083: Behind the Scenes of Team Biceps After Babies

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps after Babies radio episode number 83

Hello and welcome to Biceps after Babies radio. A podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, online fitness coach, wife, and mom of four. My guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel, and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you, my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in, now let’s jump into today’s episode.

Amber B  0:48

Hey, welcome back to another episode of Biceps After Babies radio. I'm your host Amber Brueseke and today we're going to dive into a little bit different topic than one that I've covered on the podcast up to this point. A lot of people, surprisingly, I don't know surprisingly, or not surprisingly, asked me about the business side of what I do. And I know some people listening, maybe you have your own business or you're a fitness coach yourself. And if you're not, maybe you've been curious a little bit about the business side of what I do. Yes, I coach clients, yes, I help people get transformations. Yes, I do the podcast, but it is a business and what I run is a brand and a business and without, you know, a stream of revenue, there is no business. And so running a business and like coaching people are completely different things. And I think that's something that a lot of people don't maybe understand or fully realized. I know I didn't. When I dove into the world of starting my own business. I didn't really realize that like what the things that made me a good coach. The things that made me be able to help clients get transformations are completely different traits and abilities.

Then the ability to start and run a business. And so I kind of dove into this world. Well, first of all, I am very much an accidental entrepreneur, meaning I never wanted to start my own business. Like I didn't grow up being like, oh, someday I'm going to start my own business or even thinking that was something I would ever do. And I actually remember, back when I was young, my dad really encouraging us to be entrepreneurs at like a young age. He always wanted me to start my own window washing business, like as a teenager, and I just thought that was ridiculous. I was like, to me, that was just, it was too much work. It was too inconsistent. It was like, you know, with when starting your own your own thing. There's a lot of opportunities for growth, but there's also not a lot of security in that right. Like if you show up and go to a job, you get paid. And yeah, you may not get paid as much as you could at you know, doing it on your own, but you always get paid and I have always valued that. That security That comes from like, having a job showing up getting paid and like knowing what that's going to look like. And so I was like, no Dad, I don't want to start a window washer. I don't want to start a lawn mowing business. Like I don't want to start any of those of my own businesses. That was like not something I wanted to do.

And so when I was in high school, I had lots of jobs, but they were all jobs right where I applied. I got hired by a business and I showed up, I did my thing, and I went home. And that was, you know, it was my experience through my teenage years through my college years and then transitioning into becoming a nurse, right, like I worked for a hospital. I showed up I put in my time and I went home, and being entrepreneur was never anywhere on my radar. But for those of you who have heard my, you know, my origin story, today, I take you back to 2016. And I set this crazy goal that I was going to get a six pack that I You know, this place where I felt like, I knew fitness, right? Like I went to the gym, I was very consistent, but my body never looked any different. And so I was like, putting in all this effort, all this work all this time, and nothing was actually changing in my body. And it felt like I was just on this, like, you know, in this rat race and like on this roller coaster where I was not actually making any progress, and yet, it was taking a lot of my time and effort. And I know that maybe you feel the same way that you put in effort. And it's not like that effort isn't put in an output on the scale, or in the way that you're, you know, progress pictures look, and it can be really frustrating to feel like I'm putting in effort and that effort is not being rewarded with the result that I wanted. And that's where I was at in my journey. And I knew that one of the things or the thing that was holding me back was my nutrition. I exercised I was very consistent with that. That was not that was not a problem. I didn't struggle with motivation. I Didn't struggle with doing that consistently. But I knew that I had zero focus on my nutrition, and I just kind of ate whatever. And I knew that that was the thing that was holding me back. And honestly, that's the thing that's holding most women back from the results that they want. It's not the exercise.

It's not that you don't have enough willpower, it's that you aren't aligning your food and your food choices with the goal that you want to create. And so, you know, that brings us back to 2016. I set this new year's resolution, I wanted to be able to get a six pack, I wanted to finally be able to like see a difference in the progress pictures. And so I started counting my macros. And in eight weeks, I was able to lose 10 pounds, I was able to have a six pack. And it was like I was finally able to actually have a before picture and an after picture that looked different. And I know a lot of you can relate to that where you're like, it's just like one picture, right? Like I don't have a before and after. So I was finally able to have that after picture where I could see a difference with the effort that I had put in over the last you know, month. Two months actually made a difference in the way that I looked. And I was hooked and I was like, this is amazing, I finally feel like I have found the secret to be able to you know, change the look of my body to be able to to hit the goals that I want to hit. And at that about that same time was when I started my Instagram account, it really just started as like a way to share my journey, like a way to share what I was learning with macro counting a way to you know, put out those progress pictures and be able to motivate myself and continue the process and then just be able to share what I learned right? At the time in 2016 macro counting was just kind of entering into the general population macro money has been used for a long time in like the bodybuilding world and in the fitness competition world.

