Success in the online fitness industry requires three things:
- Getting in shape
- Getting results
- Getting promoted
Those things used to take years of dedication and hard work.
No longer.
Now you can simply buy success. It takes just seven days and costs $317 total.
Read on to see just how easy it is to deceive the public.
1. Getting in shape (or, how to fake your own fitness)
Your body is your brand. While being in great shape isn’t everything, it certainly makes client acquisition easier.
The problem: Getting in great shape takes tremendous effort and dedication. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Fortunately, Photoshop offers a solution.
It took Joey Bene, our creative director, just a few seconds to make me impressively swole. Watch him do it here:
This was done quickly, but with just a little more time you can easily make the faked physique appear real.
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Not impressed by my InstaHypertrophy? How about some feats of InstaStrength?
If you’re willing to spend a few bucks on Amazon for fake plates, you too can become a fake strongman or woman, just like so many influencers and YouTubers.
2. Getting results (or, how to buy fake before-and-after photos)
Few things are more gratifying than supporting a client through a life-changing physical transformation.
But actual results take time, and you want to sell those premium training packages now.
Lucky for you, there’s iStock.
For $13 per set, you can buy before-and-after photos of people you’ve never met, pretend they were your clients, and claim credit for their transformations.
Like this one:
If you're wondering whether people actually do this, a reverse image search of this photo on Google shows 1,390 results. The top ones all use this photo to sell products promoting the keto diet.
For the final step, it’s time to pay some people to tell the world how good you are at what you’re pretending to do.
3. Getting promoted (or, how to purchase testimonials)
Getting acknowledged for a job well done is one of life’s great pleasures.
But there’s a problem: To get glowing reviews, you’d actually have to do a great job. And honestly, if you followed steps 1 and 2, you’re probably not that good.
Yet again, you’re in luck. Fiverr has your back.
For just $5, you can hire random people to film videos praising your services.
Using a gig website like Fiverr, you can find an almost unlimited number of people willing to say anything you want about your product or service.
Getting publicity is also a great way for prospective clients to become aware of you.
You can do it the hard way by earning coverage in local or national media. Or you can just pay to be called one of the Best Fitness Coaches in the World on Yahoo Finance. Just be sure to negotiate on the price.
How to Stand Out in a Crowded (and Often Fake) Online Fitness Marketplace
If any of this disturbed you, you’re not alone.
It’s scary to think your peers can fake just about any element of success, giving them an unearned advantage over honest coaches like you.
Fortunately, consumers are getting smarter.
Most of them understand they can’t take anything they see online at face value. You can help increase awareness by sharing this article.
There’s still a path forward for coaches who want to stand out in the online fitness industry: Build a brand you’re proud of, one that attracts clients by showcasing your legitimate accomplishments.
Here are three things you can do right now.
1. Focus on what matters
If you’re not where you want to be in your career, it probably has nothing to do with your intellect. It’s more likely the result of where you’ve focused your intellect.
Ignore the nonsense. Focus on getting better results for your clients, and in creating fitness content that showcases those results in a way that attracts more people like them.
2. Showcase your uniqueness
“The greatest marketing advantage you will ever have is that only one of you exists.” — Alex Cartmill, head coach of the Online Trainer Academy)
Despite a higher level of distrust, and despite all the chaos in the world, there are more fitness consumers than ever. These consumers are more likely to buy from someone they relate to. In the Online Trainer Academy Level 1 Certification, we call it your 1% Uniqueness Factor.
Once you figure it out, you’ll know what content to produce and what communities to engage in.
You’ll also have less competition.
While others are faking success to sell themselves to the masses, you’re building deep relationships with a group that views you as one of them, and as the resident expert in their community.
3. Put skin in the game to build your brand
Hardly any of your potential clients know the difference between good and bad trainers.
Fitness is complex, and they don’t know enough about it to accurately assess whether you’re better than anybody else who does more or less what you do at more or less the same price.
Given the limited information they have, they aren’t worried about choosing the “best” online coach. They just want to make sure they aren’t choosing the worst.
So they take a couple of shortcuts.
First is the assumption that the marketplace contains deceptive sellers. To do that, they look for a coach who appears to have a track record, and hasn’t been called out as a scam artist.
The second shortcut, and the more common one, is typically unconscious.
Given multiple choices of trainers who seem to be equally qualified, they’ll focus on the one who appears to be more invested in their business.
We intuitively understand these people have more to lose by offering a substandard product due to the investment they’ve already put into their business.
To stand out from the nonsense in our industry, high-reputation trainers need to send a costly, hard-to-replicate signal to their audience, one that shows your commitment to doing your job right and doing it well.
That’s why it makes sense to showcase a credential like the one you earn when you become a Certified Online Trainer through the Online Trainer Academy. It gives you a leg up in a noisy industry.
If You’re an Online Trainer, or Want to Be …
You can’t move forward in your career until you learn how to coach fitness and nutrition online responsibly, effectively, efficiently, and confidently.
If you’d like to get ahead, and stay ahead, consider enrolling in the Online Trainer Academy Level 1 Certification.
