Train With Dave — Laguna Hills, CA
W-2 employment | Approximately $92,000 average annualized total compensation after onboarding | $140,000+ top-tier potential
Schedule: Monday–Friday, 5:00–12:00 PM AND/OR ~ 4:00-8:00 PM
Location: 23641 Ridge Rte Dr Ste B. Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Per-session compensation: $25–$100, based on tier and session size
Earn a serious living doing what you were trained to do: coach.
Train With Dave offers one of the strongest compensation plans in personal training.
Among our employed trainers who have completed the initial 90-day onboarding period, average annualized total compensation is approximately $92,000. Successful trainers have a defined path to earning more than $100,000, while our most advanced trainers can exceed $140,000 in total compensation.
This is not a guaranteed starting salary. Your client schedule and compensation grow as you demonstrate excellent coaching, reliability, client retention, and the ability to manage larger semi-private sessions.
Unlike most personal training jobs, you will not be expected to sell memberships, prospect on the gym floor, cold-call leads, or work unpaid hours.
We generate the leads. We conduct the consultations. We handle the sales, marketing, facilities, equipment, billing, and business operations.
Trainers train.
Compensation and benefits
- Approximately $92,000 in average annualized total compensation among trainers who have completed onboarding
- $25–$100 per session through a defined performance and tenure-based compensation system
- Clear path to earning $100,000+
- $140,000+ top-tier total compensation potential
- W-2 employment
- Medical insurance with a 50/50 company split
- 401(k) with a 2.5% employer match
- Predictable block scheduling
- No split shifts
- No sales quotas
- No unpaid floor hours
- No prospecting or cold calling
- Company-provided clients
- Long-term participation in our Legacy Program after five years
Compensation varies based on client load, performance tier, tenure, retention, results, session size, and schedule. Benefit eligibility requirements apply.
About Train With Dave
Train With Dave is an award-winning personal training company with three studios across Orange County.
Since 2016, our team has:
- Completed more than 150,000 personal training sessions
- Coached more than 1,300 Orange County clients
- Earned more than 1,000 five-star reviews across Google and Yelp
- Completed more than 32,000 sessions in 2025 alone
- Been voted Best Personal Training across Orange County for five consecutive years
Our Laguna Hills studio was named Best Personal Training in Laguna Hills in 2024, 2025, and 2026, and the entire company has over 1000+ 5 star reviews.
We are not a membership gym that happens to offer personal training. We are a results-focused coaching company built around four principles:
- Science over hype
- Honesty over comfort
- Education over dependence
- Sustainability over extremes
Every client receives an individualized training program, practical nutrition guidance, progress tracking, solo-day workouts through our training app, and direct access to their coach between sessions.
Our reputation depends on the quality of our coaches, which is why we are highly selective about who joins our team.
The position
We are hiring a personal trainer to coach the mornings and/or evening schedule at our Laguna Hills studio.
The role runs primarily as two- and three-client semi-private training. As you advance through our compensation system, you can progress to coaching four- and five-client sessions.
Semi-private does not mean putting everyone through the same workout. Every client follows an individualized program based on their goals, training history, physical limitations, and current ability.
You must be able to manage several customized programs simultaneously without sacrificing attention, safety, coaching quality, or the client experience.
What you will do
- Coach primarily two- and three-client semi-private sessions
- Progress toward coaching four- and five-client sessions as your skills and performance advance
- Deliver an individualized training experience to every client
- Assess movement quality and teach technically sound exercise
- Modify exercises around injuries, limitations, experience, and ability
- Design and update evidence-based strength, conditioning, mobility, and body-composition programs
- Build clients’ independent workouts inside our training app
- Provide practical nutrition guidance within your professional scope
- Track client attendance, progress, performance, and retention
- Conduct regular client progress check-ins
- Communicate with clients between sessions to answer questions and reinforce accountability
- Create an environment where beginners feel comfortable and experienced clients remain challenged
- Follow Train With Dave’s coaching methodology and operating standards
- Arrive prepared and on time for every scheduled shift
- Maintain accurate client notes and programming
- Accept coaching and apply feedback
- Produce measurable results and strong long-term client relationships
What you will not have to do
- Sell memberships
- Conduct sales consultations
- Cold-call leads
- Prospect on the gym floor
- Hand out flyers
- Chase commissions
- Work unpaid floor shifts
- Fold towels to “earn” clients
- Work an early-morning shift and return again at night
- Build an entire business before you can make money
Your time at the studio is spent coaching clients and completing work that directly supports their results.
