Coughlin Inner Circle

Making Your Goals a Reality

Anything you do in life requires the implementation of goals.  Goals are your dreams, aspirations, ambitions to be or do whatever it is you want to accomplish in your life.

The beauty of goal setting is that it works in every facet of your life.  Your marriage, health, kids, job...ANYTHING.  Without goals your life is pretty much meaningless. 

There are two types of people; people who achieve their goals, or people who find ways why they can’t.

People who achieve their goals are very organized and have a specific plan that will enable them to succeed.  They don’t make excuses or complain why it’s so hard or dwell on problems that may arise.  These types of people are solution-oriented.  They know that the goal will require hard work, but they are determined to achieve the objective at hand. 

People who don’t achieve their goals are disorganized and have a generalized plan that will ultimately lead them to fail.  They would rather complain instead of focusing on what they have to do.  These types of people are problem-oriented.  They don’t want to work hard and would rather make excuses why they can’t achieve the goal. 

In my opinion, goal setting is the single most important aspect of your fitness plan.  It’s the blueprint, the script, the nucleus, the centerpiece, the focal point of everything that will help you succeed.

When I first started training clients, I was never really serious about goal setting and although I did well, I could have done so much better. 

Today, I don’t even consider training a client unless he or she knows exactly what their goals are and are willing to do anything and everything to accomplish them.  I have them make goals that are daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. 

Fact is, once I started to clearly define goal setting with clients, my success rate shot through the roof!   

Usually, clients would come to me for weight loss and it didn’t matter how much weight they wanted to lose…Once I programmed them to constantly be working toward their goal, the weight would come off so effortlessly; it was like shooting fish in a bucket!

It’s not because I am the best trainer in the world, or because I know of some secret weight-loss formula…not at all.

I know how to teach my clients how to set goals and most importantly how to help them understand that they CAN achieve them, IF they stick to the plan. 

Now, let’s go back to the people who achieve their goals and people who don’t.

Which one are you?

There is no reason in the world why you can’t be the person who achieves their goals.

As Henry Ford once said:

“If you think you can or think you can't, you're right.”

Life is nothing but decisions.  You decide to succeed.  You decide to fail.  You decide to be happy.  You decide to be sad.    Even if you make mistakes along the way, it’s your decision to keeping working hard or it’s your decision to give up.  In my opinion, there’s no in-between.  You decide to be a winner or loser.

So let’s say your goal is weight loss, which most of the time it is when it comes to fitness and health. Ask yourself these important questions:

How much weight do I want to lose?

What will happen if I don’t lose this weight?

What will happen if I do?

How will I feel if I lose this weight?

Do I know exactly how I will do it?

Can I achieve it by myself or do I need someone’s help?

What is my time frame for losing it?

What is stopping me from losing this weight?

If you are someone who has set crystal clear goals for themselves, you should be able to answer these questions easily.  If not, you will unfortunately struggle.  Again, it’s YOUR decision.

So, are you ready to make your goals become a reality?  I hope so!  Nothing is stopping you but what’s between your ears.  I’m positive you will make the right decision.  Set goals and achieve them… It’s really pretty simple.  You can do it!

Yours in Total Fitness & Maximum Success,

Jim Coughlin

P.S. Are you making goals for yourself yet?  If not, get moving!

My Story Part 5 - Sweet Success!!

Well Ladies and Gents...

I guess the old cliché rings true "Good things REALLY DO come to those who wait!"

Fast forward to May 31st, 2005. The day that would change my life forever!!!!

One word... GOOGLE!

I got on my computer and typed in "Personal Trainer Maryland" on Google as I had done many times before and...

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? My freakin site was ranked #2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I literally exploded with excitement!!! I was speechless!!! I could not compute what was happening!!! All that monotonous hard work had finally paid off!!!

After that, my business skyrocketed!! And I'm not talking a couple calls here or there.

We soon started to get 6-10 leads per month. That would soon double and then double again! Soon I became so booked up, in addition to the one trainer, I had no choice but to hire some more trainers and more after that! In a span of two months, I must have hired over ten trainers!

Within the next couple months, things really started to snowball! I can't even begin to tell you how shocked I was at my success! It was surreal! I remember at one point I felt guilty because I was doing so well...that however, didn't last very long.

The thing is, I had been waiting for this moment all my life! I FINALLY was in a position where I had complete control of my future doing what I love to do... and doing it MY way and on MY terms!

