2015 Turbulence Training Trainer of the Year Interview
Hello TT Nation. It’s Dani Woodrum coming to you with another incredible guest today. Our guest today is exploding on the scene and he’s quickly becoming one of the most successful TT trainers in the world. I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen this type of growth and progress in such a short time. Certified Turbulence Trainer Nestor Flores won the 2014 TT Rookie of the Year award but that wasn’t quite enough for him.
He wanted more and just last week he took home the 2015 TT Trainer of the Year award and is looking to move into a new location within the next month. Wow Nestor, I’m still in awe at all you’ve accomplished over the last year. Welcome to the call, my man, and I can’t wait for you to share some of your secrets to our listeners.
Nestor: I’m glad. I’m glad to be back, man. Thank you for having me again.
Dani: Absolutely. So, let’s talk about last year, Nestor. I want you to tell us where your business and life was at last year at the 2014 TT Summit.
Nestor: Last June, I was working at a local gym here in town doing one-on-one training. I’d been training since about March at that point. I was getting enough sessions on a daily basis to be scraping by. By no means was I even at a comfortable level but I also wasn’t at that beans, rice and frozen chicken level either. I was coasting by at that point. I was just trying to gain more and more experience as a trainer. That was my main focus at that point. I didn’t quite have the hunger to have my own business yet before the summit. That really came till after that summit. So yeah, that’s kind of where I was at at that point.
Dani: Great. Now it’s coming to a full circle. But now, I want you to tell us a bit about where your life and business is at currently just a week after the 2015 TT Summit.
Nestor: Well after the summit, I said in my speech, ride each and every one of your successes into the next. I knew I was going to ride that Trainer of the Year award into my next success so a couple of days after that I signed a lease to a 2,400-square foot place. I figured it’s time. I had to do it. Right now my confidence is at an all-time high. My self-belief has just kind of been taking huge leaps and bounds and right now I kind of feel that that was just the next step for me. There really is nothing else for me to do where I’m at in the 260-square feet. I want to reach more people. I want to help more people. I want to make a bigger impact in the community and having a larger location will allow me to do that. Since then, that has been my main focus. My goal is to have it up and running towards the end of July. I’m getting keys actually today so I’m really, really excited about that.
Dani: That’s awesome, I think you’re living proof of GSD, right?
Nestor: Exactly.
Dani: All right Nestor, I’ll never forget the look on people’s faces when we were at the TT Summit when you told them that you had only 260 square feet at your current studio. People were absolutely shocked and for good reason. So tell us how you’re able to train over 50 people per day in such a small space? I want you to tell us what type of training you’re able to utilize in such a tight space.
Nestor: That’s what Turbulence Training is all about, bodyweight fat loss training. We have all the knowledge we need to be able to do it in such small spaces. For the first several months, all I was doing all bodyweight stuff. Craig has his six-month bodyweight-only program that I used a lot on top of all the other programs from Turbulence Training that I kind of pick and choose from and design my own workouts and kind of catered them into a small group setting. But a lot of bodyweight stuff, that is by far what I use the most.
And clients actually love bodyweight challenges. Bodyweight challenges are the funnest for them. They push themselves. It creates an excitement that kind of spills over onto Facebook. That’s one thing actually that kind of just happened accidentally during the first challenge I was having. I would have these bodyweight challenges and then I’d go on Facebook and just post like so-and-so had this time on this challenge and then people would just get all riled up. Then they would create this kind of competition. A lot of my clients don’t know each other or they didn’t know each other at that point so it was awesome to kind of start creating that community on Facebook through my challenges.
Then just basic equipment. I use a little bit of dumbbells and kettlebells and really that is it – dumbbells, kettlebells, some resistance bands and stability balls. But I rely a lot on the Turbulence Training bodyweight programs to really kind of get me through my workouts and my clients just love them. They just love them.
Dani: Absolutely. Let me ask you this: what’s the most you can train in that small space? How many people? Four or five?
Nestor: I could train four people. With me, there are five bodies in here. Here’s the thing. When you have even four people and you have four people in here kind of huffing and puffing and sweating, it gets hot in 260 square feet. It doesn’t matter if I have the A/C at 60 degrees; it gets hot in here. Right now in Fresno, the valley gets pretty hot. It’ starting to hit about 105 right now. Again, even though inside here the thermostat says 60 degrees, once you get four sweaty bodies in here, it really jumps up to like 80. It feels like 80 or 90 in here.
