Trainers reveal the secrets to their success

Glen Ostergaard

"I’ve always been a pretty determined type of person. Every time I have a setback I use it as fuel. If someone tells me I can’t do something it’s like, well, I’m gonna show you I can. It’s been that way all my life, I’ve always had to struggle and work hard to do the things that I wanted to do.

I’d been set up to succeed in group fitness, I’d done my Initial Training with one of the top Instructors at the club and shown potential, so he’d been like: “Yeah bro, you’re gonna be really good and have your name up on the timetable.” Then I had to audition for the Group Fitness Manager and she said I wasn’t good enough. And I probably wasn’t, you know what I mean? So I was a bit disappointed, but I used it as motivation. ‘Obsessive’ is probably the word to describe how I felt. I got it in my head: I’m gonna do this and nothing’s gonna stop me from becoming a top Instructor.

So basically I just pushed myself to the point where I believed it was going to happen. And I think that’s like anything in life… if you truly believe you can become something, and you work towards it, there’s nothing that can stop you. I still work like that today. I won’t stop until I achieve whatever I’ve set my mind on."

Amy Lu

"Be patient. Progress takes time. People don't just magically show up on Masterclass and be amazing. Most of the people you see have been working on their skills for eight, nine, ten years and are still learning! It takes time.

My approach would be: work on something. Work on it for a while until you feel as though you’re getting somewhere. Then look for ways to keep developing. Find a mentor. Send a video off to get your Les Mills Qualification. Reach out to your local TAP for feedback. You can't see what you can't see, so it helps to get an outside perspective. Then just chip away at it, one thing at a time.

If opportunities come along to upskill, be the first person to put your hand up. If you get invited to apply for TAP or whatever opportunity, apply. Sometimes our own ego, fear of rejection, wanting to be "perfect", or whatever doubts or insecurities we may have hold us back. But if you don’t put yourself out there and ask, it's automatically going to be a no. And hey, even if it is a no, that's fine. Maybe you're just not ready yet, but it doesn't mean you won't be in the future. Trust that your hard work will pay off and when the time is right, you'll be so good that people can't ignore you.

At the end of the day, the journey is the fun. You’ve got to love the journey! You grow as a person and whether you know it or not, you impact loads of people's lives along the way. A phrase I really like is “replace nervous with service”. When you're in that place where you're no longer super introspective, where you have laid strong foundations that you can back yourself on and you're in a position to give – that’s often the time when people start to get opportunities."

Anthony Oxford

"I get messages asking: “How do I get on the UK TAP team?” or “How do I get on the presenter team?” and there's no real answer to that. It was never a goal of mine because I never believed it would be possible. I just knew I loved what I was doing. I always made sure I went to the Quarterly Workshops and got the upskills, took on feedback and enjoyed attending the big events.

I tell people: “Listen, just enjoy what you’re doing. Be the best you can be, and if the opportunity comes, it comes." There’s not a science behind it. You make your own luck. Keep working hard, but you’ve got to enjoy the process. If you’re not enjoying it or you let other things take over, it’s going to become the barrier rather than the amplifier. I’m a firm believer in the saying: "Everything happens for a reason."

I'd also advise that you never turn down an opportunity that excites you. The day I did that, so many things started to happen. If there’s a bit of you that thinks: "I’d like to do that but I don’t think I can", take the opportunity. That’s how I felt the day the email came round asking if anybody wanted to take up the spare place in the BODYCOMBAT module. Since then, anytime an opportunity presents itself, I take it. You never know where it’s going to lead. The day I stopped fearing failure and switched my mindset from “I can’t” to “I will try” was a game changer."

Khiran Huston

"Feeling competitive is normal and it's natural for humans to have goals and want to work toward those goals. But there are some things you can’t control, so it’s helpful to bring it back to your core reason for teaching. It might be the love of music. It might be for getting other people moving. It might be that you like to be on stage – and that's OK! If you like to be heard and you want to be on stage and that fills you up, that's OK – it doesn't always have to be about other people.

In my opinion, if you do experience jealousy or resentment, you should examine those feelings. Don’t ignore them and just put on a smiley face, but examine where they’re coming from. For example, if someone gets an opportunity that you wanted, then ask – are they good? Did they deserve it? Try to work through those feelings, rather than just smiling at everyone when you’re actually dying inside – because that’s not healthy.

Something else helpful is to find someone you can trust and talk to them about it, maybe a friend outside the industry. There’s nothing more grounding than explaining that you’re upset that so-and-so got the 6:10am timeslot that you’ve been working 12 years for, and how it's not fair, and your friend brings you back down to earth by being confused: 'You’re upset because someone else gets to wake up at five in the morning and you don’t?!'"

Bas Hollander

"The best advice I’ve been given is to trust the process. It’s easy to set goals, but it can be frustrating to realize that you’re not where you want to be yet. It always means there's more to learn, more to do. If you’re able to “trust the process”, that frustration is way easier to navigate. It could even make the journey more fun and exciting, as you know that it’s just a part of that.

To others who want success, I say: work real hard for it. Really work your ass off. We live in a time that we can learn anything, often for free. Real success doesn’t come without hard work. But here’s an important BUT! BUT also know that in every outcome, ‘luck’ is involved. There are things you have no control (or no full control) over: where you’re born. What talents you’re born with. What other people see in you. What your parents decided to teach you. What chances others gave you. Just to name a few. These things ALSO play a part in success.

Know success is always a mix between efforts you can control and efforts you can control much less (or not at all). I would always suggest focusing on the stuff you can do, and to really work for it. But if it doesn’t go your way, even when you can honestly say you’ve done all you could, it might just have not been your lucky day, and that happens to all of us."

Lisa Osborne

"I know that things don’t always happen straight away. With being a CrossFit athlete, it took me four years to develop those skills. You’ve got to trust the process and spend the time that it takes to get somewhere and make things happen. And life would be boring if things happened really quickly!

You know, I’ve just started doing LES MILLS SPRINT™, and in class the other day everyone was going faster than me. They sped up their legs – far out, they go fast! But I can’t do that yet. So I’m going to make sure I get better at it because I can control that. I’m going to be brave and focused, keep pushing on and looking for tomorrow … and make today a great day. I say that at the end of my classes, “Happy days everyone!” And I really mean it."

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