07 | Pivoting Your Fitness Career
kyle-wood_1_03-19-2025_094541: So
today I actually wanted to talk
about money and things like pricing
and how to increase your prices and
things like that because I thought to
myself that's, that's a popular topic.
Like that's one that
people will listen to.
Uh, and then I remembered something
about what's popular is not
necessarily what's important.
Um, and recently in my newsletter,
I asked the listeners and readers
of the newsletter, you know, what,
if I could record one podcast
episode for you, what would it be?
And no one said, can you
help me with my pricing?
Even though it is a question that comes
up once in a while, and I hope to do
it in episode on it in the future.
But what came up was, um, was, uh, I
exhausted all of the ideas you sent me.
And then I thought about what, what are
trainers really going through right now?
And over the last 12 months or so through
courses and just calls and just checking
in with, with my readers and, and
probably you who are listening to this,
you may have exchanged emails with me.
We might have even jumped
on a call together.
And I remember saying to my wife,
there's this thing in business where.
Especially around content, when
you're looking for ideas of what
content to create, you just go to
your, your audience and you say,
what do you guys need help with?
And I said to her,
they're all so different.
Like it.
This person wants to do this.
This person's doing this bootcamp.
This person's wanting to
get into online training.
This person's retiring, blah, blah, blah.
Like for every single one of them, it
felt like you had a different problem.
And that's part of what
started this podcast.
I was like, great, I can just do a
podcast episode on each problem and then
I can refer other people to it if I meet
someone who has the same problem, but.
It, it, um, came to me today when I was
thinking about, oh, what am I gonna,
I was driving my daughter to school.
I was thinking about when am I
gonna record the podcast on today?
I guess we could, we could play it
safe, do a podcast about pricing.
But I think the episodes, it seems
like you who are listening have
enjoyed the most by, uh, the comments
and reactions you've given to me.
Are there episodes where.
We kind of really dive into
the heart of what it is.
And that's kind of, that is meant to
be the point of this, this, the warmup
is meant to be about warming you up,
getting you in the mindset where you
can do the work that you want to do.
And part of that is, is kind of getting
outta your own way as well, getting
outta your head actually doing the work.
So this is a really long way
of me saying I did work out
that there is a common thread.
Came to me in the car.
There is this common thread that
you've all had when I, as I've spoken
to you, and it's that you're in a
stage of pivoting in your business.
There's something happening for
some of you, you are re you've
been following me for a long time.
Some of you've been following me
for over 10 years, which is just, I
don't really, each year has been its
own year and so I don't really think
about it being so long, but when.
I speak to someone who's like, yeah,
I've been following you since 2013.
It's like, wow.
Like, thank you.
Uh, and so some of you're
reaching the end of your career.
You may, you probably had already
been training people for 15 years
before you came across my stuff, and
now you're reaching a point where
you're like, I wanna scale back.
I want to travel while my, my husband
or my wife is retiring and I don't wanna
be in the gym all the time anymore.
I want to change what I'm doing.
So you are looking at.
Ways that you can do that?
Is it, is it a seasonal bootcamp
which just runs sometime the year?
Is it getting into this online
training thing that lots
of people seem to be doing?
Uh, is it, um, or, you know, is
it still running your bootcamp?
Is it going into small group stuff?
Is it doing more PT stuff?
Is it retraining in a new skill
like Pilates or something like that?
Because maybe your body can't handle.
Delivering the classes that you used
to cl deliver, um, or maybe you're
seeing an opportunity in the industry
for something else and you're like,
I, I kind of want to get into that.
So it's, yeah, it's
this stage of pivoting.
Uh, and we all became pivot experts
during covid, but not many of us liked it.
And because of the dynamic
situation of a pandemic.
It wasn't like we weren't pivoting
necessarily towards what we wanted.
We were just pivoting to survive.
And now I think we've recovered a bit.
And now, um, the, I feel like the common
thread from all of you is thinking
about how can I pivot to really create
a business and a lifestyle that I
love and that I want to keep doing
for the next year, maybe 10 years.
Whether that's into retirement or
whether you're just getting things
going, and this is what I'm hearing.
So today I want to talk about the future
of fitness and the future of yourself
and fitness and what it means with things
like AI and things like that coming in.
And to do that, I want to first
go back to my own story of when I
made a big pivot in the industry.
So cast your minds back to.
2013.
2013, and I was a young, I think
I was trying to wake up to that
before about 26 years old, 25, 26.
It would've been 2013.
And I was realizing that I had, I
had achieved everything I wanted
to achieve with my bootcamp.
I had grown it to a size,
I was doing really well.
I was now going through, I
had gone through a period of,
of cutting back, so I was.