And it was just starting to move into more of the general population and so there wasn't a ton of macro counts out there. There wasn't a ton of people doing macro counting and so I just wanted to share I wanted to share it was working and share my experience. It was like you know when you go and you see like an amazing movie and you just want to tell tell everybody about it, you want everybody to go see that movie. That was exactly why I started my account was like, I had discovered this thing that finally made a difference in me hitting my goals. And I just want to share what I learned with everybody. And that's how biceps after babies got started. And shortly thereafter, people started seeing the results that I was having. And they started seeing the, you know, that I was able to find success, and people started asking me to coach them. And so I never started my account be thinking that I was going to be a coach, but when people start reaching out and they start wanting help, like my, my initial thought is like, Yes, I want to help you. Right? Like that's, that's so exciting to be able to help someone else through their journey. And so I started coaching just, you know, really small and it just people who like, wanted to be coached, they would like reach out to me on DMS and I started coaching clients, and they started getting results. And I started to learn, you know, I could take the things that I was doing and the things that I had learned and I could apply them to other people and start to help them get results and how amazing it was to be able to see other people progress.

For a long time in my business, it was just me it was just me coaching. I even I didn't even really do a whole lot of marketing, people would just like reach out to me my DMS or they would have a mom or a sister or a friend who was coached by me. And they would reach out to me and you know, I would coach clients. And so that's kind of how Biceps After Babies got started. And for the first two and a half years of my business, it was just me it was me doing everything me doing all the coaching all the emails, all the content, all the social media, like everything in my business was just me and, and it was awesome. And we were able to grow a lot. And I remember the summer of 2018 I finally kind of hit this like this roadblock. I had a lot of clients. It was like I had clients and I had social media and you know, I had my family and I had emails and I had the inbox and it was like all of these things piling up. And I just felt like I was at my like breaking point. I was like, I can't, I can't continue to grow this anymore by myself. I'm, you know, I only have so many hours of the day. And I cannot continue to grow this by myself.

And so in June of 2018, so two and a half years after I started Biceps After Babies, when when I made my first hire, and I started out with hiring some coaches that could help me with coaching and help me with coaching some of the group coaching that I was starting out. And that was awesome. It was awesome to be able to bring some other women in, who also could pour into my clients who also could help create that transformation and other people. And that's where, you know, the team, part of my business started was, was in June of 2018. And it's very different to move from doing everything yourself to starting to like bring on a team and bring on new personalities and bring on new ideas and and and To start to let go of some of the things that I had been previously doing, to allow myself to have the time in the space to be able to continue to move the business forward.

And so over that time, since, you know, the middle of 2018, Biceps After Babies, the team has changed and evolved and we've had some people come and we've had some people go, and it's been such a wild ride to be able to create this team that is all aligned under the same vision. So one of the amazing things as I've created Biceps After Babies is I've gotten really laser focused on what why we're here like why is why does Biceps After Babies exist? What is my mission? What is my purpose? Why, like why do I continue to put content out Why do I continue to coach and that vision is that at team Biceps After Babies, we want to empower women to tap into their innate ability to achieve. I believe inside of every woman is an ability To achieve and to reach more than she currently thinks is possible.

And our you know, our mission and our vision for our company is to help each and every one of you each and every one of our clients, each and every one of the people who are on our email list or who are touched by our social media, to learn and tap into that ability that you already have inside of you. And to be able to do amazing things with it. And so that's the vision and it's been so exciting to be able to bring women into the company who are totally aligned with that vision, who are who are so excited to be able to help transform the lives of women, of families, and of communities by starting with tapping into that innate ability, and getting women excited to realize that they're stronger. They're like, there's so much inside of them that they didn't realize was there. So what I kind of want to do today is to introduce you to the women who are on Team Biceps After Babies right now and share a little bit about why they're on the team why they joined the team. And what they currently do on the team.

