250: The True Story Of How I Built An Online Fitness Coaching Business

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps After Babies Radio episode number 250.

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, wife, and mom of four. Each week, 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  0:47 

Hey, hey, hey,  welcome back to a very special episode of Biceps After Babies Radio, because I have my husband. 

 

TJ  0:54  

Hey, hey, hey. It's 250 hey, hey, hey, so far.

 

Amber B  0:58  

Okay. Oh, because I always say three of them. That is very fun. You know, it's not fun though?

 

TJ  1:06  

Technical stuff?

 

Amber B  1:07  

Tech stuff.

 

TJ  1:08  

Yeah. To cover up for this photo, we totally joked as if we like smashed next to each other around one mic because we couldn't make it to make things work. 

 

Amber B  1:16  

We spent 45 minutes. I just spent 45 of my precious life, trying to make two mics work on GarageBand. 

 

TJ  1:24  

Why is it so complicated? 

 

Amber B  1:25  

We finally gave up. So I'm releasing all that frustration from spending so much freaking time trying to get two mics to work. And we are now very cutely huddled around one mic

 

TJ  1:36  

There's so much negative energy just gone right now. It's just like fading off into the wind. I'm imagining getting just blown away. 

 

Amber B  1:41  

There we go. Yes, visualize that negative energy. Okay, but why are we here today? We are here because a very requested episode is a one-minute recording about how I built my business. So this, I thought would be a fun conversation to have alongside my husband, because he's been the only one who's literally been there since day one from-

 

TJ  2:06  

partner in crime 

 

Amber B  2:06  

And like, I guess negative day one, you know, it's like, you've been there before. Before this was even a thing. And I thought it'd be really fun to talk about- 

 

TJ  2:14  

before there were biceps, before there were babies 

 

Amber B  2:16  

You were there Biceps And Before Babies

 

TJ  2:21  

Biceps Before Babies? No, I didn't know. 

 

Amber B  2:24  

Yeah, no, but he's been there from the very beginning. And so I thought it would be fun to have this conversation about how I built my business and what that process has been like. And some of you listening are likely listening, because you're in the process of building a business. And I know for myself, it's always fun for me to listen to other people who are building businesses. It's almost like getting in the pool together. Like sometimes maybe not even the pool, even like the hog slop together. It's like, you just realized that it's hard and it kind of helps you feel like you're not alone in the struggles of building a business. And some of you guys are listening, because you're like, I have no desire to build a business but I'm super curious about it. And there's a little, like voyeuristic, I don't know, it's like, not my life. But I like to learn about it. 

 

TJ  3:12  

And I think you can learn about other people's lives 

 

Amber B  3:14  

It's kind of fun to hear about other people's life 

 

TJ  3:15  

See yourself and their experiences and take the stuff you like and leave the stuff you don't

 

Amber B  3:19  

Yeah, so my hope is for those of you who are building a business that this will be maybe therapeutic for you to see that other people struggle and it's not all rainbows and butterflies, and that building a business is really friggin hard and really awesome in a lot of ways.

 

TJ  3:34  

And I've seen and I think people in like the 60s Inspiring. That's not what you're gonna do, right? Like maybe you don't want to start a business but we just watched that show was the edge of the unknown about all these wild athletic things that people do like climbing up icicles and climbing and then surfing jaws and like, all that wild stuff. And it's just exciting to see people performing even though I have no desire to climb an icicle.

 

Amber B  3:57  

Right. An icicle- 

 

TJ  3:59  

Remember that with the waterfall, like frozen, like there's water that's like frozen, and it's crazy.

 

Amber B  4:08  

Yeah, so whether you have a business or not, my goal is for this to be a fun episode. And doing it with my husband always brings in a little bit of fun. 

 

TJ  4:16  

So fun, because you're so fun. 

 

Amber B  4:17  

So let's start even before 2016. So I actually officially founded my business in 2016. But something that my friend pointed out to me that I did not realize about myself was she made us it was a very offhanded comment that she made this observation that I have always worked ever since we got married and I was like, “Wait, what are you talking about? Because I-“

 

TJ  4:46  

Only even before we got married. 

 

Amber B  4:48  

That's true. I've always worked. Since you've known me I've always had some sort of job. In college, I was a TA. I TAed for a bunch of different classes.

 

TJ  4:57  

And you grew tobacco. 

 

Amber B  4:58  

I grew tobacco. That's my very, very first job. 

 

TJ  5:01  

That's always a claim to fame. 

 

Amber B  5:02  

So it's a really fun story. It's like one of those two truths and a lying story. I grew tobacco. My very first job was growing tobacco at age 16.

 

TJ  5:08  

And then you were a banker. 

 

Amber B  5:10  

I was a banker.

 

TJ  5:11  

Living that good life of the bankers hours. 

 

Amber B  5:12  

Yeah, I was a banker and a teller at Washington Mutual. Anyway, I worked as a TA during college. And then as soon as I graduated college, I was a nurse. And then after the nursing, and you were in residency, I worked as-

 

TJ  5:27  

an LPN during school during college. 

 

Amber B  5:29  

Yeah. 

 

TJ  5:30  

This is a long detailed story but yeah.

 

Amber B  5:32  

And then I taught fitness classes for eight years. And then I started my business. So it was a realization, I had not had this idea that like, as much as I had considered myself a stay-at-home mom, I really had always had something that was mine that was earning an income that was like doing something to the world.

 

TJ  5:53  

Something that you thought it was important that you enjoyed, kept you engaged and invested in your own personal growth and development.

 

Amber B  6:00  

Yeah, and I actually had this realization this week, because last week, I interviewed Kate and we talked about the value I felt of having her see me grow a business. And while there are challenges associated with that, of course, there's also a lot of good that comes from your kids seeing that modeled. But I was talking to you recently, and I was saying, the realization I had this week was not that my inherently working is the positive thing for the kids, I don't think you have to work for that to be a positive thing for the kids. I think what is positive for them is to see me going after something that's important to me. And for me, that you know, are the things that I've invested in and the business I'm building, and those things, that's best for me. But that may not be for you. But what I think is valuable is your kids seeing you be true to who you are and going after that.

 

TJ  6:49  

Honest living, right? Living in accordance with your ideals and not you know, honestly to yourself what you think is important and reflecting that with your actions.

 

Amber B  6:57  

Right. And so that was a realization that I had, it was like, it's not the working that I feel like it's been positive. This is something that's important to me, and I'm gonna go after it.

 

TJ  7:07  

Positive impact on the kids. 

