4 Things I Wish I Learned Faster When I Started My Business

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 155. Today we're chatting about the four things I wish I learned faster when starting my business. Are you ready? Let's get started. Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up coach? Thank you so much for pushing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and if this is the first time you are pushing play, super pumped that you're here. Welcome. I'm recording this on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and we have a four day weekend here. At least my kids do and it's kicking off summer and I am here working. It is true. However, we've got a lot of fun summer things planned so I'm I don't mind spending this weekend just having a chat, talking to you about things. I wish I knew when I was growing my business because I built this business so that I could have the freedom to be with my kids during the summer. And the truth is their school's not out. So like the fourth of July, it's the end of June, so it doesn't really yet to completely feel like it's summer, I must admit. But the weather's changing and it's starting to feel like a new season and we finally got my computer back. So I'm not sure if you're following along, but I kicked off this 30 day audience building jumpstart where I'm literally building an Instagram account from scratch and I'm showing people how I'm doing it and what I'm looking at and I'm doing it, showing it behind the scenes for free. So if you're not hanging out in the free Facebook group, come and hang out now. I know it's Facebook and not everyone loves Facebook and I'm looking at other platforms. My my students and my clients, we work on Circle. However, there's always a trade off. Not everyone loves Facebook, but not everyone wants to learn a different a different platform. So for now we're hanging on Facebook and I'm literally walking you through behind the scenes of how I would grow an account a from scratch and be showing you the metrics and what I'm Looking at and showing you the actions that I'm actually taking to grow an audience, but more importantly, which is why I'm creating this episode, is that it's not about growing popularity. I'm wanting to grow profitability. And it doesn't matter that if you, if you have 100 followers or 100,000 followers. So this is one of the caveats that I kicked off when I kicked off this challenge. And it really brought me to the four mistakes or four behaviors, four things that I wish I had learned faster before, before diving into growing an audience. Because the truth is that most struggling coaches are fixated and focused on the top of the funnel or the top of the customer journey and just consistently trying to grow, grow, grow a huge, massive audience. And that, that, and I get why. Because no one can buy from the Internet's best kept secret. I definitely get it. However, if you're always focusing on the vanity metrics and the popularity metrics and trying to build know, like and trust, you're running the risk of growing an audience of friends and family. And if you haven't dialed in the back end, meaning you don't have the business, you don't have that irresistible offer, you don't have that machine that is built to carry someone and take someone who's never heard of you before and turn them into a customer, and a leveraged customer at that, then you're not going to be able to scale your business and actually get the freedom that you want. And then what ends up happening is that we end up getting fixated on dopamine fixes in our brains, essentially with the, with the popularity components of the social media world. So when I kick this off, I really dived into these, these four things that I'm going to share here inside of the podcast with you, that I wish I learned these faster. And honestly, it's because I know these things that I'm able to look at the data from an Instagram growth or TikTok growth or podcast growth without, without taking it personally and without it letting it affect my day to day life. And so let's go ahead and dive in. So we're going to start with number one, the first lesson I wish I had learned faster, which was your desires of your heart are safe guidance. And so what this means is that it's really easy, especially in social media and especially when you're starting and you're, you're, you know, you have something really that you love to talk about, that you really can help people, you maybe even helped people in your town and yet you feel like it's easy to compare yourself to someone else's day 100, your day one to someone else's day one. Now here's the rub though. And you hear a lot of people say that it's one of those things that everyone double taps on Instagram. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not going to Compare my day one to someone else's day 100, but the truth is don't compare yourself, period. Someone else's day one is not the same as your day one. And I say this because you. We don't know what's underneath the service. We don't know how many years of experience this person has. We don't know how, what their skill level is in terms of their messaging and marketing expertise. We don't know that not everyone's day one is the same starting point. Everyone has different passions, accessibility, accessibility, options. Like you hear people, people all the time say, you know, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. Well, is that really true? Because I can guarantee you that a single mom's 24 hours in a day looks a lot different than, you know, some college kids 24 hours in a day. So it's not