Jonathan Goodman's Blog: Personal Trainer Development Center

Here are a few short thoughts this week.

 

Money

1.

"We become good at what we practice even if what we practice is not good for us."

- Dandapani

 

Health

1.

Every rep that you do is a vote for the person you want to become. And every excuse you make is a vote for the person you are trying to leave behind. That’s the process. Rep by rep. Black and white. Ones and zeroes. Did you do the thing or not.

2

Most coaching is just removing stuff that gets in the way.

 

Relationships

1

Complaining about a problem even if it is unfair and unjust doesn’t solve the problem and is therefore a waste of time.

2

Just because a fire can burn, doesn’t meant mean we stop using it to cook. Most bad things have good elements.

 

Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

www.theptdc.com/articles/5-reps-nov-28-2025​

-Jon

P.S. That smile . . .

 

Promo

No promo this week. Happy Thanksgiving if you're from 'murica.

Jonathan Goodman
Coach. Author. World explorer. But mostly, Dad.--My next book,  The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way , is now available to buy!!!--Thanks for reading. Here's a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free
Instagram: @itscoachgoodman
Podcast: The Obvious Choice
Software: QuickCoach

Paid
Book: Ignite the Fire
Course: Online Trainer Academy
Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship

The post 5 Reps: Every rep, bad thing, and good elements appeared first on The PTDC.

Before we begin, I'm excited to announce an online workshop happening next Wednesday called How to Make More Money in Fitness. Myself, Rachel Cosgrove, and Mike Michalowicz will be teaching you how to get clients, generate referrals, and manage your money better. Please register here.

Here's what's new:

​Audiobook Recording for Authors: Tips on Habits, Throat Health, and Food​

Next, here are a few short thoughts this week.

 

Money

1.

"The word burnout was coined in the 1970s by Herbert Freudenberger, an American psychologist who studied workers in free health clinics. He found that the prime candidates for burnout were those who were “dedicated and committed,” trying to balance their need to give, to please others, and to work hard. He noticed that when there was added pressure from superiors, people often hit a breaking point."

-Paul Millerd

2

There are no dead ends, only speed bumps.

 

Health

1.

You can buy a new car. You can move to a new house.

But you only get ONE body.

Money spent on your health and fitness is not an expense; it's an investment.

Pinch pennies elsewhere.

​Share on IG​

 

Relationships

1

Depending on when you see someone or the setting you meet them, you might be more acquainted with their victories than their vulnerabilities.

2

"No matter what you do, the tides of time will wash away your sandcastle, so there's no point reaching for some foolhardy sense of immortality, when there's real work to be done with real people right now."

-John Green

 

Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

www.theptdc.com/articles/5-reps-Nov-21-2025​

-Jon

P.S. You're gonna need to remind me (again)

 

PromoHow to Make More Money in Fitness

A workshop

Over just 3 hours, we're revealing the business secrets that top coaches obsess over but burned-out trainers ignore.

--> Info and registration here​

It’s not a lot you need to know.

The high-level topics we’re covering are:

• A repeatable system to get 4 new clients in 7 days that you can launch anytime you need more people.

• Money habits to keep (and grow) more of what you make.

• How to finally benefit from the UNTAPPED POTENTIAL of your network with a referral system.

I picked these 3 because they offer the perfect combination of easy implementation and high impact.

This is a live online event. If you cannot make it live, no problem. We wil send you the replay via both video and audio after it is over for your review.

--> Info and registration here​

Jonathan Goodman
Coach. Author. World explorer. But mostly, Dad.--My next book,  The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way , is now available to buy!!!--Thanks for reading. Here's a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free
Instagram: @itscoachgoodman
Podcast: The Obvious Choice
Software: QuickCoach

Paid
Book: Ignite the Fire
Course: Online Trainer Academy
Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship

The post 5 Reps: Speed bumps, dead ends, and burnout appeared first on The PTDC.

Before we begin, here's what's new:

​Book Update #1: Unhinged Habits is Finished! (article)

Next, here are a few short thoughts this week.

 

Money

1.

"If you are rich, you have money in the bank that allows you to buy the stuff you want. If you are wealthy, you have a level of control over what that money does to your personality, your freedom, your desires, ambitions, morals, friendships, and mental health." - Morgan Housel

 

Health

1.

We're wired to have seasons.

Starts.

Stops.

Periods of work followed by periods of rest.

Spend part of your day going fast. Crush a workout. Dive deep into your work. Spend the rest of your day going slow. Walk. Read. Get coffee with a friend. Avoid the anxious middle, never full on, never fully off. This is the essence of unhinged habits.

2

Physically weak people are generally timid.

As a result, they miss out on a lot.

Opportunities. Relationships. Experiences.

Physical preparedness builds confidence in every interaction.

When you know your body is capable, your mind follows.

​Share on IG

 

Relationships

1

We’re drawn to people like us, yet ironically, it’s our differences that make relationships thrive.

