I cannot stress enough how important it is to specialize, to find a niche. Yet, this made me laugh. This list is from a personal training studio website. Their specialty is…. well, I don’t know. Did they leave anything off their list? They even specialize in “all sports”.
For the record, if you “specialize” in everything, you are not a specialist. You are a generalist. The idea of specializing is that you become really good at one or two things and, having achieved this specialty, you market your services to the specific demographic that needs those particular services. Think about this, imagine you are a professional athlete and you find yourself needing shoulder surgery. Are you going to go to an orthopedic surgeon that does shoulders, knees, hips, back, feet, hands, and a little bit of elbow work, or… are you going to go to the doc that only does shoulders and has perfected treating that area? (FYI: I had my shoulder replaced by the top doc in the northeast US. I wasn’t taking any chances.) So, if you were looking at the exhaustive list above to choose a niche from, a great specialty might be golf conditioning. You could even go deeper and say women’s golf conditioning… or deeper still, golf conditioning for women over 50. You may think that that is too limiting, but think about the shoulder specialist. If you are a woman over 50 who wants to train for golf, who are you going to choose, someone that also does golf training, or, someone who only does golf training for women over 50?
Choose your niche and become the best at it. Then, market yourself to the population that needs your unique skills. You will become the go-to trainer for that specialty, not some other trainer that does “everything”.
The Business of Personal Training 
Hi Mark, thank you for your awesome article. I believe that our Ego is doing a lot there, I feel it all the time. Our desire to know everything, even though we cannot or should know everything. I am in that position to specialize in something specific and be better at refering other professionals. I know this or that … I’m practicing “biting” my tongue and keeping my ego at bay.
Keeping an eye on your book.
Regards,
Yeray
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Thanks, Yeray. I agree that ego plays a big part in it. I’m trained in many different areas, from Olympic weightlifting to sports performance to weight loss. Of course our tendency is to let every know that we could train any of these areas, but we can’t be THAT good in everything. There are plenty of other trainers that do those things better than I do. What I am a specialist at, what I do better than most others, is help those that are deconditioned or post-rehab learn to move with ease again. Will I train others? Sure, but that’s not what I market and it’s not what will make me stand out.
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Great answer Mark and causal, because I was looking for an answer like that, but from a exceptional professional. My niche market is like yours, special populations…am I right? and that’s what I study. I would like to know if you do coaching as well or just your book? Either way, would your book help me in this case?
Thank you very much Mark!!
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Yray, I think that working with the deconditioned and post-rehab are one of the most rewarding groups to work with. Glad to hear you are in that area as well. Yes, I do coach personal trainers, club owners and managers, and yes, if I do say so myself, my book should help most personal trainers build their businesses. There’s something for every level trainer in it.
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