Episode 4: Putting Excitement & The Spark Back Into Your Coaching Business

Show Notes

If you’re honest with yourself, are you building the business you want to build? Or the business you think you should be building?

In this episode I run through the secrets that you can use to make procrastination and the need to motivate yourself to grow your business a thing of the past. 

By applying the secrets I share in this episode you'll get to a place where your business no longer feels like work, it doesn't drain you and because of that it takes off to heights you never thought possible.

Which leads to the true success of finally being able to say I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

What is Callum Walker | Figuring It Out?

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.

Callum Walker: 00:03

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

Callum Walker: 00:10

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. So I've just come out to speak to all of you guys. On here, it was beautiful and sunny, and now all of a sudden, rain.

Callum Walker: 00:37

Oh, well. Oh, well. Fortunately, I mean, it's bloody freezing in April, but fortunately, I've been I mentioned this the other the other day, actually, but I've been doing my cold water therapy. I'm about four months in now, and it's had a huge impact on my ability to tolerate temperature. So, like, my hands are quite cold at the moment, but I've always really struggled with cold hands.

Callum Walker: 01:00

I've always been a little bit of a pussy when it comes to, like, being cold to the point of actually me and my partner, we actually had a three hour argument once genuinely, because I was cold. That was it. And I mean, in all fairness, it was her own fault. Like, hopefully, she's not listening to this. But it was her own fault because we were out and about, and it was, like, minus two.

Callum Walker: 01:23

I've got about a thousand layers on. She knows that I'm a real pussy when it comes to the cold. Yet, I was just like, look. Can we just go inside? Go inside.

Callum Walker: 01:30

And, anyway, my point is that I've really noticed my ability to tolerate colder temperatures has really, really improved. And I think Wim Hof talks about this quite a lot around just enhanced circulation. So from, like, you know, the the cold exposure almost kind of forces your body to improve its own circulation in that sense, and I've certainly noticed that. And I've also certainly noticed an enhancement in cognitive performance. Again, I would potentially put that down to probably one, the change in state that it allows me to experience, but then also potentially enhance blood flow to the brain.

Callum Walker: 02:11

So that wouldn't surprise me. But, anyway, a couple of things I wanna talk about today. I think the number one thing, which has been a topic that with a lot of my coaches within my program, it's come up quite a lot. And it's really been the the main source of discussion that we've been, you know, kinda like speaking about and working on, which is doing the work you wanna do with the people you wanna do it with. And that's been huge because I found with myself that, like, for a long period of time, I was doing work that I was extremely good at, and I only kinda focused on doing work I was really good at.

Callum Walker: 02:56

So my point was I was a sports nutritionist, working with athletes, helping people lose weight. So I thought the only people that I could work with was people who, who wanted to lose weight or enhance their performance. Now the thing was I was exceptionally good at it. Like, I got amazing results with them. I had a brilliant program, but did it set my soul on fire?

Callum Walker: 03:19

No. I I liked it, but really what I realized was that I hadn't created a business. I'd actually created a job for myself. So although I was self employed, that's what I was. I was employed by myself.

Callum Walker: 03:38

So I was still actually an employee. I was just an employee of my own company, which really was just I just created a job. And, actually, I'd kinda made it even harder for myself because I also had to go out and find customers. So at least if, like, you know, I was working in the NHS or for a sports club, I was guaranteed work and I was guaranteed money, whereas with this, I wasn't. So my point was that, like, you know, I'd created a job, which I was very, very good at, but it didn't set my soul on fire.

Callum Walker: 04:09

I was like, I just always felt this internal tug towards, there's gotta be more to this. Like, I'm capable of so much more. Surely, this isn't how I'm going to live my life for the rest of well, for the rest of my life. And I think my point with where I'm going out with this was that for a long period of time, I'd almost accepted that that was the only future that was available to me, that what I've always done, I'm always going to do. And I got to a point as well where I was like, right.

Callum Walker: 04:42

I need to change this. I really need to change this because this isn't what I feel like I'm meant to do. So my point is the biggest thing that I did was I changed up the who. I changed up the who. Who am I working with?

Callum Walker: 04:56

And ever since I changed that up, everything has changed. But more important, the person who I changed it to, one of the biggest challenges that I used to face when I was working with people helping them lose weight was I was extremely good at it. But well, that could sound a bit arrogant. Hey. Can we get it?

Callum Walker: 05:12

You were good at it? We understand. But I was actually. But my point was I was very good at it, but I always struggled to relate to these people. You know, that, like, I would be as I tried to be as empathetic as I could, but and and I was almost kind of driven to help them out of a sense of well, they were paying me as opposed to actually have this unbelievable desire to want to help them at an incredible level.

