MY USP AND ME

 

I was always told that from a business perspective, I would need a unique selling point (USP) or a niche. I would need this to stand out from the many other personal trainers out there. I was told that many PTs don’t last in the industry because they don’t have a USP, they don’t stand out from the crowd.

This is one of the things that I’ve struggled to get my head around – after all, I’m a personal trainer, not a marketing executive. I’ve been in the fitness industry for a decade and it’s the one thing I found difficult to nail down for years, in part because I didn’t want to be known for one thing or to focus on a particular group of people – I wanted to be inclusive for all, and to tailor my services to the person.

As time went on, I realised that my niche is me – it reflects my values, beliefs and who I am as a person. I don’t want to be inauthentic, or pretend to be who I am not to please a specific audience – that’s not me. My niche was always there – I just didn’t know it.

In my early years, I didn’t think about it because it would stress me out. I would just be myself and luckily, I’m a people person. For me, finding my niche came with finding and understanding myself – my values, the things I enjoy, my personality. I’ve come to believe that you don’t find your niche – your niche finds you.

The big thing in the fitness industry (or any industry) is to narrow down your expertise. I kept learning and expanding my skill set. I started off doing what I knew – running and studio classes but I knew I needed to broaden my horizons and learn new skills. I started doing bootcamps at the local college and getting experiences that would ultimately lead to me understanding and developing my USP. I trained children, and started a running club. I was giving value, showing people I care, and building a community.

One day, I came across calisthenics. It was something new and I loved it. I got a trainer who showed me this new skillset, something I could share with my clients. This was a turning point in terms of developing my niche and creating my area of expertise. When I started to incorporate calisthenics into my work with clients, I originally had a 50/50 gender split among clients – a variety of people across different age groups. As time went on, and I centralised calisthenics in my work with clients, it started to attract more women. They responded well, wanting to become stronger and achieve the movements we commonly see in calisthenics.

It was calisthenics which nailed down my niche. 95% of my clients are now women, and a lot of them have the upper body strength to perform calisthenics movements such as shoulder stands, ring muscle ups and pull ups. Some of these clients found me through social media after seeing what other clients have achieved and they wanted to do the same. They’d done the studio classes and the glute exercises, and they wanted something different.

As long as you are learning, showing value and helping people, eventually your niche will find you. You meet people, you learn new skill sets. I didn’t go out with the intention to learn calisthenics, I just came across it. Be yourself and you will find your inner USP – I guarantee it’s already there.