Navigating Challenges in the Fitness Industry

We get to know Trevor Gutting in this Trainer spotlight episode of FITLETE Radio.

GEORGE: Introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do and your background.

My name is Trevor Gutting and I own TAG Performance & Nutrition. I'm based out of River Falls, Wisconsin, which is about 30-45 minutes from Minneapolis in St. Paul, Minnesota. So it's basically on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota there. And at TAG Performance & Nutrition, I help people become an athlete for life. And what that means is, no, you don't have to be Michael Jordan or LeBron James or Usain Bolt, any of these elite athletes. If you want to be that and you have the will and physical gifts to be that, then great, that's awesome. We can help you get there, but again, mine is more so for life. And that is being able to do everything in life that you love and enjoy without a ton of pain, with energy, and set a good example for the loved ones in your life. I work with everyone from youth athletes, which I really enjoy getting them started and showing them a love of movement and showing them that training can be – is a reward and not a punishment. And then high school, college athletes, and then your former athletes or just your general population, a grandma or a grandpa or a mom or a dad, who are looking to improve their life through training, nutrition, sleep, and building better habits. But I didn't – I wasn't originally a coach. I didn't go to school for it. I went to school at UW-Wisconsin – or UW-Wisconsin – University of Wisconsin-Stout and majored in business administration and sales and marketing. I was in sales and marketing for six or so years after college, working in like the commercial flooring, commercial roofing businesses, and I hated it. Luckily, I got laid off, blessing the skies, 2018, around Thanksgiving. And from there, I decided I'm going to chase something and do something I want. I went on to do – become an intern at like age 29, 30. So I was an old intern at a performance play – sports performance business and then got certified, became a personal trainer. And from there, then I decided to start TAE, performance and nutrition, and that kind of led me to where I am now.

GEORGE: Tell me a funny or interesting story about yourself that help's us get to know you as a human.

All right, so funny, interesting story about me. Well, I have been, if you know me, I'm a baseball player. I've been playing baseball for, since I was probably five years old, so over 30 years now, and still play. Never made it any farther than high school, got cut from college team and things like that, but I still play town ball. So town ball is really big up here in the western Wisconsin, Twin City, Minnesota area. And I've been playing for 18 years now, and it's just a fun way of a bunch of guys, former college players, some former pro players, former high school players, just current college players, all get together and play town ball, baseball, and it's just a good time to stay athletic, stay competing and be part of a team as we get older. But I've been a catcher, and one of the things that I guess I've been known to become as a catcher is a ball magnet. No one gets hit more than me, I don't think, whether it's a fall ball, whether it's just blocking balls. Our pitchers struggling to throw strikes, and I just take a beating back there, literally the backstop and blocking all the balls and getting hit with the balls. But I have a tendency of getting fall balls to the cup, and a good story was, this was probably 10 years ago or so, playing a game, catching, get a fall ball, and he can't really react to a fall ball because it's just so fast. Boom, hits it, takes it, fall ball, bounce off the ground, right up into the nut cup. I keel over on the ground, rolling around in pain, umpires asking me, oh, where'd that one get you? And I'm rolling around, oh, got me right in the balls. And one of our buddies was up in the announcer's booth, controlling the audio and announcing the game, and he decides to put on dueling banjos as I'm rolling around, writhing in pain, so that, so that's kind of just a good, funny story. We can laugh about it now, though in the moment, it was not the best feeling when you get a fall ball to the nut cup.

GEORGE: What strategies do you use to attract and retain clients in your personal training business?

