width=

SalePage : Jonathan Goodman – Online Trainer Academy

FileType:

FileSize:

This Online Trainer Academy review took me 1286 hours to complete (you’ll discover why later). Other trainers and thought leaders in the business have compared the training to university and college courses.

That’s a big claim, so Jon Goodman shipped the course books and a complimentary flask (yeah!) all the way to my place in Thailand so I could write the greatest review possible! This is how it went.

What precisely is the Online Trainer Academy?

The Online Trainer Academy is the world’s first and only online personal training school and certification that teaches personal trainers how to take their fitness company online.

The course is taught using a text book delivered to your door and an online portal to which you will have immediate access.

The Online Trainer Academy course is divided into five modules, each of which delves into a certain topic that you must master and pass an exam on in order to become a Certified Online Trainer. The modules are summarized below:

Module 1: How to Begin

The first module establishes the groundwork for the subsequent lessons. Jon Goodman, the course author and presenter, discusses how to utilize the textbook and digital portal in tandem to maximize your learning.

Right away, Jon discusses several essential business ideas that you’ll need to develop not simply a lucrative internet business but also a profitable physical business.

In module 1, you’ll cover some of the most frequent problems that new personal trainers have, including how to establish a niche, choose a company name, develop a USP, and obtain a few of customers right away so you can hit the ground running.

Module 2: Business Organization

Module 2’s goal is to have your company functioning like a well-oiled machine (Jon’s words, not mine). You’ll discover the fundamentals of the fitness industry, such as:

How to create, package, and sell your programs.
The advantages of a hybrid approach and how it may help you.
Productivity, software, and other business systems.
How to generate renewals and recommendations so you can keep your clients coming in.
What you need to know about the law and how to hire a lawyer.

In essence, by the conclusion of module 2, you will have established your packages, prices, and company model, as well as a decent concept of what software to use, a better awareness of business regulations, and a few tactics for getting recommendations and assuring renewals.

Module 3: Customer Service

I was both startled and happy to see a full section dedicated to customer care. It’s not something that most business owners discuss, and it’s certainly not something that is taught on a daily basis.

However, being a former personal trainer and now a website designer for personal trainers, I not only emphasize but also teach my clients about taking care of their clients.

Jon discusses whether you can genuinely assess customers online and the veracity of such evaluations, celebrating little victories with your clients, and using the resources at your disposal to ensure you recognize your clients’ hard work in the chapters of this module.

The session also covers if training templates may be used, when they should be used, and what factors to consider when developing customized training programs for particular customers.

Module 4: Obtaining Clients

Most physical therapists want to know how to gain clients. However, in typical business practice, the module on how to obtain clients is one of the last to be learned. Presumably because having a large number of clients is pointless if you don’t have the mechanisms in place to service those clients to the best of your abilities.

In module 4, you’ll discover how to utilize your existing network to generate additional leads, how to expand your list of connections, and how to attract new clients that aren’t only your relatives and family.

Important marketing issues such as Facebook Groups, email marketing, and Facebook advertisements will also be covered. It may appear complicated, but don’t worry; each marketing plan has its own how-to guide and scripts that you can copy and paste.

Module 999: Abilities

The third module is more of a skills supplement to the prior topics. It will teach you about sales, sales copywriting, obtaining testimonials, and becoming an expert.

You’ll also learn the difference between publishing on Facebook Pages and posting on Facebook Groups, how to employ a virtual assistant, and what to do if your gym doesn’t allow online training.

In brief, Module 999 provides the less important abilities required to get started and scale.

Mini Courses as a Bonus

The most recent edition of the Online Trainer Academy includes four Bonus Mini Courses to assist students who are unfamiliar with specific aspects of online marketing or task management in developing the abilities required to start an online personal training business.

Mini Course 1: Complete What You Begin

This course offers practical assistance to all personal trainers who excel at procrastination, coming up with ideas but never putting them into action, or just never reaching to the end of their job list.

