A Waiting List Starts With Clients Who Stay

Imagine a strength coach named Tobias Kell who trains clients one at a time in Chicago. He rents space in a gym in the Loop, and there are a dozen other trainers within a few blocks. Mr. Ostrander, a partner at a law firm, is 58. He trains with Tobias on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:30 in the morning.

One Monday in October, Mr. Ostrander comes in and says that he slept three hours. His mother moved into a care home on Saturday. Tobias says he is sorry. He has a client at 7:30, and the plan for Monday says heavy squats, so they do heavy squats. Mr. Ostrander misses his last set and leaves without a word.

Over the winter, he cancels more Mondays. In March, a partner at his firm mentions her trainer, who works in their building. Mr. Ostrander tries him, and he does not come back to Tobias. Tobias gives the 6:30 mornings to a new client, who stays four months. Most months, Tobias has two or three hours open, and he spends Sunday evenings writing posts to fill them.

Suppose instead that Tobias starts every session with one question. “How’s the week been?” On that Monday in October, Mr. Ostrander tells him about the three hours of sleep and the care home. Tobias says he is sorry. “We can keep the squats today, or make it an easy hour. Which would you like?” Mr. Ostrander takes the easy hour.

Tobias writes on Mr. Ostrander’s page that weekends are hard for now. Through the winter, he keeps Mondays lighter and says nothing more about it. Five years later, Mr. Ostrander still trains with him. So do most of Tobias’s clients, and in the last year, only two of his hours have opened.

At his club, Mr. Ostrander’s friend Mr. Lomax asks about a trainer. “Tobias is full,” Mr. Ostrander says. “Ask him to put you on his list. He knows what kind of week I’ve had before I say a word.” Mr. Lomax calls Tobias that evening.

Tobias tells Mr. Lomax that his week is full, and that an hour opens once or twice a year. He offers to put Mr. Lomax on his list, or to give him the name of a coach he trusts. Mr. Lomax asks to go on the list, and he decides to wait. In March, one of Tobias’s clients moves to Denver. Tobias calls Mr. Lomax first, and Mr. Lomax takes the hour.

Tobias’s squats were just as good both times. In the first version, Mr. Ostrander could get the same hour from any good trainer near his office. So he left when one turned up in his building. In the second, leaving would have meant starting over with someone who did not know his week. Mr. Ostrander stayed, and so did most of Tobias’s clients. Tobias’s hours stayed full, and the people who asked for one had to wait.

So a trainer’s waiting list is made of the clients who stay. Put your effort into the clients you have, and keep an honest list of the people who ask. Here is why clients stay in a city full of trainers, and what three people in the trade found.

In a city full of trainers, a client stays for what the next trainer would not know

Here is the course’s view of where a trainer’s waiting list comes from. A trainer can work only so many hours a week, and most clients want the same few. They want the early mornings before work, and the hour after work. When a client stays for years, one of those hours stays taken. When most of your clients stay, your week stays full, and anyone who asks has to wait for someone to leave.

A wealthy client in a city has every option. A good program is easy to find, and so is a trainer with an hour free near the office. What the next trainer cannot offer is what you have learned about this client over the years. That is the cost of leaving, everything a new trainer would have to learn.

So a waiting list is not something you set up. It is your clients staying, seen from the outside. A full week is also a real limit with a reason, so you can tell people about it without apology.

A full week can still hide a client who is staying from habit. So a full week is a good sign, and not proof that every client would choose you again.

A trainer kept 20 clients for more than 20 years by building each hour around the client

Greg Justice founded AYC Health & Fitness. He has worked in fitness for more than a quarter of a century, as a club manager and as a personal trainer. In 2011, he wrote for fitness professionals about a longtime client. When she finished her 3,168th session with him, she told him, “You make it personal while always keeping it professional.”

“She’s one of 20 clients that have been with me for over 20 years,” he wrote.

Justice’s explanation is that each client’s hour is built around that client. “You create a special world just for them; a world they will want to visit 3,168 times and counting,” he wrote. Some clients come for a place where they can “breathe,” and others “want expert guidance to help them stay the course.” In his view, almost all of them feel the benefits sooner “when their trainer hears what they want and provides it.”

He also wrote what happens when a trainer does not do that. “If we try to fit them all into the same mold many of them won’t fit, won’t be happy and won’t come back.” His rule is to do the job well for each client “as if they were your only client.”

Justice’s clients could have trained with anyone for those 20 years. Another trainer could copy his program. That trainer could not copy 20 years of hearing what each client wants.

A Los Angeles trainer grew one client at a time, and lost some when money was tight

Chad Landers owns Push Private Fitness in Los Angeles, and he has been a trainer for 25 years. In 2019, he wrote for other trainers about how he has lasted. He started at a private studio in Los Angeles, after he met the man who was opening it and needed trainers. “Clients started referring other clients to me,” he wrote, “and like I said, some of those early clients stayed with me for many years.”

“That’s how my business grew,” he wrote, “one satisfied client at a time.” Some of his clients have been with him for more than 20 years.

One of them is Barbara Garmon. “In the 24 years we’ve worked together, she’s donated a kidney to her sister, shattered her arm in a freak accident, survived breast cancer, and had lymph nodes removed,” he wrote. They worked through all of it, and she won a world bench press title for her age group in 2013.

