What’s your real job?
Transcript
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Last week we talked to Rachel Brenke and in that conversation a couple of themes came up that “d like to revisit and reinforce. We talked about getting clear about what you want your life to look like in order to figure out how your business is going to serve you. We talked about how using that awareness is important in protecting ourselves from burnout and overwhelm and we discussed a little bit about how important it is to be ok with discovering maybe entrepreneurship isn’t for you.
I didn’t start out wanting to be an entrepreneur in fitness. I didn’t start teaching group exercise as a career. I started first as a favor to my Tae Kwon Do school and then as a hobby. A way to stay in shape that was incentivized by a teeny tiny paycheck. Very quickly I realized if I wanted to continue doing it with any level of competency I’d need to pursue some deeper knowledge. That was when I got my NSCA-CPT. It was a significant investment in time, effort and money but it made me feel a little bit better about standing up in front of people claiming to be a fitness professional even if I was only teaching 1-2 hours a week.
That was 25 years ago and maybe things have changed a bit, I’m sure someone will tell me but there wasn’t anything in that certification exam about how to set up and build a successful fitness business to really serve people let alone anything in there about how to be smart about curating a long lasting career. There were no warnings about setting personal and professional boundaries or being aware of your own health and wellbeing or how to structure and scale what you offer to actually make a living.
These are things that are missing from most general fitness certifications and if you've been around a while you may have learned the hard way but do you really believe that everyone needs to learn the hard way? Because I don’t think that’s necessary.
One of the things that is most disappointing in the industry is the high turnover. Statistically Personal trainers have an 80-90% turnover rate and group fitness instructors only last on average about 4 years in the industry.
In researching this podcast I came across a few articles that discuss the reasons for this.
Here are some of the top reasons for turnover that are floating around out there in no particular order.
Lack of training/knowledge/experience
Lack of leadership in the organization
Lack of opportunities for professional growth
Lack of professional development and mentorship
Low pay and long hours/shift work
Burnout/overtraining + lack of boundaries
Lack of support eg: subs, back up
Lack of purpose/recognition/career path
Lack of business savvy/money mindset
So much lack in that list! Even though some of these come from certifying agencies and some from business resources and despite perhaps subtle conflicts of interest (everyone is selling something, even me so there’s no judgment here) they aren’t wrong. I’ve experienced all of these, maybe you have too in one form or another.
But I think it’s disingenuous to say that it’s only the fault of the gym management or the folks who hire fit pros. In order for me to sleep at night and get up every morning I have to believe that everyone out there is doing the best they can and has the best intentions for their business and employees, teachers and students. Can most facilities and employers do better? Maybe, but so could we all and that’s across all industries.
But that’s what I want to talk about today. The upstream cause of the issues we see in the fitness industry, high turnover, burnout and low skills is coming from a lack of understanding about what the job actually is and a true understanding of the skills that are required to succeed in a professional capacity without sacrificing your body through burnout over time.
So I want to start with this question. What is your real job? If you are a group fitness instructor, personal trainer, health coach, fitness specialist. Whatever your job title is, what is your real job?
Think about it for a minute.
Is your job to direct some combination of squats and biceps curls? Is it to perform or entertain? Is it to lead clients through an experience they couldn’t or wouldn’t do without you? Are you selling kickboxing, or body sculpt or yoga or pilates? Are you selling someone else's creative IP?
When a client hires you, are they buying a false perception? Thinking if they can do xyz that can look like you or be like you in some way? Do you sell those results at the expense of your own personal and professional boundaries? At the expense of your own health?
Getting clarity here is really important and I’m saying this as an instructor who lost sight of her own purpose at the front of the room.
For a long time - maybe from the very beginning I believed that if I could do this then anyone could. One of my core values is self reliance and it’s a double edged sword. Because I had the mindset that if something felt easy for me - the workout, the motivation, the diet - then it must be easy for everyone else and because I wouldn’t hire someone to lead a spin workout for me then it must not have value for anyone else.
