We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bradford Shreve a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bradford, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience moments when the entire field takes a U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.

Over ten years as a personal trainer in NYC I had built up a great resume working for the leading brands in the industry; Equinox, LifeTime, Men’s Health, Daily Burn and was a part of a start up brand Brrrn. In all these experiences I tried to stand out from the norms and bring something unique and different to the field.
What I came to learn was that unless I was serving the corporate vision, my uniqueness was a liability. In each case there was a honeymoon period when everything was great. Then there would follow a slow grind where I had the feeling of being a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Eventually that tension would break and I would leave the big corporate brands behind.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a one on one personal trainer who focuses on functional training. I specialize in bodyweight training as well as weightlifting combined with principles and practices from yoga. The goal is to be as strong as possible and as flexible as possible. Most of my clients are older, many in their retirement years, which has given me a unique perspective of what kind of fitness is most important for longevity and quality of life.

Have you ever had to pivot?

For me Covid was a great catalyst for change in my career. The big corporate gyms shut down and suddenly I had clients that I had trained from years past reach out to me to continue training. Soon my schedule was populated by dedicated clients who knew my value and continue to be consistent and regular clients. I’m lucky that I never had to spend time on outreach to find new clients; I had planted enough seeds over the years that dedicated clients came to me.

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

I’ve found that being authentic and genuine has been the key to my success as a trainer. It was a liability when I tried to represent big corporate gyms/brands but over time it has become my biggest strength in my one on one training. Rather than spending time marketing online and doing outreach, I have sustained my practice through client retention and word of mouth. That only happens if the client believes in the product or experience.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bradford_fitness_journey