Bill walked into my client’s fitness studio clutching two things: a book and a small piece of paper.

With a sheepish look, he revealed, “My doctor gave me your book and this script to contact you. That was almost a year ago, and I haven’t gotten it done. Until now.”

After discussing his fitness goals and health concerns, Bill pulled out a pen and inked a check for a full year of private training.

It took months to get him in the door … and just 15 minutes to close the sale.

What happened?

The Long Game

Good marketing is about helping people invest in something they’ll be glad they did. If you are selling a $40 product, the sale is relatively easy. But when you’re offering a lifestyle change, complex emotions are involved.

Bill delayed, but when he was ready, he knew exactly where to go and what to do. My client understood marketing for the long game.

Since our ideal prospects often encounter our message before they’re ready to buy, marketing for the long game focuses on two key strategies:

• Helping prospects make a decision sooner.
• Ensuring they choose you.

Inspire: Lead with Story

One of the most powerful devices in your marketing toolkit should be storytelling.

Specifically, storytelling that creates the emotions you want your prospects to feel and associate with your offer: joy, hope, urgency, victory, etc.

It’s these emotions that drive our powerful unconscious mind to make conscious decisions that make us feel good.

What goes into a good inspiring story?

My two favorite books on this topic are Michael Hauge’s Storytelling Made Easy and Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand.

The most critical elements shared in these books come down to four key points:

1. Show your character is a normal person.
2. Share the crisis that changed their thinking.
3. Describe their journey with you as their guide.
4. Show the reward of their victory.

Even a short 5-sentence testimonial can cover all four of these elements and drive your prospects’ desire to get started.

The more you share stories, the more you can inspire your audience with emotions they will associate with your brand for the long-term.

Encourage: Build Their Confidence

As a publisher, I encounter a lot of business authors who are anxious to write a 200-page book filled with overwhelming details.

Features and facts great for a small portion of the population, but the vast majority of buyers get overwhelmed by analysis paralysis and walk away “to think about it for a little longer”.

Good marketing is educating your prospect to the point they’ve got the confidence to begin your process… but not so much that they gain a false confidence they should be able to do a version of it on their own.

If you truly believe your services offer value they can’t achieve without you, then make sure your marketing doesn’t imply they should try.

Build their confidence in the benefits of your proven process, not the details or the data.

Equip: Help Them Start Simple

Overwhelmed people don’t buy, and confused people don’t start so if you want to make getting started easier, make it simple.

My team and I have been doing this for years within the fitness industry, using 100-page books explicitly designed to convert prospects into clients.

The books are lead magnets, turning the authors into fitness authorities and local celebrities.

They educate without overwhelming; giving readers an idea of who they’ll meet at the studio, what to wear, what to take with them, what to eat (or not eat), and what to expect in their workout sessions (and why). Vital details that can close a sale faster.

Now, think about your company.

Remove the fear-of-the-unknown obstacle by showing potential customers exactly what to expect in their first few visits.

If you’re marketing online, demonstrate – screen by screen – the buying and login process before they click the “buy now” button.

When you clarify exactly what to expect and what to do first, you make the process easier.

And that matters.

Take the Lead

When you understand that marketing is a long game, it transforms your marketing strategy.

Spend time developing assets that stand the test of time; particularly those you can build once and reuse over and over.

An inspirational talk (or webinar), a compelling book, and a thoughtful email onboarding campaign are all reusable assets that give you time to inspire, encourage, and equip people to say yes to life-changing decisions.

Nicole Gebhardt loves marketing, books, and key lime pie. She is the CEO of Niche Pressworks, a consulting and publishing services company for experts, speakers, coaches, consultants, and business leaders. Learn more about her 3-book strategies inside “The Ultimate Book Plan” at NichePressworks.com

Caregivers… what does that mean? Obviously, it means someone who takes care of others. In this case, seniors 65 and older. Now you might say that 65 is a very young age to need caregiving, but not if you have a chronic condition like Parkinson’s, COPD, Multiple Sclerosis, even Type II Diabetes. What happens when these seniors suddenly can’t navigate through their life like they used to and even simple things like getting to the doctor and grocery shopping become extremely difficult to manage? They find they need a break after doing these simple tasks. At this point, they either have their adult children take on these tasks or hire someone to do them. These people — the Caregivers — are a huge untapped market for medical fitness professionals to provide our valuable services.  

