Corey Beasley“What I’ve Learned After 20 Years as a Personal Trainer”

Marketing Mistakes You Can’t Afford To Make

Issue11

Presented by and

Helping Your Clients to Define Their Health

Using Wellness Coaching to Help Clients Who Lack Confidence

Introduction

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Personal Trainer Magazine was cre-ated with you in mind. You love fitness. You feel rewarded when you help your clients reach their goals. You love the active lifestyle. And, you realize you can and deserve to make a great living while helping people add value to their lives.

For these reasons, PTM brings you the perfect combination of science, appli-cation, business and personal develop-ment skills.

Regardless of your niche in the fit-ness industry, you will find effective and easy-to-understand methods for enhancing the lives of others while you are personally fulfilled.

We welcome your comments, ques-tions and critique of PTM. This is your magazine. If you want to see something featured, please let us know. If you’d like to contribute, our editorial depart-ment would like to hear from you.

PUBLISHER NESTA and Spencer Institite

COMMUNICATION COORDINATORMichelle Adams

EDITORIAL DIRECTORScott Gaines

ART DIRECTORSuzan Savoia

EDITOR AND PROJECTS MANAGERElizabeth Carter

EDITORIAL SUPERVISORSScott Gaines

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERSuzan Savoia

COPY EDITORSElizabeth Carter

Contact: nestanews@nestacertified.com

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CONTENT

Marketing Mistakes You Can’t Afford To Make

Digital MarketingStrategies

12

14-17

Beyond Training Scott Gaines

4

20 Years as a Personal Trainer. Corey Beasley

6-10

Helping Your Clients to Define Their Health and Wellness Vision Statement

18-20

Strategies for Writing YourProfessional Biography

How Wellness Coaching is Similar to Fitness Coaching

20-21

21-25

Using Wellness Coaching to Help Clients Who Lack Confidence

27

How to Pick Your Personal Trainer Certification

31-32

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Prior to becoming a fitness educator, I was a personal trainer and fitness manager, at times managing a fitness department of over 40 train-ers. Over many years and several clubs, I’ve seen successful trainers help their clients achieve health, fitness and performance goals the cli-ent never thought possible. However, I also saw many very smart, well-educated and well-intentioned trainers become frustrated with their lack of clientele and income. As a fitness manager, it was my job to help all my trainers find success. In order to do that, I needed to take a critical look at those traits that separated the successful trainers from the unsuccessful. The goal of this series of articles is to share some of the things I’ve learned through the years, hopefully, to keep you from some of the frustration that many novice trainers face, and help you grow your business to new heights.

It wasn’t necessarily more education (which may seem strange for an educator to say). I saw many trainers with multiple degrees and certifications have a hard time keeping clients while others (let’s just say “greener”) trainers had full appointment books. Often I found it my job to better educate my successful trainers in exercise science and teach my well-educated trainers on what it took to build and maintain a successful training business.

Full disclosure - of the two types of trainers mentioned above (well-educated but not successful versus the not-so-educated but successful trainer), I originally would fall into the latter category. I came into this industry with a lot of passion as well as relatively strong science educa-tion. That being said, I struggled approaching potential clients, building rapport, presenting my services and making the sale. In many ways, had it not been for the wonderful support of my fitness manager at the time, I probably would not have been able to stay in the industry (but I’m certainly glad I did). Over time, I was able to slowly build a client base (I still would say I was not great at sales, but I was a good trainer, so once I got a client they stayed for quite some time and often referred friends). It was only after becoming a manager and working with a very bright assistant manager that we came up with a training protocol to make all of our trainers successful (we had the greatest 1-year personal training sales increase in company history). Furthermore, later when I went back to training at another facility, I had to implement these concepts myself. Unlike when I first started, I quickly built a client base from the ground up and became the number one trainer in my first full year.

Disclaimer: Everyone is different. Like all advice, if it doesn’t ring true to you, does not fit with your personality, then leave it. There are many pathways to success and I want to acknowledge that this may not be for everyone. These are simply the common traits that I, and others, have found to be common with all successful trainers.

Trait #1: Seeing yourself as more than a trainer, seeing yourself as a Fitness Consultant

It is important to understand the training relationship (between trainer and client) from the client’s point of view. The client (or potential client) is looking for the trainer to help them reach goals they’ve likely never achieved before. They are looking for someone to help guide them, push them and keep them safe. They are looking for a professional, who truly “knows their stuff” (that’s where the education comes in), to help them to their goals the quickest, safest way possible.

Unfortunately, trainers often forget or do not realize this dynamic. They develop a relationship and training becomes simply guiding a person from exercise to exercise, counting sets and reps.

Successful trainers act more like “fitness consultants”, seeing themselves as a problem solver. Like consultants hired in the business world, trainers are hired to find solutions (in this case, health, fitness and/or performance solutions). In order to find the proper solutions, consul-tants systematically seek information about the root causes of a problem (e.g. why can the client not meet their goals) and the interrelation-ships of factors impacting the situation. Consultants attack the problem systematically, by asking a series of questions to bring clarity to the situation. Trainers must do the same in the initial assessment process.

● What are the (quantifiable) goals/needs of the client? This is done be an exhaustive assessment protocol with clearly stated objectives for the client● What are the CAUSES of not currently meeting those Goals/Needs? Review with the client the reasons they feel they are not currently meeting their goals● What is/are the best Tactical Solution(s) to the problem(s) and what are the best ways to implement these so lutions? Describe in detail the plan (i.e. the customized workout program) you have designed to overcome these problems● Can we analyze the effectiveness of the implemented Tactical Solution? Detail how progress will be measured as well as how and when adjustments to the plan will be made

By having a “consultant’s mindset” the trainer establishes themselves as a true professional, who the client will see as the right person to help them bridge the gap from where they are now, to where they want to be.

Thanks for reading!

Scott Gaines, VP Program Development, NESTA

Beyond Training: Traits of Success Personal Trainers

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In most coaching models, we establish the need to determine a client’s values as being essential. This is not always as easy as it sounds. Looking inward to what we want to be ourselves can often reveal the real struggle to define what our own values are as coaches. Put that aside for a moment while we explore the steps involved in what our client experiences when we ask them to define their values.

It is a common goal for a client to state “I want to be a better person.” Is this enough for the coach to continue? We have to know what that means to them. In what ways does our client want to grow into being a better per-son? At the risk of sounding cliché, what does being a better person look like for the client? We let the client define what this means to them, it does not come from the coach. Others might say they want to be happier but what if their values are superficial or insincere? Working toward feeling better will not help this client to improve their life once they hit their goal, if their values are not fulfilling or meaningful.

Clients can get stuck at this point. As their coach, we can help them. We remind them that each moment of every day we choose what we do, what we want to focus on and where we want to use our energy – all accord-ing to our unique values. At the moment we decide to do anything – even if it’s nothing - we assign value to our thoughts and actions. Whether our client sits contemplating their life, they take a coffee break or go for a walk – their actions are still driven by what they value.

Values are typically reflected in the way we choose to conduct ourselves. Many times, we think and say what our values are but if they are not backed up by our actions, they become simply words. Could it be that maybe our values represent what we wish we really had, but don’t? We have to dig deeper with clients to fully understand not only what they value but the “why” part becomes pivotal. Once a coach notices that beliefs and ideas are disconnected from client actions and choices, we have to help them fill a gap that exists – often a sort of delu-sional view of themselves and their perceptions of the world at large.

But here is the honest truth: values are based on experience. Values can, therefore, be good (health or wellness goals) or bad (attaining status or being noticed); our clients cannot always see their values as healthy or harmful. As coaches, we do not judge a client’s values as good or bad, but it is helpful to remember that healthy values include those that are constructive and useful, somewhat controllable and have some basis in fact (evidence-based). If a client values good physical health, we know that exercising to reach this goal is constructive, con-trollable and has the science to support it being a good value to have.

Unhealthy values are those more aligned with emotions (which can be up or down), destructive habits, or behav-iors and habits that are generally uncontrolled. For example, someone may wrongly value social media status as an influencer, but what emotions make them a better person once they achieve it? What have they sacrificed to get it (potentially destructive) and how much control do they have over the will of others to see them as an influ-encer (uncontrolled)? When we are able to understand values on these two levels, it gives the coach tools they need when coaching clients to think more deeply about what they value. It’s a starting point, but it forms the basis of your coaching relationship with the client.