Now, it's important to understand that, yes, we have the four of us as the core team, and we meet weekly and have responsibilities. But this doesn't include all of the contractors that we have, who we bring in for other stuff. So I want to do a quick shout out because I'm going to introduce you to the core team. But there are so many other women who have other roles in the business. We're not just doing this all ourselves. We have a whole team of people who are supporting the vision. So we have Liz who runs our Facebook ads, we have Clem who does our SEO. We have Tina, who's our bookkeeper, we have Brooke, who is our podcast editor. We have Christie who's our CPA. We have Lauren who does all of our graphic design and we have Mercedes who handles and manages our website.

Another huge part of the team is our macros one on one coaches. So we currently have four macros one on one coaches and they help in our Facebook group in being able to support the clients and be able to coach them. So I'm in the Facebook group, the coaches are in the Facebook group so that clients have support anytime that they need it as they're going through the process and as they're going through macros one on one. And so our four coaches inside of macros 101 are Melissa, and Linnae, and Anne, and Angela. And I couldn't do what I do inside of macros one on one without each of them. And so what I want you to understand whether you run a business or not, but if you do run a business, you know, I think sometimes pulling back the curtain and helping you to see behind the curtain, like I don't do all the things by myself, I can't do all the things by myself, I don't have enough time, I don't have bandwidth, I don't have enough energy to be able to do all the things by myself. And so that is why I started to grow a team and that is why I started to bring other people on to be able to do the things that you know, I'm not the best at Let me tell you, I am not the best graphic designer. And I realized that and I recognize that and so I have brought someone on who is way better at graphic design who can take that off my plate so that I can focus on the things that I am really good at And I can focus on to the things that continue to grow the revenue of the business that continue to drive us forward and that continue to serve and bless the lives of our clients.

So those are some of the independent contractors that are part of Team Biceps After Babies, but today, I wanted to introduce you a little bit more intimately to the other three women who are the core of our team. And so we actually just had our first team retreat. One of my goals this year was to actually get all of my team because they are all remote, everybody, everybody is remote. They all work in different parts of the United States, and they all work remotely. My goal was to get all of us in the core team together for a team retreat. And so we were able to make that happen. We had all four of us over two days, we had a Friday and a Saturday we had our first team retreat, and it was the first time that we all met each other in person, which is crazy, right? We've been working together for some of us for eight months and being able to get All of us in one room was so, so fun. And during the team retreat, Carly, who you'll meet, as she introduced herself on the podcast, she had the great idea that we were going to tell our stories to each other and kind of introduce ourselves and how we found, you know, the team and how people found me and how people got onto the team. And she had the great idea that we should just hit record on the podcast and be able to share that with you guys and kind of introduce some of the behind the scenes people that maybe you don't, you don't hear about, like you don't hear their names. You don't necessarily see their faces, but I couldn't do what I do without them. And so I wanted to bring them on the podcast, let them introduce themselves, kind of pull back the curtain and let you see what Team Biceps After Babies is made of. because let me tell you, it's not just me, it's a whole lot more.

And there's a bunch of women who are pouring their heart and soul into the vision that I have, and that we're all pushing to move forward which is to help you And our clients, and anybody who comes to contact with the brand, be able to recognize that power that they have inside of them. So today on the podcast, I will be introducing you to Carley, who is my project manager, to Amber, yes, We have another Amber on the team who is in charge of social media and the podcast. She's our podcast manager, a social media manager, and Meggan who is in charge of our customer support and our customer experience. And so without further ado, I'm going to start with Carley and she's going to share her story about how she found Biceps After Babies how she started to join the team and really what role she plays in the business.

Carley  16:40

So my name is Carley, I am Amber's integrator is my official term position, whatever, but I basically I'm her number two i she says this is what I think we should do. And I'm like, great, here's how we're gonna do it. Yeah, so that that's what I do. How I found Biceps After Babies, so I. So just a little bit on me. I am 28. I am the youngest member of the team, I am the baby. And they think it's funny. And so this was back in 2019. I had my second baby, I have two daughters. One is three and one is one, well, almost two and four. And in 2019, in March, I was about 10 months postpartum with my second and my brother was getting married. And I was one of the part of the you know, since I'm family, I was part of their bridal party, whatever thing and they had decided that the girls would all wear these dresses that were these the stretchy lace fabric, and I still had a very postpartum looking body. And I was a little self conscious about that because I I've always been very petite. That's just the way my body is. And so I was just like, I don't know what to do. And I've always had a really good relationship with food. I've, I love to eat. But I'm also very good about not eating too much, usually. And so I just needed something to kind of kick me back into gear. And so I'd heard of macro counting before, I think I'd seen things floating around on social media. And I didn't know what it was, but I don't do diets. I don't like the idea of telling me I can't eat something that just makes me want to eat it even more. And I get mad about that.

