Mark Laws has been coaching people for over 20 years, working full time in the fitness industry for 15 years, working with elite athletes for 12 years and teaching courses to fitness professionals for 6 years. He continues to work with regular clients on a daily basis as well as delivering workshops and presentations around the world. We chat about his career as a PT and what he'd go back and tell himself about doing a better job.        Timestamps: [01.58] - Mark tells a story about how his Mum sat him down and told him he should stop being a personal trainer early in his career. [09.58] - A discussion about Mark's first few years as a personal trainer. [14.51] - Earning the right to say no to prospects you don't want to work with. [19.58] - What does Mark wish he could go back and tell himself about being a new PT? [32.28] - How much did he change the way he ran his PT business after going to China to work in S&C for a year? [43.08] - Why you should consider getting your clients onto a monthly payment plan.     Find Out More About Mark: Facebook Instagram       Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

Cath Baxter is a professional voice and impact coach. We cover why your voice is such an important aspect of communication, common areas for improvement when speaking, the power of the pause, enthusiasm and whether we should try to eliminate the 'umms', 'emms' and 'likes' from our speech.   Cath is one of the UK’s leading voice coaches and a Public Speaking expert. For 14 years she was Head of Voice at Mountview, one of the top 5 drama schools in the UK, where she trained some of the UK's best actors and musical theatre performers. Her time is now spent working with a wide range of business clients and companies, helping them to add greater impact to their communications. She has most recently been working with the following Organisations: IFBA, RBS, Cancer Research, NHS England, NHS Improvement, Office of Rail and Road, DVLA, Independent Office for Police Conduct, Scottish Government, Crown Commercial Service, Companies House, MOD (Guards Service), UK Government Investments and the Northern Ireland Civil Service.     Timestamps: [01.40] - Cath explains what it is she does. [05.30] - How Cath's work applies to the work that personal trainers do. [13.48] - Where to begin if you'd like to start working on how you use your voice as a personal trainer. [17.20] - How to correct speaking too quickly. [19.55] - Improving eloquence. [21.40] - Becoming less self-conscious and more confident when speaking. [33.00] - How important is enthusiasm when speaking? [36.50] - Tips to gather attention when talking online to clients or on a video that you're sharing on social media. [43.30] - Umms, emms, likes and other hesitation sounds/ filler sounds.     Find Out More About Cath: Website Twitter       Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

Laura Dubler and Will Holmes are a couple who run a small personal training facility called Core Training in Switzerland. Switzerland announced that gyms could be opened from early May, so they've had 6+ weeks worth of reopening experience now. I asked them to come on talk about what they've learnt during that time. We cover whether or not they've kept their online offering, how their clients have found coming back into the gym, how they've found coaching while social distancing and a bunch of unexpected things that will help you plan for your gym reopening.               Timestamps:   [02.45] - How Laura and Will ended up opening a gym in Switzerland [05.58] - How their business model works [09.43] - How they have found reopening their gym since lockdown has been lifted in Switzerland [11.55] - Did they keep their online offering alongside reopening their gym? [16.25] - How many of their members came straight back in as they announced their gym was back open? [17.25] - Have they had any clients who have learnt they've got COVID as they reopened? [19.55] - How they plan to handle things if a client announces they have COVID and were in the gym yesterday? [24.03] - What rules they have around wearing masks and things like social distancing and cleaning? [27.03] - How they've found not being able to touch clients when coaching? [37.25] - Have they had any clients who have come in and then decided against it? [41.15] - How they've handled cleaning and sanitizing equipment? [47.50] - Training clients who have had COVID and how it's affected their recovery       Find Out More About Laura & Will: Website Instagram       Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

In today's episode, Stuart talks to Molly Galbraith about entrepreneurial lessons, why success takes time, the power of a shitty first draft, conducting deep market research on your clients and clients who have left and why it's still so normal for male personal trainers to shy away from topics surrounding coaching women.   Molly Galbraith is the co-founder of Girls Gone Strong, the world’s largest platform providing evidence-based, interdisciplinary health, fitness, and nutrition education for women and the health and fitness professionals who work with them—including industry-leading certification programs and coaching. Molly has been heavily involved in the fitness industry since 2004 and this is her third appearance on the podcast. Number 88 and 144 in case you'd like to go back!         Timestamps:   [05.45] - The concept of a rubbish first draft. [08.50] - Does it surprise Molly seeing where Girls Gone Strong as a company is now? [10.30] - Molly tells a story about loaning her father money when she was 7 years old. [14.15] - Does she miss having a brick and mortar gym facility? [22.45] - How would she start a career in the fitness industry knowing what she knows now? [34.12] - How GGS have conducted deep market research. [38.34] - Why personal trainers should conduct market research with clients who succeed and clients who leave. [42.19] - Why male personal trainers tend to shy away from topics surrounding coaching women like the menstrual cycle, menopause and pre/postnatal.       Find Out More About Molly: GGS Website Instagram Molly's Instagram         Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

