Sometimes, well, oftentimes it helps us stick to the tasks it takes to reach our goals. My family is just starting a weight loss competition. They’ll put in money up front and the person that loses the greatest % of bodyweight wins the pot of money. I just heard of another version that’s pretty cool. Check out this CNN clip then visit http://www.stickk.com/.

It’s that time when everyone comes up with a top 10 list and I didn’t want to get left out. So, here’s my top 10 weight loss tips for the coming year.

1) Know and Write Down Your Goal – Yes, you want to have an idea of what you want to lose, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Know what you will feel like, what you will be able to do, how your life will be better when you reach your ideal weight. The weight amount you want to lose will not keep you motivated. The “why it’s important to you” will help keep you on task. The extra bit is to write it down. People that write down their goals are far more likely to attain them. more…

2) Get Help From a Professional – So much time, effort, and self-esteem is wasted on failed attempts because we rely on what we think we know about losing weight. The weight loss industry is a multi-billion dollar industry because people spend tons of money on useless supplements, gadgets, and fad diets. Spend your money more wisely. Get started right with the advise from an RD and a Personal Trainer that can tailor a program just for you. more…

3) Commit to Lifestyle Changes – Quick fixes may help you to lose weight in short term, but in the long run will leave you heavier and frustrated. Look to making healthy lifestyle changes that you can sustain for the rest of your life.

4) Baby Steps- With a committment of making changes for your life, comes the decrease in pressure to change everything all at once. If you try to make it all perfect tomorrow, you will crash and burn, leaving you defeated and depressed. Plan on making one or two small changes at a time. When you master them, pick one or two more to work on. i.e. At least 3 days this week I will eat a healthy breakfast.

5) Journal – The biggest pain for most people and yet one of the most beneficial things you can do. Keeping a food journal can not only help you keep track of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat, but will also make you aware of your habitual behaviors, such as meal timing, how often you eat out, and times/situations that are problematic. As you become more aware of these issues, you can add them to your list of baby steps to be addressed in the future. If you don’t keep a journal, you may never fully understand what you are doing. If you find that a really detailed journal is too hard to do at this time, journal light. Just write down the names of what you ate, the time you ate it, where, and why (you were hungry, bored, sad…). more…

6) Use Diet and Exercise Approach- You have to address your nutritional life, absolutely. But, if that’s all you’re doing you will either never lose the weight, or if you do lose it, you will never be able to sustain it. The same is true for exercise alone. To combine diet and exercise is key in weight loss. Additionally, while tradition has led us to believe that cardio exercise was best for losing fat, when, in  fact, high intensity weight training is really the element of change. (Another reason to consult a professional.)

7) Be a More Active Person- Now, even though high intensity weight training is the most effective activity for weight loss, everything you do burns calories, and the more you do, the more calories you burn. Too often people will exercise for 30-60 minutes and then sit on their backside for the rest of the day. Get up, get out, and find ways to be a more active person. End the slothdom. Ways to be more active at work can be found here. 

8) Plan Ahead - Nothing beats planning out the next day ahead of time. If I go into a day knowing what I will eat, when, and have written in my exercise time as an appointment, sticking with it is far easier than if I try to “wing” good behavior. Even the unexpected can be planned for once you recognize what types of things can happen to throw you for a loop.

9) Clean House- Set up your environment to help you with your goals. Get rid of the foods/treats around you at home and work that make it hard to stay on track.

10) Confront Your Frenemies -  Frenemies are those that sabotage your efforts to lose weight.  You need to have a heart-to-heart talk with them and, without mincing words, explain what you’re doing and why it’s so important to you. Then make them aware of how they are making that hard for you to accomplish your goals. Ask them if they can help you by refraining from those things that make it more difficult than it already is. more… 

Of course there are more. But these are my top 10 to carry you to success in 2009.

Best wishes, Mark 

The new marketing and branding medium is the web. Remember, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you. The internet offers the opportunities to get your name out there faster and farther than any other means. Become a provider of content, a resource to others, offer a positive message, be entertaining, or be controversial. Whatever is consistent with the brand you want people to associate with you.  

Do you need the world to know you? Well, maybe not, but if you have or will have a product to market, the more people you connect with the better. Not only are you able to let them know what you’re offering, but they can easily let others know about you and what you’re doing. Here’s a blatant example: A friend of mine, Gina Lombardi, is coming out with a new book available Jan. 5th, Deadline Fitness: Tone Up and Slim Down When Every Minute Counts. Gina’s specialty is getting celebrities in shape in a very short amount of time(hence the book). I found out her release date via a Facebook announcement (She should’ve called me. I’ll tease her later.) In one fell swoop she let all of her connections know about the release and here I am telling you. According to LinkedIn my 277 connections links me to 3,105,000+ professionals. What a web we weave. Currently I’m also building connections through my website/blog, Twitter, a mini-blog (follow me on Twitter), Keith Ferrazzi’s Greenlight Community, and various other blogs and forums.

