable assessment you can do. It's a three part series just for trainers and coaches. But everybody can watch this. It's free for everyone. By the way, if you go to trainerwebinar.com on June 3rd, I'm gonna be teaching trainers and coaches how to close deals. I'm gonna teach you how to sell training in the most effective way possible. But right now, let's go to part one. Let's talk about the most effective, the best successful trainer mindset. Let's go. All right, so we're here. This is the first of a three part series we're making for trainers and coaches only, or people who want to be a trainer or a coach. And the first one which we're going to talk about today is the successful trainer mindset. It's the first one because it's the most important. By the way, all of these are coming out today, right? So if you see this one, you can watch the next two. And then next week on the 27th at 4pm live, I'm going to be doing sales training. I'm going to teach you how to sell training how to do it effectively and how to close deals. This is something a lot of trainers struggle with and I'm going to teach you foolproof ways of doing this. But today we're talking about the mindset. What makes a successful trainer mindset?

[Adam Schafer]

Would you include a health practitioner? Acupuncture, chiropractor?

[Sal Destefano]

Why not?

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Soul related?

[Adam Schafer]

I think, yeah. If you're, I think if you're in the health wellness service based space, I.

[Sal Destefano]

Think that this all applies.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. So I don't want to just even isolate this to just trainers and aspiring trainers. I think that if you're any of those things I listed off, acupuncturist, chiropractor, physical therapist. Physical therapist.

[Sal Destefano]

You're, you're improving people's health.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

And you're a health practitioner. Yeah, I think, absolutely.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So this, this goes out to all of them. So let's, let's first identify what a successful trainer is because some people might have a different definition than others. But the way we define the successful trainer is a trainer or a coach or health practitioner who has built a career, they can support themselves, they do well, they love what they do, they change lives. They have a consistent business that works, that runs. They love it. They wake up every morning, they go to work, they absolutely love it. It's stable, it's stable, it's consistent, and they're improving people's lives. That's a successful trainer. They have successful clients and they themselves also are able to support themselves.

[Adam Schafer]

I think the, if you, if you have one, it kind of leads into the other. Right. If you are, if you haven't, if you're successful enough to have a full schedule of training people or helping people, any of the services I listed off, you're probably pretty good. Yeah, I'm trying to.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

You're doing something right for sure.

[Adam Schafer]

I'm trying to rack my brain right now on how many full time, full schedule type trainers I knew that weren't very good.

[Sal Destefano]

Well, what I said stable in there because I think it's a huge component. Yeah. Because you'll find some coaches and trainers that they figured out how to like sell their services, but they give those highs and lows and then they start to burn out. They start to burn out and they can't figure out how to make it stable like a successful trainer or coach. You have a stable career, you're supporting yourself and your family. And it's not like every month I got to figure out how to make this work type of deal. Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

And getting there takes a lot of effort in terms of figuring out your systems and figuring out how to really just replicate what you've done, proceeding with these other clients, and then also how to gain new clients. And so this is just a constant thing that you're working on every single day.

[Adam Schafer]

Do you think the. The reason for the really high turnover rate in this field is because of the mindset going into it? Do you think that there is this misconception that, oh, I'm going to be. Because I like helping people and I like working out, and this will be a good fit, and then it's like, oh, shoot, I have to. How do I get these?

[Sal Destefano]

You know, it's funny, Adam, you and I have had this discussion before because we. We both in our careers have hired lots of trainers. Early in my career, like you, you've told me the same thing. I hired off a resume.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

And it wasn't until later that I figured out I need to hire based off of character, which is what we're going to talk about. Mindset. The people who had the right mindset, the success rate was through the roof. The right resume, wrong mindset, fail every single time.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So that's why this is. This is the core. This is the root of success. There's other things that are going to contribute to your success, but this is the most important thing, by the way, this isn't just. This can be your natural mindset. But more often than not, you develop this and you work on this and you understand this, because not everybody. Most people don't have the right 100% mindset. They just got to kind of figure it out. So the first point or the first thing that goes into this is you should definitely love fitness, because I think. I think that makes sense. I think most people who want to become trainers and coaches love fitness. I don't think anybody who decides to do this doesn't love fitness. I don't think that exists. For the most part, they love fitness. But you probably should love people as much or more.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

I don't even think that's a probably. I think that's a must.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

And the reason why that's a must is because you. You're gonna train, you're gonna help, you're gonna service whichever profession you're in. Plenty of people that you don't see eye to eye with that have different views on the world and ideologies and beliefs and morals. And if you. If you don't love people in general, then. Then you have a really hard time connecting and servicing and helping People that you don't necessarily like or see. So you have to have this. Like, I just love people in general. I love the differences and how unique all of us are. You have to have kind of an appreciation for that or curiosity.