Bringing other trainers in, had
everything really well systemized,
everything was running really well.
Um, and so, yeah, I guess I reached
a point where I was like, well,
what's, what's the next challenge?
Do I start in a new location?
Do I, well, you know, what do I do?
And meanwhile, I've been running
bootcamp ideas and it was doing well.
It wasn't.
Um, it was making some money.
It definitely wasn't making enough money
to live off, but I was really excited
about this idea of working on it full time
and I was excited about also traveling to
America and meeting other people who were,
who were running their own businesses.
Because back then in 2013, especially in
Australia, people were not running their,
trying to explain to people what bootcamp
ideas was because people just didn't.
Make any money online.
Now everyone's got a little thing
that they've got going on, but
back then it was so foreign.
Um, or at least they follow someone
who makes their living online
now, whereas back then, yeah, it
was just so foreign to people.
Some people would be like,
are you scamming people?
Like, because you, because
you're doing something online.
'cause the internet was like kind
of a weird dark place with like some
people who took advantage of people.
And even I remember, you know,
selling my first ebook, I had
to use this really clunky.
Software.
I had to do a lot of research
into the payment gateway.
When we sold the first bootcamp,
it was called the Little
Bootcamp Book of Workouts.
Um, some of you listening to this
probably bought that, I think it was
$29 when it came out on sale, sale
day, and then it went up to about 59.
And that was, that was just a tactic.
That was what we did back then.
And yeah, it was a really clunky system.
Um, I don't think it even spoke to my
email provider, so I had to like manually.
Import everyone as they, as
they came in onto my email as
to make sure they got my emails.
Uh, lots of people followed the blog
through something called RSS, uh,
where they didn't even sign up for
an email as they sign up for a thing
called RSS, uh, which is still around,
but it's not really used anymore.
It, it was a very different
time and, uh, I was like.
And in Australia.
Yeah, I wasn't getting the peer
support that I was looking for, so I
was like, look, pretty much everyone
I'm reading about who's doing this
online thing is doing it from America.
So I want to go over there.
Uh, while I'm there, I can learn
from some American coaches who are
also really at the cutting edge of
training people at the time as well.
So I suggested the idea to my,
to Zoe, who's now, um, my wife.
She was super on board.
I mean, why not move
overseas and go traveling?
Um, and so we had sort of a six month
plan to wrap up our fitness stuff
and we got married, um, and off we
went and it was a great experience.
Uh, there was some really hard things
about the experience, but overall it
was a great experience and I was able to
successfully through much trial and error.
Uh, so many experiments, uh, eventually
get bootcamp ideas to a point where
I could live off the income from it.
It was still very rocky though, and
um, certainly wasn't as consistent,
you know, even the highs and
lows with, with being a trainer.
So, and then I spoke a little bit
about in my burnout episode, so if
you listen to the burnout episode,
it's worth, that's probably a good
one that links in with this one.
So I'll.
I'll link, um, to that below and I'm gonna
start numbering these podcast episodes
so I can be like, Hey, go listen to
burnout, episode number, blah, blah, blah.
And I can't remember
right now which one it is.
It's probably gonna be like
three or four of this new series.
So yeah, I went overseas and I've kind
of skipped a lot of the hard stuff
'cause there's a, there was a lot there.
There was a lot there.
In the pivoting and saying, and working
online, uh, running your own business,
trying to work out all this online stuff.
I already knew a lot because I'd been
running bootcamp ideas for three years,
but there was another big gap in really
understanding what do I need to deliver in
order to get people to pay, like in order
that people would want to pay me money,
enough money that I could live off it.
So instead of just a little
like thing here or there.
I actually needed a consistent way
that I was helping people so that
they would, you know, you or you
would be, you would support me.
And what ended up coming outta that was
Boot Craft, which was a membership site.
It is a membership site, um,
for group fitness trainers that
contains a whole library of fitness
ideas that gets regularly updated.
So that's, that's sort
of the, this, the arc of.
Of that pivot in my life.
And now what I'm finding is that I'm
like all of you, where I am on the cusp
of, I can feel another pivot, still
want to keep bootcamp ideas going,
still keep boot craft going, but I feel
the urge to get back into training.
And for a long time I
haven't trained people.
I've sort of filled in, you know, a
trainer down here has gone away on holiday
or something like that for a few weeks and
I've said, yeah, I'll take your classes.
Just to keep my skills sharp.
But even that, since having kids, it's
been a while and I'm noticing, and I,
yeah, I'm just gonna share with you guys
exactly what I'm going through because
I think, and I feel that it's what a lot
of you are going through as you think
about what's next for you as a trainer.
