Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / #94 - Is AI Going To Replace Fitness Coaches?

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#94 - Is AI Going To Replace Fitness Coaches? · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Callum: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Hey everyone and welcome to the podcast or the vlog if you're watching this on YouTube. I just come back from the gym.
• 0:35
  I feel a little bit poorly I must say. I feel a little bit poorly and I did the right thing. Needed to send it today. You know those days when you just need to send it and I needed to send it. And I was kind of torn between doing a hybrid game sort of thing because me and Alice have signed up to this hybrid games.
• 0:55
  It's kind of like a Hyrox but a little bit kind of I think it's a bit easier than a Hyrox potentially or maybe shorter. And we just signed up to that. I had the choice between doing a hybrid session and doing more of a running interval session and I went with that, the running interval session. It was a really good decision because I do feel a little bit poorly. And you know we as coaches do kind of give out the advice of if you're ill don't train.
• 1:25
  But when you want to train and you're ill kind of wanna train, so I trained. You know the feeling, you know the feeling. So yeah, what we're gonna talk about. I wanna kind of share with you something that's, I feel like I say this all the time, it's really important. But it is so important because if you struggle with comparison, if you struggle with comparing yourself to other coaches, looking at other coaches and feeling like, oh, I'm not good enough, They're better than me.
• 1:56
  They're so much further ahead than me. Then actually a lesson that I got from The Wizard of Oz will actually kind of help you get rid of that comparison. And the reason why I want to kind of bring it up is that, that comparison can really kind of like break us. It can really make us feel like it's not just that we're not good enough, I think when you're constantly repeating to yourself, everyone's better than me, I'm not good enough, everyone's better than I'm not good enough, everyone's further ahead than me. It does just kind of grind on your confidence.
• 2:28
  And I think that the thing that has become so clear to me in terms of running this business is that like your confidence is literally the only thing that determines whether you're gonna be successful or not. Your level of confidence kind of drives the level of risk that you'll take. If you are confident in yourself because you believe in yourself and your own capabilities, you will take more risks. And off the back of taking more risks, you'll take more actions. And when you take more actions, you're advancing further along.
• 2:56
  So just by doing something, you're further along. But if your confidence isn't there because you're constantly comparing yourself to other coaches and other people and you're constantly feeling like you're not good enough then you're not gonna do the thing. You're not going to take risks, you're not going to take actions and you're probably just going to kind of stay put. And also it sounds really silly like if you keep saying I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough, I'm not very good. Well the way your mind works is like your wish is my command.
• 3:24
  So if you are saying my content sucks, I just put out shit content in comparison to everyone else. Well you're going to put out shit content in comparison to everyone else. But coming back to The Wizard of Oz, I think one of my best pieces of advice that I ever got, and I didn't get this directly, obviously I got it from a book because I read it, share a ton of books. But I got it from the book The four Hour Now if you haven't read The four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, it's an amazing book. It really, really is.
• 3:58
  And I think a lot of people kind of miss the point of The four Hour Workweek. I think that they think that The four Hour Workweek is just about working four hours a week, but it's not. It's actually about freedom and designing your life. It's about effectively going like, right, what do you actually want to do with your life? And how can you create a business or a way of working and a way of generating income that allows you the freedom?
• 4:25
  Like that's what it's really kind of about. But you know the biggest takeaway I actually got from the four Hour Workweek was, and it really helped me at a time, like this really really helped me at a time when I was so stuck in the comparison cycle. I was comparing myself to other coaches, I was looking at everyone else feeling inferior, feeling like a failure. And I kind of just like, I don't know, it just caused me to kind of stay put and stagnate, and not really enjoy my coaching business. And he said in the four Hour Workweek, he said, stop overestimating your competition.
• 5:00
  And he said, your competition is not as good as you think that they are. And the more I thought on that, and I read that book back in 2019, I think. 2019. So as of recording this, that's six years ago. And the more I thought on it, the more I've realised that that statement sums up the fitness industry.
• 5:27
  This whole statement, that one statement sums up the state of the fitness industry, specifically online coaching, which is stop overestimating your competition. And if you haven't seen The Wizard of Oz, in the Wizard of Oz, basically like Dorothy gets to the end of the yellow brick road, she gets to the Emerald City and, she comes to meet the wizard and she meets this wizard, this all powerful wizard. It was this big kind of like green floating head of a genie. Dorothy gets there and she's talking to this wizard and she feels so inferior and this almighty, all powerful wizard who has got these magical powers. And Dorothy's like, oh, I'm not, you know, I'm not worthy.
• 6:14
  And then again, haven't seen the film in years. But what happens is that like she then goes around the side and sees that behind the curtain, there's just an old man. There's this old feeble man. And, she's talking to the man and she's like, who are you? And as she's talking to the man, wizard disappears.
