Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Hey everybody <unk> And in today's episode I have Dr. Amelia Thompson with me. Thanks for joining me, Amelia.
Speaker 0 00:00:14 Thank you for having me. I feel like you were gonna stumble on my name there. It's like, oh, that's a good
Speaker 1 00:00:18 Start. I nearly did, I think I almost added an m to the end of Amelia. Amelia. Um, new name. So during this chat we're gonna talk obviously about your business and, and your background a little bit in the, in the industry prior to to E T P H D coaching, uh, and E I Q as well. But before we dive into detail, do you wanna just give people a quick overview of who you are and, and what your business is?
Speaker 0 00:00:44 Sure. So I am an nutrition consultant by trade, but I run e t PhD coaching like you said, which is a team of coaches who work predominantly with people trying to improve their relationship with food, the relationship with exercise or the relationship with their body. Um, I also run and co-run e IQ nutrition with Emma Story Gordon, which is an online evidence-based nutrition course, specifically for personal trainers who are looking to provide more of a holistic evidence-based approach to the work that they do with their clients. And I also co-run level up events with Emma as well, which is kind of live events that we run twice a year, which we only launched last year, which is kind of a combination of all of that EQ stuff I just said. But in person where we get industry leaders in to talk about, again, evidence-based nutrition, coaching skills, training, um, and application to practice.
Speaker 1 00:01:36 Amazing. So I feel like you, you talk a lot about the coaching elements. So today we wanna talk about the business side of things. Um, so where did, in fact, before we get into the business side of things, um, prior to coaching, what were you doing?
Speaker 0 00:01:55 I was an academic, so excuse me. Um, I was an academic so I was, I did my PhD at Borough Uni and I went on after that to lecture at Manchester Metropolitan for four years. So I wrote um, an undergraduate course in sport nutrition and post-grad course in sport nutrition. And that's what I was gonna do for the rest of my life, like teaching and research. And I kind of just fell into the business side of stuff, which I sometimes feel like it's quite obvious, but I don't know. <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:02:24 I think you've done very well, um, considering you, it was never the plan. So you are an academic, you are lecturing at uni and competing right at the same time. Is that right? In bodybuilding?
Speaker 0 00:02:37 Yeah, so I, yeah, I was bodybuilder so I had like my own dysfunctional relationship with food since I was about 16 years old or something like that. And I fell into bodybuilding like a lot of people do to try and mask their own issues with food. And so I was doing my PhD and I fell into competing at that time and all the way throughout, basically at the time I was teaching I was um, body building as well, so I was kind of, a lot of my students were in fitness, like my sport nutrition students. So they would like, I had to be really open about it. I'd go to uni and I'd be like, this is Meina bikini, you're gonna see this online. And at the same time I was talking about like nutrition and science in fitness. So I kind of married the world kind together. Um, but yeah, I competed for four years, something like that, and I finished in 2017, second in Britain. I always like to throw that in there cause I feel like I'm quite proud still, even this long pass and I would never do it again. But yeah, I'm quite, I loved it at the time.
Speaker 1 00:03:33 Amazing. And then at some point in that phase of your life, you started a blog, right? So so tell us about that.
Speaker 0 00:03:42 Yeah, so the, like I've always loved writing. Like I used to write little books when I was a kid and I like to journal. And so when I was competing, I, it was when fitness was really still really, really bro and nobody spoke about anything honest whatsoever. And I found after my first show that I was binging and that I didn't have anyone to turn to, my coach was at the time was fine, but I didn't really tell him a lot cause I was so ashamed that I was binging and I kind of fell into like a huge binge strip cycle and nobody, it was like I was the only person I genuinely thought I was the only person. And so I used to just write stuff down on my computer about how I was feeling and I just started sharing it. I can't even remember what the blog site was at the time, but it was just some random blog site and I just started putting them online and I would share them on my Instagram.
Speaker 0 00:04:33 I didn't have a big following at the time at all. And uh, to be honest, a lot of it was just built from like my rs cuz it was competing days. Um, but I would just share my blog and it and I was super, super vulnerable. Again, I probably didn't even really know what the meaning of vulnerability at the time. I definitely didn't have a lot of boundaries, um, which I maybe would change now. But I just started sharing basically my whole journey of competing of my own troubled relationship with food and kind of the stuff that I was learning as I was going along. So because I was in research at the time, I knew that my coach didn't know what to do about me binge eating, but I knew that I could find the science to tell me what to do. So I just kind of fell into the research around restrictive diets, what happens physiologically, psychologically, and what they recommend people to do in the research.
Speaker 0 00:05:20 And that's where I found things like mindfulness and compassion and stuff like that. So as I was learning, I was in incorporating it into my own nutrition and then I was writing about it and at the same time I was also trying to be really sciencey. So I was talking about like, this is how many grams of protein you should have and this is what I know from my lecturing. And I, I didn't quite know what I was doing in terms of marrying them together cause I wasn't trying to start a business at that point. I was just literally, this might help people. I'm just gonna start sharing all of this stuff. And so that was kind of how it was born and as I started sharing it, people that I respected in the competing world would start to share it and that's probably, and then I started to get a bit of a name for being someone who was quite honest about these things, um, when no one else really was.
Speaker 1 00:06:06 Yeah, which is it, it's a great way to go about building a business when you don't even realize you're doing it when people start coming to you because you are talking about things that other people aren't. Um, that was kind of the origins of O F B for me. It was, I was talking about how hard being an online coach was at a time when everybody was saying it was do no work and he find money from the sky somehow. Um, so when, when did that traffic, that kind of, um, respect or authority start turning into you taking on clients and and how did you even know that, you know, that's something that you should do or wanted to do?
Speaker 0 00:06:46 Hmm. Probably about 2015, 2016. So a year or two into competing, people literally just started coming to me and were like, do you do coaching? And I, at that point I didn't and I was like, oh, I never really thought about this before. And I kind of kept saying no for initially. And then I realized actually the types of people that were coming to me were just really looking for some sort of direction cuz they, there wasn't anyone else to do it. Um, and so I thought, oh, I'll just take on a couple of people and just kind of see how it goes. And my boyfriend at the time was a body builder. He had a, he was a pt so he kind of was like, this is sort of how I do things. And so he taught me a little bit about what that would might look like online.
Speaker 0 00:07:26 But I mean it was very bro old school stuff. But I'd had one coach online and at that time when I first had a coach, it was, he was great, but it was a PDF or document, um, that was a training program. And then on a Sunday morning he'd emailed me and was like, hi Melia, how are things going? And that was the extent of online coaching. So I didn't really know what I was doing, but I started taking on a couple of people at that point and I was still lecturing full-time and then I didn't, I didn't advertise. I remember not advertising my business until, I don't even think I'd le I think I'd left my full-time job and I still had clients and I still had never advertised that I was doing online coaching. But I had, I think when I left my full-time job I had something like 15 or 16 clients, um, just because of the workload I couldn't navigate to anymore. Um, and it, so it still wasn't technically, I didn't feel like it was a business really until I left like my job, which was like about a year and a half later. So yeah, I think I just had about five or 10 clients that I would do on a weekend for about a year before it felt like a business of any sort.
Speaker 1 00:08:32 What was the trigger to make you think, do you know what I want to, I'm going to leave my full-time career, the thing that I thought I was always going to do and I'm gonna pursue this business. Were you looking at it as, you know, I wanna be a entrepreneur business owner, or was it kind of just seen as the next path of your career? Like how did you look at it and what triggered that change?
