How the career platform Talent Hack can help you propel your fitness business forward.
The fitness industry is filled with individuals who either entered their careers intentionally, or who fell into it and never left. Once someone gets a taste of the industry, they tend to stay.
This can be attributed to many reasons, the first and foremost being the fitness industry makes a positive impact on society — helping people improve their quality of life, boost their confidence and maintain positive mental health.
Alexandra Bonetti, the founder and CEO of Talent Hack, is one of those individuals who fell in love with fitness and the industry as a whole later on in life.
“I didn’t consider myself ‘athletic’ growing up, so it wasn’t until college that I discovered fitness,” recalled Bonetti. “I was working very long hours as a consultant and spent a lot of time on airplanes, which leant itself to not the healthiest of lifestyles. That’s how I came to lean into fitness. It became my escape, my consistency, and where I found strength.”
As Bonetti’s fitness journey progressed, she became frustrated by exercise myths and methods that didn’t offer her the experience and results she craved. So, she took matters into her own hands. In 2010, she left her consulting role to kick-start a career opening boutique fitness studios in New York City.
This experience was an eye-opener.
“My biggest surprise running boutique fitness studios was that the most important product I was selling was not the workout, but rather the connection clients felt to talent,” said Bonetti. “We’ve all experienced that one trainer or coach who is responsible for us falling in love with working out, building confidence and coming back for more. That’s the essence that made me become obsessed with talent powering the industry. But finding great talent was difficult and time consuming. I felt there had to be an industry specific solution to recruit great talent, so you could more easily scale your business in a profitable way.”
Instead of seeking out an existing solution, Bonetti decided to create one. In 2019, she founded Talent Hack, a career platform for fitness professionals that provides all the tools and resources needed to make more money and propel businesses forward.
“Talent Hack exists to empower fitness and wellness creators to run successful fitness careers,” said Bonetti. “We’ve built the fitness industry’s largest job board to help talent find their perfect job or gig match. The Talent Hack job board strives to connect top-tier talent with gyms, studios and brand opportunities, while simplifying the hiring process.”
Since inception, the Talent Hack job board has become one of the largest fitness and wellness professional communities in existence. It is the only active job board with thousands of companies posting jobs, and tens of thousands of professionals applying to those jobs.
However, Talent Hack offers much more than just a job board. According to Bonetti, they are a true partner in helping fitness professionals find sustainable and profitable careers, while simultaneously helping fitness companies attract and retain the very best talent.
“We are genuinely obsessed with positively impacting our community, from our businesses to our talent,” said Bonetti. “What differentiates us the most is that we truly understand our stakeholder because we’ve been the stakeholder: both business owners and trainers. That means we’re particularly good at building solutions that actually work for them.”
In addition to a job board, Talent Hack boasts educational resources and technology to help elevate the industry as a whole.
For example, Talent Hack SPACES is a studio management software that provides gyms, instructors and trainers a streamlined solution to charge for classes, private sessions, packages and more. Brands can also partner with Talent Hack to deliver education to employees that will improve the business’ bottom line by helping talent develop soft skills to improve their craft.
“Beyond our job board, we are constantly innovating around how to help talent be better at their craft so they’re better at their job,” said Bonetti. “I’m a people person, and there is no group of people I admire more than the fitness professional community. I love the passion and impact-driven DNA this industry is built on top of, and I really enjoy building technology that doesn’t try to replace our industry’s human quality, but rather amplify and elevate it.”
Talent Hack also strives to address a common pain point between talent and the studios or gyms they work for: personal branding.
According to Bonetti, the company very often sees businesses that are frustrated with their talent wanting to develop their own brands. She said this can be resolved by companies being clearer on expectations during the hiring process.
“Get clear on your values when it comes to talent success, and look for that when you interview,” said Bonetti. “If talent wanting to develop their own brand is a point of conflict for you, then don’t hire people who want to develop their own brand.”
However, Bonetti advised fitness brands to be realistic on this sticking point, especially for talent working only part-time.
“Be realistic about what your job can provide to talent,” said Bonetti. “If your opportunity is part time, but you want to attract the best talent, then be realistic about them building a personal brand, set the boundaries and best practices between them and your clients, and find ways to leverage their personal brand exposure.”
Finding and retaining talent has become one of the most challenging aspects of operating a fitness business today. To be successful, it’s important to find a partner like Talent Hack that allows you to build a pipeline of prospects you can lean on when positions open up unexpectedly.
“On the Talent Hack job board, you can mark your job posting as inactive, but continue to receive applicants, so when you’re ready to hire for that role, you already have a pool of qualified applicants to start with,” explained Bonetti.
At the end of the day, Talent Hack strives to empower brands by helping them not only attract the very best fitness professionals, but also retain them. In the current times, there has been no greater need for such a service.
“Talent in the fitness industry is your product development, sales force and best retention lever,” said Bonetti. “Imagine what your business would look like if you could clone your best instructors, managers and sales reps. That’s the power that comes when you have the right team in place. Prioritizing your talent can be the single most important thing you could do to grow your business.”
Interesting read. I am a part of Talent Hack and I find it to be informative. I am eager to start my own brand but also retain my relationship with the gym I currently work at