Why you Should NOT use Trainerize
By: Jonathan Hertilus
It seems like every so often, the fitness industry experiences a seismic shift. Whether it's the growing popularity of personal training, bootcamps, or Crossfit, it's important to stay ahead of the times. Nowadays online training is becoming more and more popular as people travel more for work, or just can't commit to a singular time or location for workouts.
While the peloton bike and the mirror have offered an opportunity for people to work out on their own terms, people still need accountability. As a matter of fact, people will ALWAYS need accountability. So online personal training has become, and will continue to be, a viable option for people to negotiate their unpredictable schedule with their need for accountability.
Right now, there are three main services which allow personal trainers to offer their services. Trainerize, PT Hub, and PT Distinction all afford trainers a platform to plan and deliver online workouts to their clients for a fee. I've invested in these services myself, and while they do everything they promise, I would never use their services again and here's why.
#1 Highway Robbery
If you're going to be successful in this industry, you have to learn never to pay too much. One of the biggest mistakes trainers make is when they rent a property. They work out a deal where the owner gets a percentage of what they take in. That's a horrible mistake because the harder YOU work, the more you pay to someone doing NOTHING.
Unfortunately Trainerize, PT Hub, and PT Distinction ask you to do the same thing. When you get more clients, they charge you more money. Even though they aren't doing anything extra. For those of you who know how websites work, it doesn't cost these guys more than $.02 to keep a extra client record. So why are you paying $60/month to service 30 clients. At $2/mo/client, that's a whopping 10,000% markup!
If you wouldn't pay $25 for a pack of gum, you shouldn't pay $2 or more per client, per month on these platforms.
Also did you know trainerize charges you an extra $7 a month to use your own payment portal on their interface? Stripe, a merchant account most trainers use for automated billing is free to use. So that's like me charging you an extra $7 a month to breathe oxygen in my gym.
#2 Incomplete service
So as I mentioned before, Trainerize, PT Hub, and PT Distinction all deliver on their promise to create a platform for you to create online training programs. The problem is, all you get, is a platform. No education, no strategy, no course, no help. Tutorials on how to navigate their user interface will do you no good if you don't know how to acquire or close clients effectively.
You see, online training it relatively new for everyone, so you have to be ahead of the curve on what clients want. It always made me so angry when I would review regular personal training manuals and they made it seem like people walk into gyms with their checkbooks open begging you for your service. That's not true in the real world and that's even less true in online training.
Here's the problem with the lack of understanding of the industry. These platforms treat online training as though it only encompasses 1 service. It actually encompasses four.
The 4 types of Online Training service
Online Virtual Training Personal (OVTP)
With this type of training, you and your client link up on a video conferencing platform like Zoom and your job is to instruct and encourage your clients the same way you would in a regular live setting. This type of training commands the highest cost as it requires you to be present for sessions. Some clients simply can't get motivated for the next type of training which is what Trainerize, PT Hub, and PT distinction offer, and will actually pay you a premium for your time.
Online Personal Training (OPT)
This is the type of training that you are limited to when you deal with PT Hub, PT Distinction, and Trainerize. With this training, you give your clients a plan to follow via PDF, spreadsheet, or online spreadsheet.
#2 They have to be willing the pay near OVTP prices for your services because of the effort required to create their plan.
#3 You could decrease your rates but in the end you'll be over working while being
This is, from my experience the hardest type of training to sell consistently with high quality.
#1 You have to find someone independent enough to workout on their own
#2 They have to be willing the pay near OVTP prices for your services because of the effort required to create their plan.
#3 You could decrease your rates but in the end you'll be over working while being
underpaid, or you'll end up sending very generic workouts that the client will
eventually get bored with and quit.
Online Personal Training Group (OVTG)
With OVTG training, you once again use the video conferencing application, but instead of training one person live, you're training several people live. Classes run on your schedule, and there are no late cancellations.
The schedule is set and if you show up, great. If not, I still get paid. Like all online training services this takes a while to build up but you have the benefit of a group, a club, something to belong to, so that you're not stuck in awkward conversations.
In terms of earning potential this probably offers you the highest upside and there's no limit to how many people you can train at a time. A zoom pro account allows for up to 100 people at one time.
Check out some success stories of a few trainers I've mentored.
Click any one of the images to enlarge
Sadly, trainerize, pt hub, and pt distinction offer no education on how to build, or run this super lucrative service. But don't worry, I do.
My Unbeatable solution!
Since 2014, I've been helping trainers dominate the fitness industry with my Dumbbells to Dollars Course. Because of that course trainers better understand pricing, planning, sales, client management and marketing. With my online course you can learn all these aspects of online training as well.
But I needed to take it a step further. Because companies like Trainerize were robbing trainers blind with their platform. So we launched our hosting service which will allow you to create your own online training portal and offer ALL aspects of training.
So our goal is to give trainers the best chance to see success and with my Dumbbells to Dollars Course, I'm sure you'll be able to navigate the online training space with ease.
As far as our website hosting, we don't have a monthly plan that fluctuates based on how many clients you have. So if you want to ditch trainerize and create a website that does all the work for you, learn more about our website hosting by clicking the link below. Thanks for reading
Dedicated to your fitness success,
Jonathan