How to Stop Selling and Make More on Instagram as a Personal Trainer and other Health Pro

Today we're diving into how to stop selling and actually make more money, specifically on Instagram. As a health professional, let's dive in. One of the things that I do for myself and that I tell my clients to do is to make sure that we are always making data driven decision and that we are being discerning in data, which is actually one of the things that we're actually going to talk about today, because most people get this wrong. But for me, what I am looking at, especially in Q4, as I begin to prepare for Q1, which is the super bowl of the fitness industry, while traditionally most of the online businesses are starting to slow down, we're definitely going to take a break, but we are ramping up and getting prepared for Q1 because the truth of the matter is, if you aren't, someone else is and you could potentially be on the back foot. Because think of it like this, if I asked you who was the first woman pilot, we would probably all know that it was Amelia Earhart. But she didn't get there and she didn't get there a lot. So who was the second, who was the third, and who is the fourth? We usually do not know those names. And the reason why is because they weren't first. It didn't matter that they got there faster, that they got there and they got there a lot. So it's essential that you, while there's going to be an abundant of opportunity, that you are just going to be more prepared if we start getting set up. So get prepared now, maximize the trillion dollars that is about to be spent during the holiday season, take a break and then gear up for Q1 because it's going to be an awesome 2020. So that's what we've been doing here inside of Be Simpson Fitness is really closing out and getting prepared. And part of what I'm looking at is where did my resources go, where did my traffic and leads, customers and clients come from? And so I'm making sure that the resources allocated in energy, effort, time and money have an optimal return on investment. That's what I'm looking at. And so one of the things that we were looking at in for Q4 and for Q1 is our organic efforts and what has been happening. So I wanted to take a break so that we could distance ourselves as we start to really focus on organic marketing, specifically on YouTube, with the podcast and how we're going to maximize short form in order to get in front of new eyeballs and to really continue the depth of education so that we can remove resistance and, and really connect with our people so that we can raise industry standards. Because I am on a mission to help the smart and struggling coaches who actually care about the science of training and know that they can make a difference, to raise our industry standards. And I'm on a mission to connect with you, more people like you, so that you can help more people and have a ripple effect inside of this industry. Because what I tend to see happen is a lot of the smart and struggling coaches think that they're a dime a dozen. And when in the reality is the context is so small and the majority of people out there are struggling and they're suffering and it's because they're operating from mistakes and misconceptions. So this is exactly why I created this episode today, so that you could stop selling, start serving and actually make more money, make a bigger impact and increase your revenue. Now, a lot of people, they get tripped up because they think, I don't want to be greedy. And I got into this industry to help people. And I get that. Me too. But I want to remind you that you can't pour from an empty cup. You can't help people if you don't have resources and time, energy, effort and money. So let me help you get more resources, both your time and money, so that you can help more people. Because your people are going to buy things. The real question is, are they going to buy the stuff that hurt them from people who have no problem harming people, or are they going to buy from you? Because why not you? So let's get into it. Five main components that I want you to think about in order to double your impact and revenue. So, number one, I touched on it briefly, but it's worth diving deeper into it is you have to look at your relationship to selling. Now, I get it. Most people don't want to sell. They think there's something off about selling. And I get it. I know why that happens. Because likely you have had an experience where you were sold to at an inopportune time, where someone slid into your DMs and said, Hey, B. Simps and fitness come by followers. You've had experiences where you're just trying to chill and someone will take no for it for an answer. You've had experiences where people made you feel bad about yourself for not saying yes to them. You've had experiences where people aren't listening to you or they already think they know what you're going to say. And I get that. Now, the problem is That a lot of those manipulative and traditional sleazy, pressure filled experiences, they work, otherwise people wouldn't teach them. And the real fact of the matter is a lot of the people who come off pressure filled and sleazy is because they lack the nuance of communication and they're just following a script that was given to them without really listening and connecting with the other person on the other side. So what happens is two things. Number one, maybe you have experienced this yourself so you don't want to participate in that problem. Number two, this is why, I don't know, I can't remember the statistic. But let's just say the majority of people want to have a sales conversation with you but they're not going to schedule your free call, they're not going to join your free whatever because they don't want to be put in that environment. So then what happens is they're still going to buy things to solve their problem, but what ends up happening is they end up buying pills, potions and quick fixes from people who have no problem potentially harming someone. And so then what happens is they're going to buy something but, but then it doesn't end up being from you because you don't want to potentially hurt them. Because rule number one in the health professional doesn't matter whether you're a doctor or you're a trainer, is do no harm. Number one, do no harm. We on a subconscious level do not want to violate that number one principle. So of course naturally you don't want to be part of that problem. Issue however, is that we run the risk of your clients potentially buying things from people that aren't going to help them, that are going to make the problem worse or might make the problem worse when the reality is they could buy from you. So we need to take a look at what our relationship to selling actually is. Because people don't want to feel like, they don't want pressure, they don't want to be sold to an inopportune time. They you, they don't want to be, they want to be heard and seen and they want you to take no for an answer. And the other thing I forgot to mention is that a lot of people will sometimes lie. They just straight up lie. And in fact if you even use my DM example as an example, then that's a perfect example because they say, hey, Beeson's and fitness love your content when in reality that's just a copy and paste template. They've never even seen my That's a lie. And on a subconscious level, people can just read right through that. So of course you don't want to be part of that problem. I get it. So how do you tell the difference between that nuance? How do you know if you're actually helping people or scared that you're harming them? Well, this is what I tell my clients. And honestly, this is what I tell myself. It's really important to remember that if you don't value what it is that you bring to the market space, then how on earth can you expect that anybody else to value it? So that's number one. Number two, we need to differentiate ourselves from the value of what you do versus who you are. You are worthy because of existence. Like, you're just worthy because you are. Your value and worth is not determined by what it is that you do. It's separate. Your mom did not hold you for the first time and think to themselves, oh, I can't wait till you are the richest person on the Internet. And then I'll love you. None of that is true. And yet we do this in our business all the time. We live from that. If then continuum feeling like, oh, as soon as I do this, then I'll be worthy. I'll never forget that moment. And I know I've shared this multiple times where I saw 40 grand liquid in my bank account and I just got fell to my knees and I started crying. I looked at my husband and I said, when is it ever going to be enough? When will I arrive? And his response to me at the time was heartbreaking because he said, at this rate, never. And that was when I knew something had to change. So what happens to a lot of my really smart and struggling coaches when they first come to me is that they, they price their products and services on commodity, meaning they go out into the market space and they say, oh, what is my colleague doing? Okay, great. Well, I'm new, so I'll be cheaper. So they try to make price being their differentiating factor. Or they're like, I don't want to be sleazy, so I'm just going to be cheaper. And then what happens is that they start to call in people who are not committed, who are not ready to say yes to themselves. Then my client will personalize it and make it feel like, oh, this is my fault, my stuff doesn't work. Or maybe, you know, they're, they're trying to get their clients to run a marathon when they just learned how to walk. And, and if that's you, hey, listen, you're not alone. I only know this intimate intimately because I've done it myself. And then if you're anything like me, you try and do the work for them so that they can help, so that they can get the result faster. But then it ends up just being in this vicious cycle and then you start feeling terrible about yourself. They're not getting the result that they were promised and it just starts to be this, this vicious cycle. And the first thing you need to look at is your relationship to selling the value that you bring to the market space and making sure that you value it, because if you don't, no one else will. So when you can really step into knowing that selling is a service, this changes the game. Because think about it. If you were a non for profit, let's just say you are a nonprofit and you wanted to just help as many people as possible, what do you think the first two things are that they need? All nonprofits need time, money, they need your volunteer work and they need money so you can't help more people without those resources. So that's number two. We need to look at the data and we need to be able to be discerning in our data. So many coaches get this wrong. So I'm going to give you a quick rundown of what it is that we're actually looking at. So all businesses need people, prospects and purchasers. Another way to think about this is traffic leads and customers and clients. There are actually six core data points for you to take a look at, but we'll boil them down to three. So let's just I'll go through them all and then you can decide which ones you want to look. Okay, so if we look at the traffic data point, there are two that we're looking at. You are going to first look at how many eyeball impression that are needed to move people to hit your traffic page. So what does that mean? So you're going to need to look at that, right? So what that means is how many eyeballs need to even see your content, how many views, how many impressions, whether