How to Build an All-Encompassing Wellness Brand

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 12. Today I'm talking with owners Tahni and Natalie Conway of One Health about how to build an all encompassing wellness brand. So if you're ready to avoid the common mistakes that many PTs, both personal trainer and physical therapists make, then stay tuned. 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 sleep. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

Welcome back to the PT Profit Podcast.

I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and today we are talking with Tommy and Natalie Conway of One Health. And I am super pumped to get to that interview. I know I think I say that about every single episode, but really we had such a good conversation. We talked about what it's like to open a brick and mortar business together as a couple. We talked about some of the mistakes that they would want you to not.

Do if you were to open your brick and mortar.

They talked about defining boundaries between business versus their personal relationship and how to navigate that.

So especially if you're someone who's working.

On a business with a romantic partner, this is awesome. You definitely don't want to miss this.

We also talked about a lot of.

The common mistakes that a lot of young physiotherapists or physical therapists and personal trainers make when they're first starting their.

Online or their in person business and how to build rapport with their clients.

And we talked a lot about the impact versus intention of using specific words and how to navigate that in your marketing versus when you're actually coaching. So this is an interview I'm really excited about you hearing. So One Health is a brick and mortar clinic and studio where they teach yoga classes, reformer Pilates classes, and also nutrition and also physiotherapy inside of their one location located in Tullamore, Ireland. Tommy is the lead physiotherapist. What's unique about his perspective is that he's taken these PRI concepts that he actually traveled to the United States to learn and he took it back with him to Ireland. And as of right now, when you're listening to this episode In June of 2020, there's no other physiotherapists that have his level of education, which I know.

This is something that he's going to.

Be bringing to the Community of Ireland. This is something he's going to be bringing to his community. But for now he is leading the charge over at One Health and Natalie is a former school teacher who has now become business owner and lead instructor the Reformer Pilates and she's responsible for the managing of the business and the day to day of the business. So without further ado, let's roll that interview.

Hello, Tommy. Natalie, how are you?

Hi, how are you? I'm great.

I'm super pumped that you're here on the show today, so let's just dive right in. Can you go ahead and just share with us a little bit about who you are and who you serve?

Yeah. So me and Natalie were husband and wife team and we run a business called One Health in Ireland and people we work with is wide variety. So I'm a physiotherapist, physical therapist and Natalie's actually primary school teacher. But we treat people from the ages of, I suppose 6, 7 to 90 years of age or even a little bit over for varying conditions. And then we have yoga, performing Pilates and nutrition also in our facility. So a lot of different people.

That's amazing. How'd you get there?

We got there together. It took a bit of effort. Like I started my business, it was originally called TC Physiotherapy in five years ago and that was just a regular PT clinic, physical therapy clinic. We slowly built up that business and then we knew that we wanted to do something extra for our clients. We knew we kind of needed to bring in some form of exercise that we really truly believed in that would actually benefit like our long term back pain clients. So we decided to open a former studio. So Natalie was the main instructor and also been a primary school teacher as well, helped us because she kind of teaches everyone.

Teaches everyone what to do and tell everyone what to do. But no, we kind of got there because Tommy's brother really.

Oh yeah, actually we got the Reformer studio, that's my brother.

Reformer studios were really non existent in Ireland, a few in Dublin and Tommy's brother had a serious back issue, mitral.

Disectomy on his spine in Australia.

He felt better.

Yeah. And he was, he was kind of pushing me to look at Pilates, former Pilates, but I'd done math when I was in college. Didn't enjoy it, thought it was very boring, thought it wasn't, didn't have enough detail. And Natalie actually booked us in for a class in Dublin after a night out on the Reformer and after I'd done the class I was blown away. I just thought it was such a smart, simple. It just got all the right muscles, you know, it got the stuff that we find difficult as pts or certain conditioning coaches to get working on. People in a good position. You're not talking your hamstrings, your triceps, your obliques, and it hit all them spots in a 50 minute workout and I was very impressed with it. So from that day on, after doing the class, we just said, we have to open a studio.

So we did, about three years ago now. Yeah, come up to three years. And then we got married and the businesses got married as well. So the clinic moved into the Reformer Studios hub. And that's how One Health grew as well. Our community that we built were asking for more and more. They wanted to see more and more. Some were talking about yoga, people were asking us about eating the right stuff. And we said, look, we need to give all these services they're asking us. We obviously aren't knowledgeable enough to give that because we're not qualified as nutritionists. So be it. So that's why we developed One Health, because of our community and our great clients and they just wanted, they loved our environment. So we said we needed to give them some, some of those services. That's how One Health came out.

So how far is Dublin to you? Like how far did you have to go to go to this reformer Pilates class?

Oh, only an hour. Ireland's tiny. Like we're right in the middle of Ireland. So from one side of Ireland to the other is three hours max. And that's up and down. It could be six, I'd say. Don't hold me to that now. Anyone assistant from Ireland, some person will be like, oh, he's got that wrong.

It's an hour drive from Tullamore where we are to Dublin though.

It's an hour.

It's an hour.

But listen, I'm not driving an hour to go to Reformers Pilates class. So that was commitment.