But that’s not true is it? The things that you excel at are not the same as what I excel at, and vice versa. And not only is that a good thing it is a really important signpost for your purpose no matter what you do.
As a certified fit pro you have the knowledge. But sometimes we forget that the people who are in front of us, the folks who walk into our classrooms are each very unique individuals who have unique reasons for being there. Those reasons go beyond how many calories they want to burn or how many pushups they want to do (or don’t want to do). But more important than that - you as the instructor need to have a deeper underlying purpose for why you’re there as well.
This is important not just so you can enjoy a meaningful and fulfilling teaching life but because having clarity around your purpose and core values behind what you do helps buffer your nervous system, protect you from burnout and supports safe co-regulation between you and your clients. This goes directly to the A - Awareness from the ABC’s of resilience and results and is the #1 thing that was left out of your certification training.
I’m talkin about the awareness of the state of your stress response and who you are and what you bring to the table as a unique individual. Let me explain.
It’s true that pretty much anyone can learn how to teach a group ex class - cardio, cycling, kickbox, step, boot camp - whatever the format. It’s not rocket science. You’re not the only one that can teach what you teach. Lot’s of people do it. But no one is going to teach it like you because you have a unique set of life experiences behind you. At a very subtle level, those experiences, even if you never share them with your class, play a role in what draws your students to you.
Developing an awareness of who you are as an individual, as an instructor, as a coach and mentor, will lead to understanding yourself at the level of your nervous system and then build a foundation of safe self regulation. Its so important for any instructor and I would argue anyone who works with other people in their job because you set the tone for the room with that energy.
The problem for many instructors and trainers is we get really good at ignoring what's going on in our own body in order to power through for our students. As if they will somehow get more out of the class the harder we work. We hop up on that little stage carrying all our invisible big T and little t trauma baggage and lock it down tight because we don’t want to show any weakness. That actually takes us out of the present moment and into a state of protection. The truth is if we are teaching from a hypervigilant state or a high functioning freeze state then that is the state that we project onto our clients/students. And it is most likely the exact opposite of what they’re looking for.
I’ve never had someone come to me and say I love your class. I come so I can get more stressed out - this is exactly what I needed. It doesn’t happen.
Maybe our real job is to help our students become more aware of their own body, their own state so they can make more informed decisions about their health. And as they become more aware of what’s going on in their own body they start to understand the difference between the results they want and recognize the results they need. Handing the reins of influence, self efficacy and resilience back to the individual is a far more powerful thing to offer than a 600 calorie burn 2-3x a week.
That starts with our own awareness.
You might be at a crossroads in your career. Many of us are. It’s good to reassess every once in a while. Think about where you are in your career and what it would take to revitalize it. Check in with your physical, mental and emotional well being right now. Do you feel supported? Are you feeling fulfilled? Do you simply need to rest or do you need a full restoration?
There is no shame in discovering that. It’s my opinion that simply piling on certification after certification really doesn’t help in the long term. I believe we need to teach our instructors how to integrate nervous system recovery throughout their career in ways that make sense. We already teach them how to take care of others, how about we do the same for our rockstar coaches.
There’s no need to get hung up on format either. Support for the nervous system can be integrated into everything from zumba to crossfit and everything in between.
Building awareness of who you are and what you want out of your life and business is a true Work IN. Give yourself the grace and space to explore it.
Thanks for joining me today on The Work IN! And if you’re looking for a way to expand your professional credibility within your scope of practice I’d like to invite you to join me in person at The Well. This is a one day retreat happening on March 26th in the Dayton OH area. The well is focused on navigating the stress curve for better results for ourselves and the people in our lives. We are going to learn how to shake off stress and tension physically, mentally and emotionally and how to translate the body’s stress language to give it what it needs.
Go to savagegracecoaching.com for more information or click the links in the show notes.
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