There’s a common theme I’ve seen gaining traction amongst fitness professionals of late – mostly from the young bucks out there, but from some experienced trainers too – stating something to the effect of “online or distance coaching is easy.”
Easy?
Easy.
Pffffffft, riiiiiiggggghhhhtttt.
Beating an eight year old in a game of H.O.R.S.E is easy.
Warming up a Hotpocket is easy.
Swiping right is easy.
Running a successful online training business?
Not easy.
I can understand the delusion, though. We’re seduced into thinking that those coaches/trainers who decide to pursue online coaching will, in a matter of months (or even weeks), be traveling the world enjoying libations on the beach one week and the culinary delicacies of Paris the next.
Their only source of stress….a reliable WiFi connection.
As a matter of fact there are some fitness pros who have built this sort of lifestyle for themselves. But I can tell you with almost certainty it didn’t happen overnight, or in a matter of months.
But lets omit the outliers out of the equation anyways.
Lets talk about you and what it takes to build a successful online business.
I picked up my first online client back in 2006. I was moving from Syracuse, NY to Danbury, CT and a client of mine back in the ‘cuse still wanted to work with me.
He asked if I could just, you know, still write his training programs and send them to him via email.
I was like, “yeah, alright, sure.”
Actually, come to think of it, Bobby K. invented online training! Well done Bobby.
Back then all I did was send out a monthly Excel sheet – the present day equivalent of messenger pigeon – and if Bobby was ever flummoxed by anything I programmed, I’d just record something with my digital camera and send that along as well.
I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and it’s any wonder I was able to send anything over the internet without burning down my apartment.
As I started writing more and getting my name out there, I started receiving more inquiries from people to provide online programs. One client turned to five, five turned to ten, and eventually things evolved to the point where online coaching turned into a viable revenue stream for me.
Mind you, it wasn’t private jet trips across the Atlantic levels of revenue. But, I was able to start using the income I made from coaching people online to help pay for my car and/or student loans.
Fast forward a few years, it wasn’t long before I found myself with what seemed like a second job. I was still coaching people at Cressey Sports Performance full-time, only to come home at the end of each day to an inbox full of questions and programming tweaks from online clients.
It was exhausting.
Demand was high…..cool.
But there was only one of me, and I wanted a life outside of starring at my computer screen for hours on end (answering emails, writing programs, invoicing, developing/updating an exercise database)….not cool.
Something had to change. I had to find some form of distance coaching Darwinian natural selection process that would make my life easier or more efficient.
Full-Disclosure: Most of (if not all) successful online coaches I know were first really good in-person coaches. There are innumerable nuances that go with coaching people in person that it’s almost impossible – I feel – to be a good online coach without having first mastered that.
How are you going to be able to tweak someone’s deadlift technique over the internet if you have zero or little practice doing it in real-life?
Likewise, it’s not as if all you have to do is set up a YouTube of Instagram account and post a bunch of selfies or videos of you breaking down optimal bicep peak exercises and the floodgates will all of a sudden open.
There are a thousands of trainers vying for everyone’s attention, and I wholeheartedly believe that those who do well virtually are those who have experience coaching people in-person and have more of a “feel” (<— non-creepy) when it comes to human interaction.
Having said that…I also believe that those who do well are those who are organized and have their shit together.
They have systems in place.
This can entail everything from:
What sort of liability insurance should you get?
Do you have a waiver system in place? LLC?
How do you collect data to best ascertain if someone’s a good fit for you?
What’s your assessment/screening process look like?
How do you send out programs? How and when do you update them?
How, when, and where do people get a hold of you?
What system do you use to demonstrate to clients appropriate exercise technique?
How do you track and collect payments?
How do you keep people accountable and on track?
How do you gauge progress? How do you know when to make programs more challenging or less challenging?
It’s been more than a decade since I started building out my online training programs. Since then, I experimented with dozens of different systems and programs, finding out what worked and what didn’t work through months and years of trial and error.
I wish I didn’t have to do that back then.
I wish I’d been given a proven system that works.
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I started utilizing distance coaching back in 2005 before “distance coaching” was a thing. Hell, Facebook was barely a thing at that point in time, but I managed to survive.
Come to think of it I didn’t get my first cell phone or laptop until 2006, so it’s any wonder how I was able to turn distance coaching into a viable source of income for myself.
It’s taken years, of course, to turn it into a viable source of income, and, admittedly, there are innumerable coaches out there who have built online training empires that would make what I have built seem like an anthill compared to their Taj Mahal.
Fuck those guys…;o)
Just kidding. It’s altogether impressive to see how successful some people have gotten with their online training businesses. Kudos, and well done.
Nonetheless, I wanted to take today and discuss my experiences with distance coaching: Why I do it, the pros and cons of doing it, mistakes I’ve made along the way, and whether or not you should considering dipping your toes in the water.
