Community Builders Speak Series: People don’t Care how much you know until they know how much you Care

This Community Builders Speak Series was inspired by the first article I wrote a couple of weeks back on The What, Why and How of Community Building. I have had the privilege to meet amazing people in the fitness and wellness space in the last two years and I wanted to highlight what these self-employed individuals understood as Community Building and how they were building Community in their respective businesses.

I am hoping that by speaking to these entrepreneurs/business owners and sharing their story, it can bring greater relevance to others, and will inspire and motivate others to understand the true meaning of Community Building, from a non-social services and non-sales angled approach.

Many are already building Community with their client and follower base, but they do not even know it! This series is for you to learn from different individuals in different stages of their entrepreneurial and Community building journey, and apply it to our own situations, and hopefully reap the benefits from it.

Lex Chan — Personal Trainer

Today I speak to Personal Trainer Lex Chan, who also manages his own company Move with Lex.com.

Below is our conversation that has been transcribed and edited for you.

Tell me more about yourself and your business

I am a Personal Trainer and also founder of Move with Lex.com. I also started Lex Fitness System which is a methodology to help trainers be able to help clients achieve their respective goals incorporating a safe and progressive programme.

I believe that my purpose is to help the fitness industry as a whole. I want to be able to pass on relevant information to trainers/trainees/clients with an evidence-based and science-backed approach to be able to achieve success.

My focus is on effective leadership, where I want to be able to not just help clients, but also help other trainers/trainees be able to brand themselves successfully by understanding their strengths. I am confident I have spent a good seven years as a Personal Trainer, with the hard knocks, to be able to add value to these individuals. Thinking creatively about different solutions and taking different systems and mixing them together to a hybrid system for maximum effect is something I have managed to do with Lex Fitness System.

As a Personal Trainer, there are things that I am more knowledgeable in than others, some training methods I prefer over others, and also some training methods I want to know more about than others. There is a balance that we need to achieve on our own professional level and I feel that when one is able to achieve that breakthrough self-awareness, he/she is on the right trajectory to success. I want to be able to help my trainees be on that trajectory!

How do you define Community?

There is a large community of fitness goers who are very much into group classes and external activities. They feel motivated working out together and they like to feel accountable for one another. This the main reason that Crossfit and F45 have such huge followings and have amassed an engaged Community. They like the challenge and at the same time, feel good that they are able to care for one another.

As an individual or as a Personal Trainer, my Community are my clients. How well I manage my respective client and the relationship I choose to keep with him/her determines how successful I am at building my Community. And there could even be a possibility that clients within my Community might know each other. Client A could be friends with client B eventually because they are always “suffering” together with back to back overlapping sessions, or they could have been referred by the other and hence already know each other.

By taking an interest in my clients’ life and being actively involved in listening, I have been able to build strong relationships with my clients and more importantly have been able to keep them. Maintaining a solid Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is crucial to being able to maintain that high touch relationship with my clients, and remembering important dates and occasions is just one of them.

At which point did you realise that as a Personal Trainer you needed to build relationships to build Community?

This actually has been a very subconscious action which definitely has helped shape how I interact with my clients. I am a very congruent person. This means how I interact with you on a professional basis is the same as how I would on a personal level. I think that this ability to be genuine has allowed for clients to “like” me for that reason, and is key to being able to having good client retention.

Since transiting out of being employed to being self-employed, I take the extra effort to be thoughtful and show care. And I do this not so much because my livelihood depends on it, but because it comes from the heart and I genuinely care and want to help. This effort can be felt and seen by the clients.

Can you breakdown how to build good relationships to build Community?

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Interactions with clients should be on how much you care and how much concern you show. Be genuine in your approach. This requires you to understanding what makes him/her/them tick, and being able to tailor how you interact with client.

Emotional quotient (EQ) and versatility in having the ability to interact with a diverse range of clients is a plus. Having knowledge from topics ranging from politics to tech to economics to pets (not limited to) are also essential to showing interest and having that point of conversation and discussion.