2

“Before you are married, you can live under the illusion that you are easy to live with. But to be married is to volunteer for the most thorough surveillance program known to mankind,” wrote Alain de Botton. It’s the stripping off of the idealized projection. The disillusion that follows is inevitable. Be with somebody long enough, and you’ll learn who they really are . . . and who you really are.

-An excerpt from Unhinged Habits (preorder here)

 

Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

​www.theptdc.com/articles/5-reps-Nov-7-2025​

-Jon

P.S. The Blue Jays lost the World Series by 3 inches and I am absolutely devastated.

 

Promo

No promo this week. But if you're active on LinkedIn, send me a connection request. I'll accept. I'm https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-goodman

Jonathan Goodman
Coach. Author. World explorer. But mostly, Dad.--My next book,  The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way , is now available to buy!!!--Thanks for reading. Here's a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free
Instagram: @itscoachgoodman
Podcast: The Obvious Choice
Software: QuickCoach

Paid
Book: Ignite the Fire
Course: Online Trainer Academy
Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship

The post 5 Reps: 3 inches, weak people, and who we're drawn to appeared first on The PTDC.

This article is 1,579 words long and takes about 7 minutes to read.

--

I submitted the final edits on the design for the book last week.

(If you’re just joining, I’m writing a book called Unhinged Habits.)

Now that it’s done, I’ve decided to give you an update on how it came to be and what I’ve learned so far.

–

The genesis of Unhinged Habits

Traditional publishing takes about a year from final manuscript to release.

Once I turned in The Obvious Choice to HarperCollins, I called my agent to talk about ideas for the next book.

I wanted to write about my 8:4 seasonal way of living and how much it positively impacts my health, relationships, and work. As I spoke and she asked questions, we both knew it was a big idea.

Most modern self-help is rebranded Stoicism, Buddhism, or research. Fine, but those books have already been done well by Manson, Clear, Robbins, Holiday, et al.

These concepts, on the other hand, felt rich, new, and useful. The type of ideas that can only come from deep lived experience, exploration, and a tremendous amount of reading and introspection.

For 14 years, I’ve challenged both social and educational norms, accepting nothing as status quo. My entire adult life has been a search for a more exciting, purposeful, and meaningful life.

I’ve built businesses, lived in 10 countries, enrolled my kid in a school in Mexico, in Spanish, when he doesn’t speak the language, and he thrived. Heck, I even built the first-ever certification for a new field (online fitness training).

My agent and I both agreed that the timing is perfect for this book.

It’s 2026––doing work you hate and being surrounded by people who don’t light you up is dumb. We all have the tools we need. You can just do things. What’s missing are the mindset shifts, permission, and frameworks for our modern world.

Honestly, the idea was so big that it scared me. There’s a strange anxiety that comes with releasing work you believe is life-changing.

I can’t let that hold me back. Let’s start at the beginning.

Signing the book deal

To sell your next book to the same publisher, all they require is an option proposal. This can be as short as one page. Mine ended up being 28 pages.

I wrote it quickly. It exploded out of me. I could see how it came together from day 1. That’s never happened before.

My agent worked her magic on the proposal and we submitted it on Thursday, June 27 2024.

Friday midday, the publisher emailed my agent and said, “let’s chat Monday.”

My agent warned me they might not buy the book. She was prepared to fight for it. It’s rare for a big publisher to award a large book deal to an author before there’s sales data from his first book.

Monday rolls around. They get on the phone. I wasn’t there. Authors don’t join their agents on negotiation calls with publishers. I heard what happened next later.

“This is big. We want it.”

Matt said that. He’s a VP at HarperCollins.

They made a big offer on the spot. I accepted that day.

The book deal was signed on July 1st—only three weeks after I submitted the final manuscript for my last book. That velocity is virtually without precedent.

What happened next was a blur.

The cost of releasing two books so close to one another

Unhinged Habits will be released on January 27, 2026. That’s only one year and 13 days after my last book, The Obvious Choice, came out.

Looking back, I’m happy I moved so fast but don’t recommend it.

Because, while the turnaround was fast, it wasn’t quick.

I wrote Choice in three years. Unhinged Habits took more hours to write, but I did it in one year.

In that same time that I was supposed to be marketing Choice, writing Habits, and managing two businesses, my wife got pregnant and bed-ridden ill during her first trimester and one of our closest friends began chemotherapy for breast cancer.

With Alison ill, I added on caring for her, preparing meals, keeping the house tidy, and doing school pickups.

These two stories evolved as I was writing the book. And I ended up breaking them up into three interludes that intersect the book.

How they happened. What they mean. And how to prepare for the inevitable moment life unexpectedly kicks you in the teeth are all key ideas from the book I was writing that got battle-tested as I as writing it.

Last year was hard. I wouldn’t wish it on you. But you needn’t have wished for something to happen in order to be grateful that it did. The book’s stronger as a result. As am I.

People talk about work-life balance. I’ve never liked that. Balance is binary. Too precarious. If you’re in balance, it means that you can also be in imbalance. I prefer the term work-life harmony. A flowing state where you roll with the punches.

