Fitness Business Insights with Matt Robinson

Matt Robinson
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  • Updated Weekly

Fitness Business Insights with Matt Robinson is your weekly dose of strategies, systems, and success stories for Personal Trainers, Coaches, and Gym Owners. Each episode dives into topics like fitness marketing, client acquisition, gym floor systems, client retention, and lead generation — giving you practical tools to grow a thriving fitness business you love.

  1. 2h ago

    He Was Already Fully Booked. Then He Doubled It - Kris Lecher Interview

    Kris wasn't struggling when we started working together. His clinic was full. He'd been treating running injuries for sixteen years, had a colleague working alongside him, and there was no shortage of clients. On paper there was nothing to fix. In the last eighteen months that business has doubled. He's also taken a full day off every week. What changed wasn't that he got busier. He stopped being a running injury specialist and became a running specialist, which sounds like a small distinction and turned out to be an enormous one. In this episode: Being nearly deaf until he was four or five, the stammer that followed, and being the first child in his school to have someone sit next to him in classThe teacher who read his ambition to become a professional runner and said there wasn't much money in itWhy he built a free running group for faster runners in East Yorkshire, kept it selective, and got called elitist for itConverting his garage into a clinic, and what it cost him before it earned anythingThe move from £45 physio appointments to £125 performance tests, and the conversation where I pushed his pricing higher than he wantedWhy his online coaching is deliberately low touch, and what that protectsTwenty online clients filled almost immediately, plus a steady stream of people coming back for retestingHow he's built almost all of this with barely any social media presence, and why he's not convinced that will changeWhy specialising opened doors rather than closing them, including his first overseas clientThere's a moment in this where Kris says he knew he'd fail if he didn't try, which is different from being afraid of failing. If you're already doing well and quietly wondering whether this is as far as it goes, that's the bit to listen for. Find Kris at The Run Performance Lab on Instagram. Book a Business Breakthrough Call with Matt: https://mattrobinsoncoaching.com/speak-with-matt

  2. Sep 30

    Grow Your PT Business by Promoting Less (Sometimes)

    Most personal trainers have the same problem with promoting themselves. They know they should be doing it. They don't want to come across as pushy. So they end up doing almost none of it, all year round, and then wonder why the business feels stuck at the same level it's been at for three years. There's a better way to think about it, and it starts with accepting that you shouldn't be selling at the same intensity in November as you were in September. This episode maps out four pillars across the fitness year. When to push, when to ease off, and what to be doing in the months in between so that pushing actually works when you come back to it. In this episode: The two periods every year when people are actively looking for what you sell, and why they're not the same as each otherWhy your current clients should be the first thing you look at, before you think about new onesThe collective challenge idea, including the year my clients tried to walk the circumference of the earthHow direct you can afford to be in September and October, and why most PTs are nowhere near direct enoughA client of mine who added six one-to-one clients in the first two weeks of the month doing exactly thisWhat to do in November and December instead of selling, and why that's the bit that makes January workWhy January is not a repeat of September, and the one thing you need to change in your messagingHow to run the same cycle again through March, May and JulyThe people coming back in September are usually trying to get a routine back. The people arriving in January often haven't been near a gym in ten years. Same offer won't do. Find me on Instagram: @mattrobinsonpt Book a Business Breakthrough Call: https://mattrobinsoncoaching.com/speak-with-matt

  3. Sep 23

    27 Years of Personal Training Advice in 40 Minutes

    Between us, James and I have spent 27 years working in the fitness industry. So for this episode, we decided to try and condense as much of that experience as possible into 40 minutes. We each brought five lessons to the table. No idea what the other person had written down, no carefully coordinated list, just the things that have stuck with us most after years of working with clients and building fitness businesses. And interestingly, almost none of them were about exercise selection, programming or nutrition. We talk about: Why you need to stop trying to be the cleverest PT in the roomThe difference between selling Personal Training and solving someone’s problemsWhy we both wish we’d collected more reviews earlierHow to make sure your business actually rewards you as it growsWhy a full diary doesn’t automatically mean you’ve built a successful businessTaking time off before you desperately need itWhy “I don’t know” can sometimes be one of the best answers you give a clientThe importance of getting your policies right from day oneWhy your goal should be to create clients who don’t actually need youAnd why I wish I’d taken myself a little less seriously when I first startedThese are the lessons that tend to come from making mistakes, getting things wrong and spending years figuring out what actually matters. Hopefully, we can save you a bit of that trial and error. If you’re a Personal Trainer looking to build a better business, become a better coach and make the industry work for you over the long term, there should be plenty in this one for you. You can find me on Instagram at @mattrobinsonpt or visit mattrobinsoncoaching.com if you’d like some help building a high-profit, low-stress fitness business.