So hopefully by me sharing what I'm
going through and what I'm feeling,
even though in some ways it feels.
A bit embarrassing to share this stuff.
I'm hoping that it will, it will make
you feel like you're not as alone,
and that's the point of this podcast.
So probably for the last 12 months, I've
been like sort of starting to notice the
itch to get back into training people.
But I've also noticed this
weird thing where I'm like,
I need to start a bootcamp.
I need to start a bootcamp.
I run a website called Bootcamp Ideas.
I teach people about bootcamps.
I know a lot about bootcamps.
Why is there no feeling of excitement
in me around starting a bootcamp?
Why?
Why is there hesitation?
Why, you know, why do I think about that?
And I go, oh, like I, I like bootcamps.
Why don't I wanna run one?
And I felt guilty and shame about that.
'cause I was like, I'm helping
other people run bootcamps and I'm
telling them what to run and telling
them that it's a good thing to do.
Yet, I don't want to do it.
And there was a bit of a disconnect there.
And of course now I
realize like, that's okay.
It's good that we want
to do different things.
Uh, so if you wanna run a bootcamp, that's
awesome and I will help you do that.
And that's actually two separate
things between what, what I want to do.
Uh, and I think that's always
the sign of a good coach.
A coach doesn't need
to be exactly like you.
A coach just helps you achieve.
The things that you want to achieve.
And you'll see that in great trainers.
Like you might have a trainer who
loves strength training, but they'll
train people from all walks of life.
They'll train people
who just wanna stay fit.
They'll train people who are training
for an event like a, a marathon.
You know, a marathon runner doesn't
wanna bulk up, but they can still benefit
from working with a strength coach.
Um, so yeah, so wrapping my head
around that, I just, yeah, just wanted
to be more open about that as well.
Uh, so what, what has been after 12
months of being like, I want to get
back into training, but I don't know
what it looks like and I'm putting
a lot of pressure on myself to that.
It has to look like a bootcamp,
even though I know that's not
what's lighting me up anymore.
And what is lighting me up is the idea
of training men in a small group setting.
So there's already options around here.
'cause I love finding the
opportunities where, who are the
people who are not being served?
And there's a lot of options around here
for the, you know, there's a CrossFit,
there's a, there's a couple of gyms
there, little options around here for
kind of more of the like heavy duty
fitness, I'll call 'em heavy duty fitness
options, where it's like, it's a lot,
it's loud music, it's beep time is going
off, it's lifting heavy weights fast.
It's a competitive environment.
And I don't, I know I don't
thrive in that environment.
I've got several friends
who go to CrossFit.
They keep trying to convince me
to go, and I'm like, no, I just
know that that's not for me.
Um, so yeah, that's what
I'm getting interested in.
There's like other men like me,
work for themselves, uh, who want
to, who want to lift weights, who
want to do that stuff, but they just
don't wanna do it in that setting.
They want to do it in a
more of a private setting.
And that's getting me really excited.
I can hear it even in my
voice as I talk to you.
And if you're watching the
video, you see me smiling.
That's getting me really excited.
The idea of helping, uh, men do that.
And for me, it doesn't need
to make me a full-time income.
It may turn into that if it really
takes off and I really love it.
But for now, I think focusing on
what do I feel energized about
and what do I feel excited about
is really key in working out.
What me returning to fitness and
returning to being a trainer looks like.
And that's, that's it.
And now what I'm dealing with
is I need to get started.
I need to create that momentum.
And that feels really hard because
there's no momentum there right now.
And I need to find those first few
clients and I need to get going.
And actually that's, that is a
podcast episode I wanna do, which
is on finding your first 10 clients.
So why don't we do one on that.
And then I can share with you a
bit about how I'm approaching that.
But yeah, I did, let's keep this episode
on the emotions of going through a pivot
in your career and it's really nerves.
Really scary.
It's scary thing about
reaching out to people.
And I've been doing this a long time
and I coach all you guys to do it.
Uh, and it's still because it's
new, because it's unproven,
because it might not work.
It brings with it.
A sense of that sense of fear and
trepidation, and luckily I've been
doing that long enough to know that's
normal, and in fact, that's a good
sign that I'm feeling that because
it means that I want to do it.
So I.
That's what's coming up, that's
what's coming up for me with that.
Uh, and that's what, now it's cool.
I know what it looks like and
now it's a matter of like, I need
to start taking action on that.
And so for you, if you are in that stage
of, I know I wanna do something different,
but I don't know what it is yet, I.
You might want to do a series of
different experiments, even if they're
just like journaling and journaling
about what different things could look
like until you find one that you notice,
you start really getting excited about.