Do you have connections to this market? They tend to be overlooked as they are not the end-user of our services.  Yet, they hold the key to introducing us to pre-qualified clients. There is a huge trust already established between these caregivers and their relatives or employers. The client values and relies on their recommendations, therefore, it is very advantageous to cultivate a presence in their world.  

As with all targeted marketing, where do they hang out and what are their needs? Did you know there are entire associations geared specifically toward caregivers with a subcategory of the adult children, or “parents taking care of parents”? If you didn’t, you need to. It is where the goldmine begins, and the subcategory of caregivers we are going to focus on.  I have been a caregiver with both of my parents and with numerous clients I’ve worked with. When you tap into this market, you find yourself becoming a caregiver as well. If you are great at establishing trust, you too become a trusted resource for referrals. This is a compelling reason to develop a network of preferred medical practitioners that hold similar values and approach towards care. 

From the biopsychosocial aspect of where these caregivers are, they are stressed out from providing care for both their parents and their own children as well. Their parents will fall under the category of Condition Impacted Dependent© to Extensively Dependent and Frail©, meaning they need assistance or improvement with their IADLs (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living). The caregiver demographic will be working a full-time job and juggling their own children, they have very full plates. They literally will not have the energy or time to research and find a qualified professional who can provide in-home medical exercise services designed to make their lives easier. They will welcome any respite in managing their parents’ condition; improving function is added frosting on the cake. 

When it comes to getting noticed, start with your message.

• Preventing further decline – how valuable do you think that is to stressed-out caregivers? 
• Increasing their parents’ ability to function more independently can prevent further decline, allowing them to take on more of their own IADLs and in the process keep their cognition. 
• The capacity to bounce back after setbacks is instrumental to all the people involved. 
• The biggest take-home is that it will reduce the caregiver’s anxiety of having to care for their parent.
• Have your materials ready to educate people on what medical exercise is and specifically what the benefits are to the caregiver and the client’s lives.

Marketing Plan

• Research groups that support caregivers, specifically adult children of seniors (see resources)
• Offer presentations on how-to’s.  Build fall resilience, improve strength for grocery shopping, resources on balance training, presentation on 10 best exercises seniors can do for function. Make sure you have these ready to go, it will save a lot of stress later. 
• Have a PDF ready of your services and costs. The caregiver might be tech-savvy, but they will need to have something easily accessible to show to their parents
• Hone your empathic listening. When a potential caregiver calls you up, listen. A lot of times this technique will put you above the competition. Seniors love to chat, it is how they make connections and establish trust. I know that if a trainer is constantly interrupting me or seems to have divided attention when talking to me, they are certainly not going to be listening to my rambling parent/client. 
• Network within your community. Join a local chamber of commerce, look up villages and volunteer your time. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg, we haven’t even covered other categories of caregivers, CNAs, housekeepers, assisting hands companies, etc. That and more is covered in-depth in the Geriatric Fitness and Lifestyle Specialist online course, available through MedFit Classroom.  

Sharon Bourke has been involved in the health and fitness industry for more than 28+ years presenting, teaching and coaching in fitness clubs and private studios throughout the Washington metropolitan area. She holds certifications in Medical Exercise Specialist, Personal Training Pre-Postnatal fitness, Fitness for Arthritis, and Multiple Sclerosis. Sharon founded the Life Energy Foundation,to utilize her extensive experience and network to create exercise and behavior modification programs and resources to help people avoid becoming immobilized from their chronic conditions. 

It took the 70th birthday parties of a few thousand leading edge baby boomers for corporate America and the mainstream media to wake up to the fact that the median age of adults in the US increased by about a decade while they weren’t looking. Today, articles and conference topics on boomers proliferate, but understanding the underlying values and cognitive decision making processes of older adults remains a mystery to most… old paradigms die hard.

If you are among those that believe there are easy steps or simple typologies that will insure success in the aging marketplace, you are on a fool’s errand. The typical boomer, like the typical senior, is as much like other older adults as a snowflake is typical. Consumers become more dissimilar as they age not more alike, although they share common ‘gut level’ values.

Only a few have successfully targeted the mature consumer, so evidence on what works best is limited. In the last ten years, most targeted the mature market using traditional features and benefits methods only to conclude there was little potential because consumers failed to respond. Those failing blamed neither the medium nor the message, but the intended recipient.

