Back in 2009 I lost my online Sports Nutrition business due to the recession or the credit crunch as it was called by the media at the time.

At the time I was doing nearly £1 million a year in sales of sport nutrition just online. However looking back I know that I made some pretty bad choices, but hindsight, of course is a great thing.

So at the time it was the lowest moment of my life, in fact and I spent a good couple of months in a dark place wondering what I was going to do to get myself out of the mountain of debt that I was in due to my now failed, but previously successful online business.

5 years on its a different story. I now have a successful fitness business and I'm doing a load of stuff that I love like traveling and learning about geeky internet marketing stuff .

So what changed in the last few years?

I wanted to put this list together as a thank you really to the people who have influenced me over the last few years. Some I have become good friends with and some I have never met but you all have had a profound change in my life and in particular teaching me how to market my fitness business better and help me believe in myself more.

These are in no particular order by the way

Ben Macdonald

Anyone who knows Ben will know he is a huge character.  Ben was the lecturer at Premier Training International when i did my Personal Trainer Course.  At the time I thought I knew it all as I had a degree in Sports Science but the knowledge I learned from these guys was something else and if I can take one lesson from that then no matter what you know there is always someone who knows more and you would do well to listen to them.

Ben has just moved to Canada from the UK but I'm sure he's smashing it up across the pond in the way that only he can with his Mancunian charm.

Ric Moylan

Ric gave me my first  job as a Personal Trainer at LA Fitness straight out of my Premier Training Course 4 years ago. I finished the course on the Friday and started working in the gym on the Monday. There were 10 other trainers in a small gym and I had no choice but to hit the ground running.

It was a roller coaster ride at the time and I both loved it and hated it at the same time. However it taught me some valuable lessons about how to sell yourself and have more confidence . I'm now good friends with Ric and we even work together in the same private studio. If you are looking to get into training athletes then Ric is the man in the UK to speak to as the S and C coach of worl champion boxer Scott Quigg and Tennis player Liam Broady. Check out his site over at RicMoylan.co.uk

Chris McCombs

I learned a lot from Chris's Kick Back Life blogs a few year a go when I was just getting started in this industry and even invested in quite a few of his products over the years.

You can check out his' blog over at Chris McCombs.net. “Big Chris”  as he likes to be know is a bit crazy and it would appear he eats iron for breakfast but he writes some amazing blog posts so check him out.

Tim Goodwin

I stumbled across Tim's Personal Trainer community blog by accident when I was doing some link building for my personal trainer website. This was back in the days when link building and ranking on Google was what it was all about.

This led me to Jon Le Toq and Paul Mort's Fitness Entrepreneurs Boot Camp which really opened my eyes up to what was possible in the fitness industry. I never thought that a personal trainer could even make £50k a year or even 6 figures for that matter. Sadly this is what most personal trainers and people in the fitness industry believe.

This was a complete life changer for me as I was on the verge of quitting the fitness industry and just over 3 years later I am still here and still going strong. I also have learned quite a bit from Tim in regards to a lot of techie and geeky stuff and he is now officially the second geekiest person I know. (Matt Murphy is now the geekiest, which is why he is the other half of Internet Fitpro)

Paul Mort

I met Paul at the Fitness Entrepreneurs event which I spent my last £400 to attend (I actually spend another £4k at that event that I didn't have but that's a story for another blog).

Paul has been one of my business mentors since then and has massively helped me with my fitness business over the last few years, especially from a marketing point of view.

He is a bit crazy and swears a lot but is very knowledgeable (and brutally honest) when it comes to all things marketing.

Check out his site over at IamPaulMort.com

Dax Moy

I had only met Dax a few times but my first impression of him was literally wow.

The moment he entered the room he took the time to personally greet and introduce himself to every single person in the room. This guy I thought at the time is special and I still believe that to this day. If you want to learn a lot about the fitness industry and even more about yourself you could do a lot worse that follow Dax and join his fitness marketing made simple Facebook group.

Since I originally wrote this I spent 2 weeks in Thailand working with Dax on his Guru project and he helped us put together what is now the Internet Fitpro SWAT Personal Trainer Website and Online Marketing System

Ryan Lee

I've been reading Ryan Lee's stuff for a while and have even invested in some of his products such as his Ryan Lee Method and his 1k a day. I've learned some of my cool Internet Marketing tricks from Ryan.

The amount of info that Ryan gives out even in his free daily emails is unreal. Here is a quick link to Ryan's site

The people above have really helped me grow as a person and in business as well.

If you want to get ahead in the fitness industry (or any other industry for that matter) then you need to invest in yourself and your learning.

Look at people who are doing what you want to do and start moving in the same circles.

According to Tony Robbins you are the average of the people that you spend the most time with. So start spending more time with people who can take you to the next level in your fitness business.

Liam

Internet Fitpro