[Sal Destefano]

That's it.

[Adam Schafer]

Because I felt the one. I think I was curious, right? So I, this was something that I didn't know about myself until I got in the profession and I realized like, oh, I, I really like this. And I remember unpacking, like what was it? It's like, man, I just, I like learning about other people and I actually liked when people disagreed with me or viewed the world differently because I felt I could learn from their perspective. And I hear them out and go like, oh, that's interesting. I never thought about the world like that. I've always been taught this way. And you need to have a love or appreciation or curiosity like that or else this will take its toll on you.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Oh yeah, it's that humility and flexibility part of it. Like if you're a real control freak. I really don't think this is a job for you because you're around people so much. You have to be able to adapt and, and change your messaging and be able to really peer into to your clients needs and their personality and how to keep them coming back.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, no, you. I think the most important word that I heard is curiosity. This is what I mean by love people. Like when I say love people, everybody's like, well, I love people. Well, there's people that you love and people you don't like. I think if you're curious and interesting in people are interesting to you, this is a great job because you're gonna meet so many different people. And if you like talking to people and like figuring out what makes them tick and you're curious, you like to ask questions and wow, that's interesting. Why is that? This is a great job for you. If that's not you, you're gonna die. Because if, let's just paint the picture. Let's just say you're a trainer that's successful. You're training 40 sessions a week. That means eight people a day. That's eight different personalities every single day, by the way. They're going to come in if you're doing a good job for a long time, which means sometimes going to be in a bad mood, they're going to be irritable, they're going to put it on you, they're going to be quiet, sometimes they're going to be hyper, whatever. If you're curious about people and you enjoy people. This is going to be great. It's great to see all those differences. If you're not, oh my God, will this burn you out? Really?

[Adam Schafer]

By the way, if you're nodding your head that this is you, this can be a superpower if you lean into it.

[Sal Destefano]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

So if you're going like, oh yeah, I'm totally like that, like, lean into that. Since a lot of the job is communication and talking to others and learning to have converse conversations and ask questions, a lot of times when you meet somebody like, and they say, oh, I really like that person and then you kind of scratch your head. That's interesting because they really didn't talk much, they just asked a lot of questions. And so that's a, that's a superpower of a good trainer. A good trainer that's curious about people and knows how to ask people a lot of questions and be genuinely curious about, about it and come off genuine. It really serves you in this field to be able to do that. And of course, if it's, if it's genuine and you really are that way, it'll come off that way. And so if you know that about yourself, lean into that. This will, this will provide a lot of success.

[Sal Destefano]

And just to dig a little deeper with the curiosity, I think trainers and coaches expect to ask questions related to fitness and health, right? We think, well, I need to know their fitness history, I need to know their diet history. That's the obvious, right? But ask questions about everything. There are things you will learn about an individual that have nothing to do with fitness and health that will impact how you coach them dramatically. You'll find out what makes them tick, you'll find out the things that excite them, the things that they're interested in. You'll learn about their kids, you'll learn about all these different things that then can help you coach this person in an extremely effective way. So that curiosity, that love for people is, number one, allows you to do this because that's what you're doing all day, is working with people. But number two, it makes you damn good. I mean, if you're curious about somebody and you work with them twice a week for a year, by the end of that year you are going to be extremely effective at guiding them towards improving their life through health and fitness. So it's an absolute, it's absolutely important. Next up is you need to be growth minded. You have to be growth minded. You have to continue to learn. And I'm going to tell you something right now. You could be extremely educated, you could have a PhD in a related field. But people are so different that if you're not growth minded, you're going to, you're going to fail. You have to be growth minded and you have to be willing and enjoy the process of learning. Not only is it going to make you a better trainer and coach, but you know, when I learn something new, I'm always excited to apply it. It kept what I did as a coach and trainer fun and exciting. If you want to do energy there, yes. If you want to do this as a career, you know it'll get boring after 10 years if you're not learning. It'll get boring if you don't learn new methods, if you don't learn new things about the human body, if you don't learn things about human psychology, if you don't learn things about that that can really help your clients or even ways of conversing better.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

And every time, you know, if you lead with that mentality, you learn something new. There's just random opportunities where it applies and you just never know when that's going to happen. And you know, when a client comes in, they have all these like very unique variables that you're trying to solve and you're trying to really like dig into and, and to, to continuously take on education and inform yourself in various directions related to health and fitness. It's such a powerful tool to have.

