Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Lloyd.
Hi Sam, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
So, I always knew that whatever I did for a living, I wanted it to be something that kept me active, that basically would force me to stay in shape. My initial goal was to be an NBA player, but after attending a smaller college and having an injury-riddled career, that dream was deferred. Entering college, I initially set out to study sports medicine, as I figured it would keep me close to sports and allow me to work with athletes. During my freshman year, I started looking into becoming a personal trainer; however, after my first semester, I transferred to Trinity College to play basketball and switched my major completely to sports management as they did not have a sports medicine program there. Over the course of my 3 1/2 years of playing basketball with Trinity College, I don’t think I ever was able to complete a full season due to repeatedly injuring my knees, developing some pretty bad patella tendinitis as well as plantar fasciitis. With these injuries leaving the sideline, it started making me wonder how and having a desire to fix my body.
So I started doing research on YouTube, and it caused me to really fall back in love with studying anatomy and physiology in the human body. As I entered my senior year of college, I was starting to realize that I did not want to pursue a career in sports management, but my passion was more in exercise, and the science behind it, and wanting to help others through exercise. Fast forward a couple of months post-graduation, I was now a certified personal trainer and got my first and last training job at anytime fitness in Brandon, Florida. It was there that I learn the ropes of the business, which is definitely important because I feel like a lot of personal trainers don’t understand that aspect of it. You can be the best trainer globally, but if your business acumen for this field is not strong, you will fail. I worked my way up to becoming their head trainer, but my entrepreneurial spirit’s business part was pulling at me to break free and start my own business. So in late 2019, I started putting things in place to make that happen.
So, one 2020 started, I can hit the ground running. From the jump, I just noticed a lot of success every month. I was doing better and better in terms of the number of clients I was having, my income, and just my knowledge of how to train people. And then when the lockdown secured as a result of the coronavirus, I noticed a pretty significant drop off in business for about two weeks. But then something interesting happened, Mormor people started reaching out to me to train them outdoors or come to their home. In that short period of time, I guess enough people felt lazy or like they gained a lot of weight. So ever since about April of this year, my business has been booming, and pretty much, for the most part, every month, I’ve seen an increase in revenue and income from my training business which has been pretty awesome.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggle was the lockdowns because they presented a lot of uncertainty, especially for my field being a service industry person. It was funny because right before the lockdown, this was the biggest week I’ve had before, and then suddenly, I lost about 60 to 75% of my business at that time. That time was a little bit tough because I was starting out in a new business and starting to make good money but not yet establish enough to where I had a bunch of that saved up. Essentially I was using the money I was making some investment back into the business to continue to grow it, but then that suddenly stopped. I remember having to call all of the reoccurring bills that I had, so does my car payment, car insurance, etc., and asking them to pause my payments for a month or two so I could play catch-up.
Thankfully, my girlfriend at that time allows me to live with her rent-free for two months until my business started picking me back up. I suppose the only other struggles that I had were more so when I first became a trainer and was working to build up a clientele. My work weeks were probably about 40+ hours a week, just running consultations And trying to talk to as many people as I could. But as a new training with little to no clients, you are not really making any money, so you have to figure outside jobs for you to do, so I turned to Uber. Which definitely came in handy a lot of times. That was probably the biggest struggle about staying out till three or 4 AM in the morning, trying to get as many extra rides as I could to earn as much supplemental income as possible.
As you know, we’re big fans of Sam Trains Tampa. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
So one thing I feel like people should know about my business is the level of personalization that I take with each individual client from both an assessing standpoint and a relational standpoint. I feel like one of the things that I have been able to do very well as a personal trainer would be to assess and not guess someone’s needs by taking them through a detailed movement screening where I can observe their joint mobility, muscular flexibility, and look for any areas of concern or that need Improvement. From a relational standpoint, I feel like a lot of the people that I train I don’t like to even call them clients because it feels more like we develop a friendship and a bond to the point where they know about aspects of my personal life just as much as I know about aspects of theirs. This is something I feel is important to keep that “personal “part of personal training alive. I specialize in getting/keeping peoples athletic. That’s my brand’s tagline, “Stay Athletic.” I’m able to do this through a variety of methods that address people’s joint mobility, muscular flexibility, cardiovascular capacity and endurance, there athleticism overall strength, physique, and nutrition. I think one of the things that set me apart brand-wise from others is just my attention to detail.
Before I ever have anybody do any exercise and assessing them looking at how their body moves and what would be the most optimal route to take with this individual in order to get them to whatever their goal is in a safe and effective manner. In addition to my personality. I will say that I would want your readers to know that my brand is Multifaceted. Not only do I offer one on one personal training and small group training, But I also offer online coaching for those that are not local to the Tampa Bay area or those that would prefer to train on their own for a very reasonable price of $49 per month. Additionally, I am planning on launching a clothing line next year named after our tagline “Project Stay Athletic.”
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Yes. The biggest lesson I learned was something that my dad has told me for a couple of years now, which is to make sure you have at least six to nine months of expenses saved up. As well as making sure you have a plan in place in the event of another crisis or lockdown occurring. One of the reasons I have been getting more into online coaching lately is to give clients another option if their gyms are still closed/close again/if they don’t feel comfortable returning to the gym.
Pricing:
- One on one Personal Training $65/session (I am Running a Fit for the holidays special now through Jan 1st for 10% off)
- Online Coaching/Training $49/month
Contact Info:
- Email: SamTrainsTampa@gmail.com
- Website: SamTrainsTampa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samstaysathletic/
- Facebook: Facebook.com/SamTrainsTampa
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcLLKSkolggYezNWmb6WXIA
Image Credits
Rob White Janell Rio
