Full time fitness fallacy
“It’s not possible to depend on this business as a full time career in the same way that we think of full time in other jobs. You have to think outside the box.”
- Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Ep 185
Full Time fitness fallacy
Killing fitness career dreams
I’m killing the dream of a full time fitness career today on The Work IN. Working full time as a fitness instructor or coach and making a living is not realistic. At least not the way we traditionally think of full time in other careers. But there are ways to make your wellness work work for you no matter what kind of fit pro you are.
Today's Work IN is going to be filled with real talk and some brutal honesty. But I want to preface it by saying I absolutely love what I do. It feeds me in ways that other kinds of work do not. BUT, and it's a big but, I could not do this, I could not stay active in this industry for as long as I have without my husband's income. There are several reasons for that that we’ll go into today. I hope to pull back the curtain a bit and show you some different ways to make this industry work for you.
When you research general fitness industry wage statistics they look very enticing. The career site Zippia estimates instructors make between 23,000 and 53,000 a year based on a $17 per hour mean salary. That presumes a 40 hour work week. In other words you have to teach 40 hours per week for 52 weeks a year to earn 35,360 before taxes. These numbers are very dependent on where you live.
Full time in the fitness industry is a fallacy. It’s not possible to teach 40 hours a week. At my highest I did 24 hours a week and thought I was going to die. Totally unsustainable. This is why most instructors and coaches don’t stick around. 80% of personal trainers quit after 2 years. The rest after 5. It’s not possible to depend on this business as a full time career in the same way that we think of full time in other jobs. You have to think outside the box. We’ll get that.
First, There are 3 categories of fit pros and some people start and stay in only one and some people progress through them all. They are all valuable. And I want to highlight all the pros and the cons in each. If you are a fit pro now maybe you’ll be able to see yourself in these, if you’re contemplating becoming a fit pro this will give you some insight and help you make a more informed decisions and if you aren’t in the fitness industry this conversation might explain some things about your favorite and not so favorite instructors.
Happy homemaker hobbyist.
Gym rat turned personal trainer. The person who loves the gym, is there everyday anyway, stumbles on a favorite class that they never miss, might as well get paid to work out right? Many many people start this way. I started this way. I don’t think it's the best way but there are a lot of benefits. Mostly because it doesn’t take long before you realize there’s a little more to it. Let’s look at the benefits
You’re doing something you love and would be doing anyway.
Cost of entry is low. (read the manual, take the test)
Flexible work hours. (presumably you teach when you want to)
You can have as much freedom or structure as you want (depending on what you are teaching)
It’s very fun and social.
It makes people feel good. (hopefully you too)
Now the downsides
Working at a gym isn’t the same as working out at a gym. The backend isn’t always filled with well balanced individuals. (I’m always shocked at some of the stories I hear from fellow instructors about the gym/studio drama that they’ve had to deal with.)
Most of us start as independent contractors. That means you track all the income and tax stuff.
No health insurance for independent contractors
There are hidden costs (even though they are low) (insurance, CEC’s, CPR, travel, etc. )
Whether you know it or not you ARE now your own business.
People expect you to know things.
You can be tempted to make your classes your workouts.
There is nothing wrong with starting and staying the happy hobbyist fit pro. This category is fun, flexible and keeps you in great shape. But make no mistake this is not a career. For many of us it is not a career we’re looking for. Maybe this is where you want to be because it feeds you in some other way.
If you want to make the hobby fit pro work for you I have a few suggestions.
Take some time to understand why you’re doing this. Is it for you? Or because you have a calling? Or because someone dared you? Whatever that answer is it’s important because you’ll want to know when/if something changes you’re willing to change too.
Set your boundaries early. If you’re only available on certain days or times, stick to your guns. It’s all to easy for perfectionist people pleasers to become doormats. THis also applies to staying in your format scope as well. Saying “no” is an underrated skill.
Don’t be afraid to look at the money. While it might be no. 1 on your reason for being an instructor it is for some of us. Undervaluing yourself doesn’t help anyone. Research your area and price what you offer accordingly. It’s a simple equation. What is the minimum amount of money you want to earn per class? A hobby income may not make you a lot of money but you might want to break even.
The ultimate side gigger.
A side gigger is a step up from the hobbyist. This is the fit pro who is willing and able to invest a little more in their continuing education. There’s some overlap at first because we all get a little excited about learning new things. This is where fit pros can get sucked into the certification collection rabbit hole. Not a problem if money is no object for you but the other difference between a hobbyist and the side gigger is that the side gigger cares about money. Now all of a sudden it matters that continuing education can cost over 1000$ for a weekend conference. The side gigger starts to notice how much they are spending on this education and how much they’re being paid to share it. The side gigger starts to see that a one hour class isn’t actually 1 hour of time. It’s actually closer to 3 with planning and travel. And those extra 2 hours are not being compensated. What to do, what to do? The fitness industry can be quite lucrative as a side gig. How do you make it work for you? If you’re smart about it you can double dip, specialize to add value, streamline your process, and make a pretty nice side income.
