Ep75: How Amy Scaled to $7K/Month in 6 Months — And Got Thanked for Raising Her Prices Twice

Okay.

Alrighty, team. Welcome to another episode of the PT Profit, Leverage and Lifestyle Show. I've got an absolute weapon with me today, Miss Amy. She's one of my amazing clients. How are you this morning?

I'm good. How are you?

Very, very good, thank you. Firstly, welcome to the show, and thanks so much for taking the time to have a conversation. Super pumped to dive into your journey, the wins, the challenges, et cetera. But for people who don't know who you are, do you want to give us a bit of a background on, you know, what you do and probably where you're from as well? Obviously, there's an accent there.

Yeah. So I'm Amy. I'm from the uk. I moved here last year in August, and I started PTing out here in October. I was never a PT before I qualified in the UK, but I decided, I moved over here and I decided, okay, let's start a business. So I started that in October, but, yeah, and ever since then, it's been going really well, and I'm loving it.

Awesome. Beautiful. So from October, so you've been doing it eight or nine months, which has been epic. So I'd love to, obviously, go through some of the wins, of course, some of the challenges that you experienced. But firstly, I just loved your perspective on this. What was it like starting a business in Australia when you firstly, hadn't even been a PC before over in the uk? What was that like?

It was. Oh, I've not thought about this question. Answering this question. I feel like I just went into it with, like, absolute blind faith. That's like, a big thing for me. And I just was like, it's just. Just gonna have to work. It's gonna work either, like, sink or swim because I'm in a new country and I've got no one there. Like, there's no, like, backup plan almost. I could have just got another job, but this is what I've always wanted to do. So I just started it, and my first week, I was like. Cause you always think you never know what to expect. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna get, like, loads of clients. Then my first week, I didn't get any clients, and I was like, oh. But I just held faith. I was like, it's gonna work out. It's gonna be fine. And then after, like, a couple of weeks, I started getting more and more clients. And, yeah, I had no idea what I was doing until probably I started working with you. I didn't even know what a business was. I knew how to train People. But yeah, the business side is completely different.

Yeah, I feel like a lot of pts can relate to that. You know, like, a lot of pts are really good training people. They really enjoy being in the gym, but they don't really just. They don't really understand the business side of things, which is obviously a huge part of how successful you are as a pt. I always say to people, like, you could be the best PT in the world, but if you don't know how to actually get clients, then it's a wasted skill. So, yeah, I think a lot of people can relate listening into this podcast. So, yeah, I'd like to kind of go through kind of. If we look back to when we started, which I think was start of this year, maybe.

Yeah, January.

Yeah, January. So you would have had a couple of months running the business on your own. I know you said you kind of didn't really understand the business side of things, but you were still actually doing okay. Like, you can. Obviously you can choose if you want to disclose the income that you were on, but you were doing okay running it on your own. But what did you feel like you were missing back then?

Yeah, so when I was doing it on my own, I got to about 4k months, which wasn't awful, but I just. I knew I needed to keep growing and I didn't really know how to, I guess, keep growing and getting more clients. And also, I'm going off topic, but, like, I'm really into like, self development and stuff. And I was listening to a book and it's called you're a badass at making money, because I love the subject of money. And she was talking about how she had quite a few mentors. And then I also spoke to someone else that you were mentoring as well. And then things came together and I was like, oh, I need to get mentor now, because it's like the next logical step. I've gone completely off topic.

Oh, it's perfect. That's perfect. I think a lot of people are similar, like, me included. Like, I've had multiple businesses before, but I've always had a mentor because, like, when you get a mentor, you pay for access to speed, and speed is everything. Yes, we live a pretty long life, but in reality, it's actually quite a small time frame. So if you can skip all the bad stuff, of course, nothing ever goes to plan, but skip majority of the bad stuff and understand and learn all the mistakes that people have made before you, then there's a higher likelihood of success. So, yeah, I remember, obviously that conversation with, with Aaron, he's been a long time client of mine, which is, which is awesome. Yeah, we've obviously had some pretty epic successes recently as well. I'd love to also dive into price increases because we recently did, did that with you twice. Twice recently. So I'm super curious to hear your thoughts on kind of what you went through in your head about the price increase and what actually happened. Actually, let's go through that now. Actually. So many PTs will think that they can never increase their price. So can you tell me what your mindset was like? Probably when I first told you about increasing your price or how you felt.