Yeah, especially after a night out as well, Beverly. And we like a good night out. So that was commitment on my end. Yeah. Natalie had it all planned. I didn't know what was going on because back then I was stubborn to it. I didn't want to do it because my experience from it was, I suppose, bad. And it's like when clients come in and say, oh, I've tried Pilates before, but I didn't like it. When your experience is bad in anything, you get a bad taste for it. So I kind of knew. Natalie knew it needed to be pushed a little bit because she could see the opportunity in it. And also we had to amalgamate together as a couple to become business partners, which is always tough.

Yeah, I definitely want to talk about that today too. But Natalie, you were a schoolteacher, right? I didn't actually realize that. So how did you get into learning about Reformer Pilates?

Well, it was from that because we had the business idea from Tommy's brother Michael. And we just after we did that class then we said, look, I need to go do the training, I need to go do it. And we went up and I trained in Dublin and then we qualified and then we did a lot of in house training as well with Tommy's knowledge of pri and we kind of tried to Tommy's system and Tommy's a lot of study all around the world and we tried to bring some of his knowledge and systems to practice as well to give our give the one health experience to our clients. And so that's how I came about. And I was double jobbing there. So going from school and actually I used to do morning classes. So I was doing a morning class then going a bit of teacher in school and then going back in the evening and teaching more classes. So it was full on. It was fun though. But yeah, that's how it all came about for me. I was maybe forced into it. Tommy's a tough taskmaster, maybe.

I love that. And Tommy, you brought up a good point when you talked about how, you know, I think people have these preconceived notions of what Pilates is supposed to be like. You know, they think like yoga, Pilates, they loop it together. And I know for me, I had that perspective of, oh, it's just stretching, it's not real, it's not really working out.

Yeah, like when I started to. Because we opened the Reformer student I didn't teach for about a year. We opened the reformer studio in 2017, September 2017. And then I went and done my posture restoration certification in Nebraska and the end of 2017, December. But it's only when I started teaching it that I really. It brought home to me that there was a good bit of genius behind it and the fact that it made working out. As we all know, pri and PRI now is becoming very popular regarding strength and conditioning coaches and exercises. For me, Pilates does all that in a 50 minute class that people can enjoy. You can do all the good stuff that you want to give them without them even knowing, which is great because you can actually treat your clients Safely and on a reformer. It's amazing. The muscles and the change you see with people. If we see it, we see people that are not able to stand up straight and they just become like a ballerina walking around. And it's just. I always like to think in a local community, I know by the way the people walk that are our clients, they have that good posture, they have that good look. That's what we're proud. That's what I'm proud of anyways. To see that we actually have that sustainable change with people, which is hard to get.

Mm.

It isn't just stretching. It's a lot more than that. If you want to feel a burn, that's what you need to do.

You can't hide. You can't hide on it. You can't cheat. I'm the worst person in a gym or a gym class. I want to cheat, I want to hide. I want to do less reps. You just can't hide in the reformer. You just can't. It doesn't let you. You have to perform on it. And the resistance and everything, it's just a genius, as Tommy said, it is a genius piece of equipment. Like, it's. It's changed my whole body shape. And I know over the last couple of years we've seen our clients who've come in, like Tommy said, they're standing a wall controller. Like, even for some people. Like, some people. Like, I know. I find after having Molly baby, like, you kind of feel like you're kind of rolling over a bit too much as you're holding the baby the whole time. So it just fixes that posture. It makes you sit up taller and more conscious of your presence, I suppose. So it's. Yeah, it's cool.

It's an element. Like it's. It's like anything. It's. It's another form of exercise. But I, for me, what I studied in America with pri, it's just done it in an easier way. It makes more sense. And for a long time it kind of muddled my brain a little bit where I didn't know my own system because I felt it was actually just easier to put people on a reformer and train them than to give them one on one exercise that they do at home. And that's what makes it good because most people want to go to a group environment for entertainment. So it made our lives easier.

I would say pri, I feel like, especially for new strength and conditioning coaches that are new to pri, they're excited to take on these concepts and These exercises and they just want to put their, keep their clients on the floor. But what most trainers miss or don't recognize is that you're not going to get client buy in or client adherence if the exercises that they're doing aren't fun or don't also meet their, their goals.

Yeah, like it's, that's very so important that if you see someone that's full of energy bouncing into the room and they're like an energizer, energizer bunny, they don't like moving slow. Now that might be the right thing to do to help their body, but they won't stick to that program for long. So you can tell them that straight away. You can say to them, as a young PT or a young strength conditioning coach, you're full of energy. I know you want to go fast. Let's do this for two weeks, then I'll let you go fast. That's understanding because a lot of them exercises are very slow, boring, isometric holes. They do work. But don't forget, like you said, that clients want entertainment. And the people that have a basic level of knowledge, they still have a large client base because they know how to entertain. And I understand that in my game as well as the Pilates studio, we have to try and show a bit of. That's what I've seen with Pilates studios before. It's very. They use big words and it's boring. Like use words that clients don't understand instead of telling a joke or something like that, which people would enjoy a lot more. And that's what I think that we try and bring. I think it's. Well, I try and bring any of that.