that. That is, it's just something to be aware of and to remember and why it's always eyes on your own paper because someone else's experience has nothing to do with you, Nothing to do with you. And the same is true of your clients experience. I was just on a client call and this is something I had to battle is that when we look at our client results, when we're looking at other people's experience, their results, what's happening, it actually has nothing to do with you. You are the guide, you're providing the strategy, you're removing roadblocks and you're helping them see blind spots. But the truth is that your clients do the work, you're doing the work. So it's hard to remember that because there is a line of responsibility for what you are responsible for and what your client is responsible for. And the same is true here inside of your business. Your desires are your safe guidance. So if you have it in your heart to be a personal trainer, a physical therapist, a nutritionist, that is seeing clients and that is building a brand and business. Not everyone has that same guidance in their heart. Not everyone. Not. Not everyone has that same desire in their heart. I think I look at my friend and I use this example in the training. I looked at my friend who is an aspiring children's fiction writer and I'm really taken away and. And I love her and I'm so grateful that her work and those desires are there because need to have these books. Her books are specifically designed to help people and children specifically grow resilience and confidence inside their heart. And honestly, I need that. But it doesn't matter how tricky her language is, it doesn't matter how persuasive her language is. It doesn't matter what she says to me that to get me to join her course. I'm never joining her course on how to become a better writer. It's not in my heart. So you. So what would it look like? What would it feel like? Imagine if you went all in on you faster and you just trusted that what you want to do and the desire in your heart, that's exactly what you are meant to be doing and you just went all in on you. I would be curious. And hey, listen, if this is, if this is, if this is moving you or you're hearing this and you're really musing on this, I'd love for you to share with me on Instagram. Go over there. You could tag me at my new account, Team Beans and Fitness or be Simpson Fitness. Either. It doesn't matter. I'm looking at both. So go and tag me because I'd love to know what is it? If you're going 100% all in on you, what is one thing you could be doing inside of your business right now that you aren't doing that you are living by this. If then continuum. Oh, as soon as I do X, then I'll do Y. Oh, yeah, but it can't be me because so and so is already doing it. What is one thing that you could be doing right now instead of your business that you know will move the dial, you're just not doing it yet. I'd love for you to share with me on Instagram what comes up for you. So the other thing about the desires of your heart being saved, Guidance. And when it comes to, you know, comparing ourselves to others and thinking, well, why me? I can't do that. When really, you know, why me? When there's so many other people that are doing it. So this actually honestly comes up for me, and it comes up for me a lot. And I think. And it comes. And it even came up for me when I went to start this Instagram account because. And it comes up for my client is that we start to think, oh, well, I'm not. You know, we have, we have expectations of where we want and expected to be like, oh, well, how can I teach Instagram content right now when I have 116 followers? What if somebody comes to me and says, why should I listen to you when you only have 300 followers on TikTok, 100 followers on Instagram? This is a question of authority. And people start to dive into that and people feel like that. I know, I definitely felt like that. And the truth is I definitely felt like that when I was a trainer. I don't have a six pack. Why should someone listen to me? I don't even look the part. And we're going to get into number two, because this is part of, part of partly of, you know, what I wanted to talk about in, in lesson. I wish I learned faster. And number two, and it's actually kind of a 1.5. But number one, you know, is that your desire is to your safe guidance. And so what happens to so many people, myself and my clients included, is that we, we end up not showing up when we end up not playing full out. Because there's this fear and this sense of someone's going to find out I'm a fraud right there. There's this sense of not owning your authority. But the truth is, authority first comes from a decision. If you don't go all in on you, then how can you expect someone else to go all in on you? You have to go all in on you. Truth of the matter is that there is someone that needs your work at your current level right now. Because even if you look out into the space and you look at all those gurus that you think are crushing it and that they're, they're just so big and they're traveling states and they're going to all these fitness conferences, you're probably not getting to connect with them, you're probably not getting to talk to them, you're getting to talk to their team or they're probably not even training anymore. So I want you to think about your clients, what you do, what you want to do and what your clients need. And they're going to resonate with you differently than what they're going to resonate with someone else. The other thing about this desires being your safe guidance is that there's a reason not every single