From Midwife to Growing a Fitness Business with Sharelle Grant

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 168. Today I'm sitting down with Sherrelle Grant and we're talking all about how she went from being a midwife to growing a fitness 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 joining me on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson. And if this is the first time you're pressing play today, welcome. I'm super pumped that you're here. Thank you. Today we have a very special, special episode with Ms. Shirelle Grant. She is a registered nurse, midwife, personal trainer, online coach, and in this episode she shares her journey of how she went from being a midwife. I really wanted to call this episode midwife to millionaire, but I don't know yet if that was a statement, was a hundred percent true. She's definitely on her way to building a multiple seven figure business. Absolutely. There's no doubt about it. But I didn't know if that was true as of the recording. Just so it's on the record, I want you all to know this is what I wanted to title the episode and you'll see why. Because in this episode she shares her journey of how she went from being a registered nurse, a midwife and how she is now leading women's health in Australia. And she talks about how she has been able to grow, manage, build her team and how she went from and why she was a registered dietitian and midwife and how it led her to focus on becoming a WBFF bikini pro, then starting her empire and specifically helping women. There's no doubt that she is leading the industry specifically in women's health. So it was a pleasure and a privilege to have her on the show and I cannot wait to dive in. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. What's up, Sheryl? Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you doing?

I'm good, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

I am so pumped to interview today, interview you today and really just connect and have you share your story? Because honestly, you have such an amazing journey and how you have been able to bring things that are not just fitness related into your world. So I just, I can't wait to dive in. So for those of you who have not heard of Shirelle, I'd love for you to please share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Big question to start things off, but I guess for those of you who don't know me, like, obviously, my name is Sherelle. I am an online health and fitness coach that specializes in working with women specifically. So I guess my background in healthcare. I started working as a registered nurse and midwife for quite a period of time and that's what grew my passion for women's health in general. And it was like my, I want to say my starting entry for getting curious about health and fitness. So from there I was working as a nurse and a midwife and also had like my own health and fitness journey going like alongside it, like parallel. And for a long time I felt like I was living two lives. So I was like doing this nursing thing and then I was also training on the side and I was competing as a bikini athlete as well. And like living these parallel lifestyles that honestly do not go together, like shift work with comp prep. It's just like two opposite things. But the longer I sort of got through it, the more I became really passionate about trying to optimize my circumstances, trying to work around, like, my physiology, trying to use or integrate my knowledge from health into fitness and putting them together. So it really led me to the women's health movement, which is what I am the founder of at the moment, which is a coaching service for women. And yeah, everything sort of just grown from there.

I love that. So what brought you to nursing in the first place?

Yeah, good question. So I started. I grew up in a small country town at the top of Victoria in Australia. If you can't tell from my accent, like, I am Australian. But I grew up in a small town and honestly, like, how I fell into nursing is just a bit, I don't know, random. Like, I thought, what's something I wouldn't mind doing? I always knew that health was something I loved. Like, I always love the human body. Anatomy, learning about biology, physics, chemistry, psychology. I loved those subjects in, like, English and maths were just not my forte and, like graphics and all of that. So I knew that it was healthcare I wanted to get into. And it was between, like, health Science or nursing or social work or. Those were the, I guess, things that I was toying up between. And I honestly flipped a coin. Like, I got to the end of year 12, I applied for a few things and I thought, oh, yeah, nursing, I could do that. I asked my auntie about it. She was a nurse at the time, and it seems like a good entry point. And it's so funny how everything works out. Like, I flipped a coin. I went to Ballarat, I studied nursing for a period of time, and, yeah, I sort of got into it that way.

Amazing. Now, how did you get into body competition? Because nursing school, I mean, at least here in the States, it's really extensive and it's, you know, just like you were saying, shift work, it was also education work. It's very intensive. So that on top of competing, I can't even imagine what that was like. So how do you even get in? How did you get into competing?

Yeah, so I don't know what the system is like over there, but in Australia, like, we. We sort of, like, pay once we're finished uni, so once we get into work, we accumulate like a HECS debt and then we pay it off. So I guess when I started going through nursing, when I first went to uni, I was like a party girl. Like, I was not into fitness at all. I really lived my, like, late teens and early 20s, like, living my best life. And I'm so glad that I did, because it was probably when I was about 21, 22, I started getting running. That was like, my entry point for, like, looking after myself and focusing on my fitness. I feel like every female does that. They get, like, a new night watch and they're like, oh, start running. So that's what I did.

I'm laughing because I swear I used to run, like a half marathon every Sunday.

