This past weekend I went to the IDEA Personal Trainer's Institute South fitness convention. It's the first time IDEA had a convention in Texas and I was thrilled for the opportunity to learn and earn continuing education credits for my fitness certifications in Dallas. I travel to attend the big IDEA world convention every year and I loved the smaller, more intimate setting in my own backyard. But I won't even mention the outrageous parking fees at the hotel. Oops, I mentioned it. THURSDAY NIGHT: CREATE WOW IN YOUR BUSINESS AND LIFE WITH TODD DURKINThe convention kicked off on Thursday night with the energetic Todd Durkin. He is a studio owner, professional athlete trainer and motivational speaker from California. I met him last year at BlogFest and his energy is contagious.This was my mantra for 2018 when I made the decision to go part-time at my corporate job to pursue my passions: You have to give up the good to get great. This spoke to me.I felt like Todd was speaking to me directly with this slide. Seriously, how does he know I do all this? Because literally, almost everyone does.I left the conference after Todd's presentation fired up and ready to take on the weekend.YOUR BRAND IS YOUR STORY. TELL IT WITH TRINA GRAYFriday was the first full day of the conference and I was excited to get started. The first presentation of the day was with the inspiring Trina Gray. She owns multiple studios, was an engaging presenter with a lot of fantastic ideas. Her overarching message was to make sure that as trainers that we are celebrating our clients and not making our social media presence all about us (or our abs haha). Our story is really the story of our clients. We pay fitness forward by showing potential clients on social media what is possible for them through our current clients. SMART AND SUSTAINABLE MEAL PLANNING WITH ADAM FEITI was really excited about this presentation because Adam Feit is from Precision Nutrition and I am PN level 1 certified. His presentation was about structured meal plans, why they are not an effective strategy for most fat loss clients and how to help our clients plan their meals in a smarter, more sustainable manner that works in the real world. Good stuff. FAT LOSS STRATEGIES THAT REALLY WORK WITH ADAM FEITWhen I signed up for this class I didn't realize it was Adam teaching again. He is a funny and engaging presenter so I didn't mind sitting in two of his classes back to back. But in an ironic twist of events, between classes I was hungry so I bought a bag of trail mix that I intended to eat over the next two days, and instead ate the whole bag at once. I felt a little sick during this presentation about fat loss. He made us play an ice-breaker "game" (games are supposed to be fun) where we had to tell someone we didn't know one lie and one truth about ourselves. I honestly almost didn't go to the second presentation because I knew he did it in his first and would probably repeat it. I don't mind introducing myself to other people and I wanted to meet other fitness professionals, but I hate those silly games. Just tell me about yourself. I'm sure it's just me.I ended skipping my last presentation of the day heading home early. Stupid trail mix and ice-breaker games.MARKETING YOUR TRAINING BUSINESS WITH TREVOR ACKERMANSaturday morning, after a good night's sleep my stomach settled and I was ready to take on a new day. My first presentation of the morning was Trevor's Marketing Your Training Business presentation. He talked a little about online marketing strategies and we workshopped some ideas in each stage of the selling process. It was fun to work together with some of the other fit pros. STABILITY VS MOBILITY-WHICH COMES FIRST WITH BRIAN RICHEYI sat in marketing and nutrition classes so far, so I was excited about a fitness-focused seminar. This was a fun and engaging hands-on workshop, I even volunteered when he asked for a participant for a shoulder demonstration. I should have asked someone to take a picture. He walked us through some stability and mobility assessments we can do with our clients.ASSESSMENT ESSENTIALS FOR OPTIMAL RESULTS WITH BILLY POLSONThis was my favorite presentation of the weekend. Billy reviewed his assessment procedure for new clients and gave us his template to follow. He stressed how the assessment can set you apart from other trainers and offer individualized programs that will deliver the best results for our clients. I always do a quick NASM-style assessment with my clients, but his assessments are much more in-depth and comprehensive. I need to dig deeper but Billy opened up my mind and set the foundation for further research. I also learned during the assessments that I have a lot of work to do on my own body. Yikes.THE PERFECT WEBSITE FORMULA FOR FIT PROS WITH VITO LA FATAThis was my last presentation of the day on Saturday and I seriously considering skipping again and heading home early because the exhaustion was setting in. I'm glad I didn't. I knew of Vito La Fata from his Fitnesspreneur's Life podcast and I was looking forward to his talk. I've been a fitness blogger a lot longer than I've been a trainer, so I felt like I was a few steps ahead in the website department. However, after Vito's presentation and talking with him a bit, I realized I was missing an important piece of the puzzle on my site, which I am looking forward to implementing. He even offered to do a site review, so I am looking forward to chatting with him more about my site www.leagendersfitness.comEASY ONLINE INCOME STREAMS FOR TRAINERS WITH VITO LA FATAI had a BOSU seminar on my schedule because I have a BOSU ball in the Shred Shed that is severely underutilized, but by Sunday I was so exhausted from the weekend, I couldn't image a two-hour workshop that would require me to exercise (haha). I was physically too tired. Since I enjoyed Vito's talk from the night before, settling into a presentation about income streams with a large coffee seemed more inviting. Vito showed me I'm thinking too small. While I do have multiple income streams currently, he shared a lot of practical ideas to grow income in those areas and some I haven't considered yet. I have a lot of work to do and I had an epiphany about a hole in the market which both excites and scares me. More to come...MOVE AWAY FROM BACK PAIN WITH CHUCK WOLFSunday was a half day, so this was my last seminar on the last day. I'll admit my motivation for attending this conference was selfish, I hurt my lower back rowing at the gym and looking for solutions for myself. There were times the science was over my head (Chuck Wolf is a smart, experienced guy) but I walked away with a lot of practical solutions and insights. Of all the sessions I attended, this one gave a couple of the most useful tools that I can immediately start implementing with my clients. And I thought I was attending just for selfish reasons. Head. Exploded. In a good way. These kinds of conferences spark the fire of knowledge, but it's now my job to stoke the flames. If I sit in a conference and just collect my CEUs I won't get very far. If I take what I learned as a foundation and continue to build upon it with actions I'll get the most out of my experience. Thanks to all the great speakers for sharing their knowledge and expertise so we can all get better as an industry.I have a lot of work to do. Like this post? Please consider sharing.TweetKeep Running,LeaDoes your running partner have four legs? Ways to (legally) stalk me:Follow my blog with BloglovinSaveSave
