Ep 42: Balancing Entrepreneurship and Fitness for Massive Success with Lauren Tickner

Episode Transcript
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Philip Pape (00:08):
Welcome to the Wits & Weights podcast, where we
discuss getting strong andhealthy with strength training
and sustainable nutrition. I'myour host, Philip Pape. And in
each episode, we examinestrategies to help you achieve
physical self mastery through ahealthy skepticism of the
fitness industry, and acommitment to consistent
nutrition and training forsustainable results.

(00:31):
Welcome to another episode ofWits & Weights, prepare yourself
for some deep insights aboutentrepreneurship leadership,
online coaching the fitnessbusiness mindset and more from
today's special guests. BecauseI'm extremely excited to be
joined by the amazing LaurenTicknor. Lauren is ranked as
Forbes magazine's number onebusiness coach for 2021. And a

(00:52):
Forbes top 10 entrepreneur in2020. Lauren now works with her
team at impact school to helpher clients implement systems
and gain freedom in theirbusinesses. Lauren, it's great
to connect, and have you on theshow. Yeah, Phillip,

Lauren Tickner (01:04):
thank you so much for having me on. I know
this is gonna be a load of valuefor your audience. So I'm gonna
do my best to share as much asyou want. Me too.

Yeah, but you're my audience and me as well. Here's
when we connected. I was reallyexcited to have you on, you have
this passion energy, if anybodywatches your videos on YouTube,
or wherever else, as anentrepreneur through online
coaching and fitness, especiallybusiness systems, and I know
you're trying to impact as manylives as possible. So tell us a
bit about your story frombeginning as a content creator

(01:35):
to an online fitness coach andinfluencer. And now a high
impact business coach, whatinspired you pursue the path
you're on today?

Yeah, you've clearly done your research. So I
appreciate that. And so itreally started out I was just I
loved fitness. I just absolutelyloved it evidence based training
and nutrition. And I was, I kindof started by accident when I
was like 17 years old onlinecoaching wasn't really a thing.
But I found the likes of 3d MJ,and Eric Helms, and all these

(02:04):
guys. And I just started readingthe content they were putting
out, and they had a podcast. AndI remember they had a guy come
on that they were doing somecollab with. And he had a
podcast, too. And his name wasLuke Johnson. And they one time
had this episode about how tostart online coaching. And I
thought, What is this onlinecoaching thing. And so I
listened to that, and becamereally good friends with the

(02:24):
guys that are in that company.
And we ended up just doing abunch of stuff together in the
space when it came to liketraining programs and ebooks,
and this is back when you couldsell 1000s of ebooks just
through sending one email. Itwas craziness. And so I'm super
grateful to have fallen into it.
kind of by accident, honestly, Inever intended to be in the
fitness industry, I always hadthis goal of becoming the CEO of

(02:46):
an asset management company inthe UK, it was a weird goal. I
know, looking back, it was sorandom. But I that's what I
wanted to do. Then when I hadthat job, there was a gym like I
was in a high rise building. Andthere was a gym just below and I
could look down on out and seethese people walking in and out
all day. And I just dreamed tobe able to go train whenever I
wanted to. And so that's when Idecided to leave the job. And

(03:08):
pretty much then go full timeinto online fitness coaching.
And yeah, then started workingwith companies like Jim shark
and stuff. And then when theystarted pivoting more
mainstream, they stopped workingwith a bunch of people they had
been paying a monthly salary to.
And loads of my friends nolonger had an income. And I
obviously had the onlinecoaching the ebooks and stuff
going on. So I helped them withthat and didn't think anything

(03:30):
of it. And then a couple ofyears later, I realized, wow,
like this could be a reallygreat business. And that's how
impact school was formed veryloosely. It definitely wasn't a
company back then though. Sothat's kind of how we got here
to this point. And I'm supergrateful to be able to help the
people that help the peoplebecause, you know, I know when I
was first starting out, I knewnothing about business. So it's
a it's really rewarding.

Yeah, no, I love that story. I mean, we listened
to a lot of the same stuff.
Apparently, you mentioned EricHelms. And that's kind of how I
got into this journey as well asa lot of the education and but I
like how you said, you know,helping people, helping the
people or helping people. Andyou sort of found your way there
both through serendipity, butalso through your own action to
get there. And eventually, youknow, life just throw you in the

(04:13):
right spot. So for onlinenutrition coaches like myself
and others who are just startingkind of back earlier in your
journey, or they're growing yourbusinesses, and they want to
make that big impact. They wantto help people eventually help
people help people. What wouldyou say just the core principles
for finding success with onlineprograms specifically?

For sure, yeah.
So I really like to think aboutbusiness in three pillars. So
there's the impact offer, whichis taking all of your knowledge,
all of your experience andturning it into one scalable
product, which is very difficultwhen when new because we want to
help loads of different peopleand loads of different ways. But
we're never able to buildsomething sustainable, that's

(04:53):
going to be independent withoutus having to run it all the
time. If we try and do loads ofdifferent things. Because as
soon as you start bringing on ateam, they get really, really
confused. So there's that part.
And the second pillar is allabout lead generation and sales.
Okay? So I call this thespecialist system, because it's
a way to ensure that you haveboth inbound lead gen, and an
outbound power prospecting,working for you all at the same

(05:16):
time. So that you can also havea system so that anyone that
comes into your ecosystem, youhave a way to reach out to them
in a stupid, non spammy way toget the conversation rolling, so
that then you can prequalifypeople. And if I'm going too
deep, just let me know. I loveto go ahead. Okay, cool. I just
don't want to lose anyone. Butso you can pre qualify people

(05:37):
and then vet them without evengetting on to everyone seems to
call it like a strategy sessionor something, you want to do
that before to make sure that itis aligned, because I remember
when I met when I was firststarting out, so I was all about
strength training, right, andabout eating to become stronger.
And this is what I loved. And Iwas obsessed with powerlifting.

