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Welcome to The Figuring It Out Podcast.
At 22, I took the plunge to go on the entrepreneurial journey and start a fitness business, 7 years later I’d been the nutritionist for 2 elite sports clubs and private coach to some of the worlds best sportsmen and women.
Now it’s my mission to show fitness coaches how you can put yourself in a league of their own, become the go to coach, and finally eliminate the self-doubt and imposter syndrome that's holding you back from building the business of your dreams.
This podcast will help you figure out how to thrive and conquer the fear that comes with the lonely entrepreneurial journey.
If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the podcast. If you can't see this visually, it's because we haven't put it up on YouTube yet.
Callum Walker:But if you can hear me well, a couple of things. First of all, sound quality on absolute point. Why is the sound quality on point? Because I've got a brand new microphone. Secondly, I have got a brand new format for this podcast.
Callum Walker:And it's not just a brand new format for every single episode, but specifically what I'm going to be doing is covering a specific topic in so much more depth than I normally do. So if you've been following this podcast for a while, you would know exactly how I go and record these podcasts. I'll go for a walk or I'll be driving and truthfully, I'm actually kind of figuring out what I'm going to say while on the podcast. So I never ever actually come prepared with any form of notes for these podcasts and I just go for a walk and see what comes to my head. And that's really exciting and I'm not going to change those.
Callum Walker:But I am going to add in some more specific specifically kind of designed episodes for you that are a bit more of kind of a deep dive. They're more of a deep dive as opposed to just like a little nugget. I actually want to almost kind of use and we're going to we're almost kind of like articulating this, me and Dave, as our main show. And our main show is basically where I'm going to be covering a really, really specific topic and we're going to do that every other week to start with. The goal is to get that type of content on a weekly basis.
Callum Walker:But one thing that I have really kind of like, I don't want to say discovered, but I'm energetically making sure that I am wrapped around is really kind of like not overestimate, not underestimating the amount of work that something will require. So to put this podcast episode together and to put this episode together in a way that it can actually be sustainable and successful for me, there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. And right now, if we look at the systems and the structures that we have in place, I believe that we have the opportunity to be able to do this every two weeks. So long story short, every two weeks I'm going to be going into a bit more of a deep dive and you will see the differences off the back of today's episode. Now what is today's episode really about?
Callum Walker:I always say it's an important one, but this is a really really really important one because it's around January and specifically when I look at January it is all about the three biggest mistakes that every personal trainer needs to avoid making if you are going to have a successful January. And when I look at it from a successful January perspective, I'm not just meaning in terms of financially, from a business perspective, I'm more kind of looking at it more from a coaching perspective and the real kind of big coaching mistakes that you need to make sure that you're avoiding so that you can have a successful January. Now, why is January so important to us in the fitness space? Well, let's be real, like people have literally just been absolutely stuffing their face hooked up to an ivy of cheese crackers and beers for the past three weeks over the Christmas period. And now they're like, shit, I feel terribly.
Callum Walker:I am so out of shape. I need to get myself in shape. And if anyone is almost kind of like saying anything different to that, then that just isn't the case. January is a very, very, very busy time for us as fitness professionals. Now, if I look at January, though, I think where most personal trainers go wrong with January is that they just repeat what they kind of did last January and they go, right, you know, I've got the opportunity to get a load of clients.
Callum Walker:But the problem is that once all of that kind of motivation of like, I've got the opportunity to get a load of clients fades off, the same problems, challenges and difficulties like come back up and repeat themselves. And in the last podcast episode that I did, I articulate how I was in the was in the gym. So on January 2, it was a Friday, I was in the gym at 03:30 p. M. So 03:30 p.
Callum Walker:M. On a Friday, if you go into a gym like it's going to be dead. Like realistically, how many people are going to the gym after work on a Friday? You may get the gym bros who go in there and they're like, yeah, I'm pumping irons. I've got a big night out tonight.
Callum Walker:So you may get those guys. But specifically, if we look at like on a Friday, it is never busy. But oh my God, like it was had a weird sort of like part of Christmas. I didn't I didn't almost kind of see Christmas as a holiday. I just kind of like continued.