Landers also wrote about the hard years. “There were slow periods, when the economy shifted and clients moved on,” he wrote. Money was sometimes so tight that he wondered whether to become a firefighter instead.

His advice to younger trainers starts with the clients they already have. “Don’t underestimate the value of retention,” he wrote. “You have to give clients a reason to want to spend more time with you.”

Landers’s business grew because his clients stayed, and their friends came to him. When the economy turned, some clients left, and his hours opened. So a full week can empty too. When it does, tell the people who ask that you have hours open. A list you no longer have is not a real limit.

In New York, Izabela Milanov knows her clients’ lives, and over 90% of them stay

In 2014, IDEA Health & Fitness Association published answers to a question, “How do you create professional boundaries with your clients?” One came from Izabela Milanov, of The Fit Apple in New York. “I don’t think personal conversations with clients are wrong,” she wrote. “If clients trust you and like you, it means they will be more loyal to you.”

She also uses what she hears in the work. “Knowing what’s going on in clients’ personal lives also helps you overcome the obstacles to those fitness goals,” she wrote. A client may not lose weight because of stress or too little sleep, for example.

“I know everything about my clients, and my retention rate is over 90%,” she wrote. “I talk about myself only if clients ask.”

Measured against this lesson, what Milanov knows comes from what her clients share with her. That is the right source, because a detail the client told you shows you listened. She talks about herself only when a client asks, so the client decides how close the relationship gets. What she hears goes into the session, the way Tobias’s Mondays got lighter.

Why squeezing your whole list into the week goes wrong

Imagine a sports massage therapist named Nell Garnier who sees clients for 90 minutes in her studio. Her week is full, and six people are on her list. One of them, Dr. Quarrie, has asked twice. Nell does not want to lose any of them, so in January she makes room. She adds a session at seven in the morning and one at eight at night. She cuts each session to 75 minutes, and the break between clients from 30 minutes to 10.

Mr. Fairbairn has come every Thursday at five for eight years, and he has sent her three of his friends. By March, his sessions start late twice, and once Nell forgets about the surgery on his shoulder. He says nothing to her. In June, he tells her that he is going to try the therapist at his club. Two of the clients from her list leave by the autumn too. Nell has hours to fill again, and she has lost the client who sent her three friends.

Nell was right to want to help the people who asked. Her mistake was making room by taking it from the clients who stay. The extra sessions came out of her mornings, her evenings, and her clients’ 90 minutes. Mr. Fairbairn noticed before she did.

The version that works keeps Nell’s week as it was. When Dr. Quarrie asks again, Nell tells her where she stands. “I can’t offer you a time yet. An hour usually opens in the spring, and you’re second on my list.” In April, a client moves away, and Nell calls the first person on her list. In June, another hour opens. Nell calls Dr. Quarrie, and she takes it.

Knowing a client well is not crossing the line you keep in the session

Many trainers have learned to keep a client’s private life out of the session. Asking about a client’s week can feel like the opposite. It might seem to break the rule of keeping everything you see and hear to yourself.

Knowing a client and keeping quiet about them go together. Justice’s client named both in one sentence, personal and professional at the same time. Milanov hears about her clients’ lives because they choose to share them, and she talks about herself only when asked.

The line is what you do with what you hear. It goes into the client’s session and onto your page about them, and it reaches nobody else.

How to keep the clients who fill your week

Next to each client’s name, write how many years they have trained with you. Then write the date your last hour opened, and why it opened. That is the course’s suggestion, because an hour that opened when a client chose someone else tells you what to fix. For example, a Pilates teacher might find that eight of her 12 private clients have stayed more than three years. Her last hour opened when a client moved to London.
Start each session by asking how the client’s week has been. When what you hear would change the session, offer the change as a choice. For example, a boxing coach can say, “Sounds like a long week. Do you want to keep the sparring today, or work on the bag?”
Write what the client tells you on the page you keep on each client, with the date. Put it into the next sessions, and leave it out of conversation unless the client raises it again. For example, a mobility coach might write, “February 3: new baby, sleeping badly.” Then she keeps the Thursday sessions gentle for a month.
When your week is full and someone asks for an hour, say so. Tell them how often an hour opens, and offer to put them on your list. If they cannot wait, give them the name of someone you trust. For example, a stretch therapist can say, “My week is full. An hour usually opens once or twice a year. I can put you on my list and call you first, or give you the name of someone good now.”
For each person on your list, write down their name, the date they asked, the hours they want, and who sent them. When an hour opens, offer it in the order people asked. That is the course’s suggestion, because two people on your list may know each other and compare notes. For example, a physical therapist might call the first name on her list when a client moves away. If that person cannot take Tuesday at nine, she calls the second name.
Give someone on your list an hour only when one opens. Do not add sessions early or late, or shorten the sessions you have, to fit them in. That is the course’s suggestion, because the time you would cut is the time your clients stay for. For example, a running coach can say to a client’s friend, “I won’t squeeze you in, because you’d get a rushed coach. You’re next on my list.”
If hours open faster than your list fills them, stop telling people that you have a list. Say that you have hours open, and when. For example, a nutritionist can write, “I have two openings in May, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.”

Next: The elective for trainers and wellness professionals ends here. The next is for private chefs and caterers, and it starts with what a wealthy household wants from a chef.