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A financial coach specializing in serving fitness instructors and wellness professionals can help you enjoy life more with less money stress.
As a fitness instructor or wellness professional, you understand the value of providing your clients with personalized training and education to improve their physical health. Similarly, a qualified financial coach will get to know you and personalize a plan to guide you on your path to financial health.
You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial professionals well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it may be more difficult to find a financial coach who specializes in serving fitness professionals and understands the unique challenges of your occupation.
Fortunately, many financial professionals can work with you virtually, so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live. This means you can choose to hire a specialist who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their knowledge and experience working with fitness professionals is a better fit to help with your unique financial planning needs.
Financial Coaching for Fitness Instructors and Professionals
💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial professionals who work with fitness instructors and others in the wellness field to help them make smart decisions to enjoy life more today while preparing for a comfortable retirement in the future.
🙋♀️ Do you have questions not answered below? Use the form on this page to submit your questions, and we’ll update this article with answers from the financial professionals and educators in the Wealthtender community. You can also contact the financial professionals featured in this article directly to set up an introductory call or ask your questions by email.
💸 Smart Money Insights for Fitness Instructors and Wellness Professionals
This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:
- Q&A with Financial Professionals Serving Fitness Professionals
- Get Answers to Your Questions About Financial Planning
- Browse Related Articles
Q&A: Financial Professionals Specializing in Serving Fitness Professionals
Four Questions with Eric Leider, CFP®, RLP®, BFA ™
We asked Dallas-area financial coach and specialist for fitness professionals Eric Leider, to answer four questions important to the types of clients he serves.
Q: How do the coaching services you offer fitness professionals compare to the services offered by a financial advisor?
Eric: My financial coaching & life planning services differ from the services offered by a financial advisor, mainly in my engagement process and how my clients pay. My engagement process has been built with the values and needs of fitness professionals in mind.
Specifically, every client goes through the EVOK[E] life planning experience as well as several values-based coaching/planning exercises. This process highly resonates with fitness instructors and personal trainers because it isn’t so focused on one’s net worth statement or investments right off the bat.
Instead, the focus is on understanding the person, their values, and their goals (whether financial or personal). Furthermore, I make an intention to bring up the areas of health and how they want to incorporate that into their overall financial life plan.
In addition, for fitness professionals, the main need is around building a strong financial foundation, getting educated, creating automated processes, and having someone as a guide (and accountability partner).
The need is not around managing assets or finding the most exotic investment in the entire investing universe. Therefore, our clients do not pay an AUM (assets under management) fee or commission, which is the most typical way to pay financial advisors. Instead, most of our clients pay monthly (similar to a subscription) for their financial coaching & life planning engagement with us.
Q: For fitness instructors thinking about leaving a salaried job to start their own training business, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?
Eric: This is a big decision that I’ve talked to many fitness professionals about.
In short, the first thing that I would recommend is to go through and answer George Kinder’s Three Questions For Life Planning.
This exercise will help anyone, especially a fitness instructor, get very clear on what is truly most important to them.
In many cases, I have seen the ego get in the way of making the leap or not. There isn’t a wrong answer to this big decision, but it should be considered at a deep level whether or not you truly want to go that route.
If the answer is an absolute yes and a fitness instructor is ready to start their own training business, budgeting (both personally and for the business) is key. The entrepreneurial journey always comes with unknowns, but the better you plan, the more likely you will be to succeed.
Get to Know Eric Leider, Founder & Life Planner, MVMT Life Planning:
View Eric’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.
Q: Is there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with fitness instructors that surprises you?
Eric: Initially, hearing about the income of some highly successful fitness instructors was quite surprising. However, it isn’t surprising to me anymore! The work ethic and also the ability to open many doors (especially after COVID) has allowed fitness instructors to really make a good living.
From personal training, group fitness instructing, teaching educational courses, corporate events, writing for blogs, or even being a micro-influencer – there are a lot of cool things that are now available to fitness instructors to earn a living outside of the traditional big-box corporate gym. Some highly successful fitness instructors, personal trainers, and movement professionals have even been able to create their own apps to build a legit 6-figure business.
The surprising thing that comes up in these situations is hearing how these successful fitness professionals need help on the financial and tax side, but either they don’t know what a financial coach, life planner, or financial advisor actually does… or they feel like they don’t fit into the traditional “financial advisor” paradigm.
Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a fitness professional client when you first realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?
Eric: The most memorable experience comes from hearing (on multiple occasions) from fitness professionals that they are in their field of work (1) to help others and (2) because they truly value their health above most things. This made me realize (official study pending) that fitness professionals may have a longer life expectancy and, therefore, need to consider creating a strong foundation as it relates to their financial life picture.
Furthermore, this worthy bunch of professionals is not the standard target for most financial advisors due to the most common fee structure in the financial services industry (assets under management).
Finally, I also think that there is something to be said when a fitness professional is able to work with a financial coach & life planner that also values one’s health above the wall street standard of values (money, career, fame, etc.)
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About the Author
Brian Thorp
Founder and CEO, Wealthtender
Brian and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.
With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.
To make Wealthtender free for readers, we earn money from advertisers, including financial professionals and firms that pay to be featured. This creates a conflict of interest when we favor their promotion over others. Read our editorial policy and terms of service to learn more. Wealthtender is not a client of these financial services providers.
➡️ Find a Local Advisor | 🎯 Find a Specialist Advisor