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How to Navigate the Lockdown in the Fitness Industry While Prepping for Gyms to Re-Open
Strength Faction Summer 2020 (May 4th - August 30th)
Hello! We’re Chris Merritt, Mike Connelly, and Todd Bumgardner.
If you’re a fitness trainer trying to navigate the crazy world of the COVID-19 lockdown, while also wanting to be prepared for when the gyms re-open…and are working hard to figure out what to do, we have news for you…
We can help you discover the principles and tactics that will carry you through the lockdown and beyond.
See, here’s the thing…
We’ve seen just about everything in our almost 50 years of collective fitness industry experience…being successful as commercial trainers, running a successful gym, and running a successful online business.
And, in the wake of the lockdown, taking our entire gym clientele online in under two days. Seriously.
If you’re like most trainers, you want to feel confident in training clients virtually right now, while making enough money to support yourself, and prepping for when gyms re-open
You want to feel like you know what to do… and have the support to do it.
Well, you can.
And we, along with the incredible Strength Faction community, can help you discover how.
We can help you create your solutions for now… and for when the world returns to normal again.
The crazy thing is, the principles and tactics that worked when the gyms were open, will work now… you just have to know what they are and how to apply them.
We can do that together.
“I was mentally and physically drained before I joined Strength Faction. Taking care of myself was my very last priority after my family and my business. I was tired all the time, irritable, and moving further and further from the person I want to be.
With the help of Strength Faction I swallowed my ego and started taking baby steps. Having the training program is great because I don’t have to think about my workouts other than putting them in my schedule. But honestly the most useful part has been that they convinced me to start small and work toward where I want to be.
My first round of Strength Faction I was running a commercial gym with a partner even though that was never what I really wanted to do. Not only did the Faction help me start taking care of myself mentally and physically, the extra coaching helped me see that I wasn’t on the path I wanted to be on. Thanks to my Strength Faction Family I was able to leave a place I didn’t want to be and start my own private training studio and I love where I’m at, what I’m doing, and where I’m going.
I wish other people knew what the support of Strength Faction feels like. There’s no agenda beyond helping you grow as a coach and a person. Take the leap. There’s nothing like this in the fitness industry.”
– Trey Potter
“Before Strength Faction, I was struggling to systematize my coaching. I wrote workouts for my in-person clients on the fly without much long-term planning. I was trying to get my blog and online business off the ground but wasn’t sure how best to reach clients, organize content, and write effective training programs. I frequently felt overwhelmed by everything I needed to do to grow my online business and succeed as a trainer at a big box gym.
These days I’m much more organized. I write long-term programs for my clients, which has dramatically improved client buy-in and results. I’ve learned how to better communicate with many different types of people and work with them to set and achieve meaningful goals. My client retention has improved because my clients are feeling great and making consistent progress.
Strength Faction has also given me the tools to stay organized in other areas of my life. The weekly brain dump and planning session has been a life saver to keep me on task so I don’t need to work 24-7. I love the well-rounded approach to growth; we focus not just on programming and coaching but also on personal development and living fulfilling lives outside the gym.
By far the biggest benefit to Strength Faction is the amazing community. When I joined I was super shy and didn’t have a lot of industry connections outside my immediate area. People were so warm and welcoming, which made it easier for me to build professional relationships and friendships. No matter what problem I’m dealing with, whether it’s directly related to work or something in my personal life, I know someone I’ve met in Faction that I can reach out to for help, advice, and support.
Joining Strength Faction is hands down the best decision I’ve ever made for my career. I’ve done a lot of continuing education over the years, but there’s nothing out there that compares to Strength Faction.”
– Caroline Juster
“Before Strength Faction I was struggling! I was a brand new business owner who really didn’t know what I was doing. I knew we had good ideas and good skills, but really didn’t have the tools to create a sustainable business. Not only were we only one year into our business but my wife and I had just had a baby.
Now things are so much more stable and consistent. We’ve grown our semi-private training from 0 to 50 members in just over a year. We have systems in place that help us to capitalize on the skills we already had and use them much more effectively.
The biggest challenge I’ve overcome as a Strength Faction member is learning how to run a semi-private training model. Truly, it is the image of a gym I had in my head when we opened our business, but I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to create a programming system or really any other systems to create a consistent experience for our members.
I’m proud that we’ve grown our semi-private training program. I know the product we are giving now is as good as anyone in the country.
One of the biggest benefits I’ve gotten from Strength Faction is feeling less stress because I don’t have to figure out everything on my own. This is huge. Being able to know that the systems we are building and the business we are running will continue to grow with consistent work.