After our first year in business, our company had done close to a quarter of a million dollars in sales, hired over 50 trainers and recruited over 100 clients! My rinky dink company had turned into an empire practically overnight!

Now, if you think I'm bragging here, you've got me all wrong. I am strictly telling you factual events that have taken place. And these events, just happen to be very positive.

If you can recall correctly, throughout "My Story" I have admittedly told you of numerous low points throughout my life. I think that it is only fitting that I also share my successes with you as well... Wouldn't you agree??? (C'mon, I know you do.)

Anyway... So WHAT were the keys to my success? Well... 2 things really.

The first was, as I told you earlier, the power of the search engine, Google. As far as marketing goes, Google crushes EVERYTHING! Most if not all my clients have found me via Google because my site was ranked in the top 10 for the keyword terms they were looking for. (ex."Personal Trainer Client's City or State")

It's no wonder that people usually always "Google" a specific product or service when searching for something. (I know I do) And in my case, people looking to hire a trainer in their specific area, was NO exception. God bless Google!

The second component to my success? That's easy... Customer Service!

I know this may seem like common sense to most people, but this crucial principle really is the reason why I've grown so fast. Everything about my company is predicated through customer service!

And I'm not talking about the same old customer service you get with most companies. Like the club or the previous company I used to work for, all they do is talk a big game. But it's all garbage!

Once they have your money, they've accomplished their goal. They could care less if you achieve yours.

I on the other hand, go WAAAAY beyond what they do! I live and breathe this stuff! I don't think there is anyone out there who is as passionate and as ambitious as I am when it comes to helping people with personal fitness training. I was BORN to represent this profession the best way you possibly can!

Why?

Because I am a PHENOMENAL communicator!

If a client contacted me and I got back to them a couple days later, that sends a clear message that "I don't care" or "I am too busy, and you (the client) are not important enough for me to help." Time and time again, personal training companies do this. It's sad, but so true.

I remember when I first started to work for John he would show me stacks and stacks of pages of new potential clients who were interested in his services like he was bragging or something. 

The crazy thing was, he wouldn’t get back to some of these people until a couple days later or he would forget altogether! (Are you kidding me?!?!)

To me, this is completely asinine and doesn’t make any sense.  To this very day, when a new client is interested in my services, I ALWAYS respond within 6-12 hours and that is only if they prefer to be contacted at a particular time.  Usually my business partner or I respond within the hour!

When someone is interested in my services, I take it as an honor.  I think to myself, “Wow, this person is willing to invest their hard-earned money in MY services to help them achieve their fitness and weight loss goals… you better believe I’m going to over deliver on value and serve them the best way I possibly can!”

I don’t mean for this to sound like a cliché, but I really do treat EVERY client like they are my ONLY client.  I always put myself in their shoes.

What are they thinking???

“Why should I go with this company?” “How are they different?” “Are they absolutely 100% confident in helping me achieve MY goals...or do they JUST want my money?”  “Do they offer a FREE consultation?” “What kind of programs do they offer?”  “Where can I train?” “Are their trainers highly-credentialed?” “Do they except payment plans?”

I do my very best to help answer ALL these questions without hesitation.  From the very beginning I want them to understand crystal clear that I really DO care! 

Even before I began to train, I have always been this way.  I was put on this earth to help people.  And what better way than helping them with their health & fitness goals! 

Now, I have trainers working for me and my philosophy still has not changed and never will.  Everything is just on a larger scale.
   
As I write this today, because I have used customer service as the blueprint for my company, Coughlin Fitness & Results a.k.a - www.fitnessandresults.com is the leading and fastest growing in-home personal training company in America today! 

We originally started in the Washington DC metropolitan area, and now have expanded to St. Louis, Chicago, and Atlanta.  We will soon be training clients in Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and eventually every major market in the country.  I could not be happier!

Now, you’re probably wondering WHY I expanded my services nationwide... Isn’t the DC Market enough???

Well, it’s really quite simple. 

Servicing JUST the Washington DC metro area wasn’t challenging enough for me.  I wanted to help more people.  Like Donald Trumps says, “If you are going to think, you might as well think big!”

You see, I have spent most of my life doing manual labor.  Or in other words and in my opinion “working harder NOT smarter.” For a long time, I barely got by.  After struggling most of my life, I would never have expected in a million years to be in a position like this and if I EVER was…I would definitely SEIZE the opportunity!!    

