Personal Training Tips for the Holidays - More Money & Clients

The holiday season is finally upon us! As a personal trainer, you have the task of motivating clients through the holidays, helping them navigate the temptations of the season, and getting them (and yourself) prepared for the new year ahead. However, not all the focus should be on others! It is 100 percent possible to keep clients engaged (and paying) through the holidays while you grow your business over the last portion of the year.

Let's start by discussing ways to keep your business going...and growing during the hustle and bustle of the holidays!

Keep Your Business Growing!

Many fitness professionals see dips in class and session attendance and a relatively high client attrition rate in November and December each year. The dreaded holiday slow-down. Healthy habits are cemented throughout the year and can be easily broken when schedules get busy. However, this does NOT have to be the case! Keep clients focused on their exercise routine and give them the tools they need to be successful at holiday gatherings and they will come to rely on you for accountability!

Arm yourself with the skills and techniques required to truly coach and influence behavioral patterns as they relate to your clients physical, mental and emotional well-being. Get certified with ISSA's Transformation Specialist to help clients see better results quicker and have an easier time with the transition to the behaviors and activities you suggest.

Motivate Existing Clients

The clients you currently have are—all puns intended—the gravy to your mashed potatoes! They see you regularly and are a consistent source of income. Of course, they should get a large piece of the pie (sorry, couldn't help it!) when it comes to a fitness professional's attention. The clients have a set fitness routine and look to you to keep them motivated.

The normal rules of engagement apply for motivating clients during the holidays as apply any other time of the year:

Relate to Them

Everyone's family situation, schedule, and feelings about the holiday are different. Talk with your clients to see what challenges they have over the holidays and if there is anything they are concerned about as far as staying on track. Empathize and help them set SMART goals to keep them focused. Remember, setting goals isn't enough—hold them accountable to the goals they set and check in with them often over the holiday season. This promises they will stay engaged and remain a paying client!

Give Them Autonomy

Everyone wants to feel empowered. You can lead a horse to water and encourage it to drink, but only the horse can make that choice. Offer challenges to your clients to engage them and celebrate their wins as they make the "right" choices. For example, create a challenge to workout as many times as possible between December 1 and January 31. (Why so long? You now have a client engaged well into the new year! That's why!) Every time a client completes 7 workouts, they get a prize or a raffle ticket (for a gift of your choice) and a shoutout on your social media. Recognition and praise are powerful motivators!

Teach Them Good Form and Habits

When clients are competent with their exercise, not only will they feel empowered, but they are more likely to stick with it when your attentions are pulled elsewhere. The end goal for you as the professional is to keep as many clients as possible, right? Of course! So, keep your clients educated and they will prevent injury and be more successful overall (and we all know that clients who see results will stick around!).

Attract NEW Clients

Who says a fitness professional cannot grow their business during the holiday season? There are plenty of ways to engage with and gain brand new clients, build your income (for more presents of course!), and set your business up for success in the coming year.

Holiday Fitness Challenges

Everyone loves a good challenge! Fitness challenges can increase motivation, improve fitness compliance, drive results, and get a prospective client to the point where they are ready to invest in themselves and employ your services!

Challenges over the holidays should not be limited to the holidays. Start them as early as possible to help people get prepared and continue them well into the new year!

• Squat or push-up challenges: a set number per day to stay in the challenge

• Daily workout challenges: workout as many days as possible during a set timeframe

• Daily calorie burns or step targets: log and report steps or calories burned daily

• Food logging: log and share food diaries with a group daily (great for nutrition accountability!)

• Best outfits: within reason, give daily shoutouts for the best holiday themed outfits in your classes or among your clients

The options are endless! The more creative, the more likely people are to engage!

Of course, charge for your time during these challenges. Most holiday fitness challenges run between $99 per person to $349 per person depending on what you are offering, how frequently, and how long the challenge lasts. Each person who signs up and pays is a potential long-term client waiting to be wowed and offered your services!

Sale Pricing for Your Training Services

The services, classes, or sessions you currently offer can go on sale to promote prospect enrollment. How much and for how long you discount your offerings is up to you, but, during the holidays, people are always looking for a sale.

Be sure you set end dates for your promotions. A firm end date will drive sales and the fear of missing out is a big motivating factor for purchases. Reach out to people you may have trained or done consultations with as well as current clients with friends and family that need some guidance. Create some fun and festive flyers and gift bags for your promotion to send out and give out. Then, let your emails, social media, and current clients spread the word for you. The gift of fitness is pretty easy to give!

Workout Buddies

Whether you teach group classes or do solo sessions, encourage your current clients to bring a friend. This is an effective tool to increase sales year-round, but especially during the holidays. One fitness trainer can only do so much to motivate. Let friends motivate friends and the accountability doubles.

Effectively offer buddy sessions in one of two ways:

• The client can purchase services and bring whomever they like until the sessions are used up

• The client can purchase a gift certificate and gift it to someone who can then use the services purchased on their own

No matter how they do it, you're making some extra cash and are gifted a prospective long-term client! Merry Christmas to YOU!

Goal Setting and Nutritional Seminars

For prosects who have their workouts on point and may need some motivation or nutrition advice, nutrition seminars and goal setting sessions are great offerings. Whether one-on-one or in small groups, this fee-based service can generate a decent amount of money depending on how frequently you offer them. How much you charge is based on the type of session, the size of the group, and what the client gets.