What I love most about the Faction is having a place to ask questions that’s you can’t ask others in your life because they just don’t know. Being in a group of like-minded individuals to share successes, be inspired by other ideas, and who know the struggles of owning and operating a fitness business. It makes me feel like I’m one of the cool kids and I’m confident about where I’m at.
To quote Dan John, “If you’re your own coach, you have an idiot for a client.” We expect people to invest money in us to help them achieve their goals, why wouldn’t we do the same?
Strength Faction is more than just a coaching program, it’s like a mentorship.”
– Peter Clark
All of the work we’ve done has allowed us to create stability in chaotic times by following simple principles and employing simple tactics
Here Are the Keys to Managing the Chaos of the Lockdown in the Fitness Industry and Being Prepared for When the Gyms Re-Open
- A Vision for Your Life and Career: You have to know where you’re going to know what actions are important. Crafting a clear vision that gets you excited is not only important for directing your actions but also for keeping you committed during challenging times.
- Time Management System: Second is having a system for managing yourself and how you spend your time. It’s how you bring your vision into action. This is a big point of struggle for most trainers.
- Program Design System: Third is a system for consistently designing results driven training programs. Trainers waste more time overcomplicating program design than anywhere else.
- Coaching System: The fourth part is having a system for consistently teaching and coaching your clients to perform the movements they need to be successful—while consistently providing them a great experience. And also having a system that helps them declare and act toward, and achieve their goals.
- Connection To Other Like-Minded Professionals: When we aren’t connected to other people that understand what we’re going through we feel like we’re alone on an island…and that crushes lives and careers.
To Teach These Keys, We Created A Community-Based Coaching Experience…
INTRODUCING STRENGTH FACTION
We’re going to spend 17 weeks unpacking each of these key components and you’re going to learn exactly what you need to do to get the training career and life you want.
Strength Faction Summer 2020 (May 4th – August 30th)
Just $199/month!
Your Success
Organized and actionable personal development for personal trainers
Prep Week: All of the movement and mindset lessons to start your Faction journey on the right foot
Week 1: Getting started with your Faction training program and the lessons that set you up for training success
Week 5: Getting deeper into personal development and simple nutrition lessons to accompany your training
Week 9: Training and personal development continues and gets deeper!
Week 13: Training, nutrition, and personal development lessons that build to keep you making progress
Programming Systematization
Having great programming systems saves you time and helps you get results for any type of client. We teach you how we’ve developed ours…and gotten results for clients from all walks of life. The programming segment of Strength Faction is unique in that the lessons are taught using a live webinar presentation, followed by a QnA, and posted to the lessons section of the membership site.
Week 2: Meet Your New Client—a case study introduction to start your programming learning
Week 6: New Member Intake, Interviews, Assessment, and On-Boarding
Week 10: The Checklist, How to Start, Selecting Reps and Number of Sets, Conditioning What/Why/How
Week 14: Selecting Exercises, Appropriate Variety, Auditing with the FMS, and Progressing for the Long-Haul
Module 3- Coaching in the Fitness Industry
Great coaching requires understanding our clients and using practical coaching methods to build relationships and apply simple, effective cueing on the training floor. Like Program Design, each week of the coaching module is taught using a live webinar presentation, followed by a QnA, and posted to the lessons section of the membership site.
Week 3: Psychological Foundations of Fitness coaching (video lectures that lay the coaching foundation)
Week 7: Goal setting for short and long-term progress
Week 11: On the floor coaching, building cues, and our four-part coaching paradigm
Week 15: Semi-private, one-on-one, and group coaching and how to thrive in each environment
Module 4- Professional Expansion
We can’t just live in a bubble of training X and O’s anymore and expect to have a successful training career. We need the little skills like writing and video to educate our clients and build a name for ourselves.
Week 14: Writing and content development
Week 8: Filming and editing video, and creating your own podcast!
Week 12: Guerrilla branding and a strategy for applying your personal development
Week 16: Faction Veteran Members teach you how to use all of the Faction lessons
… and that’s not all that’s included in your Strength Faction membership.
Your Strength Faction program follows the “seasons of lifting”…borrowed from Dan John. Not only do you get to follow great training programs designed to get you results for different goals (fall= get jacked and strong, spring=get lean and conditioned, summer= live life while keeping your training kicking ass), but it also teaches you how to program for different types of clients and different types of goals. And this ain’t no one-size-fits-all programming—you’ll go through a simple assessment and then you’ll be guided into the appropriate training group. And even from there, as you can see in the screenshot above (that’s a portion of a phase of the Summer ’18 program), we have choices within each movement category, making this program adaptable to just about anyone.
