Enroll more clients and members with personal invites. You can use social media strategies and email marketing to grow your brand awareness, to build trust with people who watch you, and who may some day be your biggest raving fan. You can shorten the time frame of someone seeing your brand and deciding to work with you by going the extra degree — whether they are enrolling in your services for the first time, or returning as a client, as is often true in fitness. Personal invites help people feel seen and called on to take a specific action. I shared an example from my health club where we collected old photos from our previous boot camps and attached them in the DMs to people in the picture. We included a short, personal invite. Some photos were from as far back as 2018. If they’ve been a happy client in the past, they can be a happy client in the future. Often, they simply need a specific, personal call-to-action. “I’d love to see you back in this camp on Monday!”

Keep more clients and members with personal interactions. It’s a lot of work to attract clients and to find the right fit for your unique services. Once you bring someone in, it’s on you and your team to get to know them, make them feel seen and successful. This is the secret sauce. No matter your service – from yoga to small group personal training – you need high-quality delivery, clean space and a personal connection. Fitness requires community and community requires personal interaction. I shared a story from a recent trip to a big city YMCA when I was traveling. The facility was gorgeous and clean, the front desk employee was gracious and kind. I was so proud of our industry. The place was buzzing with energy – people of all ages and abilities. However, the group fitness instructor missed an opportunity to continue the high-quality service that I was hoping for. Unfortunately, she did not introduce herself, welcome new people, greet members, use names in class, give out high-fives or thank people on their way out the door. The class was high-energy, fast-paced and could have been top notch. But as a participant, I felt like I was watching someone perform. I felt disconnected from the experience. In a world where workouts can be accessed from your fingertips, with fitness apps or with AI tools, in-person fitness can continue to grow and thrive, if we offer personal connections.

Choose Your Hard. It is hard to do the daily work to grow your career. It requires education, learning, skill-building, practice outside of the studio or gym. It requires working on your own communication and leadership. These things are hard to do because life can be busy and you’re trying to keep up, not get ahead. But it’s a lot harder to stay stuck in your career, to be stagnant and spin your wheels. Choose your hard. Do the work to learn and grow or find yourself in a career that has lost the fulfilment and excitement that it once had. For more on that topic, check out episode 21 on the Calm & Confident podcast.