Callum Walker:So I just saw it as another day. So I actually just saw like January 2 as just another day. And I walked into the gym like as I normally would around 03:00, and it was literally like a zoo. I have never seen a gym that busy on a Friday, let alone just in general. I've never seen a gym that busy and it was just flooded full of people that I'd never seen before.
Callum Walker:But it was interesting because if you look at the place where it was most busy, the cardio machines were absolutely flooded, the swimming pool absolutely flooded. Now why? Because we have to be super, super, super, super clear that most people in the general pop, they believe that in order to get into shape, the only way to get into shape primarily is exercise. So people go new year, what I need to do is lose weight, I need to start running or I'm gonna go do some swimming, I'm gonna do cycling. People think that cardiovascular exercise is the way to get them into shape.
Callum Walker:Now that presents a huge opportunity for us. Why? Well, that gym was absolutely flooded with people glued to the treadmill. Okay, and I guarantee they were probably back on January 3 and they were probably back on January 4. But you know when they won't be back?
Callum Walker:February 2. They won't be back February 3 or February 4. Now why? Now here's a mistake that I used to make. I used to get a little bit egotistical and I used to say that the reason why people won't get into shape and they won't stay in shape is because they're not motivated long enough, they haven't got the stuff, they haven't got the discipline, and don't get me wrong, are people who genuinely will never get into shape and because they don't have the stuff, they don't have the discipline.
Callum Walker:But there are people who have been struggling and they have been trying for a very, very long time. And the reason that they haven't had success isn't because they haven't got the stuff. The reason why they haven't had success is because they haven't got a result with the thing that they're actually using. Now, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is most people in January will believe that in order to get into shape, the number one primary thing that they need to do is go and do cardiovascular exercise.
Callum Walker:Now we know as health and fitness professionals that cardiovascular exercise is not what drives results. What drives results? What people put in their mouth or don't put in their mouth, okay. But what will happen is that people will naturally jump on the bandwagon of over the next four weeks and they'll be doing cardiovascular exercise and they'll be trying to get into shape. And what happens is in four weeks time come the February 1, February 2, they haven't really lost much weight.
Callum Walker:They've been working hard, they've been doing the yards, they've been on the treadmill, they've been running, but what happens is that they've probably only lost two, three, maybe four pounds, and we get motivated by results. So if I'm putting a load of work in, not getting much result from it, it's completely normal and natural to go, why would I continue doing this thing? So again, imagine that you've got a business mentor and you're working with this business mentor to try and grow your business. They tell you what to do, you're glued to Instagram, you're posting shits on the content, you're, DM ing a load of strangers, you're following all of their advice and you earn an extra £200 a month. Well, how long are you going to continue doing those activities?
Callum Walker:You're probably not for a long period of time. Why? Because you've put a lot of effort in and you haven't got a lot of reward. So the mind goes, work hard, get nothing. So why would I continue working hard at doing this?
Callum Walker:So they give up. Now, here's the thing, and here's the opportunity for us as personal trainers. When it comes to getting people into shape, we have a real opportunity to actually show people a completely different way of doing things. That the thing that people are most confused about when it comes to getting into shape is not what they need to do from an exercise point of view, because most people will go, well, I kind of already know what to do from an exercise perspective, I'm just going to go and run. Okay, now we don't agree with that obviously because we know that well, you don't really know the proper way to actually go and exercise because you need to go and do strength training.
Callum Walker:This is this is But people don't care, think that they have a rough idea, they'll go on some machines and they'll do some stuff. But the one thing that brings them the most amounts of confusion, which is also the one thing that would bring the most amount of result, is what they put in their mouth. So you as a personal trainer, as a health and fitness professional, you have the opportunity to actually first of all, not only give these people the thing that will drive them to getting sustainable high quality results. Again, although I qualified as a personal trainer originally, I'm a nutritionist, So I used to work with people primarily just from telling them what to eat and I was having clients lose 10 to 14 pounds of body fat every four weeks just through changing what they're eating, okay, just through changing what they're eating without exercise. So when I go and have someone who's following all of the advice that I've just given without needing to exercise, they've just lost a stone in four weeks, they're going to continue to do it and they do continue to do it.