Speaker 0 00:08:53 You know what one of my students triggered it, he who, um, I still speak to now, he was, I taught him all the way through his career. He was going to do the masters that I wanted to, that I had done that I'd recommended. He was a bodybuilder. So he followed my work outside of teaching and we had a really good relationship and he was like, I don't understand why you're helping all of us to do that when you could be doing that yourself. Like, I don't really get it. And I was always like, whoa, I love teaching and I loved lecturing and I will one day go back to it. I think it's, I loved it, but I loved the helping people part. I loved the student part. I didn't love the, the kind of political stuff. I didn't like how slow moving everything was.
Speaker 0 00:09:30 I didn't like research. Um, so I kind of, it was quite a hard one for me because I genuinely loved what I did. But he'd said that to me and I thought, you know what, if you go away and and start this business, I'm gonna be jealous because I, that's what I want to do. And it, I think it was him that kind of triggered me to go, I could probably do this. Um, my mom self-employed, my sister is self-employed, so it's kind of in our family to run her own businesses in some way. And at that point I gave like six months notice to my job. It wasn't like a quick thing, but at that point I was, I'd been working, I was working like lecturing was quite a lot, especially as a new lecturer, you basically get given everything and you say yes to everything cuz you're trying to get better.
Speaker 0 00:10:12 So, and I was one of those lectures that wanted to be liked. So I had to do like Snapchat in my classes and I was really like, let's just give them as much as I possibly can. So I was working like, I don't know, six in the morning till six at night and at uni and I'd go to Costa every day for three hours after work pretty much every single day and weekends and do my own company. And I was prepping at the time too. So I'd been doing that for about six months, nine months. And then I realized I needed to make a decision cause I couldn't do both. Um, and so that's when I handed my notes in for like six months time and just kind of thought, I'll just do it. And I also knew lecturing would be there if I, if I sunk, I thought I can go back to lecturing.
Speaker 0 00:10:52 It's kind of my trade so to speak. So I thought I would just go for it and I, and I wanted the freedom. I wanted to go to California for three months. I wanted to travel. So for me it was that, but I've always been led by how can I help most people? I know that sounds really, um, like hero complex type, but it's a core value of mine to try to support people and, and realize what it sounds like. So for me it was like, how can I help more people either through lecturing or doing this other stuff And, and it was through coaching at that point.
Speaker 1 00:11:21 Cool. Just rolling it back a uh, just a moment. You mentioned like you, I think you said your mom and your sister were entrepreneurs or small business owners. How did they react or how did your family react to you leaving this kind of safe career and and taking a leap of faith into being a business owner? Were they happy?
Speaker 0 00:11:38 Yeah, super supportive. My mom, like I'm one of those people where I'm like, if I'm gonna do something and I say I'll do it and that's it, it's done. Like I make a decision and I step to it and I'm not like a regretful person. So as soon as I said I was gonna do it, my mom was like, okay, great. Like she's very, she's, she's very much like, whatever you put your mind to it, you'll do it. So she didn't doubt me at all. And she also had seen, like, I'd been in academia for like, I studied for nine years or something like that. And then I was in academia and I was still earning like a decent wage, but it wasn't a great wage. I had a lot of student like debt to pay off and I hadn't had money for a very, very long time.
Speaker 0 00:12:15 And I was like, well this is what, this is what I wanna do and like this is the potential. And I'd never done it for money. I never really thought about like future projections in terms of money, but I knew that I could earn at least my academic wage by doing less work. And, and ultimately that's how I sort of said it to her. Um, and doing stuff that I love. Obviously it wasn't less work obviously it's been just, it's been more work but work that I love doing. Right. So, um, she was always for it. Like yeah, always. I never had anyone say like, what are you doing apart from academics? Cuz they didn't really understand, but everyone else was like, yeah, we're
Speaker 1 00:12:49 Wild. Amazing. Okay, so you leave academics and go all in on your business, uh, and it sounds like you didn't really have many issues getting clients, is that right?
Speaker 0 00:13:02 Yeah, I, I don't think so. I think I had, I got to put with 20 clients relatively easily and then I realized, but I was still in that stage of every time someone quit I would panic because I, I needed 20 clients and so I was constantly thinking about replacing people. I wasn't really forward thinking. Um, so I probably, I didn't struggle to get 20 clients, but then beyond that then I was like, oh, I need to actually do something. But even then, I think even then I got up to about 50 or 60 clients, which was for me was my maximum that I would ever work with anyway, having never really done anything to build that client base other than genuinely showing off upon social media and just being authentic. But I will say that it sounds like it was quite easy. But I remember I met Spencer Aki at a conference once and he was, this was when infographics and stuff were taken off and he had looked at my social media and he was like, your selfies are great, but realistically this is the type of stuff that you should be doing and putting out like more information.
Speaker 0 00:14:06 And I met him in the November and for a full year I committed to showing up on social media, doing three posts every single day, like 7, 12, 5, and having conversations every single day. I didn't know it was a business strategy or anything like that, but I thought that's what I need to do to grow my business and stuff. And so that's where my focus was. And so that was my way of getting clients. It wasn't like this intentional, I wasn't like called DMing people and I didn't have an email list. I, I didn't really know what I was doing, I was still writing my blog, but that was the extent of it. Um, but it was quite natural to me because I, again, I think I was really lucky, right? Because people talk about relationships with food and stuff all the time now, but at that time nobody did.
Speaker 0 00:14:48 I think I was one of the first people, well I was, and I, I don't know why I feel, I feel funny about saying it and I think it's an imposter thing probably a little bit, but I don't like to say, well, I was the first to talk about relationships to it. I was the first to bring mindfulness into fitness, but to be fair, I was at least in the uk and so I was probably quite lucky that people were like, oh, what is this? There's no one else around. So at least until I had 50, 60 clients and took on my first coach, I'd never really had to push more than working really hard on being a good coach and social media just posted and showing up regularly. That was the extent of it.
Speaker 1 00:15:23 So how long did it take to get to that 50, 60 client marks from when you left? Uh, university or the university job
Speaker 0 00:15:31 A year? I think it was about a year. I'd left in the August. Um, and then, yeah, it was about a year later that I was away in California and I realized that I had, like, that's when I thought I need to do something else. Cause some other job, like some job offers came in to be part of education and fitness and I realized I had the too, not too many clients, but I was at my max. Um, so yeah, about a year, maybe even a bit less than that, to be honest. Maybe about nine months.
Speaker 1 00:15:58 And then, uh, that is, is that the point where you decided you were gonna hire another coach? What, what was your thought process around that time when you were thinking, right, I'm full, but there's still opportunity here. Like where was your head at then?
Speaker 0 00:16:11 Um, so for me, I'd got offered a job with Optimum Nutrition to write their nutrition online nutrition course. And I didn't realize, I didn't really think about where I would fit that time. And I'm very much like a yes person. I'm like, I'll figure out where the time comes from when I have to figure out where the time comes from. And so then I started to do that work and then I realized like, oh, I actually literally don't have the time to do it. And at the time I had a really good client who'd worked with me for two, like since the big, basically since the beginning she'd been through the full process of when I started coaching, which was like an email and a, a pdf to where we're at now on, on the portal and stuff. And I thought she, she's a pt, she'd done a nutrition course and I remember thinking she could possibly do something in my business and I didn't really know what it was.
Speaker 0 00:17:01 And so whilst I was super busy, I'd sort of started, this is a horrible phrase, but like kind of grooming her a little bit in terms of like, what do you wanna do with your business and, you know, um, what do you wanna do with your business? Where do you, like, where do you wanna go? And pushing her in that way. And so I think it was when I just realized I physically couldn't do anymore, but I wanted to again help more people. And I, and this kind of shining beacon came through my coaching process and I was like, this is an opportunity that I can't really pass up. Let's just see what we can do. And that was Anna who has, who has just been such an, a fundamental part of the growth of my, of our business. Um, and so I approached her to, to come on as a first coach. I think I met her at a conference that we went to properly in person and we're both so introverted and we were both awkward. And I was like, oh, do you want to come on to our team? And she was like, oh. And it was really awkward. And um, yeah, that's kind of how things then started progressing from then.
