Summary:
Mahdi’s guest on this episode of the Project Kuwait podcast is Coach “Fit Marky”. Mark quit his office job to pursue his dream of being a personal trainer and coach, and he has done very well for himself. After several years of working for a big box gym, he took the leap to start his own facility and he is working hard to make that happen. He shares with us his insights about the industry and the way he has found a good balance between work time and family time.
Time Stamps:
1:41 – Mahdi introduces Coach Mark.
3:21 – Mark talks about why he does what he does.
4:04 – It all started in 2005 when Mark moved to Kuwait. He had never considered being a trainer before.
5:18 – After he quit smoking, he realized how much his body was capable of, and he started reading articles about fitness. He quit his office job to pursue a career in personal training and coaching.
8:12 – Mahdi and Mark talk about feeling great leading your to being great. Your mind will follow your body.
9:21 – Mark discusses the uselessness of trying to make your body look a certain way. It is not sustainable for everyone because everyone is different.
10:07 – After Mark quit is office job, he sent his CV to all of the local gyms and offered his training services for free for a month, and he ended up getting a job at a big box gym quickly.
11:20 – Shortly after Mark started this first gig, he met Mahdi, who was impressed by his passion and extensive knowledge of training.
14:00 – Mark learned how to coach his clients through trial and error and by doing endless reps.
15:58 – Coach Mark has never been involved with steroids because of his own ethical convictions.
17:00 – Mark was focused on learning all that he could about training and nutrition to help his clients.
19:00 – He had a chance to go into managing all of the other coaches at his gym, but he instead decided to keep his current position and begin taking some online training courses to better himself.
22:51 – Mark says that the main challenge with being a trainer at a big box gym is keeping up with the hours required of him. He had to reach certain quotas in order to qualify for his commission payments, which often caused him to work 12 hour days.
25:45 – He made up his mind to just accept what the gym wanted to give him and be the best coach he could be.
28:58 – Coach Mark reached his breaking point when, after taking a few days off to focus on training himself for a triathlon, his gym bumped down his pay grade. At the same time, he had started reading more from Jon Goodman and decided to go through the online training course.
31:00 – With his new online platform, he realized that he could do this on his own, so he started renting a studio to train his clients. He noticed a huge difference in his overall wellbeing.
33:05 – Mark talks about the differences between high-end and low-end personal training clientele, and he sees himself in the middle-tier right now.
37:00 – Mark says that he found true freedom in scheduling his own time and focusing on the “personal” aspect of personal training, catering his coaching to the client’s preferred modality.
40:40 – Mark talks about the challenges of being a dad in Kuwait and the fact that his new work structure provides him with more needed time with his wife and kids.
43:12 – Mark is currently working on starting his own facility with a partner in 2020, so he is learning how to market himself and getting all of the details in place. He is also going to Dubai in 2019 to do an assessment course that will help him coach the coaches.
46:13 – He is excited about the future and the prospect of changing his clients’ habits one at a time.
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