it's paid or organic, how many eyeballs do you need to get 1% of them to take the next step? Whether it's to go to your sales page for your low ticket offer, to go to your profile, to whatever that next step is that isn't needed in order for them to take the next step, which is become a lead. So the first thing you have to do is decide what is a lead. Some people measure dms Some people measure followers, some people measure, measure opt ins and, and what I like to do for me and my business and for my clients is I have a combination of opt ins DMs, that's my lead number. Then you're going to have a percentage of those leads that actually show up and do the work and they're still a lead. How many times have you had someone come in and download a PDF and then it doesn't even get into their, they don't even open it. So that's the fourth metric. So a percentage of the leads that opt in are going to be the leads that actually participate and then a percentage of those are going to become customers. So I like to build low ticket leads. Okay, so these are people who invest in themselves. They say yes, and then a percentage of those customers will become clients. So those are the six main components or the six main metrics that me and my clients are tracking for performance. Okay, now if you, if that's overwhelming to you, then I'm just going to boil it down. What is your traffic metric that you are looking at? And then what is the percentage of that traffic that then become leads? And then what is the percentage of those leads that become client? And then making sure that you know based on those metrics, what the performance are, what the performance is. And that's going to give you some insight as, as to what needs to be fixed. Now what happens to a lot of people is they kind of blend in the facts and the feelings, meaning the facts and then the stories of what they make it mean. Let me give you an example. There was a client that came to me and she was like, I need to fix my funnel. And she's wanting to like, I'm, I'm going to do the course people don't want the book, they want the course people don't want, you know, and she's starting to give me all these things. And we have spent months of time like optimizing this funnel. I'm looking at her and I'm like, wait, how do you know that? What I mean, sure, everything is guessing, testing and assessing. Of course we can guess, test and assess. But what's making you think that you need to change those components of the funnel? And when we finally actually looked at the data, what we really needed to look at was the traffic because all the other components were firing off, but we just need more traffic and more volume on the traffic. But she was feeling like nobody wants this, when in reality we just need more people to come and See it. And most people get this wrong and it's because they're not looking at the data and they're not making data driven decisions. Because the growth equation, whether you're trying to grow an audience, trying to grow in leads, and whether you're trying to grow in customers and clients, the growth equation is as follows. You need visibility. People cannot buy from the Internet's best kept secret. You need to be visible. And then we need to provide value. Now, not value in the traditional way that people usually talk about value, which is their educational content. You provide value by shifting perspective, by demonstrating that what they, what your clients are doing or is operating from mistakes and misconceptions and actually shifting that perspective. You also demonstrate value when you give results in advance, and then you also demonstrate value when you provide a clear path to taking the next step. And then volume. Volume, both in the number of people that see it and then volume in the number of touch points that are required to take the next step. That's what we're looking. So what happens to a lot of people when they're, when they are trying to grow is that they are communicating facts and features. Now here's why this is a problem. This is why I say stop selling. Because everyone's like, buy my thing, buy my thing, buy my thing, buy my thing. But usually what happens to the majority of people is that they are selling a solution that people don't want, that people don't think they need to solve a problem that people don't think they're in. For example, buy my dehydration course where you'll get training zoom calls and you'll walk away without being dehydrated, where your people are like, oh, no, I just got a headache and I need some Advil. Okay? So if you've ever been to my trainings, you'll see that I have a, I have this image and it's a famous image. Look it up on the Internet. I call it duck and bunny. Okay? At most some people will see a duck and some people will be a bun. See a bunny. So what happens is that people will be out there saying, buy my duck food. Buy my duck food. Buy my duck food. And the reality is your client's going, but I don't have a duck, I have a bunny. But if instead you added context and you said, hey, is your duck hopping? Is your duck not eating? Is your duck sad, depressed? Maybe you have a bunny. Try this. And then people go, oh my gosh, I don't have a duck. I have A bunny. This is happening on the online space all the time. So this is why we need to communicate. So this is number four, communicate the context. What is the specific problem that your clients know that they're in? What is the specific outcome that they want? How specifically does your process help them? And then who specifically is this for? And when you can communicate that over and over and over and over again and invite that person to say yes to themselves at any capacity, they will become a client or customer, depending on your business model. And then it speaks to the volume. The last