Sales Representative
Sales Representative
What we do
At Stridist we empower amazing fitness and nutrition professionals to build businesses they love while helping their clients all over the world
We’re an all in one software platform, as well as an education and mentorship hub that’s been responsible for helping thousands of personal trainers, online fitness coaches and nutrition professionals generate millions of dollars and impact the lives of clients all over the world
In November 2022 we were accepted into TinySeed, one of the most prestigious startup accelerators in the world.
We’re a small team serving customers in over 35 countries and are in the exciting growth stage of startup life
The Role
Due to our growth, and the recent investment from TinySeed, we are looking for a smart and autonomous Sales Representative to help us achieve our ambitious growth plans. This is an exciting time for us as a business and the people who join us
As a sales representative you’ll be the start of both the demand generation and sales team, you are the first point of contact for all of Stridists sales efforts. You’ll generate demand, interest, and excitement for our products. Your core task will be to prospect and develop leads, warm up the relationship and convert them into qualified meeting opportunities for you to then turn into customers
You’ll actively contribute to our revenue while learning the ropes of a growth-stage startup and the in and outs of sales at Stridist. We take career development seriously, so once you’ve demonstrated you’re consistently hitting quota having mastered the role, you’ll have the opportunity to graduate into sales management an account executive, partnerships manager or into enterprise sales
This is a remote role, suitable for candidates in the UK, US, Europe and UAE
What you’ll do:
- Think outside of the box on ways we can bring on more PTs
- Prospect your own pipeline of good fit Stridist customers
- Generate conversations from inbound interest and outbound outreach
- Convert conversations into calls and new users
- Hit your daily quota of outreach messages sent, meetings booked and sales made
- Effectively showcase how we can support fitness and nutrition professionals through email, social media and phone
- Reporting on sales figures and themes that seem to be trending in the current market
- Manage and prioritise your time so you consistently achieve your targets.
- Consistently attain and exceed target expectations.
Ideal background
- You have experience in a previous Sales / Business Development role as part of a SaaS or B2B company, and are always happy to proactively engage new customers through social media, email and phone OR you are a passionate fitness or nutrition professional interested in joining a fast growing fitness startup in an industry you love
- You are coachable, accountable and consistent in your efforts to develop knowledge and results
- You believe in a consultative and human sales approach and understand that every conversation is different
- You see the benefits of the Stridist suite of products – we strongly believe that we are helping amazing fitness and nutrition professionals and we want to work with people that are passionate about Stridist and can articulate its value
- You can operate in an unstructured environment and embrace change
- You are comfortable generating your own pipeline through outbound sales and setting up great foundations with our potential customers.
- You are enthusiastic and ambitious, with a desire to build a fulfilling career
Perks
- 100% work from home
- Guaranteed fast-track development
- Annual company retreats
Salary: £22,000
On target earnings:
Minimum: £27k-£36k, Realistic: £36k-£51k, High performance: £52k+
Hello! Who are you and what do you do?
I’m a Nutrition Consultant and Educator in compassionate, evidence-based nutrition, working predominantly with people to improve their relationships with food and their bodies, whilst at the same time, educating and mentoring personal trainers to provide a more person-centred, compassionate nutrition and behaviour change approach with their clients.
What’s your backstory and how did you end up in your current position?
I’m a bit of an academic, completed a BSc in Sports Biomedicine, MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, PhD in Exercise Physiology and PGCAP in Higher Education Teaching, alongside which I obtained my personal trainer-type qualifications. I’m a registered nutritionist with the association for nutrition and trainee counsellor. That’s really just the CV though. I grew up with a tumultuous relationship with food and exercise. Food for me played a role in managing (or rather, suppressing) a lot of emotions, whilst I continued to highly achieve and aim for perfection in my academic life. Outwardly, I was pretty great. Inwardly, I struggled. I overate, over restricted and over exercised. I spent 15 years with this toxic relationship with food before falling into bodybuilding, framed as an admirable way to do the exact same thing with food, but win trophies at the same time. And I did do that, I came second in Britain in 2018 before hanging up the sparkly bikini. Whilst I was competing, I started a blog about the reality of the process of extreme dieting, documented my entire journey. shared my struggles post-show and realised that actually, there was no support out there for people like me. Fitness was all a front, filled with meal plans and ‘dedication’, leaving no space for people who simply couldn’t understand why they struggled to stick to a diet, or were unable to find happiness despite achieving the body that they thought would bring it. I delved into the research, started discovering more holistic approaches to health and fitness that can support the darker side of dieting outcomes, implementing and subsequently sharing these via my online platforms. I went to California for 3 months, threw myself into meditation, therapeutic techniques and self-discovery and realised the true connection between our thoughts, feelings and food – even within fitness. That’s how my business was born – super authentically through my own journey of discovery and my academic background.