I don’t even consider what I do to be work!  This is if anything, dare I say it… FUN!  I train a few hours a week with clients I enjoy training and spend the majority of my time running my business!  (It’s beautiful thing!)

My new goal is to not only help as many people as I can through my personal training services but ALSO people who cannot afford personal training.  Yes, it is very common that most people find personal training to be a luxury item and too expensive.

Well, for those of you who agree that hiring a personal trainer is out of your budget, I’ve got great news for you!

In the upcoming months/years, I will be coming out with a whole line of awesome fitness products - http://www.fitnessandresults.com/products.php that are tailored to personal training.  More specifically, In-home personal training.
 
These products will cover EVERYTHING I’ve done to help hundreds of people achieve their fitness goals.  The products will include reports, books, audio manuals, DVDS, and advanced fitness courses.  They will cover topics such as In-home strength training, abdominal exercises, weight loss, cardio conditioning, nutrition and much more! 

Not to give you a bunch of hype, but these products are gonna be GOOOOD!  Rest assured that they will be of the HIGHEST quality and exceed your expectations!  You won’t be able to find them anywhere else. 

While I may not be able to help you in person, these beauties will be the next best thing! 

I’m gonna give ALL the ‘insider secrets’ you could possibly want for building a lean, healthy body at a small fraction of what my company’s personal training services would normally cost you...So Stay Tuned! 

Well folks, that’s about all for now.  I hope you have enjoyed my story and get an idea of what kind of person I am. 

I'm a blunt, in-your-face, tell it like it is, no-excuses, high-energy kind of guy that has a burning desire to make things happen!  I love to help people.  And helping them achieve their fitness goals is the icing on the cake.  There is nothing else in the world that I would rather be doing!

So, I'll leave you with this, "Whatever you want out of life is YOURS for the taking!"  It doesn't matter what your goals are... You CAN accomplish them!" 

I live by this quote everyday... and so should you! 

Yours in Total Fitness & Maximum Success,

Jim Coughlin

P.S. Be sure to check back at my site again and again to read my latest post that can be found right here at the “Coughlin Inner Circle.”

My Story Part 4 - Starting My Own Biz

I soon started to seriously contemplate starting my own business even though I was completely new to the concept.  The only understanding I had was the manual I had purchased from John a year ago.  I knew there would be a lot more involved.

When many trainers think about starting their own business, most if not all of them have the idea of opening their own gym…..To me, this was a huge mistake!

Opening a gym meant having a tremendous amount of overhead such as rent, gym equipment, staff, cleaning crew, utilities, etc., etc., etc…We’re talking tens of thousands  of dollars! (More than that if you wanted an above average gym)

Of course, this is not to mention the fact that you would be competing with huge conglomerates such as Bally’s, Gold’s and others.  Who the h*ll was I?

What’s the point in going into business for yourself if you aren’t going to turn a profit?  To me, it’s not how much money you make… It’s how much you get to keep!!

I knew that I had to be smart about this.  The ONLY way I was going to be successful and not sign my life away in loans, was to continue to do in-home training which required virtually no overhead.  All I would need was the equipment in my car trunk and my knowledge to train people with or without equipment. 

To market my services inexpensively, I knew I not only had to have a professional looking website, but one that was ranked very well with the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. 

This of course was already achieved by John.  He had the #1 ranked site for all areas that I wanted to target.  He basically had a friggin monopoly!  No other trainer even came close to him! 

I definitely had my work cut out for me.

So, for the next couple months I focused ALL my energy into the creation of this new site.  I wanted it to be the absolute best! 

This meant in addition to training my existing clients, I was on my computer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week …no joke! (Ok, so I’m exaggerating a bit, but seriously, it WAS literally all I did!)

I spent this time developing nothing but content, content and more content!  In addition to other things which I won’t bore you about, I knew this was VERY important to the search engines and would get me ranked well.

December of 2004 came and my company-in-the-making was starting to take shape.  I was finally ready to move forward.

Of course that meant I had to give my 30-Day notice to John’s company.  I wrote him a letter and was a complete gentleman, thanking him for the opportunity and the experience, but I wanted to move on.   

And as expected, he acted like a complete a-hole when he got my letter.  Saying in an email “I got your letter and to be honest with you, I’m a bit disappointed…I thought you wanted to help our company grow?” (Is he friggin serious????)

