The Biggest Lessons from 6 and 7 Figure Business Owners

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 205. Today I'm sharing with you the biggest lessons of successful six and seven figure entrepreneurs. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up coach? Thank you so much for pushing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and if this is the first time you're hanging out with me today, welcome. I'm really excited for today. I must be honest, I'm still not a hundred percent. So if you tuned into the podcast in any of the previous episodes, you might have heard me struggling through some of them. A really special thank you to Chris Little, who did an incredible job in the guest show last week. So I sincerely appreciate his support and help and and sharing his incredible message with all of you about how to grow and start and monetize a podcast. Because the podcast, if anyone is curious, the podcast is the number one lead generation source for me at business and fitness. And so I love the podcast. It's an opportunity for me to share what my insights, my teachings and my own personal learnings and really connect with you and help you generate the revenue and make the impact that you want to make month after month. So today's episode is no exceptions. However, I am still recovering from COVID so in case any of you were curious, yes, I am vaccinated and yes, this virus is really kicked my ass. And so we are still recovering and so I don't have any recommendations based on any of that information. I just shared, just mostly that I was. I've had some questions about it in my DM and so I thought I would just take this opportunity to be transparent and share where I specifically am. Zero judgments against where you specifically are. Just wanted to tell you that the recovery process for me as a vaccinated person has been like this slow, long and it's been the most sick I've ever been in my life. So I share it with you because I got sick when I was coming back from my mastermind and one of my masterminds. I'm in three a peer mastermind, another mastermind, and James's next level program. When I went there, I said to myself, I want to be open. I want to receive, I want to, I want to hear and go into this place knowing that I'm about to hear and receive everything that I need to hear. And for me that is very challenging. If you're anything like me, I tend to fight for my art, my limitations. Sounds like a criticism which makes sense. I came from critical house. But more it's. I often want to be right. I often want to feel like I'm trying to improve myself. And that sometimes will cause it is been my greatest gift as well as my greatest Achilles heel. And I think that this is true for lots of our strengths and weaknesses. But I fight to be right. I fight to prove myself. And so sometimes that can cause a big giant chip on my shoulder doing all the right things and nothing's working. And I don't need to hear this. I already know that. And if you find yourself saying that that is one of the biggest, biggest areas of opportunity I think that you could work on right now. Because honestly I study different books, I study different lectures. I go back and I re listen to coaching, I re listen to books that have make a big impact on me because for two reasons. Number one, you're not the same person the second time you hear it. Number two, you're going to hear things differently than you heard of the first, second or third time. And so what's interesting is when I was there, I had some really massive breakthroughs and takeaways and I also got sick. And I know that that wasn't an accident. It was not an accident that I got sick. And I didn't, I didn't get just any sick. I have managed to go, I don't know how many ever years we've been in this pandemic without with and I'm and traveled all over, gone to Disney, I've gone to Disney World, I've gone to see my family, I've been on airplanes, I've traveled all over. And I have managed to not get sick or catch this virus. And I'm the healthiest I've ever been in in this time now as I'm starting to prioritize my health. And so me getting sick I know right now is not an accident. And so I'm really looking for the lessons and I had some really big takeaways both, both in. In Phoenix as you know, after getting sick. So I'm going to share them with you today and also share with you a little bit about what I'm going through what our business growth is going through. And then in an effort to help you create and craft your plan as you go into 2023 so that you can make the impact that you want. So lesson number one is the successful millionaires that I know and work with are consistent. Consistency trumps all. And I wrote this in an Instagram post which was extraordinary. Results come from ordinary actions. The ordinary, mundane, basic actions done an extraordinary amount of time. There are people that I worked with right at the beginning of the career, like, right, we were all starting together. And the biggest difference between them and me is they are consistent. And you might think, whoa, Beverly, you are consistent. And I am, I am. I am consistent. And the truth is, so are you. You are consistent at some things. Are you consistent at procrastinating? Are you consistent in. Are you consistent like, I'm consistent where you build things and then you tear it all down and then. And then start all over? Are you consistent with throwing the baby out with the bath water and thinking, oh, this doesn't work, let's just scrap this, throw this out, and then. And instead of enhancing your process, you actually change it. Are you consistent at doing that? And hey, no shade, because, listen, I only know that because I do that. And. And the. One of the biggest ahas I had when I was there, listening to consistent people who are launching the same program 15 times, enrolling people in programs over. In just year over year doing the same thing, I realized I have not been consistent in doing that. And. And here's the rub, okay, I thought I was joking myself that I had been doing the same thing over and over and over, and I have not. Sometimes when we're working through things, we do need to make