  4. Sep 16

    Nobody Notices When It Goes Wrong

    Nobody asks why you haven't signed a client this month. Nobody notices that three have just left. Nobody tells you your prices haven't moved in four years. Nobody points out that you stopped marketing the minute you got busy. And nobody knows you've had a really shit week. That's the bit of self-employment nobody puts on Instagram. This week's episode is a bit different. It's less about what to implement and more about something I've been thinking about for a while. One of the best things about working for yourself is that nobody tells you what to do. One of the hardest things is exactly the same sentence. In this episode: Why you can be surrounded by people in a busy gym all day and still be completely on your ownWhat freedom actually is, and why I don't think it's the money, the cars or the holidaysThe systems most of us are quietly trying to break away from, and why doing that is harder than anyone admitsFreedom doesn't mean having no structure or support. It means getting to choose your ownWhy the hardest periods of my own business weren't the ones where things were going badlyThe trap you can build for yourself after escaping everyone else'sTwo questions worth sitting with this week, including the one I'd want everyone listening to answer honestlyThe question isn't whether you're capable of doing this on your own. You clearly are, or you'd never have started. The better question is why you'd want to. Join the weekly newsletter: https://mattrobinsoncoaching.com/newsletter Book a Business Breakthrough Call: https://mattrobinsoncoaching.com/speak-with-matt

  5. Sep 9

    The Loyalty Ladder: How to Keep Clients for Years, Not Months

    Slight change this week. I'm sharing something that hasn't gone live anywhere else yet. This is a full training I recorded for Fitness OS, the second in a set of master resources we're building. The video version isn't out yet. You're getting the audio first, and I've made the workbook live early so you can use it as you listen. The topic is retention, which is the thing almost nobody in this industry talks about properly. Every bit of fitness business advice out there is about getting clients. Leads, marketing, offers. I've made plenty of that content myself. But almost nobody talks about what happens after someone signs up, and how you make sure all that effort doesn't quietly go to waste three months later. In this episode: Why retention, referrals and reactivation aren't three separate things, and what changes when you treat them as oneTwo trainers, same price, same clients. One retains for three months and one for six. The gap ends up being four times the profit, not doubleWhy the most expensive part of your service is the bit you keep repeatingThe two real reasons clients leave, and why the first one happens before they've even startedThe Loyalty Ladder. Two rungs, one rule, and why everything on the top rung is pointless if the bottom one isn't nailedWhat unreasonably consistent actually means, and why it's the basics rather than the technical stuffThe First 12 Weeks Blueprint, built on Robert Dunbar's work on how relationships deepen and Joey Coleman's research on the first hundred daysWhy the client review disappeared from personal training, and what you lose by replacing it with a check-in formThe birthday example. The difference between a half decent trainer, a good one, and the one nobody leavesYour clients aren't just comparing you to other trainers. They're comparing you to their hairdresser, their last hotel stay, and the bloke who was supposed to fix the boiler on Tuesday. Grab the free workbook: https://fitnessos.co.uk/how-to-keep-your-clients-as-a-personal-trainer Book a Business Breakthrough Call: https://mattrobinsoncoaching.com/speak-with-matt