(05:57):
And I competed. And it was justthe thing that I was really
into, which was kind of weird,because like most girls weren't
doing that. So I got a lot ofgirls come to me who were
wanting to become strong and nolonger have this like fat loss
goal, right? Because my goal isthey they were already super
skinny, too skinny, right? Andso they needed to gain some
muscle. And so like, I rememberthen this one time, this guy

(06:20):
could Steve came to me. And hewas like, a skinny dude, right?
And so he wanted to runmarathons. And I thought, Oh,
cool. Like, I can learn how tocoach someone on a marathon
like, yeah, it will help mediversify my skill set. And so I
remember like, it was a Sunday,because I remember eating a
roast dinner in England, youhave like a Sunday versus like a
traditional thing that you do inthe UK. And so I sit down for

(06:44):
this roast dinner with myfamily. And then I remember
staying up until like, 11 atnight, which you know, I'm kind
of an early bird person. So itwas really late for me trying to
understand tapering and carbloading and how to, you know,
run for a marathon, it was soboring, like, it was not like
when I'm studying about how toback load your carbs, so that

(07:05):
you can, you know, haveincreased, you know, whatever
ever, like marginal gains forstrength training, it wasn't
like that, okay, this was boringfor me. And I remember thinking
to myself, Okay, but I need tolearn this if I'm gonna be a
successful online coach. And Ihad this belief in my mind that
I had to know everything foreveryone to serve every single
person. And so around, I don'tremember how long it was,

(07:27):
because this is, gosh, this isyears ago now. But let's just
say I worked with him for acouple of months, and I ended up
refunding him all the money,because every time it came to a
consultation call with him, Ijust dreaded the encounter.
Because it was boring, right.
And most people are too afraidto say that they hate talking to
a client, but it was true. Andeveryone has that client, they
hate talking to you, they justwouldn't be honest about it.
Let's be real. So what if youcan have a business where you

(07:50):
only work with clients that youlove to talk to, when you get
off your calls with them and youfeel energized and excited to
serve, right, because when youhave that you want to show up
every single day, and you'reexcited to scale the company
rather than just grow it.
Because you know that with moresystems with more structure,
with more infrastructure inplace, you can then keep

(08:12):
expanding the horizon ratherthan just growing something to
its capacity, because you can'tsimply take on any more clients
because you hate it so much.
Right. And this is what I see alot in online coaching people
resenting their clients,obviously, we hear the stories
because people tell us, becausewe are that guy to empower them
to make it happen. But you know,coach to coach, people don't
really tell this to each otherthat like, oh, yeah,
everything's going great. Wehear the truth most people hate

(08:33):
the clients they work with. Andthis is terrible. So that's why
it really comes down to likehaving one sustainable offering
based upon the vision that youhave the impact that you want to
make, and then building the leadgeneration and the pre
qualification systems in frontof that, to ensure that you're
only taken on the right clientsthat you can truly, truly help.
And then from there, it comesdown to the third pillar, which

(08:54):
is scale your impact, which isreplacing yourself. And these
two things through building ateam of purchased or building a
team of special salesspecialists who can enroll new
clients ethically, and stick toyour values. Right? So like,
these are the three pillars thatI always look towards. But it
all starts with you, as thebusiness owner, knowing where do
I actually want to go? Whatimpact do I want to make? Right?

(09:16):
And why is that important? Tome? Most people have a story. So
Philip, I'd like to ask youlike, what is your vision? Like?
What's the impact that you're

putting on the spot? I was actually gonna ask
you about that first pillar,right of the, of the offer of
how do you actually determinethat ideal client because I've
worked with many differentclients with different goals and
your, your thing about themarathon runner resonated with
me because one of my clients haddone that and you're right, you
had to just okay, a deer in theheadlights. I don't know

(09:46):
anything about that. I have tolearn as much as I can about
this, or you know, a lot offemale fat loss clients or then
I have the person that wants tobuild muscle. And I might enjoy
working with three or four verydifferent types of clients. So
how do we how do we determinethat At early on, to make that
impact, right? I would love towork with three or four types in
that group. How do we determinethat?

Well, that's what you'd love to do. But it's
not necessarily what's going tomake the biggest impact. And
sometimes we have to sacrificeour wants and our desires in
favor of what the company needs,and what the people need.
Because it's not all about you,in the, in the, like, in the
long, long run, okay, at first,it's all about you when you know
the impact that you want tomake. Because when you get clear

(10:29):
on the impact you want to make,it's like a tunnel vision thing.
So a recent example, I have alot of friends, and they are all
investors, right? So they've gotto the stage where they've built
like nine and 10 figurecompanies, really successful
people, like, you know, I can'teven believe that these are my
friends. But it's crazy. And soI did this exercise where I got
really clear on what is my 10year vision, like, what mission?