Expect the unexpected. Build tolerance to life’s intolerances.

The best way to deal with something unhealthy is to first become as healthy as possible. Make decisions today that your future self will thank you for when shit hits the fan. Because it will.

That last bit in italics is a direct quote from the book.

–
Neither book’s content suffered from doing them both this fast.

What suffered was the marketing for The Obvious Choice. Because I was on deadline for UH when I was supposed to be marketing it, Choice didn’t get the attention it deserved. And the book launch bombed.

So why did I sign another book deal so quickly?

Because I had a big idea and wanted to get back to work.

Fortunately, I also think I’ve hit the timing just right. Unhinged Habits is dropping just as the entire world is going mad and people are questioning their path, purpose, and meaning because:

Their calendar’s packed, yet they feel like they’re missing what matters.They’ve bought things meant to bring happiness, but the satisfaction didn't last.They suspect that they’re living someone else's definition of success rather than their own.This book is a gloriously selfish activity

I’m not supposed to admit this to you, but here goes: The books that I write are books for me.

I write because it helps me understand myself better.

Writing Unhinged Habits has transformed me into a better father, husband, boss, friend, and grown-up son.

You see, I’ve explored a lot. Exploring every which way. From travel to education, music to sports, renting and owning.

And I’ve figured out some principles. Immensely helpful things. So much so, that where others seem to struggle and get burned out, I don’t feel those things. But I didn't realize how much it was transforming me as it happened.

Writing is how I connect the dots looking backwards. I walk through life blissfully aloof. Ask my wife. I never know what I’m doing. I rarely know what day it is, or month. I say yes to things without thinking them through. And I go all in. Then, I take what works, throw out what doesn’t, and make damn sure to learn from my mistakes.

There’s a few obvious things I’ve learned like how valuable your local community is.

Then there’s less obvious things like how we all know basically nothing and admitting our ignorance is the best way to make good decisions.

And then there’s some stuff we need to talk about more, like how necessary it is to categorize your friends so you stop wasting your time on those who don’t matter and optimize it with the few that do.

But the central theme of the book, and the crux of the title, is this challenging question:

What if being consistent isn’t actually the key to transformative growth?

Get a little better every day. Be consistent. Sure. I buy it. That’s nice. Looks good on a chart. But we’re human, you and I. Math that checks out rarely works reliably within the squiggly confines of our messy reality.

Lots of people are consistent, yet few get ahead. Have you thought about that?

I don’t know a single person who has achieved anything meaningful in work, family, or health based on pure consistency. In literally every case, there were bouts of almost (unhinged) intensity interspersed. Like cardio and weights, of course, it’s not a one-or-the-other thing—you need both.

Heck, even the guy who wrote the book about getting 1% better every day, which is a great book, used an absolutely unhinged period of intensity to market it. And many more of those unhinged periods of intensity to get the book across the finish line.

I’ll sum it up like this:

Consistency is for the maintaining. Intensity is for the gaining.

Unhinged Habits is a book about wanting a better life and going after it. Or be okay not having it. Both are fine. Just get out of the middle.

There’s still a long way to go.

The manuscript and design is done, but the heavy marketing lift is just beginning.

While not the end-all, be-all, the ultimate success of a book does depend a lot on how it does upon launch; specifically, preorders of the book.

And so, if any of this sounds exciting, interesting, or useful to you, please considering preordering Unhinged Habits today on Amazon. It’s available in all formats (hardcover, audio, and Kindle).

→ Click here to preorder Unhinged Habits

Most of all, thanks for being a part of the journey.
-Jon

The post Book Update #1: Unhinged Habits is Finished! appeared first on The PTDC.

Before we begin, here's what's new:

5 Titles, 50 covers, and 179 days later: How Unhinged Habits Came to Be (article)

Next, here are a few short thoughts this week.

 

Money

1.

Seth Godin said that an author’s job is to sell the first 10,000 copies of their book. It’s the book’s job to sell the next million. The same principle applies regardless of the product or service you sell. It is your job to earn a critical mass. Even great products fail without a strong initial marketing push.

-

(For help with your marketing, read The Obvious Choice.)

2

Pas plux, mieux.

In english, "not more, better".

-

Credit: Nicolas M

3

I spent $80,000 and two months on one blog post.

Most people would call that stupid.

They’re wrong.

Nobody wakes up thinking, “I really hope a long, detailed article from somebody I’ve never heard of pops up in my feed today. If it does, I’ll surely stop what I’m doing, read it carefully, and assess its quality.”

That’s not how it works.

You have to earn attention. Then your content has to deliver.

The second doesn’t happen without the first.

-

More on this in my LinkedIn post (Please send me a connection request. I'll accept.)

 

Health

1.

Most people treat their cars and homes better than their bodies.

Share on Intagram

Relationships

A few quotes from the book Reap3r by Eliot Peper.

"Years could pass in minutes, and minutes could take years."

“It was amazing how far paying attention could take you.”