I was floored… What an absolute moron!!!  Ahhhhh… Hello, earth to John… Where the h*ll have you been?  Did you have ANY clue whatsoever that your best trainer has been endlessly, tirelessly, mercilessly trying to help you grow your company for the past 6 months… 

…Of course he didn’t have a clue… and he never will!  I mean, if he is so far removed from his business, so unaware of what’s going on… Why even bother? 

If he treated ME this way, you can bet your arse that he treated his other trainers and most importantly, CLIENTS the same as well! 

Instead of providing so-called personal training services, he was basically doing the public a stilted disservice! 

I have NEVER met anyone in my life that was as dull and so out of touch with reality than this guy.  And I'm not exaggerating either.  I don't care how knowledgeable he was about training; his impersonal way of doing things made him EVERYTHING a personal trainer should NOT be! 

I knew that when I had my company, these types of situations with clients or trainers would NEVER HAPPEN!  I would always be straight forward and be a good communicator no matter what.

Anyway, after that was taken care of, I launched my site in January 11th 2005 and hoped for the best!

Although, I acted like everything was fine and was optimistic about the future, I was more scared to death and petrified at failing!!  I had sooo much on the line!

The only good news was I was able to get one of my clients, Frank; to help me with my business, and he became my business partner. Frank has tuned out to be a true friend, giving excellent advice and support. 

Other than that, I had spent a good amount of dough on the website and other types of marketing for my business.  Money which of course I either had to borrow from someone or charge to a credit card.  I was barely paying my bills (only had a couple clients at the time) and I was worried that Brighid was going to leave me because I couldn’t support her. (Uncertainty sucks!)

So, a couple months go by and nothing is happening.  Or at least I didn’t think so.  I had spent a good 4 months creating a website that wasn’t bringing me any money!  None, Nada, Zilch, Zip…  I wasn’t even ranked on the search engines!  I was so frustrated and angry!

The only business I was able to generate was from a crummy newspaper ad (I spent a fortune on!) that got me one new client and a new trainer.  But to me, this really was nothing to write home about.  I wanted and I thought I deserved A LOT MORE!  At this point, I thought I had made a mistake and that I wasn’t cut out to run a business.

Stay tuned for Part 5 and the conclusion to MY STORY…

Yours in Total Fitness & Maximum Success,

Jim Coughlin

My Story Part 3 - In-Home Personal Trainer

Since I had no interest in working for a gym again, I started to search online for personal training opportunities.  This was very new ground for me… so I was definitely nervous!   

To my luck, I found a guy (we’ll call him John) who marketed for personal trainers, specifically, trainers that did in-home training or were private trainers.

He helped them launch their very OWN personal training businesses as opposed to working for greedy gyms.  John gave you all the tools to be successful!

At first, I was blown away!  I thought to myself “WOW, you can actually make a living having your OWN personal training business – sign me up!”

I ordered all his stuff and was excited to begin.  Though the excitement soon turned into disappointment as I realized I didn’t have any experience at in-home training… I guess I should have thought about that first.

What was I going to do? 

Being uncertain of employment was crazy for someone like me because I ALWAYS had a steady job!   In the past, I had the same job for over 6 years. 

I was about to quit the personal training industry all together when I found out to my surprise that John had his own personal training business about 45 minutes away from me!

I gave him a call, explained my situation and he kindly offered to meet with me for a job interview.  I met with him a few weeks later in September and got the job!

He explained that he could get me leads through his website and other marketing strategies that he used such as direct mail, referrals and newspaper ads. 

I was very excited but also very skeptical.  I would think to myself “I don’t know about this…is this really legit? and “Can I actually make a steady living doing this?” 

A couple days after the interview, I put in my two weeks notice at the club.  I still had some remaining clients, so I finished up their sessions within the next couple weeks and said “Sayonara!” 

At the time I was living with my best friend and his fiancée.  We both had lived together for a good six years.  We had experienced some awesome times, but eventually we started to grow apart.  It was time to move on. 

So in addition to a new job, I was also searching for a new place to live as well.

Fortunately, I was able to run into someone I knew at a local bar and she told me she was looking for a new roommate…hence, a new place to live! 

At first it was crazy living by myself and also starting a new job, one in which I would drive 40 minutes out of my way to train clients.  I felt very alone, but I knew in the back of my mind it was all going to work out.

Weeks went by and I never heard from John.  And that’s the thing I learned early on about him.  He was a brilliant marketer of personal training and a good businessman, but a horrible communicator.

