The 9 Biggest Lessons After Building a 7-Figure Business

If you're a health professional who wants to generate multiple six or even seven figures online and in the online space, tune into today's episode. I'm breaking down the nine lessons that I learned in crossing the $1 million mark. 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 client performance and movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up, coach?

Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. Whether you're watching on video or or you're tuning into audio where you listen to podcasts, welcome. I'm super pumped that you're here. If this is the first time that you're hanging out with me today, welcome. Let's go ahead and dive into the nine lessons I wish I learned before I started building a business in what it took me to get to 1 million. Now, this marks the 400th episode on the show, and honestly, it's been a long time in the making. I have had this episode in my mind, on my heart, since the beginning of April. But I've really been delaying, and I've been delaying for a couple of reasons because one of the big shifts that we are making inside of business and fitness for the rest of 2025 and into 2026 is we are focusing our, our efforts into YouTube and really growing the video side of our brand. And quite frankly, this is going to be the first episode that kind of kicks that off. And so I've been putting a lot of pressure on the differences between, you know, rolling out of bed on Sundays to record, press, record on, on the show versus the quippy ness that is needed for YouTube. So regardless, we're going to find the ways that we can can repurpose our content. Really kind of shift my perspective around what it actually means to be on video on YouTube and so on and so forth. And of course, just full transparency here at BE Simpson Fitness. I'm just going to carry you along for the ride and we're just going to see how it goes. So let's go ahead and dive in. I want to really break down the nine lessons that I have learned when crossing 1 million in revenue. And of course, here there's nothing but honesty and transparency. And we're going to Go ahead and dive right in. First, I want to make it abundantly clear that a million dollar salary is not the same as million dollar revenue. And I have in fact been in business for eight years running my own business. Now this seven figure mark, it took me five years to cross it because I did have a huge pivot. Not to mention the fact that I'm a former district fitness manager for a national gym. So not only do I have years upon years of skill and experience in communicating the value of personal training, in growing and hiring personal trainers and developing leaders, and responsible for bringing in $2.1 million per year just in my region alone, that type of experience matters. And I got to carry that type of experience into building my own business, then pivoting and it took me five years to cross the $1 million mark. So for the record, if you're tuning in and you're hearing that and you're thinking, oh my gosh, it's going to take me five years, that's not necessarily true. It's not about time. It's about the amount of reps, it's about the amount of efficient effort and how fast you can go through these nine lessons that I'm about to break down. So hopefully you're just as excited as I am. Number one, a seven figure business is not the same thing as a seven figure salary. Everyone wants to celebrate gross revenue, but that's not the same thing as gross profit. There were multiple times in my career on my journey where I worked long hours and it wasn't a four hour work week. I didn't just wake up and passive income all of a sudden started happening. There was a lot of effort that had to happen when building a seven figure business, whether it was six figure, multiple six figure, it doesn't matter. Work was still required. It was about efficient effort. That's number one. There were plenty of times where my team was paid and I wasn't. There was also a ton of time where I took a risk that I thought was going to pan out and it didn't. There were plenty of times where I expected something to go and it didn't. There were plenty of times where I, where I anticipated or where I didn't expect something to happen and it happened and I wasn't ready for it. Plenty of times. So the risk when running a business never goes away. In fact, it changes the more revenue that you make. It wasn't until I had to zoom out where I realized, oh my gosh, there was a time where I would have killed to have $40,000 sitting in my bank account and now I'm looking at it and thinking it's not enough. So it reminds me of that zoom. It reminds me of that paper towel analogy where you often see this in a, in a weight loss journey where you rip off one towel at a time and you don't realize that you think one towel, there's no impact and it's the compounding effect of ripping up the towel that you zoom out and realize, oh, that paper towel is in fact smaller. Same thing when running a business. This is why when I'm always teaching my clients that in addition to the structure, systems and strategy that is required to run a business, you need to have support. Support that the business needs, but also support that the CEO needs. Because people who are more successful than you, sure, it's true that they might, may or may not have had the same or better levels of accessibility. There's countless stories of people who had, who had less accessibility than you but moved through to success. What they had is the ability to get up and move through no faster, to move through the disappointment, to risk and trust themselves. That's what it takes. That's the grit that it takes. So number two, business is simple, but it doesn't mean that it's easy. Business straight up attract people with a problem and solve it the best way possible. Sometimes I, I oftentimes you'll hear me say fastest or easiest, but honestly, it's not even really about how fast it's going to take. Now speed is your, your biggest lever. It's your lever in terms of communication, but also level to level to demonstrate your expertise. But people aren't necessarily afraid of hard work. Sure, they're going to go for the path of least resistance, but they will do the work if they trust the process enough. So they're not looking for fast easy, they're looking for best simple. That's why it, that's part of why it took me so long, five years to cross that $1 million mark. Because so many people want to give up when it gets hard. But this is when your discipline gets tested. Because sometimes you have to show up and do the things that you don't necessarily want to do, but it is good to have been done once it's done. This is why we have to understand the difference between going to the gym with the flu versus I just don't feel like it today. And we have to sometimes do the things that do not, we don't feel like doing. And this is especially hard for People when they are used to the grind of throwing, throwing everything out, like what I see a lot in some of my clients who have such great work ethic, but they struggle. And this was honestly not me. This was part of what I did. And I'm glad that I did it because now I can help. So many people avoid the same thing. But it's kind of like they bake a cake. They put all the ingredients to bake a cake, but then they put it in the oven and then they keep taking it out before the cake is, is done and then wondering why they don't have a cake. This is why it often takes people so long. The only way out is through stop pulling the cake out before it's ready. Get disciplined, stay focused. So what happens to a lot of people when their discipline is getting tested is that they either pulled the cake out before it's been tested and they're not making data driven decisions, or rather they might think that they are, but they're not being discerning in the data and they don't really fully understand what the data is actually telling them. That's number one. Then number two, people get bored saying the same thing over and over and over again. But repetition is the mother of all learning. You would never squat one and then never squat again. Same thing. So why do we do that in our business? And then sometimes we pour all of our heart and energy into something and then get disappointed when most people say no. A hundred people are going to say no and two people will say yes. But yet the majority of people focus on all the people that said no instead of the two that said yes. And if you're like me, that's what happened to me. My ego was often tested. I used to call it my arrogance, but it's not arrogant, it's really my ego. My ego was often tested and my work ethic sometimes became my demise. Number three, be specific and bold. Your people pleasing tendencies will not help you. This is why I'm such an advocate for standing against building no like and trust. No like and trust and just adding value. Because what happens to the people pleasers of the world, especially if you're anything like me, all you want to do is give, give, give, give, give and give. But a couple of things happen. Number one is that you're subconsciously trying to be liked when the reality is that in order to be a good coach, in order to actually shift someone's perspective and behaviors, you sometimes have to speak into your client's potential and not to the garbage that they bring in the room. So if you're subconsciously trying to be liked all the time, you're running the risk of being bland, Staying unknown and being unknown keeps you unpaid. Now that doesn't mean that you need to try and get a million kajillion thousands of followers. You don't need followers to get paid, but you do need to be bold. You do need to be seen. People do need to believe in you in order to buy from you, because they can't buy from the Internet's best kept secret. But it's not you that they're buying. They are buying trust in themselves. Trust in your program process. Trust in you as the facilitator, not you as a person. So you run the risk of continuing to not get paid if you keep trying to build, know, like and trust because you need to be seen, you need to be believed, you need to be. You need to be trusted as the authority and expert. And I probably don't have to tell you that being an expert is not the same thing as being an authority, because can you probably point to someone right now who has less expertise than you, but more authority? And here's the truth of the matter. If you will not show up for your clients, someone else will. And your clients love to buy things. They just hate to be sold to. So if not you, then who? And why not you? So your messaging cannot be wishy washy. It must be clear, bold, specific, and it will require courage. Now, courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is with fear because you cannot be courageous if fear doesn't exist. So be bold, be brave, and have courage. Number four, your offers. This is not your membership. This is not high ticket only. This is not low ticket only. This is not. This is not your. Your. Your coaching. No. There's seven main components of an offer and we'd be here all day. So I'm just gonna go ahead and I'm gonna dial in four important things that you need to know in order for you to generate revenue. Number one, you must solve problems. What's the problem that you solve? Number two, what's the promise? What is the promise? Now, people get this messed up because they're like, oh, I can't, I can't. I have to manage expectations. Yes, you do. But you also need to solve problems to get outcomes. Your clients want not what they need and not what you want them to want, but what they want. Well, how do I know if I'm getting it right? Are they buying? Because if they're not, it's likely one of these four things are missing. What's the problem? Are you selling them what they want? How are you getting them from the problem to the outcome? This