Thanks for reading!

Mark TeahanDirector of The Spencer Institute

Helping Clients to Realize Their Real Values

I have tried quite a few things over the years — working i n small studios, corporate gyms, in people’s homes, opened two gyms, teaching workshops, developed online programs, sold equipment, supplements and more. Some worked, some didn’t, but I never quit. Slowly over time, I’ve streamlined my approach, determined what made me happy, adjusted my schedule, continued learning and developed some pretty cool things that I am proud to be a part of. I hope by sharing my experiences, it will help other trainers continue improving their craft.

This profession is NOT easy, is incredibly competitive, but is a valuable asset that can positively impact people’s lives. We are physical people, but our sedentary lifestyles and poor habits are destroying us. Weight gain, energy, confidence, anxiety, depression, cancer, heart disease, and other ailments are overwhelming our society and getting people to move is essential, if we want these things t o improve.

- Corey Beasley

The NEW Guy

After completing his degree at the University of Iowa, Corey Beasley quickly realized that he did not want to pursue a career related to recreational therapy. A summertime internship working with a variety of people with disabilities was a fulfilling, but exhausting experience.

He took a variety of odd jobs and was unsure of how or where to find a consistent job. One day, while buying a pair of running shoes, the owner asked how things were going. Corey shared his frustration of finding a job that fit his interest and the owner referred him to a local personal training studio.

Corey reached out and talked with a guy named Tony Bruno. Corey had some related education but no experience training or certifications. Tony invited Corey in for an interview, so Corey showed up early, in a suit, and somehow convinced Tony to bring him on as an intern.

Corey spent the next few months shadowing Tony, digesting Paul Chek videos and reading a variety of training books and resources. This experience allowed him to interact with people and learn what to do, why and when in order to help people achieve their goals. Tony was straight forward, patient and incredibly helpful during his learning process. Toward the end of his internship, Corey took his first certification course called RTS (Resistance Training Specialist).

Once he received his certification, Tony began slowly feeding Corey clients. These were clients that were healthy and simply looking to get in shape. After each session, Tony and Corey would connect and discuss how the session went. This allowed him to quickly improve and develop some foundational habits of being a personal trainer.

After a couple of years at Personalized Fitness with Tony and his crew, a large corporate gym called Lifetime Fitness had opened up across town and Corey decided that he wanted to train at this new facility.

Big Corporate Gym

Lifetime Fitness was the polar opposite of the small studio that Corey had gotten his feet wet in. 20,000 square feet, hundreds of machines, locker rooms, spa, salon, restaurant, pools, climbing walls and more. This place was new in town and seemed larger than life for a new trainer.

Corey worked hard and enjoyed the energy of the large health club. He was one of 30 personal trainers and spent his first few months getting used to the new systems and environment. Trainers worked on commission and were expected to stir up business and hit their quotas each month. This was a new skill set that Corey struggled to grasp at the beginning.

After several months, Corey developed more relationships with the members, the training staff and developed the sales skills needed to survive in the corporate environment. This was an interesting point in Corey’s career. He hit his numbers but wasn’t inspired by sales. He lost touch with the education that was a priority at his previous facility and was simply hitting his numbers and not growing much as a trainer.

He spent 3 years at Lifetime Fitness before leaving and trying things on his own.

20 Years as a Personal Trainer

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On Your Own

After leaving Lifetime Fitness, Corey began training a few people privately in their homes. After a few years of sales and corporate life, the simplicity of working with people in their homes seemed like the ideal situation. His clients were mainly business owners that he had worked with over the years, so the sessions were pretty easy.

Although this initially seemed like the right decision, Corey quickly realized that the income was inconsistent and he lacked the marketing or business skills he needed to make things work. Lifetime Fitness had thousands of members and gaining new clients was relatively easy. On his own, he had no real plan of attack.

After struggling to make ends meet, Corey supplemented his income by taking a job at a local fitness equipment store. This involved selling treadmills and other home fitness equipment. While the small additional income was helpful, it was far from fulfilling.

Corey was struggling to make ends meet when a friend visited in the winter of 2006. When he flew into O’hare airport, it was 1 degree and blowing snow.

“Corey, why the hell do you live here? This is terrible!” His friend asked.

Corey laughed and said, “This is where I grew up.”

After talking for a few hours, his friend called Corey out, saying that he was not living up to his potential. You’re training a couple of people and standing around selling gym equipment, but you can do way more!

He invited Corey to move out to California, live in one of his rental properties and see what if he could make some things happen in a new environment.

Off to California

Why? Distractions. Cut the cord.

After their initial conversation, Corey sold all of his belongings, packed up his car and left for California. He had no plan, but realized he needed to do something different.

After arriving in California, Corey was excited about the change of environment but struggled to find his place. He worked odd jobs for several months, burned through his savings and eventually realized that he needed to find a place to train.

He searched all over Southern California before finding an independent gym in Irvine California called Next Level Fitness. This facility allowed independent trainers to rent space and had high energy and seemed like the best fit. The only challenge was that it was 1-2 hours each way from the house that Corey lived in and Corey had zero contacts or clients.

Corey started training in May of 2007, eager to make things work. This was basically a sink or swim situation. Corey put his head down and did everything he could think of to get people in the gym.

He spent countless hours on the computer, reaching out to people via Craigslist, Facebook, stirring up referrals and learning from gym owners and coaches. This was a humbling period, but he was determined to make things work.

Corey’s work ethic started to pay off after about 60 days of effort. People were coming in, referring their friends and his schedule was quickly filling up. Within 6 months, Corey had a full schedule and was earning $12,000 per month.

At this point, Corey decided to move to Irvine, drop the commute and keep pushing. Once his schedule was full, he started to interview other trainers and received a percentage of their rent at the gym. He also hired a couple of other coaches to train incoming clients. Things really seemed to be going well and the momentum that he sought was happening.

20 Years as a Personal Trainer

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After a couple of years at Next Level Fitness, Corey partnered up with another busy coach and decided to try their luck on their own. They thought that a coordinated attack would help them both grow and achieve more.

They leased space from two different gyms and tried to expand their reach. During this time, they had hired a few trainers and were learning about building a brand, streamlining processes and doing their best to adjust to the changing marketplace.

Lessons Learned: Be consistent and work your tail off. The majority of trainers will do a little work, then get distracted by a variety of things. Create big goals, then work feverishly until you make them happen. As an individual contractor, your time is limited, so make the most of it.

Let’s Open a Gym

At the beginning of their time in Irvine, the market was thriving and gaining clients was like shooting fish in a barrel, but after the financial crash in 2008, the climate changed.

Clients fell off, gym owner felt the pressure and one of the gyms that we were leasing space from decided to significantly raise the rent. After weighing their options, Corey and his business partner decided that it was time to open their own space.

Within three weeks they found a location, negotiated a lease, got permits from the city and opened their first gym. It was hectic, unknown territory and there was a lot on the line. They forced the opening, to avoid paying double rent at their current gyms and the new space. The first few days they had a few pieces of equipment, a concrete floor and nothing on the walls.

During the first few months, they worked night and day to make things better. Buying equipment slowly, painting the walls and laying out the floors. The goal was every time people came, there would be something new. They scratched and clawed their way until the gym was self-sufficient. They had a small following, were able to pay the bills and continued to improve any aspect they could including business, marketing, outreach, networking, client experience, branding and more. Hours were long, profits fed gym growth and both owners got a healthy dose of reality.

Many trainers idolize the idea of owning their own gym, but the reality is that most gym owners go in ignorant, uneducated and inexperienced when it comes to running a successful facility.

The gym continued to grow, mainly through simple hard work and stubborn determination.

Slowly improving our systems, website, marketing, team, environment, and other aspects were paying off. The gym grew, the brand started to develop and people were starting to talk about Innovative Results.

One of the niches that really took off, was our involvement with combat sports. Fighters and grapplers from the area began flooding into the gym and over time, we had a wall full of fight shirts, shorts, gloves, banners and more. It really gave the gym a unique brand that some people loved.