I mean, the guy had the personality of a doorknob.  Yes he had business savy, but I did not understand for the life of me that he was able to be successful with personal training while having such an introverted personality.  He was not only a lousy communicator with me, but also the clients he gave me. 

Anyway, I finally started to get clients from him and things started to go pretty well.  But not well enough to pay my bills. 

So, in addition to the training, I had no choice but to get a part-time job basically being a laborer for a contractor I met through a friend. (Crappy-Arse job was an understatement!)

A month went by and in October of 2003 John got me a client by the name of Brighid.

I thought she was beautiful and though I never dated ANY of my clients, she definitely made me want to reconsider it!

A month went by and...

Sure enough we were dating!  Meanwhile, I was starting to become booked with clients and things were really starting to pick up.  I no longer needed that lame part-time job.

I found that working for an internet-based business was definitely the way to go.  Unlike gyms, the clients were searching for YOU.  They WANTED your services and they were qualified!

I soon became one of John’s top trainers and since I was getting so booked up it was becoming very difficult for me to drive back and forth 40 minutes from where I lived to train. 

Fortunately, Brighid and I really started to hit it off and eventually I moved in with her.  Although this really helped my situation, it WASN’T the reason I began living with her.  Fact is, I really thought she was great and was definitely falling for her! (Hey, I gotta show you my sappy side)

So a couple of months go by and I am FINALLY starting to make the money I wanted to make as a personal trainer.  I thought “Does it get any better than this?”  Well, in retrospect…

Yeah, it does.

I soon realized that being JUST a personal trainer definitely had its shortcomings.

For one, you worked sometimes as early as 5am in the morning or as late as 8pm in the evening.  This put a tremendous amount of pressure on my relationship as I would sometimes go days never seeing Brighid.  Nevertheless, she was very supportive of me.

Two, if one of my clients got sick, injured themselves, went on vacation, had an emergency, you name it; this meant I didn’t make money.  They would get mad at me if I charged them when they cancelled last minute, so I would end up not charging them. 

Three, I felt no room for growth.  I was a slave to the hours in the day.  The most hours I could train a week was probably 30.  Taking in to account drive time, add an extra 10 hours. (I of course did not get paid for driving)

I would think to myself “Is this how my life is going to be?”  “To make a good living doing what I love to do… But in the process sacrificing my quality of life?” 

I know most personal trainers think that this is the way things should be, but I disagreed.  Like before, I was determined to find a better way!

So in April of 2004, I sought out a plan to do something in addition to training that would help me grow as a trainer.

I asked John NUMEROUS times how I could help him grow his business, but the only things he had me do were mindless tasks you could give a monkey.

I soon realized that John and I weren’t on the same page.  Again, he was such a lousy communicator.  I never thought he was straight with me and always got the feeling like he had something to hide. 

So a couple months go by and I am super frustrated.  I had continuously asked John to do things to try and move up and help the company, but he kept feeding me numerous broken promises.  This was just to shut me up until I asked him again!

So in September 2004, I was through once again.  I had tried repeatedly to help John grow his business while also attempting to help myself grow financially as well. 

But it was NEVER going to happen.  I knew John wasn’t going to help me achieve the success I knew I deserved.

He was just getting in my way!!

Stay Tuned for Part 4 of My Story…

Yours in Total Fitness & Maximum Success,

Jim Coughlin

My Story Part 2 - Becoming a Personal Trainer

It wasn’t until January of 2002 (I was 25) that my life started to change for the better.  It all started when my twin brother Paul got a modeling contract with a top agency in New York known as BOSS Models, Inc.

At first, I wanted to be a model as well.(You know...the whole sibling rivalry thing)  But then I soon realized I wasn’t cut out for modeling and I had discovered that my REAL passion was fitness and health!

My former boss had ALWAYS encouraged me to pursue a career in the fitness field but I never listened, saying stuff like “Does such a job even exist?” and “You can’t make a living doing that, plus you don’t even use your brains!!” (Boy, was I sooooo wrong!!!)

After coming to the realization that this was what I wanted to do with my life, I soon started exercising everyday.  I got into the best shape of my life, achieving 7% body fat.   

I also read any and every fitness-related book I could get my hands on!!! I must have read hundreds of books including my favorites – Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, by Tom Venuto, Body-for-Life and Eating for Life by Bill Phillips, and The Arnold Schwarzenegger encyclopedia by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I craved the information!

