Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to The Figuring It Out Podcast.
At 22, I took the plunge to go on the entrepreneurial journey and start a fitness business, 7 years later I’d been the nutritionist for 2 elite sports clubs and private coach to some of the worlds best sportsmen and women.
Now it’s my mission to show fitness coaches how you can put yourself in a league of their own, become the go to coach, and finally eliminate the self-doubt and imposter syndrome that's holding you back from building the business of your dreams.
This podcast will help you figure out how to thrive and conquer the fear that comes with the lonely entrepreneurial journey.
If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the podcast. Once again, I am driving.
Speaker 1:Now, there is actually a little bit of a reason as to why I am recording these while driving. And also there is a lesson that you can apply to your clients off the back of this. One thing that I know will definitely be very clear to you is the frustration that comes with a client not following your plan. The frustration that comes with a client saying, oh yeah yeah I'll do whatever it takes to lose weight and get in shape, but they're not doing it. And then almost kind of like sitting in their own puddle of tears that they're not making progress.
Speaker 1:So that for some reason they almost kind of make you feel guilty that they're not getting the results that you promised them despite not taking any of the action that you have told them to take. So first thing that I'm starting this podcast on isn't the main thing I want to talk about today. But there is a very very clear lesson in why I'm recording my podcast squad thriving and how that correlates to your clients adhering to your plans which can save you like a shit ton of frustration. Because like for me, whenever that used to happen, that you know a client just would almost kind of like do absolutely everything but follow what I tell them to do. It wasn't really just about the fact that they were moaning about me.
Speaker 1:Was more kind of like internally, the the feeling of like, can't do my job here with this person. Do you know what I'm saying? Where it's like you almost kind of feel that, you know, I've got one of my old clients in mind here. I'm not gonna tell you what her name is, but she was a proper Karen. Like a proper Karen.
Speaker 1:And was it almost like whatever I tell her to do, she would just ignore. And then would really kind of make me question like, what am I doing here? Like this isn't the type of coach that I want to be. This is not the kind of business I want to run. And it kind of leaves you questioning sometimes like, this is what it's gonna be like running a business.
Speaker 1:Like I'm not sure I wanna really kind of do it. Do know what I mean? That they can almost kind of take the the fun, the passion, the excitement out of running this business. So again, sorry. I am what does this guy do with me recording my podcast while driving?
Speaker 1:Well, I think one thing that has become very very clear to me has been that in order for us to do anything as human beings, anything new anyway. Yes, we have to want it. Yes, we have to have that desire. But if we really wanna be consistent with something, I think that there has to be a minimal barriers to doing that as possible. So what do I mean by that?
Speaker 1:So for me, I know that my podcast is probably the most part of my business. Now why? Because if you've ever met me, if I've ever delivered a talk for you, if you've ever been on a talk or if you're one of my clients, you've had a one to with me, you know I love to talk. That you go and give me a question, you are not getting an answer in a two minute basis. Why is that?
Speaker 1:Because I'm so passionate and enthusiastic about sharing not all not only just the knowledge that I have but the enthusiasm, the the the experience that I have within this topic. And and I really really feel that like, you know, especially in terms of my own social media. What is the purpose of social media? Social media really is there and our content is really there for our future clients to connect with us, to build a relationship with us, and really to get to understand us and to know us. And for me, I will be completely honest like you are not going to get to know me from a thirty second reel on Instagram.
Speaker 1:How you're going to get to know me?
Speaker 2:How you're going to
Speaker 1:get to like me and fundamentally trust me to potentially then go, do you know what? I need to be around this guy. I really need to learn what he has to teach. You're gonna do that in long form because the you listening to this podcast is you. This is where you're going to get the best from me to then be able to level up your own coaching ability and really really connect with me.
Speaker 1:Because I really love to go deep into these subjects. So again, what is this got to do with your clients? Well, everything. Because for me, I'm like, right. I know that I need to do my podcast like I have to.
Speaker 1:It is important to me. It is a a vital component of me growing my business. However, where have I failed in the past, I've struggled to be consistent. Now why have I struggled to be consistent? Because there are too many steps to go through in order to execute it previously.