Callum Walker:And what happens is they get long term sustainable results. So when someone's getting those results, when someone's actually able to get results that they haven't been able to get before, they start referring, they stay for a longer period of time, so your retention increases and clients aren't dropping off, so your income's actually stable and you've got a sustainable business. And more importantly, our clients trust us that what we do works. Okay, so we have an opportunity not only to actually give them the thing that is going to drive their ability to get results, but more importantly clear up the biggest thing that they actually have the most confusion about. Think about it, go through all of the prospects who have potentially become clients or go through all of the people who have become clients and ask them before you ever started working with them or the prospects who never signed up with you.
Callum Walker:When you first originally had a conversation you asked them what's the biggest thing they struggle with, I guarantee every single thing that they will say is I struggle with knowing what to eat, I struggle with dealing with my food. So we have a real opportunity to actually clear up the thing that they're most confused about and that will make you attractive. But I think that the key thing that I want to kind of stress is the gym that I go to is two and fifteen pounds a month. Okay, that's just for a membership. No personal training sessions included.
Callum Walker:Okay, I get the spa included. So that's very, very nice. But no PT sessions included, no accountability, nothing. I am paying over £200 a month just for a gym membership and that gym at the time that I went there was at least 200 people in the gym, which means that the people in there are actively searching for a solution. There are 200 plus people paying £200 a month just for a membership.
Callum Walker:Now I know some of you guys listening to this will probably be charging £200 a month and delivering like four to eight sessions. So the people are out there and the people are actively searching for a solution, but the problem is that they think that the solution is in exercise, which is the same with you as a personal trainer. One of your biggest frustrations that you will ever experience is clients not adhering, but the reason why your clients won't adhere from a nutritional perspective is probably because you sell sessions, okay. Or when it comes to online coaching they're just expecting a workout, they're not expecting you to actually deliver their nutrition, which is why and again I'll get into this in in a moment with my brand new notes. The thing that we need to make sure that we can do is that what we are selling is the overall package, the overall program.
Callum Walker:People aren't buying online coaching in terms of that I'm going to have like a one to one conversation with this person, they're gonna put a workout plan together for me. I'm getting that. What I'm signing up to is a program that is legitimately designed to get me the result where exercise is included, nutrition is included, sleep optimization is included, all of these things are included because then people are paying for the vehicle of nutrition to get them into shape, the vehicle of exercise to also get them into shape, but it's all combined together. So we need to make sure that when we're bringing people on that we're actually providing them with the full package and the full solution, and the most integral part to getting someone into shape is nailing their nutritional game. Okay, so I think the first thing I really want to kind of articulate is that you have a real opportunity in January to absolutely knock it out of the park, but there are a couple of mistakes that you could make that most personal trainers are probably making right now and it's going to cause them a lot of struggle, frustration and headaches.
Callum Walker:So if you've been in this game for a while, think back to your January year, think back to the January before. There is a huge amount of pressure that we put on ourselves internally, but also externally. I remember I used to have people come up to me and go, oh, in December, oh, you're going be very busy in January, aren't you? I bet it's going be a great time for you. Or come January, I'd have someone go, oh, I bet you're absolutely rammed right now.
Callum Walker:Everyone's trying to get into shape. And I'm like, I've I've signed up two people. I've signed up two people and they signed up before before December saying I'd like to start in January. And there's a lot of pressure for us to actually have to kind of get this whole thing nailed. And the reason why this thing doesn't kind of get nailed is because I kind of used to repeat all of the mistakes that I used to make when I was, that I did the year before, the year before that, the year before that, and the year before that.