Me too. Me too. On Sundays it was like I used to hit, like, 30K. So what is it, like, how far I would go? But as much. Some, as much as, like, people get into running and cardio for the wrong reasons, it really was the first sport that I had done on my own. So I've always come from team sport where I'd play netball or do tennis. And it was reliant on other people's performance for your own per se, or other people being there to show up. Whereas when I got into running, I was like, I can do this whenever I want on my own. The work I put in, I get out. I can beat myself, I can work harder, I can train. So it was the first space that I started treating myself more like an athlete. And often, like I said, this is the opposite for people. They'll get into running to lose weight. And whilst I definitely, like, wanted to change my body composition at the time, I got addicted to the performance side of running. So I loved my watch telling me I'd hit like a new 5K record or that my cadence had improved or I felt better. I could notice fitness changes in me. I felt faster and light and athletic. And I really loved that about the running side. So I got into long distance. Running was like my forte. I loved being outdoors in nature and this like the meditative feeling of like the 30k runs. Like, I just felt invincible. On the weekend, did you have a similar experience?

The meditative experience, like, that moment? I mean, honestly, if I. If I'm being completely honest with you, even now, that is something. Even as I practice meditation, that state of your conscious mind shutting off and you're just running and in a. In the zone, I still chase that. And that for me, that feeling comes from running and running all those long times because it was just. You would, you would hit. For me, at least I would. You'd hit the sticking point and then you would go into that unconscious going, yeah, yeah.

And for me, like, growing up, even when I was younger, like, I was never good at any sport, you know, like, I was picked in team sports all the time. I always finished last in school sports. I was never, like, athletically, like, talented. But with running, I, like, I was, I was, you know, I was actually pretty good. Like, I got really good at running. I got really quick, my body changed and sort of suited that running style. Like, I got really little. Right. And so you become a better runner when you're lighter. And I really trained for it and I treated it like a sport. And, you know, I did a couple of half marathons and I did fun runs on the weekend and I challenged myself and I sort of just developed this, like, athletic personality or this athletic side of me that I just started to fall in love with of, you know, proving yourself. And I was like, I never in my life thought I could run 30Ks, just on a Sunday, but here I was, like, getting up early and doing it. And it wasn't necessarily the running, like I said, it was just the person that it was helping me become and how I was developing discipline and, you know, confidence and resilience and grit and all of those other aspects that we can develop through sport training and physical activity that I pulled into not Only my career and pursuing further studies, but then also business, also competing in every other area of my life. So running was like as. Yeah, like even though it's just cardio, it was the stepping stone for me to get into other things.

I love it. So talk to me about your competing journey. What was that like? Because competing is very intense and it takes a mental toll. So I'm curious, you know, and you're doing this during a time of, while you're working as a midwife. So I'm very, I was, I'm curious of, you know, what that experience was like for you, what you learned from it and how it really propelled you into helping women and specialize in women.

Yeah. So my competing journey or even like my lifting career started when I was probably, I was, I call myself like a late bloomer to the gym. I was probably 21 when I actually started lifting. I got into the gym pretty much to enhance my running. Like I started to get like some ankle issues and my running coach at the time said to me, you know, you should probably work on your strength and do some resistance training to complement your running. So that was really what got me into the gym. I was like, I'll just start lifting some weights and working on some of these other areas to get that become a better runner. And surely over time I started to see my body change in ways that like, I responded really well to lifting because I had that grit and that drive just to show up and put the work in. And I did like just a generic 12 week program, like what everyone does. And in that 12 week time I saw so much change and I started to slowly enjoy the lifting more than running. And I just found myself naturally, maybe over like a 12 month period, spending more time in the gym lifting than what I was running. And I slowly just started to be like, I think I'm done with running. I remember doing my last half marathon and making a time that I'd been working towards for ages and then just going, I felt this sense of like completion where I was like, I'm finished with that. Like, I have nothing. Running has nothing further for me to accomplish. That I wanted to do here, what's next? And then with the lifting, like, there's so many different skills and ways of training and programming styles and things that you can explore, explore. And I just love that side of it. Like growing up like in my early 20s through training I was always on like bodybuilding.com and T Nation, like looking up the next latest articles and ways in which I could Improve my squat or my deadlift or accessory work, etc, and that's where I started to develop like that big interest in hypertrophy per se. And when I was training like in my first maybe 12 months, there was this like older guy at the gym who I used to call gym dad because every time a guy would come up to me and talk to me, he would pretend to be my dad if they were like hitting on me. It was like this sort of weird relationship that we had. But he was like my first mentor. When I look back, he was like my first like lifting mentor. He's like an old school bodybuilder. And you could see that I would always come in and I was training early and you know, I was obviously training hard and training intensely. And he would like mentor me sort of under his wing a little bit. And he always drilled into me, he's like, have you ever thought about competing? And I'm like, no, I could never do that, could never do that. And he's like, okay, yeah, blah, blah, another couple of months, he's like, you sure you haven't thought about competing? And I'm like, no, I couldn't do it, couldn't do it. Anyways, he just kept saying it. And in the time, this is sort of when social media was like, you know, blossoming and Instagram and I started following some of these incredible athletes that competed with the wbff, which stands for World Beauty, Fitness and Fashion for those who don't know. And it's a different type of competing. Right. So I think bodybuilding in general gets such a bad rep because of a lot of the different federations that might honestly reward like, I don't know, like a look that majority of people would go, wow, that's so far or so extreme. And bodybuilding is extreme, don't get me wrong. But there's a federation or certain federations out there that do have a particular look and one of them that was, that I was attracted to was the WBFF because they wanted women to still look beautiful and athletic and full and not, you know, the word I want to use is almost gaunt. You know how some people, they're on stage and they're very much like a skeleton. Right. And that's what the extreme of bodybuilding is. Don't get me wrong. But that's what I wasn't attracted to. So when I saw this other way, I was like, I didn't know there was other federations that had this other look.

Yeah, when for me, when I'm looking at bodybuilders and this is completely my perception. But any, any picture that you can show me of a bodybuilder athlete in a competitive mode, there is attention inside of how they are showing up. And to me, and for good reason. I mean, not only is it going to, you know, enhance your discipline skills, I mean, it's like nothing else out there to me. Every yes you're saying yes to, you're saying no to something else. And so the, the mental cost that most people go through when they are competing extensively and for a long period of time to me is not worth it. And I feel like I could see that on so many of them, at least in the federations here I can here in the States.

And don't get me wrong, like, it's honestly like, you have to really want to do it. And this is the exact same realization that I came to, like, with running. Do you know what I mean? Like, you kept going. If I wanted to, you know, I could have done ultra marathon, could have kept going. But to me I was like, I'm done, you know, and that's the sense that I had. So, yeah, with the competing side of it, like, I was like, I think I want to try this. I think I could do it. And I just slowly, over time, built confidence and started. I entered some of those other federations and did some smaller shows to start with. And I just honestly fell in love with the process. I fell in love with pushing myself. I fell in love with using myself as a science experiment and trying to figure out better ways. Like, I did a lot of things back in the day of like, like definitely doing all the wrong protocols and following too much of bodybuilding dot com. But, you know, it's all led me to here and it's all led me to trial and error and there's no such thing as, like, mistakes. Like, I wouldn't change any of it. It's just taught me, like, I don't know, better ways of being able to say to people like, you don't want to make these mistakes that I did. Like, there's easier ways.

Oh my gosh, I love that. And I also agree with that 100%. I live my life knowing that every decision I'm making is the right one and going all in on that decision, even if it's, it's an outcome I didn't expect. I know that there's going to be a lesson for me for there, and that is not easy to do all the time, let me tell you, especially when you're in the thick of it, as you know. I'm curious too, about, you know, in addition to, like, you're saying, pushing yourself, there is a strong sense of achievement once you do it, Once you do what you have set out to do, there's a sense of achievement that I think is important that we have in our lives. This is who we are as human beings. Set a goal, achieve it, let's do the next goal. So I'm curious how you've been able to, once you had that sense of, okay, I'm done, what's next? How have you carried the lessons from those experiences, running and competing and moved it through into your business?

Business? Yeah. Really good question. I think. I think there's so much crossover between fitness and business that a lot of people don't see. Right. There's so much. And, you know, I'm only new to the business realm. Like, I've only been sort of in the business space now for about 12 months coming up. 12 months, actually. And the progress that I've made in that period of time, I do, hand on my heart, give it to the discipline and the grit and the like, you know, the growth mindset and everything that I've developed through fitness. There's so many lessons to be able to pull from that, that. So I think for me, like, the. The biggest thing that I think I've been able to take is, like, I've been incredibly fortunate to turn something that I love and a passion and a hobby into my career and sort of take that with me. And don't get me wrong, it hasn't been easy. Like, when I sort of decided to step away from nursing, that was an incredibly challenging decision for me because I had so much identity built around that. Like, I was like, I'm a nurse. I'm a midwife. Like, I've been. Been doing this for, like, nearly a decade. Like, it's. It's a long time to be working towards this goal. So I think for me, it was about. I couldn't, like, fight it anymore. Like, I wanted to do this for so long, and I think, like, Covid sort of really accelerated that and pushed it in terms of healthcare and how much things were dialing up in that, where I looked at this and thought, if I don't grab this now, this opportunity will go, because timing is really important and things just don't present to itself all the time. So for me, it was about what am I willing to let go of? Not what am I willing to do, but what am I willing to let go of because we can do many things at once. And I've learned this many times, we can do so many things at once. Will we ever excel at them all at the same time? No, it is sort of impossible. We have to pick one area to excel in. So for me it was like leveraging my fitness, the community I had built, like the connections I created, the brand I had sort of built over the last five years and turning that into like a fitness business, an online health and fitness business. So I've really been able to like leverage my passion into my profession and like, not a day goes by that I'm not internally grateful for that because, yeah, it doesn't feel like work.

That's the best part, that feel. That's the best feeling. I love that feeling. Are you training anybody in person?