• 6:40
  And what happens is that she starts to realise that this big, all powerful, amazing wizard that she was seeing was actually just, an illusion. And it was actually just a feeble old man who was just a human being pulling some strings. So what she thought was amazing was actually quite pathetic. And I think that that is exactly where the fitness industry is right now. It's full of so many coaches who are very good at advertising.
• 7:12
  But in the wise words of my partner, they're all fart, no poo. Now that might be very unprofessional, but they are. There's no substance. They're exceptionally good at marketing. But in terms of the caliber of their coaching, they suck.
• 7:28
  Like all of these successful coaches who are hitting like 10 ks, 20 ks, 30 ks, they may have hit 10 ks one month. But I look at all of the months that they hit afterwards. They're like nowhere. Why? Cause they can't hold on to the clients that they're actually bringing in because they suck at coaching.
• 7:47
  They're just good salespeople. They're just good marketers. So all of these coaches that we're comparing ourselves to aren't good at coaches. They're not good at coaching. They're good at marketing.
• 7:59
  But the problem is these guys who are exceptionally good marketers, who know how to hook you in, how to sell, they're not in the industry two years later. Why? Because they're burnt out from constantly being on this treadmill of having to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. The reason why I'm still in this game ten years into the industry is because I'm a good coach. Because I'm not constantly on this treadmill of I need to sign up, sign up, sign up, sign up.
• 8:26
  Because I haven't got holes in my bucket. Like my average retention is like three years. Three years. So if I look at that, if I've got a client who's paying me £250 a month as an example, and they stay with me for a year, that's £3,000. They stay with me for three years, that's £6,000.
• 8:47
  Now let's say that you, you on average, let's say you're charging £250 a month, but you have, typically a client only sticks around with you for twelve weeks. That person is only actually worth £750. So to hit the £6,000, you'd have to make eight or nine sales just to like, just to fill the holes of the amount that it would actually kind of cost me to have that one customer. And I remember some of the greatest piece of advice that I got from my dad, he said Cal, he's been in business for a long time. He said Cal, 85% of business comes from customers I've had for thirty years.
• 9:27
  And that literally just kind of sums up why so many coaches aren't in this game anymore. Marketers, they're good salespeople, but they burn out because the hardest thing to do is to sign up a new client. The hardest thing to do is to be on this constant chase of hunting people down. And because they haven't actually spent any time really focusing on how can I become a good coach and make sure that the product that I'm delivering is of such a high standard and a high quality that I can't get it from anyone else? They're on this treadmill of constantly having to sign up and it's exhausting.
• 10:02
  It's exhausting. And that's why if we look at it, we might compare ourselves to these people but we're actually we're comparing ourselves to is we're comparing ourselves to the wizard who's actually this genie and a concept that's made up. But when we actually see what's behind the curtain, these guys really aren't particularly good. And if I almost kind of look at it right now, one of the biggest fears in the coaching industry right now, especially new coaches have, is that they're scared that this industry is saturated. And, oh, you know, like there's just so many coaches.
• 10:37
  And I'm like, even if you think that it's saturated, which it's not, it's not competitive. If anything now is the ultimate time to become a coach or to go all in on becoming a coach and growing your coaching business. Why? Because everyone else sucks like they do. Everyone else is such an average coach.
• 10:59
  Like there's this huge hoo right now around is AI going to replace coaches? Only the coaches whose coaching is a loom check-in some tailored macros in a training program. ChatGPT can do that cheaper, faster and more effective, more effectively. Like it can do that. So AI will replace those coaches, but the people who actually know how to coach, the people whose coaching goes beyond MyFitnessPal, macros, a little check-in like WhatsApp message that can be automated.
• 11:32
  Like the people whose coaching goes beyond that, those are the people who are gonna be successful. Those are the people who stand out in this coaching industry because they stand out because they're still around. And the longer you are around, the more results you can generate. The more results you can generate, the more proof you can actually gather to showcase that like, hey, your money is safe with me. Look, I can actually deliver.
• 11:57
  Whereas all of these coaches who are good marketers, who can, hook people in, can sell, they're burning out because they're just recycling the same testimonial, the same social proof over and over and over and over and over again. So I think that the key thing that I am going to share with you here is the coaching industry may be saturated but it is not competitive. And now is the most beautiful time to actually step into shoes of becoming a high quality coach. And I think that what's important is right now a lot of coaches are feeling the pinch of it becoming harder and harder and harder to sell. They have said that 2025 has been the hardest year in terms of sales.
• 12:34
  Now, one thing I'm going to say is for me, it's actually been the easiest year of sales. It's become the easiest year of sales for me. I've had the most successful year of my whole coaching career. Like why? Because I have a reputation.
