This year marks 13 years that I have been in the fitness industry and the 8th year that I’ve been running my own business – DPM Performance.
It shows 2 things – I’m not getting any younger and I’ve beaten the standard industry life expectancy of a personal trainer which is 18 months to 2 years.
Well, you could say I’ve smashed that average.
But there is a ton of things I have since learned on that road – some of which of been the hard way of finding out things – and some – well it just goes to show how much things change in a relatively short period of time.
When I first started back in 2000 the whole approach to training was basically follow a split part workout routine and follow the food pyramid for healthy eating tips.
I know now how wrong that is – especially when fat loss is your goal.
Gee I could’ve saved a lot of wasted time training and writing programs if I had’ve got a bit more curious earlier than what I did and started digging for real answers – rather than the rubbish that was taught to me.
The only reason I started digging further was because I found the results that people were getting were taking a bloody long time to achieve.
And the old theory of eat low fat foods and stick to the staples of bread, low fat everything etc was the go to method of the time.
I shake my head in disgust now I know better.
I was literally shocked when I first applied the changes and stopped following the ‘norm’. The results were pretty cool. For the first time ever the results were across the board for anyone who followed the game plan.
You can imagine how cool that was.
So the first lesson I would give to my younger self would be to always question whatever you are told is gospel.
Be hungry for information. Don’t just rely on what is generally accepted. I’ve since learned that if the majority are doing something it is probably wrong.
The other lesson I would tell my younger self would be to get a mentor sooner. I probably wouldn’t have spent 5 years working in gyms if I had of.
It would of got me out of the cycle of earning hardly enough to survive when living at home with minimal expenses to learning how to back myself and go out on my own.
So the key message is you have to spend money to make money – which is far from greedy. It actually helps me reach more people so I can actually help more people.
The same goes for someone looking to achieve results. Sure, you can do it on your own and battle the peaks and troughs by yourself. Or you can invest in a Sydney Personal Trainer like me and achieve your results in a fraction of the time for a real fraction of the cost.
It can actually be a lot more cost effective to employ the services of someone like me instead of wasting countless dollars on gym memberships that you’ll never use or equipment that makes a pretty good towel rack at home.
I also would have started doing group training sessions earlier. Why? They are fun and they are a motivating way to get people into a fitness routine when they can train with their friends.
And as we all know, it is more cost effective, than one on one personal training. For example of month of 4 x 30 minute 1-on-1 personal training sessions each week with me is an investment of $1275.
Compare that to the investment, as we stand now, for the Metabolism Makeover Unlimited Training package for only $199/mth.
If you are keeping track of your expenses that becomes a no-brainer.
The final thing I wish my younger self would have known earlier is the Fitness Industry as a whole is full of self-serving people who only care about themselves rather than the betterment of their clients. I would be less trusting and do my homework before blindly following anyone and their methods.
But hey, everyone is a genius in hindsight and life is all about learning lessons.
I’m sure if I wrote this same post in another 13 years I’d be giving myself a whole lot of advice that differs from how I do things now.
But that is why I have a mentor, and a coach, and why you should too.
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