Today’s guest post comes from Kim Lloyd, a friend, colleague, and former contributor to this site. If you’re a coach or personal trainer, you’ve likely seen this scenario: a client fires you. It never feels good, but it can be a chance to reflect, learn, and grow rather than repeat the same mistakes.
Failures hurt. Here’s what I learned from one.
I was on my way to losing an online training client, and the experience opened my eyes in a surprising way. The client was an acquaintance from Boston who had followed my blog and wanted to move from Zumba to strength training. We spoke about her goals, her injury history, and even my own quirks during the call, then I set her up with a program. But a few weeks later, she sent a breakup email. It wasn’t about me; she needed more space and felt overwhelmed by starting the program, so she headed back to Zumba.
In her note, she candidly outlined the challenges she faced. Her reaction to the cable machine was telling: she’d never used it, felt it belonged in a different area of the gym, worried about how to approach it, how to adjust the weight, and how long to stay on it. She admitted that the process felt intimidating, and she wasn’t sure someone could walk her through it.
Losing a client was hard, but it made me confront the nuances of strength training that I had long taken for granted. I remembered what it felt like when I first started training seriously: walking into the free-weight room, wondering where to put my gym bag, why a man in the corner wore a wrestling costume, and how to begin warming up. I remembered the frustration of not being able to lift the bar or press a few pounds during younger days, and I remembered how long it took me to understand a program—sets, reps, tempo, and unfamiliar terms like Pallof Press or Landmine, or what to do if a gym doesn’t have them.
Strength training can feel like a bubble for those who live in the sport, and this client reminded me how hard it is for many people to get over the early hurdles. I try to give people a clear roadmap, but I know not everyone knows how to drive yet. What I want most is for people to fall in love with strength training the way I did, because it’s good for them. As a coach, the worst moment is when someone is excited about trying strength training but ends up feeling intimidated, defeated, and frustrated to the point of quitting before they even start.
My client’s breakup also reminded me of people, especially women, who are trying to sift through a world full of Insta-trainers and infomercials to find trustworthy guidance. They carry old gym-class insecurities into the gym, often decades after those experiences. I’m grateful to that client for reminding me that I must help people learn how to drive the process before I send them on their way.
That’s why I wrote a book—not to boast, but to genuinely help people who feel too intimidated to ask for help or step into the weight room. I wanted to show them that they CAN lift safely and effectively, starting exactly where they are.
Start Where You Are: A Beginner’s Guide to Lifting Weights and Feeling Great
About the author:
Kim Lloyd spent the first two decades after college juggling many jobs before finding her path in fitness. She is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and an Online Certified Trainer. She coaches full-time at Spurling Fitness in Kennebunk, Maine, and trains online clients through Kim Lloyd Fitness. You can learn more about her work online.