Speaker 1:So what do I mean by that? Well, for me to for example, for me to go and do a podcast properly. Okay? Now you probably can't see this right now because you're listening to it on audio, but I have just done that thing with my fingers where it's like properly. What I mean by that is that if you think about a typical podcast, it's almost like in a studio where you've got like a really fancy mic, a really fancy camera, the audio is perfect.
Speaker 1:Everything that is necessary for that to take place. What do I need? Well, I need a very high quality camera. I need someone to film it. I need a very high quality microphone.
Speaker 1:I need someone to make sure that the microphone is actually synced up to the camera. I need to find a podcast studio. I then need to go and get to the podcast studio. I then need to actually scratch that out in my diary and ensure that all of my other meetings and client one to ones, master classes are not clashing. There's too many hurdles for me to overcome in order to do that.
Speaker 1:Whereas for me to film my podcast, I'm driving. I on a weekly basis, I will be driving to a destination. So for example, this week, I am driving back from my wonderful partners down in London. So I've got a two and a half hour drive. That means that in order for me to film my podcast, all I need to do is press record.
Speaker 1:So in terms of the the barriers and the hoops to overcome, I only need to press one simple button and it's there. So actually, all I need in order to execute what it is that I need to execute to move my business one step further forward is one, a hunger and a desire to make it happen. So one, I need to want to do my podcast. And then secondly, a method by which I can do it that doesn't require too much effort. Okay?
Speaker 1:Because if we keep doing that over and over and over again, we've almost kind of then got to level two of ingraining this into us as a habit. Then I can then start to think about, right, do you know what? I'm already in the groove of filming my podcast once, twice a week. Now it's starting to get like into my subconscious mind. It's starting to get into my personality and into my routine of things that I do.
Speaker 1:Therefore, now I can start to think about, do you know what I'm going to do? I've got two journeys this week and do you know what? I'm already in the flow of delivering my podcast. I'm gonna go home. I've already got a microphone.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna sit down and deliver a higher quality podcast. Does that make sense? So again, it's almost like in terms of for me, yoga. Okay? So I always knew at the back of my mind that I needed to do yoga.
Speaker 1:And also I really wanted to do yoga. Now why did I really want to do yoga? Well one, I needed to because I felt like fucking stiff as a board. I felt like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz. Like I literally felt like I was like needing to to spray anti rust all over me just to kind of get through the day.
Speaker 1:And I was like I feel like a dickhead here because I'm 29 and I am so rusty and I am so rigid. So one, that feeling in itself was not particularly enjoyable. But then also, I always kind of knew that yoga on an intellectual level is a form of mindfulness in a form of meditation. And I really really value being able to utilize my mind as opposed to being used by my mind. And I've always known that meditation is a way of doing that and that yoga could be fantastic.
Speaker 1:Thirdly, I've always been a very spiritual person and I've done a yoga class before and the feeling I got off the back of it was just beautiful. Like I felt so connected. I felt bliss. I felt so clear in my intention for what I wanted in my life, just off the back of one yoga session. So I did that yoga session.
Speaker 1:I felt incredible. I knew this is what I need to do. And then for the next six months, do you know how many yoga sessions I did? Zero. Zero.
Speaker 1:Now it wasn't because I didn't want to do yoga. It wasn't because I didn't believe in yoga. And it wasn't because I couldn't see the benefits of how that would improve the quality of my life. It wasn't because of that. So how can that translate into our clients?
Speaker 1:That like how many times have you told a client to go and do something, something, they did it, they felt amazing, and then they just didn't do it again. And then they're like, oh I just can't seem to do this. I just can't seem to do this. I just can't seem to do this. And then our level of frustration really just keeps mounting up mounting up mounting up.
Speaker 1:And that can come from multiple places but one of them can be like the well I can do it. If I can do it, why can't you do it? And then you almost kind of have this resentment towards them where you're just like for fuck's sake like I train five times a week. Like I eat really well. I prep my food.
Speaker 1:I do everything but you can't and stop moaning at me. And you can almost feel this like sense of resentment towards them of lack and lack of commit connection. First of all, one thing we do have to realize is that and I learned this from man called Alan Cosgrove. He's just unbelievable. He's like one of the original personal trainers.