Likewise, millions of dollars have been spent on aging sensitivity without first developing an empathetic understanding of the consumer and their decision-making processes. In fact, sensitivity training often reinforces rather than correcting stereotypes. To increase the probability of future success, marketers must first abandon the approaches that worked so well in yesterday’s youth market; and adopt an ageless approach more likely to appeal to a maturing consumer base while not alienating younger segments.

The first step is to always project a positive, mindful image of aging. This image should underlie all communications and collateral material. Consumers tend to select products/services that reflect images of what they want to be not what they are, and this applies to older adults as well. While physiology changes, older consumers “feel” anywhere from 10 to 15 years younger than their biological age, but this doesn’t mean they think they “look” 10 to 15 years younger. Therefore, when models are too young or engaged in extreme sports, the consumer simply dismisses the message. The key is realistic people in real world activities.

Advertising and communications should also focus on lifelong health and well-being, productivity, later life autonomy and empowerment, and connectedness to family, friends and community. Remember that a prospective customer’s mind will consider your initial message for from .2 to .8 of one second (your cognitive window of opportunity). Not much time to make a first impression – that is why every word and image is so important.

The brain does not process words; it processes pictures and sensory data in context with the circumstances. If the perception “senior” is old, frail, dependent, or other traditional stereotypes, the mind may “exclude” whatever is associated with that word from conscious consideration if the consumer does not view themselves as fitting the stereotype.

By mindfully pursuing an ageless approach to marketing communications, perhaps the general public will come to view later life as something to look forward to and enjoy rather than a time of loss and decline. Ageless marketing solutions do not have to be complex or expensive.  Keeping open minded to all possibilities, some big fixes can be surprisingly simple and low in cost.

For 35 years, Richard Ambrosius has been educating companies, nonprofit organizations and public agencies on how better to communicate with and serve middle-aged and older adults. Moreover, he was among the first in the United States to realize the potential of the New Consumer Majority and specialize in older markets. Ambrosius has delivered keynote addresses and motivational workshops in 49 states.

You’ve just spent the best part of an hour on an amazing presentation of your skills and services, you cracked a few jokes, you found some common ground, and you’re pretty certain you’re on your way to gaining a new happy client and they hit you with it: “Sounds good, I need to think about it.”

The SOAP note format, the acronym of which stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan, is one of the standard document formats that healthcare providers use to document patient information and treatment progress. This article will take you through the format and teach you how to use it with your medical fitness clients.

The Subjective section will include the Chief Complaint of the client/patient, which is the reason they are working with you. This can be an official diagnosis from a licensed healthcare provider, such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, or a symptom of a condition that is causing quality-of-life reduction, disability, or pain. You are not diagnosing any disease, injury, or health condition. You are merely stating the reason for the visit. You can include a brief patient medical history in this section, though you should strive to be succinct in your summary. The healthcare provider for your patient already knows their conditions and struggles and does not need a full page on the topic.

The Objective section is for vitals, how the client/patient presents at the visit physically and psychologically (attitude) and any recent lab or imagery results that are pertinent to your scope of practice and the patient’s Chief Complaints. When documenting the results of lab tests, only record what was tested and whether the result (such as fasting blood glucose levels) falls within normative values for the client/patient population. When documenting imagery results, record the type of imagery and the reviewing technician’s assessment (such as an MRI that shows posterior rotator cuff tears). The vitals you can and should take are heart rate, blood pressure, weight, and today’s pain rating on a 1-10 scale if applicable.

The Assessment section is typically used by healthcare providers for differential diagnosis, which is outside your scope of practice. The Assessment section will consist of your statement on the client/patient’s conditions and how they currently influence their fitness and general health. This can include notes on nutrition and physical activity levels. If the client/patient is presenting with an issue that session, such as restriction in shoulder flexion past 80 degrees, you will document that as well. If joint ROM is a focus of the client/patient’s training plan you should assess this at the beginning of the session and document the current ROM state relative to the previous session or baseline evaluation.

The Plan section is where you record the client/patient training for the day. This is also where you will annotate future training/care plans, such as periodization and progression. This section tells the healthcare provider exactly what you are doing with their patient and enables them to provide you with objective feedback on your training plan if necessary. Your training plan should reflect all guidelines and restrictions the patient’s healthcare provider has given you.

The following is an example of a completed SOAP note:

Date: 5/1/2023        
Patient Name:  John Q. Public        
Provider/Trainer Name: Slone, J.

