From Fatigue to Physical Mastery
Patty Lee -
Founder and Managing Partner
World Trainer
We met Patty Lee through a spiire thought leader, Shawnee Harkins. The time we spent getting to know her, at times, felt like a direct reflection of our own experiences as both traveling executives and start-up founders.
We connected with Patty, who resides in Singapore, to learn what inspired her to launch World Trainer and what physical mastery means to her.
And here's why...
spiire:
What’s your current role with World Trainer and what motivated you to create the company?
Patty:
I am the founder of WorldTrainer – A company that is built to ensure people can maintain consistency in their personal fitness training even when they travel. We currently cover over 50 cities around the world, spanning from North America to Europe to Asia Pacific. The way it works is WorldTrainer matches the right trainer to its clients based on their training needs and its system integrates the network of trainers around the world to collaborate for a single client. This way, our clients can benefit from quality and continuity in their training, make progress and reach their goals regardless of where they go and who they train with. In short, we build an A-team of trainers around the places the client travels to, and make sure they all work in sync with each other to maximize the benefit of the client.
I started the company because I am a frequent traveller myself and a true believer in personal physical and mental mastery through working with great personal trainers. However, my journey of building a better version of myself often get interrupted by my travels, making it a very frustrating and unrewarding experience. The world is becoming increasingly borderless and so should personal training. I see there are many people who work hard and are committed to their fitness regime. I want to build an environment and a system to help them stay committed, so they don’t waste their effort.
spiire:
Why is physical fitness and training so important to you? What does it mean in your life, both personally and professionally?
Patty:
It is probably one of the rarer things in life where you will always reap what you sow. Many things in life depend on timing and opportunities but physical fitness training, when done right, will always be 1+1=2. The key is doing it right, understanding and appreciating the science behind it, and giving your best. If you are willing to give, you will never be disappointed.
Secondly, it can really help enhance your self-awareness and ability to focus. Both are valuable qualities for a better personal and professional life.
Self-awareness is essential for developing confidence and confidence goes a long way to making the right life choices, achieving successes at work and ultimately, building a happy life.
As to developing a more focused mine, exercise requires discipline. Simply put, during your training session, you’re bound to dedicate an hour of undivided attention to your body and very focused movements. This forces you to ignore other distractions around you. As you might imagine, this is a very transferable skill, and your newfound concentration in the gym will translate seamlessly into your professional life, whether you’re in the boardroom giving a presentation or meeting with prospective clients.
I am a big advocate for continuous improvement and development. Physical training doesn’t just strengthen the body; it trains the mind. On top of that, it makes you look good, feel energetic, and makes your day a lot more productive. There is no better way to maximize these benefits than to work with a professional and expert.
spiire:
What can clients expect from a World Trainer? How would you describe the experience with WT?
Patty:
First thing first, all our trainers are pre-screened and interviewed to ensure quality and standard. The industry is still unregulated, so we make sure our clients get the best experience and quality every time they train with WorldTrainer.
Since our system intelligently facilitates collaboration among World Trainers around the world, our clients can expect a seamless training experience no matter where they go. There will always be continuity in training to ensure progression every step of the way. This helps keep our clients on track with their goals. In addition, our clients don’t have to go through long assessment each time they meet with a new World Trainer. This is because we ensure each World Trainer studies our clients’ training preference, condition, fitness level and routines before they meet them. This makes the training session much more efficient.
We know our clients are busy and may not have time to go to a gym when they travel. So, all our trainers can train our clients at their hotel gyms, making it very convenient to stay fit on the road. Payments are taken cared of online, so there is no need to worry about currency exchange or bringing cash to the gym.
No effort is wasted: Last but not least, to make certain our clients’ efforts aren’t wasted, we always send the routines they do with World Trainer back to their regular trainers at home.
spiire:
How easy is it for a traveller to book or work with WT? What does a typical session consist of?
Patty:
Extremely easy. Simply sign up, pick a training package, and book a training. WorldTrainer will take care of the rest.
Flexible options available through purchase of training credits. Credit cost per training varies based on city. Simply top up your credits when they run low.
A session is typically one hour and the training style and discipline is delivered according to the client’s request. So, it’s all customized to our client’s needs and goals.
spiire:
Who are your ideal clients? What are your hopes for them? What do you see?
Patty:
Everyone deserves and should seek opportunities to better themselves and WorldTrainer is committed to providing the environment to help people pursue that consistently through physical and mental mastery.
So, as long as there’s a will, we will provide the way. For those who travel, we are the ideal solution.
We hope by providing the ability to train consistently, we can help people achieve their goals sooner.
spiire:
How do you select a World Trainer or what do you look for in them before joining your elite team?
Patty:
We handpick our personal trainers (PTs), putting them through a comprehensive vetting process to ensure they have the expertise, experience and passion needed to help our clients succeed. Here’s a few of the things we specifically look for when selecting our trainers:
Desire to improve
Perhaps the most important trait of a good PT is the desire to - not just their appearance or physical ability. The health and fitness industry revolves around this very philosophy (it’s probably why you started working out in the first place) and is something we value highly.
Empathy
A key component in our selection process is identifying PTs who and can seamlessly tune into the client’s strengths, weaknesses, lifestyle and limitations, and factor these aspects into the training program.
Communication
As in just about every other element of life, in the fitness industry. After all, a PT who knows every training secret in the world is still going to be hopeless if he or she can’t convey the knowledge correctly.
Passion
Passion is the running through all our PTs. It supercharges their personality and transforms them from a trainer into a high-voltage source of inspiration and motivation.
Qualifications and education
While, a degree in sports science, kinesiology, sports medicine, physical education or similar doesn’t necessarily make for a quality PT, it does indicate that they have taken the initiative to understand the . We always value qualifications and knowledge of theory, but only when combined with experience and the personality traits discussed above.
spiire:
What’s your ultimate vision for World Trainer? Where do you see WT going in the short and long-term future?
Patty:
I see WorldTrainer being the largest quality training platform in the world, helping people and frequent travellers stay fit, healthy, and achieve a better quality of life.
Besides training, another aspect that requires further education and consistency in today’s world is diet. In the short term, WorldTrainer would like to incorporate nutrition into its mix to help travellers eat well when they are away from home.
In the long run, WorldTrainer sees to be integrated into hotels, fitness facilities, and various services in the travel industry to provide people with the best fitness experience regardless of where life or work takes them.
spiire:
Today, the conversation in business is all around purpose and contribution. How do you want to contribute back to the world through WT?
Patty:
Almost all countries in the world are facing an increasing trend of obesity and its related disorders. Providing a platform to allow people to remain healthy and achieve their goals despite their busy lifestyle will help the world to be a healthier place.
In addition, establishing a framework by which we can build and maintain a high standard in personal training through the facilitation of knowledge sharing and experience exchange will not only offer our clients good service and training experience, but help lift the industry standard and make good personal training education more accessible to different parts of the world.
spiire:
Do you ever see integrating WT into the Corporate space?
Patty:
Absolutely. In fact, we run a very successful corporate wellness program for one of our key clients in Barcelona, where WorldTrainer provides our client with weekly group training for its employees, monthly nutrition consultation, personal training for the leadership team, as well as a quarterly educational health seminar. After just a few months of engagement, we saw great improvements in the employees’ fitness level. People are more energetic and productive. We even saw better teamwork. Our platform and global training network is also well suited for the mobile leadership team.