Now don’t get me wrong I am grateful for every client I have ever had the opportunity to work with but as a fitness professional there are some clients that you REALLY like to work with, some that are fun and some that require more energy on your part. For anyone who has been training for awhile you will know exactly what I am talking about.

The good news is that you can train your clients but it also requires you to train yourself, have you ever watched the Dog Whisperer and he goes into these situations and trains the dog but also trains the owners?

The same applies to almost every situation in life both parties have to be trained to get the desired outcome.

By rewarding some behaviours over others, by keeping some promises not others, by having some expectations instead of others, you can create change.

You can train positive behaviours and negative behaviours so it is up to you to get the clients that you deserve.

Do you want clients that are:

• Respectful
• Patient
• Calm
• Open and accepting
• Walking billboards
• Loyal

Or do you want clients that are:

• Selfish
• Self centered
• Demanding
• Cheap
• Whiners
• Never satisfied
• Willing to change to save a buck
• Skeptical

The choice is yours; you can create the business and the atmosphere that you want for you, your staff and all of your customers. The customers you fire and those you pay attention to all send signals to the rest of the group.

I know that when you are getting started with your fitness business the thought of turning a client away seems like something that you would never do but I can tell you from personal experience that you will end up with clients that demand so much time and energy from you that they are taking away from your other clients. As a fitness professional you need to be able to give 100% to every client however if you have 1 client that is consuming 200% of your energy there is no way you are going to give the other clients what they deserve and they will eventually leave. In the end you will be turning away clients; it just won’t be the clients that you want to turn away.

So before you can start complaining about your clients you have to train yourself first to:

• Set boundaries
• Demand and earn respect
• Respect others
• Accept feedback and learn from it
• Be willing to grow every day

If you can get yourself whipped into shape I know that you will be able to train your clients and before you know it you will have the greatest clients in the world and a business that you love to be in every day.