Tommy's the comedian of the year.

I never said to my comedy strips sketch Weber.

No, you have to for sure. But you know what I was hearing from you is I hear you talk about one health and hearing you talk about how you've integrated all these principles. To me it sounds like using the reformer, at least that's been one of the ways that you've been able to implement fundamental movement and strengthen those concepts with at least while keeping your client's attention.

Yeah, it's been an easier way to get someone out of long term back pain, correct someone's posture. It's easier adhering. The clients have an easier time adhering to that. They have a more enjoyable time. I see better results. And if your environment doesn't have that, for instance, where you have that availability to go into group exercise, your life is harder. Your life is Harder to train, improve them people and keep them better. So it's been a groundbreaker for us and it's given us such an opportunity. Like we wanted to originally open I think Reformer studios around surrounding area. After we opened our first one, our clients just kept asking for other services. So we said, right, that's the next thing we need to do. We have to give the people that trust us what they want. It's going well, it's going well. So thank God for that.

So that's great. And I definitely want to get into that. But before I segue, I'm just curious, you know, what would you say to a new pizza or a new strength and conditioning coach? Like how would you get them to start taking these complex concepts and breaking it down to. For their clients?

Yeah, I think one thing for me, I think that's very important is that I don't see too many people talking about it. Like I've trained a good few pts and pilates instructors now at this stage. And what most people don't get is that the complexity of people is made a lot easier if you learn how to get buy in very quick and you can get that with a limited amount of knowledge. Everyone wants more knowledge, but that's not the way you should think about it. Think about it as how can I get the psychology element of this right? And then go on to the complicated concepts. Like I know people with lots of technical knowledge, they keep getting the same no shows and cancellations from the same type of personality client because they don't know how to deal with that person. That aside, that's number one for me. Number two, I like to think about position. So if you have someone that comes in with knee pain and it's going up the stairs, I look at the angle of the shin, angle of the knee. Usually if you just lie them on their side, on the left or the right, whatever knee is the problem, or you stand them up and train them with the exact same angle that the pain they have is in, they usually get better. Think position is one of the things I'm always on with. Think position. Someone that gets out of a chair 90 degrees and get lower back pain. Why don't you get them into like a hamstring bridge on a chair? Same position, but also all fours. The same position. Also side lying with a right glute clamshell is the same position. If you bend the knees to 90, usually solutions are there. So it's quite simple. That's what I always think. Think position. Hopefully that makes sense.

It made sense to me.

It does make sense. I think what happens, though, is that so many people get stuck into these little boxes. They get stuck into thinking, oh, if this isn't in my textbook, or if this isn't what we went over in class, then it can't be right. Like, I think a lot of people struggle to think outside the box and think about things like, oh, we can't squat because the knees sore. Not recognizing or realizing that a person is literally getting into that position every day when they're getting up from a chair, when they're going up the stairs, people are always in that position. I think oftentimes, especially if you're at the beginning, it's hard for people to think like that.

Yeah, I think with young pts, I've seen as well, that don't challenge themselves internally. So, like what I would say, example, if I'm giving a client a diagnosis, I give them a diagnosis and I give them a timeline. But I also give myself an internal timeline of what I deem they're going to improve on. So I challenge myself to make my job interesting. Like, I play the game well. I think young PTs come in and they say, oh, I'll see you next week for another appointment. Hopefully you'll be improved. Instead of saying, I'm going to improve you in six weeks and challenge yourself to improve them in six weeks with that set condition, with that age the person is in, the body type, they have everything, write it all down, six weeks. If you achieve that goal, there's a prototype you have to work with for the next person that comes in that looks the exact same as them and often don't challenge themselves internally. And that's what it is. The internal game makes the job interesting. Instead of trying to learn more knowledge, they should be constantly trying to give themselves internal deadlines stuff. I think that works really well to improve someone.

Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. I also think too that you mentioned that a lot of young pts, they're always looking for that more information, they're wanting to study more. And I think that that comes as well from the ideas or I think that also comes from the fact that they might not have enough clinical experience yet, putting these concepts on other people. And so they're like, oh, if I just get smarter, then I'll be able to get more clients or be able to get more wins. Not really focusing their attention and energy on what's right in front of them.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, it's like a lot of technical Knowledge for some people to make them a worse pt. I would say I've been honestly probably made me a worse PT for a period of time because I was trying to figure out too much things for my model. Every time I was doing something, I might have not been committing 100% to it in my head. And that would have made me not as, I suppose, not as streamlined in my job. So I became doubting myself a little bit. My confidence started to diminish. I kept thinking there was. I was missing something. But I forgot the basic thing, which is if you're able to convince that person that's in front of you that you'll do your best for them and you care for them and they believe you, you have them. And that's why personality analysis should always come before gaining a new skill. You have to get good at that. It's the same as anything. If you're a trainer, you understand this. You work with a lot of people. You read people like so quick. You must do it within the first 20 seconds or two minutes without even thinking about it, because you won't be successful if you didn't do it right.