Speaker 1 00:17:56 We'll fill in the gaps in just a moment, but how many, how many coaches are on the team now?
Speaker 0 00:18:01 Seven.
Speaker 1 00:18:02 Amazing. Okay. So a lot of people struggle with this part of growing a business. They get to a place where they're full. Hiring is something they see other people doing and then they just either get it wrong, um, or just don't know where to start. So when you hired Anna, what, what was it that you saw in her? Obviously there's the history within your business, but were there any certain, were there any similarities to yourself, complimentary skills, values or, or what was, was it that you were looking for or was it just the case of Oh, I like this person, maybe it'll work. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
Speaker 0 00:18:41 Do you know what, it's funny cause it's changed quite a lot since, since Anna came on in terms of what I look for in people. But originally with Anna, I wanted somebody who was similar to me, who knew all of my processes, who could slot in, who had a similar personality, even who I got on with and who I felt like people would get a good, just as good a service or a similar service that they would fund me with her. And so I wanted someone that was basically at that point what I felt like was a bit of a MiniMe. She's completely coming to her own now, but at that point that was definitely what I was looking to bring on. Um, and then over time that has, has massively shifted. I don't, I deliberately don't try and take people on that are the same as me anymore.
Speaker 0 00:19:28 I want people with different skills. I want people who are be the, the most recent shift is people who are better than me, which is always a little bit of an uncomfortable one to accept. But um, it's definitely shifted and I think they're all better than me, including Anna in certain parts of the business now. But I think, I think I see a lot of people trying to grow their teams and I, and I think most people do it wrong, which is why I was interested to have this conversation because for me it was now I make sure everyone's got similar values, some shared values, um, I don't mind what the other other ones are, but we need to have shared values and in an initial conversation that is the number one thing that I will get from somebody. But to me, I think people, I think nowadays it's like the done thing to try and grow your business.
Speaker 0 00:20:10 And I think most of the time it's an ego thing of people wanting to take on new coaches when they're maybe not feel when they can't guarantee that they'll have a certain number of clients, which you can never really do that. I can never say to my coaches, I can guarantee you're always gonna have a minimum of this many clients. Like I can't do that. But do think people take on more and more coaches when they're maybe not ready to take on more because they want to have this big team. And I also think that people take on coaches who they maybe don't necessarily consider their values and they end up getting the wrong people. And these are the people that tend to leave within a year or two after they've got everything they want from you and then they can leave. And that's totally right and I respect that so much for people that, like I know that if any of my coaches leave will have had a good relationship in there onto the next best thing.
Speaker 0 00:20:58 But I definitely think from the outside where I can see a lot of us people just taking people on as a means to make themselves more money and as a means to improve their ego or massage their ego as opposed to the way that I'd seen it with Anna was that I wanna make you the best coach because I really value you as a person and I think you're great and you have so much to offer. And that's how I've taken on every coach that's saying of like, each of my coaches I think have exceptional skills and are incredible and anyone who works with them is so lucky. And so when I take them on, I think, can you help loads of people and do I, do I um, believe in you enough to try and push you to do that? Yes. And that's how I take on people, not can I just fall all the clients that I don't wanna work with onto you. Like that is a, there's a clear distinction there and I think that's what a lot of people get wrong, in my opinion.
Speaker 1 00:21:49 Yeah, definitely. What's the trigger for you or within the business that tells you it's time to hire the next coach or another coach? Is there a certain metric? Is there a certain, um, time that's been taken from you that you want to get back by hiring? Like what is it that triggers a new hire?
Speaker 0 00:22:09 So with Anna, it was that I was full and I wanted to get some time back. So that was the initial one. And then Georgia was the, I actually had a coach in between, actually I had, I worked with a coach between Anna and Georgia and that didn't work out. Our values were not aligned, our work ethics were not aligned exceptions. So that, that didn't work out. Um, and then, but when I took on that person, when I took on Georgia again, it was, this is taking up a bit too much of my time. When I took on Georgia, I was studying to do my counseling stuff and I needed that time back. For me, one of my key values with myself and one of my key markers of success is having time with my family, time to travel, trying to have relationships. Like I'm very balanced in my approach to work.
Speaker 0 00:22:52 And so if it's taken up, if I'm working seven days a week, that's not for me anymore. It's, I've done enough of that. So it's the, it's the time thing. Um, and then when I took on, like I took on five coaches, sorry, four coaches at once. And then another person, what I did with them is I'd, i'd again, Georgia was full, Anna was full. I was starting to think, okay, I need to get more time back. And I interviewed all of these girls who had come from e I Q nutrition. I was like, oh my god, these women, these are all amazing women. I don't know what to, like, how, how am I gonna pick between them? They've all got their own skills and I thought, can I guarantee them clients? No, this is a big, like that was a big jump for me and I thought, I wanna work with all of you.
Speaker 0 00:23:34 I wanna help all of you and I want like you guys can do so much. So I took them all on at once and that was a big, that was a big shift for me. Normally I'm like, either want my time back or we're all feeling like we've all hit our max clients, let's take on more. And this one was like, okay, let's just do it as a big team. Let's all grow and do it that way. Um, and so that's how, so with them it was kind of like the, the trigger was you've all got different skills. Uh, and I and I, I see this opportunity to develop the brand as with all of your different skills and all of your different personalities. And then more recently with Rosalyn Huon who's a dietician did just happened to email me and say, what's the situation in terms of you taking on coaches?
Speaker 0 00:24:16 Which people will do, but people will do it. And they'll be like, try and say, oh I like mindfulness and I liked all these things and I have, and they've got all of the stuff that all of my coaches already have. And she came to me and she was like, I'm a yoga teacher, I'm a dietician, I work with these people. And I was like, you've got skills that I'm never gonna have, so let's bring them in. So it shifted from need from like client numbers to me trying to buy back time, which was like the next phase for me. And then into you have skills, people just come to come into me with skills that I would love to have on the team. And so it's kind of transitioned through time, I think.
Speaker 1 00:24:54 Yeah. And what's the process for hiring? So I think, all right, and Sarah, you may have just mentioned this, that you only take on people that have been through Eiq now, right?
Speaker 0 00:25:03 Yeah, in general. So unless it's a specific situation, so like Rosalyn for example, as a dietician, she, there's a different kind of background, but in general, yeah, that is a nice tick box and, and Emma's the same. We like to know that you've got the fundamentals of what we think is important with coaching and that comes through eq. So that's a general tick box. And then for me it's kind of just conversations when we will have, it's not, I wouldn't call 'em interviews, it genuinely is conversations where I find out A, what your personality is like B like what your values are values is probably the the number one thing that I, that I want to know and that you even understand what your values are like that's fundamental too. Um, and then really trying to understand like what people's projections are for themselves. When I bring people onto the team, ideally I want people who want to be on the team for a long time because I'm invested, I'm investing myself into helping these people grow about development with courses and and conversations and mentorship and stuff like that.
Speaker 0 00:26:06 And I don't mentor a lot of people and so, and they bring so much goodness to my team. And so I want people that are not going to stay for a year and then leave after they've learned all that they can and then leave. Although that's totally their prerogative, that's not necessarily what I'm looking for. And so it honestly is just a conversation of like, yes, previous coaching history is important, but I don't need people who are the most experienced coaches in the world or the most knowledgeable. I'm looking for people that add a bit of spice to the team or a little bit of flavor. I know that if I get 10 inquiries in a day, I can look at that and go, that's Steph's personally, that's Lynn's personally. She's got, she needs tough love. That's that person. Personally that's what I want. So when I hire people, I am looking at personality, values, goals and a fundamental level of experience and nutrition. But again, I think what people get wrong sometimes is they take coaches on and then they expect them to have the same work ethic, the same dedication to the business, the same knowledge, the same experience. And like that's not gonna be the case. So I don't even look for a lot of that stuff cuz it's like that's never gonna match up to where I am because I've been doing it for longer and I don't expect that.