Getting better at organizing your ideas and responsibilities, as well as finishing everything you start, can help you become more effective, productive, and ultimately achieve more as an online trainer.

Fitness Instagram Mastery Mini Course 2

Instagram is one of the internet platforms where you may establish a focused audience that is interested in your services and specialization.

The more the trend in internet marketing toward visual material, particularly videos and stories, the more essential platforms like Instagram will become.

You may learn how to master Instagram marketing and maximize the popularity of your online training company.

Create Your First Website (Mini Course 3) (Or Make Your Website Better)

This is our area of expertise, and we designed this course to help trainers who don’t understand how fitness websites function grasp the most crucial aspects of establishing a successful online personal training web presence.

You may learn how to maintain your fitness website attractive, purpose-built, and designed with your target consumer in mind, so they have a positive user experience and are inspired to contact you to learn more.

Facebook Ads for Online Trainers (Mini Course 4)

When it comes to producing more leads for your online fitness business, outbound marketing may be the best option. Knowing how to design a good Facebook Ad is critical if that’s the platform you’ve selected to market your services.

This mini-course will teach you how to design an ad with your target demographic in mind in order to optimize ROI and win new clients.

Unprecedented Help

Another major element of The Academy 2.0 is how far the support system has progressed since the last release.

They have not only enhanced the level of support at the Online Trainer Academy, but they have also expanded the number of accessible channels. You may request a Jump Start call, live chat with your coaches, and get email assistance. You will obtain immediate assistance no matter where you are in the world. What a fantastic idea!

Calls to Get Things Going

When students get their materials, they are encouraged to schedule a jump start call with a coach to kick-start their trip, ensuring they are properly set up, and feel confident about their path ahead.

Accountability Requests

Once you’ve begun your calls, you’ll be able to schedule Accountability calls anytime and as often as you need them during the course. These are intended for students to speak about any obstacles they encounter while working through the course and to chat with someone who has been there to help keep the momentum going. The most successful students use this function on a regular basis, some even on a weekly basis.

Guarantee and Lifetime Assistance

Jon chose to give a 10-year guarantee in April 2019, and all OTA students receive assistance from their instructors even after they have completed the course. If you join OTA, you will receive all future updates for free and will have access to the material and instructors for as long as they are in business.

The Examination

The Certified Online Trainer exam consists of 60 questions. To graduate, you must have a 75% or better.

The first test attempt is free, however future tries if you fail will cost you $50 each test. This, I believe, is to discourage individuals from taking the test again and over again only to pass it without having completed the course content. Excellent concept!

Unfortunately for me, I wanted to see how the test format worked, so I clicked the start button and kept it running in the background.

In 1286 hours 54 minutes 17 seconds, I answered one question correctly. Not my most proud moment.

Strengths of the Online Trainer Academy

Format for Learning

One of the finest aspects of the Online Trainer Academy course is the variety of learning styles available. I’ve been told several times that the My Personal Trainer Website Academy is fantastic, however there is no video. Some individuals learn better by watching videos.

The Online Trainer Academy is available in both video mode as a digital portal and text version as a textbook delivered to your home. It is suitable for a wide range of learning styles and is structured in such a manner that you must demonstrate understanding of a module through an exam before moving on to the next.

The Manual

Jon was gracious enough to ship the training materials from Canada to my home in Thailand. And it was all worthwhile. Delivered at my door was an Online Trainer Academy Text Book, an accompanying Course Book to fill in important business choices as you study, and a bonus water bottle of surprisingly decent quality for a free item.

The textbook makes it extremely simple to learn on the road or without an online connection, and the accompanying course book has areas for filling in your pricing, packaging, lists, thoughts, and epiphanies.

This is what Jon forwarded to me.

Resources

While most courses supply you with the bare minimum to complete the course, the Online Trainer Academy goes above and beyond by giving you with practically everything you need to take action.