“desperate to document their lives that they forgot to live them.’”

Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

www.theptdc.com/articles/5-reps-Oct-31-2025

Holy crap, the Jays might just win this thing. Never thought I'd see this in my lifetime.
-Jon

P.S. This is a good sign

 

Promo

No promo this week. Hope you're awesome!

Jonathan Goodman
Coach. Author. World explorer. But mostly, Dad.--My next book,  The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way , is now available to buy!!!--Thanks for reading. Here's a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free
Instagram: @itscoachgoodman
Podcast: The Obvious Choice
Software: QuickCoach

Paid
Book: Ignite the Fire
Course: Online Trainer Academy
Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship

The post 5 Reps: $80,000, one blog post, and a french phrase appeared first on The PTDC.

It’s my 40th birthday.

In four decades, focus is the most important concept I’ve learned that I’m finally embracing.

Focus isn’t a technique. It’s a state that you exist in.

The hardest part about focus is accepting its tradeoffs:

The short-term sacrifice.The guilt of neglecting priorities.The nagging pull of thinking others have figured it out.

Too much time is a problem.

It’s hard to focus without constraints. You’re not forced to prioritize. You can say yes to things, so you do. I think this is why people with families tend to achieve more professionally. Which is counterintuitive.

I’ll be honest with you: I’m tired. My kids don’t sleep well. My brain has maybe one good hour of attention most days. That’s low-grade sleep deprivation, or early-stage parenting, for you.

And so, for this season of my life, I do not work much. I can’t.

And yet, despite being unable to focus on any task for extended periods of time this year, I’ve had more professional growth (and income growth) than ever.

Part of it is surely the result of 15 years in one field—the simple compounding of experience over time. But I think there's more to it. I think it's because I finally learned that focus isn't about sitting in silence with noise-cancelling headphones for hours on end, matcha tea, or productivity apps. No, it’s deeper than that.

Focus is a state you exist in when you finally become confident in who you are. When you say “this is who I am. These are the people I want to be around. This is the work I am best designed to do, dammit, and it’s all I’m doing.”

Redefining focus this last year transformed my work. It’s guided me to choose writing as my path. And it has attracted the right opportunities and people to me.

You are not your job. Let’s start there.

I was listening to a podcast from Cal Newport yesterday on a short run. The run was short because I don’t have much time to run. Which is fine. Running sucks. I don’t want my heart to explode so I do it. A few miles is enough.

Anyway, Cal said that our working memory can only hold so many things. And if we try to make it hold too many, they blend together into an amorphous blob of what needs to be done. This puts you in a mindset of “I’m behind on things. I’m a mess.” When you’re in that mindset, Newport said, “it’s hard to make progress”.

A question I’ve always asked is:

“What’s the difference between people who work hard and succeed and people who work just as hard, yet toil and sputter and burn out?”

It’s clearly not effort.

After 40 years, I think I found the answer.

The most successful people exist in a state of focus.

Try to do too much and you’ll accomplish nothing. At least, it’ll feel that way. Progress will be unrecognizable. When you’re directionless, momentum is impossible to delineate.

The catalytic point for me was when I wrote down my ideal lifestyle properties.

I realized that most people define themselves by their job. I’m a personal trainer. An author. A software business owner. Whatever.

You become trapped when your self-identity is wrapped up in your job.

When deciding what to focus on, begin with the lifestyle properties you desire.

My goal for this (very busy, exhausted, and absolutely positively amazing) season of my life with young children is to put in a few focused hours of work each day. No more than two or three. To read lots, meet interesting people, and be able to disappear for a month at a time and have nobody care.

More than one job satisfied my lifestyle properties. And even if I don’t get there 100%, which I won’t, having it written out helps me make hard decisions.

Once I defined my lifestyle properties, writing emerged as the perfect fit for my constraints. And I love doing it. With limited daily capacity, I needed work that could thrive in concentrated bursts.

I’m going to talk about writing books now. But only as an example of the power of living in a state of focus.

Focusing on writing was not financially motivated. It’s because I’m a young dad. For this season, all I can muster is an hour or so a day of good work. When you write, that’s enough. If you have the luxury to choose, lifestyle properties are useful constraints.

There’s nonsense that comes along with a career in authorship the same as any career. Daily content creation to build a platform immediately comes to mind. It’s a grind that fails my lifestyle properties test. Right for some, not for me.

That’s fine. It’s a constraint. I love constraints. Constraints help me figure out new ways of achieving. If there’s one other lesson I’ve learned from my 40 years it’s that nobody knows what they’re doing. And yes, you can make it up as you go. You should, actually.

So, screw it, I’ve opted out of daily content creation.

A team will create content based off of my articles and books. It won’t perform as well on social media. Which is fine.

Figuring out what game to play is more important than playing the game well.

The game I’m playing is to view success on social media as a lagging, not leading indicator of success. Here’s what I’m doing that’s working better than buying into the maddening content hamster wheel.