About it, I was quite worried that people would turn around and be like, I don't want to keep working with you, this is too much. Um, but when I actually did increase the price, people like, yeah, that's fine. And I even got like people thanking me for like raising, almost raising my prices. Like the messages I had was like, I love working with you. That's absolutely fine. Someone replied yesterday, thank you, that works for me. I was like, great, easy.

That'S so good. So that was after the second increase though.

Yeah, that was the second increase. After the first one I did get a lot of. Yeah, of course, like charge your worth and that really is like the key, like if feeling like you're worthy of charging that much. Because I probably didn't feel too worthy of charging more maybe.

Yeah, I think a lot of people struggle with that because they, they, you know, they don't value themselves. But I think also, like, obviously you've done some, some bodybuilding shows now as well. So obviously you've got a bit more experience. You're learning from other coaches in the game as well. So you know, as you get more skills and you get more experience, it's only natural that you should be paid a little bit more for that. Right. So yeah, same with any field. Like when you go through the ranks or you go into management or whatever, you obviously get a bit of a promotion or you get a bit more of a price increase.

Yeah, definitely.

So I think, yeah, I think that holds a lot of people back in terms of kind of what's, what's possible. But the other, the other thing that we did as well when we pretty much first started was we had more of a hybrid, hybrid model. I know used to only charge for when you were trading time for money, which is. Yeah, that we spoke about when we first started working together. So do you want to explain kind of what we, what we changed and because that's, that's one of the first things we did that was, that was how we increased your price to start with. And the second increase was now that you're making, you know, a lot more money, you need to register for gst, which you basically have to increase your price. So do you want to explain what we did for the hybrid and what that looked like?

Yeah. So for the hybrid, which was what I was doing anyway, but I wasn't charging for it. So I was coaching like my clients in person. We were doing in person sessions and then online they'd have their full training program. I'd do check ins with them. So I was only charging them for the actual PT session and doing everything else just for free, basically. So then we just added my online price onto that. We've changed it a couple of times just to make it work better, but I think I was only charging 90 and then we increased it to 130 a week. So it was a huge jump.

Yeah. And then what happened after that? Like, did you have any, did you have any issues? Like, I think you were at a stage where you actually stopped taking on new clients for a little bit as well actually.

Yeah, I did, yeah. Especially when I was going through prep. I was on like 20 weekly sessions and that was quite nice. It felt really like easy and maintainable to just to stay on that. Now I'm focused a little bit more on growth because I feel like I have a bit more energy to grow. But yeah, yeah, I got booked up quite quickly. Yeah.

Awesome. So do you want to give us some insight into what business is like now? So we've been working together for just on six months now, which is, which is epic. What business like now, whether it's financially and then how do you feel about the business now as well?

Yeah. So financially we're sitting around seven to seven and a half K months, which is really nice. It's, it's a nice, like maintainable rate. Now I feel like I do want to grow a little bit more, but that's, I feel like that will come. Now I've got my VA and I'm posting on social media a lot. I wasn't, I guess for the past couple of months I wasn't actually trying to grow that much. But yeah, now the business runs pretty smoothly without having to try super, super hard to go for.

Yeah, that's awesome. And just for context as well, was the, when you were going through that phase where you weren't really taking on any more clients, was that due to the prep, or is that just because you were happy with the income you're making?

Well, I was happy, but it was also to do with the prep as well, because I was it prepping. I'm prepping in, like, for a new comp with a new coach, and I just was trying to focus a little bit more on that. I think prioritization is really important when it comes to things, and I think that probably took maybe a little bit more of my priority rather than business, which I think is okay to sometimes step back and. But now I would. I'm trying to prioritize business a little bit more over the prep because I'm still in prep now, but it's. It's flowing a bit more because I'm used to the process.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really good thing to say as well, because I was talking to someone yesterday about this, and I was going through, like, my goals, and I was like, look, I don't really want to grow that much more in the next couple of months. I'm like, I'm pretty. Pretty happy where things are at, and I think that's okay. Sometimes for business owners, you don't need to always be like, full hustle mode, you know, working a lot, chasing clients, all that type of stuff. I think it's. I think it's good to sometimes just not so much just chill, but just take the foot off the gas a little bit and, you know, prioritize other things. Like you said, a hot topic that's been coming up a little bit with conversations that I've had is how to actually still be productive in the business. When you're going through prep, do you have any insights or any tips for people that perhaps are wanting to do a show or even already are competing about what that's like to still run a successful business at the same time.