And taking action is emphasized at every stage.

Scripts, templates, samples, Excel spreadsheets, workbooks, checklists, and software suggestions are among the resources available. To avoid confusion, everything is organized module by module.

Weaknesses of Online Trainer Academy

Overwhelm

While Jon has taken great effort to ensure that the course is as systematic as possible, including limiting access to portions of the digital portal until your text book arrives, there is still a sense of “oh crap, I have a lot of work to do” when you first start.

Unfortunately, it will be the case for any course of this magnitude. The majority of personal trainers who purchase this course will need to put in a significant amount of effort to become adept in basic business basics. Something you won’t learn in your physical therapy training.

The Validation

When you complete the Online Trainer Academy certification, you will receive a “Certified Online Trainer” badge to display on your website and marketing materials. While you may claim that this credential gives you an advantage over a rival trainer who does not have an OTA certificate, potential clients have no clue what an OTA is.

It would be good if the Certified Online Trainer badge linked to anything that informs potential clients about what they are getting themselves into. What is a certified trainer, and why should they pick one over an uncertified trainer?

It may possibly lead to a dedicated website with an overview or code of behavior that you would expect from a Certified Online Trainer.

There are no deadlines.

One advantage of the Online Trainer Academy course is that you may study at your own pace. That’s a nice thing for many individuals, but because the course is structured in such a manner that you have to go through the basics before getting to the meat (how to obtain customers), I believe many trainers delay and don’t get around to learning the course content and taking the exam.

While I’ve seen a lot of individuals finish the course (you can get updates in the Online Trainers Unite Facebook Group), some of them have done so nearly a year later. Perhaps there might be a course-like format in which participants log in at specific times.

While typing this, I realize what a gigantic logistical effort that would be. With time zones and hectic schedules, etc. It may also raise the price somewhat!

The Decision

I’ve discovered that the most effective online trainers utilize online training to supplement their existing customer service and better serve them. They’re not striving to be “location independent” or “financially free”. Although this does occur in some circumstances.

I believe they recognize that when it comes to training, internet training is not the same as face-to-face instruction.

Sure, you may combine the two and develop hybrid models for your clients, but the actual service delivery you do online is significantly different from face-to-face instruction, thus the Online Training Academy is not for everyone.

Having said that, I believe the Online Trainer Academy is appropriate for personal trainers who:

Have at least one year of face-to-face experience with fitness programs. This is an absolute requirement. You don’t have enough experience to coach people online if you can’t instruct them in front of you. A certificate is insufficient, and online learning is not what you require right now.
Choose a specialty. This is discussed in Module 2, but if you simply coach generic customers with no specific objective in mind, what’s to stop them from going to bodybuilding.com and downloading one of their hundreds of free workouts? With a well-defined specialization, you may become an expert, and experts are more valuable.
You should have some marketing expertise. While the Online Trainer Academy marketing lectures are simple to understand, some marketing expertise would be beneficial. This is primarily to moderate your expectations and keep less tech-savvy PTs from becoming overwhelmed.
Can produce content. It makes little difference if the material is in the form of blogs, emails, Facebook postings, tweets, video, or a podcast. You must find a method to add value.
Establish a marketing budget (optional). The Facebook advertisements lesson is one of the most useful marketing courses in the course. Spending $5 a day for a month ($150) is the quickest method to get new clients and so cashflow into your business.

Of course, there will be exceptions to the advice above, and the final decision will be yours. Even if you do not meet any of the aforementioned qualifications, the business lessons alone are definitely worth the price.

If you’ve been considering purchasing the OTA course, I hope my Online Trainer Academy review has been helpful. You may learn more about the course and join up using this link 😉

Options for Online Trainer Academies

Note: I was invited to participate and write the website design component for the Online Trainer Academy from the initial draft of this blog. I’m now a contributor and will get compensated if you click on one of the links in the review.