As our first lease came to an end, we decided that we should expand into a larger facility, but agreed that we would need to rebrand to separate ourselves from the competition.

Lesson Learned: Get out of your comfort zone. Opening a gym involves much more than developing workouts and counting reps. You’ll probably be forced to learn and make decisions on a long list of things that need to be accounted for. Be open and prepared to learn and use relationships to navigate accordingly.

Building the Active Playground

When developing the plan for our second gym, we both agreed that we needed to drop the MMA vibe and really create an environment that separated them from the onslaught of Crossfit gyms in our area. At the time, there were 42 Crossfit gyms within 2 miles, so warehouse-style gyms were not a good idea.

After lots of brainstorming, they decided to steer the gym towards active lifestyles. They understood that the majority of people don’t really like traditional gyms. They wanted to be healthy, active and strong but weren’t into traditional bodybuilding routines and cardio. Crossfit and boot camps weren’t their style so they paved a new path. Their personal interests included mountain biking, climbing and a variety of outdoor activities, which lead us to develop a gym that helped people become more active and healthy.

When most people think about getting in shape, they join a gym. Over the past 40 years, bodybuilding, aerobics, powerlifting, and weightlifting dominated the marketplace, but that’s not the only way to get in shape. There are so many other ways to be active. We can hike, run, cycle, swim, dance, climb, surf, paddleboard, do martial arts, play tennis and more. Not only are these activities physical, but they are fun!

They had the gym laid out by a 3D graphic artist, negotiated the lease, and jumped in with both feet. 6800sq ft of open space, playground equipment, and other resistance tools that they had gathered over the years. They had sleds, ropes, monkey bars, climbing ropes, parallel

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bars, kettlebells, sandbags, weights and more. The place looked like your dream backyard, but it didn’t happen overnight.

Starting out, the largest obstacle was building locker rooms that included toilets, sinks, and showers. The lack of organization in this area almost sunk their ship. It took much longer than expected and significantly exceeded their budget, not to mention half the gym is under construction when they opened.

Developing a facility involves much more than working out.

That being said, they stayed the course and developed a beautiful, unique facility that clients and coaches from around the world enjoyed. Not only did they build a loyal clientele, but they also were able to host workshops from a variety of top educators, including Dr. Andreo Spina, Martin Rooney, Josh Henkin, Dr. Perry Mickleson, Kettlebell World Champions, and more.

As the gym grew, priorities also shifted. Both partners had growing families, took on other projects and became distracted. A lack of communication and common vision put a strain on their partnership. After many months of disagreement, Corey decided to cut ties with Innovative Results.

Lesson Learned: Sometimes you win and other times you learn. Business partnerships are like marriages. It is essential that all parties involved have clear expectations and communication is high. It’s also essential to partner with people that are ethical and share the same values as yourself.

A Handful of Privates and a Garage Gym

Many people think they need to grind all the time and over complicate things. Truth is, they should simply step back, determine what is needed and adjust their course.

What/who really makes you happy?

Focus on these tasks or people, embrace them, give them fuel and do everything you can to develop these areas of your life.

What/who creates stress or fatigue in your life?

Eliminate these tasks or people from your life. Outsource tasks that you are not good at or have no interest in performing.

After thinking about his personal current situation, Corey went back to the basics.

Do you need a big fancy gym? Not necessarily. Corey organized his garage into a simple space to train the fighters, but he didn’t want to abuse the neighbors by having people coming and going all day long. He currently works with his athletes on Tuesday and Thursday from 12-2 pm.

Corey also started training a few private clients that had been with him for several years. The private training sessions were a nice change of pace from the groups and classes. He is able to really focus on one person and help them get the most out of each session. This quickly grew by referral and Corey now trains between three and four clients privately in their home or outdoors.

In addition to the live training, Corey wanted to diversify his efforts and develop a few projects online. Fightcampconditioning.com - Expanding Online

When the theme and branding of the second gym changed, Corey did not want to alienate the combat sports athletes. There was an enormous need for strength and conditioning information for fighters and grapplers.

Corey wanted to develop an authority site to showcase strength coaches and other professionals that work with combat athletes. His idea was to interview, share articles and film videos with these coaches to provide quality information to athletes and coaches. The idea was great and he was excited to share, but with any new project comes new learning.

Corey had developed a few websites for the gym over the years, but had little to no experience running a profitable website. He scoured the internet, attended workshops, and talked with anyone that could potentially help. Over the years the website grew, evolved and changed. The website includes hundreds of blogs, podcasts, landing pages, digital products, physical products and more.

This allowed Corey to connect with coaches all over the world and learn from their discussions, articles, videos and more. While Corey enjoyed live workshops at Innovative Results, technology now allows him to connect with more people in less time. That being said, it’s important for trainers and coaches to not be enamored by the flashy excitement of online endeavors.

Websites and online programs require an enormous amount of work. Just like a gym, the site requires constant planning, development, editing, and improvements. Content development, Social media, client experience, giveaways, networking, advertising, and other aspects require planning, long hours, a careful eye and lots of testing. Lessons Learned: Online endeavors require new skill sets and a ton of hard work, just like owning a physical gym. Don’t blindly believe all the ads and hype from online gurus. There will be aspects that you like and some things that just need to get done. You will have good days and bad days. Not everything you try will work, but if you stay consistent and continue to evolve, things will improve.

After several years and lots of different positions, Corey’s current schedule includes a combination of private training, small groups in the garage and online work. He works with a handful of high-end personal clients and enjoys one on one interaction. He also outfitted his garage to continue working with his athletes. Fight Camp Conditioning continues to thrive, and Corey has a variety of people helping to accelerate the growth of that platform.

The combination of tasks provides a flexible schedule and keeps every day interesting. Every day involves a little training, a little office work and a little time with his growing family. For now, this schedule works well, provides a good living for his family and provides a variety of stimuli throughout the week. Lessons Learned: Diversify your efforts and create your ideal schedule. There are lots of ways to earn a living as a coach/trainer and we can add value to people’s lives in many ways. Be open, look around, try different things, focus on the situations that make you happy, eliminate the fluff and create your ideal life. I guarantee it won’t always be easy, but it will be worth it.

20 Years as a Personal Trainer

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Marketing Mistakes You Can’t Afford To MakeNo matter how long you have been in business or how successful your training or coaching business is, if you stop marketing, you will very quickly see the effects of lost profits and sales. You will lose ground to your competition. In the competitive market today, you simply cannot afford to not market.

In virtually every area of business, there will be pitfalls along the way. Marketing is no exception. By knowing how to market and how to avoid these marketing mistakes, you will save energy, disappointment – and money.

Mistake #1: Eliminating marketing efforts when times get tight.When cash flow slows, advertising, direct mail and other forms of marketing are the easiest expenses to reduce, right? But cut these, and you eliminate the very activities that will bring in new clients to turn your business around. This is the time when you may be spending more time analyzing the results of your marketing efforts. But by stopping marketing efforts, you will be setting yourself up for the additional loss of business.

Mistake #2: Not measuring results.Don’t wait until times get tight to start measuring the results of your marketing efforts. By constantly analyzing these, you will be able to reinvest in what is working and drop those that aren’t. Ask clients how they found your business, and then track the results. Use in-store or online coupons, or host a focus group of a variety of clients to discover what attracts them to your services.

Mistake #3: Putting all your marketing dollars in one area.If your entire marketing budget is used on just one method of promoting your training business, you won’t realize the highest return on your investment. Diversifying your efforts will increase the frequency and reach of your messages and stretch your marketing dollars.

Businesses can get hooked into one large advertising program with a local newspaper, magazine or radio station, and put the majority of their marketing dollars there. They feel as if they have to advertise with the same media source, just because they always have or fear they will lose ground since their competitors are advertising there as well. I have actually known some business owners that stay with a company for fear of upsetting their sales associate. Remember, it’s your money and your investment. Don’t ever let anyone talk you into an advertising program that is not producing the best results for your business.

Many training or coaching business owners tell me they only do a few direct-mail programs a year, targeted to their existing client base. Your client base and mailing list is gold, make sure you have budgeted a large part of your marketing dollars to advertise to your existing clients. They already love you, so keep them coming in by sending promotional (promotional – not just sale) postcards to them at least six times a year.