Success is complicated, confusing, and multifaceted (but this one thing is surely true)

There’s so many different aspects of success. It’s so hard.

Making money. Developing a reputation. Being a good person with good values. Building the marketing and sales engine. And, oh yeah, actually getting good at the thing. Not good. I take that back––excellent.

You probably can’t do it alone. You need people in your corner. Supporters. Team members.

Focus attracts talent and drives support.

Special people want to support special people. Obsessed people want to work with obsessed people. It’s not a money thing. Yeah, you’ve gotta pay well. But it goes deeper than that.

When I decided to focus on writing, I needed to build up a team, network, and reputation from nothing.

Here’s what I did:

First, I co-hosted 31 meals with over 170 authors in Toronto, New York, Chicago, and Austin this year.

Then I committed a $50,000 budget to supporting people whose work deserves being supported. This is mainly through bulk preorders of people’s books and having them shipped to my community.

Together it will cost somewhere around $80,000 total. Not an insignificant amount of money but if you think of it as a marketing expense that would otherwise be spent on ads, agencies, and consultants, it’s not a lot.

Then I invested 40 hours and wrote a blog post with my plans for the Unhinged Habits book launch. My opinion about content right now is that if your goal isn’t to produce the best version of a thing that exists, it’s probably not worth doing.

Once done, I manually texted, emailed, and messaged the article to over 1,000 people with a personal message. This took four weeks. That one article was close to two months of effort when all was said and done.

Nobody wakes up and thinks, “I really hope a long and detailed article from somebody I’ve never heard of pops up in my feed today. If it does, I’ll surely stop what I’m doing, read it carefully, and assess its quality.”

You have to earn attention. Then your content has to deliver. The second doesn’t happen without the first.

Getting on planes. Shaking hands. Supporting people’s work. Manually messaging the link. The unscalable ‘human’ things. That got the article read. These people checked it out because of those things. Not because it was good. They had to read it to figure out it’s good. Therefore, getting somebody to read it was step 1.

Creating content is a middle part of a multi-step process that includes trust, brand, and an earned distribution network. If starting from nothing like I was, it is manual. Ten readers come before a thousand.

My goal this year was two-fold:

Expedite my own learning.Attract top-tier talent.

Hosting meals got me access to ‘behind-the-scenes’ info in addition to a network. That enabled me to write a stellar book launch article and provided me the distribution it needed.

As a result, it got in the hands of some of the best book publishing and marketing people in the world. Some of those people are now working with me, helping execute the launch strategy in the article.

Do you see how this all comes together?

Yes, I’ll pay people well. That’s obviously important. But the best of the best aren’t found in a marketplace. They’re not promoting themselves. They have too much inbound demand. You’ll only ever get to know who the people behind the people really are if you do the work to get into the guts of a community. And those people will only work with you if you’re both vetted and able to communicate an exciting vision.

At 40, I've finally learned that focus isn't about doing more things with perfect concentration, apps, or checklists.

Focus is about the courage to be exactly who you are and direct your energy accordingly.

Focus is intensity.

Focus is a lightning strike that permanently alters the landscape versus a series of unimpactful Yet distracting sparks.

Focus is a fantastic state to exist in.

To others, your focus will appear unhinged. I tend to think that’s a good word.

-Jon

The post 40 years, 1 lesson appeared first on The PTDC.

Here are a few short thoughts this week.

 

Money

1.

Try to do too much and you’ll accomplish nothing. At least, it’ll feel that way. Progress will be unrecognizable. When you’re directionless, momentum is impossible to delineate. The most successful people I know exist in a state of focus.

2

The people I admire focus on their craft not for weeks, months, or even years. But for decades.

3

"Be wary of advice that has the shelf life of a brown banana. Instead, categorize information as either permanent or expiring. Ask yourself, “In five years, will this still work?” Expiring advice isn’t necessarily bad. It does, however, tend to distract us."

-From The Obvious Choice (buy here)

 

Health

1.

If you want your kids to be fit, strong, and curious…

You have to be fit, strong, and curious.

Lift weights, read books. Do both in front of them.

You can’t outsource your influence as a parent.

Lead by example. Children do what you do, not what you say.

2

There's a parable called Plato’s cave.

It's about prisoners, chained in a cave in a way that they can only look straight ahead at a wall.

There’s a fire between them and people carrying stuff like vases.

The prisoners can’t turn around, so all that they see are shadows on the wall. Shadow puppets, basically. And it’s all that they know.

Then one prisoner gets free. At first, the sun blinds him. Everything hurts. He wants to go back to the comfort of the cave. To the shadows. But he stays. His eyes adjust. And holy shit, he sees actual trees. And stars.

He runs back to tell his friends. They think he’s gone mad. All they know are shadows. All they’ve ever known are shadows.

We’re those prisoners.

Our chains are our narrow bands of knowledge.

The shadows we see are our routines that we accept as normal, if only by our acquiescence to them.

Seasons of Yes are a way to break out of the cave.

Collective restoration are moments when we stop to truly see.

The first for checking out, the second for checking back in.