Speaker 1 00:27:22 Yeah, a hundred percent agree. How have you found the transition from, you know, being responsible for you or for yourself and your business to now being responsible and managing a team of other coaches?
Speaker 0 00:27:36 Um, I think it's, I think the pressure's a lot more now. Like I feel a lot of pressure because I just want them to be happy. I want them to, to earn enough money, I want them to grow. And so I feel that pressure a lot with my, and I feel I definitely, not so much now, but I definitely, that's a lie. I definitely do feel it now. Cause Anna had, Anna and I had this discussion when I was in Austin where it was a film moon and she was like, oh what are you letting go of this film moon? And we were laughing about it and I said, you know, I'm letting go of this feeling that I'm not a good enough mentor. So I still definitely have that in me, that imposter syndrome where it used to be as a coach. And I know we've spoken probably years ago we spoke about imposter syndrome around like coaching side of things.
Speaker 0 00:28:19 But for me that transferred into being a mentor in the sense of I just felt like I was, I, I didn't know why I was a mentor because again, my, the business side of things for me has never been like a huge focus until the last year or two where I've really worked at it. But it felt kind of like I was just really lucky I got in at the right time with relationship with food stuff and I was lucky to have been authentic and see, see all this stuff and to build a brand. So when I then moved into mentoring a little bit more, I felt like maybe this was all like, and I had nothing to show people and I know that that's not the case now, but, so I definitely had that shift to deal with. Um, and yeah, the pressure of just wanting them to be happy is I feel that every single day, um, and to be successful and I feel that every single day.
Speaker 0 00:29:10 But I love it. I definitely initially had some issues with, um, my own boundaries and accountability. So I think people think, and I've definitely heard this before, people think that I'm like this super compassionate, soft kind like person that will just do whatever, say yes and just do whatever. But I'm actually quite hard and quite hard on my clients sometimes cause like that there's like that fear side of compassion that I'm, I'm very good at and these days, and same with my coaches. I can be really tough love on them too if, if that is required. Cause I, again, it comes from a place of, I mean they don't really need it, but like it comes from the place of I want you to do your best. Right? So that was a hard one for me to start to develop that harder side of things when I all, when all I wanted to do was please them all the time and give them clients and make them happy.
Speaker 0 00:30:01 So it's been a transition, but like for me now, hold having this team and they know this like that they are my core priority regardless of anything else is them, their growth and their happiness. And, and I will do anything I can to make that happen. And then for me, that's a great feeling to be like so into something that I can and to so into other people. And I would say this to the coaches, like I'm in love with them. I think they're the best in the world and so I'll do anything I can to support that. So it's been a nice, a nice transition. But there was definitely a year or two where I didn't really know what I was doing and I, and I would get frustrated at people if they didn't want things the same way I wanted them or if they didn't do things the way I wanted to do, why don't they care? Why are they not getting up at 5:00 AM to do this because it's not their business? Why would they be getting up at 5:00 AM to do this? Or like, I was like, why don't they just have the same work ethic as me? And again, this is not actually, this is nothing to do with the coaches that have now, but why don't they have the same work ethic as me? And I've found that really hard to get over that hardell.
Speaker 1 00:31:02 Yeah. And so obviously you, you've spoke a lot about the values and and their personalities and and how they are as coaches. Have you had to, or have you installed any systems, procedures that are designed to help you better manage? So whether it's one-on-ones group meetings, like how do you review your coaches, how do you manage them? How do you ensure that they're making progress doing well and adding value and receiving value as well is from a more kind of systems perspective, like what have you had to do? Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:31:35 Well I actually started looking at numbers in the last year, which for me is like, wow, that's a big push. I know, I know things weren't wild this year. Um, because I don't like that side of stuff. I do, I find any of that stuff takes away the joy from what I'm doing. And so I don't, as long as I kind of know roughly that I'm either growing or maintaining, depending on where I'm at, um, I don't, I don't know the ins and outs. However, in the last year for sure, I've definitely become more meticulous of that when I, so the, the, my team massively grew about a year and a half ago and at that point I realized that I would have to do something with Anna. We would just have conversations and like I, I could, I was, hers was the only social media I was looking at.
Speaker 0 00:32:17 I knew ex she, I knew all the coaches, the clients that were with me were with Anna. And so it was really easy to see what was going on with her and have those conversations. But then as we grew I realized that I couldn't look at seven social medias every single day all the time, everyone's stories. And it was, I couldn't keep on top of it in that way and I also couldn't keep on top of, of seven different girls' lives in the way that I wanted to keep on top of them and their own personal things that they had going on. And so I realized I had to be a little bit more strategic with things so at when I actually took them on. So at that point I'd gone from three to, I had took on another four was um, Anna became like our head coach.
Speaker 0 00:33:03 And the reason that there's lots of reasons why I did that. But one of the reasons apart from the fact that she's excellent is that it helps with management of management side of things. Um, and also because for me connection is so important and I'm aware that some of the things my coaches are struggling with, they don't maybe don't wanna tell me or they need that extra bit of support that Anna can provide. So that's the first thing is that I, that Anna is incredible at helping to manage that side of things. And so we have monthly one-to-ones I'll have month monthly one-to-ones with all of the coaches and we also have every two weeks we'll have a team meeting, um, where I'll hold one one week, so once a month and Anna will hold one the other one. So we've got two a month and I'm not at the other one.
Speaker 0 00:33:52 And again, just allows them to have a community where they can talk about things a little bit more freely. That if they feel like they, as much as I want them to feel like they can tell me everything, I'm not an idiot. There will be things that they feel that they don't want to. And so, so those are the regular meetings but they're very, I'm very clear on, we have a group WhatsApp and we use that every single day to communicate stuff about like support, about a specific issue that one of them have got or ideas that we've got. We're very, very, we're a very close knit group in that sense. And on top of that, so they've got a meeting next week that I've written loads of questions for that. It's just with Anna that's like, why is me all your shit? Like get as much of that as you can so that next year I can be better.
Speaker 0 00:34:35 And that to me is super important. They feel that they can do that. Um, but then on top of that, like I hired VA only about a year, not even, not even a year ago, maybe it's slightly less than that. And she does all my numbers for me. She's the Canadian sent from heaven and she um, will put all of the co coaches like so I'll get my inquiries through and then she will, um, quantify how many go to each coach. She gets the data from them, you know, what their call rate is, what their signup rate is, what their retention rate is, what their numbers are. And so then in my one-to-ones, I don't have to do all those numbers, I did do it for about six months and I realized just how many hours it was taking me and how much I hated it.
Speaker 0 00:35:18 Um, so I don't do that anymore, but I do have their numbers so I can see, you know, she's got strength with calls, what is she doing differently? Um, this person's signed up five people from five calls in one week, what did she do? Let's share that and and um, share that with the other coaches. So we do have this specific number side of things too, but we also like, I think we're our key communication and, and building comes from is just the fact that we all really love each other a lot and we have those, we fostered an environment where um, one of them can say, I've had 10 calls and no one signed up. Like, I don't understand what's going on. And we can just have a really natural discussion in a WhatsApp group on a, on a Thursday night or something rather than it to be in like this big official thing.