 

Amber B  7:08  

And that's been awesome. So that was an interesting realization that I had. But let's go to 2016. I'm curious. At what point do you remember me starting to talk about Instagram or business or anything? I don't really remember this.

 

TJ  7:24  

I don't remember you really showing me. Like, I didn't know you were on Instagram.

 

Amber B  7:26

Yeah, I kind of thought it was too. 

 

TJ  7:32  

All of a sudden, you were just spending more time on your phone. And I was like, “What is she doing on her phone?” And this was back before like, social media was as huge as it is now. Right? Like, I mean, now you see people on their phone, you just assume they're on Instagram, but back then, Instagram was still pretty small. And Facebook was just I don't know, not that popular on the phone platform at the time. And so I was just confused. And I was like, “Okay, well, that's interesting.” And then I think, I don't know, I mean, once upon a time, I asked you what you were doing, and you told me you were.

 

Amber B  7:58  

Like I started Instagram.

 

TJ  8:01  

I was like, what is that? Because I did not have an Instagram account. And I was naive to that at the time.

 

Amber B  8:07  

Yeah. So this is classic me and I'm trying to be better about it. Of like, just deciding I wanted to do something and just like, freaking going and doing it and not asking permission or telling anybody about it.

 

TJ  8:22  

Yeah. Because then your Instagram, like feed started getting filled with pictures of you, like abs and belly, on the internet for the world to see. And I just wasn't sure how I felt about that yet. 

 

Amber B  8:31  

And yeah, that was a conversation. Okay, let's get to that. So, okay, how did my Instagram account start? January of 2016. I always set new year's resolutions, and I always have been a New Year's resolution person. TJ knows, it's always a thing for me, it's like every year. And so that year, I don't even think I shared this was this is obviously expressed, it's exposing some things that I need to work on in my relationship that I decided I wanted to get a six-pack. And it was inspired by realizing, I spent a lot of time at the gym. I was teaching five to seven classes a week and I spent a lot of my time at the gym. And I felt like my body always looked the same. Whenever I say this, they're inherently women who like are sitting there nodding their heads and being like, “Yes, I totally get that.” Like I put up so much time in the gym, but my body always looks the same. And that was me. I was like, I work out all the time, but nothing ever really changes. And I feel like, for all the time that I'm putting in the gym, I should be able to have a six-pack like that should be able to be something that's achievable for me and so I said, “I'm gonna get a six-pack.” And the way that I decided to do it was through macro counting. Now back then it wasn't really called macro counting. IIFYM, If It Fits Your Macros was kind of the terminology. Flexible dieting was another thing. And I come across this because I was scrolling through Pinterest, and I saw a picture of a woman with like a before and after where it was before started counting macros and then after with like a six-pack, and I was like, click on that because that's what I want

 

TJ  10:09  

probably wasn't even done with that

 

Amber B  10:11  

that lead to her blog. And so I was like reading through this blog. And she was like talking about reverse dieting and all these things that I like did not understand any of it. But by the end, I was starting to pick up on this idea of like macronutrients, carbs, fat, and protein. And from my like, logical, scientific nursing mindset, I was like, “Okay, this actually makes sense to me.” Most diets don't make sense to me, like cutting out food groups, not eating sugar, eating no fat- 

 

TJ  10:42  

Like no ice cream? That doesn't make sense. 

 

Amber B  10:44  

Doesn't make sense, I'm not going to do that. But from my, like, nursing background, I was like, “This actually makes some logical sense to me as to like, why this would create a body composition change, or why this would promote that loss.” And so I was like, “I'm gonna give it a shot, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it.” And I did. And like-

 

TJ  11:03  

Did you get a lot of results?

 

Amber B  11:04  

I got a lot of results in a very short amount of time. It was like eight weeks, and I had a six-pack. Now granted, I started out, I was already lean, already had built a lot of muscle already built a lot of muscle, and I was already lean. So that was a faster experience. But that was crazy to me to think that just by tweaking my nutrition, which felt like a kind of a slight tweak, because I was still eating ice cream, I was still like, eating treats and things. It felt like just like this slight tweak made such a big difference in my body composition.

 

TJ  11:35  

I don't know how slight, I mean, the scale came out, we started weighing foods, and all that stuff. And you started having to plan your things. I mean, I think it's the point, your points a good one, like, you know, nutrition was the missing link. A 100%? I don't know, I just-

 

Amber B  11:48  

I guess what I'm in sort of changes in food selection. 

 

TJ  11:52  

Yes. 100%. 

 

Amber B  11:53  

So yes, ever had to go into it. And like planning and weighing food. And like all of those things. Yes, that is definitely more effort. But I guess what I was surprised about and I think a lot of women will resonate with this is there is this belief and thought that I have to drastically change the way that I'm eating, and I can't eat any food. But I like to be able to make the change occur in my body and I didn't have to do that. And I still was able to see a change in my body. And that was what was really revolutionary to me, because every time I had tried to lose weight before, it had always been about pulling out foods that I liked, right? Don't eat pizza, don't eat candy, don't eat, don't eat these foods. And this was the first time in my experience that I really got results. The other times I didn't get results when I was like restricting and like not eating the foods that I wanted to I wasn't getting results. This was like the only time I got results. And I didn't have kettlebell swings, it really felt like I was cheating. And I was like, winning that life unlocked. And so that was the experience that I had. And I again didn't tell TJ any of this. So, so great.

 

TJ  12:57  

We just synced I'm very proud of you for being able to like you know, know what you want and go after it. 

 

Amber B  13:02  

Sure. There's always a light in the dark side. So I had these results. And I was like frickin have a six pack and I eat ice cream. Like why not more people know about this that was really like, “I should start an Instagram account and just start sharing the things that are happening, that are occurring, that this amazing thing that I found that's called macro counting”, that like at that time, most people did not know about. It was super, it wasn't new, it was moving from the bodybuilding world into the general population. So for a general population, it was a new concept. And so that's when I started my Instagram account. I was like I'm just gonna start sharing and I had to come up with a name I don't know if you know the story. Do you know the story about how I came up with Biceps After Babies?

 

TJ  13:47  

I just know it was in the car or in the van. 

 

Amber B  13:49  

I was in the van. I was the in the driveway. And I remember I was like scrolling through something-

 

TJ  13:55  

We haven't talked about maybe this at this point. Maybe you were- 

 

Amber B  13:58  

I was like four weeks or six weeks into my cut or something like that when I-

 

TJ  14:01  

When you came up with your name handle for your Instagram account. You didn't come up with a business.

