This is by far the biggest discount we’ve ever offered on any of our products, and to be honest, we’ll likely never do it again. But this year we wanted to pull out the big guns and give you a chance to put your Black Friday money to something that is ACTUALLY going to help you in the long-term. 

To grow a successful coaching business you need to balance both the art of coaching—delivering high quality programs, building relationships, and getting great results—with managing your client list, finances, marketing, and operations.

None of us are immune to the economic climate around us, which is why it’s essential to take a proactive approach to building resilient coaching practice that will stand the test of time, regardless of what the world throws at you.

We want you to take the same focused approach and apply it to how you think about your coaching career. To help you understand the traits you need to be a successful coach, we’ll be answering the most common questions we get, from knowledge to routines to your own fitness level.

You can absolutely fit the definition of a fitness coach that we proposed yesterday without any of these physical traits. Some of the best coaches we know are NOT talented athletes, don’t have perfectly defined abdominal muscles, and work with individuals who far exceed their own athletic abilities.

So as we continue to dissect the Anatomy of a Professional Fitness Coach, we wanted to take on some misconceptions about, well, anatomy (and exercise science broadly) and how much a coach really needs to know.

While we work with coaches coming from all models of fitness who want to improve their knowledge and program design principles (our CCP mentorship groups are made up of a mix of all of the above!), the OPEX system of coaching that we teach is the one we believe leads to the greatest success for coaches and their clients. 

⁠The reality is that for most small fitness business owners and coaches, relationships, results, and a referral-based approach to marketing will be the most important factor in bringing in qualified leads.⁠

Scrolling through their social media and blogs, impressed by the creative exercises and advanced protocols, while also somewhat overwhelmed by what seems like an unattainable level of knowledge and programming skills…

It takes patience, consistency, and time to grow your client load. This is the journey you sign up for when you become a fitness coach, so you have to approach it with a growth mindset.

Every client is physically unique, and are in different stages of physical and motor development. Therefore any program that falls short of being 100% tailored to their values, priorities, and needs, simply will not be effective.

The big picture responsibility of the tactical athlete is to serve and protect. In fighting to defend their country this population is under stressors most people (thankfully) could never imagine. It is important to clearly separate the call to duty with current fitness marketing language around tactical training—we’re not talking general population or athletes playing a game.

These three energy systems are the umbrella covering all aspects of effective program design. It can’t be understated how valuable a concrete understanding of these systems are for program design mastery. If you can identify the key elements that distinguish these three categories, you will become capable of ensuring great balance and integration of all three elements for the client. If you don’t spend enough time learning and identifying the pieces that go into each category, you will have a difficult time blending pieces together in a coherent fashion. Spend time practicing and classifying various movements and sequences of movements into each category until you feel confident in your ability to distinguish between the three.

Clients may be struggling to gain lean mass because they are not capable of breaking down their muscle tissue. This is because they lack the prerequisite levels of strength. In order to gain lean mass, the client needs to be capable of breaking down muscle and recovering from that breakdown.

An OPEX coach working in an individual design gym is paid a percentage of revenue for each of their clients, as well as potentially making an additional hourly wage for floor shifts.

In fact, those advanced training & nutrition protocols that we might think our clients want are actually burning them out, overwhelming them, and preventing them from finding sustainability. 

All too often coaches doubt themselves, play the comparison game, and waste time overanalyzing their program designs. But coaching isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about knowing who you are and not trying to be someone else.

For this to happen, the client needs a solution to his/her problem—to get and stay fit and healthy. The coach needs job fulfillment and an opportunity to make a professional wage so he can have a long-term career in fitness. And the business needs clients and coaches to stick around in order to be profitable.

How much money can you make as a part-time fitness coach, full-time fitness coach, or gym owner? It depends on your training experience and business skills