changes. That's what guessing, testing, and assessing is all about. Changes is not necessarily bad. Which is going lead me to point number two, which is you need to practice discernment, and you need to get very clear on what is for you and what is not for you, because you have to be able to make those decisions and know when. When, oh, this is a change. I'm making this change because of a very specific reason. This is not a tweak or enhancement. Now, it's a paradox, to be sure, because you have to be able to know what needs to be changed and. And what needs to just be tweaked. And I'll tell you that, for me personally, it's been a big. That has been one of the biggest struggles for me because it's really easy to convince yourself that, oh, this, this this change needs to be made. It's really easy to convince yourself that that's true. Especially if you're anything like me and almost addicted to the struggle. There is pleasure in the pain. It's the law of polarity. You cannot have one without the other. And so for me this is, this has been one of the biggest AHAs and and then I'm also going to share with you in case you are really anything like me. And now it's, now that you've had this awareness, the question now becomes, well, how do I know, how do I know what is a change and what is, and what is an enhancement? And the truth is two things. One, you need to be honest with yourself. Are you making data driven decisions? Are you looking at the data? Look at the data. And if you're building an evergreen model where it's, where, where it's week after week calls or month after month calls, you know, you need to look at it in a, in a micro, through a micro lens, but also a macro lens because some weeks will be better than others. But on a consistent basis. Look at the data to see the compounding effect so that you can make data driven decisions instead of emotional ones. Because just because it feels like everything that it work, really ask yourself how do I know that what specifically about it didn't work? And then the second part is trusting yourself and going all in on you. This is why growth happens in stages. Because here's the deal. When you are practicing that type of, and that level of consistency which requires focus, it's just like working out. You acquired the skill, you're you. When you get the reps, you get the skill. And so when you're always starting over and when you're always trying new things and when you're always chasing different shiny objects, then you are running the risk of having to start over and reacquire skills. Now the more seasoned and the more experience that you have in your, in, in communicating the value of your offers and propositions and, and programs then, then the adaptation will oftentimes happen faster. So this is one of the traps that I would fall into. I would say for me, because I have the skill and so the easy for me to, easier for me to, to get to start to drum up momentum. However, imagine where, imagine what would be possible if you really narrowed into a singular focus, the focus in and the consistency. When you have, when you have structure systems and the right strategy in place. This is when things will have an extraordina compounding exponential effect. But what happens to so many creators and so many entrepreneurs is that we get inspired by so many different things. And shiny object syndrome, where, oh, let me try this. Oh, this works. Let me try this. But the more variables you add into your business, whether you're trying to attract new, new audience members, trying to bring them into your, bring them into a prospect and present them many different offers, what ends up happening is that, what ends up happening is that the focus ends up being too wide and we end up doing too much and then nothing gets done really well. And so progress will happen. It is inevitable. If you are showing up, your success is inevitable. But imagine what type of progress you could see in your business if you just got focused, got focused, practice discernment and actually consistently did the ordinary actions over and over to get the reps, to gain the skills and to exponentially grow. Now when I heard stuff like this, I would get triggered because I'd be like, no, there, there's so many different, like people are in a different continuum and I want to do this, I want to do that. And listen, you can do that. You can have multiple offers. I have multiple, I'm singularly focused now and still have multiple offers because my offers stack, they make sense together. It's cohesive. It's just like creating a program. You're not going to do only squats or only only one type of deadlift over. I mean, maybe you will, but. But if you are like me and you have resistance to that and you want to add variability, but you don't want to change the pattern, then by all means do it. You just need to be able to acquire the skill, do enough reps to acquire the skill and then to look at the data and make sure you are making data driven decisions instead of emotional ones. And this is sneaky because you will try to convince yourself that you are, but the truth is you actually might not be. Now, I started to bring up the second lesson, but I really want to expand on this, is that you need to be able to practice discernment and, and stay singularly focused and really understand the difference between a opinion and principles. This is so important and so overlooked because it was just like what Steph and I were talking about on Thursday's episode is that there with, and I mentioned it here in this recording is that the law of polarity is so powerful that you cannot have good without the bad. You can't. They both live and exist simultaneously. So in the information age, where so much information is mostly accessible to everyone, mostly, it can be so confusing and people can, can get paralyzed analysis by paralysis and the information is conflicting. And if people do not have the skill available to them to be discerning about what is for them and what is not. This is why so many people struggle. This is why your work is so important. This is why 88% of Americans are still metabolically inflexible. When the fitness industry is a $1.2 