Why I Shut Down My £500K Online PT Business — The Honest Story

at the PC launch. [Music] Right. Hello everybody. Episode 10, PT Launch Lab. We've got two massive topics to cover today. We've got the reason and decision behind shutting down the ultimate shred and also >> and also we're going to be covering a topic today which is very important is which is why PTS usually quit after the first two year [\h__\h] [Music] >> Right, we'll start off.

Little catch up for Kell. How how should been going? >> Been going good, mate. In fact, I did what I say randomly at the week and this just happened. So I went out for a few beers on Saturday. >> Yeah. >> You know like you get married and you know Chris he he messaged me randomly says um oh I've got a spot on the great north run on 7th of September if you want to do it. >> September does it twice. So I really into it and also >> so it's an odd cause. >> You know what it is? >> No way. >> 5k [\h__\h] 3k. >> But the thing is I'm going to do it cuz I like being put in hard situations.

I think it brings out best in you. And it opened up like a new train of thought for me. So obviously we spoke many times before. I've been looking for something to ignite players. >> Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. >> So, what I'm going to look for, I'm going to throw myself at this. I'm going to try and look for a challenge every month or every by month and just sign up for it. Cuz I think uh for a lot of people like myself and out there, when you get involved in business and lifestyle and all that kind of stuff, you sort of forget to really challenge yourself. So, I've suck it on. I'm ready for it.

I'm not actually ready. >> Sorry, mate. That's uh that's exactly what I did when I come back from injury. >> Yeah, >> I just wanted to do I did the half marathon me first run back after breaking my legs. So, no pressure. >> You'll definitely beat that time. I remember doing that. Um I went to one of me one of my mates pies at his new house like housew.

And I told him then that I was I'd been planning on this do his half marathon the first of the first of January. I wanted to do it New Year's Day. Make sure I got it in. I got to test this bike. I must not run it while 7:00 at night.

I remember checking my Garmin watching it at 7% of me battery left and it I think it was minus three when I run it and I think I ill for two weeks after just really killed myself and then laying her dead. Uh obviously coming back off snapping my leg in half and then running that the first time. But slow I'm not going to be relieving no straas. What you've done now is you've met Sher. I've got a complete out >> the entire distance. >> And then just just for me, Cal, obviously the same old for me.

Nothing nothing's changed. I've been hard in training. I'm two weeks out from from the fight now. Three weeks out from the massive tournament. Weights on good.

As you can see, me face has absolutely disappeared. Well, I feel great. It's probably the best I've ever felt camp wise, healthywise, weight wise. >> You seem locked in. >> What I used to do is I used to have like a cheat meal. Cheat meal. I don't like that word anymore, but I I used to do that and I used to tell myself it was for morale.

Um, and then it keeps surprising your body, shocking your body. We know they're all myths, but it's sort of what I've got to tell yourself to, you know, to to keep going and keep progressing uh during the camp and you're like, "Oh, well, I'll eat this." And then by Wednesday, I'll be even lower. And I keep shocking my body even though there's only about 3 days there between having that having that cheat. And this time I've just stayed fully, >> you know, having not having anything outside and me plan. I've literally stuck to 100%.

And I think it's made it so much easier. like it's just built a like um like a constant habit and routine of what I'm meant to be doing rather than every time I get to that weekend then it made all the rest of the week hard. So do you know like it's a bit of a sweet fan me that I like old school jellies and stuff like that or like bags of crisps and stuff just bit strange like but when I have then I want it for the next few days. >> Yeah. >> Does that make sense? Yes. Yeah. Yes.

I want Yes. And then I'm like really really struggling on the day. I thought like the next two or three days after that, but this time I'm just not bothered. >> I think it's the open dopamine thing cuz when you're on a hard diet like that and then you allow yourself to have those little treats, >> your brain get this like fixation like but you did it and you're fine. >> It's one of those you lead yourself into those >> security moments be like oh well I was still on weight so I could do it. >> Absolutely. I think um >> I don't know. I' I've gone different with it morale this time. >> The more locked in I've been, the more rewarding it's felt and the more I feel like I should win, >> you know, like and I'm I'm way too close now to be taking any risks anyway two weeks out.

Me my weight was like plateauing a little bit, >> you know, bit worried and all that. I think I stayed the same way for three weeks, but I look completely different. Um, and that's where I normally have a bit of a refeed. get some energy back in and then go again. But I just felt like I was just too close. I decided against it and I weighed myself the next day and I'd lost like two bills. >> I say this all the time.

