Matt: Jason, I think of you as a member of the same group of coaches as Jordan Syatt, Greg Nuckols, and other up and comers in the industry. This group stands out in this industry because you’re all very young personal trainers and online coaches, but you’ve all gained respect from your peers for your hard work and knowledge. Can you tell me how you first got into strength and fitness at the age of 16?

Jason: Sure. So I started working out at the age of 16. I definitely wasn’t the strongest at the gym at this time. I wasn’t an athlete at school and couldn’t put up any impressive numbers. I happened to come across the Encyclopedia of Muscle Strength by Jim Stoppani and dug into it. From that point on I grabbed any fitness magazine I could get my hands on and just started to learn. I wanted to know why things were happening. I wasn’t really making any progress on my own so a few months later I hired a trainer named Jay Hilford. I worked with Jay for the next 1.5 years and he continually introduced me to new aspects of training.  We would meet up once a week and he showed me what a full workout looked liked. The rest of the week I would do my own thing. I just kept on experimenting with new programs that I’d put together over and over to see what the results would be every few weeks. The next step in my learning process was hiring Cindy Jones. She was a nationally ranked fitness competitor here in Canada. She introduced me to programming focused more on the hypertrophy side. After Cindy I worked with a third trainer named Rob Anger who was well-versed in martial arts, bodybuilding, and strength training. It was very interesting to see his approach. After working with these three trainers I decided that I wanted to become a personal trainer myself.

I enrolled into the personal trainer program at the Mount Royal University here in Calgary at the age of 18. It was a full-time ten month program that took you through the standard anatomy, physiology, psychology, business courses, and more that you need to make a career in this industry. In my second semester at Mount Royal I met the Exercise Physiology and Strength & Conditioning Design Professor Mike Souster, whom I consider to be one of the best coaches in the world. Mike currently works out of Peak Power Sports Development. He did a fantastic job teaching exercise physiology to our class. He would break everything down, explain the theory behind it, and then explain how it was relevant to training. His S&C course was eye-opening to me. I really wanted to dig into the details with him to find out why programs would lead to certain results. At the end of the 10 month program I wasn’t even close to being at the top of my class. I think I finished at 77% overall (laughing). I’m not an A+ student by any means. I hired Mike to do my programs. Up until this point all of my trainers had been in-person and with Mike it was the first time I’d received a program. I remember looking at the first program he sent me. It was just so different from everything that I’d been doing. For the first three months every session just killed me (laughing). Mike was forcing me to experience all these different modes of training. I felt what a muscle-endurance workout felt like, what a hypertrophy workout felt like, and so on. I finally decided to write up a workout program for a friend. It was a basic muscle-building program and he started to see great progress. It was right around that time when we decided to start The Strength Guys on Twitter as a means of networking with S&C professionals. It wasn’t for quite some time before we actually took on our first client!

Matt: I think what the common theme for these other young trainers getting noticed right now is that you all identified what your biggest interest was at a young age. You were able to jump into the professional side of the industry and get exposure to a lot of different types of training. Through that you started to formulate your own ideas. Instead of following the normal route someone getting into fitness takes and taking 3-5 years to sift through all the fitness information out there you found quality evidenced-based information quickly.

Jason: Absolutely. I think the most important part of my education was experiencing all these different modes of training for myself. Seeing what different trainers did with their clients. The best experience wasn’t the theories I learned in class, it was experiencing what they felt like. Being lucky enough to identify what I wanted to do at a young age definitely helped.

Matt: This is a little bit of a tangent, but I’d like to ask you what your thoughts are on personal trainer education and what you think the ideal path is. A lot of trainers I’ve talked to think that a licensure with a high mandatory internship hours requirement would be a big improvement upon what exists today. Some trainers think that you should have a degree in the field, others believe that adding regulation or requirements would have a positive impact to the quality of new fitness professionals. From what you’ve seen in the industry, what do you think would be the best way to ensure high-quality trainers and coaches?

Jason: Well I have a lot of fond memories of the PFT certificate I took at Mount Royal where I took courses that were very focused on helping me with what I wanted to do. After that I decided to get my degree in Kinesiology which I’ll be in my third year of next year after taking this semester off. Even after I graduated I still felt that I didn’t know everything that I wanted to know. I just don’t think that the shorter term certifications allow you to learn as much you want to, or need, within that time frame in order to create quality programs and take someone to a high level. There’s so much other stuff that goes into it. Maybe you have a high-level athlete who’s at the world level with powerlifting, obviously you can’t discount that experience. I think that experiencing different styles of training and programming is important. For the knowledge side of things, it’s tough. I’m tempted to say at least have a BKin, but there will always be exceptions to that. You have to have the guts and courage to work with new people. A few years back I worked with a NASCAR drivers and pit crews, I had no prior experience with with NASCAR, but I was willing to try it and study as hard as I could to figure it out… If you know the theory behind it you should be able to jump in and create a solid plan for these new challenges. If you know programming theory you should be good for any sport if you really apply yourself.