Speaker 1:And he basically said, he was like, you've got to remember, we are freaks. In the fitness industry, we are freaks. And I remember sitting there going, okay. I'm struggling to think where you're coming from here, Alan. But he was just like, look how weird is it that like we go and do leg day and we can't walk for a week.
Speaker 1:And we're like, yes. Yes I'm in pain. Like you know I'm you know I'm talking about here. That almost kind of feeling of even though we know that delayed onset of muscle soreness DOMS doesn't actually mean that we've done an amazing workout. For some reason that pain makes us feel like yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1:That's fucking weird. So the thing we do have to keep in mind is that we can't expect the same level of commitment and execution from our clients unless you get a gem. Yeah. Like you know we will have the gem who does it. But we kind of can't because you know, fitness is at the forefront of our minds.
Speaker 1:So in the sense of that one, it's our passion, it's our enthusiasm, we love feeling fit, we love being fit and it's part of our identity. Whether you're a personal trainer or an online coach like for me, I'm a nutritionist. Like it's part of my identity. So I enjoy doing it. But then more importantly, it's also at the forefront of my mind because it's my fucking business, which again is at the forefront of my mind twenty four seven.
Speaker 1:So the point I'm coming at here is that like we can't have that same level of expectation of our clients. So therefore, in terms of almost like building this into our habit, we're at like level 20 when they're at like level one. So I come back to my yoga. It wasn't that I didn't want to do it. Like we can almost kind of have this thought for our clients of like you just don't want it enough.
Speaker 1:Like you don't want it enough. It's not that because I can't help but feel I'm like, no I I really did want to do yoga. I really loved it. Like I believed in it. But there is a difference between knowing what to do and doing what needs to be done.
Speaker 1:And we have to remember that our clients can technically get everything that we give them for free on the internet. It's true. Like our clients can literally get everything that we give them for free on the internet. Okay? But they're not paying for that information.
Speaker 1:They're not paying for information. They're paying for execution and implementation. Our job is not to tell our clients what to do, it's to help our clients do what needs to be done. Okay? Let that sink in and have that as your mantra.
Speaker 1:My job as a coach is not to tell my clients what to do, it's to help them do what needs to be done. Okay? That's what we need to do. So for example, I come back to my yoga. Okay?
Speaker 1:That my yoga, how did I I now do it every single day. I do it every single day. But do you know how it started? The the problem was and the reason why I couldn't do yoga on a regular basis was because for me to go and do yoga, there were so many barriers. Okay?
Speaker 1:So first of all, was like, where can I go and do the yoga? At David Lloyd. So I have a membership at David Lloyd. So first of all, for me to go and do that yoga session at David Lloyd, first of all, I've got a book on. Okay?
Speaker 1:So I've got a book on. First of all, it's constantly busy and constantly booked and there's never really times that I particularly enjoy doing it. They do it at like ten past seven in the evening. I don't want to go to David Lloyd at ten past seven in the evening. Then I've actually got to muster up the energy to get out of the door and to go and drive to David Lloyd when it's dark, it's cold, it's wet, it's miserable.
Speaker 1:Like I've had a full day of work. I'm mentally and physically kind of you know pretty much depleted from the end of the day. For me to then muster up the energy to go and get changed, to make sure that I've got everything together, to then drive all the way over to David Lloyd, to go into a class, there's a lot of barriers there. Then one other barrier which is probably the biggest barrier is my own ego of I like the I've seen the people at Dave Lloyd do yoga and I'm like, I'm not having like a you know, I'm not having some like, you know, wannabe yoga instructor do it. If I wanna do yoga, I'm gonna do it in a bliss, serene place.
Speaker 1:K? That that's an ego thing that needs to go. But I'm oh, I'm battling so much for me to go and do it. Or I can go to a yoga studio. So I looked online to find a private yoga studio.
Speaker 1:One it was £15 to go and do it. I'm like okay I'm happy to pay that but there's a financial barrier there. Then there's the traveling side of things and I looked at the closest yoga studio to me it's like fifteen minutes. That's an extra half an hour driving. So that yoga then costs me an hour and a half.
Speaker 1:So there were too many barriers for me to overcome in order to execute that. Does that make sense? So what changed? How have I gone from not doing yoga for six months to doing it every single day for the past eight months? How have I done that?