Mistake #4: Allowing your ego to get in the way of common sense.Ego can tempt a very bright person to do dumb things. Your marketing decisions should be based on factors that will positively impact some areas of your business – usually the bottom line. Buying full-page ads or covers featuring yourself and not focusing on your unique offerings may result in money out the window.

Mistake #5: Not getting help when you need it.If you find you’re too busy to handle your marketing efforts or that your materials aren’t looking as professional as they should, it’s time to call in the reinforcements. Hire a full-or part-time employee to allow you more free time to work on the “business end” or hire an independent business consultant to bring in new concepts and fresh ideas.

Your Training CareerCheck out what it takes to start a career in personal fitness training. This is your most affordable and fastest way to become a highly qualified personal trainer.

There is always something exciting about earning a new training or coaching certification and applying that new knowledge of how you train your clients. This also helps you hit the reset button.

NESTA and Spencer Institute coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

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Making a business profitable and successful requires a great deal of promotion, which is why there are so many different marketing strategies that have been developed throughout the years in order to make it happen.

This is no different for coaches and consultants; their businesses require a lot of exposure to get to their target audiences and that is why digital marketing has become such a helpful tool: it can provide the kind of promotion and exposure that any type of business requires in order to be successful without having to spend as much money as you would do through conventional mediums.

This article is dedicated to teaching four proven ways for consultants to market their business online and attract more qualified leads, how to build trust and demonstrate credibility without face-to-face interaction, what you can do to scale your marketing efforts, and have your digital presence work for you while you’re delivering projects.

What digital marketing has on traditional relationship building is that it scales. With a great guest post, podcast, or article, you can prove your expertise and build trust with hundreds of leads at a time.

Why should you engage in digital marketing? Because it can help you solve your biggest business challenge as a consultant which is attracting and developing new businesses or clients.Frequently, consultants and coaches firms build a new website that functions as an online business card, and usually, many of these websites are little more than digital brochures with a contact form. In numbers, 96% of B2B small business websites don’t offer guides, white papers, or similar reports on their home pages.

Consultants

There are “Four consultants must” that need to be followed in the search of getting better results on marketing:

● Networking● Writing● Speaking● Trade Associations

In the following section, we’re going to explain to you everything you need to know about these four different elements.

Networking: Digital Outreach

Networking is more than a marketing method for consultants, and most of all, it’s the lifeblood of their business. If you understand how to network in a personal manner, then you can do it online. The best thing about doing digital outreach (also known as “the cold email”) is that it allows you to reach people you otherwise would not have been able to reach.

You can use tools to find email addresses from almost any website. And don’t forget about LinkedIn, either using InMail or sending a connection request. Email typically gets a higher response than InMail.

Some of the best benefits that you’re going to get from networking are:

● A lot more reach.● The capacity to reach people that you probably wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.● Stablishing professional connections.

Writing: Content MarketingContent marketing is a fancy word for “writing online with the goal of educating potential clients with the intention of turning them into buyers.” Statistically, 80% of B2B decision makers prefer to get information from articles rather than advertising. This rings especially true for consultants.

It’s hard to find a marketing method more efficient for consultants than writing. Using a tool as scalable as your website as your publishing vehicle makes content marketing a no brainer. As a consultant, prospects and potential buyers need to know that you’re an expert in your field so that you can help solve their problems. Reading your articles helps them feel more at-ease hiring you.

You can not only write content for your website, but you can also do it in a blog where you can offer a more casual and closer perspective of what your business is all about, thus establishing a stronger connection with your clients. Of course, there are many different benefits from this:

● If you decide to use SEO, there are higher possibilities of people finding your website through internet searches.● A lot more exposure.● Answering your audience’s questions and that is going to result in a better relationship with them.

Speaking: Podcasting

Speaking in front of 20-30 prospects is an almost a guaranteed way to pick up consulting work. The tool of podcasting, allows you to speak in front of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of prospects.

Look for consulting podcasts or podcasts related to your industry. Pitch the podcasts host on having you as a guest. Don’t talk about your education and your skills. Talk about what their audience wants to learn and how you can help them with your expertise.To maximize the effectiveness of your podcast appearances,

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at the end of the podcast, ask the listeners to visit a special follow-up link. This link on your website should give them a way to follow up with you. Prompt them to sign up for your email list, schedule a free consultation, or add you on LinkedIn. Some of the biggest benefits are:

● Engaging with your audience in a more casual and immediate manner.● Better explanations of your brand, of what you can offer and how you offer it.● Answering people’s questions, providing the information they might not be familiar with and overall putting your brand out there.

Trade Associations -> Guest PostingIf you don’t get a lot of traffic to your website and are looking for some initial traffic, you can “borrow” the audience of trade associations and other industry blogs to bring you more visibility. Associations like IMC, CMC, and AIBP are good examples of what these organizations offer online. They have guest publications, newsletters, member forums, etc.

Trade associations exist online, and if you can join one, you’ll find many opportunities for both networking and marketing. Look for ones you can join, and contribute by guest posting. Make sure your guest post features a link back to your website.

Many of the benefits are the ones that you can imagine:

● A lot more exposure.● Creating professional connections with other brands.● Having a better understanding of how to get your work out there, relate to others and generate more leads to your website.

The great thing about digital marketing for consultants is that you don’t have to try a million different tactics. Do at least 3 of these methods. Or even better — master two of them. You want to be efficient with the time you spend marketing yourself online. You can’t do that if you keep trying new things and don’t get good at a few proven methods.

Coaching

A business coach works with small to medium sized business owners on improving various skills, but marketing in particular. Most business owners that we speak to are usually excellent in what they do, but have a lack of experience in marketing and that department usually suffers as a consequence.

Most of all know that the web design industry is competitive, fiercely competitive. It is also mostly made up of graphic designers and IT people with a technical background. One thing to bear in mind when dealing with a company from this background is that they probably couldn’t care less whether your website works or not, their primary motivation is to have a website that looks good on their own portfolio.

It’s important to you the way evolve your online presence with a customized digital marketing strategy. We start with a thorough assessment that analyzes your digital footprint.

Then, we’ll work together to establish your core business objectives, and use those to design a strategic plan that includes: comprehensive audience profiles, strategic key performance indicators, content marketing frameworks, and your ideal marketing channel mix to enhance more and better results on a scale that reaches your expectations.Furthermore, when talking to a client, it is crucial to adopt a specific tone that is not too formal, that you appear elusive, yet respectable at the same time. In addition to managing the content clients, experts know smart reputation management techniques to deal with the unhappy ones.

You can increase your credibility tremendously if a negative review is handled tactfully and customers are pacified by addressing their issues with your company.

Some of the biggest platforms and tactics that you can use to grow as a consultant on a digital scale are:

● Social media platforms.● Email marketing.● Blogging.

We are going to give you an explanation of how you can use all of these options in order to get more leads and a lot more exposure to the digital landscape.

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Social media Platforms

We all have a profile in at least one social media platform, whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or whatnot. Nowadays, these are the platforms and areas on the internet where there is the most influx of information and where you can reach a lot of people, so it’s essential that you tap into that from the moment that you decide to take your brand on a digital scale.

Not only you create a profile, but you also share the content of your website, you interact with your target audience and you can answer all the different questions they might have, which is something fairly common if you decide to focus on the coach profession.

We can say that social media is where the action is at and that is where you must be if you want to generate a lot more engagement, trying to connect with your target audience and building up a following that is going to provide the leads that you desire.

Some of the main benefits are:

● A lot more engagement.● The possibility of sharing your content to a wider audience.● Giving your brand a more professional perception to the public.

Email Marketing

There is a common theme that email marketing is outdated and not as useful as it once was, but when it comes to your work as a coach, we can safely say that email marketing is still very relevant and it can provide the kind of input that fit your business the best.

Why are we saying this? Mostly because working as a coach can lead to a very intimate business relationship with your clients, which is why it’s recommendable to contact your target audience on a private scale, which is something you can do through email and where you can also share with them more specific content, such as special offers, contracts, discounts and elements of that nature.

Digital Marketing Strategies forCoaches & Consultants

Some of the biggest benefits of email marketing include:

● A more intimate relationship with your business clients.● A better sense of communication because you can provide more specific answers.● An easier influx of information.