Speaker 0 00:36:01 Because I know that when some of the girls started when we first started doing one-to-ones, they would all be like so nervous to have a one-to-one with me. And then it's literally like we just obviously just sit down and having a chat. Like it was always just like me, like what, what can I do? Like what do you need from me? What do you need from me? And then after the first, well they're all people pleaser so let's give it six months after that point. Um, it's become much more of a natural thing now. But I definitely, it did take a long time for them to realize that I wasn't about to shout with them and to stop feeling anxious. Cause that's obviously a big barrier initially.
Speaker 1 00:36:34 Yeah, I think as cliche as it is, just being very intentional with the culture, it sounds like you created the culture over the, over a period of six months where they feel safe to, to share what they need to share and improve themselves and improve the business. I used to have a, a member of the team who was a super, um, people pleaser and I just created a real wait an hour one-to-one, she had to tell me three things that were negative and she wasn't getting outta the one-to-one until she told me three negative things about either myself or the business. Um, and I just kind of created that environment where, you know, it was gonna happen. It wasn't a big deal, like I expected to hear it. So yeah,
Speaker 0 00:37:12 I think I love that.
Speaker 1 00:37:14 Yeah, I think being intentional about the cultural culture as you have been is is super important. Sorry, go on.
Speaker 0 00:37:18 Yeah. One thing that we do actually that I've read about in um, I think I heard about a podcast and it's um, a church of Phil, I can't remember his name, think it's Matthew Matheson and he does it in his company and he has like a chart with fail. And what he does is at team meetings is ask everyone to stand up and say one thing that they failed at this week, what did they feel at, what did they learn and what will they do different next time? And then everyone gives 'em a round of applause and says, well done for failing. And that's something that I've started to incorporating into our group things of like, tell me where you failed. And it's horrible for people pleasers to be like a fail, especially again, we're all a team of perfectionists, like the idea of failing is horrible.
Speaker 0 00:37:59 But I think celebrating failure, I think Netflix e and I were talking about this at a talk actually Netflix have a failure rate, right? Of like how many times they should be feeling. And I think that's super, super important. And Brene Brown has a book called Dare to Lead and like obviously she's one of my idols, but I'd read her book before I even started mentoring just cuz she'd written it and it talks about like how to create vulnerability in the workplace, certain meeting techniques you can use. Um, and so I incorporate a lot of that stuff within the way that we run the company so that we have that shared vulnerability of like, there's nothing off limits.
Speaker 1 00:38:36 That's amazing. What was the book called? The Church of Fail?
Speaker 0 00:38:39 So the book, the book wasn't called Church Church of Fail. The idea was by an author called Matthew Matheson. So he, I don't know what book it came from and I don't know if it was on a podcast, but it was his idea, which is fab I think actually he did a podcast with Adam Grant and that's where I'd come from, um, who I love. And then Bernie Brown's book was dear to lead.
Speaker 1 00:39:00 Amazing. And then one more book, since you mentioned Netflix, if you've got read it is No Rules. Rules. Have you heard of that? Okay.
Speaker 0 00:39:07 Nope. So
Speaker 1 00:39:08 From the net that's, so that's from the founder of Netflix, that's their culture. There's no rules. Um, well they have one rule, do what's best for the company and a big part of that is being completely frank and honest. Um, and there are a few stories in there where new people have come into the company and they've been shocked because, you know, a member of the customer service team has told the CEO of in a meeting, um, and been surprised that, you know, they've been allowed to get away with it, but it's because this culture's been built of doing what's best for the company. Um, and not at any cost but you know, at the expense of most other things. So it just kind of holds back to the importance of creating that environ. I definitely recommend that book club. No Rules. Rules,
Speaker 0 00:39:52 Okay. No words. I'll read that.
Speaker 1 00:39:54 Um, okay cool. So we've, we've got this team of coaches and it sounds like things are going pretty well, um, but I'm sure there's been some challenges along the way. So what would you say have been the biggest challenges in building that team and, and maintaining and, and managing it?
Speaker 0 00:40:12 I think for me, the first challenge for me was making the time and taking on less clients. That for me was hard because A, I wanted to help people, but b it's the scarcity mindset of any, any business owner has that to some degree, right? Of like, I'm gonna cut my clients down from 50 or 55 to 15. Like that for me was a big thing. And the only way that I could get around that was by reminding myself of like, what are my values? Like what are my goals? My coaches come have to come first. My clients will always come first, but you know what I mean, like that's why I reduced them. Yeah. Um, that was a big challenge for me of just watching those numbers go down every time. Some, every time they went down I would freak out. And that consistently obviously happened over 30 clients, is that right?
Speaker 0 00:40:59 40, 55, 40 clients. Good, good math. Um, so that was the, that was the first thing for me. Um, the second thing was, like I said, one of my coaches didn't work out and I felt like a massive failure. It's like when one of your clients doesn't drop body fat and you think I failed them in some way if they're a fat loss client. And for me that was really hard. I put a lot of energy into trying to make that work. I'd done everything the way that I'd done it with Anna and I was like, why is this not working? Why are we not connecting properly and why can I not help him develop in the way that I want him to develop? And it, it is not no reflection of him whatsoever. Um, it just, the, the combination just wasn't ideal. And the, the hard thing for me there was again, understanding that people don't necessarily want things as much as I want them.
Speaker 0 00:41:54 And trying to get, I think failing to get the best out of someone, I, I really, really struggled with cuz I loved that when I was lecturing, that's what I was always trying to do When I'm coaching, that's always what I'm trying to do and I couldn't get the best out of this person. And I, and I, I probably wasted a lot of time. That relationship between us went on longer than it should have done. And I wasted a lot of time trying to, um, fix something that was broken again, personal life coming right in here, um, fix things that probably should have been like let go a long time ago. Um, and so that was a really, really big challenge for me. And I think for me too, when you're, when a, when a client is not seeing what they want, you can keep a bit of a distance because you know, they're not your best mate.
Speaker 0 00:42:47 For me, with my coaches, I've deliberately had quite loose boundaries with them deliberately because I want this close-knit group, but as a result of that, I care a hell of a lot and they care a hell of a lot. And I find it very, I've had to find, I found it really hard to not be a people pleaser with them. That's been a big challenge for me when someone is not necessarily doing what is required for them to progress in the sense, in the sense of like, we've got this deal that you're gonna show up on social media this many times and you're gonna do these and I'm gonna do this in return. If people are not sticking to their commitments, I definitely, the people pleaser in me really struggles to not say, oh, it's okay, let's try something else. And to be really quite hard, as much as I said, like, you know, like I'm good on the first compassion stuff, I do find itself very, very hard and I do get off meetings and feel quite, um, sometimes quite emotional about things where I've had to be a little bit harder than I, than I'd like to be.
Speaker 0 00:43:49 Um, and then the other side of that too is I feel that sometimes you can overinvest in the people that you're working with and sometimes I, and I'm definitely overinvested in the girls probably to probably to no one's benefit, but that's the type of person I am. And, um, so I sometimes struggle with when I know that we've got a team of like eight of us, right? We are all women, we all know, like not trying to be sexist towards women, but we all have emotions, we all have personal lives, right? And there'll be times, and there have been times where each of my coaches has gone through what I would describe as being probably hell for them. And they've all, and what's amazing is that we have a relationship where we can talk about, about these things. But for me then I've also, I've had a big family thing happen this year too, so I've got my own things and for me, one of the struggles that I've had is trying to find a sounding board where I can talk about what's going on in the business without sharing people's personal information.