 

Amber B  14:06  

No. It came up as this was not a business. I was not starting a business and-

 

TJ  14:12  

the name Biceps After Babies Babies came into the business came I didn't know 

 

Amber B  14:15  

So it was a handle. It was the handle had to select. But I remember scrolling through and I kept thinking along the lines of like Mum of Four, like Mum of Four gets fit or it was like something along the lines of Mum of Four, right? Because that's like unusual to have like four kids and like be into fitness. And so I kind of like wanted to tap into something that but I didn't want to do that. Do you know why? No, because I was pretty sure that we were done having kids. But I was like I would have five kids and they like it wouldn't work anymore. This is actually like a thought process like it actually is great.

 

TJ  14:48  

How many years later?

 

Amber B  14:49  

We still have four kids. And so then I had the aha revelation. I feel like it was a personal revelation of Biceps After Babies. 

 

TJ  15:00  

Absolutely a great name. I mean, I can't tell you how many people I like told the name of your brand too. And they're like, that is such a great name.

 

Amber B  15:05  

I always joke that it's like literally the most creative thing I've ever done in my entire life. Creativity is not like coursing through my veins. But yeah, it was this idea that just because you'd had kids didn't mean that your fitness days were behind you and that you could still have biceps after babies like you could have your kids and then become fit. And that was really what I wanted to like, put out into the world with this idea. Like it's never too late. It's never, you know, being a mom doesn't have to mean certain things about you. So that was when I started my Instagram account. 

 

TJ  15:36  

Yeah, it's awesome. What a great story. And then you started getting a bunch of people that would DMed you say, like, “How are you doing this? Tell me more.”

 

Amber B  15:43  

So I think that's a really important part of the story, not because I think starting a business is bad or like doing something when you start a business or starting an Instagram account when you start a business is bad. But I do you think there is something, there's like a why are you- If the only reason that you were posting on social media is because of your business, I wonder if that comes across in a way like, I guess what I feel like it's like a detachment from if you're just putting things out there to put things out there and help people. There's like a detachment from whether or not people come and pay for anything.

 

TJ  16:18  

Yeah. What was your friend's name when I listened to her podcast? And she talked she interviewed that guy that talked about different types of entrepreneurs, and you said there are accidental entrepreneurs, which I think is what you are. You knew the author when I told you his name. But anyhow, but you know, I mean, think being an accidental entrepreneur was kind of your style. But to your point, I think like, if the goal of successful CEOs is to put good things into the universe, and oh, they make money, not I'm trying to make money, and hopefully whatever I put out there is good.

 

Amber B  16:49  

Yes. And I think, yeah, it's like, where is it coming from? What is your goal in putting things out there? Is it to get paid? Or is it to like, help people? And I think if your goal is to help people, the money follows.

 

TJ  16:59  

There's always room in every market for more good products, or services, you know, right? It's not always room to make money, but there's always room for the good stuff and the good stuff always makes money.

 

Amber B  17:09  

Yeah. So I didn't start the account thinking, “Oh, I'm gonna have a business and I'm gonna like start coaching clients.” It really happened very organically, just as I was posting, people would DM me and be like, “Oh, my gosh, this is so amazing.” Like, can you help me and I was like sure, why not? That sounds fun. 

 

TJ  17:26  

That's great. Well, you like to teach. You tried TAed and taught your classes. So it's kind of in your nature.

 

Amber B  17:32  

Yeah. Education was always something I really enjoyed. And I was a little naive and like, well, if I can get myself results, and I can get other people results as well, I think now I look back. And like, that's a little naive but I appreciate the- 

 

TJ  17:46  

gotta start somewhere 

 

Amber B  17:46  

Hey, you got to start somewhere. And I appreciate one of the things that I do love about myself is like my ability to just say I want that and just like go for it and not second guess or wonder or worry, or like I kind of just like dive in headfirst and hope I can swim.

 

TJ  18:02  

Yeah, we're a good complement to each other in that sense, because I tend to be the ruminator in the sit there and reflect and think about it 10 times and I write a post and I'm like, “Who? How could she read this? Oh, what if some person I've never heard of before, that doesn't really like me thinks about this? What? How would they read it?” And I was like, “Let's just get it done.” It's just like, that's great. And nice balance.

 

Amber B  18:18  

Yeah. So that was really how, like, I remember I got my first client, it was February 25, 2016. That was on your birthday, and that was my first paying client. And I think I wrote a program for her. Like I wrote a lifting program for her. She like wanted, like a workout thing. So I like started there. It was really just very organic of people wanting me to help them. And I think if you're at the point of starting a business, that is the thing that I want you to be pulling away, is what we've been talking about is like, how can I serve? How can I help somebody? How can I put something out there not just to get paid? But like, if you are genuinely looking to help people and make their life better? The money follows the clients follow, the business follows, and the building follows that initial just desire to serve.

 

TJ  19:08  

Yeah. And how long was that? I mean, I remember having a conversation with you about charging people and I remember that was uncomfortable for you.

 

Amber B  19:15  

Yeah, I did a couple of people for free. Like I remember I coached some of my friends for free. And I have thoughts about like coaching for free and whether that's actually beneficial for people but for me, that was just a way to like get my feet wet and kind of prove to myself that like I could provide some value to somebody before charging them. But yeah, charging is hard. 

 

TJ  19:35  

I remember there was like there were questions of self-value, questions of whether you're really offering something that's worth paying for, and questions about whether it was the right amount. Anyway, all those things. 

 

Amber B  19:46  

Yes, it was hard. But you know, I did it. I did the hard thing and  I just got started and I think that's another thing that is really important to take away like it's just messy action. It just is like I'm made a whole bunch of mistakes. And there's a whole lot of things that would go back until like 2016 Amber, but I had to learn those lessons. And some of them were hard lessons to learn, like I remember, like a couple of experiences with other people and like other influencers in the space and kind of having some head-butting experiences online. Yeah, with some other people in the space. And then I also remember somebody I like made friends with and then I asked her for something, and it was too much and that like, spoiled and ruin that relationship. And like, I don't know, the stories you have to tell me. Yeah. So I mean, I just made a lot of mistakes. And, you know, didn't do everything perfectly. But that's not the goal. The goal is to start helping people.

 

TJ  20:38  

Take action. 

 

Amber B  20:39  

Yeah. And so that very quickly escalated.

 

TJ  20:43  

Yeah. Cuz first you so suddenly, you started getting your DM requests. And so you started coaching pieces. And

 

Amber B  20:47  

I finally decided I was like, “Okay, well, maybe this is a business”?”