Matt: Switching back over to The Strength Guys, I think it’s a fascinating story about how you just started by putting out information via Twitter and over time the quality content allowed your brand to grow into the business you have today. When you guys first started the Twitter account did you have any expectations for this to grow into a business at all?

Jason: We never planned to have a coaching company or to make money off of The Strength Guys. This all kind of came from a conversation that I had with my Dad before I went into BKin and he was mentioning how difficult it would be to distinguish myself. I knew this, but he really put that thought into my head. I didn’t want to graduate with a degree and work at a standard gym making standard wages. I wanted to make an impact on the industry and accomplish something great. I started the Twitter account to start networking with other people in the industry and just wanted to see where it could go. I figured maybe after I graduated I could get a division 1 strength coaching job in the States if I was lucky, you know? That was better than working at a chain gym to me. I just started to put out content on Twitter and connected with as many people as possible.

Matt: I know that you had a few big names in the industry and a partnership or two, but what were the turning point that led you to believe that this could be a real business?

Jason: I’d say the biggest turning point was when Mark Martin followed us on Twitter. We had the account for 13 months before that. He followed us and I wasn’t too familiar with him because NASCAR is not big in Canada. I just like the way Twitter works. If someone follows you in turn you follow them. I just sent him a direct message asking if he would like to try our programs. I’d read through his Twitter and saw that he was very passionate about working out. He asked to set up a phone call and I was shocked. I’m just a nervous 19 year old kid at the time. That night I’m skyping with Mark Martin and I convinced him to try out a program from me the next month. He loved it and started sharing us around on Twitter. He had over a 100,000 followers so it was very helpful. We really started to grow. We had an Instagram and Facebook page, but most of our marketing was on Twitter at this point. From this connection with Mark I ended up working with the half-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, Rob Kauffman, for a stint as well. Later that year Mark flew my Dad and I down to North Carolina so I could interview for the assistant Strength & Conditioning position. I was only 20 at the time so I thought that was pretty crazy. It dawned on me how versatile The Strength Guys as a company had the potential to become.

Outside of that, we’ve just been lucky to work with some really great people. Jeff Nippard has had a huge impact on us and our client base. He started off as a client and now is a coach for us. He has been here since day 1. People like Travis Schmitz, who came one point away from winning his pro card the last time he was on stage, have just been super loyal to us since day one. I’m so thankful and appreciative for each and every opportunity to work towards a common goal together with a client. It is what makes coaching so special to me. That’s what’s really helped us build, surrounding ourselves with loyal people.

Matt: Your team has built up an amazing reputation in the bodybuilding and powerlifting communities. Your branding is focused on delivering advanced programs that have been tested and tweaked for improvement time after time. Could you tell me what the full services that you guys offer to clients around the world and what you think that The Strength Guys specialize in compared to other companies out there?

Jason: In a nutshell, we offer programs that come in 4-6 week phases. In the programs you’ll have a very detailed plan to follow with rest times, tempos, sets, reps, RPE’s, cues for exercises, etc. We’ll periodize that and progress it with what we believe will be the best plan for the individual based off of their goals and experience.  The end result is an individualized strength program, conditioning plan, and evidenced-based nutrition recommendations. We’re not nutritionists or dieticians and we are fully aware of that. We do think it’s important to have that other part there because with online coaching you can’t leave something that’s so essential unmonitored.

I had this idea to create an interactive PDF pack in as much relevant information as possible to help our clients. It’s called The Plan, which you might have seen if you follow us via social media. We hired the Forefathers Group and they’ve done awesome work with it. They helped us put together this over the top resource for our clients.

The other services that we offer include video feedback. It’s hard to just assume that your clients know how to perform the exercises you pass along to them. Email isn’t enough in many cases. Personally, we use Dartfish, screenshots, and whatever it takes to help. We’ll give cues and track their progress over time.

Matt: When you turned this into a full-time business what challenges did you run into that surprised you and were good learning lessons?

