Fitness Professional Online Show : 029 – Warren Martin
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fitness-blitz-radio/id1385238100
Welcome to the Fitness Professional Online Radio Show where you get access to fitness industry news, tips and insights from professionals around the world. Visit us at FitnessProfessionalOnline.com and now, your host, Doug Holt.
Doug Holt: Hello everyone and welcome to the Fitness Professional Online Show. I am your host, Doug Holt. I’m excited to be back in the side with you again in this new spring year. We have Warren Martin on the line with us today. And for those of you that know Warren, I’m sure you’re extremely excited to hear what he has to say and what he’s up to in 2015. If you don’t know Warren, this is definitely an episode you’re going to want to check out.
Warren is one of those fitness professionals that I could spend all day talking to not only about business development, what it means to be a trainer in today’s age, as well as what the journey is to get to where he is today. Warren is just a great all-around professional and somebody that I’m very proud of to have in our industry.
There’s lots going on with Fitness Professional Online. We’ve got some unique partnerships coming down the pipe as well as a new website. Our goal with the new website is really to bring a voice and grow the fitness community together. So if you’re interested in becoming a featured expert, please let us know.
Also, we’re opening up our mastermind groups. And our platinum mastermind group is closed but our other mastermind group, we got an exciting innovation coming that I don’t think has been done before in our industry and I haven’t seen it done before in any other industry. If you are interested in more details, go ahead and just email me directly and I’ll go ahead and set you up. Otherwise, wait for the announcement, I’ll be announcing it on the show, as well as the Fitness Professional Online website and my personal website, DougHoltOnline.com. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump into the call with Warren.
Hi, Warren. Thank you so much for joining us today. It’s a pleasure to have you on.
Warren Martin: I really appreciate it.
Doug Holt: Well for our listeners that haven’t had a chance to get to know you, tell us a little about yourself.
Warren Martin: My name is Warren Martin, live here in Arkansas, a 6-tall with an accent. I’ve been in the industry for about 15 years. Prior to that, I was in the marine corps. Always been involved in fitness even to high school sports. Went into college, started a business degree, decided didn’t want to sit behind the desk because I love fitness so much and I always try to help everyone out with fitness and decided that going to fitness field.
From there, spend to the grind about educating myself and just trying to grow my business. I work with youth, is my passion. I like really working with them, the athletes. I do have the typical body transformation clients, clients with knee pain, back pain and I’ve worked up with pro-level athletes as well.
Doug Holt: I think you’re being humble with your background, your past phrase. But you’re also a bestselling author, you’ve been seen on a lot of ABC, NBCC, CBS, Fox affiliates around the nation talking about fitness.
Warren Martin: Yeah.
Doug Holt: As well as a whole slew of things. So I have respect and appreciate your humbleness but let’s everybody know that you’re the real deal and you’ve been in this industry for a long time and you’ve proven it.
Warren Martin: Yeah. I’ve been also published in 12 other books which I used in my programs and stuff but the main thing is the internet, it’s what I am trying to improve right now is more of online and not the nuts and bolts in the gym. Here in Arkansas, it’s not a big city, so trying to grow on that accept.
Doug Holt: As anybody listening to the show knows, the internet is my specialty and we can talk about that a little bit as we get into the show and give some insights and stuff to those listening as well. But let’s dive a little bit deeper. How did you get where you are today. Obviously, you didn’t want the desk job, you had a passion for fitness. But let’s look back and how did Warren get to where he is today? How did you get so successful?
Warren Martin: Man, I’ve started at just a typical gym. Went in, just praying for a job. In my resume, it was in sales, sales, and memberships. I have always had the mentality of not expecting to be at the top at the beginning, I had to really work for it. That was driven in me as a child but also through the military as well. So I just went to the grind, I got lucky.
My two main mentors at the beginning, I was introduced to Apex Fitness Group. I don’t think they’re together anymore but kind of got into the science side of nutrition, that was back when Atkin’s diet was around and all these mythical diets and they were really science-based so it really intrigued me.