It's true. But you also said you talked a very important component which we talk about here a lot, which is that that idea of confidence, right? You have to have that unconscious sense of confidence which comes from competence. And it's not about getting it perfect or getting it right or always having the best, most successful solutions. Because, listen, success is your worst teacher. You're always going to learn from when you mess up, right? That's where the lessons come from. But I think that if you're constantly chasing that idea of perfect, then your confidence starts to dwindle, which is only going to make it worse, and then you're not going to be able to start having that Thriving, successful business is an important part. So that leads me, Natalie, I'm curious, you know, since you guys have this whole one brand or this one health under one brand, a lot of your people in your classes, are they in a lot of pain? Do you ever struggle or worry about navigating injuries inside your classes?

We have built a good system that you do find that, you know, like especially clients who've come in from the physiotherapy PT side, that there is a good referral network there that, you know, information is passed on that so and so is recovering from ACL or is recovering from a lower back pain chronic issue, all those things. We have a good line of communication, I suppose, between instructors and the Therapists. So I wouldn't say you struggle. I think doing our internal team meetings. Not even meetings. Training. We do it on the Reformer. We attend each other's classes, but we also do a lot of work with therapists so they can share their knowledge even more and more with us as instructors as well. So I wouldn't think we struggle, but we do have to make sure that we are thorough with our referrals in and out of the clinic to the studio, to make sure that, you know, you don't miss someone, and then you end up hurting them even more. So it's important that we're thorough when we check it out. And then if we feel like they're struggling with something, we're not afraid to go back to the therapist and say, look, I think Mary is struggling with this. I don't know if she's getting better. We need to maybe have a look or whatever. So it goes both ways as well.

I think it's one thing that we would do when we hire on staff is we let them shadow us when we're teaching a class and also shadow us when we're dealing with clients before and after. And I think it's very important. If you see someone that's struggling, tell them. Because I've seen in the past where a lot of people, like, oh, they found that hard, and they found it very difficult, which everyone else did, but sometimes people don't realize that they're not the only person in the room finding it difficult, and they feel very, very hard on themselves after the class. So it's important to tell someone that they are doing it wrong if they are. And it's important to always tell them. There are other people in your boat as well. There are other people that have come through this process because you might never do something to injure them in a class.

No.

But they might walk away two days later and perceive that whatever they're doing came from your class. So it's. It's just a really good system of saying, this is what you're gonna feel from this.

Mm.

Okay. If you don't. If you do feel a little bit sore. Because when you train, there's no such thing as training and not getting an injury. The more you train, the more injuries you're likely to get. That's just common sense, like, you're pushing the boundaries. So people need to understand that. I think that's what we always tell our therapists and our instructors. Don't be afraid to go up to someone, and we just want them to do it absolutely the way we want to do it. We don't let people come in and dictate the class. We control the environment. That's very important.

Like we've always said, like, preempting things as well. Like sometimes, you know, there might be a certain position that in the general population, you don't normally move that way. So you're going to say, look, guys, you might feel this slightly in wherever. And, you know, don't worry, you will feel it there. So you preempt instead of them saying, oh, my God, am I. Should I feel this here? Blah, blah, blah. They've already. They already know, oh, it's okay. I'm gonna be okay. So we try and teach that to our instructors as well.

That's important, is to do a lot of that with any sort of training of lumbar spine.

Say.

Everyone's complaining about that low back. Oh, I feel the back. And you're like, well, there are muscles there.

Yeah. Like, we do an exercise where you lie face down and prone, as you would say, you're meant to lift up your whole body using the straps, and you extend your spine and you use your buttock muscles. It's a brilliant exercise. Most people are very poor at it. And before I even teach that exercise, you're gonna feel the muscles in your spine. That's okay. Yeah, that's okay. That's what we want. Because if you don't say that, people think you shouldn't be feeling it. And I think using the word spine instead of back is important also.

Oh, yeah, talk about that.

Yeah. Like, when you say back, people say, I have a bad back or a sore back. But when you use the word spine, it gives it that. It's a stable structure. It's something that people can actually physically see when they close their eyes. Most people can. And it gives it more of a kind of scientific, I suppose, wording that most people won't associate with pain. You don't say, I have a sore spine or I have a bad spine. Use that terminology. We don't over in Ireland. Anyways, you don't want to watch. You do in America. Trump's your president now. It could be hilarious.

You don't have spines.

You don't have spines.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's interesting. Like, you really just got my mind thinking there for a second, because, you know, in marketing, I'm always teaching, you know, you want to use the language that they're using. You want to meet them where they're at and then carry them along for the ride. So I feel like that, you know, and then it's kind of like that concept of, you know, give them what they want, but also what they need. And so it's interesting to think about it like that in terms of, you know, when you're cut, when you're marketing versus when you're teaching and coaching, it's different.