Speaker 0 00:44:48 And so trying to get an outlet where I feel really heavy that this person's going through this and this person's going through this, but I can't tell anyone and I would never tell anyone these people's personal lives trying to support them whilst also trying to find somewhere to offload that that's a safe space, which is usually a journal and it has been therapy. And I think the personal space side of things has become more and more important for me as time's gone on and to, to ensure that they can trust me with stuff where I'm not just gonna explode onto somebody and be like, oh, well Anna's gone through this and Steph's gone through this, and like, that's not fair. So I think that's been a big one for me of trying to, um, manage my own boundaries and people pleasing, um, and not blur the lines, which I think is, I think that's quite challenging if you're somebody who really genuinely cares about the people that you're with.
Speaker 1 00:45:44 Yeah. That's, so that's something that only gets more challenging as a team grows. So, you know, right now you have these relationships with the girls at seven, eight people imagine that 20 people, eight people mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And on that, what's the plan is do you, do you see tw you know, a team of 20 coaches, three coaches? Is is that on the horizon or something that you want to do?
Speaker 0 00:46:08 Um, for me, I mean possibly I, scaling for me doesn't necessarily just look like the financial and the number side of things. If all of my coaches get to the point where they've got a good work-life balance that they, I say good, like what that looks like for them, whatever that is. Um, and I also have that and someone comes along that offers something different, then I'll, then I'll grow in that way. But I don't have this goal of like taking over the world and, um, building this ginormous brand just for the sake of the money or the, the ego or the recognition. Like that's not a priority for me. But I still think, I still know that we'll grow because I know that the girls are excellent and they'll be consistently filled at some point and, and someone, and we will then do that.
Speaker 0 00:46:55 But again, I'm not in a rush to do it. The, the goal is for them to be at a point where they're all comfortable and happy and then, and then grow. Um, that's my, that's my priority. And, and again, I've got e I q and I want to start a family at some point and I've got my own family things. And so for me, my markers of success are spending time with these people. And, and it might be that I actually have to take a couple months off completely at some point, um, for other family things. And so, and my coaches know that too. And so their priority, one of their priorities, and I know for all of them is that they want to be able to do that. If I need to do that, they want to be able to carry the ship when I can't for a few months.
Speaker 0 00:47:37 And I know that they're all dedicated to doing that. So that's re like that's really where I see growth of if everyone's happy, then yes, let's, let's bring on some more people. Let's bring on some different people. Cause there's it, it's really funny, I definitely see with Ed PhD that in the last year or two when I scroll on social media, it's like, it's like I'm just, it's like, did I write that? Is that, was that mine? And it's, it's constant and I don't mind, right? I can't, I don't like that that stuff used to bother me, but now I don't, I don't care. But what's amazing is that the culture of fitness has changed so much that the standard of coaching is excelling now. It's, it's so good. And there are so many people that are hot on the heels of what I've done.
Speaker 0 00:48:19 I need to make sure that we are still like the number one people. So my growth for the next year is focused on how are we upskilling, what are we offering that's different? Where are we better than everyone else? Because if I'm not, like that's my priority, cuz if if we're not better than anyone else, then we're screwed. And so I stand by us always being industry leaders and if that means we take our foot off the growth side and focus predominantly on the skill side for six months or a year, and that is potentially like, that's sort of the way that we've been going recently, then that's, that's how we progress. And then once we've got those skill sides and we've got those extra strands to our work, then we can push again on the numbers because we're still way ahead of the game. So I think, I also think sometimes people forget that it's like, it's not just fat loss, it's not just banner. It's like realistically, why is anyone gonna come to you when someone is half the price of you? Um, and they're saying all the same things cuz they've copied it all from your social media. Like realistically, you have to be better.
Speaker 1 00:49:19 Yeah, I understand. That's, yeah. It's so good to hear. Cause I think it's a nice reminder for people that better isn't just more followers, more money. There's actual skills and um, ability to impact lives that people should be. Exactly. Um, trying to improve upon it. And that will trigger growth right as it has done for you. And, and as you've just said, is kind of part of the progression of the business is upskilling and you know, it's not, it may not even be a case of then focusing on growth again. It, that upskilling will trigger the growth hopefully. I'm sure.
Speaker 0 00:49:49 Exactly.
Speaker 1 00:49:51 So before we move on from team stuff, um, if a coach, let's say I'm a coach is at the point where you were 50, 60 clients needing some time back and was thinking about starting to build a team, hire coaches or hiring a coach. What maybe two, three bits of advice would, would you give to me?
Speaker 0 00:50:13 I think if you, if you are ready to take someone on, ideally the first person you take on, you want to try and poach someone that you already know and that you trust, um, maybe it's been a client or maybe it's a coach that you know from the industry that you've followed for a, a long time. I would avoid mass advertising for people because I think it doesn't weed out the people that are not invested. If you've got an email list, now is the time to use your email list or people that you've communicated with before, reach out to those people because you, I think your first person that you take on is fundamental to how it goes for, for moving forwards. Um, so think about people that you've spoken to before and reach out to them. I think manager expectations don't think that you're just gonna bring someone on and people are gonna wanna work with them.
Speaker 0 00:51:01 That doesn't happen either. As, as definitely something that I experienced was not so much with Anna, but, and it doesn't happen anymore because of the systems we've put in place. But people wanna work with you. You are ultimately as a coach, it's you're the per you're, they're buying into you. They're not buying into, oh, you use this platform and oh, you, this is how you coach. Realistically, that's not, so don't think that you can take someone on and just be like, oh, fob off clients onto them. Think about like how that transition's gonna go. Start already thinking about how you're selling your work. Are you selling it as a u or are you selling it as a a method? As a, as a, as systems as, I hate that phrase pain points, but like what problem you're solving. Think about it much more as a we as opposed to you.
Speaker 0 00:51:47 And I would start that straightaway. Either come up with a method and it took me too long to do that. And a credit, actually Steves graph for this, because he, we had this conversation about, um, what I offer and he was like, you need to have some sort of name. That's why it's got a crap name and I will rebrand it at some point. But it was like a last minute, okay, I need a, a method or something that I can sell as opposed to selling me. And so having that thought is really, really helpful. And then make sure that you take someone on that has shared values, like that's fundamental. Um, and I think that's maybe it, that's maybe three. I think that's three.
Speaker 1 00:52:25 Amazing. So at some point during this business that you've been building very successfully, um, you decided to launch another business with Emma. Story Gordon called e I q. Um, um, why, and tell us a bit about what that is.
Speaker 0 00:52:42 So I got offered to write, so I've written the nutrition course for Optum Nutrition and loved doing that. And then I got offered to write a nutrition course. And I can say this because he talked about, on his podcast, Luke Johnson asked me to write the nutrition course for PT Collective. And we were in discussions about it. And um, at this point Emma and I had sort of been online friends, but we weren't really good friends at this point. And when they'd asked me to write this course, I was emailing him and we were, Emma had arranged for two of us and two of our other friends to go to this lodge for the weekend to try and get to know each other properly basically. And so we were at this lodge and I said, oh, this person has asked me to write this nutrition course and isn't this cool?
Speaker 0 00:53:27 And she was like, you could do that yourself. Like, oh, I don't really know. And she's like, you could do that yourself. And she's like, I'll do it with you. And she's like, and let, let, let's set a target on it that on the first intake that we do it, you're gonna earn more money than you would get from doing that for like the full year. And I was like, oh, okay. And so what would, what is, I mean, I could talk about Emma all day and be like, all these incredible things, right? Well, what, she's got such a skill of saying you're good at that. Let's, let's catalyze on that. And she's very good at knowing her own strength as well. And um, so she said, you're like together and she's right together. Emma's an incredible business brain and I had her academic background.
Speaker 0 00:54:06 She's like, we could do this. And honestly, that was, that was the birth of it. It was like, let's just do it. And so we knew, we knew that there was a gap for everyone's based nutrition that wasn't at the time this mega long and detailed course. We wanted to improve access to nutrition information for PTs who maybe didn't have the huge, like a really solid academic background. Some of them do have. But we wanted to just improve access to that and for people that didn't necessarily have thousands and thousands of pounds to invest in nutrition course. And we also, the way that Emma talks about nutrition is slightly different to the way that I talk about it. But again, nobody was talking about relationship with food in an education sense or compassionate coaching in an education sense. And so we thought, well, let's just put it all down onto paper and and that is what we did.
Speaker 0 00:55:02 And that's where E I Q kind of grew from. So it's a, it's a four month course and a graduate scheme now, which is, it's developed over time where it's, um, we cover like the basics of nutrition, evidence-based nutrition, macros, dieting, et cetera. But we also cover things like women's health, um, periods, menopause, P C O S and mindfulness Emotionally Inc. And things like that. And we bring in a lot of guest experts now as well, which has grown over time. But we decided to do that, I think that was in November, December of 2019. And then we kind of were chatting about it and we started to set some rough dates and then we launched at mid 2020 lockdown. Like we were kind of like, let's just, let's just see what happens. We had obviously a bit more time cuz we were stuck in the house and we put a lot of work into the content, but we didn't overthink the presentation of it.
Speaker 0 00:55:58 We didn't overthink anything. We were just like, this is what we want it to look like. And again, Emma's fantastic action. She's just like, let's just do this, this, and this. And, and so we planned, we planned a 2020 launch and we launched it in May, 2020, mid lockdown and all online. Luckily, luckily it was all online so it shouldn't have been impacted. And luckily PTs, although maybe they were, we could have looked at it two ways, struggling with money because they weren't in person anymore or had more time, wanted to upscale because they were working at home. And that's the way that we chose to kind of positively think about it.
Speaker 1 00:56:33 Amazing. And then, so it's an intake based program, right? How many intakes have It's an now
Speaker 0 00:56:40 Um, so we launched in 2020 and we had, we've had three intakes a year since then. And then in 2023 it's gone down to two intakes. Um, so we've had, well that's two years times three, six again great with numbers. Great with numbers. Good.
Speaker 1 00:56:55 Good job. You've got that va
Speaker 0 00:56:57 I know, honestly, look, I know my strengths. Okay, that's important. Um, so yeah. And, but we also now have a graduate scheme where, um, students can, once they finish the course, stay on and that is like unrivaled in terms of we get a guest speaker in every month to do a lecture and a podcast to talk about various things in training, nutrition or coaching skills. And we have like a, the E I Q community is unrivaled in terms of like what I think of a fitness community space. It's just like all of these coaches that just wanna be the best for their clients, they just wanna help more people. They just wanna upscale and help each other. And so we have like, the graduate scheme kind of builds on that and allow, we have like monthly sessions with all of the coaches and weekly lives and things like that, that are in person, not in person stuff, but like, um, video format stuff that we consistently are communicating with the students and the graduates, which is one of the best things about E I Q aside from like the actual content,
Speaker 1 00:58:00 How has, how has that impacted E T P H D has it as in terms of, you know, your ability to run both, like what changes did you have to make or if any,
Speaker 0 00:58:12 Do you know what it hasn't? There's a couple of reasons why it hasn't really impacted, um, things. There's a lot of crossover, um, in the sense of a lot of the methods that we use, I'll teach on eiq because a lot of the reason that's why people will join eiq. And, um, a lot of my clients have done eiq and, and vice versa. It's, it's, there's a lot of crossover there. One thing I'll say is that I'm very lucky that my business partner is Emma and I've definitely worked a lot more in the last few years than I, than I maybe would've done if I wasn't best friends and business partners with Emma. Um, sometimes more than I would like. And I've had to be accountable to that. Cause we're quite different in that sense. We have slightly different values and that's the strength of working with someone that has slightly different values.
Speaker 0 00:58:58 You pu pushes you in some ways, but you have to be really accountable to your own stuff. So, um, I it's, it's, it's a lot more work, but I am a lot better at um, not overthinking things. I'm a lot, I'm less of a perfectionist now. I don't have the time to do all of those things. Like, to overthink things. I don't have the time to say I'm gonna launch in six months time and this is the step that I'm gonna do. Like at the moment I'm like, right, I'm gonna launch something. I know I'm gonna launch like a free thing between Christmas and New Year. It's now, what is it, 19th? And I'm like, I went on a walk there and 20th, right? So I just went on a walk and I thought, now it's five days away. Like this is what it's gonna look like.
Speaker 0 00:59:37 Okay, we'll make it work. And that's in five days and I'm not even working that week cuz I'm taking it off with my family. In the past I would've thought, well I don't have time to do that now, so I'll wait until the new year and then I'll do it. Whereas now, because I've got so much to do, I don't have the, the luxury of taking all of that time to do stuff. I just have to get on with it. And again, that's, that's part of aware of for Emma. Um, but also just because the more you do, because Parkinson's, all right, the more time you have, the more time you take. And I don't have the time. So, and I refuse to. The other thing is that I'm so clear on my boundaries of like, um, wanting time for family and friends that I refuse to take time away.
Speaker 0 01:00:15 Even if I've got tons to do. I'm like, nope, I committed to seeing this person or going on that date or doing these things and doing that regardless. So I've, I've just not got enough time to do these things. So it's either good, like I just have to get it done. Um, so yeah, for sure it's created more work, but it's one of the most, again, it's one of the most fulfilling things that, that I know that Emma and I have both done. Because again, for we both value impact and helping as many people as we can and how can we help more people? We can create culture that can help more people and millions of people like below that. And so we've got big plans for that in terms of how we can progress that.
Speaker 1 01:00:51 And what's, what's it been like transitioning to helping other coaches and trainers at, you know, at scale? Um, any surprises, realizations of what the industry is like or what the coaches are like or, or Yeah. Any insights gained?
Speaker 0 01:01:08 It's really funny because we talk about this quite a lot, that our echo chamber is so good. Our E I Q coaches are so good. Our coaches that we work with are so good and, and we forget actually the state of some, not coaches, but like the, some parts of the industry we forget how dark it is because we're so stuck in the psycho chamber. But for, I didn't love the fitness industry for a while, I would say after competing, um, I very much struggled with how bro it still was and how much of an outsider I felt like when I was talking about all this stuff. And I got quite a lot of backlash from the fitness community because I was like, I was demonizing dieting and I was a bad mouthing competing after I'd just like built a business off it and stuff and I got a lot of backlash and I didn't like it.
Speaker 0 01:01:56 I dated some people in it and I was really bitter towards it all. And I was like, I don't love the fitness industry that much. And then through working with the coaches at e t PhD and through E I Q, I've really, I've, I kind of remembered like how most people get into PT cuz they just wanna help people and they just wanna be their best. And when people are not doing things right, it's not because they're intentionally doing things wrong. I mean there are obviously some people within the industry that do that, but realistically it's because they don't have access to the information. And, and so for us, like we just, when we hear a coach will share a win in E I Q about how they've supported someone to stop emotionally and are they finally got fat loss and they've had P C O S and after years of trying for us, like it's like we win again even though we've not done the work.
