How I Turned My Business into 500k with Just 2k Followers

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 245. Today I'm going to break down how I got to 500k per year, how we're scaling to 1 million with under 2000 followers. 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 proportion 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? Welcome back to the PT Profit Podcast. Thank you so much for pushing play on another episode. If this is the first time you're hanging out here with me today, welcome. I'm Beverly Sidonson, I'm your host and I'm really excited to dive in today's episode. So it's currently Sunday. We're in my brand new office. This is one of my favorite things I love to do is batch create a whole bunch of core pieces of content and just have it done and ready for the month. For the week we go 30,000 foot view and then we chunk it down. And so I actually recorded this episode in the last batch that I did and I wanted to revisit it. And the reason why I wanted to revisit it and rerecord it. Sorry team. Hope my team doesn't hate me. I wanted to rerecord this because so many people have been sliding into my DMs having very powerful conversations with me and asking some super important questions that is worth revisiting. I think that there are two core factors that are at play when it comes to where people are coming from when they're asking the question of you only have so many followers. I think there are two things here at play. Number one is that there is a question of expertise and authority building which can be its own podcast on its own, right? And then we also have the actual conversation of the nitty gritty down to the strategy. Well, how in fact is that possible? And does it have to all be high ticket? Because the truth of the matter is no. So we're going to be looking at this from a high level 30,000 foot view. And then in the episodes to come, I'll break down the pieces of it in a much more in depth version and in depth way. And the truth is this is how I teach my programs. This is what we do inside of accelerator. We look at everything from, we zoom way, way, way out and then we start to chunk down and zoom way in and then go step, piece by piece by piece and then we zoom out again. Because sometimes we get so close to our stuff. This is why the power of self support is essential. There isn't a single million dollar business out there that got there today and got there without help. Businesses aren't built in a vacuum. So let's just talk about it from 30,000 foot view. How specifically did I actually get to a 500k run? How are we going to go to 1 million with a 2k following? So first things first, we need to take a look at what, what are the core components of a successful business? What is required in order to get to 500k? And now I have done previous episodes on this, so we'll make sure that we link those up as well. But number one, we need to understand the fundamentals of what is happening when we are building a business. We need to attract people with a problem, a problem that had that is so urgent, that is so great that they are willing to, willing to invest whatever a set amount, 27, 2700, 27,000, it doesn't matter. They're willing to invest to solve the problem. The bigger the problem, the more money potentially there is to earn. Because what we're talking about when there's, when we're talking about value, is that people need to understand that the problem is so urgent and that the asking of investment or the asking value of the investment is 10 times worth it. So if you are selling a $5,000 program or process or experience or transformation or whatever, then we're looking at a $50,000 problem. Now, people get all tripped up here because they start to think, oh, but my stuff isn't worth it. No one's going to pay for that. And all of that is worth noise. It's nonsense. So business essentially is simple in the fact that we attract people with a problem and we sell them the fastest, most efficient solution to solve it. That's essentially business. Now, while it's simple, it's not always easy. And you and I both know that that's true. So the main components of what needs to happen, aside from the invisible, which is probably the most important, which we'll talk about in a second, but we need to have offers and people get messed up here because they think, oh, the offer is my membership, the offer is my service, the offer is my training, the offer is my session. And they fall into this trap of trading a dollar for hour, which is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. And it's not your fault. It's not your fault because number one, people don't understand the truth about what people are investing in. And the gyms teach you that you need to trade dollar per hour that you're selling sessions. Insurance companies teach you that you need to trade dollar for hour because they're paying you out for the time that you work. But that's just not how business is built. And that's also not what people are paying for. And if it has the illusion of feeling like they owe, only pay for your time. When they say things like, hey, I need to cancel my session, can I still have my session back? That is only because we as business owners have communicated to our client that this is how we show up in business. The good news is that you have full control over how you want to set this up and how you want to communicate this. So that's number one, we really need to know our offers. And it's not time for money. Your people are investing in the speed of implementation to get to the desired outcome measured against the cost of not getting started. That is what they're investing in. It is not your time. So that's number one. And then number two, we have to address the invisible components. The invisible components are that most people will create an offer the first time, a premium offer, or they will create a whole bunch of offers and then get, as human beings, get super attached to what it is that we create. And first of all, you're not alone in that. Okay, business is personal, personal training is personal. But we have to care about everything and nothing at the same time. We have to. Which is what my mentor calls living on the razor's edge. We have to pour our heart and soul, or we get to pour our heart and soul into what it is we do and release attachment to whether or not people are going to receive it. And that is really hard. And a lot of people don't acknowledge it. But it's both. We cannot attach to the outcome. We need to go for the volume and we need to go for. And when I say volume, I don't mean hundreds and thousands of followers of people. We get that twisted. But we need to have a certain set of data available to us to review, to take a look at, well, how well is this actually performing? And then when you can go back to this, the data and release the attachment of, oh, okay, so I thought this was going to lift and it didn't, and then move through that faster. You win because the people who are