In today's episode, Stuart talks to Nick Winkelman about the power of tough to hear feedback, reflective practice, creating coaching cues with your clients, coaching the push-up using a framework called the coaching communication loop and what Nick's favourite analogy/ coaching cue is. The section on the push up is a masterclass in coaching so even if you skip ahead and listen to that I promise you'll get a tonne from this episode!   Nick is the Head of Athletic Performance for the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and has just released his new book, The Language of Coaching. We at LTB would like to show our support for his book so we're running a competition to win a copy. If you'd like to enter and have a chance of winning 1 of 5 copies of the book, all you need to do is 1. review the show on iTunes and take a screenshot and email it to me and 2. email me over your favourite cue. It can be any type or kind of cue. If you've already reviewed the show, you can still enter by sending over your favourite cue. My email is stuart@liftthebar.com and the winners will be drawn on the 15th of June!     Timestamps:     [05.50] - How he responded to receiving some hard to take feedback about the first editions of his book. [07.25] - How important receiving feedback has been for him throughout his career. [10.15] - Questions to ask your clients to help with collaboration when creating cues. [18.05] - Why coaches are more comfortable talking about programming than they are about coaching, communication and motivation. [23.05] - Where a trainer should start if they want to start learning more about the intricacies of coaching. [28.35] - Nick explains what the coaching communication loop is. [32.50] - Nick takes us through how he would coach a push-up to a new client using the coaching communication loop.  [39.42] - If Nick thinks we should take the time outside of sessions to create coaching cues and analogies. [42.30] - Nick's favourite cue or analogy     Find Out More About Nick: The Language of Coaching Instagram         Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

In today's episode, Stuart talks to Danny Lennon from Sigma Nutrition about the considerations you should have if you're thinking about starting a podcast, what he thinks has helped his podcast grow to the level it has, Danny's three-part framework for describing what is health and what he thinks about to ensure he's living a meaningful life. It gets deep at points but I wouldn't have it any other way as this was one of the most enjoyable interviews I've done in a long time! Danny is the founder of Sigma Nutrition and head of content creation for the company. Known for hosting the top-ranked podcast Sigma Nutrition Radio, Danny is also a respected educator in the field. He has spoken at conferences and events all over Europe (including London, Dublin, Amsterdam and Vienna), as well as the United States and Australia. Danny has a master’s degree (MSc.) in Nutritional Sciences from University College Cork, during which time Danny took classes in biochemistry, clinical nutrition, micronutrient interactions and physiology. Previous to this Danny also completed a BSc. Degree in Biology and Physics Education and spent a year teaching these subjects.       Timestamps:     [03.13] - Why Danny decided to start his own podcast, Sigma Nutrition Radio [09.26] - The trap that trainers fall into when getting into creative pursuits like writing, podcasting and video [11.16] - Danny's message to someone who is thinking of doing a podcast [15.13] - Why it's so easy to get sucked into looking at the wrong metrics when putting content out into the world [22.30] - What Danny has done to grow professionally and personally [34.12] - A discussion around Danny's What is Health framework [39.24] - Why he used contentedness over happiness as one of his key parts of his framework [45.56] - The importance of relationships and connection       Find Out More About Danny: Website Instagram         Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

In today's episode, Stuart talks to Brett Barthomolew about burnout, where it comes from and how to spot the things that may end up with you burning yourself out, why working on your communication skills is an essential aspect of being a coach and whether or not you can build buy-in with your clients quickly.  Brett Bartholomew is a strength and conditioning coach, author of the excellent Conscious Coaching, consultant, and Founder of the performance coaching and consulting company, The Bridge Human Performance®. His experience includes working with athletes both in the team environment and private sector along with members of the United States Special Forces and members of Fortune 500 companies. You can find out more about Brett and all of his work by heading to artofcoaching.com         Timestamps:   [02.20] - How he's finding being a new parent [05.15] - A discussion about burnout [20.35] - What doesn't work for preventing burnout [23.00] - Why he takes so much inspiration from other fields unrelated to the fitness industry [33.00] - How to assess how effective your communication is [40.35] - Can we build buy-in quickly? [48.05] - What coaches can do to build buy-in more effectively early on in the coaching process [52.10] - How he's dealing with the uncertainty of what's going on right now       Find Out More About Brett: Instagram Website Free Field Guide       Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