person in the planet is a, is a coach, is a trainer, is a health coach, is a nutritionist. There's a reason for that. And so because of that, that already means that there's a clients that are out there for you. They just don't know you yet, they just haven't met you. And in addition to that, when we start getting into this is what I mean about the 1.5. When we start getting into the distortions of our, our brain and our ego trying to keep us safe like oh, living in the if then continuum and living in, living in, living in the if then continuum and then saying things like oh, as soon as I lose those last ten pounds or as soon as I hit X amount of followers then I'll be ready. I just need one more certification. The truth of the matter is is that there are you as a human being and you specifically as a high achiever. You're always going to be moving that dial. You're always going to be chasing, you're always going to be looking for the next achievement. That's what caught, that's what makes you so such a strong high achiever. We run into trouble with that is because then we are a little bit distorted in our clarity around what is true right now. So it is fine to have goals. It is absolutely 100% amazing to have goals. In fact I encourage it. It's how I kick off my formula program and accelerator program. But not at the cost or expense of recognizing what is happening now. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at old photos of myself and I held myself back because I thought I didn't look the part. That's insane. And no wonder I thought that people were literally promoting it. Look at what's happening right now. They're saying things like oh, we're trying to promote obesity with the swimsuit cover. I mean it's insane. It's just simply not true. I'm right now looking at these tiktoks of people who are comparing, comparing three year old boys clothes to three year old girls clothes and it is mind boggling to me the differences. So of course so many people struggle with, with body image and body dysmorphia. And the same is true with, I mean I, it's, it goes with body image and it also is goes with business and what's happening inside of your business. People will we have these because wherever you are, there you go. So we have these markers of oh, as soon as I do this then that which is fine if it serves you but for high achievers often it means it will hold you back. And I'd be curious to know what is, is there something right now you know that is preventing you from doing the thing that you want to do. So that's kind of, you know, 1.5 is just getting really present with yourself. Actually, it kind of speaks to number two, but just to get really present to yourself with the truth about what is happening. Because the second lesson I wish I learned faster, which was. Which was getting honest with myself about resistance. Get honest with yourself about what is resistance. So here's what this means, right, is that I can't tell you how many times I will be breaking down audience building for a client. Because the truth of the matter is that there are only two ways to grow an audience. And it's going to be organic or paid. Both. Both take time. One takes more time than the other and one takes a little bit more money. So it's going to require resources. So here's the thing. When people prioritize their time over their money, they're going to end up having plenty of both. Because the truth is that time is finite and we cannot get time back. So that is that. That's just something really important to remember when you're thinking about, you know, when we're thinking about this. But what I'm talking about in terms of resistance is that. So if someone's going to go all in on organic and they're going to go all in on trying to grow faster, then what happens is, then what happens is that you're going to be spending time doing activities that can be a little bit challenging, that can be even considered a little bit less fun. I don't particularly enjoy scrolling on the. On Instagram for an hour a day. That's. That's not particularly my favorite thing to do. And yet when I'm focused on organic and organic connection, it is an activity that I know needs to get done because I believe in any. And we need to give more than we receive. So if you want comments like shares and dms, then you need to be doing comments like shares and dms. And so when I say that to someone, there's always going to be resistance. No, I don't want to do that. That's leads me, okay, so connecting with the human being and having a conversation with them about what they're doing, what their struggles are, how they are, is not sleazy. So that's something that we need to unpack and that we need to have conversations around. And I get why there are a lot of MLM companies that give this like, outreach bad. A bad rap. No one wants to be that desperate guy in the bar that's like, marry me, marry me, marry me. So I get that. I'm not talking about signing into strangers DMs and then trying to present them with an opportunity to start working with you. That's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about having real social connection on a social platform because people connect with people, not brands. And so there's always going to be some resistance. And so the truth is that you have to get honest and present with yourself about what is resistance and what is not in alignment. Which leads me to number three, is that there is only your consistent way. This is a lesson I wish I knew faster is that there is no right way, there is no best way, there is no urgent way. And this is honestly something that I still have to fight till this day. This is honestly one of the things that I wish I learned faster is that there I. And honestly, I had gotten into trouble with a couple of clients with this is that I was just pushing them to know you need. This is the way. This is the way do this. Because I knew it worked. And it came from a good place. It came from my heart knowing that I wanted to learn the lesson faster for them. I wanted to rob my client of their lesson so that, that they could that. So that, that they would learn it faster. And that is just actually one of the biggest mistakes I could make. I'm so glad I made that mistake so that I could come to this, this so that I. So that I can come here, which is that there is only your consistent way. At the day, nobody knows you, your business better than you do and your clients better than you do. Remember, it goes back to, number one, your desires are safe guidance, and the people who are meant to resonate with you will resonate with you. So there is only your consistent way. Now, knowing this, you have to be very honest about yourself, about what is resistance, what is it that you just don't feel like doing? Think of it like working out. Sometimes we all wake up, we all have those moments where, like, I just don't feel like it. But then you do it and you're glad and you're happy to have your habits and your discipline to fall back on. Because honestly, what separates the successful coaches from the ones who continue to struggle? It's not how they show up when they're motivated, it's how they show up when they're not motivated. And the truth is we are all committed to something. And so I would love to know, and I'm going to kick this back to you, which is, are you committed to your fear or to your faith and to your dreams? Now One caveat to that is you also need to know where your boundary is and where your line, especially as high, high achievers, it's easy for us to get into the grind, it's easy for us to, to hustle harder. And so I'm not saying, you know, move through at all cost. You have to know what that line is, what is in not in alignment and what is just resistance. And it ultimately will come down to your discipline habits and commitments. And so then the last lesson, I wish I learned faster, which is a lifelong lesson, you can get it in an hour or it could be your life's work. But the truth is that we need to live on the razor's edge. And this is something one of my mentors talks about, which is living on the razor's edge, giving, caring about everything and nothing at the same time. Because now that we are dealing with business building, now that we are looking at, you know, for, for what I'm working on right now, the audience jumpstart is that we're going to need to be able to clinically look at our content. We're going to need to clinically look at the metrics. We need to be able to look at the data without taking it personally and without making it mean anything. And now I know this is really hard because the truth is, when you're pouring your heart into your content, when you're trained to connect with people, nobody got into this business to just to make money. This is not about the money. This is about helping people. This is about serving people. This is about doing what it is that you love. And so of course business is personal. It's not fair to just say business is not personal. It's both. This is why we have to live on the razor's edge and care about everything and nothing at the same time, which is very challenging to do, but it's the life's work. So now we need to take a look at what's happening inside of the business so that we can. So that we can. We need to take a look so that we can adjust, we can course correct, we can go deeper on specific types of content. And now it's Sunday today, so I have a play date and then with. For my kids. And then when I get back, I'm going to do an impromptu live and I'm going to talk about it inside of my free Facebook group. And so if you. This comes out on Tuesday, so come into the group so that you can catch the replay because I'm going to break down and take a look at some of the data that I am looking at even with just 100 followers. Because you know, you hear all the time be the person who's already making 100k months. These are the actions, these are the analytics, this is the data that I'm looking at at 50k months, months, 100k months, million dollar months. Because honestly the numbers are going to tell a story and it's going to be up to us as business owners and up to you as business owners to look at the data and course correct either go go in harder on something and or say the message in a different way. Inside of the free Facebook group I'll be sharing how I'm looking at the data and what I'm going to do based on what it says. So come over there. We'll put the link in the show notes so that you can see what has happening in real time. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I'll catch you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to the PT Profit Podcast. If you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So it would be a huge service to us if you would please please leave us a review and share with your friends on your social media channels. When you leave us a review, be sure to take a screenshot of it and email that screenshot to my team@info simpsonfitness.com and we'll send you a very special Instagram podcast that will show you how to create compelling content so that your ideal clients come to you and you go from wanting clients to a wait list of clients ready for your services. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.