Callum Walker: 05:40

And I think my point was that, like, I realized that I'd never been overweight before. I'd never been overweight. I you know, I'm an incredibly driven person. I don't really put excuses in front of myself. I understand that if I wanna get something, I've gotta do things I've never done before.

Callum Walker: 05:58

So my point was that I found that a lot of the people I was working with, I struggled with the values, and I couldn't really fully relate to myself with them. Whereas now, I switched up who my target market was is, and I changed up who my my dream customer is. And it's me. It's me three, four, five years ago. My point being that it's a it's a coach who's, you know, in two positions.

Callum Walker: 06:24

One of two positions. Either one, they're in a position where they're doing the work that they love, but they just can't quite seem to get an amazing result for these people. They wanna really become the best person that they can. Or in the second category of that they can get great results for people, but this thing isn't quite setting their soul on fire. It's not making their, you know, their heart beat fast and get excited about it and have this unbelievable passion and thirst to drive forward, and it's not quite their life's calling.

Callum Walker: 06:52

And the reason why I relate so much to those people is because I was in that same situation. So then it kinda gets away from the stuff that I'm teaching isn't necessarily stuff that I've just learned in a book and I'm regurgitating. A lot of it is actually speaking from my own life lessons, which also means that creating content is so much easier because I'm actually just expressing my own life lessons. I'm expressing the pain that I used to go through. I'm expressing the the pleasure that I've now, you know, been able to receive off the back of having a business, which just makes me so fulfilled and so happy.

Callum Walker: 07:23

So I think one of the biggest changes if you feel like you're you're a bit stuck, you're kinda questioning the direction in which you're looking to go. You almost feel like a bit of a slave. You feel chained to your business, chained to your clients is really asking, does the person who I'm working with fill me with energy, or do they take energy away from me? That, like, you know, I'm in a position now where every single client that I have booked in, I have a call with them. It excites me.

Callum Walker: 07:51

It doesn't take from me. I don't have a sense of dread, which I used to have with some of them. Don't get me wrong. Some of my clients were beautiful people. Like, and I used to adore working with them, but it was only a small portion.

Callum Walker: 08:03

And it's funny because one of my coaches who I work with, he's an amazing coach. He's he has come on leaps and bounds. We I was with him. I spent a whole day helping him working on his coaching business. And and we got to the point where we went through all of his clients, and he was like, yeah.

Callum Walker: 08:19

Out of all of them, I only actually really love 8%. So that means that 92% of the clients he was working with took energy away from him, and where it came from really was that he struggled to relate to them. I can't really relate. So my point with that is that if you're in a position where you are feeling maybe a little bit stuck, questioning where you're going with this whole thing and maybe feeling a bit zapped a village, you're burnt out, switch up the who. Secondly, which is then the most important thing, which is even if you've got the who sorted, you've got the who bang on.

Callum Walker: 08:57

Yeah? You can then still create a job for yourself. You can still find yourself burnt out. You can still find that, right, can. I'm working with amazing people who I absolutely adore, but still be burnt out and cooked and feel like a bit of a slave and chain to them.

Callum Walker: 09:12

And that comes from asking this one big question, which is what is the life that I want to live? The life, not the business I wanna create. And and I came to this sort of realization off the back of I was at a point where, you know, I was working with the people that I really wanted to work with. I adored them. They excited me.

Callum Walker: 09:35

I was doing the work I really wanted to love. So that I really loved and I really wanted to do. But the the problem I'd got to was I was, like, I was constantly tired, burnt out, almost like on this treadmill, and I got overly obsessed. Now I don't think that obsession is a bad thing. I think that in order to be a successful entrepreneur, in order to get success with this business, this whole life from an entrepreneurial perspective, you have to be fucking obsessed.

Callum Walker: 10:05

Like, you have to be obsessed. If you're not, you're not gonna make it. But it's about managing that obsession and making it healthy and knowing when to almost, like, go down that rabbit hole, when to push, and when to pull. Now my point with this is that, like, I'd let that obsession over overtake me, overwhelm me to the point that I was like, if I took my business away from me, what do I do? Who am I?

Callum Walker: 10:32

I was like, don't do anything. I remember having a conversation with my partner where I'd I'd been doing nothing but work. I was really struggling to sleep, you know, waking up, Like, you know, I'd get to sleep fine, but I'd be fucking dreaming about my business. I'd be waking up at, like, 03:00 in the morning every single every single night, not not intentionally, but just, like, my mind would just be racing with everything to do my business. And and I I got to the point where I then, like, realized, like, why?