[Adam Schafer]

Again, this can be another superpower. If you know this about yourself, don't worry about what level of experience and education you have right now, so long as you are growth minded and you're open to this. In fact, be honest about where you're at and what you know because it's, I don't care how smart you are, if you have a PhD, how many national search, how many years experience you're going. To this day I still run into things where I go, oh, I don't know, I haven't seen that or let me ask a friend or let me look that up. And so the more comfortable you get with that and open to growing and learning again, it'd be a superpower. So it's like I'd always get these young trainers that have this imposter syndrome like you have imposter syndrome because you're trying to pretend that you are something that you're not. Just be yourself, be okay when you're going to, because you're going to run into something you've never helped before.

[Sal Destefano]

Forever?

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, forever. No matter how Good. How long you were doing this, you will forever do that. So when you do get comfortable with it and go like, oh, wow, I'm not sure. But I tell you what, I'll look that up and I'll find out. And if you have that curiosity, you have that growth minded, you run into that situation. And I can, I can recall so many nights like this of having a client getting stumped by something going like, I didn't even know what that was or I didn't know what that meant. And then going home and searching and reading and figuring out and then learning and then having the tools to come back and apply that to that client. And man, you, you, as long as you're okay and you like that, or if that sounds like something appealing to you, man, you could be really good at this.

[Sal Destefano]

Growth mindset's also essential. When you fail a lot, which you will as a trainer or a coach, you will fail a lot. Now what I mean by fail a.

[Adam Schafer]

Lot is most of the time you.

[Sal Destefano]

Will, if you do a good job with your clients, you're gonna get, if you're excellent, half of them, half of them to adopt a health and fitness lifestyle for the rest of their life. And, and that's if you're the top 0.1% of coaches and trainers, that means half the time you fail. And the only way you get to that point is if you're growth minded enough to say, how can I get better?

[Unknown Speaker 2]

How can I improve?

[Sal Destefano]

How can I improve? And this person is not adhering, they're not changing their diet. And you know, I've already kind of pressed a little bit, okay, what can I do and how do I be more patient and how do I communicate this in the most effective way possible? You have to be growth minded to, to be effective. To give another example of this, there's a word that is a bad word to trainers and coaches. Sales. Like you say sales to a trainer or coach. Oh, I don't want to sell, I just want to help people. That right there is, by the way, a red flag for me is that you're not open minded to say, well, why do I need sales skills? Well, obviously I need to sell training, so I need that. But why else do I need sales skills? Because you're selling every session. Not selling more packages of training or more sessions, but rather you're selling them ideas every day, every time you see them, you're selling them on how to improve their health. So sales skills is extremely valuable for a coach and trainer and you need to Be open and growth minded to that as well. Even though a lot of trainers bristle at the thought of doing sales.

[Adam Schafer]