No, I don't do any in person training. I did for a period of time when I was working at the hospital. There was like maybe like a six month period where I worked underneath a strength and conditioning coach as a mentor to get some in person experience. But for me, like my main goal is like, how can I help as many women as possible start training properly? And I know that like in this day and age, like in person training is still really important. I think there's so much value that you can get from it, but it doesn't support my long term vision of being able to make training like intelligent programming, like access to what I do, access at scale in a really like intimate way. So I sort of decided not to go down the in person side and keep it more online.

I love it. So what were some of the. Because I'm, I'm assuming, so correct me if I'm wrong, but you know, in your hours of clinical out, you know, time spent with women moms, as a midwife, as a nurse, what were some of the common things that you were seeing in their, in their everyday experience with them that were leading you to go, you just need to train. You just need to train. You'll feel so much better if you train. Like, what are some of the common myths and common patterns and behaviors you were seeing in the women you were working with?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me when I moved into women's health maternity and like, obviously midwifery was like, I just developed a great sense of appreciation for the female body and like how much we're actually capable of. Right. Like I, like when I became a midwife, I grew up real quick. Like I grew up real fast as like a 21, 22 year old. I was like, holy shit. Like, I have to mature here. So yeah, I just thought there was a number of things. Like the first one that I. The first realization as a nurse when I started working in women's health before I was a midwife was, wow, even as a female, I don't know much about my own body and I'm a nurse and this is incredible level. So I was learning things on the job because I was working in like a gyne ward where we sort of did a lot of reproductive stuff. So I was working with women that were having like scopes for endo and like PCOF stuff and infertility and lots of these, like reproductive diseases and problems and issues. I was working a lot in the clinical setting with that, so consulting a lot with women and just like, yeah, seeing the way that western medicine and culture deals with with, you know, female body. So I was learning a lot of this sort of stuff because it's not like as a nurse you learn like a general scope and then what you specialize in is what you get further studies in. So that's what I was very much in. And I was like shocked at the amount I didn't know that I wasn't taught, like even through school and you know, even about my own cycle, like even about contraception, like about all these things. And I'm like, wow, like this is missing from the education system. Like this is missing. And there's women that are in their 30s that don't even know like how to manage a disease they've had since they're 20. Like, this is crazy. So that was the first thing that come up to me is like how separate health and fitness. It really is. Like we have health, health care and that's very much treatment based. Like, which here's the problem. We'll treat it with surgery or we'll treat it with a pill, or we'll do that. Which is amazing, right? Like it's amazing that we have that capacity. But then we have fitness, which is like preventative, right? Which is like, let's adopt these lifestyle behaviors, let's do all these things. Let's work on stress management, let's work on nutrition, on exercise, on tr to prevent a lot of these issues from occurring, right? So I saw the divide specifically with women's health and like that, that massive piece of preventative health care for women that might be experiencing inflammatory diseases like PCOS or endo, etc. So I saw that piece and I thought that's that needs addressing. And then the other Piece that, like, I mentioned is I just developed this greater sense of appreciation of, like, women are so strong, like, and we can just incredible things. And even today, I see people treat pregnant women like they're sick and they need to lay on a bed and they, you know, they can't exercise and they can't lift weights. They can't do all these things. And it's like, you know, even pregnancy itself, it's not an illness. Like, we're designed to be pregnant. Like, labor is the most intensive thing that you could probably go through is like, you know, so, like, we have to train for it, we have to prepare for it. We have to be fit and healthy for it. So I think what I see, what I saw in healthcare just gave me this lens of what I see now in the fitness space and how warped they are. Because with healthcare and, like, it's so regulated, there's so much scope, there's so much history, there's so much evidence, whereas fitness is, like, a very nuanced space, especially online. So I think for me, it's just. It's just been nice to be able to come in and bring that lens into what I do.

I mean, I remember being pregnant, and it was just. It was. It was a time that I did not. I'll just say I did not experience the same things that a lot of women will say. Oh, I loved it. It was my favorite. Or it was easy. I just was like, never again.

Yeah.

And I had to. And people still ask me till this day because they're getting older now. They're like, are you gonna have three? And I'm like, that first.

Never.

You know, people say you forget. I'm like, I made a point to not forget because never again.

Yep. Yep.

You know, so I'm also curious, in your opinion, how you've seen. And of course, this is a biased. It'll be biased, but I'm curious. Your opinion is how you've seen the attention and care for women in fitness and how it has changed since you started the journey. And I asked this question because I remember when I got pregnant in 2015. So it's getting long, but it wasn't that long ago in terms of, you know, health and fitness for women. And I knew. 0. 0 about how to take care of a mom going through these transitions, even though I had taken those educational courses, like, I was certified. It was not like, just like you were saying, in terms of the gap in health care, I mean, the gap in education for women in fitness was. I'm Embarrassed to tell you beyond what I thought I knew until I went through this experience. So I'm curious, in your opinion, how it has changed and evolved through in your career.

Yeah, massively. Right. Like, even when I first started just training in the gym, like, there was no females in the gym there. You know, I was the only one up the back with gym dad. There was no other women. And you know, on all these websites, there wasn't female sections. It was sort of like the way that fitness is, was. And sometimes, you know, a lot of the time still is sold to women is it's, you know, pink dumbbells and it's toning workouts and it's this fluffy sort of stuff. There was none of this, like, I'm.

Laughing because I literally looked over and saw that I actually have these like pink dumbbells. They're three pounds.

It's a trophy, right? It's a reflect. Right. Like we're up the back of the Olympic barbells now. Like, you don't need a pink ladies section. So I think, I honestly think there's, there's two parts. There's the consumer is becoming smarter and demanding more. Like, as women, we should be treated like, you know, like men. Like, why shouldn't we? It's 2022. Like, we should be treated, our program should be treated the exact same. Like, why shouldn't our programming be taken just as serious or follow the same training principles of progressive overload of exercise, selection of periodization, all these exact same things that everyone else follows. Women are starting to recognize and learn more about that and question it too. So I think that's awesome. So the consumer asking more from coaches and people in the fitness industry and even the coaches themselves, it's still very much a male dominated industry. I'd say, like a lot of the coaches are men, but like, I get so many male coaches reach out to me and like, you know, hey, do you do any education around this? Or, you know, I've shared my resources with your, with my clients or, you know, do you have any podcast topics on this? And I respect that because I think the majority of, and this might even be a bit biased, but the majority of people buying coaching, like, it's filled up with a lot of women, you know, like a lot of people's clients, like probably like 60, 70% female in the fitness industry that spend the money. Right? So as coaches, we should be educating ourselves on how can we teach our clients to train around their cycle. Like, how can I give them more resources on, you Know, nutrition for pcos or whatever that might be. And it's definitely evolved because these weren't conversations that we were having back in 2015. Hell, I didn't even know about half of them, as I mentioned. But now it's very much becoming mainstream where if you don't provide the. These understandings or have the empathy towards your clients about these certain things, clients will go elsewhere. And I think that, like, that's a positive thing.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I'm also curious, you know, how. What, what would you attribute your. Your knowledge, your skill, your education? Where did you go to learn it and what caused you to learn it?

Yeah, so I think, like, what definitely started it was once I was nursing for a while and I was working in the reproductive side of it. That's when I started to develop that interest in women specifically and like the maternity reproductive side of it. So I went back to uni and I did a postgraduate in midwifery where we learned a lot about obviously, like, not only, you know, delivering babies, but reproduction in general. Right. We learned extensively about that. So when you understand what's normal, you can start to learn what's abnormal. And that's really important from understanding things like reproductive diseases or cycle tracking. You can't understand abnormal if you don't know what normal is. So having that knowledge base really helped me to stack on additional resources and learnings because we live in a time where we have access to so much information, we need to know how to decipher between what's fact and watch just someone writing a blog post about their opinion. Like, we need to know how to do that. And it's really confusing for people. So I think my past, like, obviously studies and experience working in healthcare has given me that solid lens to be like, that's BS or yeah, this has merit. And being able to read articles and decipher between research and literature and, you know, really be able to draw conclusions. So going through that, definitely. But then a lot of it's also been my personal experience, like, you know, tracking in myself, you know, and understanding how does my body change. I work with like, you know, a lot of women. So being able to draw generalized conclusions of themes that I see and have open discussions and ask them a lot of like, you know, subjective data collection from my own clientele. And then social media has been amazing too. Like, there's some incredible educators. One of my favorite, I guess people in that space would have to be like, Dr. Stacey Sims. And I don't know if you know who she Is, but she did a famous TED talk maybe about 10 years ago called Women are Not Small Men and it went viral. And that was like 10 years ago, you know, was when these conversations were just starting and still very much taboo. And she, she's an incredible speaker and incredible educator. And yeah, there's a, there's a handful of women in the space that I really look to for knowledge when it comes to these topics.

I love that. I also love that too because I think that women just, just for, at least in the States, that we've been conditioned to fight against each other and so we lose a sense of community and tend to compete with each other more than try to lift each other up. And I feel like I'm seeing a move towards that. I just think that it's human nature. I was just saying this to a client the other day, is that it's human nature to go down this, this path of being anti vanilla as opposed to just be pro chocolate just to make a case for what you stand for. It doesn't mean you have to make the other side wrong or bad.

Yeah, for sure. And that's the fitness industry in general, right?

Oh, for sure. I think it's human nature. I mean that we're in the human, in the fitness industry. That's what we see all the time. But I think that we see this across all different industries all the time. Yeah, absolutely. But I mean, even if you want to. Well, I was going to give you a reference but you probably don't know it. But even if you look at some of our junk television, right. If you. In, in the States, like we look at the Bachelor, the Bachelorette, it's always the women that are pit against each other and it never looks the same when it's males.

Yeah, it's so true. And like even in Australia I find like, like there's so much tall poppy syndrome over here, it's ridiculous. Like I feel like, and you probably might disagree, but I feel like over in the States you guys have so much more collaboration and like working together than what we do. And I don't know why, I don't know if fitness is honestly relatively small as a niche in Australia, it's not as mainstream or as common as it is over in the States because it's been, you know, happening for a lot longer. Whereas over here, like, honestly we still do have the pink dumbbell places or like a lot time. So yeah, I see that a lot more here. Like especially with people on social media and collaboration pieces, there's so Much ego in the room. It's not just women either. It's men and women.

You bring up a really good point. Because I think it's important to, to acknowledge that the type of person that you are is who you're calling. So for us, I 100% agree with you that I'm surrounded by a lot of men that I work, that guys look up to me. I'm their coach. I have, you know, we're surrounded by people who are collabor and I think that that is important to acknowledge. At the same time, I still have to remember that the box, or our context box is 1% that if you were to just push out even to 30% of professionals, that we would start to see a little bit different than our context box.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So I, you know, what's the vision? Where do you want to see your business within five years? I mean, I mean, 10 years, 30 years, whatever, pick whatever, you know, time frame you want. But what is the goal, intention that you are working towards?

Yeah, so I guess when I first, like launched my coaching business, it was Sherelle Grant Fitness. For a very short period of time, I like filled up my books in like, you know, a couple of weeks and I was like, oh, okay, like now what I'm sort of done. And honestly, like, when I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. I was sort of very much wing it, which I feel like a lot of people just wing it. But after that and like, when I got into it more, I sort of came to a, Like, I sensed that what I was doing was bigger than myself and I didn't want it to be about me. Like, I didn't want it to be about Sherrell Grant. I wanted it to be something else. And I'd always in the back of my mind had like the women's health movement sort of like, it was just always this thing that I sort of thought I knew I was going to do. It was just a matter of how that was going to roll out, what the branding was going to look like. How would I. I like, what white space am I taking up? How's it different? Like, what's my messaging? I was really thinking about that because you only get one chance to launch something, right? And brands leave first impressions. And I'm really big on that. Like, I think your brand, like, brand above business, for me, super important. So I've always been mindful of that. And when I knew that, I was like, shirelle Grant Fitness is going to be rebranded to this. It Was like a big process over like six months to sort of finesse that and get the messaging right, get the right people on board, employ other coaches. Like my partner left his career and came on with me as well. So now we work together and it was like a big buildup, right. So that when we launched I was like, oh, it's done now, right. And now I realize that you're never done. Like you're just like unlocking, you know, new Pandora boxes and going from there. So my five year plan honestly is so outdated. Like, I don't even know if I look at plans like that anymore because I was like, what I thought I was going to be doing five years ago was not even in the fitness industry. And I think since I've let go of like looking too far ahead, I've really allowed myself to focus more on the, on the actions and the opportunities in front of me rather than getting too fixated on the bigger picture. But at the moment, for now, like, I feel like, like we've done such a good job with the coaching. I'm really happy with where that's at. We've scaled that and I'm really proud of the community that we've built. And now for us it's about like we're actually moving and building an app. So we want to be able to create. Yeah. So we want to be able to expand what we're doing and make it more accessible for people, like even in Australia and I think everywhere, like the cost of living is crazy at the moment and I recognize that not everyone can afford coaching. Right. But I don't want to dilute what we're doing. I want to keep the coaching as it is and be able to create like more opportunities for people to be able to get access to more education, more training, more of what the women's health movement does at a more affordable price. So that's going to be our, I guess point for the next couple of years is like, how can I get the women's health movement and what we do in front of more women?

So fun. That's so fun. What would you tell your, you know, if you could go back in time to, you know, your 20 year old self, what would you tell your brand new coming out into this world? What would be the number one lesson you would tell yourself or a new trainer coming into the space?

I would tell myself nothing because I would be scared that I wouldn't go through the path that I went through because honestly I probably wouldn't tell anyone to go through What I went through to get to where I am, because it was a lot of work, honestly, to go through all the steps that I did, to think that this is how it would end up. But I know that going through all of that gave me this unique lens, this. This point of difference, this experience, you know, the trial and error, like, all of those things led me to here. It just wasn't the fastest route to get there. Right. Like, it was very much, like, took a few left turns, et cetera. But I think it was really important. So I think for me, something I've probably always been quite good at, but I like to even just remind myself is just go with your gut. Like, go with what feels right. Don't worry too much about what you should be doing. And honestly, when I was working, like, a normal job in going through the standard systems, I didn't see this side of world. I didn't see this business side. I didn't see this choice. I didn't see these options. And it's something that I probably wish I knew more about. Like, I sort of wish that I knew that you could create opportunities in business for yourself. And, you know, you can turn your passion into professions if you want to. It's just something that I was always so set on. Like, you go to uni, you get a job. Like, you get the partner, you have a house, you have kids. Like, I was so set on this, like, timeline of what I thought my life should be like, and I honestly have no one to blame besides myself. I think moving away and changing environments and, you know, getting out of small towns and networking with other people and seeing what other people are doing and being surrounded by people who are honestly doing better than you helped to pull me along because I was like, oh, wow. Like, if they can do it, I can. Like, building a bit of confidence along the way. So I think, I guess in summary, like, surrounding yourself with people that are doing better than you in the areas that you would like to is the sure most certain way to accelerate your own growth. Growth?