Who we are looking for
Technical knowledge is required, but knowledge alone does not make someone a great trainer.
We want a coach who can read the person in front of them, explain complex information clearly, build trust, hold clients accountable, and make people feel genuinely supported.
The right candidate is:
- Highly dependable
- Emotionally intelligent
- Confident without being arrogant
- Professional and organized
- Comfortable receiving direct feedback
- Invested in continued learning
- Capable of connecting with different personalities
- Able to coach beginners without intimidating them
- Able to challenge advanced clients without losing technical quality
- Focused on client outcomes rather than personal attention or social-media popularity
If you love coaching but hate the sales-driven culture of traditional gyms, you will probably fit well here.
Required qualifications
- Current personal training certification from NASM, NSCA, ACE, ACSM, NCSF, or another nationally recognized organization
- At least one year of professional personal training experience
- Current CPR/AED certification, or willingness to obtain it before starting
- Strong knowledge of anatomy, biomechanics, exercise selection, progression, regression, and program design
- Working knowledge of strength development, fat loss, mobility, and injury-aware training
- Proven ability to help clients achieve measurable results
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills
- Ability to manage multiple individualized programs during a semi-private session
- Willingness to learn and consistently follow our coaching methodology
- Availability Monday through Friday from 5:00-12PM AND/OR 4:00–8:00 PM
- Reliable transportation to our Laguna Hills studio
Preferred qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, exercise science, nutrition, or a related field
- CSCS or another advanced strength and conditioning credential
- Graduate degree in kinesiology, exercise science, nutrition, or a related field
- Previous semi-private training experience
- Experience coaching fat loss, strength, corrective exercise, older adults, or post-rehabilitation clients
- Strong customer service or hospitality experience
- Existing book of personal training clients
If you already have clients, we welcome them. We will work with you on integrating them into our studio system so you can build your schedule faster without carrying the operational burden of running everything yourself.
The honest part: your schedule ramps gradually
We do not hand new trainers a full schedule on their first day.
Our client relationships and retention are extremely important, so trainers begin at the onboarding tier and receive clients gradually while we evaluate their coaching, reliability, communication, professionalism, retention, and results.
A typical career progression looks like this:
- Initial onboarding: Learn our system and begin receiving clients
- After the first quarter: Opportunity to reach Tier 1 after demonstrating strong coaching and client retention
- Around six months: Most successful trainers have developed a full schedule
- Approximately 18–24 months: Opportunity to reach Tier 2 with sustained performance
- Tier 3: Reserved for senior trainers who can coach four- and five-client sessions cleanly and mentor newer coaches
- After five years: Your compensation floor locks at Tier 1, and you become eligible for the Legacy Program
If you need a guaranteed full client schedule immediately, this position will not be the right fit.
If you want a legitimate long-term career with six-figure potential—and you are willing to earn that opportunity through excellent coaching and client results—this could be exactly what you have been looking for.
The Legacy Program
After five years, qualifying trainers begin accruing a stake in the company’s future value.
If Train With Dave is ever sold, eligible long-tenured coaches would receive a share of the net proceeds. We have no current plans to sell. The program exists because we believe the coaches who help build the company over the long term should share in its upside if a sale ever occurs.
Most gyms treat personal trainers as replaceable labor. We are building a company where great coaches can establish a lasting and financially meaningful career.
Pay: $70,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Continuing education credits
- Health insurance
- Professional development assistance
- Referral program
Work Location: In person