It's always funny because I used to always, I used to give the trainer, I'd always ask him, you know, are you in a relationship? Yeah, yeah. No, I have a girlfriend with that. Oh. So do you eat out where she wants to eat all the time and always go watch the movies that she wants to watch? Are you that type of guy? That's what you just do everything she wants to do? Well, no. No. So okay, well then guess what? You closed her on that. Okay, that, that whatever dinner you had that you wanted to have, the movie you wanted to see, that's, it's happening all the time. It's just effective communication and for some reason you're very comfortable to do that. So learning to be comfortable with that with your clients is a, a important skill because you're going to have to convince them to eat a certain way, you have to convince them to exercise a certain time. You're going to have to convince them, them to make their sleep a priority. You have to convince them to make some sacrifices in order to live a healthier lifestyle. That's all sales. And if you can't get comfortable with learning how to do that, you're not going to be successful, you're not going to be good. Forget the fact that you have to sell them on personal training and have to sell yourself. That's a whole nother thing. But you, if you're going to be an effective trainer, you gotta, you gotta sell them on your ideas. And if you are uncomfortable with that or you're turned off by the idea, then this is not for you.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Well, it's so strange to me because the expectation from the client coming in is that there's a transaction. It's like they're not like oblivious to that fact that if I'm going to do this, I'm going to have to pay money to do this. And so it's all self driven, it's all this insecurity towards having the confidence in your own skill set and believing in your own value. And I think that's a lot of it is that. And the other dirty part of it is that it's, it's like they want to, they want to think that we're just helping people. So therefore I don't want to take from them. But it's, it's, it's just a commitment. It's a commitment and it's, it's an agreement.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, look, here's the other thing too, is that people often accept help when they feel like they've also offered you value in return. And so the stat, the data on this is pretty clear. People that pay for a service are more likely to take that service seriously.

[Adam Schafer]

Oh, yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

Okay.

[Adam Schafer]

So I, by the way, I, I learned this the hard way. And I would charge family.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah.

[Adam Schafer]

So my early part of my. And people think, and I still to this day, it's not a lack of I need the money. Okay. It's literally there's times where I'm like, and I tell them this, I'll tell my family, I'm going to charge you. Obviously not because I need the money from you, but it's because I know it's the only way you'll commit to it.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

The most shows ever.

[Adam Schafer]

That's right. If I do it for free and I don't charge you, then I know you won't. You're not serious about you don't care enough. You need to, you need to have to sacrifice something to show me that you care enough. Otherwise you'll just end up wasting my time and your time. And so I even do that with family for that reason. And anybody who's been a trainer for a long time can relate to that. If you're a new trainer, listen that you're like, oh my God, I can't believe he charges his family. That's because you haven't been training very long. You train long enough and everybody asks you for free information and stuff. They never follow through. And if you're, if your desired outcome is truly to help people, then actually getting them to pay is probably the best way to get. Is the best way to help them.

[Sal Destefano]

Absolutely. Oftentimes that's true. All right, so next up is you need to be purpose driven or you are purpose driven in this field and not money driven. Now, this is not because you can't make money doing this, but this is because if you're just money driven, there's other careers that are going to be better for you. If you just want money, you have to be purpose driven with this because otherwise this job's going to suck. This career is going to be so difficult if all you care about is the money, because you're dealing with people, you're dealing with their challenges, you're dealing with people who are not going to do what you want to say. They're not going to want to change their habits. It's going to take sometimes years to get somebody to adopt healthier lifestyle habits and if you have a purpose behind that, if you really believe and really feel that your purpose is to help people improve their lives through health and fitness, you're going to stick to this. It's going to feel important to you. You're going to wake up every morning and feel like, yes, I can't wait to do this thing. The best trainers and coaches of the world are driven by this purpose now. They understand how to make money, they know business, they know all the great stuff about how to make this successful. But it's the purpose that driv that drove them in the beginning and it's the purpose that continues to drive them.

[Adam Schafer]

This is such a interesting point for me to hear you say and to reflect on because if I'm being completely honest, when I was in my teens and early twenties, I was very money driven because I didn't have any. And it was something that I thought was going to make my life better and secure and I needed it. And obviously driven from insecurities of my childhood. And so deep down I fell in love with personal training, but I was always driven by the money. The irony was that I reached that money thing, that I thought this, this, this, this dollar amount later on and that's why I left the field for a couple years. And when I left the field to go do something else, reached the dollar amount, realized I was unhappy, and asked myself, okay, well, I don't need money now. What do I want to do? Well, God, I really loved helping people and I want to go back for that. Like I, I enjoyed that. All the things we're talking about, I had already connected those dots, yet I still didn't have the money. But so when I let go of the money thing, went back for purpose, then comes the most money I've ever had in my life, which was so wild and interesting for me to come full circle like that. And so I think the most important takeaway from this is not that you, not that you can't make a lot of money in this. We prove that right? It's more. So the reason why you're doing this, it can't be that because you're going to have a really hard time achieving that if you do it for the right reasons and you in your heart is right and that's where you go. Ironically, you end up making the money.