Well, I think the best way to get clients, whether that's to get new ones or retain current clients, is to get them results. And whatever they're trying to do, whether maybe it's a former athlete who just wants to feel athletic again, or a mom who wants to lose 20 pounds, or a grandma who wants to be able to play with her grandkids and get on and off the floor. It's getting them those results and showing them that exercise is a reward, eating well is a reward. It's not a punishment like so many people think it is, or we punish ourselves with exercise. We punish ourselves with eating well is such a punishment. No, it's a reward. And just getting them results, I think, is the best way. And then they're going to see the results. They're going to stick with you because they know it's working. They're feeling better. They're looking better. They're moving better and performing better, whatever it is they do, whether that's work or whether that's a sport. So getting the results is, I think, is the number one way. And then my best way has been word of mouth, kind of getting out in the community, kind of like grassroots style marketing. I also substitute teach. So that's been a big help for me is people know me. And then playing on the town ball team, people know me that way. So that helps. I think they think I'm famous because I play on a town ball team. It's weird. We're just a bunch of washed up guys that still play baseball. And I think they think we're like, especially a lot of kids, they look up to you. They think you're a role model and that's kind of cool. It's humbling. And that's been a big help to me. But again, that grassroots word of mouth from having people get results and they tell their friends and that type of thing or their family members. But also content creation. I mean, yes, it can be a black hole when you get stuck in social media and everything like that. But it could also be a benefit, too, if you're using it to help people and show them what you do and how you've helped people in the past. Again, it's another way to show results. It's a way to have fun and show people how to train and how to eat and what the benefits of it can be to you and how it can improve your life.

GEORGE: What is your process for assessing a new client's fitness level and addressing their goals?

Yeah, typically I like to meet with the person first before we ever start working together, make sure it's a good fit, kind of get, because I don't do just training, I do nutrition, I do habits, sleep, kind of that whole gamut of things to help someone put all the puzzle pieces together and figure out what, where we're going to start, when we're going to start, um, but specifically with like training, again, we'll sit down, meet, figure out where they, what they've done in the past, what they like, what they didn't like, what, uh, what, what kind of injury history they have, what kind of training history they have, uh, what their current training is like, how long have they been training or how long haven't they been, how long they haven't been off, because a lot of people, I find a lot of people will like kind of lie because they want to tell you they've been doing something that they haven't, um, and then we, we got them, because I want to meet them where they're at, I don't want to rush them into things, like you can't take someone who has, has been sitting on the couch for 10 years and immediately start sprinting, um, with them or some super heavy squat or something like that, because it's probably not going to work, they're probably going to get hurt, they're probably going to overdo it, uh, which most people tend to do anyway, but yeah, I like to sit down and meet with them, answer questions, get a good in-depth knowledge of who they are, what they, what their why is, what they're trying to get out of it, and where they want to go, and then we develop a roadmap for them, uh, with the training, with the nutrition, with the sleep, but as far as like training, I just like to watch them move, have them come in on that first session and just watch them move, put them through a workout, I'm not going to do like an FMS screen or anything like that, um, I don't think that stuff's beneficial, especially for someone who hasn't moved in a while, uh, so just watching them move, giving them an exercise and say, squat, I just want to see you squat, not giving them any cues, not giving them any pointers, just see how they move, and from there, then we start working, then we start coaching it and diving into things, rather than, oh, you pass this, this, uh, FMS test, so great, you can do that, or you can't do that, oh, you're broken, you're, you're, it's unfixable, that type of thing, so yeah, I'm just more of just watch them move as far as the trainings go from there.

GEORGE: What certifications do you hold, and how do you stay updated on the latest fitness trends and research?