Callum Walker:And I want to really kind of articulate the core mistakes that I would love you to avoid to make sure you can actually have a successful January, but not just making it a successful January. But if you can really kind of understand these mistakes and avoid them and then take the steps that I'm going to go through in this episode, where I'm gonna read where I'm gonna go through the three core steps that you need to make to ensure that you can have a successful January. Not only will your January be successful, but also what will happen is that you'll have a successful February, March, April, May, June, July, August, all the way through to the rest of the year. Okay, so these are three core big mistakes that I need you to avoid making. Now the first one, which is gonna sound a little bit counterintuitive, and to be honest I'm actually gonna kind of make this more of a plea and I'm almost gonna beg you to make sure that you don't do this thing, which is it can be really really easy to get sucked into the crowd of the new year new me okay.
Callum Walker:So in terms of bringing new people into your world, the people who are like right new year new me diet starts January, you need to avoid those people like the plague, okay. You need to avoid those people like the plague. Why? Because the new year, new me people are kind of in the extreme sort of kind of nature of what our culture is all about in The UK, and what I mean by that is that those people are people who hop from diet to diet to diet to diet. So earlier on in the episode where I was talking about how, you know, there are some people who genuinely just will never have success with their health and fitness.
Callum Walker:The New Year New Me crowd are people who will have absolutely sent it and binged all the way through December and gone fuck I feel terrible, I need to get myself into shape, so what I'll do is I'll pay a personal trainer to wave his or her magic wand and get me into shape. And what will happen is the whole cycle will completely repeat itself of what you've experienced before. You know those clients who they pay you their hard earned cash, you start off, you have your first consultation like yeah I'm ready, I'm gonna do everything But in the back of your mind, you're almost kind of a little bit like, I feel like this person could be a little bit of a nightmare. What happens is come week one, week two, week three, week four, they haven't really followed anything. And then what happens is that naturally they then start to go like, oh, I haven't lost any weight.
Callum Walker:I haven't made any progress. Then ask them, have you followed anything that I've told you to do? And they're like, yeah, I have. You then look at what they're reading and they've just flat out lied to you or just hidden things and they haven't actually followed what you do. They are not worth your time, are not worth your energy.
Callum Walker:Why? Because remember when you are bringing someone into your world, you're not just bringing someone into your business, you are bringing them into the most sacred place that you have available, which is your head. And there are some people who are just not worth your time and me and Alice kind of refer to these people as you have dreamers and then you have doers. These people are the dreamers. These are the people who will always be in shape but in the future.
Callum Walker:Whereas what we want to do is we want to make sure that we're actually working with people who are the doers. We want to work with people who've actually tried but they have just struggled to implement the plan or they have struggled because they haven't actually been given a plan that legitimately works for them. So they will work the plan, they are motivated, they want to actually make a change but they're looking to go to another level. So they're probably at a place where they've kind of got like an element of a grip on their health and fitness already. They're not in absolutely amazing shape, but they're also not twenty, twenty five, thirty stone, okay.
Callum Walker:So they're probably just like, you know what, I already kind of go to the gym, I already kind of like to eat well, but just where I'm at right now, strategy that I have used has taken me as far as I can possibly go. So it's the same with as an example, if I look at like my longer term programs that I offer. So I offer two programs. I have my six week course, which is my next level coach, which is solely for personal trainers to level up their nutritional game in a six week period and basically get the education that you should have got from the start within a six week period. Okay, and then I also have my elite coach.
Callum Walker:Now my elite coach program is about making someone become a coach that is just in a completely different league of their own. Okay, a completely different league of their own. It's taking them to a whole new level that is not for someone who is just starting their personal training business. Okay, that program is not for that individual. Why?
Callum Walker:Because they're not at that level yet. So the first thing is that what I would really, really, really kind of stress in terms of the mistakes is getting clear on like avoiding just taking on the new year, new me crowd. The people I've put a load of weight on, I need to get rid of it. They are not the kind of coach that you signed up to become. I found that a weird thing happens when you become a personal trainer.
Callum Walker:A weird, weird thing happens. And I don't think anyone really kind of talks about it. So I think about like when I first qualified as a PT, the reason why I went and qualified as a personal trainer was because I was legitimately interested in my health and fitness. I was interested in going to the gym. I wanted to eat better.