[Sal Destefano]

Absolutely.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Well, the purpose itself provides sort of that. So it doesn't feel like work. So it's, you know, the drudgery of work. Sometimes we get into the, the phase if you're in it long enough, it just feels like, ah, you know, I gotta, I gotta kind of do the same thing today. And you know, it becomes kind of like you dread it to where the purpose itself always really takes you out of that.

[Adam Schafer]

I you. I think that is one of the most important points to be made, Justin. Like whenever I talk to a young person who is searching for purpose, the I always ask them, what do you do it? What do you do at 10 o' clock at night when everyone else is falling asleep? Like, what are you googling? What are you looking up? What kind of articles? What are you reading? Like maybe that gives you insight and why that's so important in this field is just back to the earlier points. You're going to run into things you don't know. You got to be constantly open to grow and learn. And so if it excites you to be on your phone reading an article about gout or doing things about learning about blood pressure and learning about all these different things at night after you just had a problem or a challenge in the day when you've got home and you're not getting paid anymore, that excites you to do that and you like to do that. You're probably going to do really well. If you dread doing that or you have the attitude of as soon as I leave the gym or I leave wherever I work at, you clock out, you're done. You have note like, if I'm not getting paid, I'm not doing shit, you're going to have a really hard time.

[Sal Destefano]

And you, and you can't tell me that clients don't feel it when they, when you have a trainer or coach that is driven by purpose, the client knows, they feel it and they want to work with you versus one that's just running a business. Very, very different. Next up, obviously a successful trainer, health is a priority. It's a priority to them and it's a priority in life because this is part of your philosophy. Part of your philosophy as a trainer or coach is I'm trying to get people to improve their life through this method that I'm an expert in or through this method that I know, which is fitness, nutrition, sleep, that's health. And so if you don't prioritize health, I think you're lying to yourself that this is something that you want to do. Now, I don't think this is a common problem, but if this is not a priority for you, probably want to look somewhere else.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I would say this is probably one of the easiest, I think Most people.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

I don't think you'd last long.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, you don't. If you don't. I mean, I guess I've seen. I'm trying, like, I was trying to wreck my phone. Like, how many people, how many trainers have I had that failed because they didn't have health as their priority?

[Sal Destefano]

Seen it.

[Adam Schafer]

I've seen it. I have seen it. I remember I went through a phase one time where I was, like, trying to hire, like, all different types. Like, I went through the early phase that you talked about where hired from the. The application, like the highest degree, the most experience, like that failed, that didn't work. Then I went all like, completely other way. It's like, who cares if they even work out much and stuff like that. It's like if they had the right characteristics, I would do that. Then I realized, well, health, they still need, like, they still have. Health is like a major priority. And so I remember learning that too. So you're right. Like, but for most part, I think fitness has impacted their life and their health.

[Sal Destefano]

And that's why they're probably.

[Adam Schafer]

And that's probably why you want to be a part. I mean, it's one of. One of my favorite parts is the, the accountability piece to it. I already want to be healthy. I love working in the field because it's like a constant accountability piece.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

It's like you want to model it.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah, I have. I'm out here talking about it all day long, therefore, I've got to live this. And I like that. I like that accountability. And so you probably need. If you find that, like, pressure and you don't like it and it's. Then maybe it's not for you, but you should probably like that accountability piece if you care that much about health.

[Sal Destefano]

Now, last up, this one's going to sound weird at first, but I'll break it down and explain it to you. But a successful trainer is somebody that loves to share what works with other trainers. And I've seen this time and time and time again. Now, why is that the case? Well, number one, if you're somebody that enjoys sharing with other trainers what works for you, sharing potential competitors, what works with you. You know what? You don't have a scarcity mindset. And a scarcity mindset is a killer. A scarcity mindset in a trainer, you're going to fail 100%. This is the person, this is the trainer. It's like the clients are only for me. There's not enough to go around. It's totally flooded the market. Is saturated with trainers. I can't share any of my secrets with anybody else.

[Adam Schafer]

You learn a new cert, you don't tell anybody what you learn from that.

[Sal Destefano]

You are going to tank. You're going to fail. Okay, so that's number one.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

And get to that exercise.