Double dip:
Most certifying companies allow you to use CEC’s for more than one certification. For example, Yoga training for group exercise, nutrition for health coaching certs. So if you’re doubled up on certifications that can save you lots of cash. That was one reason I dropped my personal Trainer cert. Because so many CEC courses didn’t overlap.And were not applicable. All yoga fit training satisfies all ACE certs. That makes my life so much easier.
2. Specialize to add value:
Then think about specializing in a particular area and particular people. You don’t have to be all things to all people. Look at who you work with. Workouts for athletes are different than workouts for seniors. Notice what kinds of things they ask you about and then bring them that info. Let it guide your CEC choices. This is what’s going to set you apart from everyone else in your field and let you command a higher hourly rate.
3. Streamline your process.
This means how you design your classes or sessions. Make it work for you. Do an energy audit for yourself. Don’t waste time on music playlists every class. Reuse the ones that work. Create a workout/class library you can refer to. Use a mix and match approach to keep things fresh. Be careful about your travel time. That is an income killer.
The side gig is the category where you want to start paying closer attention to what you spend and because you may still be an independent contractor you can write off a lot of your expenses. A simple spreadsheet will do. This is important because a side gig can definitely make significant income depending on how you set it up.
Fitness side gigs aren’t necessarily a career but they can be really rewarding. You can make a real difference to your students and clients and sometimes that’s worth way more than a paycheck. Sometimes. Cash is good too.
Unfortunately, a shift has to happen somewhere if you want to use it to actually support yourself financially. And that is something that is missing from a lot of fitness industry certifications. The actual business of the fitness business.
Owner operator creator boss.
This shift is first in understanding that you and your body are your business but if you want to survive it you need to separate your business from your body. You already know what to teach and how to teach it. But if you want to make enough money to pay for this modern life you need to do something beyond trading hours for dollars. For so many instructors and coaches we get stuck in this constant revolving door of part time jobs. It just doesn’t cut it. IT drives some pretty incredible fit pros out of the industry.
This is what I was saying earlier. I have been lucky to not have to survive on my fitness income. Because of that it took me a long time to see myself as a fit pro. Even though I have always taken what I do very seriously.
There’s no industry incentive to change anything because there’s always a fresh new face ready to put up with low pay and burnout. Who cares if instructors quit every 2 years? The industry keeps raking in the dough because people still want to get certified. Maybe because of the misleading pay statistics.
So what to do?
Well if you really want to make it in this business you have to build a business. It doesn’t need to be brick and mortar but it could be. Nowadays there’s lots of online opportunities as well. In my opinion and what has worked well for me as I finally grow my business, is this idea of diversifying. What used to look like a bunch of part time gigs is now an intentional web of income from multiple sources. But it started with taking a chance and branding myself. Then sculpting a business out of it. Cutting away the things that didn’t work and keeping what did. And being open to multiple streams of income as well as creating content that I can refer my clients to and that add value to my student community. For me what works is a balance of 1:1 work with some classes, courses, workshops and retreats. And the more I focus on my niche the better I do. My studio is specialized. That helps me make choices about how I serve my community.
I have a Yoga teacher friend Rebecca Sebastian who opened her studio right before covid and survived. In fact she seems to be doing quite well. She has been a guest on this podcast (episode) But she needed to do more. Her studio also sells tea. She has created a beautiful community with the instructors she employs and she has also created a separate nonprofit to help bring yoga to underserved communities and still pay the instructors. She hosts a podcast called working in Yoga I highly recommend. She is an inspiration.
You don’t have to be a big box gym, or even a studio owner to make it in this industry. There’s more than enough to go around. But you do need to be creative, humble and open to trying outside the box things. The truth is a career in fitness isn’t ever going to look like 9-5, 40 hour work week. It might be 2 10 or 20 hours of work total in a week and that could still be full time. Here’s what I do as far as hours these days.
Contact hours with students: 14-16 hrs per week
Travel : 4 hours
Content creation/marketing/social media : 4-6
Admin: 1-2 hours
To be brutally honest this lets me pay all my bills for the studio and expenses with a little bit left over. So technically I couldn’t support myself alone on this as it is. I would need to push a little harder. That would look like a few more private clients or something along those lines. But it could be done. There’s always a way.
I don’t want anyone to think that this episode is warning anyone off from pursuing a career in fitness and wellness. But no one explained any of this to me back in the day and I because I had little to no guidance on the business side of the industry it led to a lot of burnout and physical and emotional angst. It doesn’t have to be that way. This career path is probably one of the most flexible and creative ways to make money. I say go for it, but go for it with your eyes open.
If you’re looking for some more thoughts to chew on check out my business backbone booklist. You can find it in the banner at savagegracecoaching.com
Thanks for listening today!
If you're looking for ways to handle the effects of stress, physically, mentally and emotionally through the body head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin you’ll find all the show notes for this and other episodes plus lots of free resources. And if you’re in a place where you are ready for more and you live in the Dayton Ohio area I’m taking private clients for trauma informed yoga and trauma release exercise in person and online. So you can book a discovery call and we can have a real life conversation. 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.
Thanks again everyone and as always stop working out and start working IN.
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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.