0022: Now What?

What should a person expect after they get certified as a personal trainer? I get that question so often because so many trainers are being misled by folks wanting to capitalize on them. The ugly truth is that most trainers don't make it. Although I wish that wasn't the case, that is not the worst of it. The bigger issue is that they were mislead by folks that would benefit from them not getting a clear answer. The brutal statistics are that most trainers will not complete even 1 full year as personal trainer before they change professions. That statistic is what keeps me up at might. In fact, it is after midnight now as I am typing this because I really do lose sleep over it. Why is it that most trainers don't keep training? 

I started to look deeper in to this dilemma and the deeper I looked, the more it upset me. After interviewing countless trainers across the nation the number one reason that kept coming up was that the reality of being a trainer did not match up to what they were told and what they saw in the advertisements. I had to dig deeper...... They went on to tell me that when they went on my competitors websites, all they saw were statements saying that they could "make their own hours, be their own boss, where sweats to work and make some really good money". The reality is closer to "work all hours of the day and night, have their managers riding them about sales goals, make lousy money, but at least they got to wear sweats to work". 

In this week's BLOG, I wanted to paint a more realistic picture of what it is like to start out in the field of personal training. Most trainers start by getting jobs inside of what we call "Big Box" clubs. This means one of the clubs that have names you are probably quite familiar with- Equinox, 24 Hour Fitness, UFC Gyms and so on. most of the trainers we interviewed really had no idea what they were getting in to when they first got certified. I don't want you to take anything I am saying as bad. I have been training for the better part of my adult life and can't ever see me doing anything but training for the rest of my life. I love it. But, I really wish someone would have given me a better idea of what to expect before I started and would have given me some pointers on how best to navigate this before I started. 

That is what I am doing for you in this week's episode of The NCEP Experience! I hope you enjoy it..........