Callum Walker:I wanted to train better and then I go and qualify and this weird thing happens. You then become a weight loss coach. And I'm like, but I've never been overweight. I've never wanted to work with people from a weight loss perspective because I've never been overweight. I became a coach because I wanted to enhance people's quality of their health and fitness.
Callum Walker:And obviously you can do that through lowering, you know, lowering their weight and being a weight loss coach, but I never signed up to be a weight loss coach and it's a real kind of head fuck. And the point that I'm coming at is going back to why you first qualified and think about the New Year New Me crowd, those people are better off going to Slimming World, those people are better off going to Weight Watchers and they're not worth your time, your energy and effort. The people that you want to work with, the people who legitimately not necessarily want to change, they're people who've kind of got to a point where they're like the current tool that I've been using from a health and fitness point of view has taken me as far as I can go. So if I think about why I would go into a business mentorship myself, a higher level business mentorship is not because I need to know how to go and start a business, but it's because I would go like right okay the strategy and the tools that I have you know taken on and use right now have taken me as far as I need to go, I now need to go to another level.
Callum Walker:And that is the kind of coach that you need to position yourself as. So the first thing I would say is avoid like the plague taking on the new year, new me people. Now the second biggest mistake that people make, actually I just need to finish off why, okay. The reason why, okay why I am saying that you need to avoid these people is because they will suck the life out of you. They will not just suck the life out of you in terms of feeling like a babysitter, but they will suck the life out of the thing that you actually decided to become a coach for.
Callum Walker:You decided to become a coach because you were passionate about fitness, passionate about becoming better and better and better and better, but then you go and become a glorified weight loss coach and you're just begging people to stop eating burgers. How do I know that? Because that's where I used to be. Because I would take anyone and everyone on, I basically became a glorified weight watchers and I never signed up to become a glorified weight watchers. And what happened was that I genuinely began to start asking myself, I don't know how much longer I needed to do.
Callum Walker:I want to do this. I don't know how much longer I want to continue doing this because this isn't fun anymore. So that was my own fault and that was because I blindly followed the money and I was like, the money will be in the new year, new me crowd. It won't be okay. And the reason why it won't be is because they will stay with you for a month, maybe two, maybe three.
Callum Walker:If you're charging £150 a month, then they're only going to be worth £450 to you. But the person who stays who is genuinely interested in investing in staying for a long period of time, they'll stay with you for twelve months. And if that person is staying with you for twelve months, then naturally that's worth what £1,800 to you. So get super clear who you are actually going to bring on and who you're not going to bring on. Okay, which brings me to my second one, which is the biggest mistake that you also need to avoid in January is positioning yourself as a fat loss coach.
Callum Walker:Okay, now unless your journey legitimately involves the fact that I was incredibly overweight previously, I was overweight, I was unhappy, then I think it's a very smart thing for you to do in terms of positioning yourself as a fat loss coach. But if you have just stumbled into the same old trap that every personal trainer stumbles into where you've qualified as a personal trainer, then all of a sudden you're just telling people how they can lose weight. You need to avoid marketing yourself as a fat loss coach. Okay, why? Now there's two reasons.
Callum Walker:One, the reason that I've already covered, but secondly, the problem is that if you are positioning yourself solely as a fat loss coach, the result that someone is coming in for is just fat loss. Now what is the problem with that? The problem is that fat loss is finite. Okay, so if someone comes in, they're incredibly overweight and they want to lose weight, there is a time period for the duration of which they are going to stay with you. Let's say that they have three stone to lose and let's say that like you had a nutritional strategy like I used to have, which was well, I still have obviously, but I have my nutritional strategy where someone could lose a stone every single month.
Callum Walker:Now what would happen would be that in three months time that person then has lost all of the weight. What do I do now? Well, standard thing that is pushed out is, oh, well, you know, let's change up your goal. Let's start running a marathon now. That's not going to happen because three months ago that person just wanted to get into their jeans.
Callum Walker:Now they're in their jeans and they're like brilliant, I'm happy now. They're not all of a sudden going to become an athlete overnight. So the problem is that fat loss has an expiry date, whereas actually what you need to do is you need to make sure that you can position yourself as a performance coach. Now by performance I don't just mean athletic performance. What I mean by this is what people really want, the people that you want to be working with, the people who genuinely if you can attract into your world will be a dream to work with, they will stay with you for a long period of time and refer you to people who are worth referring to and worth working with, they don't want to get into shape.