What were your first few months like in the fitness industry?
I was working full time writing a university degree course whilst building my client base, at the same time as prepping for some big bodybuilding shows, so my first few months were intense. There wasn’t anyone doing what I wanted to do, this balance of fitness and holistic work (people rolled their eyes at even the talk of mindfulness), so it was also really pretty daunting. I was so passionate about it, I worked so hard to find the science behind everything I did to show that it was legitimate. I questioned myself – every single day. I felt like a fraud – every single day. But I worked harder than ever – every single day. I was lucky, because I’d done some really honest blogs about my own experience, people could resonate with me, and because no one else was doing it, I probably skipped a lot of the really tough ‘building client numbers’ stage. To this day I think, I was lucky (but maybe that’s the inherent imposter syndrome that lives on in us all…). My relationships suffered though, and I had no real life outside of that post-show pizza. People look at me now thinking I have decent boundaries and work-life balance, but that was non-existent and definitely impacted my personal life for a few years afterward. To be honest, I think that was necessary.
What has the journey been getting from those first few months to where you are today?
In a nutshell? A lot of hard work, self-doubt, gratitude, joy and fear. But mostly, unbelievably rewarding and driven almost exclusively by impact and purpose. Logistically it’s been filled with speaking events, magazine articles, connections, failures wins and lessons, and a lot of saying ‘yes’ – feeling the fear and going for it anyway. Personally, it’s been filled with both wins and challenges to connection, in terms of time and egos, but as my career has developed, so have my values and sense of self, which makes this a lot easier. I now have the ability to prioritise what matters most to me, to set boundaries, to be intentional with my time both within my business and outside of it. As time progresses in your career, I think you become more confident in knowing your values, and you have the luxury of prioritising these, whereas in those first few months and years, you choose to give absolutely everything to your business (as opposed to now, which is almost everything…).
What’s been the hardest moment/biggest challenge of your career so far?
My biggest challenge has been learning the difference between being a proactive and reactive business owner. We’re human, and humans have lives and lives get messy, and when you run your own business, you have to learn to somehow navigate this. For my entire academic career and into running my own business, I always felt I had to do more, be perfect, always be proactive and at the front, or someone would catch up and I’d lose it all. In 2020, I went through the toughest time in my personal life, where I struggled with even the most basic of work tasks. My personal life was taking every ounce of my energy, but by that point, I had 2 other coaches that relied on me to some degree, a business partner and had just launched a new education course. My businesses are build on authenticity, but this moment was so difficult that sharing that would be oversharing, not authenticity or vulnerability. To finally allow myself to say ‘I’ll be reactive in work at this point, life has to come first’ felt like I was fighting everything in my body that told me I was being lazy. But it’s the most important lesson that’s come from my career, that you have to take care of yourself, and when you give 100% most of the time, you can be 80% at times and that’s more than ok. And actually, given an intentional 80%, even 50%, is better than giving a mediocre and messy 100%.
What’s been your biggest win / proudest moment?
This is a complete cliche, but alas. Every time my clients say their life has changed, or a coach from EIQ tells us that their client’s have said similar, those are my proudest moments. It never gets old, and I’m grateful every day that the work these people do can have such an impact on their health and lives. From a personal perspective, I know how transformative that is, and given my core business values are love, connection and health, to see this manifesting in clients and coaches is everything to me.
How and what are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I’m pretty lucky right now to be in Mexico working with Emma, my business partner in EIQ Nutrition. It’s actually a regular day, work blocks interspersed with training, walking and food, the difference here being that we can have off the cuff meetings, live social media sessions, bounce ideas around for business development and have a lot more joy than we would at home having scheduled Zoom meetings. For me, I’m scaling back my personal client work (this has been a transition) so I can spend more time nurturing my coaches to be industry leaders in their respective fields. It’s daunting stepping back a little from direct client support, but I can have more impact when I spend my time mentoring our coaching team to continue to be the leaders in the work we do in fitness. Simultaneously, we’re growing EIQ Nutrition to incorporate in-person networking and events. We launched EIQ two months into a global pandemic in 2020 which was great for optimising everything to an online audience, but there’s a lot of development open to us now. This is where we impact the fitness industry most and help it level up in the support it gives.
What does a day in the life of you look like?
I’m pretty focused on being present in whatever I’m doing, so my work and joy are both very much focused. I tend to do an hour of social media marketing, take an hours walk and breakfast. The rest of the day will be split into work blocks, where I’m either working inside the business with my team of coaches or with clients, developing new content for EIQ, doing live mentoring sessions or podcasting, or doing research and/or reading around key topics for my business, nutrition or therapy fields. In between these blocks I get in meals, a training or yoga session and a walk with my friend. When I’m doing one thing, I’m not flitting around doing something else. I like to work late on weekdays so I can fully switch off on (most) weekends. Deep work. Deep rest
Advice for people who are considering or have just started in the industry?
Figure out your personal and business values first and foremost. Only when you’re living and working in line with these will you feel congruent, passionate and have the ability to work harder than you ever imagined. You can do more than you think. You’re probably not overwhelmed, you’re just not focused, present or prioritising. The sooner you can master that, the sooner you can do more, with less stress and overwhelm. Direct your attention to what matters and let go of what you can’t control. Imposter syndrome is a necessary part of growth, embrace it and use it as a sign that you’re doing something brave. People who experience imposter syndrome generally have higher levels of mastery and collaboration. It’s not a reason to stop, it’s a sign to lean in. It’s ok if you still have your own health struggles to work through, you’re human and it only adds to your empathy for others, provided you are doing the work on yourself, and you are mindful of projection. Your self-awareness and self-work is inherent in the success of your business – don’t martyr yourself or put yourself last. It’s probably going to take time to do something great – embrace the grit.
What have been the key moments in your career so far what was the impact of those moments?
The first key moment was having the courage to leave my work. It’s easy to assume everyone leaves their job to go self employed because they hate it, but I loved lecturing and I’d have done it every day until I retired, so it was a big deal for me to risk it to go off on my own. No one in fitness did anything remotely holistic at that point, so it was a big risk (although, when is running your business not a big risk?). It seems logical that you’d assume my qualifications or trophies to be next, speaking at the biggest expos or publishing in leading fitness magazines, but I think the key moments of my career have been the connections that I’ve made. The second key moment was asking my first, now head, coach Anna Munday to work with me as a coach. This was me committing to growth, to the pressure of having someone somewhat reliant on me for their income, the pressure of their development and ultimately, putting my trust and reputation on the line with someone new. Again at that point, all the talk of ‘scaling’ business was about group coaching, taking on 100s of clients and passive income, and it just wasn’t a way of working that aligned with my values. I had to develop my own business model to suit my clients (not the other way around like most business coaches often suggest). The impact? I now have a team of 6 coaches and we can support 100s more clients in their health, and I’m no longer limited on time to support them. It also fostered one of the best friendships of my life. Starting EIQ Nutrition with my business partner, Emma Storey-Gordon was a big milestone. The birth of the course took place in a freezing Scottish lodge (scene setting) when I was asked to write a course for another company who offered to pay me far less than was fair or justified. Emma, with her outside perspective, business mind and faith in both of our skills suggested not only that we do it ourselves, but that we out-do and out-earn that proposition with a course tailored to what we knew was needed in the industry. We did it, and I don’t think we’ve even touched the surface of the impact of this course will have on the fitness industry, promoting compassionate, evidence-based practice and behaviour change. It also fostered one of the best friendships of my life.
Where can people find you?
Here are the top 5 MyFitnessPal alternatives
MyFitnessPal have been making some questionable decisions lately, including blocking their API so apps can’t integrate with them and more controversially, putting their much loved barcode scanner behind a paywall! Which has angered a lot of users
It feels like they’re going down the risky path of many forgotten internet dinosaurs, who stop innovating, push more and more advertising and make things more expensive / harder to use
Because of that we’ve made a list of our favourite MyFitnessPal alternatives that you can use to track your calories, macros and more
FoodNoms
Simple and privacy-focused MyFitnessPal alternative
FoodNoms is a food tracking app that’s designed to be fast and built to respect your privacy.
What we love – if FoodNoms barcode scanner (which is free) doesn’t recognise a barcode, you can scan the nutrition info instead and it will be added into the app
What FoodNoms Say – FoodNoms is a food tracking app that focuses on design, privacy, and providing powerful features. It’s not an oversimplified calorie counter or a general fitness tracker. It’s a delightful food tracker built for people who are serious, or want to get serious, about food tracking.
FoodNoms is exclusive to Apple platforms, taking advantage of many Apple frameworks and services: Health app integration, iCloud, Shortcuts, Home Screen widgets, and support for Apple Watch.
One of the most-loved features of the app is its “augmented reality” nutrition label scanner, which is made possible with Apple’s computer vision framework. Serious food trackers love the nutrition label scanner because they can log accurate, complete nutrition data within seconds.
FoodNoms is free to use. Several features are exclusive to FoodNoms Plus, which is a subscription that unlocks water, caffeine, and alcohol tracking, intermittent fasting, portion size estimations, and more analysis.
You can visit the FoodNoms website here
Or download the app from the Apple app store here
Cronometer
Cronometer is a MyFitnessPal alternative that encourages you to not just count your calories but to focus on your nutrition as a whole.
What Cronometer say – Launched in 2011, Cronometer is an online and mobile (iOS & Android) nutrition tracking app that gives its users an accurate insight into their nutrition. Cronometer is the most accurate and comprehensive nutrition tracker on the market. Unlike other apps, our nutritional data is curated from verified, lab-analyzed sources, and user submissions are checked by our staff before being added to our database. Cronometer has now helped over 6 million people around the world discover their nutrition. Cronometer encourages you to not just count calories but to focus on your nutrition as a whole.
You can visit the Cronometer website here
Calorie counter app by FatSecret
Our next MyFitnessPal alternative is the Calorie counter app by FatSecret who claim to have the worlds highest quality food and nutrition database
What FatSecret say: FatSecret combines community and food tracking to create the most powerful solution for healthy, sustainable weight loss.
You can visit the FatSecret website here
You can download the Apple app here
You can download the android app here
Nutracheck
Nutracheck is a MyFitnessPal alternative that has a UK focused food database
With 350,000 UK foods with photos. Plus a barcode scanning App
What Nutracheck say – Nutracheck is a top-rated food diary App and website. We track calories and 7 key nutrients – carbs, sugar, fibre, protein, fat, saturated fat and salt. Our mission is to give our members insight into what they are eating to empower them to make more informed food choices. We’ve been helping people achieve their weight management goals since 2005.
You can visit the Nutracheck website here
MacroFactor
Our final MyFitnessPal alternative is MacroFactor
MacroFactor is a science-backed diet coach and macro tracker app that empowers you with the tools you need to reach your goals without rigidity.
What MacroFactor say: With MacroFactor, you don’t have to eat like a robot, and you’ll never be shamed for the choices you make.
MacroFactor’s calculations and adjustments are based on what you actually did, not what you were “supposed” to do. Unlike other diet coach apps, you don’t have to perfectly adhere to your daily or weekly targets to get evidence-based adjustments to your macro plan.
Because of this adherence-neutral approach, you’ll never see warnings, red numbers, or shaming when you go over your calorie or macro targets, unlike in other macro tracker apps.
Instead, MacroFactor aims to empower you with the guidance and tools you need to reach your goals without stress, shaming, or unnecessary rigidity.
You can visit the MacroFactor website here
You can download the Apple app here
You can download the Android app here
If you are here to read another guide about how you can quickly make six figures as an
online personal trainer, you might be disappointed.
There is no magic wand that can make your online personal training services suddenly start earning you millions.
There is no ‘hack’ or ‘6 simple steps’ that will turn your business into a bottomless gold mine.
If you have heard from so-called ‘gurus’ claiming that they can take your business from
making £1,000 a month to £8,000 a month just by doing as they say – it’s probably not going to work.
We’re not saying you can’t earn six figures as a personal trainer. But, what we are saying is that it certainly won’t come easily. Any mentor who claims you can do it in a few weeks is wrong.
Personal training is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. The best way you can make more money is to put in the work, scale sustainably and learn how to retain your clients for as long as
Can you make a lot of money being an online personal trainer?
If it’s what you want, you can make yourself a lot of money online as a personal trainer.
We’re not here to say otherwise.
BUT we are going to say that fixating on a random target of ‘six figures’ is not the best way to grow your business. It’s a very shortsighted goal that prevents you from making money the smart way – by scaling your business sustainably over time.
The irony is that if you planned your business for the long term by focussing on keeping your clients happy, generating good quality leads and acting on the next steps you need to take, then you actually would be able to make a lot more money as a personal trainer online than by trying to cut straight to the finish line.
So, it’s not just about achieving an arbitrary financial goal. It’s about making the most of your time while finding a way to enjoy both your job and your personal life. It’s about putting the work in and seeing your efforts really paying off.
How much money can you make online personal training?
Taking your personal training business online is the next logical step in making more money.
This doesn’t mean you will be guaranteed a six figure income. But, it does mean you can scale up quicker in a way that is more profitable, sustainable and makes more efficient use of your time.
Let’s look at comparing an online fitness business model with a tradition PT and see how you could make six figures.
Over the course of the year, you would need to make £8,333 a month. This equates to just over £2,000 a week.
With a traditional personal training business, you’d need to work a 40 hour week at £50 per hour to achieve an £8,000 month. That’s a lot of pressure.
If, however, you were an experienced owner of an online fitness business, you could charge £250 a month for your coaching.
Then, if you manage to maintain a constant 32 clients, you could be making the same amount of money.
We’re not saying that this is the amount of money you should be making. Many online
personal trainers are happy to charge less, have fewer clients and live a lifestyle they love – whatever it is that best meets your needs.
But, the main difference is that you will be doing this in your own time. There won’t be any need to work evenings and weekends – you can prepare and advise for your clients when and where you want to.
How to make 6 figures as an online personal trainer
Again, don’t expect to suddenly see a six figure income come flooding in from your personal training business – though that’s not to say that this isn’t doable in time.
Getting online is an amazing opportunity to expand your client base, boost your revenue and make more use of the hours in your day.
As we already said, to make six figures as an online personal trainer, you need to find 32 clients who can pay you £250 a month.
It’s simple really. But, it isn’t going to happen overnight.
To be on your way to earning 6 figures you should be thinking about…
Focussing on retaining clients
Generating leads is an essential part of expanding your online fitness business. You won’t be able to grow without making sales.
But, we often see online personal trainers who are too caught up in finding new clients in the rush to achieve their six figure goal. Remember, it’s vital that you don’t lose sight of what you are here for – to get amazing results for the clients you already have.
Another benefit of happy clients? They’re more likely to refer you to a friend. That’s free
advertising for you.
Think how much it costs you in both time and money to acquire a new client. The more you can retain clients, the more cost effective your business will be at making money.
Investing your own time and money
If you’ve had an amazing month for your online business, what do you do?
Do you take that money, pay yourself a bonus and carry on as before?
Or, do you invest that money back into your business – it could be on improving your
advertising or your own training and education.
Whatever it is your business needs, you need to be willing to do what it takes to provide it.
Without your hard work, time and investment, we guarantee that you won’t see the same level of growth.
Putting the effort into your content
Content is a huge part of growing an online fitness business. You can’t expect to grow
without it. But again, this takes hard work and time.
The content you create feeds into everything including generating leads, building your
audience and email lists, making sales, providing fresh information for existing clients to
consume and marketing yourself as a trainer.
Whether you post it on social media, YouTube, via emails or on your blog, you never want to take your foot off the peddle when it comes to content.
Developing a profitable pricing structure
Have you changed your prices and services since you began your online fitness business? If not, why?
Don’t fall into the trap of underselling yourself in the pursuit of getting more clients. As your experience and reputation grows, so should your monthly fees.
You shouldn’t forget about adding more services and products to your business, either.
Don’t forget that just because a client has signed up, there is nothing left to sell to them. They are in the best possible position to want more of your help, so make the most of it.
In conclusion…
So, we’re not here to say you can’t earn a six figure income as a personal trainer. Taking
your business online is the smartest way to get there.
We are saying, however, that you shouldn’t expect to reach that monetary goal without putting in the work first.
Six figures in six weeks? Probably not going to happen.
Six figures after a year of hard work, investment and taking full ownership of your business?
If it’s what you want, then there’s no reason why you can’t achieve it.
Are You Charging the Right Amount For Your Online Fitness Services?