In today's episode, Stuart welcomes on Claire Winter and Maggie Elliott to discuss whether or not you should consider training your clients outdoors (if your country allows it) whilst gyms are unavailable. They chat through how to make the decision about training outdoors, considerations for what to do if you decide you're going to do it, equipment recommendations, programming structure, whether you should use music, what to do about the weather and much more. Claire Winter is LTB's Head of Operations and Maggie Elliott runs Spark Fitness, a personal training studio based out of Prestwich, England.       Timestamps Claire Winter's portion of the discussion [02.47] - Would Claire train her clients outside just now? [05.54] - Why there's a chance you might be feeling guilty about doing mobile personal training [08.30] - Should you consider training your clients outside considering it may be months before all of them feel safe going indoors? [10.50] - What kind of things should you consider if you do decide to train your clients outdoors? [16.07] - Communicating with your client base [17.22] - Why you don't have to move outdoors even if your clients want to  [20.37] - Why you have to consider what you'll do if you or one of your clients get the virus Maggie Elliott's portion of the discussion [22.45] - What decision Maggie has made around training her clients outside [28.35] - What kind of things would have to happen for Maggie to start training her clients outdoors? [33.25] - Programming considerations for outdoor PT [36.30] - Session length [38.20] - Whether or not she uses music? [41.20] - Does she think more PTs will take to mobile due to fewer people using big gyms? [43.10] - Other things to consider that you only learn by experiencing mobile PT        Find Out More About Claire Winter: Facebook LTB Website Blogs mentioned - Claire's LTB blog, Covid-19 spreading more easily in indoor environments blog     Find Out More About Maggie Elliott: Website Instagram

Nicola Hobbs is an author, counsellor and international yoga and meditation teacher. She has an MSc in Sport Psychology and her work is grounded in the interface of ancient wisdom and modern science, integrating the time-honoured practices of yoga, meditation and spiritual living with modern mindfulness, psychology, and mental fitness. In the episode, we discuss Nicola's journey through an eating disorder that was diagnosed when she was just 15 and then we get into all things writing.         Timestamps:   [02.49] - How she's finding teaching Yoga through Zoom. [04.06] - What first got Nicola interested in health, fitness and nutrition. [07.16] - Stuart and Nicola discuss her eating disorder (ED). [13.26] - What her recovery from the ED looked like. [19.58] - How long it's taken Nicola to feel like she's able and willing to share her story around her ED. [22.53] - How Nicola has come up with the ideas for each of her books. [25.58] - Does she always enjoy writing? [29.58] - Stuart and Nicola discuss her writing process. [36.16] - How she deals with the internal voice that tells her it's not worth writing the books she creates. [38.16] - What her editing process looks like. [43.03] - Book recommendations for writing.       Find Out More About Nicola Hobbs: Instagram Website Books Her LTB Course Books mentioned: The War of Art, Bird by Bird, The Artist's Way, On Writing, Big Magic.       Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

Jonny Stephens works as a head coach out of Curious Gym, which was previously named the LTB gym. We discuss how he's used cook-a-longs, step challenges and other engagement methods to keep the members of his gym feeling like they are part of a community while they can't come to the gym, how he's maintaining his own exercise during the lockdown, why sharing your struggles and challenges with exercise and nutrition will help you connect with your client base and more.           Timestamps: [01.49] - How he is finding lockdown. [05.19] - Has this reinforced how much he enjoys the in-person aspect of personal training? [11.49] - How Jonny has found living alone during lockdown. [16.12] - A discussion around our struggles with maintaining exercise/ movement habits during lockdown. [23.10] - What the gym Jonny works out of, Curious Gym, have used to keep their clients engaged and interacting. [32.02] - If he was a 1-1 trainer with a smaller client base would he still try as many things as he has to engage his clients? [33.27] - What non-exercise/ movement things they've tried to engage their clients? [35.52] - Why it's a good idea to share what you're struggling with regarding exercise and nutrition with your client base.      Find Out More About Jonny/ Curious: Jonny's Instagram Curious Gym Website Curious Instagram Curious Facebook       Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook