Creating A Succesful Personal Training Business Part 1: Using Self Reflection and Personality Science To Achieve Your Dreams
My Story
I’m an odd duck, this I know. From a very young age, I had different motivations, thoughts, values, and behaviors than others. I knew I was in a lot of trouble! While the road less traveled is fetishized in modern society, it is challenging. You will go at it alone, there are no systems set up with nice linear steps to follow showing you how to succeed, people will actively try to tear you down for not conforming to group norms. I say this to let you know that this is not easy. Being part of the group is easy.
So, if you know that you are not part of the herd, and you will certainly know, you will find yourself called to self-actualizing your unique needs. Many people see the successful entrepreneur and assume it was an overnight success. In reality, these are oftentimes plans that have been marinating from a very young age. So if you’re weird like me, just remember that you can live a life that is congruent to your needs. You can do anything you want; especially with enough effort. So let me help you with the process.
Who are you?
Maximizing your strengths, delegating your weaknesses
“An unexamined life is not worth living,” says Socrates. Now talking about achieving self-actualization can feel condescending or even narcissistic which can put people on the defensive. Although, I see no other way that you can achieve maximum success in your life without introspection. To summarize the psychologist who wrote “The hidden psychology of Pain” many people are terrified at the prospect of psychological self-examination. Fearing it will be a much worse pain than many excruciating physical pains. This tenant is untrue. You will feel relief. Examining your psyche is no big deal, but forgoing it can be a massive barrier to actualizing your needs.
The easiest way to examine your inborn character traits is through a couple of methods. Now there is debate on the validity of these measures, but we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. At their best, these tests can help you better understand yourself. At their worst, they can allow you to self-limit yourself. Choose the former.
Myers Brigg
The Big Five or OCEAN
Hexaco
Martin Seligman’s Signature Strengths
These tests will essentially boil down a couple of inborn traits that are natural setpoints for your personality preferences. There are 4 Dichotomies:
Extroversion/Introversion
Sensing/ Intuition or Closeminded/Openminded
Agreeable/Disagreeable or Feeling/Thinking
Perceiving/Judging or Non-Conscientiousness/Conscientiousness
Martin Seligman's questionnaire will point you in the right direction for understanding the top strengths you bring to the table and should utilize frequently.
As a side note, neuroticism is within the big five, but I refuse to allow people to think that they are cursed to be neurotic for eternia. Negative emotions lay on a bell curve. Everyone experiences them, if you find yourself consistently at one end you may want to get the help of a psychologist. I don't think you're cursed with neuroticism forever and would need to see much better scientific validation before laying that self-fulfilling prophecy on someone. As outlined in “The Upside of Stress” emotions oftentimes play a large role in telling us how we’re feeling. Many times, there is a why behind those feelings. Positive and negative emotions don’t come out of the blue. Figure out why you’re feeling that way and you can solve many problems in your life. Even when you do feel challenging emotions like anxiety, you must ask yourself why is my body producing this response? How come under one set of circumstances anxiety is talked about as “fire in the belly” and on the other side it’s called butterflies. These visceral feelings can be used as fuel and are activated for a reason. As outlined in later chapters, those challenging emotions are telling you something and giving you the fuel you need to accomplish the goals your body knows it needs to do. This response also lies on a spectrum, so if you find yourself dealing with these emotions consistently and can’t figure out why; it is best to talk with a counselor.
Extroverts are drawn to the outside world, they are the large majority of the population and fit in well in modern-day American society. Introverts are drawn within and generally have a unique sensitivity to external stimuli like socializing. Extroverts are often much more comfortable talking at social gatherings and socializing with others. They regain their energy by being around others. Introverts are generally much quieter, and if an introvert is talking and socializing at a gathering there was probably a concerted effort made to do this, behind the scenes it’s imperative to know that it is probably very taxing for them to be doing. They often regain energy by being alone, but bringing someone with them is not out of the question.
Sensing people are generally more matter-of-fact; they like tried and true methods and generally have a propensity to “do”. They make up the large majority of the population and generally fit in well in modern-day society. Intuitives are oftentimes very open-minded. An easy way to spot an intuitive is to look for the daydreamer or person engrossed in their own head, there’s a wholly unique world they're playing within their and sometimes it’s better than the physical world in their eyes. Intuitives tend to learn things naturally and when faced with one you may see them having success in their lives without following any linear plan. Current research drawn from David Epstein’s book “Range” highlights the unique benefits of living a well-rounded more abstract life. Each unique experience relates and can be drawn upon to solve real-life problems. The more novel experiences the better.
People with a feeling preference are agreeable in nature and will generally value appeals to emotion rather than hard logic. Feelers are in the slight majority and fit in well with modern-day society. You will know where you stand with a disagreeable person, opinions not based in fact are of no use to them and will not sway their judgments. If you have a preference for thinking or are disagreeable it may serve in your best interest to develop a strong ability to flex your feelings. The book, “Never Split the Difference” can be especially beneficial for thinkers who would like to develop more empathy in their life. If you are a feeler, make sure to value logic even though it seems harsh. Logic oftentimes progresses human betterment in a wide variety of ways from cancer treatments to physics. Both preferences have their place. When dealing with clients it may serve in your best interest to adopt a feeling preference.
Perceiving and judging vs conscientiousness are the only aspects that don’t correlate as well with The Big Five. Although often you will see high conscientiousness people being Judgers, this isn’t mutually exclusive. You can find perceivers who have high conscientiousness. Perceivers are “go with the flow, think on your feet” types of people. Judgers are pre-planning structured people with plans and systems. They have a plan and it is made far in advance and they do not like to deviate from it. Judgers and Perceivers are equally represented in the population. High conscientiousness people are in the minority. Perceivers, especially extraverted, may be particularly invested in experiencing more novel situations. When working with these clients be very careful of gaslighting. Because of their thirst for novelty they may say one thing the previous session and demand another the next. I use careful documentation when dealing with these types of people.
These preferences are inborn and have a biological basis(Nardi) and aren’t going to change. This is tough for me to admit, I’m a big fan of neuroplasticity, particularly Norman Doidge’s books, but take them at face value. Jung’s primary goals for creating these cognitive functions were for you to develop your weaker side to be a more well-rounded person and reduce neuroticism. If you’re a Thinking Judger, you should be extra aware of steamrolling people and sticking to rigid plans that may turn out to be obsolete come time to execute. If you’re an intuitive feeler, make sure you set firm boundaries and focus on your own needs. We all need to be as well-rounded as possible to fit into our constantly changing and increasingly more abstract society.
Saying this, while you can act on the other side of the dichotomy, you will find yourself drained of energy reserves much quicker than if you’re playing to your strengths. And yes, you want to play to your strengths more so than developing your weaknesses. Read “Nine Lies about Work” or “The Feedback Fallacy” to learn more about why working on your weaknesses has a much lower return on investment than playing to your strengths.
What personality type suits personal training the best?
It could be easy to argue that ESFP personal trainers are naturally in their element. They are extraverted perceivers or “alert explorers” who easily engage with the outside world. They are sensing feelers who are “friendly helpers” of other people. I would argue the strongest preference for personal training is Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling with perceiving slightly outmatching judging. If you are a perceiver that values judging and conscientiousness you will be at a distinct advantage.
Interestingly enough, entrepreneurs are over-represented with Intuition, Disagreeableness, and Perceiving: NTP. They are open-minded; so creative and intellectual, yet disagreeable so they tend to step on other people’s toes. Especially in a place that values social hierarchy, like many corporate jobs. They are also lightning fast on their feet, a perceiving trait, but not necessarily related to conscientiousness. You may hear a perceiver say, “Ready, Fire, Aim”. I’d argue that perceivers who have high consciousness are at a distinct advantage, particularly as a leader of a high growth startup. We judgers can sometimes have a hard time being flexible and modifying our plans, we often need the help of a perceiver to keep us on our toes and adaptable.
What happens when you are of another personality type but feel called to the field?
Shape your career, thrive in your element
Well, there are a couple of ways you can go about this, and each step of the way you should play to your strengths. Here’s a personal example. I’m an INTJ, we are a peculiar mix of traits that represent about 1% of the population. We have matching traits that do not make a lot of sense given the average distribution of traits. While we may not have the "motivating" and "entertaining" qualities of the ESFP, ESTJ, ESFJ’s that represent the fitness industry; we are natural "strategists". Our strengths lie in long-term planning, strong independence, and idea abstraction with bold risk management. We often end up as business owners and business consultants where ESFPS thrive on direct experiences and people-oriented situations. While both are on opposite sides of the spectrum, adopting the opposing dichotomies can lead to a person who literally has the best of both worlds.
So how can a strategist thrive in a field with an opposing preference? Well, it’s tough. Trying to become an ESFP is a recipe for burnout but by utilizing strategy you can manifest anything and play to your strengths.
What we are good at is seeing the big picture, developing mastery, figuring out principles, then implementing systems for success that can be replicated. So while a more natural personality type could easily flow through this career, I had to hack my way through it with a lot of effort. I knew I could master social skills that come naturally to others but are mostly foreign to me. I knew I could analyze the field and see what made others great and replicate those patterns. I knew that I could see what the best performers were doing and, with enough time and effort, outperform them. This is how an INTJ succeeds in personal training.
In short, I could use my analysis skills to figure out and chameleon how to become your typical successful trainer. Then I could fulfill my larger life plan, which was to have very high working margins that would allow me to pursue my personal passions, businesses, and big picture visions as much as possible. I also saw a large need for the world populace needing to exercise more to help fight the chronic disease epidemic caused by inactivity, obesity, and poor nutrition. This was my big picture driving factor for becoming a trainer in the first place.
This can easily be done with other less represented personality types. All it takes is a little bit of patience, foresight, and perseverance. Figure out your strengths and start shaping your career to play towards them no matter if your preferences naturally suit the position or not.