(10:53):
Am I here to serve? Why am Idoing this? And so, I would
always say it's to build acompany of companies that make a
positive impact on the world.
But I realized that's supervague, right? Because positive
impact can be interpreteddifferently for everyone. Same
like health, right? Health canbe different for one person and
the other, we know the statethat we want to get to. But for

(11:14):
someone with diabetes, it'svery, very different than
someone that is like, let's justsay anorexic, it's totally
different. They have to have adifferent treatment. So then
when it comes down to the waythat I was thinking, there are
some things that are reallyimportant to me and some things
that are not so I have a brotherwho's two years younger than me,
however, his mental age isbetween one and two years old.

(11:36):
Right? So he's physicallydisabled. He has epilepsy, and
autism, various other learningdisabilities, he has a tube in
his tummy, because he does noteat or in a sustainable way. So
he's actually interestingenough, quote, unquote, anorexic
even though he would never evenknow what his body looks like.
It's just totally out of hisconsciousness. Right? So anyway,
I realized that for the longesttime, I thought that the things

(12:00):
that I really cared about waslike education. And I thought
that it was, you know, all thesedifferent things. But I
realized, like, biggest, mostimportant thing for me is
health. So then, now, I had thisdeal come to me to invest in
this company. And it was areally good deal. Okay, very,
very good deal. It was a cryptogaming company. And it could
have made a lot of money. And Iknow a lot of people that have

(12:21):
made a lot of money from thesteel. So I said to one of my
friends who has a huge nutritionsupplement company, like you
would know exactly this company,like it's flipping huge. And he
was the one that presented thedeal to me. And I said to him,
like, I'm facing an ethicaldilemma right now. Like, I don't
know what to do, because thisdeal is great. And I know I can
make a lot of money. And I knowwhere that money, I could then

(12:43):
invest that into the things thatI really, really care about. But
it doesn't align with my valuesand my vision. So he said to me,
something which I then ended uptaking a different decision than
what he said, Because he said,like, we'll learn if you put an
even just, you know, X amountnow, and you make this much on
the back end is pretty muchguaranteed, which, you know,
this kind of sounds crazysometimes. But there are these

(13:05):
deals like when people play withlike big sums of cash, like it
can be like that. Anyways, Idigress. But so he said, based
upon what you're looking to do,and to achieve, like, if you
invest the money, then that canbe money, which you've then
multiplied to then make a biggerimpact. And I agreed with that.
But it didn't just it didn't forme aligned, because it didn't

(13:27):
agree with my truth value. So Isaid no to the deal. I didn't go
ahead with it. And so now I'mvery specific. And I could have
made like, a really a lot. Andso now I just realized, like,
This feels good inside. Thisfeels great inside. And it
allows me to stay focused andnot get distracted. Because I
must say I did get distractedthen. But now I know if a deal
like that comes to me again, I'mnot even going to entertain it.

(13:49):
And instead I can focus on thethings that I need to focus on.
So I have to get clear on whatis basically my tunnel, like
what is yes. And what is no, ifit's great. It's no it's not if
it's not a Hell yeah, it's a no,I love that thing. And so, the
same thing goes with like manyclients that we have our impact
school. So I have this fantasticfertility health doctor, that's

(14:10):
her Instagram as well. And shein the beginning was like
working with all different sortsof people. Like sometimes she
would take up clients who werelike, you know, half, half half,
but then she realized like, whyshe's in the game. She wants to
help people have a very healthy,successful pregnancy and raise
incredible children. Right andso like, that's our mission,
like that's why she's doingthis. So if she's going to take

(14:31):
on someone who needs to likereverse diabetes, that person
will be better served withsomeone else who focuses on that
specifically like another one ofour clients, and M Charmaine
Dominica as and she helps peoplereverse type two diabetes,
right? And then for example, ifsomeone with type one goes to
her, then actually for example,the CEO of Impact school sister,
her name is Gallia barrage,right. She helps she has type

(14:54):
one diabetes, so she helpspeople who live with type one
diabetes So there are people outthere who you can build
partnerships and relationshipswith, to send clients to, and
maybe you want to do a dealwhere you send referrals. I
personally just like to send itbecause you know, whatever you
put out in the world as value,you get back 10 times, and it
doesn't have to be from thatsame person. Sure, then that
when it comes down to like the,you know, more spiritual stuff,

(15:16):
but to answer your question, Ithink it all starts with you in
your mind, but then realize thatit's not all about you, and what
you want to do, once you've madethat decision, you then stick
with your original choices. Andobviously, you can change and
adapt based upon new informationthat you get. That's, of course,
important, but like taking oneverything and trying to be
everything for everyone, you'renever going to serve people to

(15:38):
the best degree possible. That'sfrom my personal experience,
having worked with, you know,more than 3000 clients very
closely at this point. Yeah. And

I asked that question, especially on behalf
of people who have have hadmaybe five clients, 10 clients,
something like that, and they'restill figuring it out? And
really can't answer thatquestion, I guess, is the
problem. Some people have that,you know, extreme tunnel or
target vision that they haveothers haven't discovered yet,
like, in my case, I know, mostof the clients that I enjoy

(16:08):
working with, and I find I canhelp them most of the ones that
found me through this podcast,or through the information I'm
putting out there. And maybethere's some tie in to, you
know, this, this evidence basednutrition and body composition
that are really focused on alot, but I'm not really 100%
sure exactly where that falls,and I don't necessary want to
rule things out either, if a newpotential client comes in, and
all of a sudden, it's a perfectfit. So that's why I asked that,

(16:31):
you know,

one of your values, right, like, so a value
that comes to my mind that youhave clearly is like constant
learning, right? Andprogression. So it's like you
don't want clients who just wantto get by, you want clients who
want to get to that next level,because you then are able to
thrive and you get excited toserve them, because they are
excited about working with you.
And they're excited about theoutcome that you're going to get
them. So like that would be avalue that you have right for

(16:54):
us. Same thing, we have constantprogression. That's one of our
values. That allows me to knowour impact school, you know, if
we're hiring someone, if they'recomplacent, and they're
satisfied, and they don't reallycare to learn more than they're
not going to be grateful atwalking at impact school,
neither are they going to begood at being a client of us. So
that's just an example there.

(17:15):
But okay, this is one thing thatreally helped me, I can't
remember who said this to me,because I would love to be able
to give the credit. I definitelydidn't come up with this. But
someone said to me, how do youwant the world to look after
you're done in it? So that wasreally helpful, because then it
made me realize, like, there aresome things that I just don't
really care about actually doingthat I'm doing right now. So

(17:37):
that can get you thinking,

yeah, definitely gets me thinking in the audience
thinking I hope. Okay, so whatif your second pillar was about
the developing the business withlead generation sales and so on,
before you get to the scaling?
Well, what if you love fitness?
But you dread the idea of thosethings? Yeah, dread the idea of,
quote unquote, business, right?
Whether it's posting on socialmedia, sales and marketing, all
the things people think and knoware required to grow business.

(18:02):
And you're too I guess, tooearly on to necessarily hire and
have a team to do that. So whatis your take on that?

Well, maybe you don't need to have your own
business. That's also an option,right? There's people like you,
that these people can go andwork for who already have a
great platform and a brand.
There's also other companiesthat you can go and work for. So
I also used to be in the beliefthat everyone should have their
own business. And I had aconversation with Nora, who she
started out as a salesspecialist, okay. Then she, this

(18:32):
is years ago, then she startedmanaging that team. Right? Then
she started doing some coachingon sales for our clients. Then
she started shifting intooperations, and she became the
operations manager. And nowshe's coo. And now she's also my
business partner. Okay. And solike, this is the evolution
there. But I didn't understandbecause she was making from in

(18:53):
person personal training, shewas selling it for 4.2k pounds.
And every month, she was doingmore than 16 grand a month,
because I remember it was above15k, but below 20. And then she
I offered had this job and Isaid like, look, this is going
to be a serious peeker. But Ineed you on my team. And she
said yes, because she didn'twant her in business. She She

(19:16):
didn't care about the money asmuch. And so I think as
entrepreneurs sometimes becausewe are so excited about things
all the time, or we want to do10 different things. Sometimes
having those non entrepreneurialpeople on our team who are more
level headed than us is veryvaluable, because they can
prevent us from making all thesecrazy decisions, which, believe
me, I've been there so maybethey don't need to have their

(19:38):
own business, right? If you'reon the PC, if you're a PC on the
ground, like doing all thesesessions in person and it's too
much for you. Then maybe youcould go and be an online coach
for an online coaching company.
If you're a nutritionist, oh, mygosh, there are that is like
super in demand skill becausethere are so many great online
fitness coaches who don't have aneutral Shouldn't brunch with a

(20:00):
company. So they're just doingthese kind of like sketchy, you
know, macro plans, which theyshouldn't really be doing
whereby you could come in andpartner with them, right? And
then they take on all thebusiness stuff. And then you act
as the nutritionist at thebusiness and get a fixed monthly
retainer, or you aren't you sayto them, like, hey, I want to be
like intrapreneurial here, whichis building kind of like an

(20:22):
entrepreneurial company within acompany. And then they build
their own branch within anotherbusiness. So that's also another
option. There are many ways todo something doesn't just have
to be like, Okay, I lovefitness. I need to have my own
business. Yeah. Right. That'swhat I thought. And so I even
sunk more than 10k, this is 110K, I did not have a lot of

(20:42):
money, right? This is like, Iwas 19 years old, I invested 10k
in building these leggings,getting them manufactured all
this time and effort. And Irealized, like I was just in a
business idea, which was nevereven going to make any real
money, right? People make moneyon that type of thing, because
they have huge, huge volumerather than, you know, having
something like a onlinecoaching, which can be you know,

(21:04):
high margin. So, to the pointlike, maybe you don't need a
business.

Yeah, I think that's a fresh perspective.
That's great, because I think, Ithink a lot of people answer
that question with well, how doyou how do you make it work
anyway, and like you said, thereare partnerships collaborations
you can hire people you couldwork for people might be in
sourcing and outsourcing,there's so many great approaches
to this. Hey, this is PhilipPape. And if you feel like

(21:29):
you've put in an effort toimprove your health and fitness,
but aren't getting results, Iinvite you to apply for a one on
one coaching to make realprogress and get the body you
desire. We'll work together tofigure out what's missing. So
you can look better, performbetter and feel better. Just go
to wits, & weights.com/coaching,to learn about my program and
apply today. Now back to theepisode. So that's and that was

(21:52):
the sort of leading to the thirdpillar than about scale, as I'm
an engineer by background, so Ilove the idea of using
repeatable systems andframeworks to make things more
efficient. And I've done thatwell before I even knew what it
was called right? Takingspreadsheets, automation tools,
whatever. And trying to, becauseI'm lazy. That's what I like to
tell people. I don't like to dothings the hard way. I want to

(22:14):
do it the easy way. Even withstrength training, I was like,
what's the lazy way to getstrong and jacked? It's, it's
barbells. You know, like, what'sthe most efficient? Yeah, right.
I'm not gonna run on a treadmillevery day. So, no. So yeah, so I
think that I do have my podcastor posting on social or even the
things I don't quote unquote,like myself when I mentioned the

(22:36):
previous question about runninga business. But I figured out a
way to get me out of it, so tospeak. Right, right, tell us
about the value of that ofsystems of frameworks, how we
amplify that fundamentalapproach to business or even
life.

So I would say like, it kind of depends on on
your revenue. Because I thinkthe biggest problem is people do
things they think they need todo. But they really don't need
to be doing them posting onsocial media everyday. I used to
believe this was a so we havethis framework at impact school
vile, right, vital, importantluxury and eliminate. So most of
the things are in that E bucketof eliminate, you can eliminate,

(23:13):
probably, I love the 8020principle. And then going even
deeper on that there's thisgreat book called like 8020,
sales and marketing. That's areally good book. Okay, love
this one. This is like the firstbusiness book I'd ever read in
my life. And I still think backto it, because it just, man, it
helped me so much. So there areso many things that we think we
need to be doing, which really,they don't really produce any

(23:34):
results. Like why botherbuilding a website, when you
don't yet have anyone clickingthe link to go to your website?
Right, only in the last three orfour months did we actually
properly put together a properwebsite for impact school before
it was had Latin text on there?
You know, it was terrible. Itwas really texting me. Yeah, and

(23:55):
even now, it's like prettymediocre. But we recently just I
just invested in a website,building expert and copywriters
to do the whole thing for me,which was a huge sum of money,
which I didn't need to do.
Because in the beginning stages,I would have been better off
spending that I'm building ateam to support my clients so

(24:17):
that then I could get freed fromthat area, and then focus on
sales and marketing myself. Andthen when I made that more money
again, then I could then finallyput that into, you know, maybe
some ads or some social mediagrowth. And then from there,
maybe then you want to build thewebsite. Okay. So like, I just
think about things in sequentialsteps. So if I am going to have

(24:37):
like two people visit mywebsite, why build that instead,
when I could build like anentire Google document or a
notion page, telling exactly allthe details about my offer, and
my program, because then I cansend that to people one on one
in a DM conversation or viaemail who were actually coming
to me and asking me or you couldthen start reach hanging out to

(25:00):
like 50 people a day, saying andnot doing it in a spammy way.
Instead saying like, Hey, I'vejust graduated 10 People from My
Nutrition Program, whichreverses type two diabetes, just
wondering, as I'm about to starta new cohort, if you know anyone
that could be interested in, youknow, reversing, reversing type
two, right? That's just anexample. And then you're going

(25:22):
out asking them for value andthen giving them value sorry, by
seeing if they know anyone, andthen you know, you can get
referrals. And oftentimes thosepeople then will end, you know,
if you do your targetingproperly, they are people that
have type two diabetes as myexample. And then from there,
then they'll start replying backto you like, oh, well, I don't
know anyone, but I'm interested,right? And then you can send

(25:44):
that each of them directly inthe chat. So it's just like the
volume of people that will seeit will be way greater than
like, I'm giving this websiteexample. Because this is
probably the biggest mistakethat I see. People get all their
fancy business cards and things.
No one cares.

Nobody, nobody sees it. Yeah, nobody comes. Yeah,
exactly. So.

So before even thinking about scale, I like to
scale intimacy, which is one onone conversations. And I like to
get that so scaled that like,for example, as the business
owner, I would no longer be ableto do anymore, because I have
other things going on. And thenI would want to replace myself
in the things that are notdirectly producing revenue.
Because I think especially infitness coaches think that they
have to do all the client work,like, I don't want to have a

(26:22):
cookie cutter program. And Idon't want to, you know, I
thought all this stuff, too. Butthen I realized I can hire great
people, when I'm making enoughsales, people who are really
fantastic, who don't want theirown business, who will come and
work at my company, who aregoing to get better results for
my clients, because I can thenstay in my zone of genius. So it
really comes down to at thispoint, like ask yourself the
question, what do I hate doingthe most of my business that

(26:43):
doesn't produce me revenue?
Excellent. Because if you hateyour sales, like, you probably
want to keep doing that for awhile until you've refined it
and dialed in the system so thatevery single time you know that
this is going to produce theoutcome that you want,

right? And I imagine everybody you can pick
100 people and every one of themare going to dislike a different
aspect of that process. So yougot to target the woman, you
know, like, I really enjoyedtalking with people, and I
didn't used to, you know, yearsago used to be very introverted.
And, you know, now I'm talkingprobably way too much on my
podcast. But yeah, that's myoutlet for reaching. Yeah,

that's great.
That's great. But if you weredoing client work, like 10 hours
a day, you wouldn't be able todo this right? And so like, it
just comes down to also thinkingwhere can I add leverage, and
you know, a lot of it on theclient success side of things,
we like the impact offer,because it's really a fusion of
having, you know, an out aprogram, which takes someone to
an outcome specifically, butthen there's enough like wiggle

(27:35):
room so that throughout thatprocess, you can adapt things,
one on one to every singleclient. And especially now,
like, the way that I'm seeingthe industry go in, is that
coaching plus consulting plusCourses Plus agency is all
moving into the same umbrella.
Right? So it's like, how can wedo more for our clients, so that
then they have to do less workso that we can stand out, rather

(27:57):
than them saying, like, whatmakes you different than this
person, right, that's alsosomething that's going on in the
space. So I think addingleverage through building a
program, we like having animpact offer, because I just
think it fuses togethereverything. So so nicely, client
does something they submitted toyou, it's all systematized and
organized. And then from there,like most of the time, the next

(28:20):
thing comes down to like gettingsomeone to take care of actually
managing the clients serving theclients. And then if they have
like something specific thatneeds your attention, then that
person will come to you to askyou rather than the client
coming to you. And it justremoves that level of access. So
then you're able to have thecreative thinking time to think
how can I actually scale thisthing? Right? How can I build a

(28:42):
new system to bring in moreleads of dream clients, or get
me on more podcasts or go tomore events, things like that,
it creates that freedom, thenyou can really, really scale?

The impact offer, as opposed to trying to sell the
differences between you as anindividual coach, for example,
it's having a program where theclient feels like that it's
seamless, maybe frictionless forthem, and then being able to
scale. So taking a step back alittle bit for someone who wants
to be that entrepreneur who doeshave the passion and enjoys the
fitness space, but they have afull time job, right? They're

(29:14):
already feeling a little bitstretched, thin, overwhelmed,
maybe of the family and so on.
And they want to cut through alot of these shiny tools and
distractions we've just beentalking about, maybe they're a
little risk averse to but stillfeel like that's the way they
want to go where where wouldthey start? Right balancing that
job that they don't want to giveup just yet. And then moving
into this new venture?

Yeah, so it's interesting, we recently kind of
pivoted to working exclusivelywith people that like, you know,
full time in their businessalready doing like a certain
amount because, you know, thisis where I'd say we are the
strongest when it comes to likegetting the first and honestly
it's the first stage like Idon't even think it's a good

(29:54):
idea for someone to like join aprogram like in post school at
that stage. Because it is it'sway more simple than people
think is It's way more simple.
And I don't feel super ethicaldoing that. Because like, it's
so simple. And I didn't realizethat it's mainly just you and
yourself. So I would say thefirst thing is that you need to
be dedicating like, one or twohours a day to personal
development, you have to startthat you have to get ready for

(30:16):
it, you need an entrepreneurialmindset upgrade, so that then
you're ready for what's about tocome. Because when things start
moving, they start moving very,very quickly. And people are
often thinking like, it feelstoo much too soon. But that's
entrepreneurship. Okay. So wherecan you right now, if you pull
out your phone, pull out yourcalendar, whatever you like to
use? Where can you put in, let'sjust say 30 to 30 minutes, lots

(30:38):
of personal development work,and you put that in, right? And
I'm not talking like, justbusiness stuff here. I'm talking
about personal development,things like you know, maybe you
want to look at like Dr. JohnDemartini. Okay, like Bob
Proctor, you know, people TonyRobbins people that are gonna
show your mind, like what youcan do, what you can take you to

(30:58):
the next level, where you'relistening to this podcast. Now,
you could check out mine toimpact school podcasts and
things like this that you canlisten to and make notes.
Because you have to startgetting into the habit of doing
the things that other peoplewon't do. Because in order to be
successful in entrepreneurship,I've seen again, from our
clients, our most successfulclients, my friends, the ones
that will Zig when everybodyelse thinks they're the ones

(31:20):
that are gonna be the mostsuccessful, right? Like, you're
probably already into fitness,and your friends aren't right.
You're into health and fitnesspeople from the past thought
that you were crazy. Now allyour friends are, you've made
new friends who are fitnessfriends, right? I had that same
thing too. So like, how did youget so good at health and
fitness? Because you did whateveryone else thought was weird,
right? We are. Exactly. That'swhat I mean. Right? Everyone

(31:42):
says that you have to do HIITtraining, whereas you just, you
know, squat every day. Andthat's how you make the games.
Exactly. So. So that's the firstthing. Second thing is like,
really understanding that andanswering that question like how
do you want the world to lookafter you're done with it? I
really love the sport becausethen it gives you clarity and
direction. And when you havethat clear, then you'll know

(32:04):
Okay, let's say right now, if Iwere to tell you, you need to
charge two grand for a client.
If that makes you shudder. Youknow, you need to do money
mindset work. Okay? There aresome great books like Jensen
Zehra has a book called you're abadass at making money. There's
another book called The RichestMan in Babylon. Man, there's a

(32:25):
lot but just on Google on Titanmoney mindset books, okay, you
need to improve your moneymindset. If you think that
charging two grand is too low, Itoo high sorry, I think charging
two grand is too low. Even ifyou're in health and fitness.
Because let's be honest, ifyou're in the house, if you're
in that industry, you could have1000 wishes. But if you you know
if you if you don't have yourhealth, and you only have one

(32:46):
wish, there's some quote that Iheard a while ago. And so people
have this huge mindset blockhere, I find this especially in
health and fitness industries,it's a big problem. And so
that's then something you needto work on. Okay? Then when you
realize like, okay, I can chargefor my first time round two
grand in the future, let's sayyou want to charge for 5k, like
a 16 week program. All right,then you need to figure out

(33:08):
what's that program going to be,I have a video on YouTube, if
you just type into if you go tomy YouTube channel, it's just
Lauren Ticknor. There's thisvideo, like, where I spoke at
this event called War Room. Andit's like how to build a product
or service and scale tomillions, like that's the title
of the video, like, this is areally good video to watch to
get an understanding of how toactually, you know, have build

(33:30):
your build your your product.
And then from there, it comesdown to just bringing in like
five to five to 15 clients atthat 2k price point. And let's
say that takes you like, I don'tknow, 45 days to do, then you've
made what, at least 10k in thevery beginning. And it comes
down to how you're positioningand enrolling people. I mean,
I'm sure right now, you know,five people on your Facebook

(33:50):
friend list or like in yoursmall audience, if you have one,
or your phone contacts that youcould really help. So it comes
down to positioning it like hey,like I'm bringing on my first
five clients, like, I know youwere looking to x y Zed XYZ?
Would you be interested inworking with me before I start
charging full price in exchangefor some feedback? And I'd be
happy to get you in for less?

