Ep 122 - Nick Mitchell: Get the Ultimate Performance from personal trainers
Feb 17, 2020
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Nick Mitchell, founder of Ultimate Performance, shares his journey from a career in law and investment banking to becoming a global leader in personal training. He discusses the importance of building a supportive environment for trainers and emphasizes authenticity in a culture focused on results. Nick tackles the challenges of fat shaming versus acceptance, highlighting the need for health awareness. He also explores the role of technology in personal training and the emotional complexities of managing diverse teams globally.
Nick Mitchell emphasizes the importance of focusing on delivering measurable results rather than merely offering training sessions to enhance client loyalty.
Authentic communication and accountability between personal trainers and clients are crucial for achieving better fitness outcomes and ensuring motivation.
Nick highlights the role of technology in personal training, utilizing data tracking to tailor programs for improved client performance and satisfaction.
Deep dives
Building a Global Personal Training Business
Creating a successful personal training business requires a strategic approach to scalability. Nick Mitchell, the founder of Ultimate Personal Training, emphasizes the importance of selling results rather than simply training sessions. By focusing on outcomes, trainers can better demonstrate the value of their services to clients. This shift in perspective not only enhances client satisfaction but also fosters long-term loyalty, leading to a more sustainable business model.
The Importance of Authenticity and Communication
Authenticity in communication is crucial for building trust between trainers and clients. Nick believes that personal trainers should take their client's results personally, which fosters accountability. This personal investment leads to better outcomes, as trainers feel motivated to ensure that their clients achieve their fitness goals. Moreover, open lines of communication help trainers address client concerns and adapt their approaches to meet individual needs.
Challenges Faced in the Personal Training Industry
The personal training industry is fraught with challenges, particularly regarding trainer retention and client results. Nick notes that many trainers fall into a transactional model, where they trade time for money without focusing on meaningful outcomes. This can lead to disengagement from both clients and trainers, making it difficult to maintain a high-quality service. To combat this, Nick has developed a system that tracks outcomes and supports trainers in achieving tangible results for their clients.
Recruitment and Training of Personal Trainers
Recruitment is a fundamental aspect of building a successful personal training business. Nick highlights the need for rigorous selection processes to find trainers who can consistently deliver results. Upon hiring, trainers undergo a comprehensive year-long training program designed to cultivate their skills and align them with the company's ethos. This commitment to professional development ensures that trainers not only master their craft but also contribute positively to the client experience.
The Role of Technology in Personal Training
Technology plays a pivotal role in the evolution of personal training, especially in tracking client progress. Nick's business is actively developing software to enhance client accountability and monitor results more effectively. By utilizing technology, trainers can analyze client performance data, enabling them to tailor programs and interventions more accurately. This level of data-driven personalization ultimately leads to better results and a stronger client-trainer relationship.
Future Aspirations and the Drive for Change
Nick is passionate about making a broader impact in the fitness industry beyond personal training. He aims to leverage the insights gained from his business to promote healthier lifestyles on a larger scale, including initiatives to address rising obesity rates. By sharing research and collaborating with institutions like Cambridge University, Nick hopes to democratize fitness and make quality health resources accessible to a wider audience. His vision encompasses not just client results but also contributing positively to public health.
Ultimate Performance by name and nature, in this episode Nick Mitchell explains how his business is leading the field in not just traditional personal training, but app development, nutrition tracking, team management and growth plans that benefit clients by raising the standard of trainers in fitness.
With worldwide coverage, Ultimate Performance is pioneering personal training based on results, operating in Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai, UAE, Spain, The Netherlands, US and the UK. In this episode Nick directs his straight-talking attitude to tackle some huge industry issues that many operators and thought leaders won’t acknowledge.
Nick Mitchell has had a passion for good physique from a young age. The catalyst forming his opinion of what a man should look like was Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover of a Dungeons and Dragons publication – a gift from his dad.
It may come as no surprise that Nick’s been a bodybuilder, competing in the ’90s. However, he also trained as a lawyer/barrister before pivoting into investment banking. Furthering his former career, he started his own business in headhunting for the financial service sector. Nick sold the company as his heart wasn’t in it, and left his career to found Ultimate Performance in 2009.
Since then he’s been continually building the business, where personal trainers can hone their craft. He’s created an environment of positive accountability that delivers results through marketing with authenticity and employing the best of the best.
Episode highlights -
How Arnold Schwarzenegger inspired Nick’s career of not only personal achievement but professional success around the world in fitness.
What fuelled the progress of Ultimate Performance as a future dream from an early age, and how you can avoid compromising with yourself in order to follow your vision.
How the fitness industry in Los Angeles is a more mature industry than anywhere else in the world, with different protagonists and motivation.
Why you might question everything you’re doing if you’re not following your authentic passion in any career or venture.
How social media is fooling so many people in trying to live another man’s dream instead of having an honest conversation with themselves about what they really want.
How your mindset will change as your entrepreneurial career develops, leading to you moving the goalposts for further growth.
Why personal training is such a tough job to do properly, from the fickle nature of career development to how much attention a PT has to pay to every single client at any given moment.
How to avoid the stereotype pitfalls of the end of a PT career by finding an environment where you can grow.
Why the best employees need opportunities for managing, mentoring, writing, education, presenting, commercial activity and other outcome potential through an evolved business around the world if they want it.
How it is critical to success to bring people through the ranks instead of hiring externally and getting new people into the business.
What the benefits of technology are when it comes to running a business from anywhere in the world.
How the personalities, approaches and mentalities of personal training teams not only differ around the world, but also around specific countries in different cities.
Which emerging markets are going to see the biggest growth for world-class personal trainers, and what attributes are going to lead to this success?
What studies the Ultimate Performance team are undertaking to change the industry for the better, from working with research fellows to using the company’s own big data for exhaustive results and new insights.
Why if you want to be a vegan then you have to supplement, and how this diet or lifestyle choice affects your body compared to other nutritional decisions.
What can be done through sharing research, knowledge and big data to help national obesity epidemics and work done through institutions such as the NHS.
Why there’s a subtle difference between fat shaming and not celebrating obesity, and how the biggest results from personal training follow a client’s wake up call.
How the only person that can hold you down is yourself, and why you’re the source of your own success through hard work and self-belief.
Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Nick Mitchell of Ultimate Performance…
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