The world outside your familiar shadows is wider than you can imagine. And in that wideness, you’ll find both the serendipity and wonder that you crave.

-An excerpt from Unhinged Habits (Coming out Jan 27, 2026. Preorder here).

 

Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

www.theptdc.com/articles/5-reps-oct-24-2025

-Jon

P.S. Jays win! Jays win! On to the World Series. (a story from game 7)

 

PromoA few things or people I like and recommend​

Amanda Goetz book Toxic Grit got released this past week. It's a rally cry and roadmap for those who are done surviving success and ready for a new way to live, work and (actually) enjoy our lives. And Amanda? She's rad! (Buy your copy here.)

Unhinged Habits

Out Jan 27, 2026.

Final design edits submitted.

Please preorder your copy here

Jonathan Goodman
Coach. Author. World explorer. But mostly, Dad.--My next book,  The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way , is now available to buy!!!--Thanks for reading. Here's a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free
Instagram: @itscoachgoodman
Podcast: The Obvious Choice
Software: QuickCoach

Paid
Book: Ignite the Fire
Course: Online Trainer Academy
Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship

The post 5 Reps: Plato's cave, a brown banana, and trying to do too much appeared first on The PTDC.

Before we begin, do you want 1-5 new online fitness clients in a week? Join our free challenge starting October 27th. Already, 84% of 930 trainers have gained at least one client. Join the challenge here.

Next, here are a few short thoughts this week.

 

Money

1.

Most coaching is just removing stuff that gets in the way.

2

Selflessness starts with selfishness. Put your oxygen mask on first. Stop leaving yourself last. Miss unimportant events, but don’t miss the big stuff. And don’t people please. I used to be a people pleaser. Was afraid of not being liked by anybody. Then I cared less. Then not at all. It's a muscle to train––not caring about the people or things that don't matter. Which is almost everything. The only way to give more to the people you love is to limit what you give to the people you don't.

 

Health

1.

At first, the gym is a punishment. A chore. You drag yourself there. But, over time, something flips. It stops being about fixing yourself and starts being about getting stronger to deal with the chaos of the world.

2

Strength is never a waste.

 

Relationships​

1.

"Don't seek happiness. Happiness is like an orgasm: if you think about it too much, it goes away. Keep busy and aim to make someone else happy, and you might find you get some as a side effect."

- Tim Minchin

 

Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

www.theptdc.com/articles/5-reps-oct-17-2025

Go Jays Go,
-Jon

P.S. How do towels get dirty?

 

PromoA few things or people I like and recommend​

You don’t need more productivity hacks — you need better boundaries.

Saying no is essential — but saying it well is an art.

My Friend, Jenny Wood, New York Times-bestselling author of Wild Courage and former Google exec, created the Guide to Saying No (Without Feeling Like a Jerk) — 8 plug-and-play scripts to decline projects, meetings, and favors with clarity and confidence. Get it here.

The The Quiet Achiever: Your Journey to Authentic Confidence by Linda Raynier came out this week. Linda and I met for coffee last week. She's great! This is a book to help with inner confidence, specifically for people who identify as introverted (like me). Get it on Amazon here.

Linda and I last week at a turkish coffee shop in Toronto.

Get 1-5 New Online Fitness Clients in 7 Days!​

My team is running the Get Online Fitness Challenge from October 27 - November 2.

It used to cost $47, but is now free.

Since 2019, 930 trainers have done the challenge. 84% signed at least one client with active participants getting an average of 4.62 clients in 7 days at $197 a month.

Stop waiting to feel “ready”. Stop procrastinating.

-If you have a few online clients and want more, this is for you.

-If you've been thinking about getting started training online, this is for you.

--> Join the challenge and get some dang clients here!

Jonathan Goodman
Coach. Author. World explorer. But mostly, Dad.--My next book,  The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way , is now available to buy!!!--Thanks for reading. Here's a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free
Instagram: @itscoachgoodman
Podcast: The Obvious Choice
Software: QuickCoach

Paid
Book: Ignite the Fire
Course: Online Trainer Academy
Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship

The post Being selfish, more clients, and how towels get dirty appeared first on The PTDC.

Before we begin, here's a new article:

​I just lost $1.4 Million (Why QuickCoach was shut down)​

Next, here are a few short thoughts this week.

 

Money

1.

"Success is driven by outsized gains, not consistent daily efforts. By big projects, not small content pieces."

-From 1% better is an in-between thing, not the main thing​

2

"The whole world tries to get you to conform—to settle for "okay" instead of going for excellence. It does this by presenting you with distractions masked as opportunities. The challenge isn't figuring out how to play the game. It's finding the right game to play."

--From I Just Lost $1.4 Million​

 

Health

1.

Your clients need you sharp.

Your business needs you focused.

Your family needs you present.

You can't show up for any of them if you're not taking care of yourself first.

Physical fitness isn't vanity. It's a professional requirement.

-Share on Instagram

2

Stop treating your body like you can trade it in when it breaks.