I hate having to put my clients in that type of environment so I limit it to three people. But if I really, really push it, I could do three. If I really wanted to, I did five once accidentally because I overscheduled someone or a session. It kind of made me realize that if I really want to I could do five but I just don’t want to do that to my clients.
Dani: I understand. Deodorant is required, correct?
Nestor: What’s that?
Dani: I said, deodorant is required, correct?
Nestor: Absolutely, I actually have some here, too.
Dani: Just in case. So when someone new comes to your studio for the very first time, I’m sure they have to be taken aback a little bit by the very tiny area. How do you address that and turn it more into a positive?
Nestor: Oh yeah, I get that a lot. A lot of people’s first reaction is, “This is it, right? Is this it?” I get that a lot but I’m able to kind of really emphasize the small, intimate setting aspect of it. A lot of clients that are looking to lose weight are intimidated from the large gym environments and the crowded people and all that stuff going on. So I really emphasize that. It’s a small intimate environment in here. Everyone that comes through my door have similar goals to yourself and have been or are in the same situation so there’s no reason to feel out of place because again, there’s really no one here to judge. So I really try to make them comfortable in that sense.
But you know, truth be told, the majority of my people that come in are referrals so a lot of them already come with the idea or they already come with kind of some knowledge as to where I’m at, how big I am and what to expect. That really, really helps a lot that my clients already kind of do that. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve really kind of been capitalizing on the small space, too. At first when I was first starting off it was kind of like I didn’t want to tell people I’m only in 260 square feet. But now when I go on Facebook and I’ll do my post, I actually kind of say that as a proud type of thing. Yes, we do this out of 260-square feet, kind of like you’re not going to see this type of trainer, find this type of training anywhere and the only place is out of this small studio. So I try to pump that up.
But unfortunately yes, there have been some people that kind of come in, look around and I never see them again. But the majority of people, once they come in. be a part of the training and kind of start being part of the community, they tend to stick around so it’s been working great. I’m still sad that I have to leave this 260-square feet. In a way, it’s a little sad because this is where I started but I’m ready for a much bigger location.
Dani: That’ll be the size of your new bathroom, correct?
Nestor: Yeah, exactly.
Dani: Do you ever do any outdoor boot camps? I know I saw on Facebook a few weeks ago, obviously it’s really hot right now but it looked like you were doing some stuff outside, too, right?
Nestor: Yeah, I decided to start doing that when I really wanted to build more of a community within my clients because it was starting to get to the point where yes, I do two people at a time and I have up to 50 clients but the same people tended to work out with each other because they work out at the same time slots. Then once kind of my community started building on Facebook with the private Facebook group and I was talking about the challenges, people kind of going on there and challenging themselves, I realized I’ve got to get my clients to meet each other. So I started doing outdoor boot camps.
Luckily, right outside my studio, outside by building, there’s about a little 700-square lot of grass so it was perfect. I could get up to 10 to 12 people out there and kind of just go out there and do some outdoor workouts. It was also because I knew eventually I was going to get into boot camps so I kind of used that to start getting a little bit more experience with training larger groups. But it’s been great. And yes, it’s really starting to get hot. Just this past Saturday, at 7:00 in the morning it was already 80 degrees so I think that may have been my last one. Fortunately now I got this bigger place, it’s going to be a lot better than the outdoor workouts. I really used that to just kind of build my community and have my clients meet each other.
Dani: Very cool. Obviously, I know you’re moving to your new location in your next month or so. I know you’re not going to have a whole lot of money upfront with the more expensive rent and other expenses coming along with that. What type of equipment or what are the essential equipment that you’re going to get for your boot camp and what would you recommend to somebody just starting out besides obviously bodyweight? What type of equipment would you recommend them having from the get-go?
Nestor: I started off with bodyweight here and the very first thing, and it was very funny because I had a pair of 20-pound dumbbells like my own personal 20-pound dumbbells at home and the first pieces of equipment that I had inside the studio were my 20-pound dumbbells, just one set. I had a client give me a pair of 8-pound dumbbells and 5-pound dumbbells that she wasn’t using anymore and I just bought a pair of resistance bands.
So my first experience with circuits was I would have my 20-pound dumbbells in one corner of my studio, I would have the resistance bands on the other and then I’d have like a bodyweight exercise on the other so I’d have my three clients kind of switching these “stations.” That’s all I had – a pair of resistance bands, one pair of 20-poumnd dumbbells and then the other one would be bodyweight exercise.