And I got through across NASM, that’s around 2000. So they weren’t really big then. And truthfully, when I took on those more science-based things, I was left out a lot. And with thong rolling and making sure you’re getting enough carbohydrates and everyone was like, “Carbs are bad.” I look like the demon there but I stuck with it because I really believed in science and that’s one thing, it doesn’t bend. That’s one thing I teach a lot of the trainers I try to help is, “You stick to your guns when it comes to science. But you always end up on the right side if you stick with that.”
I was just on a mission to always just try to improve myself as far as education goes. We get clients. I would kind of do test studies on myself. For a client quit, I would literally call them up and ask them “What was the reasoning? It won’t hurt my feelings, it’s just for me to know what to do to improve my programs,” and that’s what got me into corrective exercise, sports performance, all these different genres, certifications that I have gotten.
Right now, I’m currently a little bit more getting into the psychology part of things at something I never really got into a lot other than through sales and stuff but that brought me today. I came across with the media side of things like the books and magazines I’ve been published in and through Nick Nanton is his name but that kind of got me started on the marketing and stuff like that.
Doug Holt: That’s a huge component that a lot of our trainers that write into me about the show were always asking about not as my as the psychological component, although I think that’s probably 70 percent of what the trainer should be doing. I mean our field is motivating people and getting into their psyche so they can do stuff when they’re not with us for those few hours a week.
Warren Martin: Yes.
Doug Holt: But that marketing side and it seems like you’ve done a really good job. I mean you’re active on Twitter, you’re active on Facebook and your Facebook group. I just looked at your post, “Do you walk the walk or do you just talk the talk?” which I thought that was a fantastic post you put up there.
Warren Martin: Yeah. Just trying to get more in the psyche part of it. You know, not just walking the walk of the things that you tell your trainer or you tell people. It’s when you’re alone at the house and you’re telling your own self-something that you might have told someone and walking the walk there because that kind of things, people don’t really know that you’re going for it so it’s easy to back away from it or wait for later and those are the things that really matter.
Doug Holt: It’s kind of like putting out your goals for 2015 on Facebook where everybody can see them, huh?
Warren Martin: Yeah, let them be known.
Doug Holt: You do. And you do and you have a great video on there that I watched, talking about what you have upcoming in 2015. Tell us a little bit about that.
Warren Martin: Yeah. It’s getting into, the market so over saturated with fitness from all the bogus stuff to also good stuff. Consumers on us to get really dull when they see stuff online, they don’t know what’s real, what they should go for. And this last, I went to a mastermind and I got a chance to meet a guy that’s in the film. And so I decided to get into that aspect to things. I’m kind of control-freak.
So instead of hiring someone right off the bat to do the filming, I kind of learn about it. And so I’m trying to learn about that. And it’s going to help me when I design program and I help other trainers on them learning aspect. Probably you’re in the same bow. When we first started, there wasn’t tons of help with marketing or directing on what path to take in your career. So it took us more time. And now, with all the technology, these new guys pretty much could fast-forward. But there is also problem with that I feel is it tends to allow new trainers to skip some steps that’s really essential in their success.
So it took us more time. And now, with all the technology, these new guys pretty much could fast-forward. But there is also problem with that I feel is it tends to allow new trainers to skip some steps that’s really essential in their success.
So through the videos, on my business side, I want to make some workout videos that more in-depth, not the general kind of thing where workouts that just make you sweat, it’s going to be more individualized. From the movement assessment, to the corrective exercise to whatever area they want to work on. Whether it’s a body-builder type or fitness competitor type or an athlete that has ankle mobility problems or this new mom that has now anterior toe in their pelvis and she wants to get those abs back.
And at the same time, I’m kind of make it to where a trainer could look at it and learn from it as well. More on realized situations, how to apply quickly to new clients. That’s one thing.And Arkansas, we don’t have this synergy of trainers really talking with one another, so I want to get that going. So I got it, in an hour right now, mic and some recording stuff to start that journey hopefully getting more of us around here in Arkansas, talking, exchanging ideas. And I have a lot of resources like you and John [10:25] and a lot of people in the fitness field. I could direct them towards that as well and hopefully help them out.
