The missing link to crushing your goal is….

I was thinking about what to write for my first blog post on our updated site, and I realized something pretty quickly: I answer a lot of questions every single day. So why not take one of those questions and answer it here each week?

The most common question:

“Why should I pay that much to come to your gym when I can get another membership in town for one-third of that?”

The reason is generally because of one major difference: coaching.

In the health and fitness industry, there’s an endless amount of information available. Some of it is great. Some of it is terrible. Some might help one person and actively hurt another. We rifle through click-bait headlines that catch our attention and then the algorithms keep feeding us the same nonsense because it’s what we engage with.

You’ve definitely seen headlines like:

“If you’re training this way, you’re doing it ALL WRONG!”
(They’re really just trying to sell you an online program)

“Try these THREE things to lose 10# of fat IMMEDIATELY!”
(Lofty promise just to get you on their site for ad traffic)

“The FASTEST way to get shredded!”
(Combination of both of the above)

“EGG YOLKS WILL KILL YOU!”
(Likely based off one study that didn’t even say that but got your attention)

You get the idea.

Let’s say there was even a little truth to any one of those…you have to trust the source to be an authority on it or the sources to be reputable and not just reposted from another blogger (ha!). More often than not, there’s an agenda behind the headline that has very little to do with helping you. The underlying theme is that they all get our attention because we want to know if what they’re saying is true. Maybe we have a training goal, a weight loss goal, or just want to be healthier.

So we clicked, now what? We weigh the perceived value against the cost. Maybe we buy in because it’s “massively discounted” if we ACT NOW. And when it doesn’t work, we tell ourselves it was a bad decision—or that it just didn’t work for me—and we move on to the next thing.

Which brings me to the real point.

You need someone you can trust to help you filter through the B.S.

That’s why we go to a doctor when we’re sick. We don’t scroll WebMD and hope we picked the right diagnosis. We seek out someone qualified to tell us what’s wrong and guide us toward a solution. But for some reason, when it comes to health and fitness, we tend to go it alone—trying program after program and hoping the next one finally works.

For many people, this becomes a cycle with the same unsatisfying ending.

If you can reflect right now on something you’ve been working on for years and can’t honestly say you’ve made significant progress, you owe it to yourself to consider a more reliable approach.

When I competed in Olympic Weightlifting I wanted to compete at a national meet. Not just qualify, I wanted to do well. I was already certified by USAW as a weightlifting coach and could literally help almost anyone. What I couldn’t do was hold myself accountable.

So I hired a great coach (shout out to Anna Martin!).

Even though it was remote coaching, I made more progress in one year than I had in the previous seven. About a month out from Masters Nationals, I dealt with a bout of tendinitis that slowed me down, but I had already hit my training goals—and that alone felt like a win. It cost me around $100–$150 per month, and it was worth every penny.

The difference was simple: an extra set of eyes and someone who made sure I was doing the work required to hit my goal. She held me accountable.

Nearly every client who walks through our doors tells me some version of the same thing:
“I don’t want to think—I just want to show up and do the work.”

They want to be told what to do, how to do it correctly, and to see real results from it. The best program is usually the one you’ll stick to. Even the most self-motivated people need someone to correct them, encourage them, check in when they disappear for a few days, and hold them accountable when motivation alone isn’t enough.

Even though I’m a strength & conditioning coach of over 20 years, working with hundreds of clients…that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m the right coach for everyone. Someone out there is though.

I love our gym, community, and program but I know it isn’t right for everyone either. But something is.

While I’m mostly talking about health and fitness, this applies to almost anything. nutrition, piano. guitar. bowling. Anything where measurable progress matters. If you want the greatest return on your investment of time, money, and energy, find someone who can help you learn, grow, and stay accountable.

A good coach doesn’t just invest their time—they invest in the relationship, care about the outcome, and take your progress personally.

If you’re serious about your goals, invest in yourself and find a coach who can help you filter through the noise. Your progress may depend on it.


Jared Kallio
RPE Strength & Fitness / 402 Nutrition