Then the first two or three equipment, I bought a couple of slam balls, more dumbbells and upgraded my stability balls and that’s really all you really need. And the kettlebells, of course. So moving into a larger location, that’s kind of what I’m just going to do on a larger scale, get more dumbbells, more stability balls and a couple other slam balls. I just ordered some battle ropes, too. Clients have been loving the battle ropes and the outside workouts. That’s it for now. Eventually, I’ll get into the TRXs and other stuff but you can do awesome, awesome workouts with just dumbbells, kettlebells and resistance bands.
Dani: I agree. I’d say there’s something to be said, too, for maybe just starting out having a couple of pieces of equipment and then maybe a month later after you’ve opened, when you add some more equipment it’s just going to add more value to your members so it’s like wow, you’re improving our gym. So I think there’s something to be said for that as well that people often neglect.
Nestor: Yeah, I remember at the beginning I was so hesitant to bring in just one pair of dumbbells because it was going to seem like that’s all he has? One pair of dumbbells? But then yes, once I started buying more and more stuff, clients were like oh, we’ve got more dumbbells. Oh, we got this. We got that now. So it does kind of create that excitement. And again, it lets them know that obviously you’re investing into your business.
One of my challenges actually—I was giving away $250 bucks for my six-week challenge—the winner actually told me, “No, I’m not going to take your money. You’ve been buying all this equipment for us. There’s no way I’m going to take your money but I will take an extra month of free training, if you offer me that.” So I gave her that. Clients love that stuff.
Dani: That’s awesome. I like that. All right, Nestor. I know you’re a big proponent of building that camaraderie within your studio. What type of activities do you do to help build that community within your gym and get people to keep coming back for more?
Nestor: Like I said, I kind of starting building it first with Facebook honestly. I used Facebook a lot. It’s the easiest way to communicate with all clients. 95% of my clients are on Facebook. Some of them are not but kind of going on Facebook, doing the private Facebook page really kind of just took that community feeling to the next level. Then doing the outdoor workouts, kind of just bringing everyone together. Obviously, if you do have a larger location and you’re able to have more people in your sessions then it’s a little bit easier. But if you are training just small groups, I think it’s a good way to get your clients to know each other even if they are not working out with each other and they don’t know each, just doing one boot camp every couple of weeks, one outdoor workout if it’s not too hot where you’re at.
Then also, like I said, luckily a lot of my clients are referrals so they already come in knowing each other. My very first client ever—her name is Stephanie—from her as of now I have had 14 direct people that are tied in with her referrals. I think she has referred me directly to about 4 or 5 people and from them other people have been coming in but they’re kind of part of the same crowd. So they already know each other, too. So that community feeling is kind of like already there because they’re all family and friends already. So it’s easier for me to kind of just build off of that with my other clients, just getting your group together and doing group activities like that, outdoor workouts.
I really want to start doing like mud runs and stuff like that because those are really popping up everywhere. I just hired on a training intern and she’s a marathon runner. She’s already kind of putting together ideas. A lot of our clients like to run. She’s already kind of putting together ideas of how to do like an outdoor, like a Saturday run session with clients just to get them together at a park or something like. That’s something I’m going to keep on building on. I really, really want to keep on building that community feeling within my gym, especially now that I’m going to have a larger location.
Dani: Yeah, I was just about to say, Nestor, that with your larger location at our boot camp, after the class, members are going to stay around for a good 10 or 15 minutes and just hangout, sit on the bench and just chat, which is really cool. Another good thing is you can do partner drills. They’re always great at the end of the workout as a finisher. It gets people laughing and encouraging people. Then before a class, if someone new or a prospect comes in, introduce her or him in front of the entire class and everybody clapping and welcoming them, just things like that can really help build that community and make everybody feel like they fit in.
Nestor: Oh yeah, that’s great stuff.
Dani: All right, Nestor. I know before this interview we were on the phone chatting a little bit and there’s a ton of competition around you. How do you separate yourself from all the other local gyms and boot camps and more in particular in your workouts and how you’re adding more value into your members?