In the summer of 2002, I gave my 30-day notice to the coffee company (www.espressooutfitters.com) of 6 years in pursuit of “Becoming a Personal Trainer!”

I applied at several gyms, but most of them rejected me as I wasn’t certified and didn’t have any experience.  You know, the same old crap.

Then on September 27, 2002,(Crazy that I can remember the exact date, huh?) I was hired as a fitness consultant at an upscale club in Annapolis, Maryland. 

I started out as a consultant for about a month until management got me involved in membership sales because I was so good with the members. 

This was a big mistake as I was far from being a ‘sales person.’  But I went ahead and pursued it anyway since I saw it as an opportunity to prove myself.

I became a membership coordinator at the start of January 2003.  I did pretty well, but I was mainly burned out, working 11-12 hour days and felt like everything I did was not good enough.  This club was definitely hardcore having monthly quotas for not only salespeople...but trainers too!  You couldn’t breathe in that place! 

I soon got the h*ll out of the sales department, when I found out my 23 year old sales manager was STEALING sales from me!!! 

You figure they would put someone more mature in that position.  But you know how it goes, if you kiss enough arse, you’ll get what you want.  It was all petty politics.

I FINALLY got certified through AAAI/ISMA and officially started training people in March of 2003.  And man was I glad I did!

I was the top trainer for March and April and did awesome all the way up to June!  This was definitely what I was supposed to be doing, helping people get into shape...not selling stupid memberships!

Everything was going great until the summer came and I soon started to struggle again. 

You might as well have called it a drought, because new clients were basically like water...non-existent.

This was mainly because they were all vacationing and at home with their kids as there was no school.

But the fact that it was slow DID NOT matter to the club.  And that's the thing about clubs, (especially the one I used to work for) - they don’t give a rat’s arse about you the trainer or salesman.  To them, you were just a means to an end.  They had no problem firing you then hiring the next batch of suckers...and then repeat the process again and again!   

All they cared about were sales, sales, sales and more sales.  I mean, are you kidding me?  I came here to get people into great shape, NOT to be a used-car salesman. 

I can hear my former regional manager now, “What are this month’s numbers?”, “How many referrals did you get this evening?”, “How many walk-ins came in today?” “Who did you close today?” “Why did so and so NOT sign up...I don’t want to hear that he wants to think about it...You should have closed him...everyone's closable!" 

On and On and On...made me freakin crazy!!!

The thing is, I totally agree with being ambitious and wanting to achieve massive amounts of sales.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I am all about being the BEST!

Though, in retrospect and compared to how I do things today, in order to be the best and be successful, it is my opinion that you should work smarter not harder. 

The gym was all about doing things the hard way and then some. 

For example, ALL of their marketing strategies were a complete shot in the dark.  They set you up to fail almost all the time.   

I'll explain...

To give you a brief overview of how I tried to get clients to come to the gym, I would either cold call new, present or previous clients. 

So, if I made 100 calls,(Which by the way, took a long arse time!) I would get a hold of about 20 people, out of those 20 people, 10 would tell me they’re busy and to call them back another time or they simply weren’t interested.

For the other ten I was able to make appointments.  Out of those ten appointments, 5 would show.  Out of the five, one would maybe buy and that was a big maybe. 

So, as you can see, this was the biggest waste of time! 

I would also hand out worthless fliers or my personal favorite, I would go around the community and do what they liked to call “outreach.”

What a joke!! 

None of these marketing strategies EVER worked and the people that made me believe they did were just being nice even though they had no interest whatsoever!

And why should they be interested? 

If they wanted to hire a trainer, THEY would hire one.  If they wanted to become a member at a gym, THEY would become one. 

No stale sales pitch would convince them otherwise.  I was essentially targeting UN-qualified clients.

In addition to the weak marketing, the gym took 40-50% of what you made for personal training.  So even if you charged a good amount of money per hour, after the gym and taxes chewed you up and spit you out, your profits would fade quickly. 

But wait it gets better... If you didn’t have clients to train, you would ALSO have to train floor hours or in other words, you were the club’s slave 8 hours at a time getting paid only 8 dollars an hour.  You would spot members lifting weights, cleaned equipment and bathrooms, took out trash and of course, cold call clients. (Fun, huh?)

So, consequently that was it for me.  Even though I was making more money than the coffee company I used to work for, I felt that it wasn’t worth it. 

