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Professionalism
1) Be a fitness professional because you love fitness, not because you think it is easy money
2) Always be on time
3) Never show up to work hungover;
4) Always confirm an appointment the night before
5) Always leave your personal problems at home
6) Unless you discuss a possible emergency with your client before the training session starts, never ever answer your phone mid session;
7) Ignore all distractions while training your client, including and especially your friends;
8) Do follow up measurements to keep your clients informed and motivated;
9) Systemize everything, successful businesses run off of plans and programs, not chaos and aimlessness;
10) Don't use your position to inappropriately touch, look at, or talk to a gym patron;
11) Keep exercise logs. Clients like to see that they are progressing;
12) Be open to helping somebody with improper form, even if you don’t think that they want to sign up for personal training. They may surprise you and sign up;
13) Be willing to lend a helping hand to the gym, even if it’s for free 
14) Make a plan for your client. Clients like to know that they’re not just doing random workouts, and they’re actually working toward a specific goal;
15) Presentation is everything, make sure your workout space is in order;
16) Your fitness director’s job is harder than it looks, cut them some slack if they’re a little bit crabby;
17) Don’t mix business with pleasure; 
18) Have an alternate plan in case somebody’s using a machine that you planned on using;
19) You are an entrepreneur, learn the ins and out of marketing and selling as well as training
20) Never ever train a client without having them sign a waiver first;
21) Personal training insurance is too cheap to not have;
22) Very important. Get a Google Voice Number, because especially if you work inside of a gym they tend to give your personal mobile number away, clients will call you at all hours of the night. So, if you have a Google Voice Number the calls can still go to your phone but you’ll be able to screen when and where you want to get your client calls;
23) Take advice from other trainers;
24) Learn to be organized, listen to "The 7 habits of Highly effective people" By Stephen Covey;
25) To excel in your craft don't just read books on training, read books on sales, business management and dealing with people;
26) Always take time to help trainers that have less experience than you.
27) Take advantage of the tax benefits for self employed personal trainers, such as: purchasing equipment, exercise apparel and sneakers
28) Make yourself easy to find with social media and business cards ( but keep your social media connection 100% professional)

Sales
29) Never show desperation for a sale;
30) Speak slowly when going over contract terms with your client;
31) If you know that your gym has slightly underhanded ways of selling personal training, always let your client know exactly what to ask for and exactly what they’re getting, because if they’re unhappy with their contract, you’re going to be the one stuck with an unhappy client;
32) Always assume the sale;
33) Box Gym Trainers: Get cool with the sale staff, front desk staff, and group fitness trainers they are going to be the ones that can feed you clients when you can’t get them on your own;
34) Rejection happens a lot in personal training. Don’t let it get to you, and don’t let it deter your from your next sale;
35) Always ask for referrals;
36) If you want to improve your ability to sell personal training, listen to Zig Ziglar's "5 Steps to successful selling"
37) Make friends with physical therapists, they have a lot of qualified leads for you coming off of their therapy;
38) If you’re selling a package to a client that you know you can’t train, hand them off to another trainer, it’ll come back to you;
39) Never assume that based on the kind of jewelry that a client wears, or the kind of car that they drive that a person can or cannot afford personal training;
40) Learn how to leverage your time and make more money, offer semi -private and small group training:

Client Management/ Relationships
41) Always have more energy than your client;
42) If your client is standing, you should never be sitting;
43) Occasionally people are late, so if your client is late once in a while acknowledge it, but forgive them, because eventually you’re going to be late one day
44) Clients have a skewed view about fitness, they think they need to be perfect 100% of the time, if you’re the type of person that has a cheat meal every once so often, let your client know about it, let them know how you recover, how you get back on track, so that they can do the same thing and not feel discouraged when they slip up;
45) Never allow a client to disrespect you;
46) If your client is emotionally uncomfortable with an exercise or a specific environment, move them away from it, or discontinue the exercise. They have a personal reason for it, don’t argue;
47) Spend at least as much time correcting nutritional habits as you do correct form. Use MyFitnessPal to monitor your clients.
48) Be so verbally thorough and descriptive in explaining your exercises that even a blind person can grasp the concept of what you expect them to do;
49) Stay away from complicated trainer jargon. Clients don’t study it, clients don’t understand it, it’s not going to help them;
50) Don't push supplements onto your clients if you don't believe in them.
51) Take fitness beyond the gym, into 5K’s, mud runs; and sports outings
52) Never make promises that you can’t keep;
53) Although I suggest that you give people your time, don’t give all of your time away for free;
54) Learn to talk to anyone, read Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people"
55) Remember when approaching somebody that you don’t know to help them with their form, don’t say “You’re doing that wrong.” Always start off with “Can I offer you some advice.”;
56) Never make a paying client wait because you’re trying to close a sale on a possible new client;
57) Personality matters, always let your personality shine through in your training;
58) A genuine compliment goes a very long way;
59) Don't punish poor eating habits with hard workouts, instead take the time to educate your client on how they can make better decisions
60) If your client refuses to adhere to the demands of your training regiment, don’t be afraid to suspend them for a while, perhaps a week so that they know that you mean business;
61) If you’re going to be working out with your client, do it on your time not on their time;
62) Don’t be afraid to give a free session to your clients once in a while;
63) Always ask your clients for feedback;
64) Learn to do mitt work and box, it’s a great stress reliever;
65) Make your clients journal their food;
66) Do your best to cater your training environment to your clients’ likes;
67) Remember the Jillian Michaels routine does not work for many people, and not a lot of clients respond favorably to it. If that’s not your style don’t try to fake it;
68) Encourage your clients’ to get periodic blood work so they can check their risk for metabolic disease;
69) When discussing goals, always use the word "we" (ex. we have to clean up our eating, we have to be more discipline) ;
70) Build community among your clients, it may not be a bad idea in case you need to put two clients together and train two for one;
71) Hold fat loss contests;
72) Let your clients in on your goals. They can benefit from seeing how you approach a challenge for yourself;
73) Take time to tell your clients that you appreciate them;
74) Be always honest with your clients, if you noticed a change either good or bad, let them know;
75) Remember, they’re clients not test dummies;
76) Never walk away from client (unless you got to fart);
77) Be a trainer, not a therapist;
78) Every client should feel that you’re their top priority;
79) Never book your sessions in so tightly that you have to rush clients in and out of session. You don’t want to feel the way that you would feel if you were sitting in a doctor’s office;
80) Whenever issuing criticism, always use the sandwich method, remember: compliment first, then criticism, then compliment;
81) Never smoke out a new client when they’re just starting, it’s going to discourage them;
Personal Development/ Misc.
82) You preach fitness, practice what you preach;
83) If you’re relatively new to personal training, and working in the gym, keep your clients on the machines until you feel comfortable with instruction, afterwards you can take them out into an open area for more complex exercises, safety over fancy;
84) Be always positive; 
85) In the personal training industry, you only get paid when you train. So always save money to the side, because when you need a vacation you’ll have money to live off of;    
86) Educate yourself continually
87) No trainer is too good to clean up weights to make sure the gym is clean on their down time;
88) You should make every effort possible to look the part of the personal trainer;
89) Be available early in the morning;
90) Be opened to teaching some group exercise classes to get some notoriety in the gym;
91) Remember the beginning of your career is always going to be the hardest;
92) Never go up to another personal trainer while he’s training his client and criticize the way that he’s training. If his client is in a lot of danger, pull him to the side and then tell him. If it can wait till and after the session, but if you criticize him in front of his or her client they will hate you for life, I promise you that;
93) Have a specialty in your training but be familiar with a broad span of training methods;
94) When in doubt the simpler exercise is usually your safer better option;
95) Remember, encouragement and enthusiasm are as important as instruction;
96) Gym trainers, if you spend more time on the floor working yourself out than making money and getting clients, you need to work on your priorities;
97) Always make sure to schedule in time for your own personal workout;
98) If you’re going to blatantly plagiarize another trainer’s workout, at least give them the credit;
99) It’s not the most glamorous, it’s not the most lucrative, but starting in a big box gym may give you your best experiences, in terms of the business end, as well as the training end into your personal training career;
100) Always take time to help trainers that have less experience than you.
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Don't forget the 5 Fitboss Rules

1) Train Responsibly

2) Treat People Fairly

3) Charge Appropriately

4) Love What You Do

5) Make your Own Rules

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100 Rules Of A Successful FitBoss
I have crammed 15 years worth of experience into one article. 

So many trainers make these simple mistakes that cost them clients and money.

Learn here so you don't make the same mistakes


Oscar Gonzales

I had no idea what I was doing, my mangers made me hate training so I thought I would give this a shot before I left the fitness industry for good. Now I'm happy to say I have my own fitness business and I'm making more now than I would have if I went back to Corporate America. Thanks Jonathan, you're a life saver!


Hunter Devaughn

I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is serious about building a successful fitness business. This course is full of very useful information and tips. It is a must have for any trainer. Further more Jonathan has been in contact with me through email and has been guiding me though my journey. This is an all around outstanding course!!


Timothy Patrick

Jonathan works really hard on this course and continues to add more content constantly. I was just about finished with this course and had not logged in for some time since I was on the performance sections. Logged in later and see that I am only slightly more than halfway done now. He is an excellent resource.


Erika Stork

So informative and step-by-step information from how to explain exercises, to structuring classes, understanding the business side of running a bootcamp, building a website, how to set rates and take payment….really everything you would want to know. Soo worth the money!


Philip Bernstein

I've been following Jonathan for a long time via youtube and this course just adds to all the great content. Awesome


Kayla Shumann

Jonathan has taught me everything from how to perform specific exercises to how to build my own website and much more! To be honest, this course helped me more than my NASM certification did. I highly highly recommend this to any personal trainer looking to expand their knowledge and fitness business


Jamaal Wooten

Listen bro, back when I first started watching you I was bodybuilding and got caught up in that world then got caught up in the functional, social media and massage world only to realize that from day 1 you taught business first. I listen to your first module and felt a comfort wash over me because the fundamentals is what i missed in understanding how this all works. The goal isn't to be in a gym all day, it's to help as many people as possible with as much time as possible to be able to do enough to keep elevating yourself. Your number crunching is clean and it all makes sense. To be honest, I'm just honestly trying to get like you in this industry. Find my piece of the pie and enjoy the hell out of it.