Happy 3rd Business Birthday (Episode 97)

How has it possibly been 3 years already? I can’t believe I’m celebrating my 3rd business birthday.

If you’d like to catch up on what I learned in Year 1 and Year 2 of my business you can head over to the blog.

YEAR 1

YEAR 2

As I read over the last two years I have a smile on my face and the feelings that remind me why I’m here and what I’m doing. But the honest truth is that year 3 has left me feeling somewhat lost, confused and straying away from who I truly am.

Many things were great – YOU, working with clients, meeting new people, having really fun weekend work outs (with snacks) but internally something felt off.

It has easily taken me a year (or more) to figure out what it was. I was STRIVINGAND RESISTING all at the same time.

I was STRIVING to become someone that I am not. I allowed myself to be consumed by the idea of creating an all life coaching business and doing much of it online. I would see people doing this who have a great life and think to myself “wow-I’m a great coach – I should build my business like that. If they can do it – so can I.” 

But then I would RESIST.

I am generally a pretty smart and motivated person. But I found myself resisting everything I had learned about building an online coaching business. I could have built that kind of business in year 3. But I didn’t. 

I always follow my intuition and my gut feelings. That’s how I got here. I knew it was finally time to branch out on my own and build something that I can create based on who I am and how I can best help the world.

So every time I would sit down to work on creating a coaching business, I would stall, I would procrastinate, I would NOT do anything. It wasn’t your usual stalling because there’s just too much to do – something was actually keeping me from doing it.

Which of course creates more striving and more resisting (and of course lots of frustration). 

*this picture summarizes how I felt in my 3rd year – like a completely mismatched outfit. So many things I want to do and places I want to go – but having a hard time putting it all together.*

If you’ve ever spent anytime resisting something, you know how crappy it feels. I still had a great time last year doing fun things, traveling and exploring but something so deep in my core felt so off.

Through some heartfelt and difficult conversations I came to realize the source of my resistance.

I had been trying to leave out the essential core of my being.

WHY would I leave behind and cut out the foundation of my own personal belief system and the foundation that I have built my entire life and business upon? Fitness, movement, the gym, whatever you want to call it, I was trying to cut out the physical part of who I am and how I help people.

*Side note – why would I ever think that I could be happy being on the computer doing coaching calls all day???*

It’s been a weird year. It’s been a year full of confusion and frustration. But a year that has made me feel like I’m finally coming home and gaining clarity.

The funny thing is – I had the answers all along. What I am going to focus on going forward were all ideas I had even before I started my business and ideas I talked about in my year 1 recap.

Yes, I do want to do coaching but in COMBINATION WITH not INSTEAD OF personal training and being in the gym.

I had always talked about doing a combination of personal training and coaching in the same session. What a brilliant idea. 🙂

For a long time I have said that I want to work with young adults and teens because as I wrote and talked about in my podcast finding my way in the gym was the foundation I built my life on and it helped me cultivate the confidence that I have.

So when I finally came to my senses and stopped trying to create the life I THOUGHT I wanted but didn’t – I came up with my focus list for Year 4. 

• I put together my summer program for teen girls 12-18 combining both strength training and coaching about nutrition, body image, confidence, goal setting and more. (Find all the info HERE).

• I am creating the same model of program for young adults – strength training and coaching.

• I am creating plans to keep growing the podcast  – more guests and work on monetizing it with sponsors.

• Teaching – I love teaching workshops about nutrition, stress, gut health, and more. I’m not 100% sure what form this will take if it’s workshops at the gym (Yes that will actually happen), speaking, hosting a longer workshop – I’m not sure yet.

• Personal training clients and our awesome weekend work outs (with snacks) AND the new foam rolling/lacrosse ball sessions (everyone’s favorite!)

• Being open to what FEELS RIGHT. Trusting my intuition and not forcing things to happen.

Instead of focusing on 1,000 different ways to do things I am going to spend the rest of 2018 growing these things by turning my business into an ACTUAL business by networking intentionally, creating connections around town with people who will know my next client to put into my programs and spending time enjoying what I’m building.

So here’s to a year of STRIVING and RESISTING but year 4 is going to be all about INTENTION and going ALL IN. 

What I did love about my recaps of year 1 and 2 is celebrating 5 things from the year. Here is year 3!

1. Podcast – I am almost to my 100th episode and I am really proud to have kept it going and been able to have some amazing conversations with people.
2. 50 Miles at WTM – Third year of achieving 50 miles at Worlds Toughest Mudder. There is nothing out there like running through the desert for 24 hours.
3. Sticking with it – This year was confusing and challenging but I am proud to have stuck it out and not said “I’ll just go get a job.”
4. Consistent networking – Since joining my networking group 2 years ago, I have been consistently showing up, talking business and learning from other successful people.
5. Excitement – I am finishing year 3 and headed into year 4 with excitement, goals, and motivation.

Here is to Year 4 and what is to come!

LISTEN TO EPISODE 97 HERE