Oh, leverage. You get to maximize and learn their mistakes faster. That's 1000% agree. Where do you live now? You said you moved.

Yeah, so as I mentioned, I grew up in, like, a small country town. And then when I. I moved away for uni to sort of study, I went to, like, a bigger regional town called Ballarat. And then from there, once I got a. Once I finished my studies, I moved to Melbourne, which would be very familiar with. Yeah, okay.

Not that one.

And then I've Just moved, actually, again. So we're in Melbourne, like, for four years, where I got, like, experience in, like, as a midwife, et cetera, in, like, a tertiary hospital. And now we've actually moved to a small town. Oh, it's not small. Still 300,000 called Geelong. And it's, like, on the beach.

So is that, like, by Gold Coast? I know beach and Gold Coast.

Well, sort of. It's like. It's probably about an hour from Melbourne, but it's like, beach Victoria now.

Okay, nice.

Love. Do you know the Great Ocean Road? Do you know the Great Ocean Road?

No, I don't.

Oh, damn it, Victoria.

I want to go to Australia so bad. But this is my next question. This was my next question. And honestly, it relates because I just cannot get my husband to get excited about it because he is so afraid of spiders. And it makes me laugh every time because I was like, dude, because I'm in Croton in New York, so we're like, in the.

We're in.

If I used to train 45 minutes in Manhattan and would commute, but, like, it's considered country if you were to think of nyc, right? And I told him, I said, we get bigger spiders out here than we probably getting in Melbourne.

Yeah, definitely. Honestly, I don't. I don't know. Like, so many people are scared of our spiders and snakes. Like, I can't even tell you the last time I saw either of them.

Like, it's.

It's not that. It's not the truth. It's not. And it's. It's.

You know, so it's my next question. You said you got your partner, and I thought to myself, well, how. How'd you do that? Because I'd love to get my husband on board with the business, but he. He refuses. He's like, I'd be the worst employee. You would fire me.

What does your partner do?

He's an NYPD detective, so he's definitely internally referenced and has no inclination to work with me.

Well, I think. I think the turning point for us was, like, I was drowning. Like, I was drowning. And I think my partner could obviously see that. And like I said, Covid really sped up a lot of things for me, business wise. But my partner and I were living in the city of Melbourne in a single bedroom apartment. He was teacher at the time, so going through his own stuff. I was nursing, and we were both, like, exhausted. And then I just started business just before COVID and I was doing both mid and business, and I was trying to balance it all my partner was trying to teach on Zoom at home while I was trying to do the coaching side and go into work. And we were just going through this really tricky side and he got a little bit burnt out, like in the school system, in the education department. And I just said to him, like, you want to break? Because I really need some help. And he has a completely different skillset to me. So I'm very much the creator, like, like the visionary, the innovator. And he is like a systems man. Like, he's very good at tech, he's very good at systems, he's good at numbers, good at books, business, accounting, et cetera. So we just work so well together. And I think once you do your own thing, like, you can never go back, right? Like, I'd be the worst employee.

Never go back. I would. I could never. I'm just too creative and visionary, just like you said. Like, there's absolutely no way anytime we ever get into a bind, which is. I can't even remember the last time. But it's just. I. So offers come to me, ideas come to me. I just. I love it. And I think too, there's also a misconception. For the record, anyone who's trying to grow and scale their business, not everyone is like that. There are people that are really happy having their 9 to 5 job and wanting to fulfill on your vision. So not everyone is like that.

That, yeah, absolutely. Like, business is not for everyone. Right. Like, it has. I thought shift work was hard. Like, business has its own set of. Like, that was physically hard. And something that was challenging for me is like when you're in a. Like a job that is quite laborious, where you know you're on your feet all day, whatever it might be. It is a different type of exhaustion if you ever move to something like business. Like, I struggled at the end of the day of a big day of business, I'm like, I'm so mentally exhausted that I can't feel physically do anything. And I'd never experienced that. It was always the opposite.

Oh, yeah, that is a good point. Like, sometimes I'll do four calls in a row. Row. And then just be completely drained. And my husband's like, you did nothing. And I'm like, I did a lot.

Yes. Yeah. But it's a different feeling, right? Like, because I used to. Like, even when I was nursing, I would easily rack up 20k steps on the ward. So I'd get home and I'd have this sense of accomplishment because I would be exhausted and the Work I'd done, reflect, reflected that. I'm like, I've got the numbers, I've got that like, whereas now, like, especially when I was going through that scaling phase, like I do 1,000 steps and I'm exhausted by the end of the day and I feel like I've made no progress.

Yeah.