Nestor: With clients, the top reason I hear clients say they’re coming to me and then they’re sticking around is because of the 30-minute workouts. When I was first starting off, I was trying to get my program down and I didn’t really quite have a handle on the workouts or knew what I wanted to specialize in, I was doing probably up to 45-minute workouts with like warm-up, cool down stretches. I was doing the whole thing. Then the clients seemed like they enjoyed it but now that I’ve kind of been dwindling them down and they’re exactly 30 minutes, fast-paced, high intensity and even for beginners, they love it. They love it. That’s the top reason probably people say that they stick around with me, because of the 30-minute workouts. They really love that they can just come in, get their workout in, have a little fun and then go home.
Clients have also told me that there’s really no intimidation factor in here. I do point that out, too, during in my presentations. I don’t have huge weights in here. I don’t have Olympic bars. I don’t have any huge equipment that’s intimidating for clients. I do emphasize that I specialize in bodyweight training so everything is specific to you, everything is based off what you can and can’t do and we’re going to start you off with your own bodyweight. That takes a lot of the intimidation away from beginners. So yeah, the 30-minute workouts and the fact that there’s no really intimidating feel inside the studio here and based off all the workouts themselves which would the just be bodyweight, clients love that stuff.
Dani: Absolutely. Speaking of that point, Nestor, anybody on this call who has the staff and has some trainers, I think it’s important as well to have if a lead or prospect comes to your gym for the first time, even in the gym when your friend calls and asks someone about your boot camp, I think it’s important that your entire staff hits on three to five key points of what separates your workout from the competition. Be sure that you’re using the same lingo so everybody gets relayed the same type of message.
Nestor: Yeah, that’s a very good point.
Dani: All right, Nestor, I’m going to throw one little curve ball at you. You’re moving to a new location. I want to know what your biggest fears, your number one fear transitioning to your biggest location and how you think you’re going to overcome that and come out on top to overcome that fear?
Nestor: Wow. Actually, my biggest fear was to get this location from you was kind of everything I have. Here’s the down payment. Yes, I have a little bit saved up still for some equipment but I kind of started getting in to my head like once I sign the lease, now how do I fill it up? I started psyching myself out by visiting “the competition’s” Facebook pages and then seeing all the stuff that they have, like how it’s all set up. I was like man, I’m not going to be able to have my gym like that.
So my biggest fear was that people would come in and it was going to be like the same thing here where they’ll come in, look around and see this empty 2,400 square-foot place and then walk back out. But I realized that the reason that my clients have been sticking around with me in 260-square-foot location was because of me. It’s not because of the stuff I had in here. It was because of me. So the way I’m going to overcome that is building my coaching, building myself up to that point where I am ten times the type of coach, ten times the trainer than any other person that may even be considered competition to me, if that makes sense.
I’m going to bring that energy. I’m going to bring that type of community that you cannot find anywhere else. It doesn’t matter what equipment I have or I don’t have because at the end of the day, the message I relay is I focus on the stuff that matters. I focus on the stuff that’s going to get you results. It doesn’t matter if I don’t have that shiny new piece of equipment that everyone else has just for the looks of it if it’s not going to get you results. But I promise you and I guarantee you that the motivation and encouragement and the accountability that you’re going to get from me is going to be ten times better than you’ll find anywhere else. So that is the mindset that I’m kind of cultivating in my mind right now and that’s how I’m going to set myself apart from everyone else even if I can’t fill up my gym the way they can.
That was kind of my biggest trick, kind of just psyching myself out of comparing myself or my gym to what everyone else has in theirs around them. But I’m very, very confident that if I keep on growing and I keep on building myself that it’ll be very hard for people to keep up with me. That’s the way kind of I’m thinking right now, man. It’s just that mindset. It’s all in your mind right. I was psyching myself out. No one else was psyching me out; I was psyching myself out in my mind. So I’ve got to really, really break out of that.
Dani: Great, 100% and all of it. You know, Nester, what I would suggest maybe doing and everybody else on this call is taking a few minutes to jot down all the value that you can add at your boot camp that nobody else can in area. Write down your strengths and really, like you said, keep going over those and get that mindset. That’s going to help you when you’re trying to sell your programs to all these prospects when they come to your gym. This is what I can do that nobody else can do. Maybe next time, you can do that as well to help you out a little bit.
Nestor: I know that’s a great idea. That’s a very good idea.
Dani: All right, Nestor, start trying to wrap things up. You had an incredible speech today to the TT Summit. There are a number of people in tears. I know I had goose bumps that I felt the entire time. I want you to give our listeners a short motivation speech. Many people on this call might be struggling a bit. They’re looking for direction or someone to believe in them. So if you just take a quick moment and offer some word of advice to them, that would be awesome.