Yeah, that's important. That, like, that's. That's what we have to do when we hire staff is we. Certain words we use, certain words we don't use. Like, you forget how powerful words are. Like, it depends on the personality of some people. But some people cling on a word they like. We see it in clinic. One of the most. One of the big one, the biggest lessons ever had was a client to come in and say, I'm not dizzy. I just feel off balance. And I was like, okay, I've been to loads of people, like doctors and surgeons, and this person referred me to you, and they said that you'd help me, but I'm not dizzy. So the first thing I said was, okay, stand up. And she stood up and I said, do you feel dizzy like that? I just went, she's gone. So I don't even think I tried to book another appointment. I just knew, well, it was over. So at that time, I was like, but we make them mistakes. But I realized that words. From that time on, I realized what I try and do in clinic is whatever verb they use to describe their issue. I repeat that for back, because that's a verb they're comfortable with.

I do that too. In terms of. In marketing. Like, that's I want to. That's how you're going to build instant rapport with someone is when you start mirroring their language back to them on a subconscious level. They start to feel like, oh, this person gets me. No, I just use the same word that you just said to me. That's why it feels like that or not.

But. But.

And the fact that you said that words are super powerful is something that most people miss. They don't realize the impact that their words can have because like you said, people have emotional responses to things you might say. That is so important.

It's the most important.

It's the most important for both rapport, also getting them to adhere to, also getting them out of pain. And when you start saying things like spine instead of back, they will trust you more because they won't associate pain to the word spine in the way that they might if you're using the word back.

Yeah.

What other words would you. That you know off the top of your head that you teach inside your clinic clinical studio?

Let me see. What is it? That's a really good question. Where's that word sheet?

Yeah. Can you give us a PDF download of the words not to use? No, I'm just.

I'll give an example of like in clinic. If someone says that I slipped a disc. I don't know if that's universal language all over the world. It probably is. But if they're that convinced that this slips, I'm not gonna argue with them. My job isn't conflict and my job is just to improve them. So I don't argue with them until I know that they like me better than to do that phrase.

Mm.

That's the only time I'll pick it. We got other words. Oh, you really have me now for the words that we don't use. Certain cues we don't use.

Mm.

Like belly button to spine. Don't like it. Makes no sense. Try and belly button the spine and take it inhale and et cetera. It's gone ridiculous anyways, that sort of stuff.

But I like it sometimes because it's so literal to some people when you're rq' ing in a class. Like, they'll straightaway get into a better position. This is what happens.

This is the little internal arguments we have, you see, because.

Oh, I love that.

But it doesn't make any sense to me.

So I can't put my heart behind it. I'm just gone.

Yeah. And I appreciate the knowledge and. The. The knowledge and the justification behind it. But for some people, it's. They can do it and then they get into a better position. That's my argument.

I'd say that's a mistake we made as well. Probably when we opened the studio, we kind of. We tried to meld too much PRI knowledge with Pilates. When you get good results without having to go into a huge amount of detail and using the reformer. And we went into probably too much detail, which meant the class less enjoyable. Instead of. Just let this brilliant apparatus do the work for you and get your cueing more refined. Boom. Boom. Cueing. So we don't have an answer to that question.

No, you did. You do. You do have it. The good answer. Right. But I am curious. Right. Slip disc. People say that all the time. Oh, I slipped my disc. Your discs can't slip.

No. Like I always say, if you can imagine, like a little. There's not a Coca Cola lorry, the big one that comes At Christmas. Imagine it was small and it hit you right in the spine at the same speed and force. Then your disc could slip. You'd haven't been hit by that Coca Cola lorry. So your disc is not slipped. But that's only when they like me better than they like the diagnosis.

Right, Got it, got it. Okay. So this was a beautiful segue into what has it been like working together, merging your company, creating this brand and also, you know, being brand new parents, marriage, talk about it.

Where do you start? Well, it's been, I don't know if it'd be for everyone but we've learned a lot of trying to respect each other's abilities and strengths and that still we learn that every week or every month we realize, oh, that's the job that you're better at. You may take that or like even more recently like I've taken on more of a managerial role dealing with staff and other different things like talking to people and applying for stuff and all that kind of stuff. Whereas Tommy kind of is more in a leadership role and follow me row in and also teaching some of the concepts a bit more, you know, like the anatomy and pri and all that kind of stuff. So I don't know, it's kind of. It's been a journey.

We got better at it.

It's been a journey. Yeah. I do think when we were working with Kai from compound Kyle Dobbs Compound performance really helped when we were rebranding and trying to get systems in place to allow us to probably function better as a partnership in business because the lines were getting really blurred with a partnership in marriage and business. And you do this, I do that and it was just all over the place. So like Kai really helped us develop systems that we can put into place. Then anyone can come and join the company or if I stepped away like I'd have to for a while with the baby and stuff, that I was a little bit not as involved. Things were still been done. People knew what they were doing and knew what I was doing and someone could pick up the slack I suppose. So I think it's been a journey and I think don't think we'll ever end that journey because you have to keep learning and we're both evolving I think and the business is evolving. Like we have new concepts now. Yoga nutrition just launched and we're trying to tease our way through that now.