 

TJ  20:51  

Yeah. And then you just started, like, I think you just accumulated a lot of people in a really short period of time at like, when they found out that you were doing coaching. And then I mean, maybe because it was so great. Or maybe it's because your price was so low, but like-

 

Amber B  21:04  

But I do remember, like, the biggest, and I tell this to new entrepreneurs, like the best marketing is word of mouth, especially in our space. It's like, what would happen is I would coach someone, and they would get results. And then they would tell their sister, their sister-in-law, their friend, you know, is like, word of mouth or the there's nothing like word of mouth marketing. And that was really what I built my business on. It was just like word-of-mouth marketing. There weren't a lot of people doing what I was doing. Right, there were some up there were some others. And I was definitely not the first person in the space. But there were not a ton of other people doing what I was doing. And when you get people results, and you help people, they let other people know. And that's really how I started to build my business with one on one coaching.

 

TJ  21:51  

And it was all via DM at the beginning. Oh, no text message. Well, mostly text messages.

 

Amber B  21:55  

I did yeah, text messages and emails.  

 

TJ  21:56  

Text messages and email check-ins. That's right. And then we had this giant Excel sheet for a while. And that just got to be super cumbersome when there were like so many people. And then I built you that  Microsoft Access database. That was pretty cool. I felt like I was contributing.

 

Amber B  22:10  

It's like trying to keep track of all these like online check-ins again, there was like now I feel like there are platforms that are built to help coaches to be able to manage this stuff. Like there was none of that back in 2016. It was very much like trying to bootstrap everything with Excel and like creating systems and processes in the business to be able to do all these check-ins and templates.

 

TJ  22:33  

And everybody's macros, how you would tweak them for the week and what their weight was, and what their bicep measurement was, and all these different things- 

 

Amber B  22:38  

-and where they're paying me and when I got paid. And when I needed to get paid. And like I did all my pain through Venmo. Yeah, that's right. I remember that. Like, everything was through Venmo. And I liked it because, at the time, there was no fee. I mean, I paid all my taxes, but like, I guess there's still no fee if you do it via friends and family. But anyway, that was like, I didn't want to get blurred. It was just simple. I didn't want to get credit card processing fees, and whatever. So that was what I built. 

 

Amber B  23:15 

And in the first year of my business, I grossed $50,000. That was my like gross revenue for the year. I don't really know what that was. But for my first year in business pretty close to that, because I didn't have a ton of expenses. I put up a question box on my Instagram asking what questions people had. And one of the questions was, “How long before you were profitable?” And my opinion is with an online business, you should be profitable from day one. Or it's like not day one, like close to day one, maybe you invest in like some sort of certification or something like that. But if you're doing a business where you have to invest a lot to like, have the product on hand and like have a store and like have a lot of these like physical things that you have to have, that's a different story. But for an online business, the amount of money that you have to invest before you can start making money doesn't have to be literally anything, I had a free Instagram account. I had a Gmail account, I did Venmo for my payments. That's it. 

 

TJ  24:12  

You already had Microsoft Excel.

 

Amber B  24:13  

Right, like I already know, had Microsoft Excel. So I just think you don't need to invest a lot of money, especially in an online business to get it up and running. And so being profitable by the first year should absolutely be a goal.

 

TJ  24:27  

Which I think gets back to your earlier point that like just getting started is getting started. You don't have to wait till you have a million things or a million dollars or a million dollars worth of investment or something.

 

Amber B  24:36  

or a million followers 

 

TJ  24:38  

Yeah, just keep going. 

 

Amber B  24:39  

Just getting started helping people and that was, you know, kind of where I was at. So that was 2016. 2017, I like grew and grew and grew.

 

TJ  24:50  

Yeah, at one point. I think you had like 120 clients. 

 

Amber B  24:53  

So this was like the breakdown moment. You can tell the breakdown moment is like the summer of 2017

 

TJ  24:59  

Well, I'm probably sensitive to this because I missed so many family activities like medical school and residency training and all this other stuff. But we were on a family vacation in Eleanor and 2017. And you, you know, I mean- 

 

Amber B  25:11  

I literally had, like, 120 clients. 

 

TJ  25:14  

Yeah. And the good part about having an online business is that you can be anywhere in New York. And the bad part about having an online business is you can be anywhere and have your work, right? And so we went on this family vacation to a place that doesn't really even have great internet access. But these people were, you know, I mean, you're committed to helping them with their fitness journey, and you didn't really have any way to take a break, because you were the only person in the business. And, I mean, you just missed a lot of that vacation. Like you spent hours and a lot of time and hours, answering 120 people, and you get text messages and like all hours of the day while you were trying to help these people. And it was a lot. 

 

Amber B  25:52  

It was a lot. And so, what was our coming to Jesus moment?

 

TJ  25:56  

Well, one night-

 

Amber B  25:57  

One morning. Okay, we woke up one morning. 

 

TJ  26:00  

Oh, yeah. So when at one morning, apparently, we woke up and I just remember asking you like, well, you were uncomfortable to like, I don't know, maybe you were uncomfortable, because I was uncomfortable. But one way or another. Like I asked her, “Where's this going? Like, how far is this gonna go? Obviously, you're doing great things, but like, you're not here in on this vacation. You know, is this how it's gonna be? Or are we gonna change this? Is it gonna get bigger still?”

 

Amber B  26:25  

What did you say? When are you going to be the next Jillian Michaels?

 

TJ  26:29  

Oh, yeah.

 

Amber B  26:32  

You're like, “What is this gonna be? Are you gonna be like the next Jillian Michaels?” Like, I just need to know. You're like, that's fine. If it's gonna be that wherever you go, I just need to know what to expect. And I broke down. And the reason was, is because I wasn't sure as he was. Like, I didn't know that was really scary to me to like not to know.

 

TJ  26:53  

I mean, again, it's always good with the bad, right? The good part of the way you started your business was you were just like, headfirst. Let's go, you know, messy action, go, go, go, go go. And then without a whole lot of thought about what it meant or where it was or where it was going. And then you just kind of get to the end of what you can handle in your current status in life, so to speak. And just last year without any runway.

 

Amber B  27:15  

Yeah, I was like, I don't know where I'm going. This was not anything I planned, right? This was all accidental. I didn't get started saying this is what I want to build. I want to build a six-figure business and like all you know, that was not it. It was just like I felt like I had caught this wave. And I was just on the wave. And the wave was just taking me somewhere. And I did not know where it was. And that was a little bit scary. And I think that the reason that it hit me so hard was that it was already scary. But I like didn't think about it. I kind of like it pushed it down. And then you said it. And then I was like, “Oh, there's like fear.” You're supposed to like see it? How did you know? And that was really scary. And I was like, “I don't know, I don't know where this is going.”