The time when you feel like quitting most or not quitting mostly in that sense, but the time when you feel like maybe it's time to make a make a change on this or that. When you stick it out then it just shows that the consistency over time then. >> Yeah. >> It was just Ryan last minute. I think their body were like, "Ah, it's got to be another weight." You know what I mean? >> Yeah. It's that type of dieting anyway, especially because you're active as well because your activity tends to go up. Yeah.

While your food's still coming down, so your body's like in a state of shock going, "Well, you're not giving me more." >> Yeah. You're asking for >> Yeah. It's uh you know it's nice to see you so locked in because I think I've seen you do it quite a few times and this time does feel different because obviously you're doing it with a family home as well. So having to balance that and not going insane. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I think you're doing pretty well unless >> Yeah.

Yeah. to put a mask on when coming in. Yeah. >> No, but in all seriousness, I feel I've got a really good balance of I've I've been booking one day a week out to do something with the kids during summer holidays. Um I think that alone and then me weekends I've never really been over booking things over the weekend which is a massive first for me. Like I never I'll usually just work every day like back to back months on end. And with the training cuz I'm training so hard as well.

And on the night like I usually get bored on the night that's when I'll do me eating or feel like I want to do something or I get a bit like ADHD riddled where I'm like great what what can I do now? Everyone's going to bed and that's when I get my energy when I just finish work but cuz I'm so tired from the training I look forward to a good night's sleep cuz I think right well I've got another art session at the morning. I need full energy for it. >> Yeah. So just be I think it's all falling into place like I've got match up uh for the first fight and all as well now on the 6th of September. So I'm excited.

It's the last big week of training now. So hopefully we'll get one more podcast in next week and then after that I'll be telling you how good me was. But I think yeah that's it for me catchups anyway. I'll I'll not bore anyone too much with the fight stuff. But um the big important thing I've just done a a quick little video obviously every seen at this point when this is released but uh I decided to shut the ultimate shred down for 10 years.

So the reason why I've decided to shut it down obviously it's come a long way from when I used to do it I used to do it on pen and paper. Um I used to go weigh people in take all the photos. cuz I used to have thousands of photos in me album and I had all the before ones and then I can remember after the five it were five weeks at this point. After the five weeks then I'd have to try and find this person and because the pictures were so small because I obviously I had that many photos and then I've done like templates and you have to match them all up. It took me honestly it must have took me hours to get the before and after pictures because the finishing rate that were like 90%. >> Yeah. And I'd have over 100 signups and half the people I didn't even know.

They come in one week. So obviously the biggest set at this point, they got glasses on. They've got a big long t-shirt on. Uh trying to cover cover up what really that they're not happy with. And then at the end they come in, they've got the Lyra stuff on with no glasses, air completely different, all done for photos.

And you couldn't even recognize them. That's so it was just so difficult. I can remember putting them on me. >> So, uh, so anyway, I've come from these points and all these amazing memories that I've absolutely loved. It's gone all over the world. I changed it to online during lockdown.

That was April or May 2020 when I started online. Some of the best years of the company then uh had a little bit of a fallout with a business partner which again moved moved on from that. It's nothing to do with any of that. U it's just come to a point now. No, I don't love it anymore.

I just the passion is going somewhere else. I've done it for 10 years. I feel like I've really I've put everything into it. I've got it to a brilliant point. I'd love to just leave on top.

I I feel like I would not giving it the credit it deserves towards the back end now. And I've always been one of them. We spoke about it a million times just on this podcast alone. If you're not enjoying it, don't do it. And as much as that company's like a baby to me, like the amount of hours that people like unseen hours behind closed doors is absolutely unbelievable.

Like you want if I could put all them into a chart, I think people would be absolutely shocked the amount of time and free work I put into it to get it is to where it is today. But I just feel like leave it on top now. 10 years is a good mark. I've got my own boxing. I've got the boxing team. this PT the PT launch lab and the courses and I think that's where I want to go now. I want to um I want to be able to show people how they can do it as well.

So I feel like I want to take that step forward. It's not a step back. No way. It's um I've done the PT bit. I've done the online coaching bit.

What I want to do now is help other people. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. I think we all get when when we get older, that's the sort of way we want to do. We want to give back. And I think that's just where the passion is now. Oh, I feel like I've done all that bit.

I've done the recruitment bit. I've done all of that. I put years in the gym and I just feel like it's come to a point now where I'd like to just pass pass the advice on >> and do this. I enjoy it. Like running those running those um short competitions, you need time.

