The Misconception of Passion In Personal Training

This episode tackles one of the most common (and damaging) pieces of advice in the fitness industry:

👉 “Just be passionate about fitness.”

Passion is great — but it gets weaponised. A lot of new trainers believe that loving fitness will automatically lead to clients, success, and a sustainable career. It won’t.

In fact, the most passionate trainers often fail first — because they bring outsized expectations into a job that’s mostly about business skills, not training.

This episode breaks down why passion can become a trap, how mismatched expectations create disappointment → resentment → burnout, and how to build a long-term PT career by separating love of fitness from skill in running a fitness business.

Key Topics Covered

• How “follow your passion” gets weaponised in the fitness industry

• Why passion doesn’t guarantee you can monetise something (or that you’re good at it)

• Why the most passionate trainers often fail first

• The expectation gap: trainer standards vs client reality

• How disappointment turns into resentment (and why that kills careers)

• Why clients get overwhelmed by “too full-on” trainers

• The Client Level System (Level 1 / 2 / 3)

• Why Level 1 clients shouldn’t be trained like Level 3 trainers

• The real job: business skills (marketing, sales, admin, systems)

• How to avoid resenting fitness by getting better at business execution

The Core Idea

Passion for fitness is not the same as skill in running a fitness business.

A PT business requires you to spend most of your time on things like:

• Marketing & content

• Sales calls & follow-up

• Payments & admin

• Systems & retention

If you go into PT thinking you’ll spend your days just training people… you’ll get frustrated fast.

Why Passionate Trainers Often Fail First

The pattern looks like this:

1. Trainer expects clients to match their enthusiasm

2. Clients don’t (because they’re not Level 3)

3. Trainer gets disappointed

4. Disappointment becomes resentment

5. Trainer criticises the client or gets burnt out

6. Clients leave

7. Trainer quits

The Client Level System (Simple Framework)

Level 1:
Beginner clients who aren’t passionate about the gym. They want an outcome (fat loss, confidence, health) but don’t love training yet and have low skill.

Level 3:
Highly invested clients (often like trainers). They enjoy training, have experience, and can handle more complexity, structure, and technical depth.

The mistake: treating Level 1 like Level 3.
That’s where “macro plans, supplements, complicated programming, and high expectations” crash into reality.

What To Do Instead

To build a long-term career:

• Stay passionate about fitness, but…

• Become passionate about building a business, too

• Identify the skills you’re missing:

  • sales

  • marketing

  • systems

  • communication

• Build competence so “running the business” doesn’t ruin what you originally loved

Final Takeaway

Don’t confuse:

• being passionate about fitness
  with

• being capable of running a fitness business

They’re two different things — and treating them as the same will burn you out.