billion industry. And I probably don't have to tell you that you could go and look at it into the social media world right now and just search up, you know, squats and you're going to see a ton of information that is straight up harmful to the people who are looking to get healthy and fit from the inside out. And what kills me is that the majority of the people who actually care about people and actually want to make an impact always feel the fear of, oh, I'm going to be hurting someone, or maybe I'm wrong, or what if I'm. What I'm putting out is not good enough? And what kills me, and this is why this podcast exists, this is why I do what I do, is because what kills me is that then they don't show up. And when you don't show up, someone else does. And that someone else is straight up putting out harmful material. And then what's worse is oftentimes these people are super popular. Oh my gosh, this could be a whole nother podcast. But listen, we have to be discerning about what is a pet peeve and what is a principle. And in this world of information, it is easy to go down that rabbit hole of, oh, this is wrong, this is annoying, this is annoying. And then we end up putting out content that is anti chocolate when instead we can really just show up for our people and use logic and straight up facts and truth to be pro vanilla. Because being popular, it is, it is a dangerous slippery slope because people see popularity and they think, oh, that they mist popularity for authority. Oh, they must know what they're doing because X, Y and Z. But then we don't understand or know behind how they got popular. So this is true in fitness and it's also true in business. I see people, really popular people putting out content that is straight up harmful. If you were to listen to that, it's going to keep you broke and that it's easy because when you are popular and you have the volume, every person is going to have success and every person is going to have success stories and anecdotes and they're sharing with you what worked for them. This is why client case studies is also very dangerous. Because that's like saying, oh well, keto worked for Sarah, so you must do keto. It's dangerous. So that can, that can be scary. And I get it because how, how do we start to know if this is proven? Well, for me, I just test my theories across multiple different clinical experiences. And I'm also very clear on what is opinion and what is a principle. And I'm going to tell you that that has not always been the case. I've learned that the hard way. But many of those popular gurus out there that we all know and love, they do not, they do not know the difference between or if they do, they are not communicating what is a principle and what is a opinion. And then when they're sharing their opinions as a principle, and this is fact, this is why then it runs the risk of keeping you struggling. And I'm going to give you a tangible example because this is a principle, which is the third lesson that I'll tell you that I learned and the biggest takeaway that I what I got from going into this mastermind experience or the next level experience, which is that people who want to make more money and make more of an impact, they need to change their relationship to selling. I just keep seeing this message over and over and over again about sell less, sell less, sell less. And, and that the Internet marketing world is changing and the people who are having the most success aren't selling. And I'm just like listening to this and really I'm like, whoa. This is the exact messaging that kept me broke for so long. This is what kept me in the feast and famine cycle. And I love to sell. I have zero uncomfortability when it comes to talking about tool money exchange. Like, and I have helped lots of people make generate revenue because I know that when really incredible people have more resources, they're going to make a better impact because money is just a tool and it just amplifies more of who you already are. If you are hearing this message of oh no, I'm selling too much, or every time you're like, okay, I'm accidentally selling or apologetically selling, then, then chances are you are most likely leaving thousands of dollars on the table. Because I'm going to tell you right now, you are selling every moment. Whether you are selling an actual offer, whether you are selling your perspective, whether you are selling your, your way, your process of doing something that is making a case, and every time you're making a case or having any type of influence, any type of impact on the way someone is thinking, the way you know, or the, or making the behaviors, helping your clients make behavior change or your prospects make behavior change to stop operating from the mistakes and misconceptions. Well, then that is selling. Because everyone, including you, always have a choice. And so the people who are really successful and they're telling you, oh, I have nothing to sell, you listen, make no mistake, they are selling all the time. So you really need to look at your relationship to selling. Because most people, they give, give, give. And especially you, if you're listening, you give, give, give 80%. That is what part of what makes you great. I'm not saying take that away. We just have to figure out the positioning of your message where you can give everything away, give it all away, and make a case for the next step, which requires skill, which requires selling. And it requires you to take a look, a close look at your relationship to selling when you can really step into this place of selling is a service. And knowing that the, the energetic exchange that you are asking from somebody has nothing to do with you and nothing to do with whether you're a good person and everything to do with the fact that they are saying yes to themselves. Do you know, I, I recently did a free training class. Okay. It was totally free. All you needed was access to the Internet and a computer. You know, there, there are things. I know that there are challenges and I know that people's levels of accessibility are different. I'm not blind to that. That. And it's still a free resource. And you know what? 200 people