Building & Successful Fitness Business & Client Relationships That Last Decades with Steven Halligan
episode
Fitness Education Online Podcast I For Personal Trainers, Fitness Professionals, Gym Owners & the Fitness Industry
21 min
2 speakers
4 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey guys, real quick, this week's special is on our GLP-1 Essentials course, registered with AusActive for 6 CPDs. Link in show notes if you're interested. Welcome back everyone to the Fitness Education Online podcast. On the podcast today is Stephen Halligan. Stephen has been in the fitness industry for over 30 years, working with everyone from everyday clients to elite athletes and celebrities across Australia, the UK and the US. So today we're celebrating Stephen being named a finalist for the Personal Trainer of the Year award at the AusActive Awards 2026. But not only that, Stephen and Halligan's Fitness are up for seven awards this year, which is massive. So a huge testament to the work that they're doing.
And a big congrats to you, Stephen, and a warm welcome. How are you doing?
Thanks, Bec. Yeah, very good. Yeah, I'm busy, but it's very good. It's good to be here. Thank you so much.
Awesome. Not so nice to have you on. And yes, I definitely can see that you're a busy man and you've got a lot going on. You guys are literally, I think, doing almost everything there is to be coaching on and doing in the fitness industry, which is awesome. So I'm excited to get into that a little bit. Do you mind just introducing yourself and letting the audience know who you are and what you do?
Yeah, I'm an online fitness trainer. As Bec said, I've been in the industry over 30 years and started on the Gold Coast, moved to Brisbane, did some stuff there, went to London, worked over there. Came back to Australia, worked for a fitness magazine for a number of years and started my business and then worked, done 12-week challenges, had a studio in the Oasis Shopping Centre. That went okay, but at the end of the day, it was a lot of rent and closed the business. Felt like a bit of a failure at the time. and moved home and then I set up a 12-week challenge, which was the biggest on the Gold Coast. It was pretty massive and I had like 120 participants and it was just me training them. And that was really good until COVID hit.
I had people training in my studio. I was the first... I have been interviewed actually by Fitness Education Online by Travis about the COVID. We're the first COVID... place to be hit in Australia and so we got locked down before all of Australia about two weeks before and my wife was working with Weight Watchers at the time they were looking for a trainer and I'd already gone online because I had to and they put me on as their national trainer for all of Australia and New Zealand and I started doing that and the rest is history when they decided to shut down the program of online training 25 clients joined me the first week and I've got clients like well I've had clients train in 40 countries around the world now and yeah loving it yeah I don't want to do anything but train online now personally yeah oh how cool I mean it's definitely I feel like a lot of people during that COVID time it was either
sink or swim for a lot of trainers right so you obviously you know saw the opportunity and took it and that's awesome having that collaboration with Weight Watchers as well yeah that's incredible so I do remember just quickly I remember there was one stage where I thought I'm just going to white knuckle it as hard as I can and just get through this and I do remember I was actually in a group with fitness education online like a closed Facebook group and I remember this one girl saying oh call me old-fashioned but i can't wait but to go back into the gym i'm just gonna i'm gonna just wait it out and i thought to myself i wonder if she'll go back to any clients like because you know at the time you didn't know how long it was going to last and you know i know if you're in melbourne it was like like about a year wasn't it eight months yeah yeah so you're kind of buggered if you're there but uh i just thought let's make most of it go for it and it paid off for me but like you said i did have a big a big um
a big database of people and they thought of me as their main trainer.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:29
2
How did Stephen Halligan transition from studio training to online coaching during COVID?
5:29–6:27
3
What early business models did Stephen use to build his fitness career (outdoor training, studio, 12-week challenges)?
6:27–10:00
4
How did partnering with Weight Watchers accelerate Stephen's online reach and credibility?
10:00–21:20
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Fitness Education Online Podcast I For Personal Trainers, Fitness Professionals, Gym Owners & the Fitness Industry
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