  6. Sep 2

    Paul Mutlow Interview

    Paul phoned the course provider to ask if he was too old to become a personal trainer. He was in his late thirties at the time. He's now 51, working full time as a PT, with a target market of 40 plus who specifically want someone with a bit of life experience. The thing he thought was a problem turned out to be the whole point. Paul's also been a listener of this show since before the pandemic, so it was good to get him on the other side of it for a change. What makes his story worth hearing is that he's built this with zero footfall. No gym floor, no passing trade, nobody walking past him on their way to the treadmill. Everything has had to be created from nothing in a local area. In this episode: Going from a finance career in the city to full time PT, and the two things that nearly stopped himWhy his age is now one of the biggest reasons his clients choose himHow he went from the messy middle of not really knowing what he offered, to exercise therapy and a genuinely prescriptive serviceThe trial offer we built together, how it's evolved from four sessions at £29 to three at £75, and why it still converts into packages of £200 a month and upWhat his three session structure actually looks like, including the whiteboard session that does most of the selling for himGetting clients from local Facebook groups with a proper rotation system rather than posting when he feels like itSix new clients in six weeks, in August, which is not supposed to be the good monthWhy he got a coach early rather than waiting until he'd struggled for three yearsThe second pillar he's building around youth speed and strength work, and why it doesn't have to be online coachingPaul's honest about the wobbles too. Worth a listen if you're building something without a gym floor underneath you. Find Paul on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pmfitness74/ Book a Business Breakthrough Call: https://mattrobinsoncoaching.com/speak-with-matt

  7. Aug 26

    10 PT Clients in 90 Days: Starting From Zero

    What would you do if tomorrow you had no clients, no testimonials, no social media following, no website and no email list? Just your PT qualification, your experience and access to a gym floor. In this episode, James and I set ourselves a simple challenge: Get 10 Personal Training clients in 90 days, starting from zero. We break down exactly how we would approach it, what we would focus on first, and just as importantly, what we would completely ignore. We cover things like: Why becoming an influencer would be nowhere near the top of our listWhy speaking to people on the gym floor still gives you one of the biggest advantages available to a PTThe daily targets we would set for conversations and new contactsHow we would turn those conversations into consultations and paying clientsWhere a simple front-end offer can help reduce risk and make it easier for someone to get startedHow we would use referrals, local businesses and gym staff to create more opportunitiesWhy training in the gym you work in can become a genuine business-building activityWhat to do if you reach week five, six or seven and things still aren’t moving quickly enoughThis isn’t about chasing followers, building complicated funnels or trying ten different marketing strategies at once. It’s about focusing on the opportunities directly in front of you, building relationships, collecting data and staying consistent long enough for the numbers to start working in your favour. If you’re a newer Personal Trainer, struggling to build momentum, or you simply want to strip your business back to the fundamentals, this episode will give you a very practical place to start. You can find me on Instagram at @mattrobinsonpt or visit mattrobinsoncoaching.com if you’d like some help building a high-profit, low-stress fitness business.

  8. Aug 19

    This Beats ANY Niche

    You’ve probably been told at some point that you need to find your niche. But I think there’s something more important that most Personal Trainers barely think about at all: Your marketplace. In this episode, I explain the difference between a niche and a marketplace, why finding the right places to be visible can be far more valuable than endlessly refining your ideal client avatar, and how I used this approach to generate clients throughout my own PT career. I’ll walk you through five marketplaces you can start thinking about within your own fitness business, including: The marketplace that could already exist inside your gymHow to find local “starving crowds”Why an “able audience” can become incredibly valuable over timeHow I used golf clubs and local businesses to consistently generate enquiriesThe online marketplaces that can help you reach people already looking for what you sellWhy simply being present isn’t enough — you need to be visibleNone of this requires a huge social media following, complicated funnels or some ridiculously specific niche. It’s about putting yourself and your business in the places where the right people already spend their time, then showing up consistently enough to become the obvious choice. If you’re a Personal Trainer or Fitness Professional looking for a more practical way to generate leads and build a high-profit, low-stress fitness business, this episode is for you. You can find me on Instagram at @mattrobinsonpt or visit mattrobinsoncoaching.com if you’d like some help with your fitness business.

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Fitness Business Insights with Matt Robinson is your weekly dose of strategies, systems, and success stories for Personal Trainers, Coaches, and Gym Owners. Each episode dives into topics like fitness marketing, client acquisition, gym floor systems, client retention, and lead generation — giving you practical tools to grow a thriving fitness business you love.

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