Is there a difference in how you interact with new versus long term clients?

Yes, they cannot be treated the same.

I actually have clear guidelines for my trainees on how they should be interacting with new clients and long term clients. To start with, you must know your worth and how knowledgeable you are on specific topics. With this in mind, you can focus on the “magic points”, which is giving value (relevant to your knowledge on specific topics) to the client without expecting anything in return. For new clients, this allows them to feel the added value.

For long term clients, once the relationship is built and established, it is continually checking in on progress and understanding the everchanging needs and wants that come with difference the life stage that the client is in. It could be marriage, a new addition to the family, loss of a loved one, change of career or anything really.

Can you share the Challenges you had along the way?

Finding the right mentor that is good, is extremely important for your growth as a Personal Trainer. I had the misfortune to have been under some mentors who were more focused on the aesthetics and “fluff”, where it was more of an ego battle with others, as opposed to imparting valuable experiences and skills and wanting to help me grow professionally.

When I first started, I was a “Yes man”. I would bend over backwards to shift my schedule to accommodate the requests of clients. This caused much unnecessary stress for myself and I have since learned to set boundaries with my clients with regard to scheduling. As a general rule of thumb, there is an 80/20 rule that I follow, which means that for every 10 times that my client asks for a change, eight times I would say no and two times I will say yes.

As a newbie, I always thought that clients wanted to build strength and muscle. And I was always trying to enforce my personal training programme on clients. This caused me many clients who were unhappy with my way of training. Now I have learnt to listen. To listen to my clients on what they want. And this really was the turning point for me.

Would love to hear some success stories!

Some time back, I trained a teenager due to specific growth pains she was experiencing. I did such a good job with her that her parents decided to train with me as well. That teenager also referred her other teenager friends who in turn also had their parents train with me. This really was an amazing referral and a story that I tell all the time to illustrate the power of word-of-mouth referrals.

What happens when the Community grows too large for you to handle?

This is a good problem to have with a larger Community. It can be easily solved by hiring and training, which is why I have been having trainees come under my mentorship to help them build their own business. I am also being more active on social platforms to share information and engage the larger Community.

Having this sense of awareness on the need to build thought leadership is my push to get things going. I want to let others know what I do, how I think and why I do things the way I do.

Tips for the self-starter Personal Trainer

Your Community should be tiered to existing clients, new clients and potential clients. You need to be mindful on how much time you spend on each tier. The amount of time you spend on the Community tiers should be greatest with existing clients, and least on potential clients. Existing clients are your loyal clients who will be able to refer new clients to you. It is easier to retain a client than to court a new one, so it makes perfect sense on how much time you spend on which tier.

Focus on your skillsets and your unique selling point (USP). If you’re good at what you do, clients will come to you and be willing to pay for your service and time. Adopt a “This is how much I’m worth, thank you!” approach versus a “This is how much I charge, are you willing to pay?” approach.

Practice empathy. Get to know your clients on a deeper level. Understand their needs, wants and frustrations. Personal training is more than just a business. It is a calling. Your role is to be more than just a trainer, you need to role model, mentor, influence, and be dependable. So load up on skills for you to be more than solely a trainer.

Parting Words

Find someone you want to emulate. Know what he/she does well and what he/she says that has touched you enough for you to want to emulate.

Be confident on what you’re good at and do not show arrogance.

Show humility. Always be inquisitive and learn from everyone.

Greatness lies in the details. Take time to understand what and how you can work the details.

With all these in place, your leadership and influence will surely shine through for your business!

About Alex Loh

I am a business and life coach, business owner, loving husband and doting father.

My compass is guided by the desire to help people. I coach individuals and business owners to find purpose. Together we unlock fruitful solutions, experience growth and achieve targeted success. Having successfully built and maintained communities over the years, my focus is to help businesses and organisations harness community as the vehicle to connect, and build credibility, trust and authentic relationships.

Come speak to me about Finding Purpose, Building Communities and/or in Optimising your Life!

Photos from www.pexels.com.