Competing With Online Celebrity Personal Trainers

The typical personal trainer might be feeling slightly concerned and hopeless at the moment due to the amount of celebrity personal trainers getting millions upon millions of eyeballs on their online personal training sessions.

I know what you're thinking..."what's the point in making home workout videos?" or "I can't compete with Joe Wicks".

It may seem like as a personal trainer who has never really done any coaching other than on the gym floor that you're probably late to the party, and that it's pointless trying to compete with celebrities who find it easy to attract an audience due to the national/international exposure they get on a daily basis anyway. *takes deep breath*

But while he is doing a good deed to help millions of people, it is leaving PTs bewildered as to what to do with their own skillset and how to get their revenue flows back to normal.

Well, people tuning into Joe Wicks and other online celebrity trainers are in a way helping you prepare for when the storm passes over. If you do the right preparation now.

Clients who were training with a personal trainer before are probably watching similar home work videos online someone from some other popular YouTuber and those who have never had a personal training session before might also jump in and start doing some home work outs.

While Joe Wicks is helping millions of people, for those wanting real results, he doesn't really keep participants accountable week on week. Nothing can beat a 1-on-1 sit down with a personal trainer, discussing your goals, successes and failures in a real gym environment. 

You know your audience better than people like Joe Wicks. You know exactly what they need and want to achieve their lifestyle goals and you have the capability to programme for them.

We all have different challenges we want to overcome, different journeys we have been on and the different aspirations we have. Online personal training in this way doesn't get to the core of these really important aspects of providing personal training

Specificity is the key to getting more eyeballs on your content in this climate

There's isn't really any specificity with most of these home workout videos which are being launched by the minute on YouTube, meaning they are not aimed at a custom demographic of people - they're basically for everyone to just 'be active'.

Now is a great time to start thinking about your speciality and putting something together which laser targets your ideal clients problems and presents the solutions.

 It's pointless now just publishing general home workout routines, it'll be lost in an ocean of videos released daily with the same old exercises to some different music - general homework outs is a saturated niche now...don't do it!

Now is a great time to start thinking about your speciality and putting something together which laser targets your ideal clients problems and presents the solutions. It's pointless now just publishing any general home workout routine, it'll be lost in an ocean of videos released daily with the same old exercises to some different music track.

Instead creating another home workout guide or video, create content based on specific goals and outcomes of the people you help and translating that into something they can do at home. 

You can then position your product against the flow of generic home video workouts which in essence teach very similar things; high knees, burpees, star jumps, press ups  - this will make your specific solution instantly stand out with the right messaging which talks RESULTS.. 

Ensure your audience knows that you are aware of their specific problem and you know what they are going through and how your 'home workout' is best served to help them overcome said problem while the lock-down is in place.

Using creative engagement

If you're a fan of going live on Facebook or YouTube, why not make your session interactive? 

Instead of going through a tailored plan, give your audience the chance to vote on which exercise they want to do next, get feedback in the comments and really separate yourself from trainers who just pump out the content without any kind of engagement/interaction.

This instantly gives you a USP in relation to someone joining in on your workout...interaction is important, especially when doing harder exercises.

Live personal training is going nowhere!

It's about selling a live experience. Selling the fact you are there for them on their journey and in their corner all the way to help guide them, shape them, mould them into the person they really want to be. To achieve peak state in essence.

Online coaching can never replace the true interactions with a client - despite what you see desperately advertised on Facebook by supposed gurus trying to cash in on the current climate.

Doing star jumps, high-knees, burpees and even more advanced systems via home work outs on zoom is not going to replace a physical personal trainer's live, on-the-spot knowledge and wont allow them to come on the journey with you. That's a HUGE part of personal training.

Watching videos of trainers telling you how to 'do exercises correctly' won't correct any on-the-spot bad form which could result in injury, nor will those partaking in online courses really be able to have that valuable 1-2-1 rapport building during a session.

I'm not saying online courses are not worth doing, on the contrary...as well as selling course access far and wide, they can definitely serve as a gateway to more high-end, in-person training, it can also act as a deal breaker when someone signs up for a block of sessions, you can throw the online learning in for free as well - increasing value.

There are some online courses where you do not really need to do it live, you could look at topics like web design, facebook advertising and other related subject which can be caught solely via a course. Personal training is a completely different animal.

People want the human connection...especially now!

People are always going to want live, accountable personal training. Online courses are a fantastic additional resource for you to have, but many 'experts' telling you to ditch the gym floor and just get everyone online - no wonder people struggle to communicate with one another these days...

Those clients who were doing PT on the gym floor with you previously will no doubt return to their schedule once all this passes as they will undoubtedly see little to no real development in terms of their fitness goals.

The lock down is also causing a lot of unwanted stress and anxiety for most people, so previous PT clients and others who have been on the fence will be more than happy to get back to paying you for some much needed 1-on-1 time, and those getting into fitness may just need a little nudge to get them through the door and booking a block of session with you on the back of them getting into a 'type of routine'.

Even if it means introducing a post-corona special offer. You'd be surprised how people can find the money and time for the things they really want and something which will offer a life change. It's all about your messaging and acting on any interest immediately.

Make sure your website or landing page is on point. You want your digital media to be doing a lot of the heavy work for you in terms of generating new views, subscribers and clients. 

If you're struggling with anything to do with "web design" and don't know where to begin, either join our step-by-step landing page creator programme.

So basically to sum up: