August 17, 2024 • 64 mins
Authentic Branding The Secret Ingredient for Business Growth
In today's fast-paced business world, authenticity is the key to standing out and building a lasting brand. But how do you navigate the challenges of personal branding while staying true to your values?
In this eye-opening episode of La'Quita's Toolbox, I sit down with Zach Coleman, owner of an athletic-driven branding agency, to explore the intricate relationship between personal growth and business success.
Unmasking the Truth About Personal Branding
Zach shares his insights on:
• The pitfalls of "marketing fatigue" and how to avoid them
• Why retention is more crucial than acquisition for sustainable growth
• The importance of aligning your business with your personal values
Practical Takeaways for Your Business Journey
Learn actionable strategies to:
• Identify and attract clients who align with your values
• Create a sustainable lead flow without burning out
• Cultivate a community that supports your brand's growth
This conversation goes beyond typical business advice, delving into the personal transformations that fuel professional success. Whether you're a gym owner, an online entrepreneur, or anyone looking to build an authentic brand, this episode offers valuable insights to help you leave your mark.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to another amazing episode of
(00:05):
Laquita's Toolbox. I am your host, Laquita
Mondley, and we are coming at you today
with another amazing episode and a really
great guest here. His name is Zach and I
cannot wait for you guys to meet him. So
for those that are returning listeners,
you know the drill. Get something to write
with and something to write on. Because we
(00:26):
know pen and paper, they don't forget, but
sometimes we do. And we want to write them
down to make sure that we can make proper
application of the tools that Zach will be
sharing with us today. But before we jump
into our conversation with Zach, let me
take a moment to thank our sponsors at
Covenant Press. Covenant Press is a faith
based christian apparel and accessory shop
(00:47):
where we as believers can shop online for
clothing and accessories that allow us to
wear the message of the love of Jesus
Christ. Go out to www. Covenant Press.
Again, that's www. Covenant. [unk]press
com shop until you drop. But do not click
off of those pop ups too quickly because
(01:09):
they contain valuable codes. And when you
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receive some amazing savings on your
purchases with Covenantpress. Again,
that's WW, Covenant Press. Listen, Zach,
welcome. Welcome to the toolbox. I'm so
excited to have you, sir. How are you
(01:31):
today? I am doing fantastic. A little bit
sick, but overall, fantastic. Thank you.
Awesome. Every day that we can wake up on
this side of the dirt, I like to say it's
fantastic. And I really have to remind
myself of that on days. Yeah. But on this
thankful Thursday, welcome to the toolbox.
(01:51):
And take a moment, please, if you don't
mind, to introduce yourself to the toolbox
audience. Well, my name is Zach Coleman
and I own an athletic driven branding
agency that helps gym leaders build their
brand through community and digital
(02:12):
experiences. Now that sounds exciting.
Zach, how exactly do you do that? Because
when I think about, and I say that, and me
and my husband have a workout program that
we purchased and it's right on my Apple
TV. But you're talking in like, a physical
location gyms, right? I am. So how does
(02:36):
that work? Explain that to me, because I'm
curious. Well, I think we'd have to take a
little step back, right? I think that with
everything going on with the digital
marketing world, and if you just say
online world and digital world, I feel
(02:57):
like a lot of people kind of get what I
call marketing fatigue. They think that,
hey, I have to try everything. I have to
go on social media. I have to do this. I
mean, I own a marketing agency. And I'll
tell you what, I've had marketing fatigue
myself millions of times because you feel
(03:19):
like you just have all this stuff at your
capabilities to try things, do different
things. And I think with the online space,
if you're a personal trainer or doing
something online, you have a little bit of
a different type of strategy. Your
strategy isn't so much a physical
(03:42):
location. Like for me, for instance, I'm
in Arizona. So if I wanted to market a gym
that was local to me, their members and
the people that would be willing to go to
that gym to get that experience would be
only driving one or 2 miles, right? Where
(04:03):
if you're online, you're like, all right,
well, they can find me easier, but I have
a million. What is it? How many people are
in the world now? 20 billion people that
I'm marketing to now, instead of just this
two to 3 million there in my little local
location. And so when you're doing an
(04:23):
online thing, it's a little bit
differently. It's a little bit different.
You have to put a lot more money to your
Marketing. You have to put a lot more time
and energy to be seen from the People
online where when you're a gym, I think
that, or you're a Physical Location, you
think that you need to market to all those
(04:43):
people. But in reality, it's much easier
to take a step back and say, hey, you know
what? I really just need to focus on the 3
million people within a two to three mile
radius of where I live or where my gym is.
And so I think that would probably be, and
(05:06):
we work with athletes as well. We've
worked with athletes. We've worked with a
lot of online businesses as well. It's a
different audience, or how I would put it,
you have a much larger audience that you
have to start focusing on. So you said
(05:27):
something there with the burnout that
comes with marketing, and I thought that
was just me because I have no idea what
I'm doing. But to hear the experts say it.
So partnering or knowing when to partner
or having the right team members in that
time as a brand, and we're talking no
matter what brand it is. But for you,
(05:49):
specifically gyms, how necessary is that
for them in this day and age to be able to
keep their doors open and what, I mean,
like customer tension and not just
customer acquisition? Well, I think that's
part of the problem. I think that a lot of
(06:09):
people in this day and age, they just
focus on acquisition. I'm not going to put
any of my so called non vertical
competitors on the board here, but you do
see a lot of them kind of saying, hey,
just reach out to a million people and
just cold call or call a million people
and see if you can get people in the door.
(06:32):
And to be honest, when you're a personal
brand or you're under, let's say, 500,000
a year mark, you are going to have a lot
of those trial periods, you are going to
have a lot of marketing fatigue, finding
out your services, enhancing things,
building offers, I think that's common in
(06:53):
the validation stage of trying to grow
anything, let alone the owners around it.
Evolving as people and saying, oh, now I
have different metrics of success that I'm
looking for. I think those kind of go hand
in hand, which is a different story. But I
think at the end of the day, yeah, myself,
(07:18):
I know how to do the things. And so that's
what made it very hard for me to slow down
and be like, I can do this, this and this.
I can do them all very well. But really
trying to find one or two things marketing
wise that you can do. And back to your
(07:39):
point, when you're under a certain amount,
there is a lot of businesses out there,
and I think it's very common for people
that are in the corporate world or people
that may be in leadership roles, a gym or
anything that may not necessarily be the
(08:00):
owner. Don't understand that, hey, top
line revenue, you're making a million
dollars you don't need, or they don't
necessarily have thousands of employees.
People are so used to seeing these big box
gyms or these 50 million to a billion
(08:23):
dollar companies and they're like, oh,
they have millions of employees. No, when
you're small, you maybe have one or two,
maybe three. And I think that when you're
smaller, you get into the grasp of your
first real move as a personal brand and as
(08:44):
you're trying to sell yourself is you kind
of transition into what I call going from
a me to an us. I mean, a me to a we.
Sorry, you go from a me to a we, which is
your mindset starts to shift and you go
from a manager to a leader because you
(09:05):
hear everyone just say, delegate,
delegate. So that's what you do, right?
You hire other marketers, you hire video
editors, you hire something. If you're a
personal brand and or you're hiring an
agency. I mean, I have the same problems
because I have to hire a team to do things
right. That you get to a point where you
realize that you're just getting fatigued
because you're a manager, you went from
(09:27):
doing the work to managing the work, which
is really, you're still changing time for
trading time for money. You just gave
yourself a different title. And for you to
really evolve into the we aspect and
becoming more of a leader, it happens
around that mark, right? You kind of have
to start saying, oh, well, you realize
(09:50):
that, hey, I'm making a good amount of
money, I'm happy, or I feel like I've
reached a milestone that I feel like I can
reach personally, but it's not about me
anymore. You start to get out of that
spectrum of wanting it all just to be
(10:11):
about this invisible number of success,
because you realize, bottom line is way
different than top line. And so you start
to be like, oh, I actually want to help
other people succeed. I want to help other
people learn this stuff. I want to start
not just delegating my services off, but
(10:32):
bringing people onto the team that have
similar values, have similar aspirations,
enjoy what they're doing. And so as you
start to become more of a leader, that's
kind of the transition period that a lot
of business owners or a lot of even
(10:52):
personal brands have to take to become
more of a we brand. And then to go to an
us, it's really just aligning that team
and yourself with the clients, the
clients. To go back to your original
hypothesis of, oh, what's different from
(11:14):
owning a physical location compared to
going online? Well, there's really only
two differences. One, a gym has an actual
location. So like I said, you could target
just the people within a three mile
radius. And your marketing is much easier
because you don't have to spray the wall
to the whole world. But two, you have the
(11:42):
ability to have group classes or sell
certain things in bulk. And so as an
online brand, if you're like an online
personal trainer and or an online
situation, trying to start building more
cohorts or building situations where you
can make the same amount per individual,
(12:05):
but being able to do it in a group setting
so that you're not spending your time
training one person or training just a
handful of people, being able to train a
whole bunch of people. And that's really
only the two differences that I see
between having a gym and an online space
is you have that, but really, at the end
(12:27):
of the day, it's expenses. Right? An
online brand, I see a lot of people
thinking that, oh, if I'm going to be a
personal brand, that really means I don't
have all the responsibility of hiring a
team. I don't have the responsibility of
(12:48):
owning a location and having the expense
of paying 2003 $4,000 a month for this
location. Pay that in the tools you need
to be successful online. Yeah, for an
online, it's a little bit different
because you look at a gym, for instance,
and a very healthy gym, a very healthy
(13:10):
gym. And this is in most industries that
have a location, restaurants, et cetera.
Gyms is about 10% profit margins.
Restaurants is about five. But that's a
different story. You have about a 10%
profit margin. That means they have about
(13:30):
10% of their profits that have to go to
marketing of not their profits of their
overall top line goes to marketing. So
usually about, that's where they only have
10% wiggle room there. So you have that
where you're online. People that are
online don't really think that way. They
just think, oh, I'm bringing a lot more
money into my pockets. But you do. You
(13:53):
have to put more to marketing. You just
have to, there's more people you have to
reach, and so you have to constantly put
more stuff out there and building stuff
online. And that's where a lot of that
fatigue comes from, is hearing someone
say, do social media or do this or do
that, and that bled into the space of
(14:14):
local retailers and local membership
things because they think the same thing.
They think, oh, hey, I have to be on
social media. I have to do social media.
Advertisement I have to do social media
posts of my workouts and stuff, though.
Those things can be effective. I've seen
that. What now? But there's no guarantee
(14:36):
even in that. Well, there's no guarantee
in anything, really. I heard this phrase
yesterday by, funny enough, one of my
coaches that really aligned with me, and
he mentioned something about, anyone can
kind of build a strategy, right? Anyone
could build a strategy, but it's the
(14:57):
person behind the strategy that makes it
effective. That makes sense. I like, know,
yeah, let me take a minute. Just, I know
you guys have been loving everything that
Zach has been putting out there, because
I've been loving everything that Zach has
been putting out there. So take this
moment, if you would, to go ahead and hit
those, like, share and subscribe buttons
(15:17):
on your favorite podcast listening
platform. And let's make sure that we get
this episode into the hands of those that,
you know, that it will be a blessing to,
because what he's talking about here,
these strategies and these principles are
not just for gym owners. These strategies
and these principles that he's talked
about so far for business owners, period.
(15:39):
So you want to make sure. We get this out
and we get this shared to as many people
as possible and make sure that you're
going to go in and check these show notes
so that you can know how to get in contact
with Zach. Because I know you're going to
have a thousand questions for him. Just
like questions. I have a thousand
questions for him because, you know,
(16:01):
whether it's the online space where under
the products that my husband and I use and
we got it during COVID just to be able to
spend some more time together. But yes,
workout is a program and I like the
program and it's an online workout program
and it's called Strength of seductions.
It's for couples. But I'm also looking at
(16:23):
it as a business owner. They put a lot of
money into that marketing and to that
branding and to all of the things. And
this is just online. I can't imagine. And
it's the couple that created it, even
building their personal brand. So when
(16:43):
you're talking to gym owners that aren't a
part of a big box franchise, how much of
their success in this space depends on
their ability to build a strong personal
brand that helps draw people to that
business or does it not work like that?
Well, I think it's funny because I think
we just kind of said the definition of
(17:05):
branding within that last statement we
talked about before the break, which was
it's the people behind the strategy that
actually makes the difference. I think
that if we wanted to go deep into this
conversation, I always tell people, I'm a
(17:30):
marketer that hates marketing and it's
because that marketing fatigue and the
premise of everyone thinking that they
have to push the tangibles, they have to
say, I need a website, I need to put
content out there, I need to do this. But
none of that's as effective as the person
(17:54):
behind the leadership roles, the business
owners. And that in itself is branding.
That in itself is branding. You go to any
sort of like these people that you were
talking about that you work out online. If
they're very authentic and you can feel
it, that you probably wouldn't be watching
(18:14):
them if you didn't feel that they were
authentic, if you didn't feel that they
had authentic, they were there to help,
they had a vision in line with what they
were doing. You probably would not be
watching them. You probably would be like,
they don't match me. They don't match who
I am in situations like that. So it is
very important, I think, that a lot of
(18:35):
people fall into the trap. I fell into the
trap too, because I do the tangibles for a
living, which is I was in this identity
trap, so to say. I was literally pushing
content out there constantly. I was trying
to do all these things because I thought
that that's what I needed to do and I had
(18:55):
the team to do it right. I had to take a
step back and I had to tell myself, what
do I want? How do I want to lead? What are
the things that are going to make me happy
personally? And that's why I said earlier
before on like KPI, personal KPIs, because
those personal KPIs, me going to the gym
(19:17):
and going for runs, getting my meditation
in doing that stuff for myself actually
has helped me be much more clear minded in
the actionable items that I need to do to
make it to that next level. I like it.
Coming back to your original question, I
think that it's very important. I think
(19:39):
that smaller gyms do have the problem of
they try to do too much at once, they try
to do too much at once. They try to go in
and say, oh, we want to sell products or
we want to. Actually, that's the biggest
one I see is they say, let's sell products
now, when in reality it's like, hey,
(20:00):
you're now trying to compete in the online
space, not the local space. So you'd have
to put way more towards marketing for
that. Nothing wrong with that. But until
you have like three or four locations, if
you're a gym owner that's at stage four
and you're expanding and you need to start
worrying about design consistency and you
have a little more budget, then, yeah, you
(20:20):
can kind of kill two birds with 1 st by
some of the marketing efforts that you do.
But it's down to the leadership. I always
say my superpower is I can see a company
online or even in person and I can tell
how good that company is at actually
giving results and being there for the
(20:43):
contribution of everyone just by seeing
their marketing collateral, just by
saying, how good are they doing here? How
good are they doing there? And I may be
biased because I do it for a living, but
if you think about it, all that marketing
collateral, all that marketing material
comes down to how they're leading their
team and how they're trying to get
(21:05):
clients. And if they're doing it in a way
that's skeezy. They have bad customer
service, they have this. And that's pretty
obvious up front. And that's part of the
way the leadership roles are as people.
And that's why branding in itself is much
more than just that logo or that website,
those are definitely a part of it. Those
(21:26):
tangibles do play a part. But those
intangibles of being authentic and
actually serving people that you want to
serve, that you can help and being able to
identify the problems and solutions that
you can do for a particular type of person
(21:46):
are going to be what gets you from that
stage two to stage three, which is
basically just what you did to get to 250
to 500,000 depending on what you're in,
what business you own, isn't going to get
(22:06):
you to a million, isn't going to get you
to 3 million. It's a completely different
set of objectives and solutions and
results. And I feel like a lot of people
miss that. And that's part of what holds
them back and that's part of what even
gives them burnout when they're trying to
make it to that next level. When we're
(22:27):
trying to make it to that next level. And
I'm looking at this for me personally from
more than a gym standpoint, because
everything that you're saying and have
said, it works for online model for gym.
It works for an in person model for gym,
but it works in an online model. If I was
(22:50):
selling lipstick or trainers or cars or
whatever, if we're not having some of
these things, like we'll take it back to
something that we briefly ran over when I
commented, is this more customer retention
focus or is it more customer acquisition
(23:10):
focus? And you commented, unfortunately, a
lot of people or a lot of gyms are just
more focused on a customer acquisition
focus. If that's the focus of any company.
When we're looking at scaling and growing,
I can see why fatigue and burnout happens.
According to what you said, you will
(23:31):
forever and ever and ever be judging what
we're doing or we're looking at our
bottom, we're looking at our earnings, and
it's like, gosh, we lost 50 people, but I
gained 150 people. But did that balance
out? It's so annoying to me because you're
(23:54):
correct. I always tell clients, your
biggest metric for business growth isn't
your client acquisition. Yes, it's
important and you should always be
focusing on your marketing and spreading
your message. But it's the retention.
(24:16):
Retention or lower churn rate. If you're a
gym, it's lower churn rate. Like how do
you keep members on longer? That's what it
comes down to. And I've seen it go both
ways. You could talk about it in any
industry. I think ecommerce, for instance,
if you're selling products online.
Retention is a very hard metric to push
(24:40):
for. Right? You're usually just trying to
sell one off products to people over and
over and over and over again when it's
like, how could you find a way to have
this be more of a retention based model? I
mean, I would say that's being more human
to human and building something that
relates. I think that's why subscription
(25:01):
box companies have gotten so big. Yeah. In
the coaching and speaking space, or let's
say coaching space, that has been
something. And even for me as a podcaster,
in any space, subscription services have
been the aha. Like, oh, this is the next
(25:21):
bright idea. No, it's not. It's not the
next bright idea. You just figured out
that you can actually make more money when
you keep people than trying to get new
people all the time. But that's my
soapbox. We won't get on it today. I've
had clients for eight years. I've had
clients ever since I opened the business,
(25:41):
and some of them I adore and I'll do
anything for. I'll go over the wall for
them because they pay us a lot of money
and we built good relationships. That's
not always going to happen though, right?
Things change, things grow, people
rebrand, people evolve, and so there's
always time to let people go, or vice
versa. But at the end of the day, what you
(26:04):
said is true. I've come to a period where
I'm in a B to B space. I'm not in a B to C
space. I don't have to market to 3 million
people. I have to bring more quality to a
smaller amount of individuals. I mean, I
sell ten clients, I'm at a million. So why
(26:26):
would I focus so much on acquisition
myself if the retention and making my
clients happy is my main metric for
success? Because it's going to hurdle. So
I don't need to bring on ten clients a
month. I don't need to bring on 20 clients
a month. And that's a large number for the
(26:48):
type of business I'm in. But if you're
like a gym or an ecommerce store, of
course those numbers are much higher
because you are b to c. But I need one. If
I can bring one client a month on and like
you said, just grow at a steady pace where
I can really watch my team and I can
(27:10):
evolve the inner workings of the business
as I grow, instead of trying to, what you
said, bring on 150 and then, oh, what
broke? Let's fix this. And drop 50. I feel
like companies too much. Why do you think
there's so many hiring and firings all the
time? I think so many companies are like,
oh, we need to hire on all these people
(27:31):
all the time. And then it just causes
their we of their team to be disoriented
and uncommuntative, and then it just
causes even more problems because no one
sees the inner workings. I mean, I told
you earlier, I kind of can by seeing
certain things, but majority of people
can't. I agree with you 100%. I think
(27:54):
retention is by far the most important
thing that anyone can try to bring on into
their business. And you could just call
that the reoccurring model if you want to.
But I look at more as, how can I continue
to bring value to people as they evolve
and as they grow? As they grow? I'm really
(28:17):
big on retention, having moved from
employee to, I like to say, partner with
those that work for me. We're in a
partnership. I've been an unhappy
employee. I've been an even unhappier
supervisor. And it usually, in the end,
boil down to retaining the right people in
(28:39):
the right positions and how much that cost
versus, oh, we're always doing some type
of hiring because this person quit. This
person moved on. This person did something
and an amount of money and energy that it
went through when we could have just done
a couple of simple things and this person
would not have left, at least in that
(29:01):
manner that they left. Because even as you
said, as your b to b, like, a lot of my
customers are business owners, and they
come on the show for exposure, or we have
companies that come on, okay, I want to
buy a slot, whether it's here on the
podcast or on my TV show. It's companies
who want to expand in their advertisement,
(29:23):
and they want to advertise on streaming
TV. It's hard to get that customer, but if
I get a set amount of customers, I'm good
now, keeping them past three months, six
months, one year, two year on as sponsors
for. It's easier to do that. And even
(29:43):
then, if they said, okay, LaQuita, we have
maxed out what we think we can do in your
space, but we love what you've done for
us, but it's time for us to move on to a
bigger space. Great. But them leaving in
that manner, they're still a cheerleader
for me. They're still advocating that,
(30:07):
hey, if you want to start out and have
your ad dollars add up and give you a
great ROI, advertise on her podcast.
Advertise on her TV show. Come be a guest
just on the TV show. Come be a guest on
the podcast. Know you have a function
going on. Invite her to be a speaker.
You'll see an ROI, though. They may be
(30:29):
like, okay, LaQuita, we've moved on
because now I'm on John Maxwell stage, or
I'm on Valerie Burton's stage. I'm. I'm on
Mr. Beast podcast or something like that
now. Great. But they're still going to
give me positive raving reviews. That's
going to help bring in. Either they're
going to introduce me to their replacement
(30:49):
client, or that replacement client is
going to say, hey, how did you hear about
me? Oh, I heard about you from John,
because he's been singing your praises for
two years. So I want to come over here and
become a part of that. It's so much easier
to do. Is. It is. And it's funny because
(31:10):
going back to the digital marketing space
and the way the world has kind of pushed,
like, social media and the situation is
the world has become very transactional.
It's become very transactional. And
there's nothing wrong with doing a CTA.
(31:30):
There's nothing wrong with saying, hey, a
give and take or to ask for something,
especially when you're giving good value
to people. But so many times I get people
that will just look at me as a number and
be like, oh, we can find someone else that
does this who says, I want to work with
you. I don't feel jolly or happy when you
(31:57):
could pay me five grand a month or ten
grand a month. I mean, in fact, I had a
client last year, and this kind of goes
hand in hand with what you were saying
earlier with your own partners, is going
from a me to a. We isn't necessarily
having to be team members. You can have
partners that follow similar values as
(32:19):
you, and you can have clients that follow
similar values as you do. And sometimes
people fall through the cracks. You think
that they match certain things and they
don't. And at the end of the day, it's
okay. It's like we just don't match the
same values. And I had a client last year,
and they were, they were paying us ten k a
(32:40):
month. We had a guaranteed year contract.
So that got us end of the year. We did our
due diligence. He seemed like a really
great guy. We brought him on, and then
about a month and a half into the
contract, he completely shifted. I mean,
he was okay on the phone, but those emails
(33:02):
that came through sporadic mean, trying to
change our services, trying to say, you
have to do this desperate. He had
something, what I call in my industry's ex
girlfriend syndrome, where he was blaming
everything on us compared to what happened
to him in his last relationship. But I
(33:24):
eventually canceled out his contract. I
didn't go after him for the extra money. I
just was like, you know what? Yes, we
would have about 50 to 60 that we're
losing out on this year. But at the end of
the day, I was like, I'd be spending more
in therapy. I can't do this. And so I had
(33:44):
to let them go because I couldn't handle
it. And those are the situations that I
just see happening and not letting people
go, but having those situations are what I
see happen on a normal occasions for a lot
of people, which make them kind of unhappy
and is part of the reasoning why they
(34:06):
can't shift their mentality to that next
stage of growth in a positive manner. And
a lot of it is due to the effects of being
able to have us market on social media and
do all that stuff. And I'm just not a fan
of cold, cold leads, cold calls, like
(34:30):
anything like that. I'm like, I'd rather
have someone come to us because they want
to come to us. So all of our marketing is
war marketing, which to me is more of a
branding tactic than it is a marketing
tactic. I'm sorry, people on here that do
marketing may say otherwise, but I don't.
(34:50):
I think that war marketing is really just
branding. I'm neither. I'm not a marketing
expert, definitely not a branding expert,
but I came also from a space of having
been a network marketer for a while,
guaranteed. It's so much easier to deal
(35:11):
with the warm market than it is a cold
market. And in this social media driven
age that we live in, no matter what your
business is. I had a previous podcast
guest, she was 75 and she's out here in
(35:31):
these social media streets killing it.
She's doing 1000 times better on TikTok
than I ever would hope to. It's like, go
ahead, grandma, you do your thing. But
people, that's where you get your warm
market from. I was in an interview this
morning where when we're showing up in the
(35:53):
places we need to show up as our authentic
self, just from a personal branding
perspective, I've had clients to tell me,
oh, I've been following you, and then
they'll tell you about the different
things and stuff that you've said or done
or whatever was captivating to them. And
then they came and they did business with
(36:13):
me. It wasn't, well, Laquita, tell me what
you offer. It was, no, I know you have
this. This is what I want. And how do I
pay and when can we get started? By the
time they came to me, to me, that's a warm
market, because now they're familiar with
me, because they've taken the time and did
(36:33):
their due diligence. Whether it's 18
months, twelve months, six months, most of
the time when something like that happens,
it's usually around the 18 to 24 month
mark for me, where that happens, and
especially if I've seen them show up
where, okay, I noticed that person. I
didn't notice when they subscribed to my
(36:55):
email campaign, but I did notice when they
hit a reply or when they sent a message or
something like that, because I'd like to
do that part as a human touch. I'm
actually looking at that. I've seen that
name before, or I enjoy live streams, so
I've seen that person comment before, and
now here I am having a real life
(37:17):
conversation with this person. And now
that person has become my client. To me,
it's so much easier to do that. I'm not
picking up the phone to cold call. I'm
just not doing that. I'm just not doing
that. I know you'll hear it from multiple
people, and I'll be honest with you, it
goes both ways. And I think that that's
(37:40):
kind of a problem within the energy a lot
of business owners put out into the world
is they don't match their own values.
Right? For me, for instance, I don't do
cold calling either. The only way I'll
email someone cold is if there's an intent
involved. If it's like, hey, I knew you
(38:00):
were already looking for this stuff. I
heard it from the grapevine that you're
looking. I heard someone gave me your
information and you're looking for it. I
thought I'd reach out. Yeah, then I'll
reach out and make an introduction. But I
think that I've spent so much money and
time on making sure the people that come
(38:23):
in and want to work with me match my
values, like, match our stuff. And I think
that I'll get people on the call and
they'll be like, our first call and
they'll be like, oh, so tell us about some
of the clients you've worked with. And I'm
(38:43):
like, didn't you go through the six emails
I sent you or our website where we spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars on making
sure that you got enough information about
us so you felt like we were a good fit.
And they don't. And I'm not asking people,
of course, to spend hours and hours and
(39:03):
hours of due diligence, but it should go
both ways. People should be looking at
vendors or looking at the people they want
to partner with, just like the people that
are looking to hire them. They should be
having an equal opportunity there to be
like, yeah, I think we relate to each
(39:24):
other and we would be a good fit to work
to each other. I mean, when that client
left last year, one of our partners prayed
with me. He was like, they were working on
part of the solution with us, with them.
And he's like, let's jump on a call. And
he prayed with me. And I appreciated that
ability for him to be not just like, oh,
(39:47):
well, sucks, you'll get the next one. I do
feel like we all just need to be able to
say, hey, what are my values? What are the
things that I really, because what I
portray myself and who I am, and that is
branding, right? What I portray myself,
who I am, and I don't care what it is. If
(40:09):
you want to be an ahole and that's your
personality, then you're probably going to
attract other aholes. But that's your
right to be that type of person because
that's who you want to be. I would say
there's trauma involved in the reason
they're like that, but that's a whole
different topic in itself. But I could go
(40:32):
off in many different directions with
these conversations. But yeah, I feel like
being able to kind of figure out who you
are and going even further back to is it
important for gym leaders or business
owners to brand themselves personally?
Yes, I think it's important for everyone.
(40:53):
And I think that, yes, if you're just
starting out and you're finding yourself
totally understandable why you're at a
certain spot. But I think that the
correlation between business growth and a
human and being, who they truly are,
really kind of intersect at a similar
spot. And I think that's why you see a lot
of business owners that make it to what we
(41:17):
call in the business world the value death
period. And then they either quit or they
decide they have to pivot because they
personally find different metrics for
success. And I think that correlation, and
you and I talked a little bit before we
jumped on this call about me and having
(41:37):
children. That was a huge thing for me
personally. That helped me even pivot the
way I am marketing my business. And so
that shows you how the personal business
owners behind the scenes or the ones
building the personal brand themselves,
why it's so important for them just to be
(41:58):
themselves and market the way they want to
market. Absolutely. I know you said that.
I thought about one of my husband and I in
2017, we owned a virtual call center, and
we were subcontractors through a larger
company called Arise. And the reason that,
(42:20):
for me, that I chose to partner with that
is because I've been a military wife at
that point, he had just retired, so a
military wife for like, 24 plus years. And
one of the things that was hard for me was
to maintain a career because we were
always moving every couple of years. And
(42:40):
so when I saw this company, and it allowed
the individuals who took the calls from
the major companies, they were contracted
with lots of major brands, and the people
who were answering the phones were doing
it from home, and they created their own
schedule. That resonated with me in a
(43:01):
special place, as a wife, as a mom, as
someone who lived a transient life,
because we go where the army says we had
to go, that was something that, with that
company, they resonated with my personal
core values. And I was happy to do
(43:22):
interviews with other women, other single
parents, other single dads, or even people
who, this was their part time job because
they need to meet ends meet. Like, all of
those things at one point had been my
family story. So to be able to empower
somebody, because that's how I felt.
Empower them with not only a way to earn
(43:43):
extra money for your family, but be able
to do it and keep your priority. Your
priority. When you started to have
children, that shift happened. For a lot
of us, that shift happens. But sometimes
we don't get to do what we want to do
because somebody else is telling us what
we have to do, and somebody else is
(44:05):
telling us, you're going to do this 65
hours a week, you're going to do this 40
hours was a week, and I'm only going to
pay you. I'm going to max you out at $30
an hour. That's all you're going to get
from me. But you're going to do everything
that I tell you to do when I tell you to
do it. And your family has to fit in when
they can fit in where now you can do
exactly what you want to do. Even today
(44:26):
with us, like success for me now, I've had
so much fun at that program for my
grandbabies today. You did, and I did. It
was so amazing. But there was a time where
I wouldn't have been able to do that.
Yeah. Even as a business owner, I would
have been afraid to do that. This isn't
(44:49):
just me being somebody's employee, this is
even me being a business owner. How that
transition has happened for me over the
years where there would have been a time,
I would have been like, honey, can you
video it for me and I'll watch it when you
come back because I've got to do this. But
as we grow and we evolve and we understand
(45:09):
our power, we take more responsibility in
our personal development. You'll see that
shift. And that's how we are able to
connect with people and know when we are
aligned. Some people don't even know what
that means to be aligned with your ideal
customer or their mission, their vision,
(45:30):
their core values. Are they in alignment
with yours? They don't know to check for
it because the things that are put before
us is, are they going to pay? You know how
hard that would have been for some people
to walk away? Yes. You do know how hard it
would have been for some people to have
walked away from that toxic client either.
Like, man, just make it to the end of the
contract. No, that's not more important to
(45:52):
me. It was very hard for me, I will admit
it was a very hard decision. But I
remember right when he was gone. So here's
the funny thing with that client, and I'm
not going to say who he is because I'm
just not that kind of person. But other
people will figure out themselves when
(46:13):
they try to buy his products. But he owned
a health and wellness ecom brand. And I'm
looking at it and I'm saying, I'm like,
because of the type of person you are, I
would never feel comfortable buying your
products. Like, there's no way in heck I
would rely on your products. How do I know
(46:35):
that they're even safe? Because if you're
this type of person, then do you really
care? Do you care enough to think about
the client and the services that you are
providing? And that's branding in itself,
right? That's what it really comes down
to. And back to your point, I think it's
very important for people to realize is
(46:58):
you mentioned, hey, business owner. You
had to realize it. Even as a business
owner, that's what I had to go through.
Because when you first start a business,
no matter what business you're in, even
when you're probably doing the call center
stuff with your husband, I learned so much
in the first year of business that I
(47:20):
learned many years in the corporate world.
And it was one of those situations where
when I was out, I was learning so much.
But then you just get caught up. You get
caught up in like, oh, I have to survive,
I have to grow, which is fine. There's
going to be part of you that has to make
that next sale or has to do something, has
to learn, has to grow, especially at the
very beginning. But you lose yourself. You
(47:44):
lose yourself in the process of trying to,
how do I explain it? It's like you're
chasing this invisible number. You're just
like, oh. And a lot of it came down to I
was very unseen and unheard as a child. My
(48:07):
dad was an NFL player. I played soccer
growing up and I'm not going to go deep
into this story too much, but my business
was growing around that traumatic
experience of, oh, if I make it to a
million, I make it to 2 million, top line
people will see it and I'll be heard by
all the people around me. Very similar
(48:29):
situation, but different occurrences
happen to gym owners because I did. I
started taking up working out as a way for
me to really, it was a way for me to
reduce my anxiety and my mental health and
all that. But I didn't realize that at
first either. I was like, oh, I'm going to
look buff. I'm going to do this, I'm going
to showcase it. And as a business owner,
(48:52):
you start to be like, well, is this
important? I mean, when my first child was
born, my first child was born, I remember,
and I was just talking about my wife about
this the other day and I'm thinking I'm
going to do some sort of speech on this of
some sort because I'm going to have three
children now and each experience is going
(49:12):
to be uniquely different and better. But
when I had my first child, I remember we
were at the hospital and I got a call from
a potential client that I've been over
serving like crazy, going back and forth
over and over again to try to make a sale
and say, hey, we need to jump on a call at
like twelve. And it was like 1015. And we
(49:34):
were at the hospital, it was like day two
and I'm like, love, I have to get home. I
have to get on this call. It's a potential
large sale. And I did, I went home, I was
like five minutes late because we rushed
home from the hospital and I'm like, I'm
sorry, guys. I just had my baby and I
jumped on this call. I look back at that
and how ungrounded and unpresent I was
(49:57):
around my family. And I'm like, man. And
it's very easy for business owners of any
size to get trapped in that mentality, no
matter how big you are. I see $20 million
business owners that still work 50 hours,
5100 hours, work weeks, and they're
(50:19):
miserable. And it's like, all right, well,
I'm not saying money is not important.
Money is an energy. And the trade
associated with money is really irrelevant
because people consider money's value
differently, even with the economy, no
matter where you're from. And so I look
(50:41):
back at that situation, I'm like, there's
no way I'm doing that. I did better on my
second one, my third one. I'm of course,
like, you know what? No, I'm taking two
days off. I may do a couple of slack
things with my team, but no, I'm even
thinking about taking two weeks off and
just simmering down and being present
around my wife and my kid because I want
(51:01):
to be around my family. Yeah, and you're
right. No matter being in this space, in
the leadership space. I know when we
opened the call center, my husband
retired, and we were living in Germany at
the time, stationed in Germany. We're
having this conversation. It's like, okay,
(51:22):
well, what do you want to be when you grow
up? No, I don't want to continue to be a
government employee. I don't want to be a
government contractor. I've been there.
I've done that. There's some security in
it. Yes, there's a lot of headache in it.
Absolutely. But I started to realize how
those things were defining me instead of
(51:43):
me defining me. So I don't want that. So
what do I want to do? Well, this business
came across, that partnership with arise
at the time it came to me, was brought to
me. I was like, okay, Lord, let's find out
about this. So the more I found out about
the business, the more I wanted to do it.
So I said, okay, honey, when you retire,
(52:04):
this is what I want to do. I'm going to
own this business because I can do it no
matter where I am. We can do it legally
from Germany. I'd done that research as an
American. Or if we have to go back home
stateside, I can do it there. Well, for 24
years, my whole identity had been wrapped
up in his career. You walk in a place and
(52:26):
you're not known by who you are. But at
that time, he was master Sergeant Monley
in some branches, first Sergeant Mundley
and he worked in the intel industry, in
the military intelligence field. And so
all of the things and stuff that go with
that, and now here we are. That's no
longer going to be the case. Well, who am
(52:48):
know or if I'm dealing with my children.
I'm Dariel Devante, Denise, David and mom.
But who am I? That part was, I was
unpacking that and so, oh, now I've got to
be this wonderful business owner, got to
have this fabulous company. So I'm dumping
all of my time in it because the four
older children had been off to college and
(53:09):
they were gone. We just had the one
youngest son, and he was very independent.
He was in the 9th grade going to the 10th
grade. So I spent insane hours, insane
hours building that company to where my
husband would come in looking for me and
(53:30):
come in the office and just stand behind
my computer looking like, when are you
coming down these stairs? Or my children,
or then I noticed my grandchildren would
come in and come to the office and say,
oh, you're working, and then just turn
around and leave, not come give granny a
hug or anything like that. And I realized
(53:50):
after doing that, now, let's be clear, I
was not a genius in the first 90 days. I
wasn't even a genius in the first year
with that. It took me a while for that to
resonate with me and know that, okay, this
can't be, this can't continue. We've done
that for 24 years because the army ran our
life and we didn't have no, we didn't have
(54:12):
a walk away power. But now we're not going
to reverse that role to where now I'm the
person that's doing it. But I have full
control. My husband had no control. I will
have full control. And this is a decision
I'm making, and it's an unhealthy decision
coming from an unhealthy place. So what
are we going to do about it? So then you
(54:32):
do the work. And I found that over time,
it didn't hurt my business. Those clients
who were going to be connected to me, that
divinely connected to me, they're still my
clients. Those people who are going to
resonate with me because of who I am
authentically, even in transparent moments
where I've shared pieces of the story, and
(54:54):
I'll find that, oh, no, we're going to
connect with you even more. You're going
to connect with me, but you have to build
the personal brand. Yes. You have to show
up and be authentically yourself. Yes. But
it's showing up from the healthy part of
you and having some firm boundaries in
place that where I'm from, it's a saying,
all money isn't good money that has a
(55:17):
powerful meaning and believe it and know
it and operate in it, and you'll find that
you'll have a healthier, happier life and
business. Because in those terms, we've
defined success for ourselves instead of
letting other people, clients included,
define it for us. Because we've left
(55:38):
corporate, because we don't want to be a
slave to the corporate plantation. Don't
come into your business and then do the
same thing. Yeah. And it's very easy for
you to do it, too. I'm not going to say
there's nothing wrong with it, but as
people, what makes us comfortable, it's
what we've learned. And so you do have to
adapt and change. When I opened my agency,
(56:02):
I came from the corporate world, working
with large brands like the Suns. I worked
for Pearson Education. But a lot of the
stuff that we did was production based,
the tangible stuff. We created a lot of
the tangibles. And so that's how my agency
slowly started to grow, was in that way.
(56:24):
And I kept asking, what's wrong? Why am I
not happy? Why is this not working for me?
And it wasn't until I was like, it's
because I'm not really helping people. I
am. I'm giving them stuff, I'm helping
them get clients, but if they're still
(56:46):
unhappy personally, then they're still
going to have roadblocks on them finding
their success. Right. Which is what we've
talked about. And so that's where I came
to my realization, where I'm like, oh, I
need to go out and speak more. I need to
go out and I need to start consulting more
(57:08):
and helping them understand the importance
of branding as a person and helping them
really build that within their brand.
Because if I don't, then there's a good
chance that they're not going to be able
to go from here to there because they're
not going to know how. Yeah, that's real
good. That's real good. It has to start on
(57:28):
the inside of the person. It has to start
on the inside of the person. And when
that's done, you'll see the positive
impact in their personal life, but
definitely in their brand, in their
business. You'll see that growth, even if
that growth means I transition from this
to that. Because am I showing up in this
(57:53):
business? Because again, it was from an
unhealthy place, and I'm trying to give
1000% for something that's actually not in
true alignment with me. So I need to make
that pivot so that I can show up from a
healthy place. And this thing that I'm
doing now is in perfect alignment with me,
(58:13):
and let's watch it grow. And it doesn't
mean that the first business didn't make
money. It probably made a lot of money.
But were you fulfilled even if it meant,
okay, my business name or anything? I'm
not rebranding, but perhaps I'm going to
change my target market. I'm still going
to do what I'm doing, but maybe I need to
change my target market so I'm more in
(58:36):
alignment with who I am and my ability to
serve people. Because am I serving people
or am I serving. I mean, the corporation
is a group of people, but am I serving
them? Because just helping them close
sales, that doesn't mean I'm serving them.
But how am I serving them? We could
(58:58):
definitely have many conversations. That's
a fun conversation right there that I'd
love to have, actually. Am I actually
serving them? Well, actually serving the
people that we said we're serving. Right.
Well, get this. It wasn't until I went on,
about a year ago now, I went on a
spiritual walk. I had a spiritual day with
(59:18):
one of my coaches. He was great guy. And
it was actually probably one of the only
coaches I've had that actually has helped
me through the things that I feel like are
tangibly needed to make it to the next
level. And I remember coming home crying
to my wife because I'm like, my feelings
of being unseen and unheard. I was over
(59:41):
serving clients. I was over serving. I was
expecting too much out of my business. And
it wasn't until I had went on a spiritual
walk I realized that I'm like, my family
is there for me. They hear me, they see
me. I'm just putting too many of certain
(01:00:02):
types of emotions and expecting too much
out of what I am doing for others that I'm
not looking at. I can transition those
emotions in those situations towards other
parts of my life. And I think that comes a
lot with getting burnout in business.
You're just expecting too much on
(01:00:26):
something making you happy when that
should only be a leg to the chair. Yeah.
Listen, this is an amazing conversation.
Let me go ahead and apologize to you for
not being mindful of your time today. It's
all good, but I'm definitely looking
(01:00:48):
forward to our next conversation, and we
can dive more into that, because I'd
really like to unpack that spiritual day
that you have. Because as humans, as
business owners, we've got to realize that
we're triumph beings. We're spirit, soul,
and body. And when we take care of all of
(01:01:08):
those components, it shows up for us in a
magnificent way. So I definitely love to
have to dive deeper into that experience
and how it helped, not just on a personal
level, but how you were able to see the
fruits from that in your business. Yeah,
definitely would love to. Listen, I know
I'm over my time. I apologize. But please
(01:01:31):
let the toolbox audience know how they can
connect with you and stay connected to you
and what you have coming up. Yeah,
definitely. So we've recently come out
with our private podcast. This private
podcast is a three episode series limited
to people that are looking to get out of
(01:01:53):
being stuck and move to building a much
more sustainable lead flow that can be
worth their while as they continue to grow
slowly and steadily. And through this
private podcast, you'll be able to
discover and be able to build the three
pillars that really help you start to
(01:02:14):
cultivate that community that you're
really thriving to build within your brand
and your business. You can find us, and
you can reach out to us through
that@leavethatmark.com. And you'll be able
to subscribe to that private podcast and
hear more of me talking. Make sure you
(01:02:36):
guys reach out and get subscribed to his
private podcast because I know he has some
amazing jewels to share. Listen, Zach,
thank you again. Those of you that are
tuning in to Laquita's toolbox, if this is
your first welcome, welcome. I know you've
been blessed by the content you received
today for my returning listeners. Hey,
y'all, thank you for tuning in. We
(01:02:58):
appreciate you, as always. Until next
time, I am your host, Laquita Monley. You
guys be blessed and have an amazing rest
Welcome back to another amazing episode of
(00:05):
Laquita's Toolbox. I am your host, Laquita
Mondley, and we are coming at you today
with another amazing episode and a really
great guest here. His name is Zach and I
cannot wait for you guys to meet him. So
for those that are returning listeners,
you know the drill. Get something to write
with and something to write on. Because we
(00:26):
know pen and paper, they don't forget, but
sometimes we do. And we want to write them
down to make sure that we can make proper
application of the tools that Zach will be
sharing with us today. But before we jump
into our conversation with Zach, let me
take a moment to thank our sponsors at
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(00:47):
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Again, that's www. Covenant. [unk]press
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(01:09):
they contain valuable codes. And when you
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purchases with Covenantpress. Again,
that's WW, Covenant Press. Listen, Zach,
welcome. Welcome to the toolbox. I'm so
excited to have you, sir. How are you
(01:31):
today? I am doing fantastic. A little bit
sick, but overall, fantastic. Thank you.
Awesome. Every day that we can wake up on
this side of the dirt, I like to say it's
fantastic. And I really have to remind
myself of that on days. Yeah. But on this
thankful Thursday, welcome to the toolbox.
(01:51):
And take a moment, please, if you don't
mind, to introduce yourself to the toolbox
audience. Well, my name is Zach Coleman
and I own an athletic driven branding
agency that helps gym leaders build their
brand through community and digital
(02:12):
experiences. Now that sounds exciting.
Zach, how exactly do you do that? Because
when I think about, and I say that, and me
and my husband have a workout program that
we purchased and it's right on my Apple
TV. But you're talking in like, a physical
location gyms, right? I am. So how does
(02:36):
that work? Explain that to me, because I'm
curious. Well, I think we'd have to take a
little step back, right? I think that with
everything going on with the digital
marketing world, and if you just say
online world and digital world, I feel
(02:57):
like a lot of people kind of get what I
call marketing fatigue. They think that,
hey, I have to try everything. I have to
go on social media. I have to do this. I
mean, I own a marketing agency. And I'll
tell you what, I've had marketing fatigue
myself millions of times because you feel
(03:19):
like you just have all this stuff at your
capabilities to try things, do different
things. And I think with the online space,
if you're a personal trainer or doing
something online, you have a little bit of
a different type of strategy. Your
strategy isn't so much a physical
(03:42):
location. Like for me, for instance, I'm
in Arizona. So if I wanted to market a gym
that was local to me, their members and
the people that would be willing to go to
that gym to get that experience would be
only driving one or 2 miles, right? Where
(04:03):
if you're online, you're like, all right,
well, they can find me easier, but I have
a million. What is it? How many people are
in the world now? 20 billion people that
I'm marketing to now, instead of just this
two to 3 million there in my little local
location. And so when you're doing an
(04:23):
online thing, it's a little bit
differently. It's a little bit different.
You have to put a lot more money to your
Marketing. You have to put a lot more time
and energy to be seen from the People
online where when you're a gym, I think
that, or you're a Physical Location, you
think that you need to market to all those
(04:43):
people. But in reality, it's much easier
to take a step back and say, hey, you know
what? I really just need to focus on the 3
million people within a two to three mile
radius of where I live or where my gym is.
And so I think that would probably be, and
(05:06):
we work with athletes as well. We've
worked with athletes. We've worked with a
lot of online businesses as well. It's a
different audience, or how I would put it,
you have a much larger audience that you
have to start focusing on. So you said
(05:27):
something there with the burnout that
comes with marketing, and I thought that
was just me because I have no idea what
I'm doing. But to hear the experts say it.
So partnering or knowing when to partner
or having the right team members in that
time as a brand, and we're talking no
matter what brand it is. But for you,
(05:49):
specifically gyms, how necessary is that
for them in this day and age to be able to
keep their doors open and what, I mean,
like customer tension and not just
customer acquisition? Well, I think that's
part of the problem. I think that a lot of
(06:09):
people in this day and age, they just
focus on acquisition. I'm not going to put
any of my so called non vertical
competitors on the board here, but you do
see a lot of them kind of saying, hey,
just reach out to a million people and
just cold call or call a million people
and see if you can get people in the door.
(06:32):
And to be honest, when you're a personal
brand or you're under, let's say, 500,000
a year mark, you are going to have a lot
of those trial periods, you are going to
have a lot of marketing fatigue, finding
out your services, enhancing things,
building offers, I think that's common in
(06:53):
the validation stage of trying to grow
anything, let alone the owners around it.
Evolving as people and saying, oh, now I
have different metrics of success that I'm
looking for. I think those kind of go hand
in hand, which is a different story. But I
think at the end of the day, yeah, myself,
(07:18):
I know how to do the things. And so that's
what made it very hard for me to slow down
and be like, I can do this, this and this.
I can do them all very well. But really
trying to find one or two things marketing
wise that you can do. And back to your
(07:39):
point, when you're under a certain amount,
there is a lot of businesses out there,
and I think it's very common for people
that are in the corporate world or people
that may be in leadership roles, a gym or
anything that may not necessarily be the
(08:00):
owner. Don't understand that, hey, top
line revenue, you're making a million
dollars you don't need, or they don't
necessarily have thousands of employees.
People are so used to seeing these big box
gyms or these 50 million to a billion
(08:23):
dollar companies and they're like, oh,
they have millions of employees. No, when
you're small, you maybe have one or two,
maybe three. And I think that when you're
smaller, you get into the grasp of your
first real move as a personal brand and as
(08:44):
you're trying to sell yourself is you kind
of transition into what I call going from
a me to an us. I mean, a me to a we.
Sorry, you go from a me to a we, which is
your mindset starts to shift and you go
from a manager to a leader because you
(09:05):
hear everyone just say, delegate,
delegate. So that's what you do, right?
You hire other marketers, you hire video
editors, you hire something. If you're a
personal brand and or you're hiring an
agency. I mean, I have the same problems
because I have to hire a team to do things
right. That you get to a point where you
realize that you're just getting fatigued
because you're a manager, you went from
(09:27):
doing the work to managing the work, which
is really, you're still changing time for
trading time for money. You just gave
yourself a different title. And for you to
really evolve into the we aspect and
becoming more of a leader, it happens
around that mark, right? You kind of have
to start saying, oh, well, you realize
(09:50):
that, hey, I'm making a good amount of
money, I'm happy, or I feel like I've
reached a milestone that I feel like I can
reach personally, but it's not about me
anymore. You start to get out of that
spectrum of wanting it all just to be
(10:11):
about this invisible number of success,
because you realize, bottom line is way
different than top line. And so you start
to be like, oh, I actually want to help
other people succeed. I want to help other
people learn this stuff. I want to start
not just delegating my services off, but
(10:32):
bringing people onto the team that have
similar values, have similar aspirations,
enjoy what they're doing. And so as you
start to become more of a leader, that's
kind of the transition period that a lot
of business owners or a lot of even
(10:52):
personal brands have to take to become
more of a we brand. And then to go to an
us, it's really just aligning that team
and yourself with the clients, the
clients. To go back to your original
hypothesis of, oh, what's different from
(11:14):
owning a physical location compared to
going online? Well, there's really only
two differences. One, a gym has an actual
location. So like I said, you could target
just the people within a three mile
radius. And your marketing is much easier
because you don't have to spray the wall
to the whole world. But two, you have the
(11:42):
ability to have group classes or sell
certain things in bulk. And so as an
online brand, if you're like an online
personal trainer and or an online
situation, trying to start building more
cohorts or building situations where you
can make the same amount per individual,
(12:05):
but being able to do it in a group setting
so that you're not spending your time
training one person or training just a
handful of people, being able to train a
whole bunch of people. And that's really
only the two differences that I see
between having a gym and an online space
is you have that, but really, at the end
(12:27):
of the day, it's expenses. Right? An
online brand, I see a lot of people
thinking that, oh, if I'm going to be a
personal brand, that really means I don't
have all the responsibility of hiring a
team. I don't have the responsibility of
(12:48):
owning a location and having the expense
of paying 2003 $4,000 a month for this
location. Pay that in the tools you need
to be successful online. Yeah, for an
online, it's a little bit different
because you look at a gym, for instance,
and a very healthy gym, a very healthy
(13:10):
gym. And this is in most industries that
have a location, restaurants, et cetera.
Gyms is about 10% profit margins.
Restaurants is about five. But that's a
different story. You have about a 10%
profit margin. That means they have about
(13:30):
10% of their profits that have to go to
marketing of not their profits of their
overall top line goes to marketing. So
usually about, that's where they only have
10% wiggle room there. So you have that
where you're online. People that are
online don't really think that way. They
just think, oh, I'm bringing a lot more
money into my pockets. But you do. You
(13:53):
have to put more to marketing. You just
have to, there's more people you have to
reach, and so you have to constantly put
more stuff out there and building stuff
online. And that's where a lot of that
fatigue comes from, is hearing someone
say, do social media or do this or do
that, and that bled into the space of
(14:14):
local retailers and local membership
things because they think the same thing.
They think, oh, hey, I have to be on
social media. I have to do social media.
Advertisement I have to do social media
posts of my workouts and stuff, though.
Those things can be effective. I've seen
that. What now? But there's no guarantee
(14:36):
even in that. Well, there's no guarantee
in anything, really. I heard this phrase
yesterday by, funny enough, one of my
coaches that really aligned with me, and
he mentioned something about, anyone can
kind of build a strategy, right? Anyone
could build a strategy, but it's the
(14:57):
person behind the strategy that makes it
effective. That makes sense. I like, know,
yeah, let me take a minute. Just, I know
you guys have been loving everything that
Zach has been putting out there, because
I've been loving everything that Zach has
been putting out there. So take this
moment, if you would, to go ahead and hit
those, like, share and subscribe buttons
(15:17):
on your favorite podcast listening
platform. And let's make sure that we get
this episode into the hands of those that,
you know, that it will be a blessing to,
because what he's talking about here,
these strategies and these principles are
not just for gym owners. These strategies
and these principles that he's talked
about so far for business owners, period.
(15:39):
So you want to make sure. We get this out
and we get this shared to as many people
as possible and make sure that you're
going to go in and check these show notes
so that you can know how to get in contact
with Zach. Because I know you're going to
have a thousand questions for him. Just
like questions. I have a thousand
questions for him because, you know,
(16:01):
whether it's the online space where under
the products that my husband and I use and
we got it during COVID just to be able to
spend some more time together. But yes,
workout is a program and I like the
program and it's an online workout program
and it's called Strength of seductions.
It's for couples. But I'm also looking at
(16:23):
it as a business owner. They put a lot of
money into that marketing and to that
branding and to all of the things. And
this is just online. I can't imagine. And
it's the couple that created it, even
building their personal brand. So when
(16:43):
you're talking to gym owners that aren't a
part of a big box franchise, how much of
their success in this space depends on
their ability to build a strong personal
brand that helps draw people to that
business or does it not work like that?
Well, I think it's funny because I think
we just kind of said the definition of
(17:05):
branding within that last statement we
talked about before the break, which was
it's the people behind the strategy that
actually makes the difference. I think
that if we wanted to go deep into this
conversation, I always tell people, I'm a
(17:30):
marketer that hates marketing and it's
because that marketing fatigue and the
premise of everyone thinking that they
have to push the tangibles, they have to
say, I need a website, I need to put
content out there, I need to do this. But
none of that's as effective as the person
(17:54):
behind the leadership roles, the business
owners. And that in itself is branding.
That in itself is branding. You go to any
sort of like these people that you were
talking about that you work out online. If
they're very authentic and you can feel
it, that you probably wouldn't be watching
(18:14):
them if you didn't feel that they were
authentic, if you didn't feel that they
had authentic, they were there to help,
they had a vision in line with what they
were doing. You probably would not be
watching them. You probably would be like,
they don't match me. They don't match who
I am in situations like that. So it is
very important, I think, that a lot of
(18:35):
people fall into the trap. I fell into the
trap too, because I do the tangibles for a
living, which is I was in this identity
trap, so to say. I was literally pushing
content out there constantly. I was trying
to do all these things because I thought
that that's what I needed to do and I had
(18:55):
the team to do it right. I had to take a
step back and I had to tell myself, what
do I want? How do I want to lead? What are
the things that are going to make me happy
personally? And that's why I said earlier
before on like KPI, personal KPIs, because
those personal KPIs, me going to the gym
(19:17):
and going for runs, getting my meditation
in doing that stuff for myself actually
has helped me be much more clear minded in
the actionable items that I need to do to
make it to that next level. I like it.
Coming back to your original question, I
think that it's very important. I think
(19:39):
that smaller gyms do have the problem of
they try to do too much at once, they try
to do too much at once. They try to go in
and say, oh, we want to sell products or
we want to. Actually, that's the biggest
one I see is they say, let's sell products
now, when in reality it's like, hey,
(20:00):
you're now trying to compete in the online
space, not the local space. So you'd have
to put way more towards marketing for
that. Nothing wrong with that. But until
you have like three or four locations, if
you're a gym owner that's at stage four
and you're expanding and you need to start
worrying about design consistency and you
have a little more budget, then, yeah, you
(20:20):
can kind of kill two birds with 1 st by
some of the marketing efforts that you do.
But it's down to the leadership. I always
say my superpower is I can see a company
online or even in person and I can tell
how good that company is at actually
giving results and being there for the
(20:43):
contribution of everyone just by seeing
their marketing collateral, just by
saying, how good are they doing here? How
good are they doing there? And I may be
biased because I do it for a living, but
if you think about it, all that marketing
collateral, all that marketing material
comes down to how they're leading their
team and how they're trying to get
(21:05):
clients. And if they're doing it in a way
that's skeezy. They have bad customer
service, they have this. And that's pretty
obvious up front. And that's part of the
way the leadership roles are as people.
And that's why branding in itself is much
more than just that logo or that website,
those are definitely a part of it. Those
(21:26):
tangibles do play a part. But those
intangibles of being authentic and
actually serving people that you want to
serve, that you can help and being able to
identify the problems and solutions that
you can do for a particular type of person
(21:46):
are going to be what gets you from that
stage two to stage three, which is
basically just what you did to get to 250
to 500,000 depending on what you're in,
what business you own, isn't going to get
(22:06):
you to a million, isn't going to get you
to 3 million. It's a completely different
set of objectives and solutions and
results. And I feel like a lot of people
miss that. And that's part of what holds
them back and that's part of what even
gives them burnout when they're trying to
make it to that next level. When we're
(22:27):
trying to make it to that next level. And
I'm looking at this for me personally from
more than a gym standpoint, because
everything that you're saying and have
said, it works for online model for gym.
It works for an in person model for gym,
but it works in an online model. If I was
(22:50):
selling lipstick or trainers or cars or
whatever, if we're not having some of
these things, like we'll take it back to
something that we briefly ran over when I
commented, is this more customer retention
focus or is it more customer acquisition
(23:10):
focus? And you commented, unfortunately, a
lot of people or a lot of gyms are just
more focused on a customer acquisition
focus. If that's the focus of any company.
When we're looking at scaling and growing,
I can see why fatigue and burnout happens.
According to what you said, you will
(23:31):
forever and ever and ever be judging what
we're doing or we're looking at our
bottom, we're looking at our earnings, and
it's like, gosh, we lost 50 people, but I
gained 150 people. But did that balance
out? It's so annoying to me because you're
(23:54):
correct. I always tell clients, your
biggest metric for business growth isn't
your client acquisition. Yes, it's
important and you should always be
focusing on your marketing and spreading
your message. But it's the retention.
(24:16):
Retention or lower churn rate. If you're a
gym, it's lower churn rate. Like how do
you keep members on longer? That's what it
comes down to. And I've seen it go both
ways. You could talk about it in any
industry. I think ecommerce, for instance,
if you're selling products online.
Retention is a very hard metric to push
(24:40):
for. Right? You're usually just trying to
sell one off products to people over and
over and over and over again when it's
like, how could you find a way to have
this be more of a retention based model? I
mean, I would say that's being more human
to human and building something that
relates. I think that's why subscription
(25:01):
box companies have gotten so big. Yeah. In
the coaching and speaking space, or let's
say coaching space, that has been
something. And even for me as a podcaster,
in any space, subscription services have
been the aha. Like, oh, this is the next
(25:21):
bright idea. No, it's not. It's not the
next bright idea. You just figured out
that you can actually make more money when
you keep people than trying to get new
people all the time. But that's my
soapbox. We won't get on it today. I've
had clients for eight years. I've had
clients ever since I opened the business,
(25:41):
and some of them I adore and I'll do
anything for. I'll go over the wall for
them because they pay us a lot of money
and we built good relationships. That's
not always going to happen though, right?
Things change, things grow, people
rebrand, people evolve, and so there's
always time to let people go, or vice
versa. But at the end of the day, what you
(26:04):
said is true. I've come to a period where
I'm in a B to B space. I'm not in a B to C
space. I don't have to market to 3 million
people. I have to bring more quality to a
smaller amount of individuals. I mean, I
sell ten clients, I'm at a million. So why
(26:26):
would I focus so much on acquisition
myself if the retention and making my
clients happy is my main metric for
success? Because it's going to hurdle. So
I don't need to bring on ten clients a
month. I don't need to bring on 20 clients
a month. And that's a large number for the
(26:48):
type of business I'm in. But if you're
like a gym or an ecommerce store, of
course those numbers are much higher
because you are b to c. But I need one. If
I can bring one client a month on and like
you said, just grow at a steady pace where
I can really watch my team and I can
(27:10):
evolve the inner workings of the business
as I grow, instead of trying to, what you
said, bring on 150 and then, oh, what
broke? Let's fix this. And drop 50. I feel
like companies too much. Why do you think
there's so many hiring and firings all the
time? I think so many companies are like,
oh, we need to hire on all these people
(27:31):
all the time. And then it just causes
their we of their team to be disoriented
and uncommuntative, and then it just
causes even more problems because no one
sees the inner workings. I mean, I told
you earlier, I kind of can by seeing
certain things, but majority of people
can't. I agree with you 100%. I think
(27:54):
retention is by far the most important
thing that anyone can try to bring on into
their business. And you could just call
that the reoccurring model if you want to.
But I look at more as, how can I continue
to bring value to people as they evolve
and as they grow? As they grow? I'm really
(28:17):
big on retention, having moved from
employee to, I like to say, partner with
those that work for me. We're in a
partnership. I've been an unhappy
employee. I've been an even unhappier
supervisor. And it usually, in the end,
boil down to retaining the right people in
(28:39):
the right positions and how much that cost
versus, oh, we're always doing some type
of hiring because this person quit. This
person moved on. This person did something
and an amount of money and energy that it
went through when we could have just done
a couple of simple things and this person
would not have left, at least in that
(29:01):
manner that they left. Because even as you
said, as your b to b, like, a lot of my
customers are business owners, and they
come on the show for exposure, or we have
companies that come on, okay, I want to
buy a slot, whether it's here on the
podcast or on my TV show. It's companies
who want to expand in their advertisement,
(29:23):
and they want to advertise on streaming
TV. It's hard to get that customer, but if
I get a set amount of customers, I'm good
now, keeping them past three months, six
months, one year, two year on as sponsors
for. It's easier to do that. And even
(29:43):
then, if they said, okay, LaQuita, we have
maxed out what we think we can do in your
space, but we love what you've done for
us, but it's time for us to move on to a
bigger space. Great. But them leaving in
that manner, they're still a cheerleader
for me. They're still advocating that,
(30:07):
hey, if you want to start out and have
your ad dollars add up and give you a
great ROI, advertise on her podcast.
Advertise on her TV show. Come be a guest
just on the TV show. Come be a guest on
the podcast. Know you have a function
going on. Invite her to be a speaker.
You'll see an ROI, though. They may be
(30:29):
like, okay, LaQuita, we've moved on
because now I'm on John Maxwell stage, or
I'm on Valerie Burton's stage. I'm. I'm on
Mr. Beast podcast or something like that
now. Great. But they're still going to
give me positive raving reviews. That's
going to help bring in. Either they're
going to introduce me to their replacement
(30:49):
client, or that replacement client is
going to say, hey, how did you hear about
me? Oh, I heard about you from John,
because he's been singing your praises for
two years. So I want to come over here and
become a part of that. It's so much easier
to do. Is. It is. And it's funny because
(31:10):
going back to the digital marketing space
and the way the world has kind of pushed,
like, social media and the situation is
the world has become very transactional.
It's become very transactional. And
there's nothing wrong with doing a CTA.