Yeah, this is gold.
I mean, that's how I got myfirst clients as well. It's a
great approach. You're right.
And what was I gonna say here?
So what are what are the thingsthat then hold people back
beyond? They got the mindsetthing I like I like how you
mentioned that spend time andpersonal development and it
might be very different fordifferent people might be how to
talk people on a sales people ona sales call, right? Like maybe

(34:37):
a lot of different skills. YouYou live in Dubai and we're
talking and actually across theworld right now as we record
this, you have team membersacross something like 11 time
zones, more than 15 countries.
And let's say you are anentrepreneur and you've gotten
through that first step, you'vegotten 15 clients, your client
base is growing. And now youneed to hire that first person,

(34:57):
coach, Assistant, build yourteam. How does a solo play
exhibitioner start to do that.

This is great.
So how not to do is find afriend and say, Hey, you want to
come work? We've all made thatmistake. So also another thing,
a lot of people will findsomeone that's a friend as well
and say, hey, look, let's do apartner business partnership.
But oftentimes, like our friendsare the ones that are the most
similar to us. Thus, we do notneed them there, because they're
basically just you. Okay, solike, let's just say, Yeah,

(35:25):
let's say like, you're a fitnessperson, and they are a
nutritionist. And one of you isgood at sales and marketing and
one of you loves working withclients then great. But if you
both a fitness, or if you'reboth nutritionists, and you both
love to work with clients, andyou both hate sales and
marketing, you get on because ofthose things, usually. So in
that case, you'd probably bebetter off just, you know, each

(35:47):
building your own company, andthen hiring your own teams, or
just going into it knowing likewe are going to we are very
similarly, we need to hiredifferent people into the
business. And just be aware,like, you know, the partnership
usually isn't necessary at thatpoint, if you want to have a
partnership, because you want tohave, like the friend now with
you, then yeah, sure, great, butjust be aware, like it will

(36:07):
probably cause friction in thefuture, if you're good at the
same things, because you'regoing to want to do the same
things. And the company doesn'talways need that. So I would say
it comes down to like, okay,you've got things going now just
looking at your calendar, likewhat's taking the most of your
time. And out of those things,like, let's say you would circle
they will highlight things ingreen that bring in money, and
then highlight the things andlike orange that just allow the

(36:30):
business to run, and thenhighlight the things in red that
you do that like maybe you don'tknow, if they're actually doing
anything to like, actually buildthe business. And then the
things that are orange are thethings that you hire. Makes
sense, right? Because the redthings, maybe they don't bring
any money right now. But maybeyou're like, you know, working
on a new program that you'regonna change your entire

(36:52):
industry with, right, and thethings that bring in the money,
you want to keep control overthat. Because if you start
handing over sales to someoneelse, and they suck, it's not
that let's say you hire acommission, or any salesperson,
and they just don't make sales.
And let's say you're selling thething for 2k. And they have five
sales calls a day. Right? That'slike, not that you're just oh, I

(37:13):
didn't have to pay them becausethey you know, they didn't make
any commission. No, that's 10k aday that you are missing out on,
right that you could haveotherwise have, you could have
closed, right. So that's likehow I like to do it. Honestly, I
would say until, you know, 200grand a month or so like being
the main one during the sales isoftentimes the best thing for
the business.

Okay, this is this is gold. I have a couple more
questions, maybe from the clientpoint of view. You know, I think
there are a lot of salesy andauthentic business owners out
there that are scamming people,or at least perceived, you know,
comes across that way, becausethe fitness industry is what it
is. Nobody's surprised aboutthat. But how does someone find

(37:54):
someone they trust as a client,right? I'd like to think for
example, we talked about thispodcast that it helps people get
to know me and realize I'm ahuman being, and I love this
stuff. I like to help people.
And so when they have thatconversation, I'm sort of pre
qualified them, as you mentionedearlier in a way that they know
me, but for someone seekingcoaching, how do they do this
from an informed place?

Yeah, great question. I mean, I think what
you're doing hence, fantastic.
But I think it comes down tolike, first of all, the business
owner, knowing the ideal client,better than the ideal client
even knows the ideal client.
Because when you know, theproblems that they have, before
they've even seen thoseproblems, yet, that's actually
adding value, because you'rehighlighting the pains. So for

(38:37):
example, like in the past, infitness, I had this webinar,
like, it was like, the threebiggest mistakes. I forget the
title now, but it was like,showing them the biggest
mistakes that people make. Andthen they realize, like, Oh, I
didn't even realize I was doingthis wrong. And I added value to
them through showing them thatthrough, you know, constantly

(38:57):
focusing on hitting like, onehour of cardio a day that was
actually you know, preventingthem from losing us from from
from getting hurt, etc. And likegetting, they always wanted to
be toned. I don't like the wordbut they, you know, that was
their favorite one. So, yeah, sothat was really valuable to
them. So I think making contentsurrounding those pain points

(39:18):
and those problems, but thenalso like, as, as the client,
like realizing that you justhave to get started, right? It's
like, if you've been thinkingabout it for a while, like, you
know, if you want something now,the sooner you pounce on it, the
sooner you start getting valuefrom it, nothing is going to
change, like nothing's gonnachange, except your situation is
gonna get worse. And so I thinksometimes, like we have to

(39:40):
really, you know, show thepotential path of them not
making a decision so that thenthe client actually knows that
they need to make a decisionright now. Because then when
they come in, they're also aclient that's bought in and
they'll actually take theaction. Right so I would say
what you're doing with thepodcast is fantastic. And also
like yeah, built scaling theintimacy building personal

(40:00):
relationships, like not beingafraid to get in the DMS and
have those conversations,because then you get the best
feedback as well about whatpeople's real pain points and
problems are right now. So thenyou can build that into your
solution.