And so I somehow stumbled across macro counting just in general. And I was like, this is really interesting. I love this idea that I don't have to cut things out and I'm in control of my portions and I'm a huge believer in moderation in all things and that's just like the basis of macro counting. So I think I'd done some googling and hadn't gotten very far but I love podcasts and so I was like oh I wonder if there's a podcast on this so I think I like typed in macro counting into like, the podcast app. And Biceps After Babies Radio was like the first one to pop up. And Episode Two, you know all about macro counting. I was like, Oh sweet, this is all about it. So I listened to it and I was sold. That was it for me. I was like, I believe in this woman. Amber spoke to me. She speaks my language and that was it. So I started macro counting. I went to one of her webinars and understood it better and was able to lose the weight I wanted before the wedding without cutting out the foods. I love True story. And loves that and so by the time this was done, this was in May I I just I loved macro counting I loved Biceps After Babies Radio, I love the podcast. I loved Amber and I was a stay at home mom. And I just I was kind of looking for something to help me feel fulfilled in a way that I just felt like my children maybe weren't doing for me, which probably sounds weird, but I wanted something for me. And I was so passionate about macro counting, because I'd seen great results, and I had to cut out things I loved.

And I just, I believed in it so much. And I believed in Amber and her mission of helping people or helping women specifically feel empowered, that I wrote her an email in May, that basically was like, I love you. And I want to work for you. And I'll do it for free. That was like, the premise of the email. And so I sent it off and forgot about it. And then a few weeks later, I got an email from Amber B that was like, Did you get my previous email because I sent one to you. And I was like, What? No, I didn't. So I like check. My junk mail and she emailed me back and was like, yeah, I'm actually looking for people, or you know, someone's like, yo, let's set up a time to meet and I was like, Oh my word. I'm so sorry that I didn't get this. So I emailed her back, and we got in touch schedules and interview and all that stuff, sat down with her via, you know, video chat, or zoom, whatever. And there you go. So I started working for Biceps After Babies in June and as an assistant, and eventually just kind of became an integrator, and I love it so much. And so there you go, there's my story.

Amber B  21:35  

Carley is a freakin rock star. And I love having her by my side. She does an amazing job in the business. So next up, I want to introduce you to Amber and Amber runs our social media and the podcast. So she is responsible each week for getting out social media content and also making sure that this podcast stays up and running so that all I have to do is hit record. I can record the podcast episode. I send it to Amber And she takes care of everything else, from transcripts to the show notes to creating the graphics to sending out emails to guests. She really makes the podcast happened I so all I'm doing is sitting down recording content and then passing it off to her. So here's Amber.

Amber Every  22:19

All right, my name is Amber. Also. I started out with my first interaction with Amber from Biceps After Babies was in 2016. And I don't even know how I found her. But somehow on Instagram, I found her and she was just starting out on her macro counting journey. And she just started her Instagram page to share kind of what she was doing what she was going through. And so I followed her and then she started taking on one on one clients. So I became one of her clients and she taught me all things about macros, and I just loved it as Carly has shared to Love that there's moderation in all things and there's no restriction and I just jived with with what she taught. And so I went through I think like eight weeks of coaching with her and then just have followed her ever since the four years ago and listen to her podcast and follow on Instagram and and just saw that when she was hiring a few months ago I thought that is like way cool I'll apply and just kind of see what happens. So I applied and I for Biceps After Babies, I do social media and podcasts. And I think it sounds so cliche and so cheesy, but it's just kind of like I don't think I would have ever thought I would find myself here four years ago when I was working with Amber. One on One macro coaching but it's been such a fun ride to follow her and learn from her and become better because of her and I love the idea to work with her and help other women also understand their ability to achieve and and the possibility leaves that are open.