If you are like me, where you've
identified what you want to do, but
just having trouble making that change,
I want you to just know that the fear
that you're feeling around change
and doing something different is.
Normal and as Seth Godin, this guy, uh,
this author that I love and that his words
have been very helpful to me throughout
my business career since I started.
Seth talks a lot about how by us having
the courage to do the thing that might
not work, but also that might just work.
Um, it's our gift that
we give other people.
And these days with the online world,
you see so much copying people and a
lot of people getting, having a lot
of success, financial success, just
copying what other people are doing,
just repurposing the same content,
just doing it over and over again.
That's not a gift to the world.
Yes, it's a gift to the algorithm
'cause the algorithm loves it,
but it's not a gift to people.
And so don't get distracted by that too.
Thinking.
I'm not even thinking about creating a
social media account for this business.
I'm thinking about, I'm making a
list of who, who do I think would be
interested or who's who, which women
whose husbands, I think would be
interested writing those names down.
And I'm gonna reach, you know, have a
conversation with each of them about
whether they're interested in this.
So that, that's what I'm thinking about.
I'm not looking to win a
popularity contest here.
I'm looking to help people.
That's much scarier than in some ways
in creating a piece of content and then
being like, oh, well it didn't work,
so I guess this is not a good idea.
And actually going out and talking to
people and, and testing your idea and
seeing if people actually want it.
So that's one part of what
I'm getting excited about.
There's another part I'm getting excited
about and it's, I cannot believe that
these words are about to come out of my
mouth, but it is online fitness coaching.
I cannot believe.
I'm saying that, and now it's out.
It's in public online fitness group.
You know how much I care about
getting people together and
putting them in the same room.
And that's why with the training, I'm
looking at doing, I'm not gonna make a
bootcamp, but it's still gonna be group.
It's gonna be like four or
five guys training at once.
Uh, and building that community
and building that connection.
Because Let's talk for a minute about ai.
AI is here to like.
Yeah, we need to talk about ai if
we're gonna talk about online training.
And one of the reasons, one of the
things AI can't do at the moment
is they can't get a big group of
people together and, and exercise
together with a real person present.
I mean, it could do some of the
logistical stuff, but ultimately having
a real person there who's talking to
you and talking you through things,
that's still reserved for humans.
It probably will get replaced at sometime
We'll have like a hologram trainer who
will like stand there, but even then
it'd be interesting to see if we have
the same, um, biological reactions
around being that we get at the moment
about being around other people if
we'd have that about being around ai.
So
yeah, this is one of the things I think
is still important, that there should be
some element of your business, even if
you are looking at doing online stuff.
That's still face to face and it's
gonna keep your skills up as well.
But as I start thinking about online
stuff, one thing that is changing is
that, and I'm already seeing it, I,
I got advertised a product the other
day that it's like a giant mirror.
It looks like a giant phone.
It's like a giant mirror.
And there's, um.
A platform like a yoga map at
hard that that comes out from it.
So it's in an L shape.
And then there's these
adjustable resistance like
motors that attach to the bottom.
So it is all cable type machine
and that brings up your program and
it's an AI thing and it corrects
your technique and stuff like that.
So, um, there's only a matter of time
until the very apps that online trainers
are using at the moment to track.
Um.
Clients nutrition or track, their
programs are just gonna get outright
that those apps are gonna start
developing their own AI trainers.
So now, instead of paying someone hundreds
of dollars a month to do their programming
and stuff and their nutrition, you would
just be able to add a, you know, $20 a
month subscription to your app, and the
app will actually do it for you, and
it'll probably do it reasonably well.
Like, unless you are a very.
Specific person with a very specific
set of needs, it's probably gonna do
it better than, better than we'd like.
It's not gonna make us feel good.
So what coaching, what I see health
coaching for me is, is two parts.
If I'm doing it online, it's less
about writing the programs and
doing the nutrition for people.
And it's more gonna be
about helping them build.
The habits and, and keeping that
accountability of like a human
being actually paying attention.
So it's gonna really be about seeing
people, which is what you do in your
group fitness sessions right now.
It's gonna be about seeing people,
making them feel seen, making them
be like, Hey, I'm paying attention.
I'm paying attention to what you
are doing, and guiding them through.
The obstacles that
they're gonna come across.
And as a trainer, if you're looking
at making this move as a trainer
with years of experience, you're
in a great position to do that.
You already know all the obstacles
'cause you've helped people
in real life go through it.
And that's what's kept people training
with you for years and years and years.
And this brings me to another story of
when going back to when I finished up as
a running my bootcamp, I had one of my
clients who came up to me and he said.