And I'm like, I haven't done anything, so I better go to the gym. And I wondered why my sessions would suck.

Oh my gosh, we could do a whole nother podcast on that opt. Like letting go of your own health while you're trying to optimize your business. I'm curious this as I definitely want to be mindful of your time, but what would you say as you've been going through this scaling process, what has been the most helpful for you as in optimizing and prioritizing your time?

Definitely, definitely delegating and asking for help. The biggest thing I struggled with a lot at the start was just like, you know, your business is your baby. Like you work so hard to build it up and then to pass over precious pieces. I felt like I was handing over like a glass crystal, like saying, don't drop it. So I think if you break this.

I know where you live.

Letting go control is so hard, but it's so important. Like you can't grow on your own. It's not possible. And when I think of the reason why I want to scale, it's like, well, I can't, I can't forever manage this on my own. And if I want it to get bigger, I have to learn to trust the people I'm working with. So hiring people that not with just incredible coaches, like honestly, you can always learn the intellectual piece. But for people that have the non tangible things, like they believe what I believe, they're invested in the vision, they want to help other people, they have good values and morals and the good work ethic, that sort of stuff. Stuff I hired on those traits. I was like, you're like, I want you to help me come on board and you know, making sure that I can give them a good work life balance, like incentivize them to work hard, to have a collective vision, not just work for me. Like that stuff makes me cringe just having someone underneath me. I want you to grow this with me. So I hired based off that and it allowed me to trust the people that I was bringing in with me and therefore delegate more so that I could spend my time and energy on the things that I'm really good at. You Know, which is creating content, building the vision, creating the systems, the structures, building all the stuff that no one else can do, and passing over the simple things that I thought I had to hang on to, which I like, I look at it now and I'm like, all these things I thought that only I could do is a lie. Like, you can't. There's certain things that you can only do, and if you don't spend the majority of your time actually doing those, nothing else will grow. Regard.

Oh, my gosh. I. I look for people who can do things better than me so that they. We can. We can grow faster.

Yep, exactly. Yeah.

So true. And you were talking a lot about how Covid really made this, made it faster for you. The growth was exponential. Covid was hard on you guys. Over in Australia, you guys were in lockdown for 10 years.

I know.

Not really that long. Not really that long.

Yep. And I was in Melbourne too, like, during the worst of the worst. That was me on the news. Did you say that was me? I wasn't protesting, but I was just as pissed.

Oh, my gosh. It was tough. That was. Those were tough times. Still then we're still like, just on the other side of it. At least over here it feels like it.

But yeah. Yeah.

Okay, so last question, because I want to be mindful of your time. What is. What is something that you love to talk about, you're passionate about talking about, that not a lot of people ask you about?

Oh, that's a good question. Maybe something I think that is undervalued, and I feel like I know this and I practice this all the time, is communication skills. And not only from a business perspective, is it the single most important thing that you have to have? Like, it blows my mind. But from a marketing perspective, from a relationship perspective, from an employee perspective, from a clientele perspective, like, everything you do depends on how well and how clearly you can get your message across. So for me, it's something that I spend a lot of time reading about, a lot of time refining, spending a lot of time practicing podcasts, guest speaking, doing things outside of my comfort zone, interviewing new clients, like asking for feedback from my own staff about how I run meetings in general. I think we can all work on our communication skills. And it's definitely something that I give a lot of credit to, my nursing and my midwifery experience. Just working with a lot of cultures and, you know, like, English is someone's second language and just really being able to lean into non verbal communication and bring that online Like, a lot of people forget that. They think it's just online, but it's like, no, no, no. Like, it's even more important than, you know, eye contact, facial features, how you show up, the tone of your voice, all of these things not only for how you do it. How's your brand do it, how do your staff do it, how do your people do it? What does your brand say about you? They say that because of what you say about it. So I think communication skills is something that. That are really important. And I bring this also into my content creation as well. Like, how can I get someone's attention quicker? Can I say this in less words? What lines or what paragraph can I delete? So I think that's really important that all business owners and just honestly, people in general should be thinking about.

So good. I love it. What a great way to end the show. So thank you so much for hanging out with me today and for pouring into my community. I really appreciate it and I would. Let me know where the best place is. If you are listening and you are wanting to learn more about Sherelle's work and her mission. Where can we send them?

Yeah. So all main platforms like Instagram, podcasting and TikTok, of course, you can just find me under Sherelle Grant. I also have the women's health movement across most platforms and then through a domain on a website as well. If you want more. More information about what we do.

Okay, cool. We'll definitely link all of that up in the show. And the tiki talks are so fun.

I know. I'm leaning more into it. I'm slowly learning that style of communication.

Oh, my gosh. I have to set a timer. Otherwise I'll just be lost on that platform all day. Okay, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

My pleasure. Thanks, Beverly.

Thank you for listening to the PT Profit podcast. And if you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So it would be a huge service to us if you would 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@infovsimpsonfitness.com and we'll send you a very special Instagram podcast that 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.