People often long for more time in a world where every second is scheduled.
After logging years of 12-hour days training clients, skating close to the edge of burning out and missing out on quality time with family and friends, I finally realized there had to be a better way.
Over a 4-year period, my team and I converted our entire community of clients to 30-minute training. That's right, basically we cut their training time in half and invited them to believe in our simple unique selling point: We give you your time back.
Who wouldn't want more time back, right?
One of the greatest benefits of the 30-minute training model is that we give clients their time back without short changing them on their training.
We have designed a 30-minute program that allows clients to get all the benefits of 60-minute training in half the time.
But here's the kicker: When people get back time, what do they do with that newfound time? You can help them use that time wisely, participating in activities that they enjoy and that are healthy instead of using it to passively consume massive amounts of media or do other unproductive things in an attempt to drown depression, dissatisfaction, anxiety and loneliness.
This is where the art of coaching comes into play for trainers. Your trainers and you can:
- Help your clients structure this hard-earned time so that they put it to good and healthy use.
- Talk to them about their goals and challenges to living a fit lifestyle, and help them develop a plan to use that extra time to meet those goals and face those challenges.
- Ask them about those goals and challenges, give them feedback and help them by offering rules to follow.
Why is it wise to help your clients master investing their time wisely? It's easy for people to fill their free time with busy work, such as cleaning the house, running errands or working more, and with mindless social media surfing. When people instead spend that time using the skills they have developed in life, they grow.
Think about challenging hobbies such as art, playing the guitar or piano, craftsmanship, rebuilding cars, cooking. These are hobbies that enrich lives unlike passive entertainment that does not use physical or mental resources and instead only mimics reality.
By giving back time to your clients and helping them fill that time with activities that are good for their mental, physical and spiritual health, you are becoming an invaluable resource and showing that you care about them as a whole person, not just as a client who pays you a monthly fee. That kind of commitment to your client inspires commitment to their goals and to your club.
What can you do to help your clients wisely invest their newfound 30 minutes per day (potentially more than three hours a week), grow from it and add to the commitment they made to living a healthy life by expanding it outside of your club?
C.K. Brightbill summed it up best when he wrote in his book "The Challenge of Leisure," "The future will belong not only to the educated man but to the man who is educated to use his leisure wisely."
BIO
Brent Gallagher, MSS, CSCS, ACSM, is co-owner of Avenu Fitness, a 4,500-square-foot personal training studio in Houston. He has built a brand measuring the quality of life one can live, not just measuring biceps and waistlines. Gallagher invests time coaching high-performing leaders and challenging fitness business operators to come to blows with the status quo by redefining what’s possible for the communities they serve. Avenu Fitness offers 30-minute training programs and a teaching kitchen for nutrition health.