LTB Podcast

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes back Mark Council. Mark owns a gym called Platform Performance, which he opened with a business partner in 2017. This is the second episode of a new podcast instalment we're trialling called 'gym owner corner' where we'll bring Mark on to discuss the realities and challenges of being a gym owner. In this episode, we discuss what it's actually like owning a gym! Timestamps are below.       Timestamps: [03.35] - What is it actually like to run a gym day-to-day? [05.35] - Is it important to start with the end in mind? [11.55] - Why there is flexibility to the term "gym ownership" [13.35] - The myths of gym ownership. [15.55] - Does gym ownership = more income? [18.15] - The expenses that Mark's gym has. [22.15] - Why covid has sped up the closure of some gyms. [30.45] - A story about how Mark ran out of money when he was initially opening his gym, Platform Performance. [33.55] - How Platform got funding from the Government and how they used this to grow the business. [39.05] - The abundance of information for learning about gym ownership.     Find Out More About Mark: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.council Platform Website: http://platformpt.co.uk/      Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes Mike Doehla from the nutrition coaching company StrongerU. Stronger U currently has 15 employees and around 75 coaches. The business works with >50,000 clients across 50 countries. They get into some nutrition coaching tips, customer experience advice and taking the jump towards better service as well non-paid marketing approaches and tips for growing your business. Timestamps are below.       Timestamps: [01.32] - How his covid experience has been? [02.39] - Does he think the fitness industry will have a boom post covid? [04.42] - The nutrition challenges that people coming out of lockdown will be experiencing? [05.57] - How can fitness professionals do better work? [08.32] - How can we teach client-centric coaching? [14.32] - How did he develop self-awareness as a coach in the early days of his career? [20.47] - The importance of the relationship with your clients. [21.47] - How to up your customer service experience to gain more organic growth? [26.32] - How they use surveys with their clients? [30.02] - Steps to take to start creating a better customer experience. [32.32] - StrongerU's onboarding process. [36.32] - Non-paid marketing approaches? [43.39] - Why you have to do things that you may not want to do to grow your business. [47.02] - Why hiring is StrongerU's superpower. [50.17] - How much of StrongerU's success is down to luck?   Find Out More About Mike: IG: https://www.instagram.com/mikedoehla/  Website: https://strongeru.com/  Previous LTB Podcast Episode: https://liftthebar.com/ltbp-149-mike-doehla-growing-his-online-nutrition-coaching-company-to-20000-clients/      Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/ (@liftthebar)

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes Chris Burgess for our third episode in the "how I use social media" series. This one is way less social media focussed than our last two as Chris' passion for local marketing and in-person personal training comes through, however, we also discuss how he uses social media, how his gym business uses it, whether you need an avatar, contacting local businesses to network share on social media and much more! Timestamps are below.       Timestamps: [01.15] - How Chris thinks about using social media as a trainer. [06.20] - Starting off building an online business using concentric circles. [08.35] - Should I chase more followers? [13.20] - What should a trainer do if they need more clients using social media? [17.25] - Why and how he uses a 3 session pass with new clients. [21.35] - Simple social media strategies for local lead generation. [24.05] - Encouraging people to take the next step towards working with you on social media. [28.30] - Where are trainers going wrong on social media? [30.50] - How important is it to have a particular person in mind when putting out social media content? [37.40] - Should you use a personal profile to share your PT stuff?   Find Out More About Chris: IG: https://www.instagram.com/burge_ltb/     Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/ (@liftthebar)

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes Tony Gentilcore. Tony has been a coach since 2002 and has worked in all kinds of settings including commercial gyms, large athlete focussed gyms and nowadays, his own small independent studio. He's been writing consistently excellent blogs at Tony Gentilcore.com, and today, we discuss a range of things to do with running better personal training sessions. We get into why the soft skills matter, how to assess new clients, some coaching tips you can apply straight into your next session and much more. Timestamps are below.       Timestamps: [01.13] - Does he classify himself as a strength coach or personal trainer? [03.54] - Why he's passionate about the art of session delivery? [07.24] - Does the fitness industry focus enough on the soft skills of coaching? [15.09] - Why it's important to be great at the X&O's (programming) as well as the softer skills. [19.04] - How he assesses his new clients nowadays vs how he used to do it? [22.39] - Why an assessment can feel like judgement for a new client. [30.39] - Having to tell a client to stop moaning and complaining about how hard lifting weights is. [39.14] - How and why he includes choice within his sessions? [43.44] - Telling clients to stop "shoulding" on themselves. [49.24] - Why using "of course" is a useful way to show empathy.   Find Out More About Tony: IG: https://www.instagram.com/tonygentilcore/  Website: https://tonygentilcore.com/      Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/ (@liftthebar)

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes Meghan Callaway, @meghancallawayfitness on Instagram. Meghan is a coach who works with clients online and in-person and creates products that include her pullup, pushup and landmine programmes. They discuss how she thinks about using social media, growing your following, creating great content, how she creates her videos, her 3E content formula and much, much more. Timestamps are below.       Timestamps: [02.14] - How long has she been posting on social media professionally? [03.17] - What her social media strategy is? [06.02] - Meghan's 3E content formula. [08.42] - How she creates and posts her videos to Instagram without using anything outside of the platform. [10.42] - Why she recycles her content. [12.37] - Having folders on her phone for Instagram posts to make reposting simple and time-efficient. [14.07] - The importance of knowing your audience and what content they like. [15.02] - How she's grown her following to over 60,000 on Instagram. [16.52] - How her business has grown using social media. [18.37] - Her advice to a trainer who hasn't gained much traction on social media so far. [23.37] - Another reason why it's well worth reposting your content. [25.57] - How she takes followers from the platform towards her services or buying her products? [29.12] - Her advice for getting business and engagement on social media. [31.22] - Talk in a language your audience can relate to. [32.07] - The importance of the people who already follow you. [33.27] - Does she boost her posts? [37.00] - Her target market or audience. [39.07] - Did she have a niche when starting out posting? [45.12] - What she uses instead of linktree for her Instagram profile?   Find Out More About Meghan: IG: https://www.instagram.com/meghancallaway/ (@meghancallawayfitness) Website: http://www.meghancallawayfitness.com/      Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/ (@liftthebar)