-Share on Twitter/X ​

 

Relationships​

1.

Successful people help others win.

 

Want to share this issue of 5-Reps via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

www.theptdc.com/articles/5-reps-oct-10-2025​

-Jon

P.S. Daaaaaa Yankees Lose​

 

PromoA few things or people I like and recommend​

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I collect Ken Griffey Jr, baseball cards. I've amassed close to 1,000 unique ones. Kinda obsessed.

Today, I'm excited to share that M1NT—a company I was proud to be the first investor in—has partnered with Walmart to distribute its premium sports card cases.

If you, or somebody you know, collects sports cards, check it out and buy a few for your most special cards.

--> M1NT Sports Card Hobby Case at Walmart.com​

Ignite the Fire: The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career​

Repeatedly called one of the "best books for personal trainers", Ignite the Fire provides a clear road map teaching you how to become a personal trainer, to getting a personal trainer certification, to building your career from the bottom up so you can build a clientele, your reputation, and income.

This powerful book for certified personal trainers will show you how to:

Find your dream job in the fitness industry (pg 26)Find, market to, and sell your ideal client while seamlessly dealing with objections (pg 64)Build amazing workouts for beginners (pg 124)Deal with difficult client types (pg 160)Develop multiple income streams while maintaining your reputation (pg 202)

Get your copy in paperback, kindle, or audio today:

--> Ignite the Fire on Amazon​

Jonathan Goodman
Coach. Author. World explorer. But mostly, Dad.--My next book,  The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way , is now available to buy!!!--Thanks for reading. Here's a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free
Instagram: @itscoachgoodman
Podcast: The Obvious Choice
Software: QuickCoach

Paid
Book: Ignite the Fire
Course: Online Trainer Academy
Mentorship: Online Trainer Mentorship

The post 5 Reps: Outsized gains, conforming, and losing over a million dollars appeared first on The PTDC.

(This article is 1,639 words long and takes about 9 minutes to read.)

I just shut down a business at a huge loss.

It was a B2B SAAS client management tool for personal trainers called QuickCoach.

On paper, it looked impressive. Over 5 years we had 36,521 users who used QC to train 196,867 clients with 3.6 million workouts.

So why shut it down?

The catalyst for this decision was the birth of Jasmine, my third child.

Every kid I've had has sharpened my focus by reducing my patience for anything that's working well, but not great. Even moderate success creates inertia—walking away from something broken is easy. Walking away from something that’s working decently-well, on the other hand, is brutally hard, even for something better.

Having kids reduces the amount of fucks I have to give. Less time and energy has proven to be a useful constraint.

When I started QuickCoach, I was an ambitious business person. Now I’m an ambitious man.

An ambitious business person chases money and status.An ambitious man is driven by family, exploration, and ruthless focus on work that matters.

Entrepreneurs obsess over time. I obsess over creative energy. If you have time but no creative energy, you’re not going to accomplish anything anyway.

Lots to cover. It’s a long story. I’ll do my best to hit on it all.

-First, the vision for QuickCoach.

-Next, the harsh reality of running a B2B SAAS in a competitive space with a small total available market (TAM).

-Following that, four major takeaways.

-And finally, some thoughts on the tradeoffs we all have to accept if we want to take a shot at excellence.

Let’s get into it.

Why QuickCoach was Able to Break Through

From 2012-2019 I owned the biggest blog for personal trainers. We gathered a lot of data. One stat stood out:

92% of personal trainers never have more than 10 clients at a time.

Despite that, every software platform was built for the other 8%. They all had:

Robust automations.Tons of features most trainers never use.

The opportunity was obvious: Most trainers were stuck with Google Sheets or pen and paper.

The best businesses are often the simplest—Bic pens, Casio watches, Craigslist. They don't get headlines, but they print money year after year.

Why hadn’t anyone built simple software for trainers?

It’s because the churn rate of the fitness industry is too high.

Some more data:

Certified trainers stay an average of eight months. If they land five clients, they might last two years. But even the successful ones rarely stay longer.

High churn means high acquisition cost and low lifetime value. Which forces you to pack in features to charge more. In other words: extract maximum value, fast.

Other companies had more money, bigger teams, and network effects. I couldn't compete on features. I needed to play a different game—one where I had leverage they didn't.

Leverage #1 - Profitable core business:

Another business I owned, the Online Trainer Academy (OTA), was generating millions in annual profit. Social media algorithms were getting more difficult to depend upon. I needed a new way to generate leads. QC as a freemium SAAS platform could be used as lead gen for OTA to fund its initial growth.

This worked to both feed OTA and get QC to its critical mass to stand on its own.

Leverage #2 - Organic (free) marketing assets:

We had a website with millions of unique visitors a year. Large email list. And big social media accounts. My self-published books for personal trainers have sold over 200,000 copies.

I revised key articles and the book manuscripts adding in ads for QuickCoach.

I ran free Kindle giveaways of the updated books, moving 6,000+ copies at a time.

