Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Ausborn.
Christian, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am a personal trainer who began this journey at The University of Georgia. My very first client was a girl around my age, and she came up to me looking to build some lean muscle mass, but still, look feminine. I had no idea what I was doing in a business sense, and neither was I looking to monetize off of my passion for fitness. To make matters worse, I wasn’t even certified. Yet, I told the girl, yes and we agreed on $20/week no contract, unlimited sessions, and I’d front her a full program in advance. Long story short, that was the last week I seen her. She got what she needed and left, which taught me a huge lesson on business (start one).
A few years and certifications later, I was training at a Sports Performance Boutique Gym in Norcross, GA. I was working alongside a friend from college who was hired as a General Manager. The owner specialized in training athletes for the NFL Combine. Prior to this position, I spent a ton of time learning how to grow and monetize my social media through a master class course. I was also learning side skills on how to Photoshop and create content. Because of my skill sets, I was working on helping the company grow as an assistant general manager and trainer. It was a lot of work and undoing things that had already been done. However, what I enjoyed the most was learning how to become a better trainer from the owner, exercising with NFL athletes, and putting my skills and knowledge to the test. My daily tasks included running the company’s social media, content creation, event planning and coordinating, and training.
A few months in, the girl who got me the position there quit, and soon after I did too. While debriefing my experience with her, I realized that I have enough skills to maintain a company’s success, but I still wanted to know how to run a business. There’s a big difference. After a couple of months of more research and training out of local gyms, I got invited to train at private gym in Buckhead, GA. I had one client that stuck with me through this whole journey and he said this was my best move yet. He immediately fell in love with this place and so did I.
In even more good news, I also contracted with one of the best facial plastic surgery companies in Atlanta. We created a bilateral relationship where they would send me clients that I’d train for three months to prepare them for a Coolsculpting procedure. We called it the CoolPlus Program. So now I had a better location, clients that I didn’t need to market for, more income. The problem now was managing everyone’s payments and training plans. This is where I paid for an app to be created that would manage my clients, allow them to book me, and buy fitness plans. I felt that I had everything going good, but then I got spoiled.
Because I was getting fed so much, I never learned how to go out grab clients for myself. I was crippled the area of marketing, and eventually, I had all these skills, an app, and a phenomenal location, but no clients. This is a trainer’s worst nightmare. So now I started training people for free just to stay fresh in the art, and in between sessions, I went to the bookstore and read 1 chapter in 5 books everyday. I did this for so long that I started seeing the same people at the same times in this bookstore. This was until one day I met a guy there that I never seen before. He had been a success in many businesses, nationally and internationally.
He told me one thing that I would never forget. He said, “If you ever want to be a successful restaurant owner, go work for McDonalds.” McDonalds is one if not the best franchises the world has ever seen due to the systems they have in place as a business. I thought to myself how does this translate to me? Then, it hit me. I wanted to learn how to run a business all this time, but I never actually worked for a very successful one. That was the same day I applied and got hired at LA Fitness, one of the largest and fastest growing club chains in the fitness industry.
I was determined to figure this line of business out so I wanted to learn it from what I thought was the best. Six months later here I am with clients having to book me a week in advance, servicing over 200 sessions every two weeks, 15 hour work days, sales knowledge, and most of all the knowledge on how to run a successful business. I got everything I wanted by turning away from entrepreneur into an employee. Now the goal is to use everything I learned to open up my own gym.
Great, 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?
Entrepreneurship is never a smooth road. Half the time I am not even sure there is a road. The struggles I’ve had included work-life balance, capital resources, and burnout.
Work-life balance from starting something new is really tough, especially if you’re passionate like me. When I find something that I like to do, I can spend every waking hour doing it. So as you can imagine, I lost friends, relationships, my passion at one point, and even myself.
Capital resources, or lack thereof, came into play for me when I had to manage my business when business became slow. I was not able to do this because I didn’t know how. I barely knew how to keep my business alive enough during the times it was going good until I started reading lots of self-help books.
Burnout came into play for me when my client list became so backed up that I had to open my hours up to 6am-9pm. It didn’t matter how much I loved what I did, I burnt myself out because I had no ME time. Self-care days came as rare as vacations. You need those days to keep your performance at optimal capacity, especially in a service industry.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Physique Engineer – what should we know?
The Physique Engineer term comes from merging various aspects of my engineering discipline into the framework of body sculpting. We are an Atlanta-based Personal Training Company. Clientele includes CEOs, multi-talented celebrities, professional athletes, and the corporate community. We are also the creators of the CoolPlus Program, which is a fitness protocol, designed to enhance the cool sculpting cosmetic procedure. I have gained years of expertise in individualized functional training combined with innovative fitness techniques. Collectively I have over ten years experience in the fitness industry,
The Physique Engineer is also known for establishing a mind to movement connection that can be transferred from the gym to daily life and career. What makes us different is we know how to manipulate your mind by using your muscles. Growing up in a house full of psychologists, mental health and has been around me for years. Eventually, I got curious to know that if 26 muscles have to activate to create a smile, and that smile is associated with a mood or state of being, how can I incorporate the rest of the muscles in your body for a more enhanced and lasting effect.
As a company, I’m most proud of giving my clients the feeling of success before having achieved it. I’ve learned that it’s really not the body that we want; it’s the feeling that we believe having it will provide. So if I can take you there mentally first, my goal is accomplished because the physical will always catch up.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The quality that I feel is most important to my success is always improving my mental and physical fitness. In this industry, your body is your résumé and your mind is the product. So if I’m constantly adding to my résumé and improving my product, synergistically, I will experience long term success in and out of the gym no matter what the obstacle is.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 404 290-5257
- Email: christian@thephysiqueengineer.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thephysiqueengineer
- Facebook: facebook.com/thephysiqueengineer
Image Credit:
Omari Collins, Barry Eugene, Blake Ballard
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