[Sal Destefano]

It is a very strong tell. When a trainer learns something and goes to another trainer, says, let me teach you this awesome thing. Let me tell you about this cool thing that I just learned right away. I know you don't have a scarcity mindset. That's good. But here's the second reason. We tend to learn better when we share and teach.

[Adam Schafer]

For sure.

[Sal Destefano]

This is a fact. Anytime you learn something, if you really want to cement it, go teach somebody else. And it. It really turns it into a skill that you develop. This is a fact. The science shows it. It's truly effective. So when you learn something, share with other trainers.

[Adam Schafer]

Yeah. If you don't. If you don't do it, if you don't do it to help and serve others, at least to do it selfishly to better yourself.

[Sal Destefano]

Right.

[Adam Schafer]

Because honestly, that's where it came. It came from a selfish place originally for me, I hacked into that. I realized I didn't know I was going to constantly run into clients with. With problems and things that I wasn't aware of. I was excited to go home and learn. I would go home and learn. Then I realized teaching it to my client and teaching it to my peers, then it became mine. Whereas if I only if I held on to that one bit, like, I just had to go study for that one client that I was going to see on next Tuesday, and if I didn't go practice what I had read the night before, I have those type. I'm not, unfortunately, I'm not like, sour. I can read one thing and then now it's mine. It's forever. It's like I have to, like, read it, write it, say it a couple times, and then finally it's. I've formulated as mine. And so that was quick. I would do that at night. I would read, learn whatever it was that I needed to for the client that I just ran into a problem the next day. Every trainer I talked to, I would, did you know this? Like, I was just reading this last night. Like, did you know that already? Like, hey, I would go and, like, share and converse about it. Because the more I did that in that day, and then it was like, okay, I got it now. I've said that now five times to five different trainers. We've had conversation about it. Like I've now completely memorized that. I'm on to the next thing learning. Like, that's funny.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

I mean, when I was an independent trainer, I was, I'd hop around different gyms because of rent. And I've experienced like every different scenario of that in terms of like people being real protective and guarded of their certain systems or what they learned from their certifications and you know, what they do with their clients versus like one of the one gym. I remember distinctively how it was so cool because each trainer would go off and they'd learn a certification to come back. We would literally run like our own little seminars amongst our own trainers. It elevated everybody.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

We got, everybody got a lot more clients as a result of that. And then it built a better reputation. And so it's just one of those things. It's just everybody wins. Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

I'm so glad you pointed that out because a good percentage of trainers and coaches will be training alongside other trainers and coaches. And if you don't think your relationship with those other trainers and coaches in the gym isn't going to impact your business, you're stupid. It will greatly impact your business. And having a good relationship with other trainers and coaches is imperative not just for you, but for your clients who come in. So teach other trainers and coaches. Communicate what you've learned. Elevate everybody. It will also elevate you. Now, one thing that I noticed in the trainer space or one thing that we've talked about is there isn't this like this ethos or this towel? Right. There's no, like this standard that trainers should follow this code. And so what we've done here is we've come up with a trainer oath, almost like a Hippocratic oath that you see in the, in the, in the health fields. And this is the oath that, that we believe is incredibly important for trainers to have a long lasting, successful and lucrative career. And it starts with this, that you are responsible for all your clients successes and failures. You are. Now this doesn't mean you have the answers because oftentimes you won't have the answers. You just take on the responsibility and you think to yourself, the answer's out there. I just haven't figured it out yet. A trainer that understands this is going to constantly be working to be better for their clients. So this means you take ownership of all those things. So if your client didn't lose weight or they got weaker or they got hurt or whatever, even if it wasn't with you, you got to ask yourself, okay, what, what could I have done? Is there anything I could have done? And maybe, I don't know, let me see if I can figure this out.

[Adam Schafer]

That's the first rule of leadership right there, is everything is my fault. So no matter what, do not defer blame to your client. Oh, she didn't follow the meal plan or oh, they didn't show up to their appointments. If it's like, what did I do as the, the leader of this team? What did I do for them not to show up or not follow the meal plan? And like if you have that mindset, which you will, there's, you will definitely have those clients that you fail for those reasons. And you have to be in that, that mind. This is back to the growth mindset of willing to like figure out what could I done better? What will I do next time when that same type of a client, I get that client again? And if you have that mindset going into it, you will continue to improve. If you have the mindset of like, when that happens, you go, oh, it's because she doesn't show up. Oh, it's because she doesn't follow the meal plan. And that's how you answer that, that you're, you're not going to be very successful.