Adam Meakins, known for his evidence-based approach to physiotherapy, discusses the problem with popular treatments like acupuncture and ultrasound. He emphasizes the importance of educating patients and using uncertainty in supporting physio patients. Meakins also criticizes manual therapy and highlights the need for open, honest conversations and cost-effective treatments. Additionally, he explores the adaptation of pain tolerance and the future of physiotherapy in collaboration with other professionals for holistic care.

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes Dr Mike Banna. Mike is a full-time NHS GP, GP Trainer and GP Training Programme Director, and a Director of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine. He co-hosts the Fitness Unfiltered Podcast and has written for The Guardian, Men’s Health, Gymshark, Spectator Health and several other medical publications. They discuss why Mike has a personal trainer, what he would look for in one on social media, how PTs can work more closely with doctors, how much doctors are taught about nutrition and exercise and much more! Timestamps are below.       Timestamps: [02.30] - Why does he have a personal trainer? [05.35] - What he think people look for in a personal trainer on social media? [15.20] - The challenges doctors/ GPs have in working closely with personal trainers? [19.00] - Advice for trainers who want to work with their doctor or their client's doctor? [19.50] - Why doctors cannot recommend individual personal trainers? [22.25] - Mike's thoughts on personal trainers sending out letters to their client's doctor about their training or progress? [32.30] - How much are doctors taught at a base level when it comes to exercise and nutrition?   Find Out More About Mike: IG: https://www.instagram.com/drmikethe2nd/ (@drmikethe2nd)     Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/ (@liftthebar)

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes Emma Storey-Gordon. This is the first episode in a new series we're going to run occasionally called 'how I use social media'. First up, we have the amazing ESG. Emma is a personal trainer, online coach, nutritionist and educator. They discuss how she thinks about using social media, being 'salesy' on your socials, improving confidence as a creator, coming up with ideas, finding your content niche and more! Timestamps are below.       Timestamps: [03.30] - How she thinks about using social media as a fitness professional. [05.05] - Is social media her main form of marketing? [08.15] - Being 'salesy' on social media. [11.55] - Why ESG feels too many trainers are doing the same things on social media. [12.30] - Why there's an opportunity within the world of writing. [17.02] - Her social media content strategy. [18.30] - Why you should repost your content. [19.45] - Storing content ideas. [21.43] - Feeling confident in what you post. [29.25] - Clients don't need new info, they need reassurance. [30.32] - How she turns her ideas into pieces of content. [31.50] - Is she mindful of how she uses social media for mental health and productivity reasons? [37.05] - Finding what you're good at on social media. [39.25] - Having other methods to market your business than just social media. [41.45] - Showing skin as a female on social media? [47.25] - How her values and confidence as a coach have changed.   Find Out More About ESG: IG: https://www.instagram.com/esgfitness/      Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes back Mark Council. Mark owns a gym called Platform Performance, which he opened with a business partner in 2017. This is the first proper episode of a new podcast instalment we're trialling called 'gym owner corner' where I'll bring Mark on to discuss the realities and challenges of being a gym owner. In this episode, we discuss a range of topics including what he's doing to manage his mental health just now, keeping members engaged, retention strategies, thoughts on gyms reopening and much more.       Timestamps: [03.20] - What he's doing to manage his mental health just now? [08.00] - Why Mark has his own online coach. [13.40] - Did he have any reservations around paying for coaching/ therapy? [19.20] - Experiencing the frustration at being stalled. [20.05] - How his gym is keeping his members going through lockdown? [23.20] - What about the members who aren't engaging with his online workouts and challenges? [25.57] - Is his gym trying to bring in new members at the moment? [27.40] - Plan for moving forward and reopening. [28.40] - The angle he'll be using to advertise his gym. [31.15] - Bringing more people towards health and fitness. [32.25] - How well he knows each new member who signs up to Platform.   Find Out More About Mark: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.council Platform Website: http://platformpt.co.uk/      Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes Eric Trexler. Eric is a pro natural bodybuilder and a sports nutrition researcher. He has several years of University-level teaching experience, and has been coaching athletes with a wide variety of backgrounds and experience levels since 2009. Eric is now the Director of Education at Stronger By Science, and a reviewer for Monthly Applications in Strength Sport (MASS). For the first half of this episode, they discuss how he handles comparisons in the fitness industry, increasing exercise frequency during quarantine and making time for your most important task. We then move into discussing all things related to caffeine. Timestamps are below!       Timestamps: [01.45] - Has he struggled with the identity aspect of not being able to exercise how he likes to exercise? [09.47] - How he's getting on with his 2021 goal of exercising for 20 minutes per day. [14.57] - Making time to write by putting a 2-hour slot into his day first thing in the morning. [22.34] - What we know about caffeine and performance. [25.27] - What we know about caffeine and health. [28.27] - Recommendations for caffeine and your gen pop PT client. [30.52] - Feeling tired after having a cup of coffee. [33.27] - Individual variation in how individuals respond to caffeine. [38.04] - How he consumes caffeine? [38.20] - Removing caffeine and reintroducing it to improve performance? [42.02] - Caffeine and sleep. [45.52] - Supplements he's intrigued by for the general population.   Find Out More About Eric: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trexlerfitness/  Website: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/      Find Out More About LTB: Website: https://liftthebar.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/liftthebar/