To me, the corporate fitness world sucked!  It was clear as day that the marketing strategies the club used were dreadful, the customer service was inexcusably poor, their management treated their trainers like crap, most clients undervalued your services and you ONLY made a living from September to April...and that living was mediocre at best!   

Why in the world would I want to continue working there? Well, to answer that question, I didn’t and soon left. 

Even though I was completely new to the fitness industry and compared to most trainers who just stuck it out, I knew in my heart that there had to be a better way of doing things and I was determined as h*ll to find it! 

Stay tuned for Part 3 of My Story...

Yours in Total Fitness & Maximum Success,

Jim Coughlin

My Story Part 1 - My Life Growing up

I was born November 16, 1976 in Washington, DC at the Columbia Hospital for Women.  I am one of a fraternal twin.  My twin’s name is Paul.  He is a model and is also involved in fitness.  My father, Ted Coughlin, who used to be a carpenter/mason, now sells custom gyotaku. (fish artwork)  If you would like to purchase a picture, you can visit his site at www.tikione.com.  My mother, Beatrijs (she’s Dutch), is an accountant and I also have a younger brother by the name of Karl who is an engineer for the Navy.

I was brought up in a very religious home with a strong sense of faith.  I would always go to church every Sunday. 

As a kid growing up, my hobbies were drawing, fishing, riding my bike (I taught myself), and watching movies at my grandparents on the weekend.  I remember every weekend I would pick out the same movies, my favorites - STAR WARS, Indiana Jones and Superman.  There were others, but these were definitely the top 3.

My grandfather loved to record movies on his BetaMax (old-school VHS) He had hundreds of movies!  As a kid, I always thought that was so cool and I would even brag about it to other kids I knew!   

My father was a hunter, but for some reason I never really was interested nor was I any good at it.

I guess I didn’t enjoy killing poor innocent animals for sport.  To me, that’s why you have a grocery store.         

I remember when I was 6; my father once took my brothers and me hunting.  He had spotted a huge buck about a hundred yards away and left us to wait quietly in his truck.(Like that was going to happen) 

As my father walked out of sight, Karl and I started to cry! (Hey, we were friggin kids)   Paul kept telling us to shut up, but it was too late…the beautiful 12 pointer was long gone!  Needless to say, my father wasn’t very happy with us, and I didn’t hunt very much after that.   

Growing up, I definitely moved quite a bit.  My family and I mainly lived throughout western Maryland. (Montgomery County) We also moved a couple times to New York about an hour south of Syracuse. 

I went through numerous private schools from ages 1-8.  My parents did not want me to go to public schools because it ‘went against their beliefs.’ 

As you can guess, in private schools, the teachers were super strict.  Being an adult now, I can respect that, but being a kid, it meant no fun.  So, you could say, that throwing spit-balls THERE was not a good idea, unless you enjoyed being spanked.  (Don’t worry, I wasn’t abused or anything like that!)

In 1985, when I was almost 10, things really changed for me when I moved to Holland a.k.a “The Netherlands”.  If you don’t know where Holland is – it’s the tiny country located in Europe west of Germany and north of Belgium. 

As I told you earlier, my Mom is Dutch and the main reason we moved to Holland was because my parents thought it was a good idea that I meet my relatives.  My mother had six sisters and one brother; all with many sons and daughters… so there were plenty to meet!

As you probably can imagine, Holland was much different than America.  They love soccer.  We love football.  They ride bikes to work.  We drive cars.  They put mayonnaise on their fries. (I actually liked that) We prefer ketchup. 

There were many OTHER things that were different about Holland as well, such as drugs and prostitution being legal, NO drinking age, etc.  Since I was a kid, I was oblivious to all that, but these were some of the reasons why my mother left for America at a young age in the first place... but that’s another story.   

I learned how to play soccer which was cool because it was the first time I experienced any kind of team sport.  I felt a sense of accomplishment.  I wasn’t nearly as good as some of the other kids on the team, but it nevertheless was a great experience. 

I also learned how to speak Dutch fluently, and I went to a Dutch school.  Looking back, I couldn’t believe I could speak another language – let alone fluently!  Now, I can’t even put a couple sentences together!  Damn memory!  Oh well.

Living in Holland definitely gave me a unique perspective on life as a kid.  I felt fortunate to have experienced a completely different culture at such a young age.  It definitely molded me into the person I am today.   