Blogging

Blogging can be one of the best alternatives to get your brand out there and to explain all the different services that you can offer, which is something that you must do to get a lot more exposure and overall have a better relationship with your target audience in the short, medium and long term.

You don’t require a lot of resources to start a blog, especially if you decide to start one at Blogger or WordPress, and you can promote through multiple social media platforms and email marketing, as we have stated before. You can use this blog to answer multiple questions, to engage in a more effective way and give multiple explanations of how your business works, thus achieving the following benefits:

● Space where you can offer quality content in a different structure to a website or social media platforms.● Better engagement with your target audience.● A lot more exposure, especially if you decide to use SEO to be more visible.

There are many different ways to reach your audience and that is one of the reasons that digital marketing has proven to be so useful for so many types of businesses: it gives you the possibility of becoming a major success if you play your cards well, without having the budget or other types of resources that the big brands have.

It’s all about work, dedication and putting the commitment that every single entrepreneur needs to succeed in this world and if you decide to start a career as a consultant or as a coach, then this is the way to go for you.

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Helping Your Clients to Define Their Health and Wellness Vision Statement

Your client’s wellness vision can determine many things. It can define a self-image, it can define the desired behavior also if you want it to.

A vision can also define an outcome goal. As an example, it could be something specific like “I want to lose 5 pounds”.

What is a Vision?

Visions also define motivation and in fact, it has to define and include those things that will keep your client on track. Questions like, ”Why do you want to do this?” Or, “Why is it important for you to play with your kids?”, are good examples of questions that coaches can use to help the client come to an outcome goal or vision.

The client’s typical responses might come back as ”So that I can be a better role model for my kids”. In this case, the client’s response back to you is defining what their motivation is. It can also include obstacles.

We very rarely want to dwell on the negatives while coaching in this particular area of cultivating our client’s vision, but in reality, we need to know what our client feels about barriers and obstacles that they may face. This is a really good and realistic way to look forward at what can get in the way.

If we account for obstacles and barriers upfront and recognize this as part of the overall vision statement, we can then move to the next part of it, meaning that we can explore strategies to help our clients through these obstacles or barriers that they will face.

Strategizing for obstacles and barriers is good responsible coaching. So what are some strategies that you can put in place to overcome the particular obstacles that your client will find getting in the way of their attempts to change a particular behavior? A wellness vision has to include strengths. A coach will ask the client,” What have you used in the past to achieve these goals”?

By helping the client to uncover behaviors that they are already proficient at and then accounting for them as part of their overall wellness vision, we are also increasing our client’s confidence level that they can succeed toward this goal.

Again, it’s a lot like small pieces in the puzzle that come together to provide a stronger motivation and support system for behavior change in our client.

Determination and Organization

Both determination and organization are two things that tend to really be helpful for someone when they are trying to follow a plan toward behavior change, especially one that would represent long-lasting or lifelong change.

Use assessments or informally go through all of the items involved in your client’s mission. Instruct the client to rank each item as indicated for each assessment. Have your clients indicate their thoughts for where they are at currently in each of the different categories being assessed.

The main goal of this activity is for you to help the client in creating a vision for themselves. What you are trying to do here is to just take one element of the list at a time and to put it under a microscope.

If your client has indicated a low score on a certain item, ask them to think about how they could change this to

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The clients that we serve deserve our very best. Therefore this course is designed to bring forward the changes in the wellness coaching industry that are required for us to be able to move forward and gain credibility that we seek while observing the most recent methods used in coaching. The wellness coaching industry continues to move forward to provide better solutions for coaches in order to increase our effectiveness while improving how we are perceived by those who are not familiar with wellness coaching.

The wellness coaching industry currently is so full of different or alternative solutions available to the coaching process, leaving wellness coaches unsure of all the possibilities available to them in order to provide their clients with improved quality of life and overall better health and wellness.

To be able to develop those close relationships or partnerships with our clients we need to provide structure, accountability, expertise and even inspiration, in order to help our clients learn to grow and to improve upon what he or she is currently doing. Again, as a reminder, we use the term coaches to include the entire field of all health coaches, fitness coaches, wellness coaches or anyone in the field of coaching a client in ways that target health, fitness, and wellness.

But we also need to be able to provide different, or more, definitions that are also important for us to know, in order to be aware of different coaching styles that show high levels of success and then to be able to set a higher benchmark for all of the different areas of coaching, and of course, most specifically wellness coaching.Health Coaching involves those who practice with accredited professionals and work to apply evidence of psychological counseling and coaching. These coaches typically help subjects that are considered more like patients than clients.Fitness Coaching and Personal Training - some fitness coaches also consider themselves to be wellness coaches. This greatly depends on how you work with the client.

Wellness Coaching includes those who work with clients who basically want to improve some behaviors that they are currently doing. The more formal definition of wellness coaching is that it is focused on coaching behaviors that include exercise, weight control, and stress. Wellness coaches, by definition, do not simply tell people what to do or how to live. A wellness coach should only offer advice as an expert when it is necessary to help the client and when the information comes from within the field that the wellness coach has a technical background.

Wellness coaching is similar to fitness coaching, in that it uses a lot of the same principles and skills - but coaches deliver fitness coaching to clients when they are actually training someone, and this is a little bit different than what the wellness coach would do. You should come to think of wellness coaching as being a conversation with your clients.

For many clients, you will be rethinking the ways that you work. If you are a fitness trainer, for example, you may work with someone while instructing them on what to do, with the aim of hitting a fitness goal or increasing your client’s fitness levels overall. It’s not wellness coaching. We are more likely to sit down and ask our client questions and to talk with the client. This is the bulk of what wellness coaching is made up of.

A wellness coach should have a defined, interactive space and be able to have one-on-one quality time with their clients and to be able to coach them, using an information-gathering process. There is a lot that our clients will need to tell us that will help us to design a program or strategy and then to work with them as they move towards their specific wellness goals.

It’s important to recognize these different definitions of coaching. There are other forms of coaching, too. Often times people tend to lump life coaches into the field of wellness coaching or even those who mentor. Life Coaching was a growing field and developed along lines that show differences when compared to the job description of a wellness coach, with the main differences being that a life coach will work toward, or touch upon, areas of health and fitness concerns, but they often do not have formalized training in exercise physiology, nutritional sciences or the psychological principles that are applied to exercise habits, stress management, weight loss or food intake concerns. The delivery of coaching services from a life coach would be more rooted in the personal values of the client, such as work, home, and family life. Overall, the goal in life coaching is to help the client so that their lives can become more fulfilling.

With mentoring, we see a different role being fulfilled. In the mentoring relationship with the client, the entire approach is different. This would be more like a teacher or instructor as they provide the expert answers that some clients are looking for, based on the mentor’s experiences and knowledge. Sometimes mentoring is criticized due to the fact that we see mentors taking responsibility so that their clients don’t have to.

Personal training is also a form of coaching and is known to involve concepts tied to helping the client and to motivate them toward a particular fitness goal. Trainers prescribe fitness routines or a certain program to achieve a fitness-based outcome or goal. It’s not a big leap for a personal trainer or fitness trainer to become a wellness coach, as many personal trainers tend to have excellent people skills, as well as the communication skills which are vital to being an effective wellness coach.If we were to try to define wellness coaching further, it would open up a real can of worms - because wellness is typically used to describe anything that can go on in our daily lives.

How Wellness Coaching is Similar to Fitness Coaching

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improve their score or rank. Then, think about creating a vision statement around that particular item.

As an example, let’s say that your client has indicated stress as problematic in their daily lives. They may say to themselves that they are only at a 5/10 because they feel that they are not sleeping very well, they are not as relaxed, or they may display a little bit more temper at times towards friends and family.

The client’s vision might be something like “I would like to learn to manage my stress levels in a more productive way so that my sleeping patterns are less disturbed and so that I can interact with family members and coworkers without losing my temper or snapping at them, or so that my relationship with these people can be better”.

Try to dig deeper as to why the client would like that particular area to be a higher score, or why the client wants to change in that area. “What do you think will happen if you continue doing what you’re doing, or if you do not make a change? What will it be like if you do change this behavior”? What about being able to sleep better would change how you perceive your stress level?”