For example, you provide a 1-hour nutrition seminar, in-person, open to 10 people, and they walk away with a printed recipe book and your presentation notes in hand. That's likely worth $99 to $149 per person (or more!). A one-on-one 30-minute zoom call to discuss nutrition with an emailed recipe book or presentation notes may be worth $50 to $75. It's your time, so make sure you are compensated for it.

Goal setting sessions are better executed one-on-one and can be worth more. They often take a little more time as you'll need to get to know this new client, understand their needs, make professional suggestions for them, and lay out their goals and timelines. Set an hourly rate for such a session.

Take Time to Convert!

Making some additional money is great during the holiday season. However, the keys to success with any of these strategies are:

• Don't harass current clients to get to their friends and family. It's a turn off for most people. Keep your communications fun, festive, and purposeful.

• When you engage with someone new, get their contact information. If they don't purchase anything else from you right away, at least you know how to reach them with marketing later!

• When you do get a new paying client, share what you offer and be genuine. People buy the trainer as much as the services.

• Before your challenge or time with a new client ends, don't be afraid to ask for the sale. If you want them to be a long-term client with you, make sure they know how you can help them and get them excited about it!

Now that your business is in order, let's talk about tips for clients! There are endless lists of tips and tricks to get and keep clients motivated to train and eat healthy over the holidays. Help them be realistic, enjoy their holidays, but stay on track with these little gifts of advice (they can't say you never gave them anything!).

Maneuvering a Holiday Party

Potlucks, dinners, and brunches, oh my! The holidays are rife with parties, extra calories, and the potential for weight gain and deviations from the plan. Give your clients these tips to help get through the holiday smorgasbord they are sure to encounter.

1. Stay hydrated. Let's face it, eggnog, wine, and beer are common staples of the holidays. Balance alcohol with water intake and avoid feeling Scroogy after a night out.

2. Bake healthy treats. Got a baker on your hands? There are "healthy versions" of nearly every baked good available. Encourage them to try a healthier version of their favorite cookie or pie this year. They'll likely be pleasantly surprised (and the hit of the potluck!).

3. Eat before you go. Sounds funny, but if you're already kind of full before you get there, you're less likely to overeat when at the party.

4. Do the math. Take some time and calculate the calories and macronutrients in some of your favorite holiday foods. GASP! It's probably way worse than you ever thought, right?! Keep these little lumps of coal on your mind and you are less likely to overindulge when faced with a platter of something yummy (i.e., calorie-dense and full of sugar!).

5. Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to eat it. Obvious, but often not so obvious.

Speaking of holiday parties, want to learn more about what to do with all those leftovers? Check out some fun and creative uses for all that turkey and stuffing in this informative ISSA blog!

Top Tips for a Healthy Holiday

There are so many fitness tips a personal trainer can give to clients. Focus on those that apply most to each client and they will be more likely to listen! This means you'll need to have some good conversations, ask questions, and really listen to each person to see what concerns and issues they have or may run into over the next few months.

1. Moderation

Everything in moderation, right? We're human and we're going to slip up. It's allowable to enjoy yourself over the holiday...just not all day every day. Practice moderation by planning your holiday engagements—choose, for example, one gathering or party per week instead of three. Eat well and train on your normal schedule all week so that you can enjoy yourself guilt-free at that weekly shindig.

2. Be Realistic

No one is going to make perfect choices every time. When faced with a platter of cookies or veggies, most people will make take the cookie route. It's realistic to expect and plan for this. Keep your nutrition choices clean and healthy when you can, then practice your moderation and enjoy one tasty treat, not all the tasty treats. Take tiny bites and chew slowly!

3. Be Consistent

Being realistic and using moderation all require you to be consistent overall. Humans are creatures of habit anyway. Stay true to your routine, forgive your slips, and keep it moving.

4. Get a Workout Buddy

Accountability is a powerful motivator for most things. A workout buddy allows clients to have a friend on hand when they need a push, who encourages personal interactions, and who makes fitness more fun in general. Most people will keep to their workout schedule if they know a buddy is waiting at the treadmill for them.

5. Make Better Bad Nutrition Choices

No one is perfect when it comes to, well, any aspect of life. However, we can make better "bad" choices! You get to select the foods you put on your plate. When faced with a table full of crockpots and baked goodies, fill your plate up with the healthier options first. Start with the veggie tray and the meat and cheese platter before you dive into the cookies and mac and cheese! Take it one decision at a time and make the best possible choice. Focus on your nutrition and what your body really needs at the moment over what you just want.

6. Control Your Surroundings

Just because you were invited to a holiday gathering or gifted with a yummy pie doesn't mean you have to indulge. It's okay to say no! You can even pack your own snacks as you go to a holiday gathering. Seems a bit much for some, but being in control of what is around us can be empowering and motivate some to stay on track. Keep in mind that the holidays are great for many but can be big stressor and source of anxiety for others. Preparedness is key.

7. Set Some Time Aside For YOU

Gift-giving holidays are focused on what one does for others. Well, what about you? Take some time to do things that give YOU joy. Read a book, take a bath, hit the gym, play some video games, or practice your knitting. Whatever fills you up, make sure you get a chance to do a little of that every now and then.

A good phrase to remember: "You're no good to anyone else if you're no good to yourself!"

8. Look Good, Feel Good!

With so many sales at the end of the year, invest a little in yourself and get some new workout gear! Whether workout clothes, a new pair of training gloves or straps, or some new kicks, a new outfit can be just what you need to get you into the gym to work hard and, of course, show off the new threads!

If you've got a passion for helping others and love fitness like Buddy the Elf loves Christmas, it is time for you to take the next step. Get started on the ISSA Personal Trainer Certification today! Invest in yourself the way you invest in others!