Subjective:
Chief Complaint: pain secondary to posterior rotator cuff partial thickness tear, restriction in ROM due to said injury, weakness of posterior RC due to injury. Pt is alert, attentive, and appears in good spirits and motivated.

Objective:
HR: 85
BP: 120/90
WT: 241lbs
PAIN: 2/10 at rest

Assessment:
Horiz. Shldr abd. restricted to 70/90 degrees, dull, achy pain during concentric posterior RC movement that improves during warmup. No active shldr flex today. Shldr ext does not provoke pain. Ext. rot. does not provoke pain.

Plan:
Today’s Care:
Warmup: arm bike 5min @ RPE 3-4        
2×12-15 low face pull w/medium-light band within pain-free ROM
2×12-15 horiz. Abd. w/light band within pain-free ROM
2×8-10 ext. rot. w/light band within PF-ROM
2×8-10 scap retrac. w/medium band
2×3-5 overhead eccentric weight bearing, 3lbs, no pain

2x30s cross-body posterior RC stretch
2×10/12 finger ladder steps within PF-ROM

Future Care:
Continue with periodized RT to build function and strength within PF-ROM. Improve joint restriction through flexibility plan. Adhere to PCP guidelines.

This not unlike what a completed SOAP note in a physical therapy clinic would look like. Objective measures that a PT would use are measured joint ROMs with a goniometer (visual estimation is nearly as accurate in most cases and is acceptable for you to use). In a PT clinic, the Plan would also include treatment modalities, which are outside the trainer’s scope of practice (massage, manual therapy, e-stim, heat, cold, etc).

While you are not required to use this format with your clients/patients, it is of great benefit to use a standardized format that ensures you capture all pertinent information and are able to relay that to allied healthcare providers.

Here is a Word document template for the SOAP note format that you may download and use with your patients: SOAP Note Template.

Reprinted with permission from the Move Well, Live Well blog.

Joshua Slone is an Exercise Physiologist and Pain Therapist. He serves as Rehab Team Lead/Physiologist at the Center for Health in Yucca Valley, CA. His clinical expertise includes chronic pain management, joint replacements, sport and orthopedic injuries, complex medical condition management, geriatrics, degenerative neurological conditions, and psychiatric disorders. Visit his website, movewelllivewell.org

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP_note#:~:text=The%20SOAP%20note%20(an%20acronym,such%20as%20the%20admission%20note.
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482263/
• https://www.simplepractice.com/blog/4-common-mistakes-to-avoid-when-writing-soap-notes/
• https://www.carecloud.com/continuum/how-soap-notes-paved-the-way-for-modern-medical-documentation/

There has never been a better time for our Industry to position ourselves to be the Health, Fitness and Wellness Experts to fill the gaps that are looming in front of us.  Gaps such as serving the 80 % of our population whose health journey may not begin with exercise but with Stress Management, or Nutrition or Sleep Hygiene.  Gaps such as Burnout now reported as 1 in 2 Americans suffering and becoming more and more comprised in their productivity at work, with their health and suicide on the rise.  Gaps such as the healthcare systems struggling post pandemic with staffing shortages, quality of care issues, burnout, and closures – it all begs the question, “Where does the average consumer start their health and wellness journey?”

It starts with our Industry!

We are the experts, innovators, creators, coaches, trainers, and business sector to reach out and lead the charge of delivering health, fitness and wellness to the people; no matter where they are located – Employers, Churches, Apartment Complexes, Schools, Resorts/Spas, Golf and Country Clubs, Assisted Living and Older Adult Communities, to name a few.

From my lens of corporate wellness, medical wellness, healthcare and fitness industry challenges; I forecast the following trends for 2023:

1.  Increased interest in activities that promote recovery and the feeling of well-being such as massage, cryotherapy, IV therapy, restorative yoga, breathing and meditation classes, smaller byte size classes for new consumers to try activities at their starting level on their path to health and wellness.
2. Increased interest in outdoor activities for fitness embracing the great outdoors for fitness experience, this will continue to foster the growth of running, hiking, walking and cycling communities.
3. Increased interest in fitness activities that bring people together in search of socialization, community and camaraderie.  This will foster the growth of leagues, tournaments, health and wellness programs and in person activities.
4. Increased interest in the fitness industry from other potential business partners due to the increased interest in Health overall in America.  Example, in Corporate America employee voice = employee choice.  With employees valuing health more than their pay check, employers will need to align benefit plans and offerings with fitness, health and wellness experts to provide what it is that their employees need.  Employers need our expertise.
5. Increased need for niche services to include programming for chronic conditions which are out of control (diabetes, obesity, hypertension), stress management and anxiety, specialty populations who are currently underserved such as Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimers Disease and so many more.  What about Niche Clubs for different sectors of the population ie Over 50 years of age who have not returned to the Fitness Clubs at levels pre-Pandemic?  With a growing % of the population forecasted to be over 50, why not?
6. Increasing Hollywoodization of our Industry with Fitness Influencers leading the way in content on social media platforms.  This can be perceived as a threat to our industry as so much of this content is free, so it is undermining our value.
7. Consumption of health and fitness will remain multi-faceted with at home, on demand, in person as long -term choices.
8. Increasing need for fitness to align with healthcare systems and allied health professionals to establish referral systems, credibility in the local community and to support healthcare systems in their need for step down programming and experts.  Physicians do not refer to gyms, they refer to programs and a trusted partner.  We need to work together to create a continuum of care model with all of the key stakeholders investing in improving health outcomes.  Our motivations to engage may be different at the outset but the anticipated outcomes can be the only answer to bend the cost curve of sickness in America.

WHY will these trends occur?

The Pandemic has had a devastating impact on the health of the workforce and its employees which is where we find the vast majority of adults.

Employers are experiencing:

• a) More than one in four Americans delayed routine health care appointments. 
• b) Fear and fatigue have had cumulative effects on chronic health conditions.
• c) High blood pressure and diabetes can develop undetected and so for employees who have missed annual well visits, the future impact on their health can be devastating.
• d) Benefits Pro reported the cost of care of per employee for health care coverage is projected to be about $13,800 for 2023 with a projected 6.5% increase year over year.

 Employees are experiencing:

• a) Decrease in mental health (42%)
• b) Decrease in social well-being (41%)
• c) Decrease in financial security (32%) and
• d) Decrease in physical health (29%)

So, why will these trends occur?

1.  One in five Americans is suffering burnout, as reported by APA and we now have an ICD-10 code for medical billing of this condition.  It is difficult to find the energy to exercise, take the step to join a gym when exhausted day over day. 
2. Outdoor exercise has proven for many to be a lower barrier choice and lower cost choice to getting activity with some vitamin D.  It can also be more time efficient when lacing up sneakers to go out the door for a walk or run, and it can encompass family time which no childcare costs needed.
3. With 1 in 6 now working from home (prior to the Pandemic it was 1 in 67), feelings of isolation, depression, loneliness and despair on the rise.  There is a direct correlation between having quality relationships in one’s life and health outcomes.  We are human beings not human doings are we are meant to be with others.
4.  We are now only really starting to feel the impact of the Pandemic fall out.  The financial impact of the pandemic payouts to individuals and businesses have created a fall out of our economy with many not wishing to work again and loan re-payments that are arduous.  The health impact of the Pandemic has stimulated rising costs of healthcare due to increased sickness/chronic conditions and shortages in healthcare providers.  Current burnout stats demonstrate the lack of health in Corporate America which is reducing productivity which may be directly related to fiscal performance of a company. 
5. With the rising sickness in America, the demand for specialized services will only increase.  CDC forecasts that by 2030, over 50% of Americans will have a BMI of over 30.  With increasing BMI’s comes increasing chronic diseases and co-morbidities, increased cost of care both in medical and pharmacy and increasingly complex programming needs for obese individuals.  We must learn as an industry to meet this population where they are and provide specialized programs and services, and talent educated in these disease states. 
6. Social media influencers will fill the gap in education in health, fitness and wellness knowledge until we do.  We must position ourselves in our communities to be the credible health and wellness experts.
7. Consumer choice = consumer voice, so with so many Americans working from home, having choice each day on how/where to their workout in and/or health knowledge is not going away.  We must embrace options and hear ongoing consumer needs as they change.
8. Physicians and allied health professionals need partners to refer their patients to.  It only makes sense that we build bridges with the healthcare system for a long term model of shared successes since we all need numbers to perform year over year.

How the Industry Should Respond?

1.  Change the lens and language from Fitness to Wellness so that it advocates for more than exercise in our competencies and expertise.  It allows us to explore how we position ourselves to be a holistic provider in our communities and to be more inclusive.
2.  Hold ourselves to a higher standard of wanting more for the industry in advocacy, credentialling and certification standards and producing quality data outcomes that may be published and shared interdisciplinarily.   Data is king to bridge gaps.
3. Bring healthcare providers and allied health professionals into our centers to leverage partnerships and services for a win-win long term.  Host MD’s as guests for a Speakers Bureau, a health fair with flu shots and wellness programs – it is a win win strategy.  They know you are in the community and they get to share their expert knowledge and capture potential new market share.
4. Focus on the outreach in the community to create opportunities for additional partnerships and referrals to your centers ie, join Rotaries, Chambers, Society of Human Resource Managers etc…
5. Create an Employer Wellness Advisory Committee in your Center to invite and host employers in your center once a month to simply provide solutions to their pain points which are rising healthcare spend, low productivity, low morale and increasing turnover.  Health, wellness, fitness and onsite activities in your center that promote fun, engagement, team dynamics all wrapped in health; can be a great start to increased revenues in corporate wellness activities.
6. Partner with Brokers who need points of differentiation to sell their product and who have the pre-established relationships with employers.
7. Embrace partnerships with individuals and organizations to offer a comprehensive menu of services so you that you do not have to carry all the fiscal burden. (i.e., partner with local dietitians, social workers, behavioral therapists, etc.)

Originally printed in Club Industry 2023 Trends Report. Reprinted with permission from Debbie Bellenger.

Debbie Bellenger is a skilled presenter, public speaker, TRX Master Trainer and Reebok Master Trainer.  Over the past 30 years, Debbie has been developing and delivering medical wellness programs in an integrated continuum of care model with providers using EPIC as a platform of referrals and communications back and forth. She also successfully developed a new service line for CaroMont Regional Medical Center called Employer Wellness services which sold over $500,000 of corporate wellness programs with coordinators to local companies. Debbie is the 2014 Medical Fitness Association Corporate Wellness Director of the Year – Employee Wellness. She is the 2017 IDEA Program Director of the Year Award recipient, which recognizes a Director who develops and delivers health, fitness and wellness programs for employees, participants and patients that have successfully changed behaviors and demonstrated positive outcomes of improved health.

As a trainer, you wear many different hats during a typical work week. In turn, you are pulled in many different directions among family, friends and clients.  If you are focusing on too many topics at once you cannot be in the moment, which can lead to a lack of client retention.

Being in the moment.

There is a lot of competition in the studio market and potential members/clients like to belong to a gym – and stay with a gym – where they feel comfortable.  That puts the limelight on personal trainers to generate the positive client experience that is so important to retention.

This is why being in the moment is vital to gaining new clients and retaining current ones. If trainers are distracted this may be apparent through body language. Members may perceive being distracted as receiving bad customer service.

Members decipher up to 93% of what is said through body language.

When you think of excellent customer service, which companies come to mind? What makes them stand out from their competition? The employees that work for these companies are mindful and in the moment. They anticipate the needs of the client and help them accordingly.  Being in the moment means that your body language and what you say conveys the same message. This is important to note for customer service and member retention.

The importance of not ‘zoning out.’

Members are constantly making decisions on how they want to spend their money. When trainers work with clients they should be mentally and physically present for each session. If a trainer zones out the trainer leaves their client wondering if the session is important to them. Trainers also miss out on potential new clients who may have wanted their services.

Clients will typically get your attention first by asking if there is “something else you need to do”. This should be a clue that they know you are not in the moment.  You want to fix this quickly before the client stops training at your facility. Potential clients also watch to see how focused and attentive you are.  I once had a member watch my training sessions for 5 months before deciding that he wanted to hire me. He said that he was looking at my training style, personality and attentiveness. He passed up two other trainers because they seemed uninterested.

When you and/or your staff have better self-awareness you are able to anticipate the needs of your members easier.  You will also notice that more clients would like to train with you. By being in the moment every day your clients feel like they had an experience that they want to share with friends and family.

Do you know what message you’re conveying?

Nonverbal communication involves facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, posture, voice, and touch -and is actually more important then what is said verbally. Trainers are communicating non–verbally with clients and members all of the time and when mixed signals are sent, clients have to try to figure out how you actually feel.  You may be speaking to your client and sound present and in the moment but is your body language  communicating otherwise?

Robyn Kade is the Founder of The Stress Management Institute for Health and Fitness Professionals. She has 18 years of experience in medical based fitness.

References

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships/nonverbal-communication.htm

http://www.statisticbrain.com/gym-membership-statistics/