Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 - (Page 24)

the success image PART 1 — PROMOTING POSITIVE IMAGES BY KAISER SERAJUDDIN Like tennis bad-boy Andre Agassi was famous for saying, “Image is everything.” While that sounds a little arrogant and pretentious, you’ve got to admit, there’s a lot of truth to that statement. Creating and maintaining your success image is one of the most important things you can do as a professional. In fact, it may just be the most critical aspect of your success. Just think about how you purchase any product or service, and you’ll realize the image of the product and how you’ll feel owning it are the major considerations. Surprisingly, in most cases they’re the only consideration. In no other professional service or consulting ﬁeld is this more true than in personal training. When it boils down to it, what people are buying and paying for is you. They’re paying for the experience of being around and interacting with you. In this situation, the image you convey will pretty much dictate how much business you get, your retention rates and what you can charge. But there’s good news: How we’re viewed by others is something completely under our control. Realizing this is one of the most liberating feelings you can have because you’re free to create the image you want. The goal is to adopt an image that positively conveys expertise and personality in an immediately recognizable way to our potential customers. In today’s marketplace, people want to deal with an expert — time is too short, and money is too valuable to spend any of it dealing with an amateur. In addition to expertise, you also need to project a warmth and accessibility. An image should be clean, crisp and capable of being understood in an instant. It lets the prospect know that you are not only capable of solving his problem but that you are also a person they want to be with — an individual the client prospect wishes to spend sustained amounts of time with. Let’s take a look at some sample success images: across much more polished and professional if they are in the relaxed uniform of the Expert Trainer success image. If you’re dealing with a population that puts an emphasis on technical skill, for example, the pre-natal population, senior citizens or post-rehab clients, then this would also be a perfect look to establish mega-credibility. These can be very lucrative client groups, especially if you adopt the right image. Also, if you’re just getting started as a trainer and aren’t yet in as great shape as you’d like to be or don’t have much experience, you can adopt the Expert Trainer image to emphasize your technical skill (which you should be working to grow rapidly) rather than, say, your personal experience. THE GURU This is the image that can be adopted by a trainer with lots of experience or credentials in ﬁtness. Rather than taking away from their credibility, it adds some ﬂavor to it. A perfect example would be famous bodybuilding trainer Charles Glass. Charles has his own unique style and eccentric personality which is unique to him and separates him from any other trainer on the market. However, he’s unique only to a point; you’ll still always see him wearing the same colors and the same types of clothes in all of his interviews and media appearances. And you’ll always see his assistant trainer wearing a Charles THE EXPERT TRAINER I recommend this success image to any trainer that temporarily needs a boost to their perceived credibility. This image can be characterized by khaki pants instead of sweat pants and an embroidered, short-sleeved polo shirt, for example. The shirt should have the name of your training business on the front and the words “Personal Trainer” embroidered on the back. You should wear this shirt to each and every training session, even when you train clients in their homes. This image would be especially valuable to younger trainers; for example, a 22-year-old will come 24 OCTOBER2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Current Controversies Combating with Obesity Pilates and Yoga for Athletes New! The Balancing Act The Top Prize Building a Base of Special Populations Datebook The Success Image The Anatomy of a Fitness Assessment Branding Training Ruts Product Profile New on the Market

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

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