registered. And do you know how many people showed up? Nine. Nine people showed up out of 200. The more there is an emotional investment for the person, the more they will show up for themselves. Right now I'm running a special. This is. This episode is going to go out right now during Black Friday and, and the Black Friday season. And I am running a. A brand new. I'm launching a brand new membership program for literally 47amonth. $47 a month. You are going to get access to coaching where you're gonna get a detailed, a detailed step by step curriculum specifically designed to help you generate consistent 10k months. Okay? It's perfect for the new person who's new to the online space and perfect for the person who might be struggling for a while. Okay? Perfect for you if you're listening to this, but I'm bringing this up because I'm in DM conversations with someone right now who's joined. I have a brand new member and I'm really excited for him. But honestly, when he, I, I'm getting choked up as, as I'm, as I was sharing this because as what he, he pressed purchase and he shared with me. He said, Beverly, this is literally almost everything in my bank account right now. I'm getting, I'm getting, I'm getting teared up because I know I'm talking about business. But I've heard these stories from, from traders who have said, listen, I, I had a client that signed up, they bought the lowest package, but he got a third job so that he could afford training. And you better believe, you better believe that I am going to pour everything I have into that person who said yes to themselves, who emptied out their bank account so that they could actually start pursuing their dreams. And I want you to know that it's not about the amount. That's what I mean. Like people, when people are talking about, you know, serve the rich niche, it's not about the amount. The price has nothing to do with you. And what's expensive to you is not expensive to me. And vice versa. Across I could, I could give you, I could give you multiple examples. I could try. I could sell you a $25 phone, iPhone, brand new, it's amazing. Or I could sell you a 25 sock that and, and it's dirty. And you only get one. Notice how the price is actually the same. It's the perceived value of what is being received and exchanged change for the, that asking investment. So it's not about. Oh, it's just, it's too expensive. No, the price. Even if it's an email address or an hour of your time that has everything to do with the client. And when there is a strong enough of an emotional investment for the client, they will show up, then they will get results and it won't be, won't be about, it won't be about the actual price. It's not about how much money can I squeeze from somebody. It's about knowing that there's an energetic exchange and they have something on the line so that they show up for themselves. Because you better believe I'm gonna serve the crap out of that person. I, I already sent him resources so that he could actually make back that revenue that he's just invested 10 times before we even start. Because I know and I remember what it was like to press purchase on those scary purchases. Doesn't matter what the investment is. And this is true. And this is true for your people. Who are are battling with their health. I'm still trying to recover from this virus and this is the sickest I've ever been and I've never wanted my health more so than ever. This is true for your people too. So we have to take a look at how relationship to selling. And if you honestly think that you are hurting people by asking for it doesn't matter if you do it eight days out of the year versus every single day of the year, it is straight up a disservice to the people who need you. Why? Because people need repetition. The sales cycle is as it takes, what it takes until it takes. And if your business cannot withstand any length of sales cycle, then you won't be in business for long. There's a reason why 8 out of 10 businesses fail before they even start and I don't want that to happen to you. And let me ask you, do you think like imagine if you're putting all of your energy into one week of launching, right? One week of open cart and you're putting all of your energy into that one week and all that pressure on yourself to hit some arbitrary big amount of nut revenue that's going to sustain your entire business for the year. What type of energy do you think you're going to be bringing into that launch? Do you think it's going to be fun, easy and experiment or is it going to feel like pressure and oh my gosh, I got to do this? If I don't do this, then blah blah, blah, blah blah blah blah, how am I going to feed my team? How am I going to feel like what if I lose my client? Oh my gosh, I got to work harder. I got to work harder. Don't fall into that trap. I know that trap so well. Sell and most smart struggling coaches, they are in that trap. And I don't want that to happen to you. Look at your relationship to selling and imagine how many more people you will be able to help when you know that the selling and the ask of an energetic exchange has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your clients saying yes to themselves. And when you have the revenue that you need, you can make more of an impact and really help people. Because I know no one gets into this business to be rich, no one. We get into this business to serve, to help people. And so to just wrap up this last final lesson, I want to share with you that you need to be able to know the difference between a principle and an opinion. A principle is something that is just that that transcends a principle is something that, that, that is true 100% of the time across any medium. And so I'm going to just say it is a principle that if you are in business, you need, you need prospects and you need customers. And in order to acquire a customer, you need to ask for an energetic exchange of money at some point during the customer journey. Otherwise, you're not in business. And that's okay. This is a hobby. You want to be a messenger, you want to just share goodwill, great. I'm all for you. I will support you. I'll share your stuff. Just tag me, let me