You need a lot a lot of time. People need your 100% dedication and focus. If you want to do well in that, you've got to be on call on that like we spoke about with AI. Like you've got to be you've got to be ready to answer people boom boom boom as the messages come in. You need to be ready to help them because that could be the difference with them falling off the planet or staying on it.

It's you just answering. There is no time. Everyone works different shifts. People get off work at different times. You'll get a message at 11:00 and that's when someone's finished saying, "What can I have?" and they're panicking and what they can do if you don't answer.

I'll just not doing it and it's an excuse and it's a way out and uh sometimes they don't need the door holding open for and they're already halfway out of it. So because I can't commit that much anymore in that in that sense as well like I just can't with the kids and everything. I just they are the priority now whereas before me work was always my priority and and building this massive brand. So that's ultimately what it's come down to is I want to be able to give everyone the attention they deserve. And I also want to give back, give the advice and show the people what they need to be doing.

And like I've just said, being able to direct them and say, "Right, this is what you need to be doing. This is what you can't do. You can't have these hours off. If you want to make it big, this is how it's got to do. And I just want to write a little bit of a blueprint for it." And that's why uh we're doing the N to 5K plan on the PT launch lab as well.

So I think it's all going to tie in hopefully. Uh but I'm obviously a bit devastated. But the last one's going to be the 6th of September. Anyone still wanting to do it? I'd love to go out with a bang and make it one of the biggest ones yet.

Give it a good send off. Um well deserved farewell farewell for over this last 10 years. >> Yeah. And please as well obviously we all see little clips of these posts going out. If you've done this red before, if you've had a transformation, please reshare it. Show everybody what you did, what you achieved.

If you're taking the next one, just show your experience, show your love for it, because I know, especially just living in the local area, so many people did, so many people loved it. So many got so much out of it. So, as this is the last one, please just show your appreciation. tag the page in it. Message Ryan, you know, let let him know that you appreciate what Yacht did for you. >> No, thank you, mate. Appreciate that.

End of an era. Um, some brilliant memories like I said. So, thank you everybody. I love that idea, Kell. Thank you very much, mate.

Well, um, let's move on to the to the cont. >> So, what we are going to cover in the educational topic today is the 2-year quitting period. So PTS there's 8% thing of pts out there after the first two years of starting >> 80% last two years and it can be a little bit of a sobering statistic in the sense that yeah that that's a big number of people that failed and this is just focusing on the PTS but you can sort of marginalize it towards a lot of businesses like a lot of people do quit after the first couple of years because it might not have picked traction that they wanted or maybe for instance I don't know some fi hard financial time coming the way and they didn't plan for that and >> does this statistic is that going to PT is that going to a different pathway industry there or is that just completely quitting the industry >> just completely quitting the industry so this is just in the UK alone so it's just in the first two years and this worked for self-employed and employed Um a lot of the times obviously some it comes down to financial struggles underestimating taxes inconsistent income uncharging clients which we've covered before you know poor marketing client acquisition and burnout and generally burnout because obviously we talk about this all the time the amount of time that you'll spend working as a PT especially in the early days you know the the fun thing is when people say oh when you're self-employed you get dictate your own hours. When you're self-employed, all the hours are your hours to work because you have this prickling anxiety of if I'm not working, what's the point of doing this? And you know, you don't get sick pay and you leave. You don't get a pension plan.

You're in charge of every single bit of income coming through that door. So, I can understand quite heavily if you're not prepared to understand what it's like building a business from scratch, how demotivating it's going to be to do those endless hours. And in the early days with underpaying clients, yeah, it can deter you. >> And and I feel like the business skills is massive. Like as you move along and you get more clients, you have you have to get new skills. So what I mean like taxes massive for example like what like the old shred it scaled enormously when we went online and we like were really ready for the tax then that come we thought we're like getting massive money.

That's what it felt like. it. We're just like, "We've met it. This is a pay us all this money. We've done it. This is it forever." Um, and then all of a sudden obviously when lockdown finishes and things start slowing down and uh that tax is still there to be paid.

There's VAT on everything like it's sometimes you learn the hard way unfortunately. And that's why again that's why we're doing this podcast and hopefully just tell people doesn't matter how much you're making. Make sure you've got accountant set in place. Um, and you've got a plan to do with your finances because everything that comes in is not actually your money. >> Yeah. >> Especially not in the UK. >> I mean, if I could do it the opposite way around because obviously everybody goes into a business with the notion of the idea that we're going to make as much money as we can. >> Yeah. >> If you're going into it, I work out how much you need to live and you know that little bit extra to have a bit of pop to to have a life. work out how much you need as a minimum to how many clients you need, how many hours you need to work to pay those bills to make sure you're safe. And then the rest of the time you can focus on the scaling part because um we've been working with a few uh members of the PT Launch Lab.