Spend a fair amount of time on clarifying your clients’ vision. You can even have the client write a short paragraph that is written in the first person.

Writing Out the Vision Statement

With barriers in mind, have the client write what they think could get in the way of them reaching an outcome goal for behavior change. In this scenario mentioned above, consider having the client write down some of the things that actually cause stress in their life and what some strategies are to effectively overcome these stressors.

There is no right or wrong way to construct a vision statement, so encourage the client to communicate openly. You may also want to have your clients think about what they truly want as a result of clearly defining their vision and as a result of being willing to work on changes in their unwanted behaviors.

Putting it All Together

When we began to work with a client as their wellness coach, it is essential that we understand not only what

wellness coaching is or the history that brings us to our current state of evolution, but those skills that are required to understand the client better.

Try to also consider aspects of behavior change. Most people do want to change unhealthy behaviors and they more than likely know what to do. Sometimes coaches assume that their clients don’t know what to do or we see that they don’t know how to move forward with changing a certain behavior.

When this occurs, we run the risk of being bogged down in the “ information sharing” process. The reality and truth are, most people already know the basics involved in maintaining good health.

This will mean that you will be needing to assess your client in a number of ways. Although you will need to assess the client with physical biometrics as well, the psychological component involved is simply too important to be overlooked.

With experience, you will learn to efficiently assess your clients in order to maximize the results of your coaching efforts. This all begins by understanding why the client would like to make a change from the onset.

How You Can Help

Becoming a Certified Wellness Coach is the perfect addition for the fitness professional who wants to offer more all-inclusive wellness services to clients. The time is now for you to enjoy this exciting and rewarding career, which offers you personal fulfillment while improving the lives of others.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out what it takes to start a career in personal fitness training. This is your most affordable and fastest way to become a highly qualified personal trainer.

NESTA coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

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Wellness coaching is the mastery of the client’s well-being, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual activities. The goal with your client is towards a regular practice of healthful behaviors. This does not imply that we work with clients on a spiritual level -- but now and again there will be things that influence our client’s values and these values might creep into the area of spirituality.

But an effective wellness coach should program coaching delivery to include stress management, exercise, dietary intake, health maintenance, and disease prevention strategies.

If you were to put all of these things together, you would have a better understanding of what wellness coaching is. We can summarize it by saying it’s a new way of working with clients, where we draw from research-based knowledge while learning to understand how our client thinks. So we’re not just thinking about how they move or their physical attributes or their metrics, we’re also thinking about what’s going on inside their minds that could be preventing them from achieving health goals that they might need, or want, to set for themselves.

At this stage in the evolution of wellness coaching, it is the coaching strategies themselves that are something we need to refine for those working with clients, one-on-one. This also extends into the fitness industry. Within the fitness industry, fitness management has done a good job of rising to meet the challenge of trying to retain members. A lot of members will join fitness clubs, including people like your client, but very few retain their memberships or we see the use of these memberships as infrequent. Since we know that, in America, at least 65% of our population does not take part in regular physical activity, we can easily identify a need.

We also know that more than 30% of Americans at least 25 years of age have hypertension, and one person dies from CV disease every 10 minutes.

The percent assigned to people who are able to successfully maintain a weight loss goal for a 12 month period lingers in the single digits. It can be interesting to study people, in order to see the differences between people who are able to maintain weight loss compared to those who haven’t. Those who have been able to maintain their weight loss show that they have undergone some major transformation in their lives or lifestyles in order to maintain weight loss. This may be where the wellness coach is used the most frequently. There is also a very strong component of exercise science in wellness coaching.

In addition to exercise science applications in wellness coaching, we also must recognize the need to understand behavior change better, overall. This is simply due to the fact that this will make up a very large portion of your work and is also one of the most difficult parts within the coaching process with clients. The main point of this is that changing behaviors is extremely difficult for some.

Try to assess from your client where they stand in terms of being ready to change. It is essential to also know how clients struggle with behavior changes, even when they know they need them.

How Wellness Coaching is Similar to Fitness Coaching

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Every professional coach and trainer should find happiness and pride in their accomplishments. Creating a professional biography reflects professional development and promotes your personal brands to target potential clients for a profit.

A professional biography is a non-negotiable tool of self-promotion that serves as marketing too on websites. Also, creating an effective professional biography is a major step in developing a marketing tool kit for business.

The more professional and attractive the biography is the more it has the power to attract more clients to a coach. Writing an effective biography as a coach or trainer requires creativity and taking into consideration various strategies to ensure that the result works as illustrated in this article.

Who is the Target Audience?

When writing a professional biography it is a good practice to consider the readers as a matter of strategy. A biography serves as a tool that helps clients see what a coach wants and the coach as the solution to the problems that clients have. Therefore, a biography should enable the readers to see the coach professionally and not guessing how a coach can be the problem solver.

Usually, it is common for people and even coaches to be nervous when writing biographies because sometimes it feels like boasting when outlining the accomplishment and what a coach can achieve. A coach should put him/herself in the client’s shoes and consider what he/she would want to hear from someone they would hire to solve a problem.

A coach should ask what I am known for? It is paramount to share expertise with potential clients to give them a reason why they should hire you as a

coach or trainer. When writing a biography a coach should bear in mind what the audience would like to know and understand about you. Essentially, a biography should be like a short story of your professional life that is presented to the target audience. It should be all about the coach but rather about connecting with the target market.

Credibility Issues

Personality values act as the common criteria that clients use to determine which coach they will partner with. Target clients need to be assured that a coach can deliver on what they have listed as their credentials backed with academic qualification and professional history. Notably, they act as assurance and sets the mind of the clients that the coach is qualified enough for hiring.

Professional history, in other words, is known as experience. When writing on experience on professional biography, a coach or trainer needs to infuse personality and be specific on expertise at the start of the biography. To prove credibility, coaches are required to include their accomplishments in the biography.

Readers of the biography need to see accomplishment which they can relate to hence the need to arrange them according to their order of relevance to the target audience.

Credibility in a biography should include a coach’s professional experience, what they have accomplished within their profession including awards and recognitions given to them and the results of their work which should be backed by statistics of proof. To build trust from the target audience, coaches need to support their professional history with accurate statistics (facts and figures). Coaches should show rather than telling by quantifying results of their accomplishments. Also, they should show the person to whom the recognition and accolades are given.

Formatting and Structure

A professional biography requires creativity to make it interesting and engaging to the reader. Coaches, therefore, need to consider the following key tips when formatting and designing professional biographies

Language Issues

Coaches and trainers should make their biography interesting to the reader by making use of power terms and words that are active and meaningful in the present tense. For instance terms such as organize, deliver and create are effective terms in the convincing potential client. Biographies are very different from resumes in that while the latter focuses more on previous accomplishments, biographies take more focus on the situation as of now. Strong terms and active voice are crucial in creating authority and credibility while at the same time ensuring the coaches’ contributions are presented.

Use of Images

Images are very effective in enhancing biographies regardless of whether it is a profile photo or a string of

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powerful photos relating to the professional life of a coach. Images and visual effects tend to have a longer-lasting impact on the minds of audiences than words alone where a coach is limited on only one or few images for use in a biography, they should make sure to use the most powerful ones.

Use of Statistics (Numbers Speak Louder than Words)

Statistics do not lie. They also count more than anyone would think. Trainers and coaches should make it a matter of strategy to include statistics whenever they can.

Another aspect of structure in a biography is the use of the inverted pyramid model. This method is common in public relations were the most important information I placed at the start and the less meaningful last. People sometimes become lazy and poor readers hence if coaches are worried that the target audience may not read much of the information provided, it would be wise to use the aforementioned model to capture them accordingly.

First and Third-Person Narrative

This is a strategy of promoting oneself. Coaches should to talk about themselves actively and genuinely which encourages potential clients to continue reading. A biography should always be written in the third person.

Talking about their accomplishments in a biography is not bragging but rather providing vital information to promote themselves by making themselves known to the target audience. It is vital to have different formats in both first and third-person depending on who is the target audience. For instance, when sharing information on personal platforms such as social media, the first-person narrative is appropriate while the third person is applicable when writing to outside platforms such as blogs.