And you’ll also have two regular Strength Faction QnAs—Wednesday afternoons 2pm eastern time and Thursday evenings 9pm eastern time, that regularly feature special guests. You get to ask industry leaders direct questions—past guests include folks like Dan John (pictured above), Eric Cressey, and Sue Falsone—and you’ll even get access to the past 4 years (and counting) of recorded QnA archives! Besides the guests, you get to connect with other Faction members from all over the globe and build relationships that seriously turn into friendships—while also having access to a whole lot of brain power to help you answer any questions that you may have and solve problems that you’re facing.
Strength Faction Summer 2020 (May 4th – August 30th)
Just $199/month!
“Before Strength Faction I was in decent shape but wear and tear issues were starting to happen from random workouts that weren’t well-organized. Mentally, I was constantly anxious that I wasn’t providing enough variety to my clients. I did what many trainers do, and I spent way too much time going down the social media rabbit whole, which just made me more anxious.
A bunch of semesters later, I can say that the programming has made such a difference in the way my body feels. I used to spend 10-15 minutes just figuring out what to do and then the rest of the workout was kind of rushed. Having access to a well-organized program is an absolute game changer.
I have plenty of challenges as a trainer, but being a part of the Strength Faction Family has given me a renewed confidence. I know that if I get stuck on something I have a community of people that have my back. I’ve posted questions to the Open Forum and gotten answers from real deal trainers that I trust and respect. That’s been huge.
Using the Strength Faction programming lessons, it’s been easy to transition a good part of my one-on-one clients to semi-private groups and as a result, I make more money and the clients spend less. Win-win. Big breakthrough for me.
I’m most proud of the progress that I’ve made using the programming lessons. I train and teach groups and I used to over program. I was completely over-complicating the whole process and Strength Faction gave me the confidence to put systems in place. I spend half the time I used to putting training classes together. I have a little bit of free time in my day and I no longer get that lump in my throat on Sunday evenings.
I love so many things about the Faction, but I have to say what keeps me coming back is the fact that each time I get to the end I realized I’ve made a new breakthrough. First was systems, then was the strength program for myself. Last time I really liked the writing lessons and the psychology stuff.
If you’re on the fence about joining Strength Faction my advice is do it. You’ll never get a more real-world education about training and coaching.”
– Becky Codi
“Before joining Strength Faction I was not in the greatest places mentally. Physically I felt great and was happy with the progress I was making on the program I was doing. Although, I was struggling with making time for myself to get it done. Everywhere else I was kind of all over the place.
Since joining I’m in a much better place in many aspects of my life, and I credit it to two things. One, the lessons from Todd, Chris, and Mike. Two, the supportive network of coaches that makes you feel that you’re not alone in your struggles, makes you feel heard, and that people have your back to help you through anything.
With the Faction Family I’ve really been able to get my shit together. My days are more structured and I’m able to get through tasks in a timely basis by planning them out ahead of time.
It’s hard to list all the benefits of what Strength Faction brings to the table, but the biggest one that stands out is the network of awesome people that are a part of Strength Faction. Some of the people I’ve talked to and met are now great friends and I know I can do to any of them with an idea or talk to if shit is hitting the fan and I need a sounding board. What I love most about Faction is the family.
I know without this group I would have lost my mind long ago and I would still be suffering from many of the struggles I had before. I would be overworked, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Strength Faction has lit the path to where I want to take my career.”
– Chris Cooper
“In the time I’ve been a member of Strength Faction the number of clients I train weekly has tripled.
Meanwhile, I am working less hours, spending more quality time with family, and training myself consistently.
Strength Faction is a community of like-minded trainers and coaches, individuals who strive to constantly improve to be better and do better. Surrounding myself with these people has helped me level up to be a better person in and out of the gym.
Now I run my training business, it does not run my life. I have defined my ideal client, learned how to market effectively to this client pool, and improved the customer service and training experience I provide. I have rediscovered the love of training myself and others instead of feeling like a slave to the daily demands of running a business again. I have balance again and everyone around me is happier because of it.
I offer a superior service thanks to the lessons on programming and coaching. My coaching and interpersonal skills have improved and I have grown far more confident in my knowledge of movements, assessments, and programming”
– Dawn McCoy Williams
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Strength Faction and why has it helped so many personal trainers?
Strength Faction is a professional and personal development coaching program for fitness industry coaches…that cuts out the fluff and gets down to business with what trainers really need to be successful in this industry. It’s an online, experiential coaching program that’s supported by a great community format. It’s 17 weeks long and covers four main modules—personal development, programming, coaching, and expanding on all of the other skills the modern personal trainer needs like writing and video.
Q: I’m an experienced trainer, can I still benefit from being a Strength Faction Member?
The short answer—yes. We know that you’re after what works, not some information that’s supposed to be “cutting edge.” And what works is what matters for every experience level. We take practical knowledge from our “in the trenches” work and use it to build the Strength Faction curriculum…giving you real, immediately applicable information that you can use in your setting.