So it's, it's something that I think we've got better at. It's definitely something I think we've Got better at as a couple. And it's also, I suppose, good to have people like really good mentors like Kyle was to us to slowly leave the hints that this might not be what you're tailored to. So, for example, like Natalie said, she manages staff. Now. I don't do any of that because it does not suit me to do that. I'd go into a meeting and if I seen someone raise an eyebrow, I would extend the meeting, try to get them to lower the eyebrow. I'd be trying to compensate for them because I might have said something wrong. Nati will never see that eyebrow being raised because you just don't see it. It's not in her attention span to see it. Meetings are timed. She does them. Done. You go as a staff member and if you probably come back to me. But that's. I think that's very important. Kyle let us to the point to understand that stuff. It's good to be. It's good to get mentoring off other people because especially as a couple, if you're not getting mentored from an outside source, you really. Because your two of you really are invested in it. You know, it's. It's not dealing with another staff member. It's dealing with a passionate business owner who wants this to work. And you need someone to go sometimes, not always, but sometimes come in between the two of you and help you.

Just look at it objectively.

Yeah, look at it objectively. Get the emotional. That's the most important thing. Because there's a couple. You like each other and you fancy each other. So you're not.

It's not like Tommy got his haircut especially.

Well, yeah, because you often hear all the time, business is not personal. But how can you say that when you're dealing, when your business partner is your partner?

Yeah. Like there is times and obviously people have bad days. Like, bad days. There's days where you're a bit stressed or whatever. And then especially with the new baby and everything else. Baby Molly. Yeah, she's the best baby. But at the same time, at the beginning, it's hard to find your feet and sleep is not as good as it was. And, you know, you're just trying to find the balance again. So, you know, look, we now have good structures in place, I think. And we know, like we write things down or we know we have a structured meet need, like together, like for business. We have a meeting. We have to. Because we were having conversations at every cup of tea or during dinner or if you're going out for a Walk like we're having too many conversations about business at times when maybe we should have been talking about something that's not work and kind of trying to learn to switch off and just be a couple and then have business as business, you know, so we've learned how to try and do that as well. That's still a work in progress.

It's always a work in progress. Like, everything is constant. You have to constantly work at it.

Well, I'll say from my perspective, I think that one of the things just even in this conversation, one of the things that your brand does really well, that I think a lot of personal trainers miss, is that networking concept, that networking idea, which is where you don't have to be the one stop, shop as one person person to, like, fix all the pain, get the strength and conditioning to do all the nutrition. And I think as someone who used to feel like that, I think that comes from that feeling of like, oh, I don't want my client to think they don't need me or that I can't do it or that I'm not good enough. Not recognizing and missing the fact that you need to have a team of people and perspective to help this one person and if you can actually do that, been their client for life.

Yeah, that's like. We've seen it in the past where we have, as others have, we referred out and we never had a bad experience of referring out. But when you see people that you really want to refer to and they then can possibly work with you and for you, you make moves to make sure that you can get them people in place. And we're lucky enough that we have them people in place. Like, that's one thing that a concept I didn't get. When we started the business. I remember when we opened the Reformer Pilates studio, my clinic was in the town. The Reformer Pilates studio slightly outside the town. I remember one client came in and this is how stupid I was about business. He asked me to help him with his back, doing some back training. He says, I heard Pilates we bring him for. And I said, oh, there's a new studio after opening outside the town called One Palad. It's meant to be brilliant. And he goes, all right, yeah. If I had said, here, this is what you need to do. It's me and my wife want it. You need to go to it. He would have went to it. That concept for me was alien. I wasn't good at.

Well, Tommy's really reluctant at the start. He wanted to keep the Clinic separate.

It's like your little baby.

It was his when he came out of college, he set it up and it was a brilliant, booming clinic. But he wanted to keep it separate. And I think I agreed at the start. And then I think we just had a. An apparition or something. It was like we need. What are we paying? 2 rent, 2 ESV bills.

We were actually having a birthday and I was sitting and eating. I was eating a pasta dish that it had in restaurant in town and I was just there like this. Ah, fuck that together like. And it took about five months.

It was five months. Yeah.

But there's been two situations like that in my career where I just have had a total blank for five, six months. And I've been hard on myself to think why didn't I make decisions earlier. One, when we were trying to move to a business together. And the other was when my first physiotherapist I hired Andrew o', Neill, Aon physiotherapy and Claire. Brilliant lad. When he was telling me he was leaving like he told me he was leaving in December and he was going to leave in July the following year. I never advertised for a job till May. I was just like in a kind of haze, right? Because. And that happens to people in business and I think when it happens to someone else, I have a lot more empathy than I probably had before. Because we go through, we go through peaks and troughs. The most important thing is when you, when you go too high, you don't get to above your station.

Right. That's why having the lessons are the best. Because that's when you're gonna, you'll learn. You had to go through that in order to learn that lesson. Can teach other business owners who are gonna open their business. You're gonna be like here, don't do the mistakes that I made. Right. So it's good.

Yeah. That sort of stuff like I think is important to teach other people. I have a lot of people that message me about the model we have now, which would be a model that be very new to our area. But even a model that'd be quite new I'd say in the country. They want to know how to build it and depends certain personality types. Beverly will be delighted as one man shops working from home. Some other people hate that because they want to have a team. They want to have people talked every day. They want to have that one to one rapport. And I'm kind of like that. I could have easily ran my clinic on my own. I would have spent less money, but I would never have enjoyed it. I enjoy it way more now.