Bearing in Mind the Length

The length of the biography depends on the platform used for instance some social media platforms limit the number of characters used such as Twitter while there are others such as Facebook that low use of more characters. Websites also tend to have longer details relating to the biography.

Having multiple versions of biography is important because not all audiences need the same amount of information. Therefore coaches should have long, short and micro biographies to enable them to meet the needs of various audiences. Short biographies

are effective for the audience such as journalists that have minimum reading time, long biographies for event organizers to understand the background and micro biographies for social media platforms such as Twitter.

Keep Editing the Biography

Coaches should regularly edit their biographies until they are 100% satisfied with them. It may take a long time but what is important is attaining a product that reflects their credibility well.

Biographies are living documents that can be improved as the credibility and status of the coach grows and consequently the business recent achievements should be included in the biography and once it is done it should showcase the professional history and experience.

Getting Started

A well-written biography has two major purposes that include satisfying the audiences’ desire to relate to the coaches’ perspectives and speaking to audiences in a manner that meets their needs. Autobiographies, therefore, should have the ore message which essentially is what coaches can do to solve the problems of the clients backed with adequate proof that they can do it.

Biography writing can be viewed as a process that documents the professional life and experience of a coach which is why it is considered a living document where updates are regularly incorporated. More importantly, the aforementioned strategies are crucial when writing effective and attractive biographies.

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In America, our lifestyle is sometimes determined by what we do for work because most weekdays we spend anywhere from 8 to 12 hours working.

In somewhat of a trend that we still see gaining momentum, some larger Fortune 500 companies have come to realize the value of maintaining the health of their employees in order to manage health care costs.

So it then follows, if wellness coaching is effective at implementing effective ways to change lifestyle behaviors, then the need is clearly seen in terms of how valuable a wellness coach can be toward impacting lifestyle behavior change within corporate environments.

Wellness has Continued to Grow

As the interest in wellness has continued to grow, so does coaching. Corporate wellness coaches are now used in business, for career development to develop leaders and to develop character for clients who are trying to become architects of healthy, rewarding lives.

During the 1990s there was rapid growth and interest in the field of coaching and what has evolved out of that is showing that one of the most popular forms of coaching is what we now call wellness coaching and life coaching.

The life coaching model gained popularity due to the fact that clients had found a coach or an ally, who could persuade them with positive thinking, hold them accountable to complete their goals and to challenge them to be their best – and in doing so, provided the client with significant growth in both personal and business pursuits. Since we’ve mentioned life coaching, you should understand that life coaching is very similar to wellness coaching. In fact, the two fields are considered to be connected.

Wellness coaches are also extremely effective when deployed into group settings, such as what is seen with worksite wellness. During the initial or early push toward wellness initiatives in the workplace, it was not uncommon for lackluster results to be seen as health educators and nurses grew discouraged because their efforts seemed to be ineffective.

Well, let’s look at why that might have been the case. There are some key differences between a nurse trying to keep an employee healthy when compared to a wellness coach with the same mission. From the employees’ perspective, recommendations and suggestions from a nurse could be viewed as being told what to do. By comparison, a wellness coach would only listen to the client and use strategies to have the client ultimately wind up saying what changes need to be made without prodding.

Another factor in business settings is confidentiality. Most worksite health promotion or wellness programs employ a health professional and some- times employees are reluctant to provide the openness required to these employees, depending on many factors. But the employee would always know that information conveyed to a wellness coach is confidential and in the corporate sector, wellness coaches are most successful when they are not employed in the same way that a nurse or similar health professional would be operating.

Your coaching services are just among the thousands of new wellness products and services that have come to the market in the past 10 years. Even in its infancy, no one could have predicted the growth of the wellness industry, due to portable technology and the ability for coaches to apply technology in various settings.

Tech’s Ties to Employee Wellness

Technology encourages us to use these and many other new devices or products, and have legitimate ties in the wellness industry. By applying medical testing techniques 26

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The Growth of

Coaching and

Corporate

Wellness

Coaching

and pharmaceutical grade manufacturing standards to wellness products and services, significant changes were seen occurring (especially in 2004-2007) in the health insurance industry.

This allowed employees to have more choices or to wield more power with their choices and how they invest themselves in their own wellness. Some of these changes encourage employees to keep what they don’t spend on sickness today, for their retirement.

This is done by using HSA’s or health savings accounts or HSA’s, which are health reimbursement arrangements for employees. In these arrangements, employers allow employees a 100% income tax deduction for many of their wellness expenditures that are out of pocket and they allow people to keep saving for their future wellness tomorrow, with what they don’t use prematurely.

In this way, it has the potential to become a significant amount of savings (in a health savings account) and encourages employees to not only have more control over their wellness but to also impact expenses and lower costs for workers compensation claims. All of this is on the business end of wellness, but you the coach, orchestrate and facilitate wellness in the workplace in this particular scenario and therefore have an effect on the bottom line.

Other important parts of the wellness industry that reveal trends include affordability and costs of wellness programs. Wellness also requires promotion – and the latest trends are showing increasing interest, relative to its acceptance among the medical community, business retailers and the industry overall.

The service that you provide needs to be sustainable by ensuring any need that represents a continual consumption of wellness coaching services. In other words, you want clients that will rely on your services over time and retain you as part of their efforts to create lifelong healthy habits. In order to succeed, your service must also have universal appeal.

Your product and service must also represent a low commitment time for the client. If your client feels that there is too much of an opportunity cost to participating in the coaching experience with you, then they may not be successful, or they may not get the full benefit of working with you as their coach.

Wellness Coaching Improves Behaviors and Health

It has now been clearly demonstrated, through research and science, that wellness coaching does successfully improve individual behaviors and health. But wellness coaching is only half of the equation. To truly deliver on the promise of wellness coaching, to improve clients’ wellness initiatives, we must also stimulate engagement from the client in the wellness coaching process. That’s why your goal is to engage your client through behavior changes with your coaching skills.

The majority of activity seen within the wellness industry is driven and made collectively possible by individual entrepreneurs, representing a wide variety of health-related professionals – such as wellness coaches – operating within smaller (less than 100 employees) businesses.

This scenario is becoming very common and may require a paradigm shift on the part of the consumer or client. It seems that each day we learn more about the effectiveness of how direct, person-to-person contact is the best way to facilitate behavior change. Sometimes the only way to make this paradigm shift is for a change in the potential client’s thinking to take place.

Your Wellness Coaching Career

Becoming a Certified Wellness Coach is the perfect addition for the fitness professional who wants to offer more all-inclusive wellness services to clients. The time is now for you to enjoy this exciting and rewarding career, which offers you personal fulfillment while improving the lives of others.

Already started your Wellness Coaching Career? Learn more about becoming a Certified Corporate Wellness Coach. This niche market is exploding with opportunity!

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Using Wellness Coaching to Help Clients Who Lack Confidence

Using Wellness Coaching to Help Clients Who Lack Confidence

When faced with needing to make lifestyle behavior changes, like anything else in life, if you go into something with a belief that you may not be successful, then there is a very good chance that you won’t be.

Clients can show that they lack confidence.

If you’re at the top of a black diamond ski run, at the top of the mountain, and feeling that you’re going to fall, then there is a very good chance that you will fall. If your client joins a fitness club, because they both want and need to lose weight, but they do not really feel that they are ever going to use the gym very often, you can be virtually guaranteed that even your best coaching efforts will not be successful.

Another important point in wellness coaching is that we do not tell people what to do, as this practice does not build our client’s confidence level.

It seems like we are all being told what to do and even though people will take your advice to heart, it doesn’t necessarily make them feel more confident in their ability to be able to actually do a behavior change.

Knowing why we want to change behavior and then learning how to do it is what wellness coaching can provide to the client.

So we can observe this and establish that our client knows what to do, but there are most likely some deeper, underlying concerns that are going on at the same time, thus prevent- ing a successful outcome.

Building confidence in our client is as simple as starting conversations with them and it should be relatively easy. This would be really nothing more than just talking and asking the client questions. But it is also a great amount of listening, too.

Without being able to openly communicate with a conversation, questions and active listening skills, we are not having constructive conversations with our client. Wellness coaching isn’t about making your client change.

We’re not here to make our clients change or to make changes in their lives.