successful, they're not smarter than you. In fact, I bet you can think of someone right now who is way less qualified than you that is making more of an impact than you are. And this is our opportunity where you get to make a choice. You can either get angry and mad about that and live in that anger and madness, or we can use it as an example of, oh, I'm angry, I'm going to sit in that, I'm going to process that, and now I'm going to use it to shift my attention and focus on what's possible. Because if they can do it, why not you? And if you're getting into any of that noise in that moment of, oh, well, the market saturated, you can trust the desires of your heart and know that there is a reason that you want to do this and not be a kindergarten teacher, that you want to do this and not be a surgeon or whatever it is. And if you're starting to feel like the market saturated, well, let's remember that 88% of Americans are metabolically inflexible. So we cannot say that there's not a problem to be had or to be fixed. So the invisible components of going all in on yourself, trusting that you are capable, that you are enough now, and that you can live in the end of continuing to sharpen the saw, continuing to have a compounding effect of skill acquisition that needs to also exist, that is like at the top, that comes even before all of the strategy. And this is oftentimes the hardest part to move through because it's oftentimes what we're most invisible to. Even if you teach it. This is something I see a lot. I see this in myself, I see this a lot in my clients, is that we start to feel almost like a fraud or like an imposter. Because sometimes we feel like we have not mastered what it is that we teach. And I just want to offer to you to remember that we, we're all having a human experience and nobody just arrives. True masters became masters when they realized they knew nothing. And this is so hard to hear for high achievers, because as a high achiever, we want to get to the top. We want to get to those mountain moments. But those mountain moments are fleeting when you could really move your attention and really focus on in, on helping on improving your process, on improving your skill. And knowing you don't just arrive, you don't just squat once and then never squat again. You don't learn messaging and then all of a sudden have it mastered. The people who are truly successful and that are truly continuing to rise to the top to magnetize themselves, to be be heard, to be so good that they can't be ignored are the ones who are relentlessly repeating the basics. They are not reinventing the biomechanics of a squat. And when they speak, they speak with such conviction of this is how this process works. I know what to do and it doesn't matter what problem comes my way. I know I'll figure it out. That is the type of conviction we want in our offers and chances are we're not going to get it the first time. So we need to care about everything and nothing at the same time. Releasing that attachment, those invisible components are essential to getting to the top and getting to the top faster. In fact, if I could go back and say to myself and when I even see myself getting into these similar patterns, honestly, it comes down to being attached to what we create. And if you could just move through that faster and live by 70% perfect, you will get outcomes faster. Not only will you get outcomes faster, you can make data driven decisions and continue to keep trying to keep going. That's what it takes. That's what we need. Also not what many people talk about. So now let's just kind of unpack the actual offer stack because what inevitably comes up is do I have to charge high ticket? The answer is actually no. And I'm going to do an episode on like can you make 10k a month with low ticket? Yes you can. But we also have to look at the math. So what we have first, okay, first is your offers. We need to make sure we know what the offers are. Now people in this world will tell you that oh, we need to have a message first. Well I actually just not a huge fan of that. We need to know where we are carrying people, what we want people to eventually say yes to before we come up with our messaging. Otherwise we're just influencers and that that's cool if you are. There's no shade on that. But for me, every piece of content that I am creating has an intention to shift perspective, provide clarity, give wins and move people to coming into my world and into my programs. Number two, we need to handle the invisible components of what it takes to actually start and build a business. And then number three, before we even get into messaging, really we need to take a look and make sure that the math behind our six and seven figure business actually works. Because most people get this twisted and they don't have this. Right, right. So it gets a little confusing because this is something I'll have my accelerators do because I will have them get very clear on what their dollar per hour is worth. Now, I'm not saying that's what you're going to charge, but just for a second, we need to understand the cost of organic, the cost of what it takes to build a business, because there is a cost regardless of if you have any upfront capital or not. Online business is amazing because the barrier of entry is essentially nil, or what it looks like to be nil. The barrier of entry is the use of your time, the use of your energy, and the use of, of your effort. You don't even necessarily need to have a monetary capital in order to start the business, but we still need to be thinking about it in terms of a business mind and making sure that the math behind what we create works. So what I see so many people do is that they will completely undervalue, undercharge what it is that they are bringing to the table. And so then when we actually reverse engineer what it is that they're trying to create, let's just say that we're trying to start from scratch and we're trying to get to 10k per month. Okay, great. Then in order to hit the 10k based on what you've put together, you need to have about 80 hours available to you per week. And that doesn't even take into account the amount of time and energy it takes to do the marketing, to introduce yourself, to grow the audience, to have sales conversations. That's just to fulfill on a client. And that's just one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. Now, am I saying that you need to start charging $10,000 for your products and services? I'm also not saying that I'm. Especially if you're, if you, even if you, if you're feeling like you don't have the conviction to comfortably sell something for whatever it is, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, then we need to take a look at that. Number one, is there area of opportunity for us to look for evidence as to why we're valuable, why this program is valuable. Let me rephrase. Because you are not what it is. You, the person, you the trainer are not what you do. Who you are is not defined by what you do. So let's start there and then we can start going backwards. And so once we can recognize and realize that who we are is not a reflection of what it is that we do, then we can start making some serious decisions on okay, are we undervaluing what it is we bring to the marketplace so that we're not working in the red so that you're not working at for $3 an hour? Because most people do. Because we as experts take for granted what it is we bring to the marketplace. And that's one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. So the first thing that we need to do is get very present to how many hours, what are the deliverables it takes to fulfill on your program? How many hours? And let's just do it on a per month basis for this exercise. How many hours per month does it take you to fulfill on a client? And then let's also add in how many hours it takes you to create on how to really understand the math behind your six and seven figure business. Because you need to understand the actual data that you need to look at, which is what is based on the goal that you want to create. What is your hour of time worth? Not what you're going to charge, but what is it worth? Then we need to take a look at how much does it cost you per acquisition? Meaning what is the investment to acquire an actual customer? Now people get this twisted because they think, oh well, I don't use paid advertising and paid is, that's I could just do it all organically. Okay, well there's still a cost and you need to understand the truth behind the cost of organic marketing. Because how much time did it take you to create the piece of content to to put it on social, to have conversation? You need to know what that time is and then multiply it by what your hour of time is worth. Your cost per acquisition position is probably much higher than you A realize and B than what it costs you to use to use paid advertising then and, and it costs you in the resource of time, time that you cannot get back. So you need to know how much that is. Then once you know what that is, we need to measure it against how much time it's actually taking you to to fulfill on the client. So now that you know that it's probably closer 1,000 to $3,000 to acquire a client plus the hours of time that it takes you to fulfill on the client versus the actual asking of investment. Are you working in the red? Chances are you probably are, number one. Number two, if you're undervaluing your services, there's actually absolutely no way you're going to be able to fulfill when you it's going to take 80 hours to fulfill in order to get to 10k a month on top of the $3000 per. The math just needs to make sense. And then people get all twisted and think, oh, that means I have to charge $10,000 and that I only can charge high ticket. No, it doesn't. But it requires you to get present to. All right, well what, what energy resource do I need to create in order to make that low ticket make sense? Then maybe we need to pull out all of some of the deliverables that we're creating. If we want to keep it an accessible option or we want to be in the Walmart market, then we're going for volume and maximizing leverage in that way. So it's not about either or. It's about getting present to what is true and what it is that you want and then making it work. So that's number three, making sure the math behind your six and seven figure business works. And then once we have that all sorted now we can get into the messaging and communicating the right offer to the right person at the right time. The Goldilocks message. And then this takes reps. People will tell you that it takes time. In fact, if you listen to the blooper of this. I said this takes time. It doesn't take time. It takes reps. And more time than you think. And more reps than you think. People ask me, can this happen in 90 days? Yeah, sure can. In fact, my process is actually built so that it will take you 90 days. But then when they come into the program, they're like, I'm running. I know, I know, I know. And it feels overwhelming. Right? Overwhelm shows up in three ways. Number one, there's too much to do and not enough hours in the day to figure it out. Or there's too much to do and I don't know where to start, or there's too much to do and I'm never. And I'm behind and I'm never going to get it. That's typically where I see Overwhelm come in. So, sure it can help happen in 90 days? Absolutely. But it's going to require something from you that's different than what you're doing now, which I probably don't have to tell you. The brain is going to fight you on it. So can you make 500k with 2000 followers on a low ticket item? Make that math work. What if I created an offer that has a lifetime customer value value of 27 per month and now I've just made that go in half or if they pay $27 per month. And now I do 27 times 12. Now it's 324. Well now I need 1,500 so everything works. It's just a matter of making the math make sense. And so then lastly, the thing too that we need to understand is that that sure my social media has 2000 followers, but I also have my email list, my podcast, my paid advertising. The truth of the matter is that the audience component of my business is invisible and people get that really twisted when it comes down to what does it actually take to get to 500k. So now this is a really high level episode in terms of 30,000 foot view. And now in the next episode on Tuesday, I will break down the actual structures and systems that I've put in place, what I teach my accelerator students to do, how I prioritize, where the different components get. Because I will give you the strategy. But what I want you to understand is that strategy is probably just one tenth of what really goes into building a business. The mental fortitude and the invisible components are the number one areas of opportunity for you to take a look and work through. But I will give you the structure, how I prioritize it, what I'm looking at, and I'll do that in another EP in the next episode. And if you're listening to this and you already know that you want the fast track and you want the system structures and the support that is from required to exponentially grow your business, guaranteed, then be sure to check the show notes because inside the show notes I'll walk you through the process of how you can schedule a free custom profit plan with either me or someone from my team. So I'm looking forward to connecting with you and if this episode helped you help us help more people, go ahead and screenshot this this episode and share it with your social and tag me with your biggest aha's. I want to support you, I want to connect with you and I want to actually help you generate the revenue that you deserve so that you can make the impact on the world that we are doing in the fitness industry as the number one preventative care to health. So thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'll catch you on the next episode.

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