After about a year and a half, my family decided to move back to America in 1987.  We moved to the eastern shore of Maryland. (About an hour or so from Washington DC going east)

Former Maryland Governor William Schaefer once described the eastern shore as “The sh** house side of Maryland.”  All the rednecks would get mad about this – many of them having bumper stickers that read “I’m from the sh** house side of Maryland and proud of it!” 

Looking back though, I couldn’t have agreed more with the Governor!   It pretty much was Nowheresville!   

Middle school flew by pretty quickly.  Nothing exciting.  I definitely don’t miss waiting for that stupid bus in the cold-arse morning at 7am Monday through Friday week after week.  That sucked! 

I remember being really shy and compared to both my brothers was the goody goody of the bunch.  But that didn’t mean I got good grades (I was a C/B student); I just didn’t get into trouble like most kids.  I loved our dogs, Smokey, Buck and Bear.  You’re probably wondering who picked out their names…you guessed it! (My Father)

I played little league soccer, baseball and football and was very good at all three.

I remember in 8th grade after coming back from a little league football game learning that my grandfather (We called him Opa – it’s a Dutch thing) had passed away.  That was pretty tough, since it was the first time someone from my family had died and I was pretty close to him. 

In high school, I was a B student, played soccer and baseball.  I opted to play soccer over football because one, I enjoyed soccer more and two; our high school football team had never had a winning season, so it pretty much was a no-brainer. 

I used to always think I was great at sports and in some cases better than anyone.  But, that all changed once I got to high school and I soon realized there were a lot of OTHER people better than me.  I guess I felt a lot more pressure in high school whereas with little and senior league it was more fun and I didn’t think about it.

In tenth grade I started to lift weights and put on about 25 pounds of muscle.    Like my brothers, I had very good genetics, so it didn’t take very much for me to get muscular and big.

I enjoyed lifting weights but not for the right reasons.  I had the mentality that if you had a big chest and big arms everyone would think you were cool so that’s why I did it.  My favorite exercise was the bench press.  I was able to do 360 pounds in 11th grade and I finished 2nd in the Maryland State Bench Press competition. 

Though I was interested in exercising and sports, I never really applied myself.  During this time in my life and many years before, I always had trouble knowing what I wanted to be.  Some people are driven to be doctors, dentists, accountants, teachers, fire-fighters or engineers, like my brother Karl.  I always felt lost and unfocused.

This feeling and mindset followed me long after I graduated from high school in 1995 and caused me to have low self-esteem and no confidence.

I went to many different colleges such as Frostburg State, Shepherd College and a few local community colleges but never had any sense of direction.  I just went because I thought it was what you were supposed to do. 

I was there for all the wrong reasons…You know - meet girls and party.  I never really sank my teeth into something and stuck with it.  I just got by.

I met my first serious girlfriend, Marybeth, in 1998 (I was 21 at the time) at Shepherd in West Virginia.

Our relationship was ok.  Though, I compromised my character being around her, as she was a complete prude!  I couldn’t even curse around her without her getting upset.  Geeeeez.   

During the time when I met her, she was about to graduate from college and was studying to become a lawyer.  I on the other hand was barely getting by… I still needed 40 more credits to graduate!

After the semester was over, I reluctantly moved back home with my parents and went to community college as she got a place in Northern Virginia.  I was able to get my old job back which was delivering coffee making 12 dollars an hour.  I didn’t have a car, so I drove the company vehicle to see Marybeth.    

This did not go over well with my former bosses, and I soon was not able to drive the vehicle for personal use.  Since I couldn’t drive to her and she mostly came to see me, our relationship got old pretty quick. 

As the months went by, she became more established with her law firm and started to do very well.  I on the other hand had a dead end job, was drowning in debt (25K to be exact) and had no friggin idea what I wanted out of life… It was definitely a tough time.   

Needless to say our relationship started to take a nose dive.  She saw that I was making no money and she wanted someone who was more career-minded.  We eventually broke up even though I still wanted to be with her.  (Mainly because I didn’t want to be alone)

I do remember seeing her for about a month thereafter, but that was very short lived as she told me she had “found someone else.” (A lawyer)  Boy did that hurt!  I tell ya, the feeling of rejection is one of the worst feelings.

After that, I went through the next couple years of my life with my personality being pretty much lifeless.  As my former boss once put it “I was just there.” The new millennium was approaching and I truly thought I was a nobody and that I would never amount to anything!

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of My Story…

Yours in Total Fitness & Maximum Success,

Jim Coughlin