What if you’re just doing the local thing, trying to build business in your neighborhood? The rules still apply. Get your own website or blog (blogger.com or blogspot.comin example) Also, within many of the larger networking entities, there are the opportunities to narrow your focus and join local groups. (In Facebook, I’m part of a Portland, ME group.) Some local papers give you the chance to blog on their site. (I blog on Portland, ME-based MaineBusiness.com). Find those local online communities and get involved.

The web can become your greatest marketing tool if you get your name, your brand, recognized by the public and then, of course, get them to act. (for another post)

Small group or semi-private training, boot camps, training people for a half hour or less, what’s happened to personal training? Well that’s evolution of a profession. It’s time for many Personal Trainers to realize that the one-on-one, hour long sessions (that used to be all we did) is only one small piece of the market these days. When started offering 30 minute sessions, they took off. When we offered hour long small group training they started becoming a real part of our program, and when we began the 30 minute small group, another explosion.

While I’m still a big believer in being a specialist, owning a niche, within that I think you need to have a variety of offerings. While I can work with people in almost any area, my self-professed specialties are weight loss and post-rehab conditioning. Let’s think about the offerings that I could have within those areas.

1) Time variations:

Post-rehab may easily be done in a half hour or even smaller segments (I’ve started with some people in 15min appointments)

Weight loss can also fit in half hour segments with a focus on high-intensity resistance training.

2) Multiple participants:

Groups can offer greater accountability, increased peer challenge, and more fun at a lower price which can make more attractive to many potential clients.

Post-rehab I have to say that initially I need to work one-on-one, but as people progress, get to know the exercises, and gain body control, why couldn’t you do a small group surrounding that area of focus. Imagine a “healthy back”, or “knees & hips” small group training.

Weight loss can easily fit into the multiple participants scenario with small groups or even weight loss bootcamps.

*A note: It’s more difficult in groups to focus on any one individual. So know your people. My personal recommendation is to have a one-on-one session to cover medical health history, fitness experience, and check form in some of the exercises.

I was talking with a Personal Trainer the other day about selling training. He was experiencing an inability to close sales after new members went through their introductory session. What I realized in talking with him was that, while he was doing a great job getting them set to start on their health/fitness journey, he was failing to paint the picture of what to expect in the future and how training with you is the natural next step.

You should have just finished covering a medical health history, discoved their goals, past successes and obstacles. Now, paint the picture. Describe the importance of needing to start simple, how the body will soon adapt, and that greater challenges will need to be placed on it for it to continue to make progress. Illustrate specifically how working with you will help them to overcome the obstacles they’ve faced in the past and how it allows you to make adjustments in the program as needed to keep them on the fastest, safest path to reaching their goals. Point out the importance of keeping them accountable and how you can be that voice for them.

The better you paint the picture, the better they can see themselves succeeding by working with you.

There was a column piece in the business magazine Fast Company titled “With Frenemies Like These” that spoke to the love/hate relationships with competitors. I’m completely ignoring that. I just like the terms, a combination of friend/enemy and friend/foe and the concept of friends/family not being what they seem.

OK, what am I getting at? Well, I’m not suggesting that your family and friends don’t really love you, but sometimes they can and do sabotage your efforts to lose weight. How can you succeed when they lay guilt on you for taking time out of your schedule to exercise, or for eating different foods than they do. They goad you into splurging or taking time off. They give you or bring into your space foods that are your “weakness”.

Why do they do that? Don’t they get it? Don’t they know how that makes you feel? It’s simple, really. Your friends and family get something they want from you NOT succeeding. It’s selfishness, plain and simple. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. It may be that the lack of self esteem you have, puts them in a position of power. It may be that if you succeed, they will feel even worse about themselves for not being able to do as well as you. Or, it may be something else, but, be assured, it’s about them.

So what can you do about this? Have a heart-to-heart talk with them and, without mincing words, explain what you’re doing and why it’s so important to you. Then make them aware of how they are making that hard for you to accomplish your goals. Ask them if they can help you by refraining from those things that make it more difficult than it already is. Hopefully, when confronted frankly, they will agree to try and support you more. You will then have to remind them when they are “doing it again”.

One of the aspects of Personal Training that many are ill equipped for is the selling of sessions/programs. How good you are at it is reflected in closing/conversion ratios. Huh? You reply. It’s simple really. It essentially is the number of opportunities to sell that you had vs. the number of those that became clients. Or, to look at what % you are able to convert to clients, take the number of new clients divided by the number of opportunities and multiply by 100. i.e. 25 new clients divided by 75 opportunities x100 = 33.33% conversion ratio (you get 1 out of 3 prospects to become your clients). Depending on your work environment (club, PT studio, home training, etc.) that might be good. Who cares? Well… you should. For every person that does not become a client, that’s one more person that you were not able to convince that you could help them reach their goals. Too bad for them and too bad for you.

So what do you do? First, find out what your conversion ratio is. If it’s high, great! (though you should always ask yourself why you didn’t get more) If it’s low, you know that you need to get some specific help in that area. Role play with other Personal Trainers, friends, family, or even better, work with a sales coach.

I created a prospect tracking/conversion ratio/follow up sheet for my Trainers in Excel that I would be more than happy to share with you. Just me (mark @ marknutting . com) and I’ll send you the sheet and simple instructions. As with anything, first know what you’re doing before you attempt to change it.