We were lucky to catch up with Justin Perkins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Justin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Being successful comes in many different forms. You have to work to be successful you can’t just sleep and think you will wake up and boom you made it no big dawg it doesn’t work like that. You gotta put in the work, time, dedication, and consistency. Especially those last two without being Dedicated to something what’s your purpose for doing it? If you’re not consistent how will you excel at it? I don’t get why some people think you can have one without the other you need both. When I look at the successful people of the world they all have 1 thing in common and that’s the will to always want to be better every waking day. Everyone wants to be the GOAT until it’s time to wake up before 5 am and get busy. Everyone has an IDEA and wants to do this and that with not one fiber in their body telling them to just go for it the fear of failure is what’s holding a lot back and I will say Failing is part of the process of being successful without failure you aren’t even giving your self a chance to make it work for you.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For those who don’t know me, my name is Justin Perkins; I’m from Maryland, born and raised. I was not one of those kids who grew up the best Some of the kids at school made fun of me because my mom didn’t make money to buy us new things, and my dad was in prison and still is to this day.

My mother worked with special needs way back when it wasn’t cool to have a heart for others.

Ultimately, it was a blessing in disguise because I grew up in a very hostile environment (The Park).

We never had much money, but we always seemed to get by. My mother emphasized education and a lot of reading. I used to play football to keep out of trouble and read all my coach’s plays while trying to make my own plays in my notebook for fun in the summer after walking home every day from football practice.

I have been in the fitness world since I can remember. I have been an athlete my entire life, from playing Football to running track. I became a fitness specialist because I love to help people see their actual potential way beyond their beliefs. Also, being an online fitness specialist and fitness coach, I have a much further reach and bigger audience to put myself in a position to help more than just the ones around me. I love helping people who are just like I was not too long ago. Nobody is born knowing how to be in elite shape. Nobody is born knowing the secrets to being physically appealing.

But the cool thing is all that can be learned. In fact, a lot of times, it’s easier for people with no experience because they don’t have to UNLEARN anything. They just need to jump into action.

My discipline comes from understanding that every day that I wake up, I am competing with someone else. Every day theirs, someone waking up on the same playing field, and the only people that survive are the mentally strong, so yes, I have to wake up a little bit earlier, and I have to work a little bit later, or I have to take just that much extra time out of my day in order to stay a step ahead of anyone around me.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

People think that anyone can become a trainer. Like, you just need to sit and instruct (clients) to do this and that and move to push your body in a specific way.

Not a lot of people know how to take the in-person training sessions and coach their clients online, which is a huge challenge as I can’t see the client all the time.

So now I have to have my clients held accountable for their actions, so if you want results, you have to teach your clients how to be accountable for it, and then you have to figure out how to get your message across to them.

And not a lot of people know how to do that, especially when you can’t talk to your client all the time or see him face to face. So, if I am like, oh you have to do this specific workout or this stretch, people will look at it and be like, I don’t know what to do.

So if you are using an Excel sheet and sending a piece of paper workout or a pdf workout, it’s not going to work! The client doesn’t know what a hack squat is, and I can’t tell him how to do a hack squat on a piece of paper.

But if you learn the online training methods like if you are able to create and send videos, you can demonstrate the workout, as you know, that this is the proper form. And that’s how you keep them engaged.

I’ve already done the training in person. I’ve done online training. So, I wanted to give back to people. I want to give back to the community, especially the fitness industry, which led me to the life I live now.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

On my journey to being a successful online fitness specialist, I learn you can’t take everyone with you, and you have to be able to say no to family and friends because not everyone has your best interest. Not everyone is on the same page as you. That was the hardest lesson I’ve learned because you can not take everyone’s advice. It’s just not possible. Some people will give advice off of them being too scared to jump into the Lion’s Den and face every challenge. Some people are just not built for adversity like yourself, so I had to learn that yes, you can listen but know what you can and can’t hold on to in order to keep pushing forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: Liondentraining.com
• Instagram: Justinperkins_377
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustinPerkins377?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: justinperkins_377
• Other: Justinperkins377.net