 

TJ  28:00  

It was really hard. And it was really hard. I think it was hard for you. And by extension, it was really hard for me.

 

Amber B  28:04  

Yeah. And so one thing that I had realized at that point was like I couldn't, I had the realization that I couldn't keep doing what I had been doing that I could not imagine the pace that I was keeping, keeping that for 10 years. And I was like, I can't keep doing this for 10 years, the way that I'm doing, I'm hustling. I'm working hard. I'm putting in a lot of hours, but I can't maintain this pace forever. 

 

Amber B  28:30  

And so I remember when, you know, we all established the Amber lights goals. And so in 2018, so now we're rolling into 2018, I remember my like word for the year was the strategy. Like I felt like so much of my business had been accidental and just like throwing spaghetti against the wall and there was no strategy behind anything that I was doing. And so 2018 I was like, “I'm going to freakin get some strategy. Like I'm to be intentional about doing this thing. Now, I'm going to actually like, work at it and grow something and be intentional about it.” And so that's when I hired my first business coach in 2018. 

 

TJ  29:10  

I don't remember her name. 

 

Amber B  29:11  

I do but I'm not gonna share it because I didn't really like her.

 

TJ  29:15  

Okay, I do remember you hiring her. I don't remember much more than that.

 

Amber B  29:21  

Yeah, it was fine. I mean, I think investing in yourself and investing in your business. And I learned some things from her. But the biggest thing that she did for me, you know, pluses and minuses to this were encouraging me to increase my prices.

 

TJ  29:35  

I do remember that. I think that one of the things that you had a hard time with was she was sure. Yeah, one way or another she didn't enroll you on how to do that. And you didn't want to do that. 

 

Amber B  29:46  

Well, I think so. I have some thoughts about this. I think she was absolutely right. And there's a lot of beginning entrepreneurs fall into it of like undercharging, right because they're so scared of like charging money and there's like some worthiness issues there, like, “Do I provide that much value? And are people gonna pay that and you know what not wanting to be rejected, right?” So I think she had a lot but I needed to. She was right, I needed to increase my price. And that was something I needed to work through personally to be able to do it. Where it got to be a problem and when I finally like cut it off that was the only thing that she was giving me. It was like, that's all you got. Okay, I have like, raised my prices multiple times. And it was like, the solution to any problem that I had was just like, raise your prices again, I was like, yes, that's valuable. And there are other things to work on that it's not just continuing to increase your price, increase your price, increase your price. And so with her help, was when I decided to do my first group program because I was to the point where I had scaled the business to what I could handle as you're doing one-to-one coaching. I couldn't do more. You know, I had tapped out with my income with the people I could help, amount of hours, I hadn't day when I was willing to do and I couldn't do anymore. And so that was with her help I launched, I raised my prices from one-to-one coaching and then I launched my first group program, and it was called Ditch The Diet. 

 

Amber B  29:46  

So I launched Ditch The Diet four times in 2018. Starting in January, I did four launches of that. And that was kind of a hybrid of some like online teaching, which I always really enjoy. And then everybody in that program had a one-to-one coach, but it wasn't me. So I'd hired three other coaches, people that I don't coach hired other coaches to be those coaches for the clients. But every single person on that program had group coaching with me, and then the content, and then also a one-to-one coach where they were like checking in with them. I remember that. So that was my first program. And I remember my first launch, I had what we would now call and like now have heard the term launch freefall. So what happens a lot of times when you open like programs is a lot of people will join like on the first day, and then there's like crickets for like the next couple of days. And then a lot of people join on the last day. And so that time in between, like the first and the last days often called like a launch freefall, where you're like, “Oh my gosh, I was signing up, like, nothing's working. I'm so terrible. They hate my program, right?” Like all of these things. I remember that because I reached out to my coach, and I was like, What the heck is going on? And she had to like, walk me back. And remind me that people tend to purchase on the last day. And anyway, she was right. We did have a good amount of people doing that program. And we launched it four times. And that was great. I learned a lot from that experience. I don't know. Do you remember anything from that time?

 

TJ  32:52  

No, I mean, 2018 was when I was like, just starting my practice here isn't attending. And I guess I was still in like, go, go, go mode for my own stuff. And so I wasn't, I don't remember much more than that.

 

Amber B  33:03  

Yeah, I started the podcast in 2018. So October 2018 was when I first started the podcast.

 

TJ  33:08  

Yeah, I don't remember much about it starting. I remember you telling me that it was gonna start. And then I did one of the earlier episodes with you. And I have a lot of memories of it actually getting going. Was it hard for you or fun or exciting?

 

Amber B  33:28  

It was exciting. I always said with a podcast, I always knew I would start a podcast. Yeah, like, I loved podcasts. I remember listening to Cereal back when we lived in North Carolina. And getting really into podcasts kind of before it was like a thing. Like, not everybody listened to podcasts. And I just remember, like thinking several times, like, this would be really fun if I start a podcast. Like, I'm not gonna do it now. But I think I'll probably do it one day.

 

TJ  33:52  

And I kind of have this memory or I think this is true. And you can tell me if I'm wrong, but like, I feel like you always felt like you had a message or something you wanted to share. And you know, social media and Instagram like it's so limiting, right? Like-

 

Amber B  34:04  

Well 2018, there were a lot of changes to the algorithm in Instagram. And so Instagram was literally my only platform was the only way that I was getting clients. And there were a lot of changes to the algorithm in 2018. And fewer and fewer people were seeing my posts. Growth was slowing down. And it was like what the heck, I have all these people, but none of them are seeing my posts. How can I take back control from an external platform and like, put my content out in front of people? And for me, it was like, well, a podcast would be like the excellent way to do that. Because of an algorithm that doesn't control whether people see a podcast or not. It's just like, if you follow it, that's you're going to see that content. 

 

TJ  34:11  

You're back to the Word of Mouth thing too because that's where most people find that podcast. Somebody tells them about it.