Yeah, I think you have to be super, super organized with everything you do, and then it is natural when you're going through a prep to have less energy. So when I was talking about priorities, you almost do have to say, okay, so my work and my business is my priority, and my prep's my priority. Some things, like my social life, they did take a backseat, as in, I wasn't going out, because you do have to be pretty wise with where your time and your energy goes. But I would say get all your training, your own personal stuff, your training, your posing, your prep for food done early in the day, and then you don't have to worry about it at night. But, yeah, you Just I guess you do. And a few other things between clients. I would like take like 10 minutes and I would meditate to like get my mind clear and focused. You do have to spend a little bit more time like I guess feeding your brain with good stuff mentally, if that makes sense and like prioritizing rest when you can. But yeah, you can't do. I think no one ever has the recipe for absolutely everything. How to balance, balance. It looks different to everyone and I think some people can cope more with some of the stuff. But yeah, my social life, unfortunately that was a sacrifice and I think you just have to do that if your goal is to compete and run a successful business.

Yeah, well said. Well said. There's always going to be some type of sacrifice. You can't. Yeah, you can't do everything. I love how you brought up the like the, you know, meditation stuff, the mindset stuff because I know it's obviously a big passion of yours so I'd love to dive into that. Firstly on the meditation side of things. Do you meditate like consistently?

Well, I've been a bit rubbish with it recently, but I do, I, I'm very. I prefer to listen to a guided meditation. So you know the Calm app. I'll just go and like listen to one of them on the apps like for 10 minutes. Maybe it's more so when I need it. I should be doing it every single day because I think it's really beneficial for like a lot of different things. But when I know, I intuitively know when I need to just switch my brain off. So yeah, I'll go and meditate.

Yeah. Can you give us some insights into like what that feels like when you know you need to switch off? Are you like it's a bit of anxiety, a bit of stress coming up or like what does that kind of look like?

Yeah, it's maybe a bit of anxiety stress but it's more so my brain's like just thinking of so many different things and I get quite overwhelmed. It's a feeling of overwhelming, I think like too many things on my brain so I just need to stop.

Yeah, no, it's awesome. You're obviously quite self aware.

Yeah.

About that stuff. Has that, has that always been the case or is that something that you've kind of learned to do with your self development journey?

Yeah, I think it's something I definitely learned to do. When I did, I felt like a lot of it came on when I first did my first ever bodybuilding prep two years ago because I don't if your mind's not in it, you, you will just completely lose yourself if you're not like grounding yourself. I guess so. Yeah. But I read a lot. Like one of my goals two years ago was to read a self development book every single month and I've just stuck to that. And you pick up little different things as you go along the way and it just builds onto everything.

Awesome. What are some of the things that you read about for self development? Is it like business? Is it mindset?

Yeah, it's mostly mindset. I feel like I do definitely take on the feminine side when it comes to self development. I like a lot of the Law of Attraction Manifesting books. I have a client that we get on so well and I'm more the spiritual side and she's like read this practical business book. I'm like, okay, we share like books with each other. But yeah, I guess some of the classics, you know, like Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I've not actually ever read them but like I get the gist because I've read similar books.

Highly recommend that book by the way.

Yeah, I know, I feel, I know it's an old classic and this I like to read also because I am female. I do like to read like a lot of female entrepreneur books. I feel like they give a different vibe to. To men. I know that's a good one to read.

Yeah. Have you got any. If you obviously sounds like you read a fair few, few books. If there is some females listening to the podcast. You got any recommendations on which ones they could probably start with?

Yeah, it. I guess my favorite one is can I swear on this? Because it's called Rich's. It's called Rich as Fuck by Amanda Francis. That's really great. It's non related to fitness but she came from not a lot and now she owns a billionaire business in real estate. So that's really good. And then there's another one called Get Rich Lucky Bitch and she by Denise Duffield. I love that one. And she is actually Australian, so that, that's also a good one.

That's awesome. So like I would, I love to. Obviously you spoke a little bit about manifestation and that type of stuff. So what, what are you kind of working towards? Obviously I know you want to grow the business a little bit more now but like what's some of the long term goals that you have in mind for the business?

I would actually really, really want to be online and I love my in person so I probably keep an element of that. But I want to Be online, majority online, so I can kind of move around because I'm not going to be in Australia in any time, Paddington for the rest of my life. That's kind of what I'm manifesting at the minute to really grow online 10k. I really want to hit the 10k month mark. But then some of me's like, that's okay, that goal's too small, but. Because I want to obviously do more, but I think smaller goals at the minute and then alongside that, I really want to get my pro card when it comes to competing.

Nice.

But yeah, I've been taking this turn because I thought I was originally going to maybe stay in Australia for a bit longer, but now I'm thinking, oh, okay, maybe I could do some time in like Bali or, you know, the typical online coach.

Things move to Bali for three months and come back because they don't like it. Yeah, usually happens. That's super exciting. So I just wanted to touch on a little bit of the challenges that you've experienced because no doubt there obviously would have been some challenges in your journey. I obviously don't know all the challenges that you've gone through. I know the ones that we've had over the last six months or so. But do you want to share with us a few of the challenges or turning points or pivots that you've had in the business since starting in October?

I think a challenge that we all go through is like losing a client. That always hurts. I remember when I lost my first ever client, I just cried and. Because you think it's like something wrong with you or like what you've done, but sometimes it isn't and you've done your best. That was hard. And then I actually really struggled last month because April I had my biggest month, which was like 7.5k month, and then May, I think it was like 7.2. But I was like. Because I'd been growing every month, I was like, oh, I've not grown this month. That. That made me feel like a bit of a failure and. But it's really not that different. But yeah, that. That's been a real challenge for me recently because I was like, oh, okay, I'm growing every single month. And then I had a month where I kind of stayed the same. Yeah, that's something awesome.

I'd love to dive into. Around the. Losing the client and obviously. Yeah, quite, quite. What's the word? You're probably a bit. Felt a bit responsible, I suppose.

Yeah.

For losing it. So I think. I think A lot of people would struggle with that as well. Like, you know, for me, over the years, obviously, clients come and go. How did you, how did you actually deal with that? How did you get through that process?

I kind of was just like, okay, this is my thought process around. Process around losing a client, and I find it really helpful. Is that, okay, she's came to me, she's got what she needed, and now I'm open to a new client that is more aligned to me and I can help her more because with this particular client, she, she was just like, like, she was really grateful and she's like, thanks for all of your help. And she just wants to go off and do it on her own now, which is obviously hard still, but I was just like, okay, she doesn't, she doesn't need me anymore. Now I've got space for someone that does really need me and is more aligned to me, I guess.

Yeah.

But it was, it still hurts in the moment, but, but then you be dramatic and then you get over it. That's what I say.

That's so good though, because, like, as one door closes, like another opportunity.

Yeah.

As you said.

I think if you sit and like, feel bad about it for a while, that's not gonna help at all.

Yeah, well, it's probably gonna, you know, give your other clients a bit of a disservice if you're gonna be bit, bit down on yourself for that. Yeah, that's super interesting. And then the other challenge, you said, so you said you struggled, you felt like a failure because you didn't grow in the business.

Yeah.

Like you have done every other month. So.

Yeah.

Is, Is that just. You have really high standards or is there, Is there anything else kind of.

Yeah, I guess, like, for me, I was just thinking, like, I'm just gonna grow every. Every single month. I'm just gonna grow every single month. I think maybe it is because I called myself to a high standard or I felt like, okay, what was I doing wrong to not grow that month or. Yeah, yeah.

And then how did, how did you process that? Because that was recent, right? That was.

Yeah, that was recent. I still think I'm still processing it now because I'm. I don't know how to think about it. Sometimes I'm like, okay, don't be too hard on yourself. But then other times I'm like, okay, what can I do better? So, yeah, I'm definitely still processing. Do you have any tips for that?