Doug Holt: That’s fantastic and you know I’m always here for you. And I think, any synergy that can be happening the fitness field is good. When I started out there, there wasn’t a place for people to go to exchange ideas and information and that’s back early on. That’s why, I originally came up with the Fitness Professional Online is I wanted there to be a free resource where people could go and not have to just pay a fee or a membership to learn how to help people.
Warren Martin: Yeah.
Doug Holt: Yeah, I’m always here for you, man, you know that. I love to see what you come up with. You’ve told us a lot about some of your successes and one of the things that I loved that you mentioned is how easy it is now for newer trainers especially to jump ahead so to speak but also they’re skipping steps, they’re missing some of those failures that you and I probably gone through that really were our learning experiences. Tell us about a time that you felt like you hit an impenetrable wall where you thought, “Oh, man. This is it. I’ve hit the wall. I don’t know if I’m going to push through or not and then found a way to make it around.”
Warren Martin: Yeah. Man, it still happens.
Doug Holt: You’re human, huh?
Warren Martin: I’m the type that when I feel stagnant, I want to always be moving forward through training and stuff, there’s a lot of repetition. And I know in the client’s eyes and the people I talked to in the eyes it’s not repetitive but to me it is. So that’s why I’m always on that journey to try to keep on learning, find new things.
I’ve been at three gyms and each time I transferred through those was just hard times, either conflicts, business conflicts. I was like, “Oh, man. What am I going to do?” That was really that low part the first time helped me a lot to realize what I actually had. I am an modest guy because I’m always at the grind just trying to make things better and don’t realize to what level it’s at.
So education-wise, if a trainer tells me they’re stuck and I ask them, “Okay, what do you have on the table right now to learn more?” And they can’t tell me they’re learning more and to me is an excuse more than anything. We could always move forward. There’s so much information out there to help move forward. Back then, it was just, man, it was just going to the grind and never stopping. I mean even when you’re doing stuff and things aren’t happening, things don’t happen right away. The good things don’t happen right away, it takes time. It might take 2 years but if you keep on improving, you’ll be ahead of the game eventually because 99% of the people quit.
Doug Holt: Absolutely. It’s amazing that something we’ve talked about with our online mastermind group is trainers will plan a workout program for themselves and for their clients but they won’t necessarily have it planned or periodized so to speak, growth period for themselves but books they’re going to be reading, seminars attending or what areas that they need to fill.
Warren Martin: Yes. And that was one of my problems in the past too is I was just so overwhelmed with my business and I wasn’t really growing. And it’s so important that has to be budgeted into your time is “Do I develop myself?” because it turns out to be is when you develop yourself, it improves your business because professional online has a lot to deal with you. So the more you develop yourself, the better that business is. “The better I develop myself, the better my programs are.”
Doug Holt: Absolutely, it’s all interconnected. I totally agree. Well you talked about growth. What book for you that if you could think or one or maybe a couple that have made the biggest impact in your life and why?
Warren Martin: Truthfully, the biggest impacts, when I read a book or any literature I’m reading, I’m the type of a person, I want the main part right away. I love information. I’m more of getting into like an article-based or research-based so I’m getting as much information with the least amount of reading possible. So that’s where I get a lot of my info from is more research-based books or magazines.
I love reading other professionals, articles and their theories and methods and I like even seeing the things that don’t work. Think a lot of times people always searching for the things that work but you also want to hear from everyone because you want to know the things that don’t because that also has an impact on helping you going the right direction as well.
Doug Holt: I couldn’t agree more. It sounds like you like the meat. But give us a couple of resources that you use, were there magazines, websites that you in particularly enjoy?
Warren Martin: Yeah. I use one big one NSCA, they have those research book, magazines or I mean journals.
Doug Holt: Yeah.
Warren Martin: But they could get boring but there’s a lot of great information in there. NASM, I’ve used a lot. I like a lot of their research because they do level of evidence-based. So they tend to get a lot of good research put in there through certifications that’s why I have so many. There’s even more I need to get.