 

Amber B  34:45 

Sure. So then that's what I did I started my podcast. And then 2019 January, everything happens in January, guys, because-

 

TJ  34:55  

when we set goals

 

Amber B  34:56  

because that's when we set goals and that's how I like to run my life. And so In 2019, I decided on my like goal for the year, my intention for the year was that I wouldn't take any more one-to-one clients like I was going to cut off that revenue stream. Which was super scary, because in 2018-

 

TJ  35:16  

The one-to-one client was your primary revenue stream

 

Amber B  35:18  

Right, even though I had started Ditch The Diet, and like we launched that program four times, the majority of my income came from one-to-one coaching still. And so that was a very scary moment of saying, I want to go all in, I can't go all in with the group stuff if I am still tied down with the one-to-one. So it was like letting go of the one-to-one coaching, letting go of that revenue stream, in order to dedicate more time to the group stuff, which I know I could scale higher and serve more people over the long run. But it would require me to let go of somebody like that, but income in the meantime, and I actually my income went down in 2019. And I made about, I think it was like $70,000 less in 2019 than I made in 2018 because I made that decision. 

 

Amber B  35:22 

But then in 2020, it skyrocketed, and I like tripled my income. So I think it's such a great, we've had these conversations recently about this idea of letting go to let in is that we think we're letting go of something. But in reality, what we get in exchange for it ends up being so much more. And I really feel like that was an experience of that. It's like, I felt like I was letting go of this revenue stream. But by letting go, I was creating space and letting more in for building the business that I wanted to. 

 

TJ  36:32  

Yeah, that's exactly what I was gonna say. It's just like, sometimes you have to make space for the new thing to be there. Whether that's a new idea, a new product, or a new service. I mean, you know, there's just so many different places. That's true in life.

 

Amber B  36:42  

But I remember I recorded a podcast episode in 2019. And I think it's my goal episode. And I said I'm not taking one-to-one clients anymore. And that was scary. Really it was scary to say it and put it out there that that was not something I was doing anymore, that I was like closing the chapter on that part of my business and opening this next chapter. That was really scary. 

 

TJ  37:04  

Yeah, I do remember that part. I remember that. I just remember the fear. Yeah, I remember the challenge that that was for you.

 

Amber B  37:10  

But then that was when I started MACROS 101.

 

TJ  37:15  

And that's been hugely successful and a lot of fun in a lot of places. But I mean, I don't know if you have any other thoughts about your MACROS 101, like the startup situation. But I just remember when you started with James Wedmore. It's like Business By Design and all that stuff. That's when I thought the real transition started to take place.

 

Amber B  37:32  

Yeah, so I had my first one-to-one business coach in January of 2018. And we already talked about that experience. And there was some concern that there were some things that I ended up not there was a reason to move on. Yeah, as the reason I moved on. But then I joined Business By Design with James Wedmore at the end of 2018 like August of 2018.

 

TJ  37:51  

Well, I mean, and, you know, probably get into this, but like, you know, there's a whole progression of learning that happened through that over the next couple, you know, year or two or whatever. But like, the transition that that group, and that that learning experience, like provided for you was again, like another mental shift, right? Like, first you had gone from one-to-one to one-to-many with this idea that you were going to serve people in a different way. But now this next shift was going from this one-to-many situation to like, more of a CEO, like business, building a business, yeah, running it as a business, like with multiple employees, and other people that, you know, again, just increases the scope of the things that you can do, and the number of people that you can serve, because even at one too many, like, there's still a limit there. It's like there are only so many things that one person can do. But when you bring on employees, and you know, you expand your reach, but learn the skill set that it took to manage those employees and how to be a visionary. And a CEO is I think what really came out of working with James and you know, his different courses.

 

Amber B  38:53  

Yeah, for sure. One of the questions that somebody asked on Instagram was when I hired my first employee, and the first person that I hired was somebody that helped with the inbox, like my email inbox. And it was Brooke. Okay. And, I think she also did Custom Macros. And that was my very first hire. And then my next hires were, I had three coaches for a dish that I had, right, because I had everybody doing one-to-one coaching. And so I had three coaches for that. So, those were my first hires. And I actually think hiring for your inbox is like a really great first hire. It's like something that is, I don't know, for me, I think most entrepreneurs, it's draining, like being in the inbox. And like, it's not something you'd like liked to do. And somebody's telling you what needs to be done. And it's something that you can teach somebody else how to do, right, you can create templates, and you can create email signatures, and you can teach them how to respond and teach them to this stuff. So that was my first hire. But even so, the difference between having one person doing your inbox or VA helping you with graphics and building a team and building a business and with a vision with a purpose with that strategy piece that I was talking about was a completely different skill set that I lacked, right? You know, I went to school for nursing. I didn't take a single business course, in my entire life. I didn't take a single marketing course in my entire life. So my knowledge bank on like marketing, and business-

 

TJ  40:28  

-how to write copy how to do messaging, I don't run ads.

 

Amber B  40:31  

-anything. I didn't even know what copy was I remember as people started talking about copy, I was like, “I don't know what that is.”

 

TJ  40:40  

They used to have those in the library or in the standing line. 

 

Amber B  40:42  

No, I don't know what copy is. If you don't know, don't feel bad, because I didn't know for a really long time, a copy is anything written. It's like any written word.

 

TJ  40:53  

So the text in the email that you get that somebody says, “Hey, join my program.”

 

Amber B  41:00  

Anyway, copy, like, I just had to learn so much in terms of business. And like you said how to be not just an entrepreneur. And James always makes this distinction, the difference between an entrepreneur and a CEO, there's a big difference between an entrepreneur and the skill set is different. Because an entrepreneur is someone who is like, a big vision, and wants to go from thing to thing, they always wanna be like doing new, shiny, shiny object syndrome. And the CEO inherently has to be more measured, the CEO has to be concerned about their team, they can't be jumping from thing to thing to thing like you have to be building a business that is going to last. And so sometimes inherently the differences between the entrepreneur and the CEO and the needs of the business can feel in conflict. 

 

TJ  41:46  

I don't know how many people are listening to this, that have that goal in mind. It was like building something large, but like, I think that I mean, you can correct me wrong, but I think you know, this take-home point is like, those are two different things. You know, like getting something started making something happen, having a degree of success, like those are all things that are awesome and wonderful and you can do by yourself. But like, at some point, if you want it to scale beyond that, what one individual can do, there's a mindset shift and skill set development that is not insignificant, that needs to be intentionally developed, whether that's through external coursework or internal development or soul searching or something, but like those are different things.