I think it's more just a self awareness to, like, you know, Understand that, you know, business is up and down. You know, some of the best business people in the world, probably still from some of your books as well, like that billionaire in real estate. You know, nothing ever goes to plan in business. And over a number of years I've managed to keep my emotions quite neutral. So like, you know, I might have a good month but then I know around the corner it's not going to be like that again. So I'm, I'm like somewhat expecting something bad to happen, but not necessarily bad, but I'm expecting something to level it out. And when you have that level headed emotion, things become a lot easier. When you're making decisions, you're not, you're not riding the highs, you're not riding the lows, you're just balanced when you're making decisions. So that comes with time in business. Like you're obviously only been doing it 10 months or so. You know, I'm, I'm five, five and a half years into being a PT so you know, I've had my fair share of ups and downs but in reality it's all kind of, it's all neutral in the end there were some really massive wins, there was some really tough times in there as well. But in reality it all kind of worked out in the end.

And do you feel like there's seasons? Because maybe it's just me, but I'm noticing that people seem old, quieter this month or. No, like, or you can just keep growing every month or.

Yeah, I mean in reality like you, you can absolutely grow every single month. But in, also in the reality, for the fitness industry, in winter it is quieter, it's a little bit colder and you know, Australians don't like the cold weather, especially, especially in Brisbane when it's actually cold for once. So, you know, there'd be a lot of people that, you know, they might pause their membership for the gym or they like, they're just not as motivated to get to the gym to, you know, get back on track. But once winter is gone, then all of a sudden, oh cool, summer's around the corner, let's get back into the gym. Yeah, so it, it does pick up again in terms of, you know, how many people are, you know, willing to start from scratch on a new, new journey or a new goal. There's not a, there's not a massive amount of people that are like, you know, I'm going to crush it in winter, I'm going to show everyone else what type of thing. But also like the, you know, you're in anytime Fitness. There's like, you know, I don't know how many members you guys have got now, but you know, there's thousands of people that are in those gyms and for most people that are in commercial facilities, like all your clients are right in front of you. You just need to have a conversation with them or you know, find a way to contact them to, you know, offer them something in of value to them.

Yeah.

You know, if you, if you do want to grow, you just need to have more conversations with people.

Yeah, for sure. And I think this is a bit off topic but because now I am trying to grow online. I think because I do come from the UK and it's somewhere in the uk, I'm going to try and hone in onto that a little bit more because they're all, they all want their summer bodies over in the uk. That's why it's so good like being international, I guess.

Yeah, well that's the thing. You get the best of best of both worlds. Right. You can, there's always, there was always a market to, to deliver and especially health and fitness, you know, that's a, you know, it's never going to run out of clients.

Yeah.

It's not like a, it's like, it's like a short term thing. It's like, you know, people are working on their health and fitness for life.

So.

So yeah, but I was super excited about the online stuff and obviously you said before we just hired a va which is super exciting. So what are you getting the VA to do? Give us some insights.

So she has created me a content calendar and she basically just creates all of my content for me, posts it, comes up with different ideas. She also does other things for me like with redesigned my logo. So she just does all of the design work and comes up with a lot of the ideas. It's great because she sends me everything before and I'll be like, can you just change this a little bit and then she'll go back and work on it. So yeah, I send her a lot of ideas and then she just comes up with stuff and posts it and creates it for me. But she also, when I, before I hired her was talking she can do like lead generation as well. I have not started that with her yet because she's just doing all of the design work for me and posting at the minute. But yeah, that's also something that I might be interested in going into as well.

Absolutely. That's the natural next step in our journey is like in terms of what I usually get clients to do is get your social media stuff sorted first and then you can outsource the Legion. That's super exciting. Obviously a few things going for you right now, which is epic, but I'm sure there'll be a lot of people that want to follow along on your journey, not only from the competing side of things, but also the business as well. So if people want to follow you or follow along on your journey, where's the best place to find you?

On Instagram? My name is just my name, amyspence xx and I thought maybe I should change that to a fitness name, but then I was like, no, it just suits my personality now, so I'll just keep it.

Yeah, love it. Very good. I'll put the link to your Instagram in the bio as well. But thank you so much for the conversation that was really going through, the wins and also obviously the challenges as well.

Thank you for having me.

No worries.