Callum Walker:They want what their life would look like once they have got into shape. So specifically, if I kind of look at the reason why I train, I don't train because I love training. I do enjoy my training, but if I actually look at what I actually enjoy, my training allows me to be the best version of myself. My nutrition allows me to be the best version of myself. My sleep optimization allows me to be the best version of myself.
Callum Walker:So specifically I eat well, sleep well, train well, so I can be the best entrepreneur, the best coach, the best partner, the best brother, the best friend that I possibly can be. That is the reason as to why I train. So my exercise, nutrition, my health and fitness is a vehicle to allow me to become the best version that I can be with in my life. And the thing is, fat loss is finite, whereas performance and by performance, I mean performance through life is infinite, okay, which means I can always eat better, sleep better, train better because I can always feel better. So the biggest, the second biggest mistake that most personal trainers will be making in January is positioning themselves just as a fat loss coach.
Callum Walker:They'll solely be positioning external transformation, whereas actually what we need to do is position the real thing that will acquire the real high quality clients that we want to be working with, which is the internal transformation. People it's not just like, so example, like if I look at like from a training point of view of my own health and fitness, like yes, okay, training nutrition sleep enhances my aesthetic, but that's just a byproduct to the real benefit that I actually get from nailing my health and fitness, which is feeling the best that I possibly can mentally, emotionally, spiritually, Being able to be the best person that I can, the best brother that I can, friend, partner, entrepreneur, coach, that is the real benefit and the beauty is that that is a never ending journey and when it comes to retention there is a difference between getting someone to stay in your program and getting someone to continue. Okay, stay is we're just going to repeat more of the same. Continue is progression. There is a future.
Callum Walker:People won't stay with you because they got a result. If they've got a result, they've got what they needed. Thanks very much. I'm going to go. People will continue on your program if they can see a future and the way they can see a future with you is through progression.
Callum Walker:They feel that they're getting fitter. They feel they have more energy, vibrancy. I'm sleeping better. I'm less snappy, I'm a better partner, I'm a better friend, I'm performing better at work, I'm playing better on the football pitch. That is how you need to position yourself, because if you can position yourself as that, not only do you acquire better quality clients, which means that they stay within you, but then also in terms of your overall coaching, your overall coaching, you're able to actually go and learn more beyond fat loss.
Callum Walker:You can go and like exercise your brain and learn all of these amazingly really cool things that you wanted to learn in the first place, but you can't use with Jim and Jane who just want to know how many calories you're in a burger. Does that make sense? So the second biggest mistake that most people will make in January is ensuring that you can avoid the big mistake of taking on the new year, new me crowd, which then is caused primarily by positioning yourself just as a fat loss coach. And if you can make sure that you're not just a fat loss coach, that's when you can then stand out from the crowd because everyone is selling fat loss. I follow so many coaches, so many, so many coaches and they all are the exact same.
Callum Walker:They're all just selling fat loss and that is incredibly competitive. But there are barely any coaches actually addressing the real challenge and the real problem that people are actually experiencing, which is that what people want to be, want their health and fitness for. The reason why they want to get into shape is to be able to cope with the incredibly difficult demands of today's life, because today it is harder than ever to live because we are more accessible than ever. It's more expensive, we are more accessible in terms of from a work point of view, we are bombarded by much more bigger stressors than we ever have and people are starting to break. But their health and fitness, being healthier, being fitter, being a better version of themselves allows them to be able to cope with the stress and the demands of today.
Callum Walker:Okay, and if you can position yourself as that kind of coach, I promise you, you will stand out, you will acquire more clients, you will acquire better clients that will stay with you for a longer period of time, but more importantly, you'll finally really be able to actually enjoy your coaching again because you're able to coach the things that you want to coach instead of have you hit your macros this week. Which brings me on to my third biggest mistake. Okay, the third biggest mistake that personal trainers will always make in January and you need to avoid, which is that your coaching is the same as everybody else. Now, I'm going come at this more from a nutritional perspective because that's my back. Okay, but we've already kind of articulated that the second biggest mistake is that people position themselves as a fat loss coach.