Speaker 0 01:02:42 Like em and I are so lucky to be able to feel like we get a win from that. And the, the industry gets a win from another coach doing such a good job and we like, we're so, so proud of all of the coaches. We try and get to know as many of the coaches as we can that do eiq. The ones that are vocal we like, we'll chat to all the time and give them bits of advice all the time because it's, it's, yeah, if, for us in terms of our values, it's, it's incredible. Um, and it's definitely reminded us that the industry is so good and if you want it to be good, and that's where we choose to put our focus on the good stuff rather than, and you'll see this, right, especially as the mentor, like in the mentoring side of stuff, there's so much comparison and so much bitterness between people who are doing well in the industry and so much like, just like not trying to knock each other down. And that's solely opposite of what we do do on e iq we've created or we wanted to create such a space of support and collaboration and authenticity. Uh, that's why I don't talk a lot about mentoring and stuff, even though I do mentoring because I don't ever want to be sucked into that world. I find it really uncomfortable. Whereas with E I Q, it's like we can still do all the mansion stuff, but it's much more collaborative and and friendly. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 01:03:59 Yeah, I get that publicly. It's toxic privately. You can do it. Don't tell anyone <laugh> don't tell anyone, don't run any Facebook ads. You'll be fine. Yeah. Cool. Um, I really enjoyed this chat. I've got a few finishing questions for you if you're up for it.
Speaker 0 01:04:17 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 1 01:04:19 So first of all, what do the next few years look like for you as a business owner? So e t PhD in E I Q
Speaker 0 01:04:26 E I Q is gonna obviously take over the world. Um, we, e I Q is gonna be the number one nutrition course online nutrition course within five years, a hundred percent. Um, and I'm excited to push that e PhD is gonna continue to grow with people that are outside of my skillset. And the coaches are going to, uh, the coaches have so much potential in terms of their own learning that they're gonna just, I would, I would already say they're the best coaches in the industry for what we do. Um, but they're just going to excel at that. Um, I am going to be taking a lot of personal time, so my life will look slightly different, um, and my workload will probably look slightly less, but those things will continue to grow because my coaches are so good at what they do that t PhD will continue to grow with their input because they're so good. Um, and level up events will continue to grow too. So we do two events a year and again, it's, we wanted to create a safe space where fitness professionals could come and have a good time and learn and party and feel safe when they did that. And so that is gonna continue to grow as well. And don't know how, just a numbers
Speaker 1 01:05:37 And what, what is the plan for Level Up? Is it two events a year? More people?
Speaker 0 01:05:43 Yeah, two events a year, more people. Again, what we did with Level Up is the way that Level Up was born was quite last minute. Um, for various reasons that we won't go into the podcast, we really wanted to launch an in-person event and we'd, um, just let me mull over what I want to say here. Um, yeah, so we launched it last minute, um, barely any marketing, but we, and it was mostly people from E IQ that came to the event and it was fantastic. And everyone who, all the speakers kind of were people that we knew and they, they gave up their time and it was fantastic. And then, um, the second time, again, we didn't hugely market it, but this, the, the quality of the speakers are just incredible. And what we also do at Level Up is we, we've combined it with an e I Q date and this is, this is something that we feel really passionately about.
Speaker 0 01:06:38 So we have one filled day where it's just e I Q speakers speaking about what they're interested in because we want, if FS an incredible are an incredible fitness event every year. And, and you know, they've said to us, how can, what women can we have on this stage to talk what other women? And we struggled. Um, when I struggled, we struggled to identify people that we would like to push forward for that. And so what, and it's not just for women E IQ like it's men and it's all genders, but we really want to escalate the voices of people from Eiq who are really, really good coaches and really knowledgeable about certain stuff. And so we have one day attached onto Level Up where it's just EI Q speakers. They get 20 to 30 minutes to talk about what they're passionate about and how they support their clients so that they're getting that experience so they can then go off and do talk somewhere else. And so that when people ask us what other women can we bring to the stage and when I can be like, oh, these people are experienced, or men or other genders. Um, so that's a big, that's a big focus for us in terms of level up. Both continue to grow, but we want to also grow that, that kind of eiq attachment to it so that we can create more space for more platforms for more coaches.
Speaker 1 01:07:56 Amazing. And I know that having more female speakers, authorities in the industry is something we could probably do an entire podcast on it. I don't remember, I think I sent you a message in 2019, maybe 2020 cuz we were desperate for female mentors at O F B. Um, and we ended up for anyone. Um, but that's a, like an entirely different discussion. What's something that you hate about the industry?
Speaker 0 01:08:25 Um, I hate,
Speaker 2 01:08:30 Hmm,
Speaker 0 01:08:31 The industry. I hate the dishonesty. I hate that. And I hate, and this is two things, but I hate the way that people see clients as a means to an end for their financial success. And I hate the way that mentors see coaches as a means to their financial success. I think as soon as we start seeing people as a means to an end, we dehumanize people and we lose connection. And I think that that is a real problem that coaches have with clients when they, the way in the way that they market. Sometimes it is dehumanizing towards people and it, it ruins that connection. And, and I think that's really sad because ultimately we're a person-centered industry and I think the way that mentors coach, um, coaches is really dehumanizing. It's, you know, belittling them for not working hard enough and again, using them as this person earned this amount of money within a week without, it's very dehumanizing. And then again, people, coaches who tend to take on coaches to work within their team as a means to give them the crap clients and to make them more money, again, super dehumanizing. And I think more recently that's what I dislike, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 01:09:45 Yeah, definitely agree. What's the biggest mistake you see other coaches making and maybe specific to business,
Speaker 0 01:09:56 Um,
Speaker 0 01:09:59 Trying to be like someone else? Why, and I, this sounds really conceited, but why would anybody work with you if all of your content is mine? Why would they not work with me or my coaches? What is amazing about people is that we all have such strengths and I know a lot of coaches from IQ who say the same thing that I do, but they have a different personality or they frame it in a different way and I can see why someone would work with them cuz they're just incredible. Why on earth are you trying to be like anyone else? When the more authentic you can be, the better your business is gonna be. So like I think the copying thing is a, is still a huge issue. Dunno if you see that.
Speaker 1 01:10:42 Uh, I definitely see it, and I've asked this question, I've sort of, this is the third podcast that I've recorded and I've asked that question three times and that's the same answer I've had all three times <laugh>.
Speaker 0 01:10:51 No way.
Speaker 1 01:10:52 Yeah. So, um, it's definitely an issue, but it's, it's one that just doesn't stop and people don't see. I think it's, I don't know if it's, uh, an insecurity thing or whatever, just, or just looking over the garden fence. I think, oh, they've got loads of views on this video of cooking for heater or whatever it may be. Um, just very bland content. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but yeah, totally agree. Okay. What's, let's finish on a high note. What's one thing that you love about the industry?
Speaker 0 01:11:22 Um, I love that realistically 95% of us just want to help people be healthier and happier. And I, and I think what, how many businesses, how many of us can live a purpose of just helping people in everything that we do? I met someone recently in Austin and he was saying it's just incredible that you can live your purpose and love it every single day in the work that you do. And how lucky are we as an industry that like that's our job is to just make people happier and healthier or to support people to find happiness and healthiness. Um, and I, and I love that and I love when people remember that. And I think we can be such a strong community as a whole, like the fitness industry can be so friendly and welcoming if we choose it to be that way. And we focus on the fact that collectively all we're trying to do is help people. And that, I just think, I think that's an amazing how amazing fitness industry gets such a bad rep from people as if we're some sort of like diet culture pushers. And yes, there are a lot of that too, but realistically, we are the ones that are people facing. We're the ones that can really make a difference to people's lives. Um, and I love that most of us are just trying to do that every single day by putting out free content and by coaching in the way that we do. I think that's amazing.
Speaker 1 01:12:44 Yeah. A hundred percent agree. Well, Amelia, this has been an amazing chat. Thank you for joining me. If people wanna find you, where should they go?
Speaker 0 01:12:53 Instagram is the best place. Amelia Thompson, PhD and um, also e i q nutrition's Instagram, which is also on my page, but it's e i q underscore nutrition
Speaker 1 01:13:04 For We'll link it up. Yeah, we'll link it up. Don't worry. In case it's wrong. Um, cool. Thank you very much for joining me.
Speaker 0 01:13:13 Thank you very Mimi.