(31:30):
There's nothing wrong with saying, hey, a
give and take or to ask for something,
especially when you're giving good value
to people. But so many times I get people
that will just look at me as a number and
be like, oh, we can find someone else that
does this who says, I want to work with
you. I don't feel jolly or happy when you
(31:57):
could pay me five grand a month or ten
grand a month. I mean, in fact, I had a
client last year, and this kind of goes
hand in hand with what you were saying
earlier with your own partners, is going
from a me to a. We isn't necessarily
having to be team members. You can have
partners that follow similar values as
(32:19):
you, and you can have clients that follow
similar values as you do. And sometimes
people fall through the cracks. You think
that they match certain things and they
don't. And at the end of the day, it's
okay. It's like we just don't match the
same values. And I had a client last year,
and they were, they were paying us ten k a
(32:40):
month. We had a guaranteed year contract.
So that got us end of the year. We did our
due diligence. He seemed like a really
great guy. We brought him on, and then
about a month and a half into the
contract, he completely shifted. I mean,
he was okay on the phone, but those emails
(33:02):
that came through sporadic mean, trying to
change our services, trying to say, you
have to do this desperate. He had
something, what I call in my industry's ex
girlfriend syndrome, where he was blaming
everything on us compared to what happened
to him in his last relationship. But I
(33:24):
eventually canceled out his contract. I
didn't go after him for the extra money. I
just was like, you know what? Yes, we
would have about 50 to 60 that we're
losing out on this year. But at the end of
the day, I was like, I'd be spending more
in therapy. I can't do this. And so I had
(33:44):
to let them go because I couldn't handle
it. And those are the situations that I
just see happening and not letting people
go, but having those situations are what I
see happen on a normal occasions for a lot
of people, which make them kind of unhappy
and is part of the reasoning why they
(34:06):
can't shift their mentality to that next
stage of growth in a positive manner. And
a lot of it is due to the effects of being
able to have us market on social media and
do all that stuff. And I'm just not a fan
of cold, cold leads, cold calls, like
(34:30):
anything like that. I'm like, I'd rather
have someone come to us because they want
to come to us. So all of our marketing is
war marketing, which to me is more of a
branding tactic than it is a marketing
tactic. I'm sorry, people on here that do
marketing may say otherwise, but I don't.
(34:50):
I think that war marketing is really just
branding. I'm neither. I'm not a marketing
expert, definitely not a branding expert,
but I came also from a space of having
been a network marketer for a while,
guaranteed. It's so much easier to deal
(35:11):
with the warm market than it is a cold
market. And in this social media driven
age that we live in, no matter what your
business is. I had a previous podcast
guest, she was 75 and she's out here in
(35:31):
these social media streets killing it.
She's doing 1000 times better on TikTok
than I ever would hope to. It's like, go
ahead, grandma, you do your thing. But
people, that's where you get your warm
market from. I was in an interview this
morning where when we're showing up in the
(35:53):
places we need to show up as our authentic
self, just from a personal branding
perspective, I've had clients to tell me,
oh, I've been following you, and then
they'll tell you about the different
things and stuff that you've said or done
or whatever was captivating to them. And
then they came and they did business with
(36:13):
me. It wasn't, well, Laquita, tell me what
you offer. It was, no, I know you have
this. This is what I want. And how do I
pay and when can we get started? By the
time they came to me, to me, that's a warm
market, because now they're familiar with
me, because they've taken the time and did
(36:33):
their due diligence. Whether it's 18
months, twelve months, six months, most of
the time when something like that happens,
it's usually around the 18 to 24 month
mark for me, where that happens, and
especially if I've seen them show up
where, okay, I noticed that person. I
didn't notice when they subscribed to my
(36:55):
email campaign, but I did notice when they
hit a reply or when they sent a message or
something like that, because I'd like to
do that part as a human touch. I'm
actually looking at that. I've seen that
name before, or I enjoy live streams, so
I've seen that person comment before, and
now here I am having a real life
(37:17):
conversation with this person. And now
that person has become my client. To me,
it's so much easier to do that. I'm not
picking up the phone to cold call. I'm
just not doing that. I'm just not doing
that. I know you'll hear it from multiple
people, and I'll be honest with you, it
goes both ways. And I think that that's
(37:40):
kind of a problem within the energy a lot
of business owners put out into the world
is they don't match their own values.
Right? For me, for instance, I don't do
cold calling either. The only way I'll
email someone cold is if there's an intent
involved. If it's like, hey, I knew you
(38:00):
were already looking for this stuff. I
heard it from the grapevine that you're
looking. I heard someone gave me your
information and you're looking for it. I
thought I'd reach out. Yeah, then I'll
reach out and make an introduction. But I
think that I've spent so much money and
time on making sure the people that come
(38:23):
in and want to work with me match my
values, like, match our stuff. And I think
that I'll get people on the call and
they'll be like, our first call and
they'll be like, oh, so tell us about some
of the clients you've worked with. And I'm
(38:43):
like, didn't you go through the six emails
I sent you or our website where we spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars on making
sure that you got enough information about
us so you felt like we were a good fit.
And they don't. And I'm not asking people,
of course, to spend hours and hours and
(39:03):
hours of due diligence, but it should go
both ways. People should be looking at
vendors or looking at the people they want
to partner with, just like the people that
are looking to hire them. They should be
having an equal opportunity there to be
like, yeah, I think we relate to each
(39:24):
other and we would be a good fit to work
to each other. I mean, when that client
left last year, one of our partners prayed
with me. He was like, they were working on
part of the solution with us, with them.
And he's like, let's jump on a call. And
he prayed with me. And I appreciated that
ability for him to be not just like, oh,
(39:47):
well, sucks, you'll get the next one. I do
feel like we all just need to be able to
say, hey, what are my values? What are the
things that I really, because what I
portray myself and who I am, and that is
branding, right? What I portray myself,
who I am, and I don't care what it is. If
(40:09):
you want to be an ahole and that's your
personality, then you're probably going to
attract other aholes. But that's your
right to be that type of person because
that's who you want to be. I would say
there's trauma involved in the reason
they're like that, but that's a whole
different topic in itself. But I could go
(40:32):
off in many different directions with
these conversations. But yeah, I feel like
being able to kind of figure out who you
are and going even further back to is it
important for gym leaders or business
owners to brand themselves personally?
Yes, I think it's important for everyone.
(40:53):
And I think that, yes, if you're just
starting out and you're finding yourself
totally understandable why you're at a
certain spot. But I think that the
correlation between business growth and a
human and being, who they truly are,
really kind of intersect at a similar
spot. And I think that's why you see a lot
of business owners that make it to what we
(41:17):
call in the business world the value death
period. And then they either quit or they
decide they have to pivot because they
personally find different metrics for
success. And I think that correlation, and
you and I talked a little bit before we
jumped on this call about me and having
(41:37):
children. That was a huge thing for me
personally. That helped me even pivot the
way I am marketing my business. And so
that shows you how the personal business
owners behind the scenes or the ones
building the personal brand themselves,
why it's so important for them just to be
(41:58):
themselves and market the way they want to
market. Absolutely. I know you said that.
I thought about one of my husband and I in
2017, we owned a virtual call center, and
we were subcontractors through a larger
company called Arise. And the reason that,
(42:20):
for me, that I chose to partner with that
is because I've been a military wife at
that point, he had just retired, so a
military wife for like, 24 plus years. And
one of the things that was hard for me was
to maintain a career because we were
always moving every couple of years. And
(42:40):
so when I saw this company, and it allowed
the individuals who took the calls from
the major companies, they were contracted
with lots of major brands, and the people
who were answering the phones were doing
it from home, and they created their own
schedule. That resonated with me in a
(43:01):
special place, as a wife, as a mom, as
someone who lived a transient life,
because we go where the army says we had
to go, that was something that, with that
company, they resonated with my personal
core values. And I was happy to do
(43:22):
interviews with other women, other single
parents, other single dads, or even people
who, this was their part time job because
they need to meet ends meet. Like, all of
those things at one point had been my
family story. So to be able to empower
somebody, because that's how I felt.
Empower them with not only a way to earn
(43:43):
extra money for your family, but be able
to do it and keep your priority. Your
priority. When you started to have
children, that shift happened. For a lot
of us, that shift happens. But sometimes
we don't get to do what we want to do
because somebody else is telling us what
we have to do, and somebody else is
(44:05):
telling us, you're going to do this 65
hours a week, you're going to do this 40
hours was a week, and I'm only going to
pay you. I'm going to max you out at $30
an hour. That's all you're going to get
from me. But you're going to do everything
that I tell you to do when I tell you to
do it. And your family has to fit in when
they can fit in where now you can do
exactly what you want to do. Even today
(44:26):
with us, like success for me now, I've had
so much fun at that program for my
grandbabies today. You did, and I did. It
was so amazing. But there was a time where
I wouldn't have been able to do that.
Yeah. Even as a business owner, I would
have been afraid to do that. This isn't
(44:49):
just me being somebody's employee, this is
even me being a business owner. How that
transition has happened for me over the
years where there would have been a time,
I would have been like, honey, can you
video it for me and I'll watch it when you
come back because I've got to do this. But
as we grow and we evolve and we understand
(45:09):
our power, we take more responsibility in
our personal development. You'll see that
shift. And that's how we are able to
connect with people and know when we are
aligned. Some people don't even know what
that means to be aligned with your ideal
customer or their mission, their vision,
(45:30):
their core values. Are they in alignment
with yours? They don't know to check for
it because the things that are put before
us is, are they going to pay? You know how
hard that would have been for some people
to walk away? Yes. You do know how hard it
would have been for some people to have
walked away from that toxic client either.
Like, man, just make it to the end of the
contract. No, that's not more important to
(45:52):
me. It was very hard for me, I will admit
it was a very hard decision. But I
remember right when he was gone. So here's
the funny thing with that client, and I'm
not going to say who he is because I'm
just not that kind of person. But other
people will figure out themselves when
(46:13):
they try to buy his products. But he owned
a health and wellness ecom brand. And I'm
looking at it and I'm saying, I'm like,
because of the type of person you are, I
would never feel comfortable buying your
products. Like, there's no way in heck I
would rely on your products. How do I know
(46:35):
that they're even safe? Because if you're
this type of person, then do you really
care? Do you care enough to think about
the client and the services that you are
providing? And that's branding in itself,
right? That's what it really comes down
to. And back to your point, I think it's
very important for people to realize is
(46:58):
you mentioned, hey, business owner. You
had to realize it. Even as a business
owner, that's what I had to go through.
Because when you first start a business,
no matter what business you're in, even
when you're probably doing the call center
stuff with your husband, I learned so much
in the first year of business that I
(47:20):
learned many years in the corporate world.
And it was one of those situations where
when I was out, I was learning so much.
