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

Patryk, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

Out of grad school I accepted a job at a big box gym. I was earning $10 an hour out of grad school. I know most people would’ve considered that to not be a good opportunity but the experience I gained from that job helped with my career and business going forward. I declined a job that offered to pay me almost double in exchange for personal training at that big box gym. While making my whopping salary of less than $24,000 a year I gained a lot of experience in marketing, sales, promotion, and operations. I treated this job as a paid internship and took it seriously. I learned how to get clients by walking the floor, setting up tables with supplements to build rapport with members that eventually became clients, gained experience with sales. I also learned how big box gyms operate and took methods they used into my business. Most importantly, I got to sharpen my skills as a nutrition coach and trainer. I became better at the art of coaching by improving my assessment methodlogy, coaching style, and programming. I learned that itisn’t always about the poaycheck but the opportunity and what you make of it.

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?

I’m a fitness director at a gym and an owner of a personal training business that does both online and remote coaching for nutrition & fitness. I predominantly focus on strength based coaching that integrates strength, conditioning, and nutrition coaching. I have a masters in nutrition and exercise science, bachelors in dietetics, and im a certified strength and conditoning specialist, NSCA personal trainer, PN Level 1 Nutrition Coach, and soon to be registered dietitian. I work with a lot of general fitness and weight loss clients but predominantly focus on body recomposition and strength. I help people get stronger, feel better, and add muscle. I’m most proud of some of my clients achievements. I work with muay thai fighters, mma fighters, jiu jitsu grapplers, powerlifters, and even an olympic qualifying speed skater. Most of my clients however are just everyday athletes looking to be strong and look jacked.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media was always tough for me but the biggest thing that helped was posting consistently. I didn’t try to make each post perfect. I realized pretty quick how chasing perfection was really an excuse to avoid the work. Just post and post often, find ways to help people. I don’t have a huge audience (1200 or so followers at the time of this post) but I have some hard core fans which is awesome for my brand.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

In person networking and referrals have worked the best for me. I’ve partnered with ym kickboxing gym recently and that’s been a great source of clients. In the past, people just knew me as the workout guy and they would ask me for training. Just ‘Being about it’ I think is important. When people associate you with a task or skill, it becomes a lot easier to get clients. I’m working on more ways to get out in the community and build a good base of clients through guerilla marketing like pop ups, flyers, business card, and good ole fashioned word of mouth. It’s been effective for me and it seems more fun then spending the time or money on google ads and competing with bigger players. I’d rather be “The Guy” Locally!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://integritperformance.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/integritperformance/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patryk-piekarczyk/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPyAL-Ot4_8t40yUFEpKOAQ