Amber B  24:01

I love Amber. She is such an amazing asset to our team. Last up is Meggan and Meggan is our newest hire. So she was hired back in December, and she's come on to the team and we kind of threw her in at a really busy time right before we were opening doors MACROS 101 and she has picked it up in stride and been an amazing asset to our team. So here's Meggan.

Meggan  24:26

Okay, hi, I'm Meggan. And I found Amber through Lillie. She Lillie is my sister's friend or she was a roommate or something. And we had this cooking blog years ago when our kids were little tiny and we would just like post recipes on it. And so I was following Lillie on Instagram and then Lily posted something about this macro thing. And I had never even heard about a macro was But anyway, so then I started following Amber. And what intrigued me the most was when she was posting that she got a six pack. I was like, she has four kids and she got a six pack. And I have four kids and I can get a six pack but because I've always like just hated my stomach. And so I just thought that this was so fascinating. And so I started following her and I didn't ever really count macros, but I learned so much about like how to build a plate and what you could eat and all about protein and I didn't even realize what what foods were in protein, or what you know, protein or carbs or fats like I had no idea I would just eat before and so anyway that became really interesting in to me and so I was following her when she posted that she wanted to hire somebody. So I'm behind the emails, most of the time and some of the stuff on Facebook. So I think I love this job. I think it's so fun. It's just fun interacting. And the thing I love about it most is that the way that Amber coaches is not just about weight loss or anything, it's like it really goes to everything in your life. And so she'll ask a question, you know, on our podcast or, or just when she's coaching somebody, and I feel like I can relate that to my own life or like my life as a mom, with my kids or just in every aspect of it. And so I love that and I love that she wants to really just empower women to be their best and, you know, build confidence in and grow stronger. And so anyway, that's kind of my thing and that's how I got this job. I'm the grandma here I have because I'm 42 and all these youngins over here are like 28 30. Who knows how old they are. But anyway, so yeah, I love it. And I've always wanted my own podcast. So I just think this is awesome. I have these headphones on talking into a microphone and it's the best so. Okay, bye.

Amber B 27:29

And that is the core Biceps After Babies team right now. We hope and plan to expand and you know, grow over time and we have people reach out to us all the time about working for us. And I told Carley after she mentioned that she emailed me about wanting to work work for us that I was going to probably get a lot of emails. But if you are interested in working for Team Biceps After Babies we aren't currently hiring right now. But if that's something that seems interesting to you shoot an email over to [email protected], and you'll get Meggan she'll be in the inbox. And we will put your name on a list that we will contact when we are hiring. So if that's something that you're interested in, shoot us an email, we'll kind of put your name in a file and as we hire, we will reach out to you. We always post all of our job postings too. I post them on social media. So if you follow me on Instagram at Biceps After Babies, you'll see when we're hiring, we post about it and we open up applications. We don't really have plans for like the next hire yet. So we're not currently hiring but if that's something on your bucket list or your dream board and you you listen to these women and you're like yes, that is something that you know, I would fit really well into that vision. And you're excited about what we're doing here at Biceps After Babies. Definitely shoot an email over to Meggan. Alright, so let's wrap it up. This was a little bit different episode, but I hope that it was fun for you to be able to see a little bit behind the scenes a little bit of the business side What we do if I didn't have these women, we wouldn't be doing the things that we're doing at Biceps After Babies, there's only, there's only so much me, I only have so much time I don't have extra hours in the day that you don't have. And so in order to serve the people that we serve to help the clients that we help to put out the content that we do, it takes a team. It's not just me. And I really want to like acknowledge and, and show you guys the team that is behind Biceps After Babies there are many women who are working to put things out for you to make content to answer your questions to be able to support you. And I just think it's fun for you guys to be able to get a little bit of the behind the scenes aspect of the business. So that wraps up this episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm Amber now go out and be strong because remember my friend you can do anything.

Outro

Hold up, sister friend. Do you love Biceps after Babies radio? If so, the best way to say thank you is to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes. I know, every podcaster wants you to leave a review, but it's because those reviews help the podcast to reach more people. And I do truly want to know what you think. If this particular episode resonated with you, will you also please share it? Either send the link to someone who would find it valuable or take a screenshot and post it to your social media and tell your friends and family why they should listen. Make sure you tag me @biceps.after.babies so I can hear your feedback and give you a little love. And you know, if you aren't already following me on Instagram or Facebook, that's the perfect time to hit that follow button. Thank you for being here and listening to Biceps after Babies radio.