But then you just get caught up. You get
caught up in like, oh, I have to survive,
I have to grow, which is fine. There's
going to be part of you that has to make
that next sale or has to do something, has
to learn, has to grow, especially at the
very beginning. But you lose yourself. You
(47:44):
lose yourself in the process of trying to,
how do I explain it? It's like you're
chasing this invisible number. You're just
like, oh. And a lot of it came down to I
was very unseen and unheard as a child. My
(48:07):
dad was an NFL player. I played soccer
growing up and I'm not going to go deep
into this story too much, but my business
was growing around that traumatic
experience of, oh, if I make it to a
million, I make it to 2 million, top line
people will see it and I'll be heard by
all the people around me. Very similar
(48:29):
situation, but different occurrences
happen to gym owners because I did. I
started taking up working out as a way for
me to really, it was a way for me to
reduce my anxiety and my mental health and
all that. But I didn't realize that at
first either. I was like, oh, I'm going to
look buff. I'm going to do this, I'm going
to showcase it. And as a business owner,
(48:52):
you start to be like, well, is this
important? I mean, when my first child was
born, my first child was born, I remember,
and I was just talking about my wife about
this the other day and I'm thinking I'm
going to do some sort of speech on this of
some sort because I'm going to have three
children now and each experience is going
(49:12):
to be uniquely different and better. But
when I had my first child, I remember we
were at the hospital and I got a call from
a potential client that I've been over
serving like crazy, going back and forth
over and over again to try to make a sale
and say, hey, we need to jump on a call at
like twelve. And it was like 1015. And we
(49:34):
were at the hospital, it was like day two
and I'm like, love, I have to get home. I
have to get on this call. It's a potential
large sale. And I did, I went home, I was
like five minutes late because we rushed
home from the hospital and I'm like, I'm
sorry, guys. I just had my baby and I
jumped on this call. I look back at that
and how ungrounded and unpresent I was
(49:57):
around my family. And I'm like, man. And
it's very easy for business owners of any
size to get trapped in that mentality, no
matter how big you are. I see $20 million
business owners that still work 50 hours,
5100 hours, work weeks, and they're
(50:19):
miserable. And it's like, all right, well,
I'm not saying money is not important.
Money is an energy. And the trade
associated with money is really irrelevant
because people consider money's value
differently, even with the economy, no
matter where you're from. And so I look
(50:41):
back at that situation, I'm like, there's
no way I'm doing that. I did better on my
second one, my third one. I'm of course,
like, you know what? No, I'm taking two
days off. I may do a couple of slack
things with my team, but no, I'm even
thinking about taking two weeks off and
just simmering down and being present
around my wife and my kid because I want
(51:01):
to be around my family. Yeah, and you're
right. No matter being in this space, in
the leadership space. I know when we
opened the call center, my husband
retired, and we were living in Germany at
the time, stationed in Germany. We're
having this conversation. It's like, okay,
(51:22):
well, what do you want to be when you grow
up? No, I don't want to continue to be a
government employee. I don't want to be a
government contractor. I've been there.
I've done that. There's some security in
it. Yes, there's a lot of headache in it.
Absolutely. But I started to realize how
those things were defining me instead of
(51:43):
me defining me. So I don't want that. So
what do I want to do? Well, this business
came across, that partnership with arise
at the time it came to me, was brought to
me. I was like, okay, Lord, let's find out
about this. So the more I found out about
the business, the more I wanted to do it.
So I said, okay, honey, when you retire,
(52:04):
this is what I want to do. I'm going to
own this business because I can do it no
matter where I am. We can do it legally
from Germany. I'd done that research as an
American. Or if we have to go back home
stateside, I can do it there. Well, for 24
years, my whole identity had been wrapped
up in his career. You walk in a place and
(52:26):
you're not known by who you are. But at
that time, he was master Sergeant Monley
in some branches, first Sergeant Mundley
and he worked in the intel industry, in
the military intelligence field. And so
all of the things and stuff that go with
that, and now here we are. That's no
longer going to be the case. Well, who am
(52:48):
know or if I'm dealing with my children.
I'm Dariel Devante, Denise, David and mom.
But who am I? That part was, I was
unpacking that and so, oh, now I've got to
be this wonderful business owner, got to
have this fabulous company. So I'm dumping
all of my time in it because the four
older children had been off to college and
(53:09):
they were gone. We just had the one
youngest son, and he was very independent.
He was in the 9th grade going to the 10th
grade. So I spent insane hours, insane
hours building that company to where my
husband would come in looking for me and
(53:30):
come in the office and just stand behind
my computer looking like, when are you
coming down these stairs? Or my children,
or then I noticed my grandchildren would
come in and come to the office and say,
oh, you're working, and then just turn
around and leave, not come give granny a
hug or anything like that. And I realized
(53:50):
after doing that, now, let's be clear, I
was not a genius in the first 90 days. I
wasn't even a genius in the first year
with that. It took me a while for that to
resonate with me and know that, okay, this
can't be, this can't continue. We've done
that for 24 years because the army ran our
life and we didn't have no, we didn't have
(54:12):
a walk away power. But now we're not going
to reverse that role to where now I'm the
person that's doing it. But I have full
control. My husband had no control. I will
have full control. And this is a decision
I'm making, and it's an unhealthy decision
coming from an unhealthy place. So what
are we going to do about it? So then you
(54:32):
do the work. And I found that over time,
it didn't hurt my business. Those clients
who were going to be connected to me, that
divinely connected to me, they're still my
clients. Those people who are going to
resonate with me because of who I am
authentically, even in transparent moments
where I've shared pieces of the story, and
(54:54):
I'll find that, oh, no, we're going to
connect with you even more. You're going
to connect with me, but you have to build
the personal brand. Yes. You have to show
up and be authentically yourself. Yes. But
it's showing up from the healthy part of
you and having some firm boundaries in
place that where I'm from, it's a saying,
all money isn't good money that has a
(55:17):
powerful meaning and believe it and know
it and operate in it, and you'll find that
you'll have a healthier, happier life and
business. Because in those terms, we've
defined success for ourselves instead of
letting other people, clients included,
define it for us. Because we've left
(55:38):
corporate, because we don't want to be a
slave to the corporate plantation. Don't
come into your business and then do the
same thing. Yeah. And it's very easy for
you to do it, too. I'm not going to say
there's nothing wrong with it, but as
people, what makes us comfortable, it's
what we've learned. And so you do have to
adapt and change. When I opened my agency,
(56:02):
I came from the corporate world, working
with large brands like the Suns. I worked
for Pearson Education. But a lot of the
stuff that we did was production based,
the tangible stuff. We created a lot of
the tangibles. And so that's how my agency
slowly started to grow, was in that way.
(56:24):
And I kept asking, what's wrong? Why am I
not happy? Why is this not working for me?
And it wasn't until I was like, it's
because I'm not really helping people. I
am. I'm giving them stuff, I'm helping
them get clients, but if they're still
(56:46):
unhappy personally, then they're still
going to have roadblocks on them finding
their success. Right. Which is what we've
talked about. And so that's where I came
to my realization, where I'm like, oh, I
need to go out and speak more. I need to
go out and I need to start consulting more
(57:08):
and helping them understand the importance
of branding as a person and helping them
really build that within their brand.
Because if I don't, then there's a good
chance that they're not going to be able
to go from here to there because they're
not going to know how. Yeah, that's real
good. That's real good. It has to start on
(57:28):
the inside of the person. It has to start
on the inside of the person. And when
that's done, you'll see the positive
impact in their personal life, but
definitely in their brand, in their
business. You'll see that growth, even if
that growth means I transition from this
to that. Because am I showing up in this
(57:53):
business? Because again, it was from an
unhealthy place, and I'm trying to give
1000% for something that's actually not in
true alignment with me. So I need to make
that pivot so that I can show up from a
healthy place. And this thing that I'm
doing now is in perfect alignment with me,
(58:13):
and let's watch it grow. And it doesn't
mean that the first business didn't make
money. It probably made a lot of money.
But were you fulfilled even if it meant,
okay, my business name or anything? I'm
not rebranding, but perhaps I'm going to
change my target market. I'm still going
to do what I'm doing, but maybe I need to
change my target market so I'm more in
(58:36):
alignment with who I am and my ability to
serve people. Because am I serving people
or am I serving. I mean, the corporation
is a group of people, but am I serving
them? Because just helping them close
sales, that doesn't mean I'm serving them.
But how am I serving them? We could
(58:58):
definitely have many conversations. That's
a fun conversation right there that I'd
love to have, actually. Am I actually
serving them? Well, actually serving the
people that we said we're serving. Right.
Well, get this. It wasn't until I went on,
about a year ago now, I went on a
spiritual walk. I had a spiritual day with
(59:18):
one of my coaches. He was great guy. And
it was actually probably one of the only
coaches I've had that actually has helped
me through the things that I feel like are
tangibly needed to make it to the next
level. And I remember coming home crying
to my wife because I'm like, my feelings
of being unseen and unheard. I was over
(59:41):
serving clients. I was over serving. I was
expecting too much out of my business. And
it wasn't until I had went on a spiritual
walk I realized that I'm like, my family
is there for me. They hear me, they see
me. I'm just putting too many of certain
(01:00:02):
types of emotions and expecting too much
out of what I am doing for others that I'm
not looking at. I can transition those
emotions in those situations towards other
parts of my life. And I think that comes a
lot with getting burnout in business.
You're just expecting too much on
(01:00:26):
something making you happy when that
should only be a leg to the chair. Yeah.
Listen, this is an amazing conversation.
Let me go ahead and apologize to you for
not being mindful of your time today. It's
all good, but I'm definitely looking
(01:00:48):
forward to our next conversation, and we
can dive more into that, because I'd
really like to unpack that spiritual day
that you have. Because as humans, as
business owners, we've got to realize that
we're triumph beings. We're spirit, soul,
and body. And when we take care of all of
(01:01:08):
those components, it shows up for us in a
magnificent way. So I definitely love to
have to dive deeper into that experience
and how it helped, not just on a personal
level, but how you were able to see the
fruits from that in your business. Yeah,
definitely would love to. Listen, I know
I'm over my time. I apologize. But please
(01:01:31):
let the toolbox audience know how they can
connect with you and stay connected to you
and what you have coming up. Yeah,
definitely. So we've recently come out
with our private podcast. This private
podcast is a three episode series limited
to people that are looking to get out of
(01:01:53):
being stuck and move to building a much
more sustainable lead flow that can be
worth their while as they continue to grow
slowly and steadily. And through this
private podcast, you'll be able to
discover and be able to build the three
pillars that really help you start to
(01:02:14):
cultivate that community that you're
really thriving to build within your brand
and your business. You can find us, and
you can reach out to us through
that@leavethatmark.com. And you'll be able
to subscribe to that private podcast and
hear more of me talking. Make sure you
(01:02:36):
guys reach out and get subscribed to his
private podcast because I know he has some
amazing jewels to share. Listen, Zach,
thank you again. Those of you that are
tuning in to Laquita's toolbox, if this is
your first welcome, welcome. I know you've
been blessed by the content you received
today for my returning listeners. Hey,
y'all, thank you for tuning in. We
(01:02:58):
appreciate you, as always. Until next
time, I am your host, Laquita Monley. You
guys be blessed and have an amazing rest
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