Jonathan Goodman

09/03/2026

An easy way to tell if your trainer is full of s**t or not is by paying attention to how much they actually listen to you.

Bad trainers want to fit you into their one system of doing things and when you don’t succeed, they blame you saying you “don’t want it enough”.

It’s kind of like somebody telling me that they got dessert and it’s cherry pie and I have to eat it tonight at 7pm.

And I’m like, “I like dessert. And pie’s good. But cherry is s**t pie. Like, I get that some people like cherry. But cherry isn’t good for me. And I’m busy at 7pm. So what? I don’t get pie.”

That pie analogy sucked.

But cherry pie sucks.

Key lime pie and coconut cream pie are good pies.

Good trainers, on the other hand, don’t build a program and try to fit it to a client.

No.

They listen to a client and build the program that the client needs.

Can I get an amen? 🙏

09/03/2026

Taylor spent three years trying to build an online coaching business the "balanced" way — a chapter here, a video there, squeezed in around client sessions. Three years of steady effort. One online client to show for it.

Then her wedding got a date. Suddenly "eventually" wasn't good enough — she needed real income before starting a family.

So she stopped spreading herself thin and gave herself twelve weeks, all-in. Not more hours — sharper focus. She got specific on exactly who her best clients were, then reached out to them one by one instead of posting into the void. Evenings and weekends went to those conversations and building her program. She skipped every social event but one wedding. She had meals delivered so cooking wouldn't eat her time.

Twelve weeks later: $21,000 in new revenue, fourteen new clients.

Three years of steady got her one client. Twelve weeks of all-in built her a business.

-Coach Jon

09/02/2026

My dad never sat me down for a big lecture. It was always small, almost throwaway lines — dropped while we were doing something else, driving somewhere, fixing something in the garage.
I didn't think much of them at the time. Twenty years later I catch myself repeating half of them to my own clients, word for word.
None of it was complicated. None of it needed a system or an app or a 5-step framework. It was just quiet, obvious stuff that actually holds up when you test it against real life.
Save this one. Send it to someone who needs it today.
-Coach Jon

09/02/2026

What did I miss?

09/01/2026

"When I finally lose the weight, I'll join a rec league." "When I finally hit that revenue number, I'll take the trip." "When the kids are older, I'll get back to reading."

I call this the "when-I-finally" trap — and it's a trap because the finish line always moves. You hit the number, and a new one appears. You lose the weight, and you find the next ten pounds to chase.

There's a story I love about Prince. He threw a party after performing on SNL. Fred Armisen walked up to him and said, "I think you're the greatest." Prince was sitting alone, looked up, and said, "You know what I think the greatest is? This macaroni and cheese."

The guy who had everything anyone could chase was enjoying a paper plate of mac and cheese by himself. Not the platinum records. Not the SNL slot. The mac and cheese.

You don't need a bigger life to enjoy the one in front of you. You need to stop postponing it.

-Coach Jon

09/01/2026

Peace looks boring to people addicted to chaos. Life doesn't have to be loud to be meaningful. Or public to be powerful. There’s magic in being unreachable, rested, and quiet.
-Coach Jon

08/31/2026

🏋️+ 📚= 😀

P.S. I created a FREE list of the 11 Best Books Most Jacked Nerds Haven't Read Yet (but should!). Follow me and comment “BOOKS” and I’ll send it to you.

08/31/2026

You deserve more freedom.

Freedom’s not just about money.

Freedom is being able to do -what you want, with
-who you want,
-when you want,
-how you want.

-

Most people get burned out coaching fitness and nutrition.

It’s because the business model sucks.

Me?

I want more people to be healthy.

That means more people need fitness coaches.

But because the business model most coaches use sucks so much, the coaches burn out.

And when they burn out, they leave the industry and stop helping people.

Obesity rates go up, hospitals get overwhelmed, and mental health issues run rampant.

I’m not saying fitness is the only solution.

But if more people were fit, a lot of problems wouldn’t exist.

-

We need coaches to be more successful.

For many, the answer is an online component.

Most trainers aren’t only online. They do a combo.

The result is a better business model.

But getting clients online isn’t easy.

You can’t “show off” like you do in the gym.

Content on top of a “too busy” schedule is daunting.

-Jon

08/30/2026

08/30/2026

IG is a colossal waste of time for most trainers.

You don’t need 10,000+ Instagram followers or a massive marketing budget to be successful in this game.

Consider that 30 clients paying you $300/month equals $108,000 a year.

So, if you’re not already full with clients then you really don’t need to win the internet. You should always be creating some content but it’s not a priority for you right now.

If you want to become an influencer, that’s a different discussion.

In that case, try to win the internet but know that you’re effectively making deposits to a savings account. Don’t expect it to pay off for years.

Few influencers actually train clients. They’re full-time content creators. Nothing wrong with it, but it’s a completely different skillset and approach.

For real trainers, focusing on taking remarkable care of your clients and building stronger connections and a better reputation in your local community is a better way to get clients than creating copycat content online.

Fact is, most trainers would do better if they completely ignored social media.

This is hard to do because IG is in your face.

Every time that you login to your IG you see your follower count and get sad if it hasn’t gone up.

Then you see Box Jump Josh and look at all of his interaction and assume he must be raking in millions.

Presence ≠ Importance.

Followers ≠ money.

If you’re just looking to get a few more clients, don’t create content. Instead, have more conversations. Shake more hands. Meet more people—either in real life or online.

Go deep with a few, even one person a day. This will serve you much better than stressing about what music to edit into your fu***ng Instagram reel.

We need to bring humanity and quality back into this industry.

Can I get an amen?
-Jon