 

Amber B  42:28  

Yeah, and then there's nothing wrong with being like, I just want to be a solo entrepreneur, I just want to like, Coach some people, and I just want to, like, make some revenue on the side, and I want to like, just, I could have just been fine. Yeah, can even cut my clientele back. Instead, I'm gonna have 50 clients, and I'm going to earn $100,000 a year. And like, that's really great. And I want to pay anybody and I can do it all and like, and that's fine, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that. So like, if that's what you want. Awesome. When I got to that I wanted more, not just in the sense of like more revenue, but I wanted to have a bigger impact. I wanted to serve more people, I wanted to make a name for myself, and I wanted to get my message out there to more people. And in order to get your message out there to more people like you just need more support to be able to have to build that structure to be able to reach more people. And for me, that was what I wanted. I wanted to build a multimillion-dollar business because I wanted to impact as many lives as possible and that was my goal. But it doesn't have to be your goal.

 

TJ  43:31  

Sure. any goal you want whatever works for you. That's honest loveliness. 

 

Amber B  43:35  

Yeah. So. So yeah, James has been influential in my development, I joined BBD in 2018, and I joined the next level, his like, the group next level, like a group coaching program in 2019. And then I joined his Mastermind in 2020. Been in it since 2020. And, you know, he's done a lot to help me to grow into that, like visionary and CEO role that I've been needed to, like, have a company now, like, have a business, have a team, all those things that come alongside with having a really big vision and wanting to serve a bunch of people. 

 

TJ  44:06  

Yeah, and I mean, there are so many great things about that, too. It just shifts what you spend with your time doing with your time, you know, like, I actually think we need to grow that even a little further. Like we spent 45 minutes trying to get this podcast to work today. And we spent another hour or something earlier today trying to do what were you trying to do?

 

Amber B  44:25  

I was trying to make it so our contact forms on our website weren't giving spam to our inbox just getting like spam so hard. 

 

TJ  44:33  

It's just that hours of the day wasted on, not that wasted but just like things that aren't serving the greater need, you know, it's like things

 

Amber B  44:43  

The goal with this as a CEO especially well the goal of everybody in the business is to do the things that like you're good at and that only you can do. Staying in your zone of genius, and I was not in my zone of genius today trying to figure out spam filters. That was not. But c'est la vie career.

 

TJ  44:59  

Okay, So let's see, what other questions did you get? How did you figure out your niche? I guess we talked about that a little bit.

 

Amber B  45:06  

Yeah, well, so this is always like an interesting conversation. Because when you start getting into business education, one of the first things people talk about is like finding your niche and niching down. And I think, especially in a more crowded industry, there's like a lot of wisdom in that. When I started out, I didn't really have to niche down because there was not very much competition.

 

TJ  45:33  

Yeah, though, I do remember having this conversation with you about like, who is your avatar? 

 

Amber B  45:37  

Yes. And I'm not saying I didn't niche down. But it was not as necessary upfront to niche down because inherently macro counting in and of itself was already very niche down. Nowadays, macro counting does not niche down like there are lots of people in this space. And so now you have to like niche down even further to like, Who exactly will you serve? Or what is the unique way that you do macro counting? And, but I do remember, this was another pivotal moment for me again, that idea of letting go to let in. I remember when I made the decision to not coach guys anymore. So in the beginning my business is for anybody. Whoever wanted me to coach them? I would coach you. 

 

TJ  46:20  

Do you know what a macro is? I will teach you.

 

Amber B  46:22  

Male, female, old young, like didn't matter. It was like anybody who wanted me to help them as I would help them. And as I coached more and more clients, I started to ask myself the question, who do I like to serve? Who do I want to serve? And two, who do I feel I can serve very well? And I realized that the needs that males and females tend to have in this space are very different. And that guys needed to be coached in a different way than females need to be coached. And I felt like I was more effective, I could address the needs of female clients more than males. And so I made a decision. I don't remember when this was, but I remember making the decision like “Okay, I'm only a female coach now. I don't coach guys”. Yeah, that was scary.

 

TJ  47:05  

Yeah. Well, you're cutting off.

 

Amber B  47:09  

Half of the population. Literally half of the world,

 

TJ  47:10  

Just 50% of us.

 

Amber B  47:13  

And that felt really scary to do that. But I'm happy that I did.

 

TJ  47:18  

Yeah, those numbers were always relatively small, as I recall, but still, we're not.

 

Amber B  47:22  

But they weren't done. And I still get emails from guys, I still get DMS from guys, and I still get women wondering if their husbands can do it. 

 

TJ  47:31  

What do you tell them?

 

Amber B  47:32  

I say no. 

 

TJ  47:34  

Well, what if like when a woman signs up to be when your MACROS 101 client wants her husband to go through with her?

 

Amber B  47:41  

Yeah, so I say if you're in the same household, you don't have to buy two programs, but you're the person who's enrolled like you're the person who you go to the coaching calls you are in the coaching community like you're getting code, you should come along for the ride and like watch the content, the last totally fine. And then the contents, are fine for men and it's not gendered-specific. But in terms of the coaching, because that's what I saw the biggest difference was like the needs in terms of how to get coached and how to help them with the coaching it's very different. And so-

 

TJ  48:11  

Not necessarily the content, but the application of the content is going to be situational.

 

Amber B  48:15  

Yes. And the conversations that I would have with females would be very different than the conversation I would have with males. And so I wanted to create a female-only space where we can address those concerns and be very specific with them. And not have to like quite different things. So yeah.

 

TJ  48:32  

Okay. What did you plan to share with people before you went live with your account? 

 

Amber B  48:37  

I didn't. Yeah, I didn't really freak god didn't the username and like, you can scroll back. If you want to scroll back, you can go back to my very, very, very, very, very first Instagram post. Pretty sure it was a waffle.

 

TJ  48:51  

I need to do that now. I'm gonna do that when we get done.

 

Amber B  48:53  

We're all gonna go back and link to my very first post.

 

TJ  48:57  

But it was how many posts do you have now?

 

Amber B  48:59  

Oh, like, 2000 I don't know how she was like 2500 I don't even know. But in the meantime, we're on Instagram and TikTok. So Instagram, Facebook, and now in a podcast and now TikTok. We just got on TikTok.

 

TJ  49:17  

It's fun. And now we understand why our kids say that the songs are TikTok songs.

 

Amber B  49:20  

Yeah, my kids actually don't have TikTok. But they live at school. So their friends, like send them TikTok and stuff. But yes. Now I understand when my kids were like, “This is a TikTok song.” And I was like, “It's not a TikTok song. It's a song that they play on TikTok.” But now when I hear songs I'm like, “Oh, yeah. So I'm on TikTok.” I'm bicepsafterbabies over there. We're having some fun and growing on a new platform, which brings it a whole host of like, starting from ground zero. 