Callum Walker: 11:01

Why am I so obsessed with this? Why am I working so hard? Why am I filling every waking hour with working on this business? And I realized, I went to my partner, I said, because I haven't got anything else to do. I don't do anything else.

Callum Walker: 11:16

That if you take away my business, I don't do anything. Well, I do now. I've made sure of that, but I didn't. I didn't do anything else. See, my point was that what I'd done actually, I'll get to what I did in a sec.

Callum Walker: 11:32

But I I was at an event in Orlando back in September, and this is where it all started to change for me. And I was in Orlando, and I was at this amazing event. I was funnel hacking live, Russell Brunson's event, just amazing. I was there for a week, and there's a guy on stage. His name's Garrett j White.

Callum Walker: 11:51

K? You can love him or hate him. He's very, fucking, very to the point. Takes no prisoners, tolerates no shit. But he did a talk.

Callum Walker: 12:01

It was probably the most powerful keynote I've ever seen. Ninety minutes. He was actually the only person who was allowed to swear at that event. So four days, no swearing, only person who's allowed to swear. And he probably needed to, to be fair.

Callum Walker: 12:17

But he said this point where the whole theme of the whole, like, the whole week was really around how your business needs to be based on you. How that, like, fundamentally us as coaches, experts, we need to be a walking advertisement for for the life that we can create for someone. Because fundamentally, our role as coaches is really to show someone how they can improve the quality of their life. We will just do it different ways. So, like, you know, as fitness coaches, we do it through improving their health.

Callum Walker: 12:43

Business coaches do it through improving the quality of the business. Life coaches through life whatever. But we're all in the game of improving the quality of life of our clients. And he was saying that that needs to be based on you. You So need to be a walking advertisement for the life that you can create.

Callum Walker: 12:58

And then he asked this question, which was so profound, which was, are you living a life you would want someone else to live? And Harry's like, shit. Wow. Heavy. No.

Callum Walker: 13:11

Absolutely not. I'm tired. I'm burnt out. I don't see my friends. I don't see my family.

Callum Walker: 13:15

All I do is work. I'm earning all this money, but I have nothing to spend it on. And, yeah, I got to this point where I was like, right, am I living a life I would want someone else to live? I'd never considered the life I wanted to live. I'd only considered the business I wanted to create.

Callum Walker: 13:36

And part of that, in all honesty, was probably because of what was actually driving me. That what was driving me was to escape and to run away. That, like, you know, I've always been a misfit. I've always been an outcast. I I never really kind of fitted in at school.

Callum Walker: 13:53

I went to four different schools in five years. I always kind of played up. I was never really accepted. I was told I was the stupid kid. And, yeah, and I was very much like, even when I started my business up, I was 22.

Callum Walker: 14:07

Just come out of uni. Everyone else is partying, enjoying themselves, and I'm up till 01:00 in the morning writing recipes. And I was doing something completely different. I never really fitted in, but, like, my driver was to prove people wrong. And look.

Callum Walker: 14:20

It was a very, very powerful driver for a long time. And it certainly got me to where I needed to get to, but it took me as far as it could. And the problem was it took me to a place where I created a life to give me the business that I wanted. And, actually, when I asked the question, it was, do I actually want that business? Why do I want that business?

Callum Walker: 14:41

But then secondly, I got it the wrong way around. I should have actually created a business to give me the life that I wanted because your business needs to be a vehicle to give you the life that you want and to allow you to become the best version of yourself that you can be. And the problem was that I'd done the other way around. I hadn't taken anything into consideration regarding how I actually wanted to live my life and how I actually wanted to operate. This brings me to my main point of what I wanted to talk about today is that, remember, with your business, your coaching business, you can run it however way you want to fucking run it.

Callum Walker: 15:14

The the the the fitness industry can be very good at saying, right. You wanna run your business? You have to do it like this. You wanna bring clients in? You have to do it like this.

Callum Walker: 15:23

You wanna work with your clients? You have to have check ins like this. And it's amazing because I see so many coaches in so many mentorships. And it's quite funny because I can actually almost, like, tell you what mentorship they're in from what their business looks like, what their content looks like, how they talk. So they're all like carbon copies of each other.

Callum Walker: 15:40

I'm like, where's the uniqueness? They all say the same fucking thing and speaking the same sort of language. I'm like, ugh. Just clones. But my point with this is that I had a I had a client.

Callum Walker: 15:53

Still one of my clients now. So one of my coaches. And he used to do his check ins on a Sunday. And I was like, right. K.

Callum Walker: 16:02

Do you like doing your check ins on a Sunday? He's like, absolutely not. It's the last thing I wanna do is do check ins on a fucking Sunday. And I said I said to him, dude, no disrespect, but your clients, the last person they wanna hear from on a fucking Sunday is you. Because when you check-in, they're knee deep in Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes, and they're probably tucking into their second second serving of dessert after after their Sunday lunch.

Callum Walker: 16:29

And the last person they want is for you to come in. So I said to him, I said, look. He he kinda didn't really believe me fully, but I said, right. What I want you to do is go into your Facebook group and put Paul in there saying, I'm thinking of changing check ins from Sunday. What's everyone's thoughts?

Callum Walker: 16:43

Every single one of them said, I don't wanna hear from you on a Sunday. And I was like, dude, you don't wanna work on a Sunday. They don't wanna hear you from a on a Sunday. Let's stop working on a fucking Sunday. So my point is almost that, like, if you're doing check ins on a full day because you've been told by a mentor that you have to do check ins on a full day, but you don't like it, stop fucking doing it.

Callum Walker: 17:05

All your check ins do and all the parts of your program do is they solve a specific problem. What's the problem that a check-in is serving? Well, solving. It's it's really solving the the point of just seeing how they're getting on and making sure that your client feels to love and know that you're in there. Now doing check ins and sitting there all day and getting people to fill out type forms, that's one way of doing it, but there is a better way of doing it.

Callum Walker: 17:28

My point is go right, Kay. How do I want to solve this problem? How do I actually want to deliver it? How do I wanna do it? I can still solve that problem, but it doesn't have to be done the way that I've been told that it has to be done.

Callum Walker: 17:41

So my point is that if you're sacrificing the whole day to do check ins, for example, if you're having one to ones consistently, if you're constantly feeling like you're a slave to your clients because they're constantly messaging you, change it. Think about, right. Okay. Ask yourself the question. Is there a better way of doing this that allows me to still live the life that I wanna do, make sure that I can still solve the problem, and deliver the best possible service that I can?

Callum Walker: 18:05

And a a question you need to consistently ask yourself is how can I scale this thing? How can I work with more people in a more time efficient manner in a way that costs me less energy, gives me more time without compromising the quality of the service? So think about that. And if you can think about that, you'll come up with solutions. And you'll come up with solutions, trial them, they'll probably fail, but then off the back of that, then go and go, okay.

Callum Walker: 18:32

Word that for oh, I can tweak it that way. Then you get to a point where you're like, shit. I've got energy. So my point is it's your coaching business. It is your business.

Callum Walker: 18:42

So if it's your coaching business, run it how you want to run it. Again, I've got an amazing client. Fabulous. And she's very spiritual. And she goes to these these connection circles, and it's kinda like hoodoo and witchcraft.

Callum Walker: 18:55

And I was saying to her, I was like, that's gotta be in your program. Now the question is that she probably had in her head was, but no one's ever said I could potentially do that. I'm like, I don't care. It's your business. Do you believe that incorporating those connection circles has improved the quality of your life?

Callum Walker: 19:10

Has it allowed you to progress through your journey? She's like, 100% spirituality has been one of the number one things that's allowed me to heal and allowed me to actually, like, function at the level that I am. So I'm like, well, that needs to be within your program. And our face literally lit up. Was like, oh my god.

Callum Walker: 19:24

I can hold my own socials like, my own connection circles. Like, yeah. And you should. So my point is that you just need to make sure that what you're doing is helping someone. The way that you do it is irrelevant, but make sure you're doing it in a way that excites you, in a way that doesn't take energy from you, that doesn't take time from you, and more importantly, it's done in a way that gives you the life that you want.

Callum Walker: 19:45

K? Because we also need to make sure that as entrepreneurs that we we have a life away from this thing. We can't attach our identity solely to this business because otherwise we can get truly lost. And that's certainly a trap that I've fallen into, and and it's a trap I really hope that you don't fall into. So if you do me one favor, please consistently ask yourself the question, am I living the life I would want someone else to live?

Callum Walker: 20:14

And more importantly, before you go out and set your goals from a business perspective, the direction that you're going in, first of all, the number one step is figuring out what's the life I wanna live. What is the life that I want to live? And then gear your business, structure it in a way that is still going to give you that life. Because you could go, right, k. I wanna earn a million pounds.

Callum Walker: 20:35

K. That's awesome. But we've gotta make sure if you wanna earn that million pounds, it's done in a way that's still going to allow you to live your your life the way that you want to. Do you know how I measure the success of my business? Not through how much money I earn, but through how many times a week I play golf.

Callum Walker: 20:52

That's it. When I'm not playing golf, I'm not being successful. When I'm playing golf, I'm successful. Why? Because that's the life I wanna live.

Callum Walker: 20:58

My business allows me to do that. Have a great day.