A Review of the Online Trainer Academy: A Year in the Life of a Workout-At-Home Mom and Online Trainer
Five years ago I became a certified personal trainer, and I was beyond excited (that's an understatement), to start my journey of helping women learn how to love their bodies in a way that didn't create shame or added stress. I had a picture of what my ideal day as a personal trainer would look like, who I would help and the work I would do. However, there was a minor hiccup in my plan: I was seven months pregnant at that time, and I had no idea who was going to hire me and then allow me to take my 6-12 weeks of maternity leave directly after being hired. That's when I had a brilliant idea: to start training women on my own, and that's exactly what I started doing.
As soon as my tiny human made her arrival, I was back to helping women and gaining a following. My clients began to lose weight, decrease their back, hip, and knee pain, and started to see an increase in energy to do things that they enjoyed. It brought me great joy to do the work that I was doing each day, but as people like to say, all great things must come to an end. Seven months into working my dream job, we decided to move more than an hour away from my clients and network I had begun to create. I was at a loss of what to do. I debated keeping my clients and making the 2-3 hour trip every day, or completely wiping the slate clean and starting fresh in my new location.
Right about the time that we were packing and getting ready to move, I somehow stumbled onto Jon Goodman's Personal Trainer Development Center (probably because of one of his awesome articles he writes) and the Facebook group that introduced a new concept of training clients online. It took a few days to wrap my head around the concept, but I realized it could give me the missing link to keep helping my clients progress without actually having to see them for each one of their sessions. Suddenly, my concept of personal training just blew wide open, and I decided to start my business with this model as the primary mode of helping many women and moms, because I found it to be more cost effective and allowed busy moms and women the accountability they needed to push forward toward their goals.
This introduction into online training led me to Jon's online training certification that had just came out. For those of you who don't know what the Online Trainer Academy is, it's a comprehensive certification program designed to show fitness professionals how to build and grow an online training business for more income and freedom in a smart and strategic way. I had a new business: Cr3ation Fitness. I had a somewhat jumbled system of how to help my clients, but I was exhausted by having to keep track of all my clients, my leads, and my clients' progress manually. A job that I had so looked forward to had become something that was draining the life from me and taking time away from my tiny human. What intrigued me about the information in the certification was the additional information about setting up legal systems, something I had no knowledge about as a personal trainer.
What I found, though, was an entire book that helped me revolutionize how I helped my clients. It helped me create even better systems that allowed me to do a better job as a personal trainer. It helped me understand how to reach people that could truly use my expertise and guidance. Best of all, though, Jon's methods allowed me to take his information and create a unique set of systems that benefited my personal style and goals that I had for my business and for my clients.
The information found in the certification wasn't about getting rich quick or setting up marketing systems that had no personal touch or relationship building. It was truly about building better relationships with not only my clients, but the people I was already in contact with, about being a better trainer and coach to my clients that I had, and about giving quality information that could be used in a variety of different ways.
It's been a year since I've gone through the certification and I have been given the tools to focus on helping women and moms love their bodies well. I was enabled to figure out where I needed to start and how to go about reaching these women and moms: moms who were experiencing back pain and pelvic pain during their pregnancy, new moms who wanted to feel amazing in their new bodies, and moms who needed someone to keep them accountable to self-care and learning how to realistically reach their goals. In the past year, I have learned how to speak truth to women about who they are as a person, and I now do that confidently knowing that what I offer is something unique and worthwhile.
Best of all, I rarely get stressed out or exhausted from working in my business now. I get to focus on what I enjoy: helping my AMAZING moms and women reach their fitness goals and learn how to love their bodies in the process. I get to enjoy pushing them to do new things and bettering themselves, and I get to focus on creating new workouts that would benefit each of my clients individually. The stress of always having to find new clients or remembering if I have checked-in with a client is no longer there. My systems guide me, and remind me what I need to do and when I need to do it. This is a large part in thanks to the Online Trainer Academy.
For all of you personal trainers out there who want to help your clients become the best versions of themselves, I would strongly suggest joining the OTA and taking the certification. This program is beneficial to helping your clients in-person, online, and a mix of both, in which I use all three variations depending on what my clients need. You will learn how to be a better trainer to your clients, how to set up systems to help you excel, and gain the freedom to live the life that best suits you.
To learn more about the Online Trainer Academy and sign up for the certification, click the link
https://PTS.samcart.com/referral/ota/143055
As of right now, Jon is also offering his starter book on Online Training free, and you can access that book here: https://PTS.samcart.com/referral/free-book/143055