As far as certifications, I've done pretty much everything. I have my personal training certification. One of my favorites was the CPPS with Joe DeFranco, so I got level one and level two of master certification through them. I've done precision nutrition, which is a good one for nutrition and habit-based nutrition coaching. The complete coaching cert, Dave Robertson. Or sorry, Mike Robertson, I've done that one. Joel Jameson's conditioning cert. So I've done everything and everything far in between, and that's how I spent a lot of my time when I was starting, is trying to do all these certifications. And I wasn't really applying a lot of stuff, and now it's more so I just like to experiment. That's how I learn things. I see things online, even if it's something that looks really goofy. I'll try it. I'll try experimenting things, see if it works for me. And I test everything out on myself before I give it to clients. I'm not going to give someone something that I have never done. Yeah, so most of the clients coming in haven't been training for 15 years like I have, so they're going to be at a different level. And I think that can be kind of scary too, as they see someone doing something else and they want to be at that level right away. That's that instant gratification we have these days. But I am more so just get out and experiment and test things out and try different things rather than always just worry about, oh, what certification do I have? Don't I have? Yes, I've taken some that have been helpful and I've enjoyed different courses and things like that. And I still take maybe a course or two each year, but a lot of times now it's more so on the business side, on things that will help me grow my business. Because I don't know a lot of the training stuff, it's just kind of a lot of it's just regurgitated. And I think you can get a lot from just getting out and doing and exploring and experimenting and seeing different coaches and meeting with different coaches and taking their ideas and testing them out. Take what works for you and apply it and just get rid of the other stuff because I've taken stuff from coaches that I love that works for me and works for my clients and got rid of stuff that I don't agree with them on.

GEORGE: How do you envision your personal training business evolving in the next few years?

Yeah, I think, hopefully see my business growing. I hope TAG is growing and expanding more into the, growing my online is really what I want to do because I think I can help more people and I don't have to be, we don't have to, the thing I always found with in-person, I enjoy in-person because you get to meet people, you get to hang out with people especially when I'm working with kids because kids just bring that energy and enjoyment and that's part of, I see my growing my in-person with my youth athlete, after-school athletes for life program and getting that, growing that. But as far as like the adults, it's just always been tough to get scheduling. I've always found as a big issue, my schedule doesn't fit with their schedule, things like that. So the online portion where we can, the remote where they can just train on their time but still have access to me. Building it into more of a group community and online community, and even in-person people be in that community as well. I think that's where I see my business. I see TAG growing in the next few years is building a community of people who just want to get after it in the gym, who want to train hard, have fun, and don't mind looking goofy and trying new things and failing, and living their best life, and ultimately becoming mastering their training, their nutrition, their sleep, so they can live the life they want. I think building that community aspect is big, and I think the online is going to help me do that. I've had ups and downs with that. It's been a struggle like any business. So growing the online and getting more, so not just in my business, but the training health and wellness space altogether, is hopefully we get off the quick fix thing, and that's the big thing I am with my people I work with and everyone around us, not so focused on the quick fixes and focusing on just building long-term habits and behaviors and again evolving through that group community, the online, and then expanding my Youth Athletes for Life program, where it's groups of kids coming in and just having fun, loving movement.

GEORGE: What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing the fitness & personal training industry?

I can't touch on this but I think the biggest thing is like that quick fix mindset. Amazon has kind of ruined us as a society because we can click on something our cell phones have ruined us we can click on something and have it there in an instant have it there the next day whether it's Amazon whether you're ordering a pair of shoes or a supplement or whatever it is and we want that instant gratification whereas fitness worth health it's a long-term journey it is something for life that's why I had that athlete for life slogan is we got to do this for life worry about the journey don't worry about the end results and all the quick fix supplements and schemes and like the everyone's looking for the next magic pill the glp-1 supplements or the detox supplements and all those weird crap out there and if they want to take that stuff that's fine but it's is it ultimately gonna get you where you want to be without the the things we actually really need which is proper sleep proper nutrition proper training stress management all that type of stuff and we're focused on the the fads and it's still out there they come and go home but the quick fixes and all that stuff I think that's one of the biggest challenges and in educating people on them and in showing them what is gonna work best for them and knowing that just because something works for someone else it doesn't mean it's gonna necessarily work for them so navigating all this all this crap that's out there is always is always a tough thing and a challenge but I mean yeah technology to technologies there's something new popping up whether it's just a tick-tock was banned for a day and now it's back and all these different things what different trading platforms and different whatever it is any type of technology everything is advancing so quickly and we got to be able to adapt and in change and work around that so that can definitely be a challenge too so yeah we're always we're always coming up or there's always new challenges popping up every day but I think that quick fix society is one of the biggest ones

Want more Trevor Gutting in your life? You can find’em here:

Visit: https://tagpn.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trevorguttingtag/

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