Above all, when it comes to online training, you need to ask yourself this question:
Are You Doing It For the Right Reason(s)?
There’s a fairly naive notion that those who do online coaching are living the high life. They’re traveling the world on their hovercrafts writing programs and answering emails while sipping Pina Coladas. Indeed, for some, this is very true. I mean, hovercrafts are awesome.
However it’s not the norm.
If you’re entering the world of online training under the guise that that is normal, and that you’re going to be making between a metric boat load and metric shit load of money without any effort, let me say this:
Personally, I’d make the argument that online coaching is more time consuming and more of a grind than people are led to believe. Then again, those who believe otherwise are the ones who think all you need is a YouTube page, a smart phone, and nice smile to build a bonafide fitness business.
Basically it comes down to this:
If you decide to enter the world of online training (only) to make a bunch of money, good luck. I doubt you’ll last long.
If you decide to enter the world of online training to actually help people (first), to offer a good service with integrity, and then yeah, eventually, maybe make some decent money, now we’re talking.
Those Who Do Online Training Gooder: A Huge Caveat
I didn’t take on my first online training client until 2005. I had just moved from Syracuse, NY (where I had been working in both corporate and commercial gyms for the previous three years) to Danbury, CT where some guy named Eric Cressey convinced me to move to to start working with him at a local gym in the area.
A client of mine (back in Syracuse), Bobby, emailed me after a few weeks and asked if I’d still be interested in writing his programs? I like to think he couldn’t live without my witty personality and incessant GoodFellas quotes.
Until he had asked it had never dawned on me to write programs in a distance-based fashion. I was like, “uhhhhhhh, sure.”
I had a digital camera, a desktop computer, a sick bicep peak (<– very important), and an Excel spreadsheet.
I made it work.
But how?
Looking back my systems were terrible. But that’s also comparatively speaking. What I had access to back in 2005 in terms of technology paled in comparison to what is available today. I might as well, proverbially speaking at least, have been shucking corn with a scythe. Or, I don’t know, playing video games on an Atari 2600.
Bobby would send me a check via snail mail, I’d write his program, email it to him, and then if he had any questions I’d either have to write a Tolstoy’esque email back explaining every step of every exercise, or attempt to send him an impromptu video, which, honestly, back then, was more of a pain in the ass than writing everything out.
There was no such thing as YouTube. How did we survive?!
But it worked because of one thing, and it’s something I can’t repeat enough: I had years of experience training people in REAL LIFE.
To that end……
I think the best online coaches are those coaches who have experience training people in-person for a few years and then transition to some degree of distance coaching.
“It’s only when you work with people in person, gain a better understanding of their diversity and how to properly cue and coach different people with varying goals, current/past injury histories, and ability levels, and then have experience APPLYING what you read and watch to an actual individual, that you’ll (likely) be more successful virtually.”
In the years since I have developed better systems and my online coaching business is loaded with my own required desiderata – my laptop, PayPal account (to accept and send payments), DropBox (t0 receive and critique training videos), set of questionnaires, intake info, and screens (sent via vide0) to better ascertain prospective clients’ needs, a relationship with Exercise.com and their use of their sweet platform, not to mention my baller Spotify chill mix for optimum program writing prowess and badassery.
But what about the pros and cons (for both client and coach) of online training? What are they?
The Client
Cons:
Since I like to get bad news out of the way first (like, I’m writing this post with no pants on) let’s start with those, in no particular order:
Your coach isn’t actually there with you: That’s sort of the point of distance coaching right? But unless you’re highly motivated, you’ll find this as an excuse to not make it into the gym or skip certain parts of your training session. Lame.
Feedback comes later than you need it: Since you’re (hopefully) sending videos to your coach you won’t know until after you’re done with your lift if you performed things up to their standards.
It’s really easy to find a shit coach: If you spend 10 minutes browsing the fitness related hashtags on Instagram, I bet you could find about 50 random guys and gals who just finished training for their first show and are dying to offer you one of the limited spots in their online training group. Who knows what this person knows and where they learned it. If you don’t do your research you’ll end up wasting your money on some random jabroni.
It can be tough to form a relationship: If you found your coach online, it can sometimes be tough to form a relationship with them. Really, who wants to keep spending money on someone that they don’t have a great relationship with? And if you haven’t really bonded with them or trust them, why would you keep killing yourself in the gym for them? This is why I always make it a point to send random pictures of my cat here and there. Because it builds rapport, and because she’s awesome.
A post shared by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on
Pro’s:
Enough of the Debbie Downer talk! There’s a lot to love about working with a coach as a distance client!
It’s cost effective: This is just a fancy way of saying cheap! The cost per session of working with most distance coaches is substantially less than paying for them in person and is typically even way cheaper than paying for an atrocious trainer in person. For just a few bucks per lift you can have a great coach write your programming for you; it’s awesome.
