We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tim Liu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tim below.

Alright, Tim thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

In the early days of my career, I was a full time personal trainer. I worked from 6am and coached until 8pm on some days.

It was fine when starting off, but after doing it for a while it became unsustainable because of the long work hours.

Eventually I got burnt out and needed to leverage my time better so I can make this my career for years to come.

So I had to go into business for myself and be my own boss instead of working for somebody else.

The first step I took was building a social media page and having a website designed for me. That way people can see the work I do and there’s established credibility.

The key challenges I faced when going into business for myself is figuring out how to set up the systems and to market myself for lead gen.

When you go to school and study, nobody teaches you the business aspect.

So trying to figure out how to create content, what are the best marketing practices to get eyeballs on you, and to have a referral system was something I struggled with in the beginning.

Looking back at it, I would’ve started earlier and studied what the most successful people were doing in my field and putting my own spin into it.

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 first got into fitness when I was 18.

I grew up overweight during my childhood and wanted to make a serious change in my life.

My mother had passed away from stomach cancer when I was 9 years old and I knew that diet was crucial in maintaining your health and well-being.

So I decided to major in nutrition in college and learned everything I could about proper diet and exercise. After training hard and eating right my freshman year, I lost most of the weight I had gained during my childhood and felt better than I have ever before. I was more confident, I fit better into my clothes and wasn’t winded anymore going on random walks.

Along the way during my undergrad, I ended up getting certified as a personal trainer. Health and fitness became my passion and I wanted to help as many people as I can to improve their lives. Once I got certified, I began training as soon as I graduated.

So now I work as an online fitness coach, helping busy men and women all around the world lose weight and keep it off in a healthy and sustainable way.

What sets me apart from other coaches is that I understand the lifestyle that most of my clients live. I don’t promote eating like a bird, juice cleanses or chicken and broccoli in each meal.

I also don’t promote working out 6 times a week because fitness should enhance your life, but not be your entire life.

I’m proud of the fact that I’ve been able to change hundreds of lives and help so many people become healthy and get the body that have wanted for so long.

Have you ever had to pivot?

During 2015 I was an assistant manager of a private health club after doing full time personal training.

It was a dead-end position with no room for growth and it wasn’t fulfilling at all.

After being with the company for 2 years, they had to let me go due to budget cuts. So I immediately went back to in personal training while putting in the work to grow my online coaching business.

I hired a web designer to create my site, and also a business coach on how to start my practice.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Understanding marketing to your ideal customer and not worrying about what your peers would think.

It’s easy to create content or to market your services in a way to impress other fitness coaches, but that doesn’t grow your business at all.

As professionals sometimes we feel like we have to be respected by other people in your field, but at the end of the day they don’t pay your bills, your customers do.

Provide a good service to your clients, get them results, and create the types of content that would want them to work with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.timliufitness.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/timliufitness
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/timotheusliu/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timliufitness/