Jason: I mean, this is the first job I’ve had so I’ve never experienced working with other professionals before (laughing). I’ve never had the experience of being someone’s boss before so there were a ton of lessons that I learned. I only had an introductory level class to business so there was room for improvement. We pretty much learned everything on our own!

When we started making money I had to figure out what to do with it, so I was playing the role of bookkeeper for a while. That was a bit overwhelming for me because I was spending so much time on it. I thought I’d have to drop out of school just to keep our books (laughing). Luckily my Mom volunteered to help me out so I could finish my last year in school. Employee turnover is something I didn’t fully grasp either. When you grow your company you think everyone’s going to be there for the long-term, but you there’s so many factors that can cause turnover so you have to be prepared for it. Marketing was another huge adjustment for me. I think I totally missed the boat on it for the first few years. Consistency with marketing was the key that really helped us move forward. We’re much better at this now. Basically I had to learn everything (laughing).

Matt: What’s surprised you as you’ve grown your team and each person has added their own unique expertise to The Strength Guys?

Jason: I feel like I’ve surrounded myself with very smart people. The people that I work with are just amazing in their areas of expertise. If I ever have a questions about someone’s form for squat or deadlift I’ll ask Jon Stewart, for example. He’s just so thorough with his explanations. Jeff Nippard an absolute scholar with the books. If I have a question about nutrition or chemistry he’s my guy. Andrew Vigotsky helps me with anything related to pain that we have to train around. For design I go to Alex Kovaleski. We’ve just surrounded ourselves with people who have great attributes and each one of us is able to help each other grow. Most recently we have added Dan Forbes and Kristen Dunsmore as our 4th and 5th coaches to the team. Two outstanding individuals that we are so excited to have onboard, and to grow together with into the future.

Matt: When you look at the online coaching market what do you think will happen over the next few years?

Jason: I think that online coaches are now starting to get a better grasp of how to market their services. I actually got the idea for marketing our program templates from the way that Apple markets their laptops, which is kind of weird. I was watching a TED talk by Simon Sinek about his book, “Start WIth Why”. He was explaining why you would buy a Mac instead of a Dell if it’s largely the same technology. You look at the I Love My Notebook ad campaign on TV and it’s just a white background with the laptop. They put all these different sticker images in a 30 second timespan on the laptop. It just makes people like they can identify with the product. One of my things with program design is that I always want them to look as professional as they can be. I have templates with James Bond on them, Ironman themed templates, and I just came out with an Epic Fitness Summit themed template. All of these different things are just fun to do and they connect with different people who are in to different styles! People are able to identify with what we do. Bryce Lewis, at The Strength Athlete, does an incredible job at doing this as well. So, I feel that on the whole online coaching is getting better at marketing. We’re now getting more complete in the services we offer. We’re filling in the gaps to make sure our clients the results they want. This is just going to continue to grow. There’s not much overhead with online coaching. You have to pay your taxes, labor costs, host your website, pay people for special projects, and that’s pretty much it. The industry is headed in the right direction. Our goal is to continue to be innovators in the field.

Matt: What are The Strength Guys working on improving right now? What goals do you have for this upcoming year?

Jason: Personally I really want to help my clients reach their goals. I’ve been coaching Taylor Atwood since before US nationals last year and he ended up setting the American record in classic 74 kgs. He totaled 1515 pounds and since then our goal has been the Arnold Classic. I’d love to see him hit the squat and bench world record. The deadlift world record will be tough, but is within reach. The world total record is there for the taking as well. To be able to have a client and friend reach that level would be huge for us. I get so invested in the dreams of my clients. It really makes the journey and writing programs special for me.We will continue to grow and work with the powerlifting and bodybuilding communities. We’re working with people all over the world and it’s just very exciting.

As far as The Strength Guys goes, we want to continue to make a name for ourselves. We’re very excited to speak at the EPIC Fitness Summit. It’s a huge deal for us and we are pulling out all the stops for it. If you told me 3 years ago that we would be presenting after Tony Strudwick of Manchester United, I would have told you no way! The Online Fitness Summit is an incredible opportunity as well, which Jeff and I will be speaking at. There’s a lot of great opportunities for us and I’m excited to see what comes from the work we put in. We want to go where other online coaching companies haven’t gone, do things that haven’t yet been imagined, and impact as many lives in a positive way as we possibly can. This drives us every single day.

Matt: Huge thank you to Jason for sharing his story with us. If you’d like to read more and follow The Strength Guys check out the links below:

– Strength Guys Website
– Facebook Page
– Twitter @TheStrengthGuys