At the end of the day, the goal of your online fitness business is to make money. Of course, it’s important to be passionate about helping your clients, but you’re not doing this solely out of the goodness of your own heart.
You need to make a living.
Those who are new to online personal training often agonise over exactly how much they should charge for their fitness services.
But, it’s not just newbies who have these worries. We see personal trainers come to us all the time with pricing structures that are working against them – putting in hours and efforts that simply aren’t returning on their investment.
So, where do you start? How do you know if you are charging the right amount for your
online fitness services?
“How much should I charge for online fitness coaching?”
The bottom line is – you should charge whatever you want to.
Yes, there are a number of factors that you will need to take into consideration.
Yes, you can only really charge what your clients are willing to pay.
However, remember that this is your business. What works for one trainer might not work for you.
On average, our personal trainers at Stridist are charging between $200 to $400 per month for 1-2-1 online fitness training plans.
But, it doesn’t mean this is what everyone should charge for their online personal training services.
So, consider these points when deciding how much you should charge…
How much does it cost you to acquire and work with a client?
It goes without saying. This number should always be lower than the price you charge for your online fitness services.
BUT, this relies on you accurately toting up not only the money you spend, but the time you spend, too.
So many people forget to include things like…
- The cost of any adverts you have been pushing
- The time you spend on creating content to capture those leads
- Any fees for your website and equipment you’ve had to buy
- How long it takes to discuss signing a client up and onboarding them
- The time and resources you will need to spend on the client every month
Make sure you have an accurate figure of what you spend and what you need to pay
yourself to ensure you are charging the right amount.
How confident are you in your sales technique?
Are you new to selling your online fitness services? If you don’t yet feel confident in your sales tactics, or feel like you don’t have the experience to fully back yourself up yet, this might affect how much you charge.
You might hear from so-called fitness ‘gurus’ telling you to charge hundreds or even
thousands a month for your online coaching.
But, if YOU don’t believe your services are worth $300 a month, how are you going to
convince someone else that they are?
Do what is right for you and your business. If higher prices are putting you under too much pressure or making you feel uncomfortable, start lower and work your way up.
So long as you are happy with the profit you are making, take the time to work on your
techniques and build up that experience.
Learn how to get over any fear of selling you might have and revisit your pricing plan when the time is right.
How many online fitness clients are you aiming to have?
One of the biggest benefits of taking your fitness business online is that you can multiply the number of clients you can cater for significantly.
This offers a huge potential that you just would not have through traditional “in-person”
training. You are no longer limited by the hours you have free in the day – more specifically, those post-5pm and weekend hours when you could be at home with your own family.
With this old model, you might feel under pressure to charge more just so you can make a good living from the limited number of clients you can physically see.
When taking your business online, you have the freedom to take on more clients.
You can then set yourself goals. If you are aiming to maintain 20 clients online at any one time, then this can give you an idea of how much you should be charging for each plan to meet your financial target.
Are you keeping track of your finances?
You won’t know if you are charging the right amount for your online fitness services if you aren’t aware of exactly how much money you are making.
Keep your pricing consistent by using a personal training price list template. Keep track of how much each service costs and how much time will be spent on it.
You should also know what your bottom line is for every client and your business as a whole.
Are some services leaving you with less profit than others? Is this something you want to change?
Then do it. The key here is keeping your business scalable.
All of your clients should leave you with a healthy profit without draining you of your energy and time.
If they aren’t, it might be that you need to change the amount you are charging.
How much are other online personal trainers charging in your niche?
One of the great things about an online fitness business model is that you aren’t limited to your location alone.
So, while the typical price for a personal trainer in your area might be £100 per month,
remember that you aren’t limited geographically. There’s no reason why you can’t attract online clients from another area where they are willing to pay more.
This means that comparing your prices to other trainers in your area isn’t really going to help that much.
But, one thing you can do is take a look at what other online coaches are charging within the same niche as you.
Having experience in a specific fitness niche can be hugely beneficial. Not only does it
differentiate you from competitors, it can help justify you in charging more for your expertise.
It may be that you find that demand is high for your niche, but you are one of just a few
coaches offering that service online. See what those other trainers are charging and make sure you aren’t underselling yourself.
What’s more, if you think you have more experience and get better results than other online trainers in your niche, then don’t be afraid to price yourself higher.
