We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cheri Fogleman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cheri, appreciate you joining us today. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.
My business came together over the course of 22 years. As a lot of people in the health and fitness service industry, I started by working for someone else, and then someone else, and then still someone else. Only in the past 2 years or so have I worked solely for myself. However, because I worked for other companies for so long, I knew very little about running a business. I have handfuls of certifications and 22 years of experience personal training and teaching fitness, but only a few years experience running my own business. And as it turns out, I was doing it horribly! Last year I found a coaching service that works with independent private trainers, like myself, and I signed on for their 6 month business and marketing course. It was a total shift and exactly what I needed to run my business well. There are still some hiccups, but on the whole, things are trending up. Much like personal training, this coaching service gave me structure and accountability and a whole lot of guidance. I highly recommend working with a business coach to strengthen your business.
Cheri, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
A lot of things needed to fall in place for me to realize how and why I needed to specialize for my business. I’ve been a personal trainer for 22 years and worked at a fancy high-end gym in NYC for 14 years (CLAY Health Club and Spa), but it wasn’t until I moved from NY seven years ago (but needed to still train clients there) that I figured out how to use FaceTime and then Zoom to work with clients that I wasn’t physically in the same room with. Then, during the pandemic I realized that so many folks were stuck in their homes without resources for exercise–some were beginners, some were recovering from Covid–that I developed my Super Beginner Zoom Class. I’ve been a group fitness instructor for many years and even taught on Daily Burn’s live fitness show, DB365, for five years, but most fitness classes assume a certain level of fitness ability, understanding and experience. I really wanted to strip all that away and simplify things for someone extremely new to fitness or someone working their way back from square one. My class (which I teach from my home studio, aka my living room), starts as a chair workout, and without equipment. We work on range of motion, coordination, endurance, strength, and balance. I offer it as an alternative to “feel the burn” boot-camp style workouts, and as a way to gently ease into fitness. But, I also focus on traditional strength training moves, so that students can learn proper form for moves that they’ll encounter in other classes, like squats, lunges and upper-body strength moves. I have students who have back concerns, are recovering from surgeries, recovering from accidents, recovering from Covid, have long-Covid, are pregnant or post-partum, have long-term health concerns, and those who just take this class as a gentler recovery day workout and those who take for a few weeks before they move on to more challenging classes. It was really important to me to make fitness accessible, and becasue of that I offer the class on a pay-what-you-will basis, and as I mentioned, without needing equipment. Even post-pandemic, it’s still a class that I teach via Zoom, so you don’t have to have a gym membership or even leave your home to start on your fitness journey. I also record the classes and email them out to folks who aren’t availilble to take it live. I’ve spent a lot of time really looking at all the barriers that folks encounter to fitness, and my goal is to help dissolve those barriers.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Word of mouth, supported by a strong social media presence has really been at the root of growing my clientele. Of course, client referrals are amazing, and I have had to learn to ask for these. But, beyond that, once you decide how you are specializing within your field it behooves you position yourself as that expert, publicly. For example, I am not just doing remote personal training, and group fitness, but specifically remote personal training and group fitness for folks new and returning to fitness. So, as much as possible, I try to post about my work and also my fitness philosophies (fitness to support wellness, as opposed to trying to look a certain way). I’m not aiming to sell my services to my friends, I’m aiming to bring awareness to all my friends (and social media contacts) as the go-to expert in starting back to fitness, so that when someone mentions that they want to get fit and feel better, people think of me and have said “You really should reach out to Cheri to see how she can help you with that.”
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
I found it invaluable to have a business coach (even for just 6 months!) We really revamped how I run my business and it really provided me with accountability and consistency with my marketing and business practices. Now that I’m no longer working with a coach, instead of going back to my old ways, I teamed up with an accountability buddy. This is a person who worked with the same coaching program that I did. We meet up every two weeks and review what we’ve been working on, challenge each other with things to work on, and brainstorm ideas on how to creatively improve visibility of our businesses. It used to feel kind of dirty to prioritize marketing in this way, but ultimately I’m trying to help more people move better and live longer, stronger and more fulfilling lives–and that’s not a dirty thing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bodybycheri.com
- Instagram: @bodybycheri
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheri.fogleman/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheri-paige-fogleman-8356b910/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yykhR6XR9Pc&t=7s
- Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/cheripaigefogleman?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=474c42b9-cf6d-42a2-9fdc-9d305aea8833
Image Credits
The group shot is to be credited to Ryan Kelly Other photos credit to David Lang