Uh one in particular, I think we're seeing next week. uh he he started a room club in the local area and he works endless hours all the time and he's trying to find a way to start his business without affecting his current income as well natural way to do it is online. He's already getting attention. So as well as bank start exposing yourself using a coaching app for instance and bringing people online as you can scale down more at your workplace and take less hours there into there because what everyone's worried about I just for my personal preference is they don't feel like they're going to be able to do enough or know enough or learn enough in the beginning to be able to make a start because someone's coming for a employment background they think well if I can't do it full time what's the I'd say a good 45 50% of personal training start with a little >> absolutely and I think >> depending on your responsibilities depending on your situation that way whether you can actually step out of that job or not. I feel like I've seen success with people who who already have a job and then do it on the side and then obviously get rid of the get rid of the safety net and then they go full self-employed with the PT. I've seen that work high in demand.

That's the reason why they did it. I've I've also seen people try and stay and keep the safety net and then it actually holds the business back because they can't cover the hours and they can't meet the demand of the people are actually wanting to and then all of a sudden the business becomes stedent and then they almost closed the go the gate on actually being able to move into that self-employed thing. So, so he's trying to time that right. He's trying to make make the decision, make it at the right time, making sure that it's not going to put you in financial difficulty depending on where you are in your life. But >> I think you got to be a little bit ballsy. >> 100%.

There's always a risk when you're self-employed. There's always a risk, especially if you've never been self-employed before. Um, the stress that comes with it can be like monumental for him if you're not used to it. >> And the thing is, the reason why you want to do this is because obviously you might sick of what you're already doing. maybe it's not fulfilling yet. So if you look at the the average and you say, "Well, if I stay where I am, nothing's going to change. I'm going to be unhappy still." Whereas if I take this risk, the very worst case is that you have to pick up the hours back at your old job.

The very worst case, you stay exactly the same as you were, which I don't think is a bad risk. Now, don't get me wrong, you freshly qualify and go, "Right, quitting my job, mortgage will be fine. jump in, got a month's worth of wages saved. That can be difficult because you haven't put any time in. And I say to every single PT, I think you say it as well, cuz you only get better by doing it. >> Yeah. >> Don't start fresh and think this is it. >> And sometimes you perform better when your back's against the wall, don't you think? When you have to >> Yeah.

And get it. And I think if you've already got financial security with your job and you want to expand this and go into self-employed, build your own safety net. >> Yeah, >> I think I that would be my main bit of advice for if you've got money coming in. Whether it's going to take you a year or two years, put a little bit to the side that's going to cover you for I don't know, let's say 6 months, maybe that's in this day and age might be a bit of a push. But for me, the PT money is a bonus right now. You can live off the other money.

Anything you make from PT goes into a pot. When you're ready to make that move, then I've already got a little bit of a of a wage or a safety net just like the wage you've been getting. Maybe a little bit less. Still give you that little bit extra motivation there to to push because if I don't start getting work fast, that money's going to run out and it's all on me. So, I feel like the best way would be make a decision. make an amount that you're willing uh to work from, take the risk from, and just keep putting into it, then don't rush it.

So, you only get one I think you got one big chance at this to really really give it a go. So, make sure uh it's realistic. It's the amount you want, don't cut your short, whether it takes you six months of isolation, just hammering work, coming home. >> Yeah. So, maybe some good tips if you're worried about stuff like this and you're getting into industry and you're in employment. I I would personally say maybe look into getting a pool of referrals first.

So you got people that you work with, you got family and you got friends. Try and get them on board. Do some sessions with them. Run some programs with them. Get some testimonials because when you start transitioning over, whether it's part-time or full-time, you've already got a little bit of a list of clientele that can give you a backing.

And that's the most important thing. People buy you for what they can see that you've already done, not what you're promising to do. So, I think that's a really good thing to close off on. But, uh, thank you for watching today, episode 10. This is really important to us.

Thank you for sticking with us. Thank you for the subscribers. Thank you for the likes on social media. We're going to keep going. And again, as always, if you've got something you do want to hear about instead of us trying to make every week that we think is important, if something's important to you, let us know. >> Thank you everybody.

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