is your specificity in your process. This is where the trust needs to come in. And then the price. Can you communicate that the price is 10 times worth the asking investment measured against the cost of not getting started? That is so important because price is not the reason your people do not buy. Price is why they make a decision, but it's not why they don't buy. For example, if I said you could get this brand new iPhone, Brand new for free $25/ unlimited upgrade or you could get this used doggy bag to for a walk when you're taking your dog for a walk so that you can pick up their, you know, things, pick up their feces for $25. Notice how the price is the same but the value proposition is different. How can you communicate that Your offer is 10 times worth the asking investment measured against the cost of not getting started? You must dial those in and we must get a million dollar offer stack. I like to teach my clients to have a combination of free, accessible and high ticket and pre. That's what we're looking at even in this economy, any economy. And we need to be able to communicate the need for these products and services. Not the nice to have, but need. And something else people mess up is. I want to go back to Derek Jeter. Is that you're going to have. This is why reps are so important. Derek Jeter is in the hall of Fame for the, you know, hall of fame for home runs, which I think off the top of my head is 261. I can't remember. But in the hundreds. Okay, 260. 261 is what comes to mind. Do you know how many at bats he had? 11,000. That means he stepped up to the plate 11,000 times. Over 11,000 times. I can't remember the exact number, but I know it's over 11,000. I think it's 261 home. And yet he is revered and celebrated, which is great. I want you to do the same thing for your business. Focus on the wins instead of all the at bats. But you need those at bats to get to the wins, which leads me to number five, the mental load. There's a reason why there are so many entrepreneurs and business owners both in personal development and in therapy. The support the CEO and the business needs is essential. You must, must, must, must take care of it. Business was not built in a vacuum. Okay, so now let's get to number six, math. Business is math. You need to know your numbers. You need to know your numbers. You need to, you need to know your results and your performance metrics for traffic, for leads, and for sales. Now, everyone, no one wants to look at this, but it is essentially the most important because. And it's good. And honestly, it gave me the most peace when I was starting my business. I felt like, oh, I'm never gonna get it. But it wasn't until I started looking at the data and being able to be discerning in what the data was telling me that I was able to have peace. And then I would be able to know what to fix without sacrificing my discipline. This is how my work ethic started. Working with me and not against me. Number seven, look at your relationship to money and to selling. This is a big one, and everyone often underestimates this. But your relationship to and with money matters, and it matters a significant amount. Whether or not you believe you can earn is true. Whether you think, what, what is that quote? Whether you think you can or can't, you're right. So you cannot outwork your identity. You need to change it, shift it. Which leads me to number eight, get happy and be grateful. Now, I can't tell you how many times I've had to step back and look and think to myself, oh, man, I remember that there was a time I would have, I would have done anything to see that. And yet still combat those feelings of, oh, it's not enough. Never enough. Everything has to change. You have to get happy and grateful. Now it makes me sad that I can't remember that. I don't know what my million dollar sale was. I just zoomed out and I looked at all my, my tax returns and I thought, oh, my gosh, I did it. But I remember my first sale. I remember exactly where I stood when I, where I, when I looked down and saw that notification someone bought. And I remember how that felt. And I can't. It pains me that I don't remember that million dollar sale. There's always going to be lessons, and that was a lesson for me. And I want to offer that to you. Be grateful and be happy. Now that gets to be choice. Your circumstances and experiences, you can't change your circumstances and experiences. They're very real. And sometimes they're out of your control. That is true. But suffering is a choice. And I know that that might trigger someone when, when they hear that So I just want to say, as someone who has really battled feelings of, oh, it's not my fault I'm suffering, I just can't, no matter what I'm trying to do. Right. Which leads me to number nine, which is get help. So if you feel like I can't, if you honestly feel like you can't choose anything than what you're experiencing now, get help. Business isn't built in a vacuum. I can't point to a single million dollar business that got there on its own. So get the help and the support that you need and deserve. You need it, so does your business. So in the spirit of number eight, wanted to say thank you so much for hanging out with me in this journey. Whether you're coming, if you're coming, if you're brand new and coming along, I'm so glad that you're here and I'm going to give you a full, transparent behind the scenes show you the ins and outs of what's working, what's not working, what we're doing, what we're focusing on, and if you've been here for, for the wild ride, I'm so glad you're here. Thank you. I look forward to your inevitable success and I'm, I'm very grateful to be part of this journey. So tune in next week. We're going to start a new series. I don't know what that is yet and I spent some time working on that today, but we're going to start a new series. So glad you're here. Let's make a million thank you for.

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