Speaker 1:Well, I had a conversation with my best friend. So my best friend Al, he was like, I've downloaded the Apple Fitness app. And I was like Al why have you gone and done that? Like what what are you doing? He goes no no no no it's really really useful because like you know I can just do like a really quick home workout.
Speaker 1:I really struggled to get to the gym like you know I've got to do it after work and it's really really hard. But it's great it's like it's nine pound 99 a month. The workouts on there are great and I can just do it in my living room. And it's great because like I used it as a way to just like fall back in love with my exercise again and then off the back of that, I then got the bug for exercise and then I wanted to go to the gym again. It was almost like going to the gym was no longer a chore.
Speaker 1:And I was like okay like that makes a lot of sense. What what other things have they got on this? They've got like you know you could do like pilates, you can do HIIT workouts, you can do yoga, and I was like that's it. That is it. So how this changed was actually me and my partner, we went away.
Speaker 1:We went on holiday and we went on holiday and we had like a lot of personal challenges at the time. Like it was very very we had a family member who was really really poorly. It was very very worrying, distressing for both of us and I felt mentally, emotionally, and spiritually pretty broken. So we went on holiday, we went to Cyprus and we went there for ten days. Now I'm not an all inclusive kind of guy.
Speaker 1:You know me and my missus like you know we go on holiday and we're like got ants on like you know we got ants in our pants like I'm on fire. And and but this time we're like I just need to just stare at the sky for ten days. You know what I mean? So anyway, we were there and I was like, do you know what I really wanna do? I really want to no.
Speaker 1:That was it. That was it. Sorry. I was like, well first of all, I want this to be a really kind of like you know, healthy holiday and I feel really kind of like you know, I've trained on a regular basis. And this is how it happened.
Speaker 1:So I went into the gym, I went to go do a session and I actually pulled the muscle in my back and I couldn't move. And to me that was like the trigger like, chief, you gotta do something about this. There's no throwing tin around here. You've gotta go and do some form of beautiful lovely movements. Why don't we give yoga a try?
Speaker 2:So I was
Speaker 1:like, right. Okay. I'm in this little studio in the the hotel gym. It was dead and I was like, you know what, just gonna download the Apple fitness app. I downloaded the app and I clicked on the yoga class and they had ten minutes, twenty minutes, and thirty minute sessions.
Speaker 1:So one of my fears and worries was like, oh, to do yoga. I've got to do like a sixty minute session. And I saw that they did sessions that were only ten minutes long. So it's like brilliant. Like I'm just gonna try this out.
Speaker 1:So I did it for ten minutes and I was like, oh my god. That was so easy and it was so enjoyable. I felt amazing. And more importantly, off the back of that, I was then like like I said, that was really easy to do. It wasn't as challenging.
Speaker 1:I didn't have muster up any of the any of the energy to go and do it. And then for the remainder of the day, I felt really grounded. I felt really connected. And I just felt really good physically and mentally. And because I felt good off the back of it and I got that feeling of kind of like of happiness and I felt that and I had that good feeling off the back of something that didn't require too much effort, the next day I was like I want to repeat that.
Speaker 1:And also I can repeat that because it didn't cost me that much energy, it didn't cost me that much time to then go and do it. So I did it day two, I then felt amazing again. I did it day three, I did it day four, I did it day five. And for the whole ten day period, I went and did it. So because it was easy, because there weren't many barriers, because it was enjoyable, I was like amazing.
Speaker 1:Like this is great. I was consistent. And then when I got home, I was like right. I really need to make sure. I want to carry this allowed me to have success with yoga this time versus when I didn't have success with it last time?
Speaker 1:Well, the last time I tried to go and have like a a sixty minute session doing a proper yoga studio and it had to be fantastic and fancy and I had to be like, you arming and cheating and all of that sort of stuff. But this time I was like, no it's just on my phone and I just did it in a gym studio. So I was like, right I really wanna figure out a way to get meditation and yoga into my practice, in my day. How can I do it? Well first thing in the morning I always do my cold shower and afterwards I'm always fucking freezing.
Speaker 1:Like I'm freezing. So I was like right I need to figure out a way to go and warm up. And what I don't really want to do is go out and go for a run-in the morning. I don't really like pumping up the jam first thing. I'd love to have an element of activity that almost kind of gets my heart rate up.
