Georgette Pann Interview

If you’re a boot camp personal trainer you will love this interview! In this Successful Personal Trainer interview, I sit down with Georgette Pann. Georgette has 20+ years of health and fitness experience with expertise in fitness bootcamps. She also teaches others  how to run their own successful fitness boot camps.

 

JC. How long have you been a personal trainer?

GP. Over 20 years and training part time until opening my NutriFitness Studio and fitness bootcamps.

 

JC.  What is your degree in and who are you certified by?

GP. I have a BS Physical Education, and an Associates in Physical Therapist assistant. As for fitness certs, I hold:

1. ACE Personal Trainer
2. SCW Sports Nutrition
3. NESTA Outdoor Fitness and EZ8 Runner
4. FiTour Certified Bootcamp Instructor

 

JC. Do you have any study tips for the ACE personal trainer certification?

GP. If you have no background in exercise physiology or any other degree you need to study hard and preferably do some hands on training/internship.

JC. What did you like best about the ACE certification?

GP. It was both practical knowledge and some problem solving…practical case applications.

JC. Was there one thing you recommend everybody get to prepare for the ACE personal trainer cert?

GP. Joe, I didn't really study. I had extensive background in health/phys ed/physical therapy but I did look over ACE study manual.

 

JC. How did the NESTA and Fit Tour boot camp certifications differ from each other?

GP. Fitour Bootcamp required reading a book and answering questions. It was timed and all online. The NESTA Outdoor Fitness Trainer cert (not really a bootcamp cert) was watching DVD and answering written questions. It was a much shorter test.

JC. You have been training for a long time. Have any of your clients ever asked you “who are you certified by?

GP. No not really…I think 1 or 2 but most see my certs online or in studio

JC. Your also  have has an online magazine too?

GP. Yes NutraFitness the magazine let’s me help others in a much broader way. It has exercise videos, free reports and articles on a variety of topics.

 

JC. You also show other personal trainers how to run their own bootcamp business. Can you tell us more about this?

GP. Yes, I developed an affordable, downloadable Fitness BootCamp Kit to get people started quickly and easily.

JC. What got you interested in teaching others about how to run fitness boot camps?

GP. The lack of complete kits that were affordable to personal trainers who wanted to start on their own boot camps with franchising or licensing. Something they could use to get started quickly, easily and affordably. That’s what prompted Sure Victory Fitness BootCamp Kit

 

JC. Can you briefly cover some of the information people will get from the Sure Victory Fitness BootCamp Kit?

GP. I'll try to summarize 🙂  The kit includes the :

• basic planning strategies
• forms and waivers that can be copied and used for each trainers boot camp
• boot camp workouts
• exercise videos
• complete marketing examples and customizable corporate brochure….

plus some awesome exclusive bonuses on top of Fitness BootCamp inner circle forum for ongoing support.

 

GP. We also take interns, often former clients and take them under our wing to give them extra hands on help with their bootcamp business.

 

JC. In your Fitness Boot Camp Marketing kit you give a people a template to market themselves to corporations. How hard was that to design?

GP. My partner is a professional writer plus so it really is put together professionally and we do the customizations.

JC. How many workouts are in the Ultimate Book of Bootcamp Workouts?

GP. There are now 3 volumes of Sure Results Ultimate of Bootcamp Workouts. Each can be purchased separately or all 3 as a bundle. Between all 3 there are 510 workouts! There are also some exclusive bonuses that include even more workouts, partner workouts, fitness games, and challenges..and bodyweight videos.

 

JC. Is there one thing that personal trainers overlook when it comes to running a boot camp?

GP. They do not plan well enough in advance.

JC it sounds like you're a myth buster too when it comes to boot camps. Is there one thing you would like new boot camp instructors to know about the fitness bootcamp business?

GP. There is way to much sleezy marketing and hype about getting 100's of clients in your camps. The fact is it won't start that way in the majority of cases..if not all…and nor does it have to (you just need enough to be profitable to START). For more see the report on The Dark Side of Bootcamps.

GP. When you do get to 50 or more bootcampers you better have another trainer in there with you or employ veteran campers to help the newcomers.

 

JC. What are some common injuries from fitness boot camps?

GP. The same injuries that could occur from any poorly designed program…knee, back, shoulder etc. This is more likely to happen if the group is too large for trainer to handle or campers are not instructed and educated prior to doing exercises. In all honesty this does not happen much if the trainer corrects the camper's form or gives them a substitute exercise

JC. How many boot camp classes do you run a week?

GP. About 10. There is a camp 6 days a week.

JC. How many trainers per client do you feel makes for a safe bootcamp?

GP. We keep our camps to 20-25 max!

 

JC. How many trainers does it take to maintain safety in a bootcamp of 20-25 people?

GP. One good trainer who knows what he/she  is doing should be able to handle this. This is one reason why I started mentoring instructors.

JC. Do you ever conduct your boot camps outside in public parks?

GP. I have not but this differs from state, city, county and country so it's best to check with your local community parks/recreation.

JC. Tell me more about the Fitness Boot Camp Inner Circle?

GP. The forum is actually free to join and helpful  not only for Sure Victory owners but ALL bootcamp trainers. That said, the Fitness Bootcamp Inner Circle is multi faceted. First and foremost, it is a way to get ongoing support from myself and thousands of other boot camp trainers worldwide.

It is also a community that allows members to create their own blogs, get exclusive downloads, articles and interact with each other for possible joint ventures. I also have exclusive discounts for members on various products.

For example members can get customized marketing materials and discounts on the TRX and other equipment  as well as other product perks from top notch, well known trainers.

 

JC. What is your favorite piece of equipment to use with clients and why?

GP. The TRX. Check it out here

JC. What makes the TRX different from the other equipment?

GP. Speaking as bootcamp trainer, it adds versatility and can be used outdoor /indoors. It's able to both  give some great full body exercises as well as able to get at hard to hit body parts in bootcamp style workouts.

JC. What do you think is the biggest mistake personal trainers make when they work with clients?

GP. Not assessing at all

 

JC. What fitness assessments do you feel are essential?

GP. Besides typical measurements and body fat, I like to see clients perform certain exercises…to assess core strength, postural, and muscular imbalances. For example, I like to see bw squats, planks / bridges, push ups. Obviously, this depends on the person too because some assessments are people specific.

JC. How do you track progress (program excel, etc)?

GP. We do it the old fashioned way- manually.  We don’t use software.

 

JC. Because you give so much to people, I want an easy way to find all of your information so let’s recap and list your resources here.

GP. Sure thing. Here are all of my websites and boot camp tools:

NutraFitness : The Magazine

The Ultimate Book Of Boot Camp Workouts

Customized Fitness Bootcamp Marketing Materials

 

Joe Cannon. Georgette, You give away so much helpful info that I want people to be able to reach you. Are you on Facebook or Twitter?

Georgette Pann. Yes, I'm GeorgettePann on Facebook and  fitpro1 on Twitter.  I'm also on Linkedin also.