Nestor: Yeah. When I was first starting out, and this is kind of something that I was just talking about just a couple of minutes ago, when I was first starting off the biggest struggle I had was with my mindset. You go from this place that is comfortable and predictable and you know what to expect, you know how you’re going to feel, you know just how hard to push it but still staying in your comfort zone. But then you get this gut feeling that you’re meant to do a lot more and it requires you to step way out of your comfort zone and it’s freaking scary.
The problem is that most people around you at that point don’t understand you. They may even think you’re overreacting but you have this small belief that you’re meant for much more and you go for it. I guess that’s the point where some listeners may be at right now. In fact, I know that’s the point some of you are at right now because I talked to some of you in the summit.
First and foremost, let me just say that the feeling is absolutely normal and actually good because it’s a sign that you’re about to embark on an incredible journey if you evolve your mindset and your attitude. That’s what I struggled with the most at the beginning because I didn’t have an idea of how much I would be tested mentally through this whole process. The problem was I still surrounded by average-thinking people who just couldn’t quite help me the way I needed so I began to feel alone, just me, my thoughts of self-doubt, negativity and self-pity. It wasn’t until I began to read and reach out to people whose levels I wanted to be at that I began to really understand what it took to get to that next level.
The first book I read was Think and Grow Rich. This was I think on October, like mid-October once my challenge was up and running and you helped me get through that rough time. That book was a game-changer for me. Then I started reaching out to more like-minded people. Dani, you know I emailed you a lot about mindset and you really helped me through a lot of situations and then other friends on Facebook. That was able to get me to the next level.
Then I joined the mastermind group and that just took my self-belief to this kind of borderline cockiness that I can do anything I set my mind to because I am the best at what I do. But had I stayed at that average thinking level, that stuff would not have been possible. So just know that your attitude will determine the altitude that you reach. If you continue to doubt yourself, to talk yourself down, if you continue to fill your mind with all that negativity, you will not get far.
So my advice is start ridding yourself off that now. If you’re barely starting off, the best thing to do is to start working on your mindset from the beginning. Start replacing those thoughts, the negative thoughts with incredible knowledge from books and other people whose levels you want to be at. You don’t have to feel alone because you’re not. You have the TT family. You have me to reach out to. So know if you are struggling and you do need someone to believe in this, then let me tell you this. Let me tell you that I believe in you, that Danny believes in you, that Craig believes in you. And Danny, you told me this before, too: most importantly, you have to believe in yourself because no one else can want it more than you, right?
Dani: Totally.
Nestor: But don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Don’t be afraid to reach out for support because I promise that if you continue to push through those struggles and obstacles, you surround yourself with positive people and you can continuously work on your mindset and attitude, soon you will have this unstoppable belief in yourself. But you can’t ignore it now so start working on it now. Start working on your mindset now. Hopefully, that does help some of you. Really, that’s probably the best advice I can give. Your mindset, you’ve really, really got to start believing in yourself. That’s advice you gave me from the very beginning so I appreciate it, my man.
Dani: Absolutely and CTT, if that doesn’t inspire you to take action I honestly don’t know what will. Nestor is living proof that once you change your mindset and believe in yourself and take action, there’s nothing that can stop you. There’s nothing that can get in your way. You will reach your goals and your dreams. Nestor, that was awesome. I hope everyone else enjoyed that as much as I did.
I do want to make a quick note, all CTTs, we’re looking to build our team here at Turbulence Training and Early to Rise. As you know, I am now the director of the Certified Turbulence Training certification and Derek Wahler has actually just hopped on with ETR. He’s an affiliate manager.
So we are looking to grow our team. If any of you guys are interested in helping us out, please email me at dwood7325@gmail.com. We need people like you guys to help us with our 10 Million Mission. So if you’re interested in helping us out, just send me an email and I can provide you more information. We can see if we can find a spot for you with our teams.
That goes for you as well, Nestor. Maybe you can be our motivational speaker.
Nestor: I’m in.
Dani: All right, Nestor. I really appreciate the interview. That was awesome. Those were a ton of great tips and a ton of great motivation. That’s all for today, guys, I hope you enjoyed this call and we will catch up with you later. Thanks, Nestor.
Nestor: Thank you, buddy.
Dani: Bye-bye.
To listen to the interview click here