For sure, yeah, and the cost of not changing is
often much greater than the costof change and trying to help
people understand that. So kindof related to this on one of
your Twitter posts, you talkedabout using the language your
clients want to be spoken in.
And I really liked that point,I'd like to learn a little more
about that, if you can elaborateon it. Yeah, so

for example, like, if you say, I'm going to
help you get a toned stomach, orI'm going to help you get
shredded ABS is the same outcomeis just one way you're talking
to a dude that wants to, youknow, get off. And the other
way, you're talking to a womanwho wants to have a nice
stomach, or a guy that justwants to, you know, get a bit a
bit a bit a little bit, youknow, jacked and muscley, but
not like shredded, right? So itreally comes down to like, when

(40:55):
you're in the DMS of peopletalking to them, or if you're
talking on email, or you'relooking at how they're
commenting on on the posts oflike, you know, companies in
your space. Just look at howthey're typing things, right?
Like if they're like, yes,queen, like, you know, you want
to start talking like that.
Whereas if this became like asuper scientific way, then you
can meet them where they're at.

(41:16):
And that's also going to kind ofdictate, like the level of
sophistication of the client inwhich you're serving, right? So
if you're I made the hugemistake when I was in fitness,
whereby I would be talking aboutsuper complex stuff in a really
scientific way. And it totallyalienated my dream client. They
don't know they don't care, theydon't understand. And that was,

(41:39):
you know, I also when I wascompeting, I did some
bodybuilding competitions, likebikini. And that was stupid. I
shouldn't have done that. Like,I thought it would help my
business, but it hurt mybusiness a law and you know, I
do, I just did it. Because myfriend told me like, Hey, you
should do it. And you know, Iwasn't thinking properly. I
mean, fine. In hindsight,whatever it was, it was
whatever. But like, for mybusiness, it was not good,
because I was so alienatingmyself from my client. So that's

(42:02):
also something to think abouttoo, like, how can you be
relatable, but also positionyourself as the person that's
been through the pains whichthey've been through? And now
you have the answer in theoutcome?

Got it. Awesome.
Sunflower? Well, I like tofinish with this question with
all guests. And that is, whatone question Did you wish I
asked, and what is your answer?

Oh, man. Okay.
So the question that you wishI'd asked, I think like, just
maybe about, you know, for youand yourself, like what you need
in order to get your business tothe next level, like, because it
sounds like you have a bunch ofdifferent offers going on right
now. And you're trying to servelike a lot of different people.
So maybe just something specificto that, because I think that
can be helpful for youraudience. And then maybe they
can also send you in theirfeedback.

Should I ask you that question? All right, yeah.

I would say like, you know, you need to just
figure out like the outcome thatyou want to take your clients
to, and get ultra crystal clearon that, like, based upon the
impact that you want to make.
And then from there, I will alsoin order to get to that outcome,
like have people DM you onInstagram, at Wits & Weights,
tell them like, you know, what,what they're working towards?
And like, what offer that youcould put out that would get

(43:06):
them to say yes,

I love that validation. Right? That's great.
Okay, so Lauren, this has beenan amazing conversation full of
great information, I learned alot. And if nothing else that I
love that, but the listeners aregoing to as well. So where can
they learn more about you andyour work and impact impact
school?

Yes, if you'd like podcasts impact school
podcast, I also have a reallyold podcast where you can still
listen to all of them, calledBusiness meets fitness. So you
might like that, that's allabout like building a fitness
business, like the stuffs superold from like, 2017. I think so.
You know, I think it's stillquite relevant. But I haven't
listened to it for a while. Somaybe my voice is a little

(43:49):
higher. And I'm less eloquent.
But yeah, that's the best facesand obviously, all social media.
I'm on Facebook. We have aFacebook group called MP School,
which is free. Yeah, those arethe best places, Instagram to
Lauren Techna. I'm kind ofeverywhere. So

awesome. Of course, ya know, and I'll include all of
that. I'm gonna go check outthat the older podcasts don't
know which one you're talkingabout. So you've been an
incredible guests, Lauren. And,you know, I think we're here
we've peered into the mind ofsomeone with a ton of experience
and knowledge. I personallylearned a ton I had fun chatting
with you. And I want to thankyou for coming on the show.
Philip.

Thank you. This is awesome. And yeah, I love
what you're doing. So keep itup.

Thank you. Thanks for listening to the show.
Before you go, I have a quickfavorite ask. If you enjoy the
podcast, let me know by leavinga five star review in Apple
podcasts and telling othersabout the show. Thanks again for
joining me Philip Pape in thisepisode of Wits & Weights. I'll
see you next time and staystrong.

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Ep 42: Balancing Entrepreneurship and Fitness for Massive Success with Lauren Tickner

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