Why do you like/love being a personal trainer?

I feel like future or new trainers come into this sub with doubts about their longevity in this career or if it’s even the right profession for them to pursue.

I was in that boat, at first. I viewed personal training as a stepping stone to something bigger/better in this field. Initial income can certainly drive personal trainers out of this profession.

But it certainly gets better and it can be quite lucrative. Below are reasons as to why I’ve grown to love what I do and why I can’t see myself doing anything else (for a while).

1) I describe my job as someone who people pay to become their friend, while I get them feeling, looking, and/or performing better.

2) There are definitely advantages to being employed as a personal trainer (and I recommend employment for trainers who are just starting out), but being self-employed and growing my own business adds a different type of appreciation and motivation for my work that I never felt while working for someone else.

3) I get to set my own rates, which allows me to make a good income. I only need 20-30 sessions a week to maintain this good income with my current rates. Most standard jobs have you working 40+ hours a week for a good income.

4) I get to connect with a kaleidoscope of different people. This is probably my favorite part. I have/had clients ranging from professional hackers to finance bros to environmental engineers to biotech executives and developers to high end travel agents (this particular client of mine just received a new client that makes $40k/day just from streaming 10 hr/day on Kick) to YouTubers to high stake poker players.

For the people that have been in this profession long enough to appreciate it, why do you like/love it?