I know for me that I'm extroverted. So I like to have and process ideas.

Are you extroverted? Well, never an oath.

Totally extroverted. So I need to have that kind of the outside. Here's my idea. This is what I'm thinking. I like the process on the outside. It's very important. I mean, I think if this pandemic has come taught me anything, it's taught me that even though I'm primarily online, is that I need to be with a team of people and talking about ideas and building out the networks. That's what's going to ultimately lead you to growth. I think that concept, that idea of I can do it all myself is what holds most people back.

Yeah. And that's just not realizing that people don't want that either. Yeah, like your clients don't want a jack of all trades, but master of none. That's exactly what comes into people's head when they think, I have a strength and conditioning coach who's a PT and he's going to teach me nutrition or she is going to teach me nutrition. They're going, june, I'd like to go see someone else.

Right. I just gotta hang out with you all day and you're all like, come on, enjoy it.

Like, who likes a three hour appointment?

So true. So true. Okay. I definitely want to be mindful of your time, so. Okay, I'll leave you with this last question. What would you tell someone who was, you know, really excited about, you know, I'm really excited about opening up my brick and mortar. I want to open up my, you know, wellness place. Where would be the first place they should start?

Come visit us in one house.

Flight Ireland business. I'm gonna tell you, like, I think if you can take it a few different ways. I suppose with business you have to make sure that you try and get a really good rent that you can pay even on 10 clients a week. For PT also as well, I think you need to do your research. Most people open a business without doing good research and good research for a PT or strength and condition coaches. I remember when I started my business, no one had, they had a website, but no one was on Facebook and I was just blast on Facebook and that allowed me to get out there among the community and tell people that I was confident. And you can show your confidence on Facebook. And if you're, if you're talking with energy on Facebook, you better have Double the energy in person, because that's what they're coming for. And the research is really important. Like, I know there's a coffee shop in town. To give an example. He wanted to open a unit another time. So what he done was from 6 o' clock in the morning to 9 o' clock in the day because he selling morning coffee. He sat at the location that he was gonna rent with a counter for a month. So he'd get footfall and then he opened it in that location. That's good research. He done it himself. He didn't pay someone else to do it. And usually what I'd say is the stuff that you're kind of really finding a lot of resistance to do, like when you sit down and do it, that's the stuff you should be doing. That resistance, that sick feeling in your stomach that you're going, oh, I hate doing this type of work. I'd rather just do what I think I'm good at. Research is massively important. We've done a lot of research in the Pilates studio and we probably didn't research environment in the room enough at the time. That's what I said.

It's very hard because there was very little to look at in Ireland compared to the US and Australia, so weren't gonna fly over and have a look at them.

Also. Also, one thing I'd like to say as well is that when you're young and you're new in a job, by God, have a bit of fun. Like the people that come in and they're so serious. Like with pt, it's quite simple. You can't kill anyone with physiotherapy exercise. So, like, you're not gonna break a leg, you're not doing surgery. So stop thinking that you're making these massive changes when you're not making such changes. I often say with someone, should I massage the hamstring or the glute massage? Both. It's going to make very little difference. So, like, don't be overestimating your value. You're not that important to that person. Have a bit of fun. Have a bit of fun and knock a bit of crack out of it. Because if you don't enjoy it, they won't enjoy it.

So true. And I'm laughing so hard. Only because, you know, I worked with Kyle too. I was Kyle's assistant fitness manager for while and he used to tell me all the time, beverly, you work at a gym, it's not that serious. It's important. And I have to Remind myself that all the time, especially when, you know, we just get caught up in what I call the world of adulting. Right. I gotta do this, I gotta do that. And you just think you'll have these moments. Like, if this pandemic hasn't taught me anything, it's taught me this, that it's just not worth it. Our life is just so short. And if we can't enjoy what we're spending our time doing, then why? Why?

Yeah, like you'd see a lot of. Now what we see is with young pts, that if they're outgoing, like, like conversations and like having conversations, stop in the street when they're shopping and chat someone and their partner is like, come on, stop talking to people. You need a brick and mortar business. You're not going to survive because you're not an introvert. And the one thing is, they don't forget as well that this is my opinion, but a lot of introverts are boring because they don't entertain people. Like, you shouldn't be in face to face business with people. You're not suitable to it. So realize that it's small traits that you like doing, like having conversations, working a team. That's a brick and mortar business. Online, you can do it as an element, but it's not gonna stimulate you.

Right.

Yeah. Introverts sometimes are boring.

What I'm really hearing you saying is, you know, recognizing and knowing your strengths and it's not that you're ignoring your weaknesses because we still, we're always. That's how you grow. But when you lean on your strengths, you'll just live a happier life.

Yeah.

And I remember when I started my PT business, I didn't have a care in the world. Like, I was fearless. And it's because I always, I always kept saying the same thing to me, to myself, what harm can I really do? I'm not that powerful. I'm not. I don't have a scalpel in my hand. I'm not a surgeon, a brain surgeon. And if you go with that mentality and you try and do your best to get to know the clients, it'll be successful and care for. Care for them and ask them questions.