Callum Walker:But the third thing is that effectively their coaching is the same as everyone else. And from a nutritional point of view, if I look at everyone else's strategy, it is the exact same calorie deficit, give them a protein target, stick them on MyFitnessPal, that is nutrition. Now I have news for you. If your nutrition strategy is to stick someone on a calorie deficit, hitting a protein target and putting them on MyFitnessPal, you are no different to weight watchers and swimming mod. You are a glorified points counter.
Callum Walker:And here's the thing, people are tired of being told in order to get into shape, they've got to count shit. End of story. They go to Weight Watchers, they're told in order to get into shape, you've got to count points. They go to Slimming World, in order to get into shape, you've got to count sins. They go to a personal trainer in order to get into in order to get into shape, you've got to count your calories.
Callum Walker:They go to another personal trainer. No, no, no, no. We don't count points. We don't count sins. We don't even count calories.
Callum Walker:We're going to track these mystical things called macros. People are tired of that. Okay, they are tired of being told in order to get into shape, you have to count stuff. Now, I remember I saw a personal trainer. He was he's got quite a big following and and he basically he put this post up where he was like, if you don't know how many calories a day you're consuming, then you'll never get into shape.
Callum Walker:If you're not tracking, what gets measured gets managed. And I was like, mate, the longest I've been able to track till is lunchtime. Okay, I have ADHD, attention span of a gnat, and if my coach stuck me on MyFitnessPal, I would tell them to do one. Why? Because I'm busy.
Callum Walker:I don't have the bandwidth capacity to take a photo of every single for every single piece of food that I'm eating and then sticking it into some calculator where there's a load of numbers and I'm like, oh my God, I see all of these coaches talk about you need to improve your relationship with food and their way in which that they're going you need to improve your relationship with food is by gluing you to MyFitnessPal and starting to see food as numbers as opposed to seeing food as food. It doesn't make sense. And here's where I used to have an amazing advantage that I would have someone come to me and they would come to me looking to get into shape and they look for, you know, look to sign up with my service and I'd be like, have you done before? And they would tell me everything like, you know, I've been to Weight Watchers, been to Slimming World, I even saw a PT, you know, I like, you know, I tracked macros, counter calories, etc. And then I would say, well, I've got some great news for you, because not only first of all, by coming on board, we'll be able to get you instead of losing a week, two to three pounds a month, you'll be able to lose between ten and fourteen pounds every single month.
Callum Walker:But more importantly, we'll be able to do that while building muscle at the same time and you don't need to track calories. We're not going to get you counting macros, I'm not going to get you to weigh your food out whatsoever, none of that. That made me attractive. Why? Because they'd never heard that before and they didn't believe it was possible, but more importantly it was the complete opposite to everything that they have tried before and when you have something that is completely different to what everyone has tried before, it puts you in a very powerful position.
Callum Walker:Why? Because effectively you can spin everything around to them and say if you haven't got into shape previously, it's not your fault, you've just been given the wrong plan. Because if I have someone sat in front of me who basically says I've been trying to get into shape for the past five years, okay, I've been to Weight Watchers, I've been to Slimming World, I've genuinely tried everything and if I basically then go right, okay, what we're gonna do is we're gonna get you counting macros. I'm basically saying what we're gonna do is we're going to get you to do the exact same thing that you've done for the past five years and expect a different result.
Callum Walker:Okay, that's just not going to work. It's not going to work.
Callum Walker:Whereas actually again, and I see all of these coaches, all of these coaches saying, you know, if nothing changes, nothing changes, but you've got to take this into account. So the biggest mistake is that if your coaching nutritionally is a calorie deficit protein goal, stick your client on MyFitnessPal, I promise you it is not good enough. And the reason why it's also not good enough is because ChatGPT can do that faster, better and cheaper. End of story, it can. Because if someone can literally just go on to ChatGPT and say hey mate, this is how heavy I am, I want to lose this amount of weight or get into shape, Can you put some macros together for me?