As coaches, we are not here to tell them what to do and we’re certainly not here to take any responsibility for them, which in the past is something that other coaches have been known to do.

This can be to the detriment of the coach, because it can be extremely daunting to last a long time in a profession if you walk around carrying all of the responsibility for your clients, weighing you down, especially when the responsibility is in an area that can change or improve their lives.

Your Coaching Career

Becoming a Certified Wellness Coach is the perfect addition for the fitness professional who wants to offer more all-inclusive wellness services to clients. The time is now for you to enjoy this exciting and rewarding career, which offers you personal fulfillment while improving the lives of others.

If you are passionate about helping people and living a fulfilling life, we can help you achieve your dreams right now. The Life Strategies Coaching Certification Course combines the latest advancements in human potential and neuroscience with proven methods of success used by the world’s most productive people.

Spencer Institute certification programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

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In the same way, as you would only hire a lawyer who has passed the bar exam, or get your taxes done from a certified accountant, your future clients are looking for a personal trainer with the appropriate accreditations. But what is the best personal training certification available today? And how do you know which personal trainer course is right for you?

Becoming a Certified Personal Trainer

Becoming a Certified Personal Trainer involves first choosing the organization through which you’d like to earn your certification.

If you’ve seriously considered becoming a certified personal trainer—either for a career change, as a side gig, for personal development — you should know that most gyms, whether a big-box gym or boutique gym, require certification.

What is the Best Personal Trainer Certification?

The first step for many future trainers is to focus in on the organizations accredited by the NCCA, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies.

NCCA standards were originally developed to help ensure the health, welfare, and safety of the public. They have come to highlight the essential elements of a high-quality program.

There are well over 100 personal trainer programs and sets of courses, but only about a dozen are certified by NCCA. An NCCA accredited course will set you up for long term success. NCCA accredited personal trainer courses, like NESTA, are more recognized and take longer to study because they include more educational material necessary to train your clients properly.

NESTA’s interactive home-study program is delivered 100% online. You’ll have access to 40-hours of NESTA’s Certified Personal Fitness Trainer education materials for a lifetime.Your certification process could take anywhere from a few weeks to six months–it all depends on how driven you are and your own resources.

Before Taking Your PT Certification Exam

Before jumping into your course work, there are often other prerequisites for a Personal Trainer Certification. Typically, you have to be 18 years old, have a CPR and AED certification, and have a high school diploma or GED.

Some higher-level certifications require a bachelor’s or master’s degree. These can cost a lot more money and take a lot longer to finish. The certifications offered through NESTA and the Spencer Institute do not.

Exams can cost between $350 and $600. Some organizations offer study materials which can include printed and online resources and workshops, for an additional fee.

Some certifying organizations offer promotional bundles on study materials, workshops and exam fees to lower the cost of becoming a Certified Personal Trainer. For example, NESTA offers four flexible payment options ranging from $124.

Exam prep can average nine weeks to six months, depending on your prior knowledge.

How to Pick Your Personal Trainer Certification

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Studying for Your Personal Training Exam

You should begin to study for the exam before purchasing it. Be sure that once you choose, set a deadline by signing up for a test date to keep you on track.

NESTA offers 30, 60 and 90-day study plan checklists, so you can stay focused, on track and are able to study at your own pace. When you are ready to take the NESTA Personal Trainer test, you will have 90 days to schedule and take the proctored exam.

Personal Trainer Mentorship and Support

It’s important to supplement your study with guidance before and afterward to help you through the transition period between the test and officially working with clients.

As you prepare to take your test, and even after, consider finding a mentor who is knowledgeable, has done well in the field, and can help to lead you in the right direction.

You can shadow an established personal trainer to familiarize yourself with their day to day and what the job generally entails. You can start to do this while you are studying for your personal trainer certification. You can make mental models in your head about what you learn and see how they may or may not apply in the real world, with actual real-world situations.

Something else to consider when researching certifications is the certifying organizations’ attention to customer service. Our student support team is here to help you reach your goals. We are available by email or phone. Plus you can reach us by live chat to answer any questions you may have.

The Business of Personal Training

You need to learn and understand sales and marketing and the business of personal training. That is what is going to help you get clients and make money.

NESTA provides its students with many turn-key fitness and coaching business systems, so you can jump-start your career success. We teach you easy-to-follow and cutting edge business and career skills you need to land your dream job and get more training clients without a struggle.

Specialty Personal Training Certifications: What Type of Clients Do You Want to Work With?

Your Personal Trainer Certification is just the beginning. Your initial certification is just the launching point for

more specialized training to serve specific types of clients. You should continue to increase your knowledge based on what you would like to specialize.

Specialist and niche programs provide a robust, individual education on one specific area of training or one specific population of training so that you can apply all of your personal trainer qualifications and take that and specialize with advanced knowledge to work with unique populations.Enroll online in the courses that interest you most and help you with your specific goals. If you are unclear which certifications are best for you, think about how you want to conduct your business, who you want to train and serve, and what makes you the happiest.

NESTA has over 35 different specializations, including ones that focus on kids, nutrition, weight loss, and wellness.Additional specializations and niche certifications help personal trainers to both serve existing clients and attract new ones. Personal trainers who wear multiple hats are the most successful. Like with many other industries, the wider your scope of practice, the better.

Continuing Your Education

Many certifying organizations require between 20-60 continuing education credits or units every 2-3 years. Recertification can cost anywhere from $45 to $129 and if you are unable to complete your CEUs, you most likely will need to retake your personal trainer exam in order to become recertified.

The NESTA ECB requires its certified personal fitness trainer to complete only 4.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) over a 4 year period.

Becoming a Certified Personal Trainer also gives you access to periodicals, liability insurance, networking opportunities, and online resources. Additional specialties and continuing education will be critical for your continued success as a trainer or coach.

Getting Started with a Personal Training Career

Check out what it takes to start a career in personal fitness training. This is your most affordable and fastest way to become a highly qualified personal trainer.

There is always something exciting about earning a new training or coaching certification and applying that new knowledge of how you train your clients. This also helps you hit the reset button.

NESTA and Spencer Institute coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

How to Pick Your Personal Trainer Certification

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Will a Holistic Approach to Nutrition Work For Your Client?Our diet affects us spiritually, mentally, and physically. A holistic approach to nutrition is focused on eating yourself healthier. It all begins with eating whole foods, that you find in nature. As a Certified Holistic Life Coach, you can help your clients heal via whole foods and a nutrient-rich diet.

A Meal Plan Tailored to You

Instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to your health, you’ll be able to work with a nutritionist to craft a specific overall plan based on your likes and lifestyle.

It’s like having a food trainer instead of a personal trainer—your personal food coach to give you a gentle butt-kicking.

A Holistic Approach to Nutrition Increases Energy & Focus

Eating whole foods makes our bodies run better and gives us more energy. But why do our bodies crave clean eating?

Our bodies know how to break down foods that are not altered, stripped, or refined in any way and utilize them for maximum energy and potential.

Put Your Mind at Ease

Keeping your body healthy is a necessity, so is finding a mental and spiritual calm, especially with all the stresses we deal with on a daily basis.

Many ailments are linked to emotional stresses, like anger or worry, and by improving your diet, you can improve your mood.

Disease Prevention

An estimated 80% of Type 2 diabetes cases can be prevented with proper nutrition and exercise. If you need more evidence that healthy eating can prevent disease, then look to those who eat the Mediterranean diet. This type of nutritious meal plan can prevent a second heart attack by up to 70%.

Your body’s immune system and ability to repair itself is linked to nutrition, and by improving what you eat, you can encourage greater healing, as well as keep ailments from developing.

More than a Diet

Anyone who has gone on a diet knows that it works for a little while, but it’s not sustainable. A holistic approach to nutrition teaches you a holistic model of health by providing not only dietary guidance but lifestyle suggestions too.

How You Can Help

Become a Certified Holistic Health Coach. Holistic health and well-being are essential to overall life success. Now you can earn a credential and gain the skills to help your clients achieve this success.

You can become a Certified Personal Fitness Chef and expand your current personal chef business, or add a new profit center for your fitness or wellness business. Many personal chefs cook and coach people in groups to help more people and earn more money per hour. Some chefs provide weekly meal prep service for health-minded customers and athletes.

Our programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

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