know. I'm all for that. But if you want to make a business out of doing what it is that you love, and we need to look at selling and the more opportunity you give yourself to present more offers in front of more people, the greater chance you have of generating more revenue and making more of an impact. This was one of my biggest lessons I learned in 2021, and then I would say in 2022, as we're closing out this year, it's about, it's been about consistency, consistency, practicing discernment, changing your relationship to selling. And then the last lesson I'm going to give you you as you go into 2023 is this concept of flexible discipline. And what does flexible discipline mean? It means that when I look at the successful people out there in order to achieve consistency and acquire the skills that they need in order to look at their relationship to selling, in order to practice discernment and practice and practice these, acquiring these skills, it requires a certain level of discipline, self reflection and discipline. And, and the people who are successful are the ones who are willing to do the work that people aren't willing to do. And that requires discipline. And I call it flexible discipline because it is not discipline at all cost. It is not like work until you run yourself into the ground so that you get Covid and then you can literally cannot recover from and universe. God. The higher self literally is throwing a boulder at you and saying, hey, if you don't stop this, I'm gonna make you. I may or may not be speaking from personal experience. No, I'm just kidding. I'm. I'm being fully transparent here. This is exactly the lesson that I took from getting sick, which I. Brings me back to what I started this episode with, which was I said, I. I'm. I'm willing to receive what it is I need to receive in this trip. And it's not an accident. I got sick. I got Sick. Because God, universe, whatever, use whatever word you want to use. Your higher self said to me, had been telling me for ages, you are running yourself into the ground and it needs to stop. But I also can't tell you this is a little bit of why I say growth happens in stages, is because I can also share with you that there have been multiple times, times where people have said I'm ready to do it and myself too, and I'm gonna do it at all costs. Yeah, but I don't want to do that. Yeah, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. Because let me tell you right now, successful people, they're doing it. They're the ones that are doing it. And so you have to know your thresholds, be able to mitigate risks, create the safety net and then get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Because those people, the successful people, that's what they're doing. They are practicing flexible discipline, meaning they're not running themselves into the ground, meaning they are not punishing themselves when they're like, oh my, going into shame. Because that shame is not going to help you. Shame is not going to serve you. We have to be able to live on the razor's edge of caring about everything and nothing at the same time where we can just look at the data, look at the results and do it without attachment. And listen, when you're running a personal brand, when you're running a personal business, this is so much harder than, than people will share or admit. It's one of those easy, you know, double tap things. You double tap on Instagram like haha, yeah, be at peace, detach. Yeah, we get it. It's, it's one thing to understand and it's another thing to know and live by. But the successful people have heard no more times than they have heard. Yes, they have experienced more failure than they have experienced success. So the faster that you could get comfortable with that type of, of, of uncomfortability, the faster you will move through the lessons you need to generate to, to get and make the impact that you want. So just a quick recap, here are the biggest lessons that I learned from hanging around from uber successful people and also successful in my own right and sharing with you my context of what I have learned as I've continued to grow to the multiple six figures and beyond and on the journey to success. 7. Number one. Get consistent. Get super focused. Acquire the skills that you need to get and stay consistent so you can make data driven decisions. Number two. Practice, discernment Understand what is for you and what is not for you. Get honest with yourself about the truth, about what is a change and what is an enhancement. It's okay to have changes, but just be conscious of them and honest with yourself and also trust yourself yourself. Number three Understand the differences between principles and opinions. And then number four lastly, live on the razor's edge. Care about everything and nothing at the same time and practice flexible discipline. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. As always, this is in an effort to serve and help you and it would be a huge favor to me if you wouldn't mind giving us a five star review sharing with us us your biggest takeaway. Email Chris Bimson Fitness.com because for every review you will help more people. Mostly because you will also share this show with more people who needs to hear it who haven't heard from us before. And two you will be helping children get out of human trafficking experiences because we are donating $20 for every review in November to Children of the Night. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today and I'll catch you on the next episode.

Thank you for listening to the PT Proffit podcast. If you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So it would be a huge service to us if you would please leave us a review and share with your friends on your social media channels. When you leave us a review, be sure to take a screenshot of it and email that screenshot to my team@info simpsonfitness.com and we'll send you a very special Instagram podcast that will show you how to create compelling content so that your ideal clients come to you and you go from wanting clients to a wait list of clients ready for your services. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.