The Strength Faction community is also a great way for experienced coaches to expand their network and learn from other folks that are in the trenches every day.
Q: What if I’m new to personal training? Is Strength Faction for me?
It sure is! The Strength Faction curriculum is designed to meet members at their current experience level. And, to make sure you’re thriving in the Faction, you’ll be assigned a Strength Faction mentor—an experienced coach that’s thrived in applying the Faction to their careers—to guide you through the Strength Faction process and help you navigate any issues you might be having in your own training or in your career. Joining the Strength Faction community early in your training career will provide you a solid, and seriously connected, network to answer your questions, cut the confusion, and help you earn success.
Q: I’m a commercial gym trainer, can I benefit from Strength Faction?
Absolutely! In fact, one of your Strength Faction coaches, Mike Connelly, is a fitness director at a commercial gym in Chicago and would be a great guide to help you. (We’re also working on a commercial gym specific curriculum.) Besides that, the personal development, programming, coaching, and professional expansion lessons that you’ll experience as a Faction member aren’t specific to any setting—they are principle-based so you can apply them in your world and with your clients.
Q: I’m a gym owner, I’d like to sign my staff up for Strength Faction, can I do that?
Yes! And we’ll even offer you a group rate for you and your staff.
Q: What if Strength Faction isn’t the right fit for me?
If during the first month of the Strength Faction semester you decide that the Faction isn’t for you, we’ll let you move on.
We know the Faction changes peoples lives, we’ve seen it happen time and time again. But if for some weird reason it doesn’t seem like the right thing for you, you won’t get push-back from us! No hoops to jump through—and if you feel we didn’t provide any value, we’ll even provide a 100% refund.
Q: What’s the Strength Faction cancellation policy?
During the first 30 days of your Strength Faction membership you can cancel at any time be removed from monthly automatic billing. After the first 30 days, you are enrolled in the current Strength Faction semester until the end and will be billed each month until the completion of the semester. You may, however, at any time notify that you will not be continuing on past the current Strength Faction semester.
At the completion of each Strength Faction semester you are automatically re-enrolled unless you notify that you do not want to continue as a member. It’s set up this way because most folks choose to do more than one round of Strength Faction (we have some folks that have been members for three + years) and we want to make the process easier for you.
To notify us of cancellation, you must email Todd Bumgardner directly at Todd@beyondstrengthperformance.com before the close of business on the final day of the final week of the current Strength Faction semester.
The 30-day cancellation policy renews at the start of each Strength Faction semester no matter how long you’ve been a Strength Faction Member.
Don’t just take our word for it—check out what these badass Strength Faction members have to say:
Because of the support I’ve gotten both online and in person so far, I am much more comfortable and confident I can succeed and take my career to the next level.” –Keiran H.
The programming is great, and fun, and I can use lots of it with my clients, and my beefiness factor has gone up since starting, but…that’s small in comparison to the big picture. The real value is how I’ve evolved tremendously as a coach in the past four months.” –Paul L.
Not only did I gain strength physically, but mentally it’s been amazing. I have a lot more confidence training people- the daily lessons and the tips on cueing have been gold for me.” – Yadi E.
WE WANT TO BE 100% TRANSPARENT WITH YOU. NOT EVERY TRAINER IS A GOOD FIT FOR STRENGTH FACTION.
We want to make sure that Strength Faction is the right fit for you.
And we also want to make sure you’re going to be a good fit to represent the Strength Faction family.
That’s fair, right?
So, here’s the deal. Try Strength Faction for the first month, and if at any time during that month you decide Strength Faction isn’t for you, shoot us an email and you’re free to go. Further, if you don’t get value in that time with the Faction, we’ll provide a 100% refund.
We stand behind Strength Faction and what it’s done for trainers all over the world…we truly believe it’s the best program of its kind in the industry.
Strength Faction Summer 2020 (May 4th – August 30th)
Just $199/month!
IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO MAKE POSITIVE CHANGES IN YOUR TRAINING CAREER AND LIFE YOU GOTTA DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
And even if you’re hesitating to sign up for a 17-week coaching program, think about it like this:
If you don’t do anything, you’ll probably stay stuck in the same place.
Enroll now, because the worst thing that happens is you get some great coaching and education from guys with over 40 years of fitness industry experience, connect with great trainers from all over the world, and you can walk away knowing what you need to do to take your life and career to the next level.
Strength Faction Summer 2020 (May 4th – August 30th)
Just $199/month!
NEED HELP ENROLLING OR HAVE QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about Strength Faction, please contact us by clicking the link below and Todd will personally be in touch.