5 Hard earned truths that make or break a fit pro career
“The truth is fitness professionals are the only ones who are actually working to make people healthier. The medical business is all about sick care and disease management. We on the other hand can offer something far more valuable to our clients and students. And that is a practical pathway to chronic health.”
-Ericka Thomas
Transcript
5 Hard earned truths that make or break a fit pro career
Congratulations! Getting that certification in the mail is exciting. You earned it. You deserve to be proud of yourself for the work it took to get those official credentials. Now what? Getting any fitness professional certification is like being handed a recipe. And we all know that there’s a big difference between following that recipe to the letter and being a Michelin star chef. That’s our Work IN today. I’m going to share 5 Hard earned truths that make or break a fit pro career.
1. Certification is something but it’s not everything
Nobody cares about your letters. The sooner you figure that out the sooner you'll be more confident and comfortable in your own skin. Whether you work one on one or with groups, students don’t know what those letters mean anyway. Explaining what they are and what they mean in order to feel qualified to do your thing then you are reinforcing your own imposter syndrome.
When it comes to working in wellness, certification in your field is important. We want to be qualified, we want our colleagues to be qualified. And the people we work with should feel confident in our education (hence the letters after our name, and the billion dollar fitness certification industrial complex) But our students and clients don’t really really care. What they do care about is their relationship to you and with you. How they can connect with you and your experience beyond what the letters mean. Your experience, the value add, and how you decide to build it and integrate it into your fit pro business is like the secret sauce. It’s what will set you apart from the rank and file.
When I say experience, I’m not talking about more certifications. I’m talking about your own personal life experiences.
2. You already have what it takes - Isn’t that what that paper says?
Imposter syndrome is a plague among fit pros, at least most of the female ones that I know. We never feel like we know enough or that what we are doing really matters in the grand scheme of health and wellness. Maybe after we get this next cert or that degree. Well I’d like to call bullshit on that, right here and right now.
The truth is fitness professionals are the only ones who are actually working to make people healthier. The medical business is all about sick care and disease management. We on the other hand can offer something far more valuable to our clients and students. And that is a practical pathway to chronic health.
This is a shift in how we think about fitness and wellness modalities from a nice to have to a need to have. I would argue that until we start treating our profession as something as important as having health insurance and a good doctor we’re going to have a difficult time convincing anyone else of its value. I wish health insurance would pay for yoga classes and personal trainers and gym memberships. I think we would all get a much higher return on that investment.
You are making a difference in ways you don’t even know and may never know by bringing your whole self into the equation whether you’re newly certified or well seasoned. Your whole awkward, nerdy, creative, messy, imperfect real self is what people need to see.
3. You don’t have to know everything
Your certification taught you a lot but it doesn’t teach you everything. Sometimes you feel the holes in that education immediately. For me I learned a lot of technical things. Calorie equations, anatomy, physiology, kinesiology. Alignment. Nutrition. How everything was supposed to work in the body. All of that was great. But there wasn’t a lot of how to translate that information in real live, regular people who don’t fit the mold. So much of that information is based on young male athletes and has almost no value to women of any age let alone metabolically challenging situations or stress and trauma. It does not take into account the variability and possibility in us or our students.
Not only was there a gap in the exercise science but also in the “how to structure a workout” How to lead a group fitness class. How to cue some people will understand. How to encourage behavior change. That kind of thing, communication, empathy, mindset, connection, you have to learn by doing. That kind of education can come from anywhere and everywhere. This is why it’s so important to always be learning with the understanding that it is unnecessary for you to be an expert in everything. You can and should be willing and able to say “That’s a great question! I’m not sure I know that. or That’s not in my scope, here’s where you could start looking.” That’s not my focus but I can refer you to someone… You don’t have to know it all.
4. You are not a commodity
A commodity is the same no matter where you get it. (like corn) Fit pros aren’t a commodity. We aren’t interchangeable. As much as our employers would like to wish that were so. Just like all people we bring a lot of different things to the table. You could have 5 yoga instructors who were trained by the same school and get 5 different types of yoga classes out of them on every given day.
This is why I think I dislike all the prechoreographed big box group fitness products out there. I don’t begrudge the companies but I don’t think it's great at the instructor level for instructors. Especially if you’re a fit pro who wants more out of the industry than a side hustle and overuse injuries.
Embracing that idea that you are valuable and unique in what you offer as a fit pro will kill that imposter syndrome. It leads to creative wellness experiences for clients and students and an engaging, successful, long lasting career for you.
Students want honesty over perfection and presence over performance and that’s what success looks like in this industry.
5. This isn’t your workout
That’s right. It’s not about you. This should probably be #1. I know it was a huge “aha” moment for me because I, like many group fit instructors, started off getting paid to do a workout I was gonna do anyway. So I just put together workouts that I wanted to do. I thought they had to be the hardest thing ever for me in order to be good enough for them. It’s a great recipe for burnout.
Then I went to a fitness conference and heard the keynote speaker say those magic words.”It’s not your workout”. Every cell in my body rejoiced, the sky opened up and the angels sang. As soon as you start to look at the design of your classes from your students perspective it starts to level up.
Here’s why. If the class isn’t for you then you don’t have to do it. The pressure is off. If you don’t have to do everything 100% balls to the wall now you can be more present and engaged with your people. You can take care of yourself, lead by example. You can pay attention to the energy in the room. It frees you up to move and respond in mindful ways. To actually help if you need to. Maybe have a little fun. We’ve talked in other episodes about how to make students feel seen. This is the key to helping students personalize their experience.
Our job as fit pros isn’t to count reps and sets and push people to the point of exhaustion. It’s not about proving we’re the strongest one in the room or showing people what's possible if they just try a bit harder. It isn’t even to get students fitness results. All that stuff is ego.
Our job, our real job, no matter what format we offer, is to help our students build self awareness, body awareness, so they can take control of their own health and wellbeing, physically, mentally and emotionally. That has less to do with perfect alignment and heart rate and everything to do with how we show up.
Being an independent fit pro is the ultimate side hustle. Being a solopreneur in wellness can feel lonely but you don’t have to do it alone. Head over to
savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin you’ll find all the show notes for this and other episodes plus lots of free resources. including a link to book a 30 min fit pro success strategy call with me. And of course I’d be ever so grateful if you would take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening.
Until next time, stop working out and start working in
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a health coach and trauma informed yoga professional bringing real world resilience and healing to main street USA.
I offer trauma release + yoga + wellness education for groups and individuals…regular people like you.
Book a call to learn how I can help.