Low stress: What do I mean by this? I mean that you don’t have to worry about schedules nearly as much as in person. You work weird hours and want to train at 2 am? Sure, pyscho, go train at 2 am.
You can work with just about anyone: As long as a coach is taking clients and you can afford them, you can work with just about any coach in any realm of fitness. It doesn’t matter where they are located; you can get a Chinese weightlifting coach, a Brazilian booty coach and a Turkish get-up coach if you want.
It can last a lifetime: If you’re lucky enough to find a coach that you have a good relationship with, trust and see results with you can train with them essentially forever. Regardless of where either one of you moves, the training relationship can remain solid.
A good community: I’m lucky that my coach (yes, I have a coach) had done such a good job with his distance coaching prior to me hiring him. When I started working with Greg, The Strength House had a vibrant online community where people are able to post videos to get feedback from Greg and Tony B. as well as other clients who may know what they are talking about. It makes a huge difference with staying accountable to my program.
The Coach
To be truthful, a lot of the points that are true for clients are true for coaches. It can be tough building a relationship with someone that you’ve never met.
Cons
There is a world of shit out there: People move like crap, and it’s hard to “manage” people from a distance unlike you can in-person. Being able to instantly provide verbal and tactile feedback is what gives in-person coaching a more than slight edge over online training.
More challenging to keep clients accountable: Are your clients really doing what you tell them to do? Are they really doing their deadbugs and dedicated warm-ups or skipping them in lieu of extra bicep curls in front of the mirror?
It Can Get Weird – Like that one time I started with a new male client and while on a bus on my way to NYC to visit friends I opened up all the postural pics I had him send me. Sorry random woman who looked over at me looking at half-naked pictures of a man. #awkward.
There’s a lot of moving parts: To be an effective distance coach means having a few systems in place that work really well and those can be difficult to manage.
A good way to track programs and ensure clients get them in time.
An effective means of communication, or else you’ll end up with an abyss of emails and texts to answer. Personally, though, I rarely give out my cell phone number for this very reason.
A good video library to pull demo’s from.
A solid network of coaches and trainers in other cities to be able to reach out to for help (Hey, I’ve got a client in your city, they’d like to meet with you for an hour and work on their hip hinge)
A strong system to collect and track payments.
Distance coaching isn’t for everyone: Truthfully, some people really just do need one-on-one in person training. Maybe the client isn’t motivated enough, maybe their needs are beyond what you can provide via an email or Facebook message. While it will mean you lose their monthly fee, this is definitely a client you should help find a local trainer to help them with their immediate goals.
It’s not all butterfly kisses and rainbows: Despite what the internet tells you, most people who do online training also have another job. Very few can live off their online business alone. It can be a drag to come home after coaching (or working) an 8-hour day only to have an inbox full of client questions and inquiries. As I alluded to above: online coaching, I find, is more time consuming than people think – especially if you lack having systems in place.
Pros
You can work with anyone: This is by far the coolest part. Right now I do remote coaching with people all over the world. I have clients all over North America, Europe, and even the Middle East. Many people have limited access to quality coaching and online training allows me the opportunity to work with people I otherwise would never cross paths with. Note to Optimus Prime, I have a few spots open.
It’s a decent bump to your income: I’m not going to tell you it’ll make you a millionaire, but I remember when I first started I told myself I wanted online training to help me cover my rent each month (and maybe pay for my then Match.com membership). It did and has since. Pretty cool.
Note: Match.com profile was deleted when I met my wife….;o)
Clients for life: If you’re good at what you’re doing, you’ll have clients that you’ll keep around forever. Also, since we in the fitness industry know that word of mouth advertising is more effective than anything else, happy clients will tell their friends and family.
It’s honestly fun: I really enjoy this part of my job. It takes me out of the daily routine of local clients that I work with and gives me something else to think about. It has become another skill to try and master and I like that challenge. Figuring out how to get great results with someone training in their home gym in North Dakota is much different than having that same person in front of you in your gym. You learn how to broaden your horizons as a coach and try to always get better and improve your systems.
Ultimately it’s up to you to decide whether or not online training is your cup of tea. I think when done well, for the right reasons, and with the right systems in place, coaches (and clients) can do very well. However, when taken for granted and with little attention to detail, it can be more detrimental than helpful.
My good friend, Jon Goodman, has developed what I believe is one of the best resources out there with regards to becoming a bonafide online trainer. If I had something like this back in 2005 my systems would have been much more organized, and I’d probably be married to Jennifer Lopez. True story.
Enrollment is extremely limited and only happens twice a year. Enrollment for early birds will begin February 21, 2017 (tomorrow!) and will close a few weeks thereafter. If you hurry, you can go HERE to download the Lasting Laws of Online Training and get onto the early bird list to save $200 off registration.