But again, I’m trying to get more into the marketing and video and stuff like that right now. I think for everyone, it’s a little bit different. It depends on what direction you want to go in your business because I listen to some other podcasts and some people believe you should be in one niche. I was always told to be in one niche and I just couldn’t fathom that.
Doug Holt: Yeah.
Warren Martin: I had to try to figure out a way to have a bigger niche of different populations. And so one idea is to have a solid template for everyone. For example, up to pro athlete, their goal is to not get hurt because they have the skills already and to maintain or maybe slightly improve what they have.
A youth, they’re developing but it’s the same kind of thing, movement patterns. It’s correcting any problems they have, working on that through their development or phases.
My transformation clients, same thing, what stops them from getting to their goals a lot of times is injury. So all those templates are kind of the same. They’re kind of bear-off so that’s what I kind of pride my programs off of is any population or person wants to come in, I could help them with it from A to Z.
Doug Holt: Well yeah, you had the educational background and it sounds like you’ve developed a foundation so to speak that you can bear-off from of course with progressions-regressions from those as well.
Warren Martin: Yeah.
Doug Holt: With having over a decade of experience in the industry, I like this question a lot because it sets the tone. But let’s just say you’re walking down the street one day and you turn the corner and lo and behold there’s a time machine. And you can step in that time machine, you do. And you go back in time when you talked to yourself in your first year as a trainer, what advice do you give your younger self?
Warren Martin: That’s a good question. I would had to say, “Reach out. First is don’t be intimidated to reach out to other professionals that are more experienced.” I never did it because I didn’t feel like I was to that caliber. I would say, that was the main thing and then reinvesting into my business. Whether it’s more even financially. There’s a lot of things, everything is not free. Professional Online is free but there’s a lot of things that actually give you a bigger return on your investment and I didn’t’ really understand that part of it. I just saw the investment part. I was like, “No, I can’t do it. I can’t afford it.” But now, I’m realizing over the last few years, there is a return on the correct stuff that you reinvest in. So the new trainers, they got to learn how to be that kind of business sense at the beginning.
Doug Holt: Yeah. I think what you said is it’s an investment, it’s not an expense. That’s the big difference.
Warren Martin: Yeah.
Doug Holt: The investment is going to pay you back. So when you’re talking about getting out more online, this is something that’s really something to me as someone that does a lot of online marketing for my other business. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to get out online so you can sell your programs or you’re looking at marketing yourself online or you’re looking at training people online?
Warren Martin: I have 70 clients, like every week, I still get calls. I’m trying to come up with Mike. I am going to come up because I got a plan about a system to get new clients but to use the more video side of things online and then helping other trainers out, programs, the same kind of module set with those. These more on that side of things, products, stuff like that.
My website, I had a lot of information, that’s why I probably going to be talking to you a lot is setting up the products and how to do the websites and stuff like that. On my website, I designed all of that. I spenT hours try to learn how to use WordPress and pictures and all that stuff.
Doug Holt: Good for you. You can definitely get intensive over time. I did the same thing probably almost 20 years ago. WordPress wasn’t around then but same idea.
Warren Martin: Mine is a huge overhaul. It definitely needs to be improved and being more efficient. Efficiency is the thing.
Doug Holt: I’ll have someone on my team doing that for you and send it over it to you. No problem. So don’t worry about that. In your opinion, what the biggest challenge right now for the fitness industry?
Warren Martin: I think the clutter because I do get a lot of people just trying to get into the industry, see how big it is now and it’s growing every year. Think, here it is, Arkansas is number three based to the rate and there’s more fast-food places and restaurants opening up here every week. But I think there’s a lot of confusion on where they should find the info from and the availability of like knowing the trainers here in Arkansas knowing about what you provide or what I provide. They don’t know really where to look. The first thing is the certifications but it kind of ends up being the dead-end unless they really research it or come across someone that knows and tells them about it.