[Sal Destefano]

No. Next up is you never make false promises. This is a huge mistake. And sometimes it's a bit alluring for a trainer to promise the world to a client to get them to hire you.

[Adam Schafer]

Especially in the Internet.

[Sal Destefano]

This is a terrible idea. One of the need money best things you could do as a trainer. One of the best things you could do is under promise and over deliver.

[Adam Schafer]

That's right.

[Sal Destefano]

So be as realistic as possible. Someone comes to you says, I want to lose 30 pounds in six months and you say, well, yeah, that we could, we can do that. But the odds are it's probably not going to happen in six months. It's a lot harder than you think and to take a lot slower, but we will see some progress. And then they see 30 pounds in six months. You are amazing. And if they don't, you already told them, you already told them what's going to happen. So don't ever make false promises. In fact, people know you're honest right out the gates. When you communicate with under promising. People have been around the space long enough to know what the fake false like promises looks like. And when you come out and say, yeah, you know, I know they tell you that you can do this in this time, I'm here to tell you it's probably not going to happen.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Most clients have already experienced that.

[Sal Destefano]

Yes.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

And have failed before. And so, you know, if you come in and you give them an honest answer, it's refreshing.

[Sal Destefano]

It is. Next up is that you prioritize your client's health above their aesthetics. They're going to prioritize their aesthetics over their health. Oftentimes, you as the trainer, you prioritize their health because you know if their health improves, so will their aesthetics. And you also know if their health fails, their aesthetics go down the window. So out the window. So you know this. Now, this doesn't mean you always sell this to your clients. Sometimes they don't want to hear it. They're going to tell you, I want to look a particular way. And sometimes the conversation is not, well, I know you want to look that way, but I care about your health. Sometimes I'm like, they don't want to hear that. So say, no problem will make that happen. But you're prioritizing their health with your approach. Very important. Next up is always meet your clients where they are, not where you think they should be. This is huge where they are. So what does that mean? Well, maybe the first step they can take is adding a glass of water a day. That's it. That's all they can do for their diet. That's where you're starting. Don't try to pull them somewhere they're not, because that is a surefire way to get that client to fail and then be disappointed and then not want to ever.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Most times it's the trainer that gets restless about this, and it's a really hard thing to swallow. But, yeah, you have to really regress and start where they are.

[Adam Schafer]

And this goes back to being that genuine, curious person. Right. Like, I think that the more curious you are, the more questions you ask and peer into this person, the more you learn about their behavior, behaviors, their patterns, the. The what they have done before, pursuing diets and fitness and gives you insight. Like, if this person has this. This ha. This habit of, you know, going all in on this diet and all in on this training all the time, and they never stick to it, then they weren't successful, even though they. And a lot of times they think they were. Oh, that one time I lost 30 pounds, I did this challenge. It's like it wasn't successful because you gained all the way back and some. So that's not successful. So we have to find a better way to go about it. Maybe instead of us challenging yourself to do all these crazy things. Why don't we commit to like one thing that we know you can do that you like doing that you can be consistent with and then we'll build on that. Learning how to do that is really important to helping everybody.

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah. So it literally means look at where they're at and you start there. You don't start anywhere else. And then lastly, and you kind of touched on this, Adam, which is you as a trainer will always aim for sustainability over speed with your client's progress. They will want the speed you need to aim for sustainability because if it's not sustainable, it doesn't matter. Your success with your clients is defined by their ability to maintain their results. It is not defined by how fast you got them results. Any moron trainer can get a client super fast results. It takes a real good coach or trainer to get somebody forever results. All right, everybody, that was part one. Let's get to part two. That's next, where we talk about diet and exercise strategies that work that clients love. Remember, there's three parts to the series for trainers and coaches. Also, let me remind you, go to trainerwebinar.com I'm going to be teaching trainers and coaches. This is a free webinar. It's happening on July 3rd. I'm sorry, on June 3rd. So June 3rd I'm going to teach you how to close deals, how to sell personal training. All right, we'll see you for part two.

[Justin Andrews]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes maps, Anabolic Maps, Performance and Maps, aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With details, workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is mindpump.