component to sell more, to make more of an impact, is the volume. Most people just don't have enough volume to make a data driven decision. And then there's not enough touch points and reminders to invite people to say yes to themselves. So how do you improve that? How do you increase that? Well, you're going to do that with your organic marketing efforts as well as your paid organic efforts. And then you just keep doing it and you get more efficient and effective with time. Now it's interesting. So those are the main things and it's interesting I'll share with you that it's taken me forever to press record on this episode just because I've been putting so much undue pressure on myself. In fact, I had recorded this episode previously, earlier, and it, I had just so many hours, I think it took me about 45 minutes to get this to come out. And I think that the main reason why was because I care. So if you're anything like me, then I get it. You're not alone. It's because you care. I want to help people. I don't want to participate in harmful tactics. I know there is a difference between intention and impact. And I'm constantly on the pursuit of excellence so that I can help more people. But what ends up happening is that that is why people say that trying to be perfect is just fear with the dress on. I'm afraid of that. So that's what courage is all about, right? Courage is acting in the presence of fear. And so I told myself the same thing that I, I tell you and the same thing I tell my clients, which is, number one, you just need to acknowledge it and know that it's there. And then number two, be the first person to say it because then it diffuses the situation. And then number three, just press play. 70% perfect. Now I acknowledge and know that that pressure is there because I want to do a good job, because I want to help people. So I don't want to take that away. I don't want that to go away. I want to continue to be on cutting edge. I want to continue to serve, I want to continue to help and I want to act with courage and I want to ask in with fear, not annihilate fear, but act with it. So we did it, we did it, we got it out there. And so now how does this translate onto the Instagram platform? Well, there are a couple of things that we do. Okay, so the first thing is that we get very clear on our offer ascension model, meaning what are your free offers, whether it's just your content that you're posting on Instagram, what, what your accessible options are, what are your low ticket options to provide results in advance? And then what are your premium offer experience that you want to invite people to say yes to? What's the sales mechanism that you're going to present the premium offer to? So then what we do in our content is we create an ecosystem of content that carries people through this customer journey, that creates a pressure free, permission based sales system where it takes it, it takes until it tastes. And that's why we use low ticket offers because no pressure or sleeves is required. It's a constant invitation, a powerful mention to say yes to themselves. And we do that within our content on Instagram and it can happen with any audience size because people are consuming content now without following you. This is why I don't even measure followers anymore as a metric. You know, in speaking of fear, it's interesting because I, I have for so long in 2024, as I'm looking back on the year, is that I, I primarily use Instagram podcasts and we're working on YouTube now. That's kind of our main focus. Like I primarily use those tools to grow my business and I usually use that context for growing my business and, and yet I never talk about it, and I think I never talk about it because I, I have this, I have this expectation that I'm supposed to have, you know, X, Y, Z. I'm supposed to have, you know, 10k followers or whatever, some arbitrary number that I have in my mind clearly that I don't, that I don't, that I don't use, that I don't talk about because I feel like, oh, I'm not there yet, but yet that's all I teach my clients really to do. And we have had a very lucrative, profitable business in the online space this year with a handful of followers now, big compared to, to what? So we're working on growing and focusing that in 2025. But it's. It's just interesting to me that I. I feel like, oh, I. I lost my expertise because of some arbitrary thing, or. Or rather, I lost my authority because I started over. And so therefore, I can't stand in my expertise because, well, I would have done it by now. But that's not true. That's not true. I mean, I could go buy followers, but I don't care about. About the perception. I care about the reality of the profitability. I'm not looking at popularity metrics. I'm looking at profitability. Because I bet you can think about someone in your mind right now who has more authority than you, but not necessarily expertise. Then you have to really ask yourself, was that authority? Is that authority a perception, A false perception? Because I know someone who has millions of followers right now that teaches people to, you know, eat, you know, burn their esophagus. So authority doesn't necessarily equate expertise. If you want more specific help from me and from my team to get you set up for 2025, be sure to check the description, the show notes, whether you're watching this or listening to this, and I'll walk you through all the ways that we can help you. And if you've been one of our loyal listeners, thank you so much for being here. I'm so happy to be back. And if you love this episode, it would be a huge favor to us if you would share this episode on your social tag me. Let me know your biggest takeaway so that we can help more people just like you. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I'll catch you on the next episode.