Leverage #3 - Personal brand:

No other company in our space has a recognizable figure as a front-face. I anticipated that we’d benefit from the trust I’ve worked hard to build over 10 years writing online in my industry.

–

The strategy worked at first. After a lengthy product innovation and beta period, QuickCoach officially launched to the public in 2022.

We nailed the product, the vision, and the market opportunity. 5,000 trainers registered in the first week. But none of that ended up mattering . . .

The Harsh Reality-We were losing (a lot of) money

Our free tier was too generous. Most users stayed on it. The paid option only generated $11,000 MRR against $31,000 in monthly expenses. QuickCoach was losing $20,000 a month.

The path to profitability seemed clear: eliminate the free tier.

Even conservative estimates put us at break-even within 4-6 months—but that meant burning another $80,000-$120,000 to get there.

Here's what I realized: I didn't want to run a software company.

You can have a great product, strong product-market fit, and tens of thousands of users—none of it matters if execution is shit. And when the owner is checked out, execution will be shit. QuickCoach's failure is on me.

Why not hire someone to run it?

I tried. Over the years I had conversations with potential operators. I thought I'd found the right person multiple times. Each one walked.

Because they could tell I didn't care.

To attract real talent for a role this critical, you need to radiate passion and vision. You need a lengthy vetting process. I couldn't fake it, and they knew.

So I ran the numbers again: 4-6 months to find someone, another $100,000 lost, and no guarantee they'd succeed. Selling faced the same problem—to whom? How long? How much energy would that drain?

What about the users?

Client management software represents a massive time investment. Switching platforms sucks.

People are angry. Some say I abused their trust.

I lost $1.4 million giving away free software for five years. I acted in good faith. But I also understand their frustration—they invested in QuickCoach, and I'm walking away.

Here's the truth: shutting down wasn't just right for me. It was right for them too. Short-term, it's painful and disruptive. Long-term, they deserve a company committed to growing with them. Once it was clear that wouldn't be us, the only ethical move was to shut down.

I created a transition plan to help existing users move to Trainerize and gave everyone time to migrate. They don't have to go there—I just needed to provide a clear path forward.

This was a real opportunity. I gave it everything I had. It didn't work. Businesses open and close. I feel for everyone affected, but I also know you'll be better off with a company that actually wants to be in this fight.

3 Big Lessons Learned

Execution matters more than vision

Identifying a great opportunity means nothing if you aren't obsessed with making the product better every single day.

Ego is expensive

When I told people I owned a software company with tens of thousands of users, they were visibly impressed. No one knew it was losing money.

Meanwhile, my coaching business generates millions in profit annually. But somehow a profitable coaching business doesn't carry the same cachet as a money-losing tech company.

The dumbest part? I'm actually worried people won't find me as impressive now. Ego is expensive—and often irrational.

Cognitive load is real

I didn't operate QuickCoach day-to-day, but I thought about it every single day. It didn't consume my time, but it drained my creative energy.

Which brings me to what I’m focusing on now.

What are you willing to sacrifice for excellence?

When you make a lot of money, you tend to make life more comfortable. But comfort breeds distraction. You're not on your A-game anymore. You stop innovating and start accepting external demands that drain the energy and fire the people you love depend on.

The hard part, once you've achieved some success, is keeping that fire burning. To keep improving, creating, innovating. And that requires sacrifice. If you want to show up fully for one thing, you cannot show up for everything else.

There are a thousand things we could all be mediocre to good at. Those thousand things are distractions from where our attention should actually go.

We all have one or two things we can be truly world-class at. Things that we, at first, enjoyed being bad at. It's hard to explain—some woo woo shit that's also real shit. There's surely some aspect of your work that never burns you out. You have boundless energy for it. I call it the worthy struggle. If you have the luxury, spend as much time there as possible and as little as possible anywhere else.

In life, the challenge isn't figuring out how to play the game. It's finding the right game to play.

My goal is to be a world class author.

I’m obsessed with the journey to get there. My next book, Unhinged Habits, which is coming out at the end of January, is another step on that path.

I'm not world-class yet. I might never get there. I don't even know what that means. All I know is it demands my full attention.

Losing $1.4 million on a SaaS project sucks. Letting down our users sucks. QuickCoach was a great opportunity—but it was a distraction. So it had to go.

My 15-year career as a business owner can be best defined by “fuck around and find out.”

I've done a lot: 8 digital programs, 3 memberships, 5 conferences, 12 books, a software platform. In every case, I went all in. And in every case, I had no sunk cost bias.

Because every attempt is another rep. All part of the search for that singular thing worth pursuing excellence on.

Yeah, it's unhinged. But I tend to think that's a good word.

The whole world tries to get you to conform—to settle for "okay" instead of going for excellence. It does this by presenting you with distractions masked as opportunities.

If there's one thing I want you to take from my story, it's to figure out what works for you and do more of it, accepting the inevitable tradeoffs.

-Jon

The post I just lost $1.4 Million (Why QuickCoach was shut down) appeared first on The PTDC.