Callum Walker:And they don't have to pay a 150 to £200 for that. They can just pay £20 a month for that and that bot will be able to put recipes together for them all in line with it. So if I almost kind of look at like one of the biggest fears at the moment within the health and fitness space, there's a lot of coaches who are scared that they're going to get replaced by AI, but the only ones that will be replaced by AI are the ones that can be replaced by AI. And what can be replaced by AI? Putting a macro split together, End of story.
Callum Walker:Putting a workout plan together and drop your ego here. I'll drop my ego. ChatGPT could put together a much better workout plan than I probably could. It could. Why?
Callum Walker:Because it's adaptable like that. I don't need to go like, right, you know what, you know, it doesn't need to go, you know what, I need to go sit down for two hours and just really kind of work through everything. It can do it instantly. So this is where if I almost kind of look at the biggest mistake, especially this January that most personal trainers need to avoid making, you have to level up. You have to level up because it's not just about AI potentially replacing those, but also it is more competitive than ever.
Callum Walker:It is. There are more and more coaches than ever and you have to stand out and if you don't stand out, then you will genuinely continue to keep making the same mistakes over and over again, which is financial anxiety, feeling like you're this diamond in the rough that no one wants to jump on to your service. And you genuinely begin questioning how much longer you can continue doing this because running a business is hard. It is so hard. It is fatiguing.
Callum Walker:It is exhausting, emotionally battering. And if you're swimming upstream because you are blending in with every other person doing the exact same thing, then I promise you you're going to find yourself in a pit in this ring. So what can you do about this? Well, we've got our three mistakes, three steps. First of all, you need to make sure that you avoid the temptation of taking on the New Year, New Me crowd, okay, and you will know who they are.
Callum Walker:You have a conversation with them and you will have this gut feeling of, yeah, this person just well, I'm not sure. They're going to be a nightmare. They're not worth it. Okay, they'll be in, they'll be out. They'll have sucked your energy, they'll have paid you a £100 and they would have been an absolute nightmare.
Callum Walker:Second step is you need to start thinking about how you can break away from being just a fat loss coach. You have to become more than an average personal trainer. That's why all of the guys on the Next Level Coach and the Elite Coach when they join, and if you want to join definitely get in touch, when they join they get a hoodie which says more than a PT. More than a person you have to become more than someone who's just a rep counter giving macro splits. You have to make sure that you can become a coach that goes beyond fat loss and that ties in with working with people who want a result that goes beyond fat loss because that will ensure that you actually one, you're working with high quality people, two, those people stay for a long period of time, three, those high quality people who stay for a long period of time, they adhere, they're getting better results, they're getting better results, they then refer you, who do they refer you to?
Callum Walker:High quality people, adhering to it, wanting a result beyond fat loss and you have a business that takes you to it's successful. And it's really really easy because at the end of the day you only need 40 people paying you £200 a month and you've hit $100. Really simple, that's just over 3 a month. And if you can do that through referral and retention, piece of cake. But more importantly, for your own fulfilment, your own joy and your own excitement, it allows you to actually become a higher quality coach.
Callum Walker:You got into fitness because you wanted to become better. You wanted to learn more. But then you start working with people that you can't display that knowledge because they don't care. Of course, they don't care because they're not at that level. Whereas actually what we need to do is by positioning ourselves as a coach that goes beyond fat loss, what happens is that we can then expand our knowledge.
Callum Walker:We can go and learn about sleep optimization. We can go learn about gut health, about cold water therapy, sauna, yoga, meditation, like carbohydrate restriction, intermittent fasting, all of these cool things and then we can share it with people who actually give a shit. And the third part is by doing that, which is the third step, you need to become different, you need to make sure that your coaching is completely different. That starts with number two. So the third step is then you have to then go and make sure that your coaching is completely different to anything else out there, completely different to anything else that they have tried before.
Callum Walker:If you do that, you will not have a problem. Never forget, if every one of your clients gave you just one new client, you've doubled your business.