Doug Holt: And that brings me I guess to another question for you and I’d love to hear your thoughts because I answer this question on a weekly basis. I mean there’s over 300 certifications nowadays. Obviously, some people say, the big five, the big ten, the big fifteen. If a trainer came up to you today and said, “You know what, Warren, I love fitness. I love helping people. Either I do or don’t have a college degree, what certification do I start with?”
Warren Martin: Yeah. It depends on their timeline. If they needed to try and get in there and get a job at the gym. I kind of partial in NASM and the reason is just they learn enough to actually start applying to clients. The truth, I haven’t really looked in that, I’m sure all the others above graded everything since I did it. But I think them learning human movement and understanding that part is the big thing. Because I see a lot get certifications and then they’re in the gym not doing anything they learned. They’re just using that piece of paper.
If someone walks in the gym they say, “Oh, you’re certified.” They’re putting all their trust into that trainer. The trainer is not using any of the information that they got. So I see a lot of that because it’s easy to earn trust when someone walks in the gym and you work for the gym. So I think it’s the trainer’s responsibility to make sure they’re always trying to improve off of what they had learned, never be satisfied from getting a certification. The same thing with getting a college degree. I don’t believe, because you have a college degree that you’re the best in whatever you got a degree in. It’s about always trying to move forward. So whether you go ACE or ACSM or whatever the case is, you immediately should be looking for another one and on what direction you want to go.
For me, the second one is sports performance. I did that because I wanted to learn about movement and then I went to corrective exercise because I know clients would have knee pains and they wouldn’t come in especially my overweight clients. So it’s like, “Okay, I got to get rid of them quitting,” so that’s why I went to corrective exercise initially.
And then into the athletes, that’s my big niche. It’s why I get a lot of youth also is because there’s really no one in Arkansas that specializes in corrective exercise and movement patterns for youth. It’s dumb time. I’m like, that would be thing that I would do. I see a lot of speed schools and stuff that there are more lined out. They just making them do certain exercises and on to the next one, you know.
Doug Holt: Yeah.
Warren Martin: So I see that as a big issue in the industry. But again, it comes down to more ethical. You get into fitness, you could make money in all different ways. It’s whether you’re going to just get the trust off of “I’ll go with youth.” These are to get trust off of parent if you promise them the kids are going to be faster when they’re 10-years-old. Well, I tell them, my parents, like I said, “I have your kid mowing the yard and in one year, they’re going to be faster.”
Doug Holt: I love it.
Warren Martin: Because they grew up. They got [24:59] to me. So you’re going to say, mow in the yard made them faster. So a lot of these speed schools depend on that to say that their program improved them. And reality is, is the kids are always improving as they age. They’re just getting older and their motor skills are improving. It’s all about preventing that injury, teaching them as an athlete what they need to know in movement and muscle usage and plains of motion and all those things. And then, as they get older, they start understanding it more, less injury, higher performance, you know, snowball effect.
Doug Holt: Absolutely. I love what you just said because so many people don’t say it in our industry especially regarding youth and athletic performance.
Warren Martin: Yeah.
Doug Holt: Just by growing up and getting bigger in hormones and the bone structure developing, they should be faster. If they’re not, there’s a whole another set of problems there.
Warren Martin: Exactly.
Doug Holt: Someone else move on. Your media, I love your social media and what you’re doing with social media. Your Facebook page gets some good traffic on it and you got some great posts. Is there one or two pictures or quotes that stand up from you from we just thinking about it right now?
Warren Martin: Yeah. I would say, man, I have a few. That’s one thing. And I use the quotes a lot of times because it inspires me. I’m not just trying not to just put stuff on there to put it on there. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard [26:30] that’s a side that puts a lot of good sayings on there but there’s ones called, I put in for, “Push, persist and tell something’s happens.” That’s what I pretty much done my whole life. Even though I don’t see it happen right away. Again, if you’re sticking with science, the science side of things and you just keep on pushing and learning and applying and making it better, something will happen great. Same thing right now with me learning about the marketing is just keep on pushing learning and big things will happen in the future.
That’s what I pretty much done my whole life. Even though I don’t see it happen right away. Again, if you’re sticking with science, the science side of things and you just keep on pushing and learning and applying and making it better, something will happen great. Same thing right now with me learning about the marketing is just keep on pushing learning and big things will happen in the future.