I just want to thank you because I'm the
fittest that I've ever been in my life
and it's thanks to like there are so many
trainers online who would look at what
I did with the bootcamps back then, you
know, with having different sessions.
So like, they'd be like, this is done.
This is stupid.
Like, you know, why have you
got people playing games?
What are they?
I feel like there's so much
seriousness now in fitness.
It's, it's a bit annoying yet.
How did I get someone into
the fittest, their fittest?
Period of their life because I
made the training interesting.
'cause the training was interesting
and they wanted to come to it
and they loved the environment.
Um, and I even remember there was a
period for this client, which as a
young, ki young, I'll call myself a
kid as twenty four, twenty 5-year-old.
I didn't really think
about, uh, very much.
But he was flying from Melbourne
to Perth during the week.
So he would train with me on a Monday.
He would fly to Melbourne
to Perth for work.
He would fly back and get up
early with very little sleep.
It, um, to come to that Friday session
and looking back at that now, like
that's a big deal that he did that a
lot of people that have they changed
jobs or have something like that
come up in their career and they
just be like, you know what, I'm
just gonna let the fitness stuff go.
I'm just know.
I see it all the time.
I see it happen with my wife's business.
I see it all the time.
Just, we're just gonna let that go.
And the fact that he kept coming, there's
obviously something that was right.
So that's what with online fitness,
that's the bit you have to deliver.
It's not gonna, it's gonna be less about
the programming, less about the nutrition
because that can all just be replaced.
Like an AI will be able
to do that very quickly.
It's going to be about what's that factor
that keeps the person showing up and, and
sticking to their goals day in, day out.
And if you can start developing that
skill, which you've already got, 'cause
you're already probably doing it with your
clients, if you can just work out how to.
Get that online, then that's
definitely an option for you.
And so this is what I'm seeing, this
is what I'm seeing is the, the kind
of way forward for a lot of trainers.
It's gonna be a hybrid element.
And I know, although you're already
thinking about it, you thinking
about, oh, I wanna bring out
a course so I want to do this.
But I would say, stop listening.
I didn't come up with these
ideas by listening to what one
specific person told me to do.
I.
Sat back and I've sat with
this for 12 months to think
about what do I want to do?
What does it really look like?
What is it gonna work for clients?
And that's what I want you
to, to encourage you to do
as you're going through this.
And I want you to trust that.
That's the other thing.
I know a lot of you have got ideas going
on and you're not trusting those ideas.
Instead, you are listening to maybe.
It's like, stop listening.
No, keep listening to this podcast.
Um, but you're not trusting yourself
with, with the other ideas that are
coming up, uh, that you're having.
Uh, because maybe you're stuck
on like, how does that work?
How does that Well,
that's what I'm here for.
Send me an email.
Like, I'm very good at working
this stuff out and, um, and I'll
do everything I can to help you.
I would love to hear from
you what your ideas are.
So actually I'm gonna wrap up the
podcast with that and I wanna know if
you are someone who feels like, feel
my energy is waning for the way my
business currently is, and I'm starting
to feel either an interest in doing
something new or I'm starting to feel
an interest in, or I, or I know what it
is I want to do and I'm just hesitating.
Like, I'd love for you
to le leave a comment.
If you're on Spotify, you can just leave
a comment straight on this podcast.
Just grab your phone out now.
Um, or I'd love for you to email me.
Um, and you can do that through
my website on bootcamp ideas.com.
Just go to contact, um, or shoot
me an email at, I think it'll
be all right to read this out.
Uh, shoot me an email at
kyle@bootcampideas.com.
Or if you're already on the newsletter,
just reply to one of the newsletters.
I'd love to hear what, what is the thing?
Are you in that stage or are you
thinking about gonna that stage?
What do you just love?
Like, it's also okay to just love
where you're at at the moment.
You should, you should enjoy building
the thing that you're building.
Uh, or maybe you are at the stage of
like, you're doing a lot of personal
training, just thinking about signing
a bootcamp, that's awesome as well.
And maybe you're just feeling like
it's a new, there's a new skillset.
There's gonna be skills as a
trainer that are going to come
with you from person to person.
And there's also from venture to venture,
from business model to business model.
And it's important that you
recognize that you're not completely
starting from scratch because you're
bringing all those skills with you.
There is just gonna be
another little skills gap.
And the other thing I want to say is
that, and this is gonna sound so cheesy.
But it's true.
And that's, the world is waiting
for you to take action and do
the thing that you're gonna do.
It's waiting for you to,
to take that first step.
And it might not work, but it might work.
And with that, I'm gonna
leave it there for today.
Get in touch with me if
this resonated with you.
Um, and I'll chat to you next week