• 12:48
  Like I have a reputation for delivering results. If I actually look at the number of people who, first of all, I have a money back guarantee. Like that's never asked, like it's never asked for. But if I ask for, if I think about the number of people in my service who have been unhappy with my service over the past ten years, it's under 1% easily under one percent. And that does a couple of things for you.
• 13:20
  Like one, when you become known and it's not about being known for delivering a great result. It's about becoming known for being trustworthy. Because I think that when it comes to the fitness space specifically, and you can definitely see this in the mentoring space, There's a lot of business mentors I know who are really struggling to make sales right now. They're business mentors and they're struggling to make sales. And that's because people don't trust business mentors.
• 13:45
  They don't. Look deep into it. Ask yourself the question, why would you not buy from a business mentor? Because you don't believe your money is safe with that business mentor. That is exactly why.
• 13:56
  So within that same concept, ask yourself the same question around your own customers. Are you trustworthy? And I think that especially the fitness space more than anything has one of the worst reputations in all of industry because so many people have bought and so many people have bought something that didn't work and really did not deliver on the original promise. Which means if anything, the most important part about growing a business, and I'm not just going to say in 2025, but for the foreseeable future is trust. It is trust.
• 14:33
  And it's not just about having a good service. It's about developing a reputation that shows that you are someone that is trustworthy. You are someone that if I go and give you my money, I will get more in value than what I have paid you. You're going to deliver on the promise, if not over deliver on the promise. Those are the coaches that will win.
• 14:56
  Those are the coaches. If you look at the coaches who've been around for a long time, if you look at the people who've had success with their businesses over a long time, they're the people who have the best reputation for delivering. And it's not about just delivering a service. It's about delivering on the promise. So the beauty is in the fitness industry right now, you've got so many people who do not deliver.
• 15:21
  So there's two core lessons here. The first lesson is that don't go and compare yourself to other coaches because most other coaches are just like The Wizard of Oz. They're portraying this big amazing image that they're amazing, but they're really internally, they're not. They're like a duck above water. They look all amazing but they're paddling like this.
• 15:42
  And those coaches who are simply just good at sales and just good at marketing, they won't be here in two years time. So don't go and compare yourself to them. As I said, they won't be here in two years time because they will become exhausted of the sign up drop off cycle. But then the second thing is the most important thing for you to go all in on is becoming trustworthy. So if I look at my nutritional courses, if I look at working with me, it's not about filling your head with useless nutrition facts.
• 16:15
  It's about turning you into a coach who can under promise and over deliver on the result. So fundamentally, in terms of your own confidence, you know that you can legitimately deliver a service that is better than anything else out there. That gives you confidence and that drives you to go and bang the drum to go and get your service out there. But secondly, it allows you to over deliver results that no other coach can, which gives you that reputation for being trustworthy. And specifically, you look at it, your clients are literally a walking advert for the quality of service that you actually provide.
• 16:51
  So a question to ask yourself is, are you, would you buy what they are advertising? In terms of what they're advertising, the people who've been with you for three months, six months, nine months, twelve months, the quality of result that they've actually got, they are a walking advert for how good your service is. Would you buy that? If the answer is no, then you know what to focus on. Ask yourself why wouldn't you buy it and what is it specifically that you can improve so that you can go and deliver amazing results.
• 17:21
  But that is the beauty. Again, like if I think about it, the main source of income that has come from my businesses over the past ten years has been referrals. We are literally probably the only industry, and this is the beauty of being a personal trainer. We are literally probably the only industry in the world where people can physically see the result that someone has been able to get off the back of purchasing a service. So think about that for a second.
• 17:54
  Your client, if your client goes and loses six stone in six months, people can visibly see that. They can visibly see that. They can visibly see the change. And you know what they're gonna ask? They're gonna go, where on earth have you gone?
• 18:12
  And if you've you've delivered on the service, you've delivered on the promise, they will say, oh, I went to Callum and you need to go to Callum. Like I always sign my podcast off with this and I sign it off for a reason. Never forget if every one of your clients doubled your, if every one of your clients gave you just one referral, you've doubled your business. Like it's that simple. It is that simple.
• 18:35
  If you've got five clients right now, that will take you to 10. If you've got 10, it will take you to 20. If you've got 20, it will take you to 40. If you've 40, will take you to 80. It's that simple.
• 18:46
  It is. And if your mind is saying, it's not that simple. It is. It literally is. So becoming trustworthy, like it's not just about your reputation, also will serve you better than anything.
• 19:02
  So, so yeah, as I kind of said, never forget if every one of your clients gave you just one new client, you've doubled your business. And, thanks for tuning in guys, and I'll see you later.