Show off what you can do, know your value and produce a price list that reflects this.
Hello! Who are you and what do you do?
Hello. Mike Samuels. I write copy, and coach other would-be copywriters start their freedom-focused copy business, where they can earn £350+ per hour along with equity fees, and work entirely on their own schedule.
What’s your backstory and how did you end up in your current position?
I started as a self-employed personal trainer in January 2009. Initially I worked in a chain gym, but I hated it. Not to mention, I sucked at getting clients. I stuck it out for almost 18 months, before realising it wasn’t for me. I moved back to my hometown of Southampton, where I decided to start a mobile business instead. That took off, and within a year, I was doing 25-30 sessions per week. Within 2 years, I was doing 50+ sessions per week. This couldn’t last though, as I was exhausted, so I looked into online coaching. I had my first online clients in 2013, and gradually scaled that while phasing out 1:1 training. At the same time, I’d been doing more writing, and actually started to write copy for other fit pros. As this grew, I let the fitness side of things tail off, and in 2017, I went full-time into copywriting. In the last 5 years, I’ve gradually done less client work, and moved more into the coaching space, where I mostly produce educational material, and coach other copywriters.
What were your first few months like in the fitness industry?
Really bloody tough. I was only 18, and was very shy and introverted. Trying to sign clients in a busy gym, with 14 or 15 other (more established) trainers, coupled with being away from home, and not feeling confident in myself meant I just about scraped by, supported by handouts from my Mum.
What has the journey been getting from those first few months to where you are today?
I kind of answered above without realising this question was here 🙂 So to elaborate – Every decision I made in terms of switching direction was down to not being happy with where I was. Either it was lack of money (which is why I switched from the gym to mobile PT,) or it was lack of freedom (switching from in-person PT to online.) It’s rare I’ve ever gone truly solo with any of these decisions. I’ve always had mentors who’ve provided external objective feedback, and helped guide me to make the right decision. These days, most of my decisions are based on what I want to do, and what’s going to make my life easier, vs. just what’s going to earn more money or what I ‘should’ do.
What’s been the hardest moment/biggest challenge of your career so far?
Getting fired from my position as a content writer at Livestrong. This was when I was doing a hybrid of 1:1 PT, online coaching and writing. It was a super easy gig that paid almost half my income at the time, and they let me go overnight, falsely accusing me of plagiarism. It sucked for a day or two. Then I realised it was an opportunity, and really doubled down on my online work, created a passive income product, and replaced that lost income within about 3 months, but with 20% of the work.
What’s been your biggest win / proudest moment?
The first entirely organic launch of my copywriting course brought in close on 80 grand to a list of just 1,500 people. It wasn’t the money that was the big win, but the fact over 70 people wanted something I’d created.
How and what are you doing today and what does the future look like?
My work is very much focused around lifestyle. I like growing my business, but that’s driven more by creativity and the fact I like working through processes, than it is by earning more. I would like to make my business a little more passive, but at the same time, I enjoy 90% of what I do day to day. In terms of the future, I’ll likely release a few more products that serve different needs, and to be honest, I’m going to look at business ventures outside of copy as well, purely because I enjoy new challenges. I’d like to think a million pound revenue year is on the cards before I’m 35, but at the same time, I’m not that bothered if I don’t hit that.
What does a day in the life of you look like?
I tend to get up around 5:45 and go for a walk. In the local Starbucks by 06:30 for 90 or so minutes of focused critiquing work. I break around 08:00/08:30 for breakfast, then walk to another coffee shop around 09:30 for some more creative work. (Writing emails, creating products, etc.) I usually train around 11:00, then take a fairly long break for lunch. 15:00 is more creating work or calls, usually until 17:00. I break for half an hour to an hour, then do my last 60-90-minute work block, finishing up around 19:00.
Advice for people who are considering or have just started in the industry?
Don’t be afraid to be different. Either niche down hard with your demographic (if online) or niche down hard with your personality (if local/ in-person.) You can definitely do both, but if you only want to do one, consider the above.
What have been the key moments in your career so far what was the impact of those moments?
Meeting my first ‘proper’ mentor, Dan Meredith, who truly got me into copywriting, and gave me the change to earn my stripes in his agency. And meeting my current mentor, Jon, who’s been key in helping me de-stress about business, and see it much more as a game, than life and death.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Always happy to answer questions, so feel free to reach out.