Yes. I say this in marketing all the time, but it'll pull out a nice. I've said it a million times, even on this podcast. Is that. And it applies to training, is it's all about guessing, testing and assessing.

Yeah. Playing the game.

Yeah. And then just redo it, do it over again.

Yeah, I know it's fun when you play the game and I think that's so, yeah, I think we answered that question somewhere.

For a new person starting out, what would you tell them?

Introverts are boring. That's going to piss so many introverts off on Instagram now. They're going to be like, oh my God, I love all my technical knowledge. Yeah.

No, you did, you did answer that question.

You talked about company made peppermint, by the way. So that's, you know.

But you did answer that question. You talked about, you know, playing to recognizing your strengths and playing to your strengths, coming up with a network of people to fill in the gaps. What else? Natalie, what would you add?

If you are bringing people in, you have to like those people or you have to have like be similar. At least that's really important, especially people who are willing to learn or not necessarily change, but willing to learn and adapt, I suppose better than change. So the team you build around is really important. So don't go hire someone you don't like because that won't work. I also think don't be afraid to build a brand. Like we built the studio first, I suppose the brand and straight away people are asking, oh, where's the other studio? Do you have any more? Like, we built the brand like we were wearing the clothing, our signage, everything. It's just important. Like do all those things well, like don't cheap out and go for the cheaper option or no, I'm not investing in that. Like invest in your brand, invest in your marketing. Hire Beverly to help you hire Beverly.

Brother actually had a conversation with this the other day. He now has a business where he helps build a brand for people. And he was saying the biggest mistake he made with his business and we were talking about was that if he had 100 grand budget, he'd spend, he would have spent 90,000 on a fit out and 10,000 on clothing and stuff for his staff. He said now he would have spent 50 grand on a fit out, he spent another 10 grand on clothing, he'd spend 30 on marketing and getting it out there. Because even now with our business, a lot of people in the community didn't. I believe they know we're there, but we haven't shown them our value to them. And you won't do that unless you market to them.

It's true, especially on online business. Like so many people can enter, they can pretty much get a website on wix for free and then say they have an online business. The ability to get into the market online now is awesome. And also Very easy. Which means that the majority of your budget is going to be spent on marketing and messaging. And the reason why you need to do that is because when there are so many people that have access to it, you need to know how you can set yourself up from other people. You have to. Your messaging and marketing is key.

Yeah, we've definitely learned that recently. The marketing side thinks that it's just, you have to do it and you know and do every avenue of it, not just one or the other or let something slide. So it's to stay on top of that and be organized, be organized with it as well. Purposeful and organized.

Which is only, which is only going to come when you do it right. People want to try and read and learn and research, but you're listen, you're not going to learn how to swim by reading a book on swimming. At some point you have to get in the water and then you'll learn from there. You'll learn when rubber meets the road.

Yeah, yeah.

I suppose people think of it as a waste of money at times because they don't see direct sales. But that's not the point of it really. The point of it is to try and play that game as well. If you just look at every part of business as a game, some people get real enjoyment out of risking 60, 70,000 on a business venture as like they were watching a horse race. They have the same enjoyment. And for me that's tough now for you with this and Natalie, like I would procrastinate about making decisions, but one thing lockdown has shown me is that I'm not afraid to go for it now as hard as I want it, I'm not afraid to do that now. Because if you believe in what you have in your business, you might as well go for it. And that's what we expect to do now in the future. And I know like someone like yourself, Beverly has always told us, go for it. And I'm probably the person that's like, eh, no one will buy it.

I'm always like, yeah, sell it. You haven't made it yet. Who cares? Just sell it.

Sell everything. No, don't sell Molly.

My husband listens to me sometimes. But it's funny that you said that because my husband will listen to you sometimes and he'd be like, I swear, if you think you could sell Gwen and Abby, you probably would try.

When you would have sold em. Beverly, be honest.

Oh my gosh, I had to look at videos of like my kids being cute to remember that. I love them. Oh my gosh. Okay, so this has been amazing. Thank you so much for all your insight. I really appreciate it. So for those of you who want to learn more about One Health, where can I send them?

So Instagram One Health Underscore ie. Underscore Ie. And then I also have another page which is my PT page called Tommy Tommy pt, which is about like I suppose what I deem important, the psychology of the business aspect and becoming a.

Well rounded PT clinician, I think on our website, www.onehealth.ie.

Okay, awesome.

So we'll Facebook Google it.

We'll of course link all these up in the show notes.

Cool. Thanks Beverly.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for coming on. It's been so fun.

It was great.

Thanks Beverly. Bye stuff. Bye bye.

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. If you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So be sure to share this episode with your friends on your social media networks. If you if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and if you would, please leave us a review. But before you send it, send a screenshot and send it to supportsimpsonfitness.com and we'll send you a bonus podcast recording on how to optimize your Instagram account to start attracting high paying clients. And if you need help with content, be sure to download the seven Day Content Calendar which will help you create your posts for the next seven days so you know exactly what to post to attract high paying ideal clients. Thanks again for hanging out and we'll catch you on the next episode.

Sam.

Sa.