Doug Holt: Absolutely. I love that. I love your quote seen around fear too and pushing through fear.
Warren Martin: Yes.
Doug Holt: You have a lot of those on there with your photos, “Don’t let fear set in,” and things of that nature.
Warren Martin: Yes.
Doug Holt: So thank you, those always serves as inspiration to me when I jump on to answer a message on Facebook and that comes across my stream. I love that stuff as well.
Warren Martin: Yeah, I put that a lot. Majority of my clients again or the non-exercisers, the ones that are scared and they get intimated and they’ll come up in their mind with another and sees why but it all comes down to theory. You could fear success even. You could fear how big things and great things would be, of course, the fear of failing, all those things. Until you go through it and you realize, “You know, it’s really not that bad” and just keep on pushing and then it becomes better. Some people just never allow their selves to get to that point.
Doug Holt: Absolutely. If you don’t take the first step, you’ll never going to get there.
Warren Martin: Yeah.
Doug Holt: How have clients reacted or your audience reacted because you took a lot of pictures of your clients and what I would call “real people” and just these airbrush models or these things that we commonly see in the industry or getting thrown around in people’s faces but you’re using real actual clients with a lot of your photos. How was that received?
Warren Martin: Yeah, man. I think that’s another thing that lacks in the industry. I would say all of it but a lot of the new, the steps that are skipped is that’s one of them. I had to depend on, when you’re in the trenches and there’s no one to help you out, you find any way to get out of there.
So I had to make sure, I set a goal, I remember a long time ago, a hundred before and after’s. I wasn’t even happy with someone losing 10 lbs. I wanted like that wow factor one after another after another from a 70-year-old to a behind a desk worker that was 300. I wanted every kind of genre person showing that no matter where they were at, that’s why I put those testimonials with these. I want to people to see that’s all walks of life. Anything is possible if you keep it simple because fitness does get really complex. The market makes it want to sound complex. Have someone that understands the complex stuff to make it simple for you. Bank it to those fears, but it’s had a huge impact. I’ve lost a lot of pictures because back then, there wasn’t external storage and it’s a real camera. Yo, man. Really low quality, I still have a few I had to scan the picture. But man, I lost so many pictures. I mean I would say about 80.
Doug Holt: Yeah, that’s horrible.
Warren Martin: But take note, we put it there.
Warren Martin: Well some people listening to this have never used real camera with the actual photo. So they’ll have to go back into the history books and look that out.
Warren Martin: Yeah.
Doug Holt: But I’m with you. Warren, you’ve been so gracious with your time. I really want to thank you for being here and sharing with our listeners. If people want to find out more about you or contact you, what’s the best way for them to do that?
Warren Martin: Man, call-text (501) 472-1177 or you could email me at wmfitness.warren@gmail.com and never bug me, anytime. If I don’t answer, I’m away. I’m probably working with someone but I’ll get to you as soon as I can.
Doug Holt: That is great. Thank you so much. Talk about true expert in the industry being accessible. I love it. Thanks so much, Warren.
Wow! What another great fitness professional. This is what I love about our industry. Warren is a constant reminder to me anyway of what it takes to be a professional and why I gotten this industry. It’s a great reminder. I’ve been in the industry almost 20 years as a fit pro and it’s people like Warren that reminds me how lucky we are to be in the industry filled with people with integrity, who are striving not only to help themselves but to make the world a better place. So Warren, thank you again for being online.
As always everyone, you can get the show notes over at FitnessProfessionalOnline.com and if you have any questions for me or my team, go ahead shoot us an email. But let’s continue this conversation on social media and I look forward to seeing you there. Have a great week.
Thank you for listening to the Fitness Professional Online Radio Show. You can share your thoughts and join the discussion on this episode by going through our website or on Facebook.com/FitProOnline. Let us know what you’d like to hear on future shows and please feel free to contact us via e-mail or give us a call at (805) 500-6893. We look forward to hearing from you.
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