Speaker 1:It warms me up off the back of my cold shower and also kind of gives me that clarity of thought. Yoga. Perfect. Which now means every single morning I have my cold shower, I am freezing freezing cold. Okay?
Speaker 1:Adrenaline is pumping. I'm pumped up. I need to do two things. I need to warm up and I need to reground myself as a form of meditation ready to go and start the day. Yoga, I do at home and it slots in perfectly.
Speaker 1:And you know off the back of that, I've been to multiple yoga classes over the past six to eight months. So can you see the lesson there? That I get it that the the frustration when a client isn't following your plan. The the the bigger frustration when they're then moaning at you that they're not getting results. The even bigger frustration when you're then like, man I just can't connect with this person and you are sucking the fun and the life the life out of me.
Speaker 1:That's not fun. I get it. I promise you. So what what I could honestly pass on to you is the lesson from here is that when it comes to all of the behaviors, all of the activities that your clients need to instill into their life. When they're new, we've got to make it easy for them.
Speaker 1:We've got to make it easy, we've got to make it enjoyable so that they can actually take the first steps to realize the benefits of it. Do you get what I mean? Which means that we've got to make sure that when we're coaching them we're not seeing them through our same standards. Because we're at level 20, level 30, level 40 with our health and fitness. They're at level one.
Speaker 1:So that means that like you know I really do believe that life is like a video game. That in order to play at the next level, you've got to be able to play at the next level. It's like if you've ever played Super Mario, you don't go and defeat Bowser on the first level. You're going after like fight these weird turtle things because you've got to be capable of fighting the turtles first to then go and fight the I'm pretty sure Bowser is a turtle or a tortoise or whatever. Like this weird horned like tortoise.
Speaker 1:Do you get what I mean? So so in order to overcome our frustration, we've got to realize like our our clients are at level one. So we've got to make sure that they can like they can have habits at level one which they enjoy. That is easy. There's not too many barriers because if it's easy, if it's then enjoyable, they see the benefits of it, they will then want to and they will be able to do more of it.
Speaker 1:And it's the same with my podcast. I really enjoy this. I love it. Like I love being able to really express my message over to you. I really I've had some wonderful feedback from loads of you guys and being like, right, you know what?
Speaker 1:It almost kind of seems that like I really connect with you because you're almost like, you know, you're really sharing your story and your challenges and your errors and I feel like it's very relatable. And I'm like that makes me feel great because like I wish that I had someone that was really that I could really relate to when I first started up coaching in my first five years. I wish that there was someone that was like, yeah, really connect with you. So yeah, like that that makes me feel great. And doing it in the car, well it kills multiple birds.
Speaker 1:Like one I've got ADHD and like you know I need to kind of keep myself entertained while driving and this is a fantastic way of keeping myself entertained. Like I said, I've just killed 25 of my journey and I'm actually gonna go and film another episode off the back of this. I'm filming two episodes in a day and it's not costing me anything extra. I'm already gonna be driving. I'm already gonna be like, know, I'm just gonna probably call my mom and have a conversation with my mom.
Speaker 1:I will. But my point is that we've got to make it easy to we've got to be able to ensure that we can be consistent. So this can apply to you. It can also apply to your clients. That if you've got clients that are really struggling to stay on track with their things, let's take a step back.
Speaker 1:Take a step back and go okay, right. How can I make this easy for you? Remember, our job is not to tell them what to do, it's to help them do what needs to be done. And it's the same for you. Okay?
Speaker 1:The same for you. There are going to be things that you know that you need to get done. But if I could just be consistent with that one thing, it could be posting content. It could be doing some form of outreach and having conversations with people. It could be filming your own podcast or whatever.
Speaker 1:Make it easy to take the first step and you'll be amazed at what happens when you get momentum. There we go. Once again, as always, this wasn't the episode I intended to share with you. But as always, you know how this works that as we go on everything starts to reveal itself. And the purpose of that episode is clearly to help you help you get your clients to stay on track and also with your own habits.
Speaker 1:Help you move forward. So I'm going to leave you with one thing which is never forget if every single one of your clients gave you just one new client, you have doubled your business. But the question is, are you giving them a good enough reason to recommend you? The answer is no. Come on to the membership.
Speaker 1:See you later.