 

Amber B  49:48 

Hey, this is a good piece of advice for any of you who are starting any site sort of social media. Everybody starts at zero. I think it's really easy to look at people it'd be like, “Oh my gosh, she has 90,000 followers like, Instagram so easy for her.” No, it's not. First of all, no, it's not. And second of all, like I had zero followers up, there was a day I had zero followers. And I remember going in friending like all of my friends from like anything, hoping they would friend me back like inviting them to like, like my Facebook page, like all of those like super spammy things you did. Because I like had zero followers and I was like trying to build this thing, but just kind of a perspective, and it's been fun to go over TikTok when I saw it on TikTok, I had zero followers. With zero followers, I think I have like 800 now. I know maybe we're almost to 900 but we're like trying to get 1000 cuz you get a link in the bio. So you're listening to this, and you want to help me get to 1000 followers go follow me on TikTok. So we can freakin get the link in the bio, you can't put a link in there until you with those followers. But it's been good to like start over and like start at ground zero again.

 

TJ  50:52  

So then tell us why you're not on YouTube. Like I should have if I'm a new entrepreneur that's just out and about, like, I need as many followers as possible should I just go to like, all of the social media channels?

 

Amber B  51:02  

It's like the worst idea ever. Because going deep on one platform and learning it well, implementing it well and creating strategies well, and understanding it well is always going to produce more results than trying to split yourself between a million different platforms. So it doesn't really matter what platform it is. For me, it was Instagram. That was the platform I chose and I went all in on it. But I see a lot of entrepreneurs trying to like it's trying to hedge their bets. That's kind of usually where it comes from. It's like, “Well, if I'm on five platforms, then like, if one of them doesn't do very well, but maybe the other ones do well.” But what happens is your attention gets split. And all the platforms are so different. I've learned that very intimately with TikTok. TikTok was very different from Instagram. And people always used to tell me that and I was like, do you mean it's like the same thing? It's not like it's a different culture. And so trying to like learn all the different cultures, and all the different SEO and all of the different like ways to put content together and all the different just platforms in and of themselves

 

TJ  51:58  

and the types of content that thrive in certain places, right?

 

Amber B  52:00  

It just divides your attention. It's like trying to chase two rabbits, you catch none of them. Whereas if you like chasing one, rabbit, you can do it well.

 

TJ  52:08  

So for our bunnies on the end of the bed.

 

Amber B  52:11  

We actually have bunnies, we have two bunnies.

 

TJ  52:13  

And they're very smart. They know that if they hide under the middle of our king bed that we have a really hard time.

 

Amber B  52:17  

Yeah, but if there are two, we're even less likely to get it. Right. So chase one rabbit and doesn't matter whether you know, if you want to go all in on YouTube, YouTube is awesome. There are a lot of benefits to any platform that you pick. You want to go deep on Facebook. Awesome. There are a lot of benefits. Instagram, you know, Reddit, I don't know. Yeah, like whatever, like TikTok, podcast, whatever you want to do going deep on one thing and really like getting that under your belt before you branch out. Right? There's a reason I hadn't started TikTok till now when I was making sure that the platform was actually going to hang it hang around. Because there's been other platforms that have come and kind of gone in terms of like, remember Snapchat was one that entrepreneurs were trying to figure out.

 

TJ  52:59  

Was that kind of, like for just a few minutes? 

 

Amber B  53:01  

Like, is this going to be a thing that people we're gonna be able to like use for advertising and things like that? Another one was how there was a like I came route called now, but it was just recently. Oh, Periscope was one. Periscope was like a live that you would do. And then there was one recently that was like audio, it was like a periscope, it was only audio. So the same thing, like things, come around. And as an entrepreneur, I'm not gonna put a ton of time and effort into something unless I know it's gonna, like, have stick staying power. Sure. And then two, I want to make sure everything else I'm really solid and set with before I start something new. And so we've kind of, you know, Instagrams kind of a little bit on autopilot. We have been doing it for so long that we can kind of keep it on autopilot while we focus our attention on TikTok.

 

TJ  53:50  

I mean, I don't know maybe your audience already knows this or starts to recognize it. But like, you know, you've built. It's on autopilot, because you built a whole system around it, right, and a team of people that take content that you have developed and then format it and use and more potentially multiple places, and then format it for Instagram, and then pull it out there. So like, you know, how many Instagram stories do you make these days?

 

Amber B  54:14  

I do more stories, but I like Instagram posts, yeah, actually a lot of posts these days. But in times past is all repurposed content from like, things I'm already doing right? I'm already doing coaching calls. And so we take content from there, I'm already doing podcasts, we take content from there and can put it on Instagram. 

 

Amber B  54:30

That's also a good segue into this idea of building a team. This weekend, we're having our executive retreat for our team. So there's four of us that are full-time in the business and we're having a retreat this weekend, together to vision, cast, and build community and things like that. And then in a couple of months, we'll be having a full team retreat where there are seven of us now on the team full-time in three part-time. And so including the like, I think we have 12 coaches now at this point and then the contractors on top of it. But I remember the last team retreat that we had, this was a full team retreat, it was in 2020 and there were four of us. So we had it right before the shutdown, there were four of us. And now here we are, two plus years later, and there are seven plus 12 coaches plus contractors. Now we have full-time employees. You know, you have to create that structure, right to be able to support. 

 

TJ  55:25  

The growth of the structure has allowed for the things like Instagram to be put on autopilot, right, we say autopilot. But that just means it continues to be work that's done that you don't have to devote a whole ton of personal time to, which allows you to be creative and visionary in another place.

 

Amber B  55:41  

Right, yeah.

 

TJ  55:43  

What's coming next? Oh, my gosh. So what are we going to do? Are you going to be Jillian Michaels? Like what can we do instead? It was so funny, so it's in October? Yeah. So we don't have to wait two more months before we get further? 

 

Amber B  55:57  

Well, I've been really clear that like, one of the things that I'm you know, that we've been developing, and that we've been working on is Coaching Academy and seeing that as like, a legacy that I want to build, and that I want to continue to build up. You know, I see, having gone through building the business, I've seen how important good quality coaching is, not only to get clients results but being able to build a business. You know, I said back at the beginning, like the reason I was able to build my business was that people got results. And I think the best marketing, you can even be the best marketer in the world. But having people get results is always going to give you word-of-mouth marketing, which is like, it's free, and it's the best you can do. And so if you are a good coach if you can get people results if you can shape people if you can shift people if you can help them. That's like all the marketing you need, especially at the beginning. And so I see a lot of coaches struggling because they're spending so much time trying to build their business without building the coat, like being able to be a really good coach and really shift people. And so Coaching Academy kind of came out of seeing that needed, like, I've developed a system and a process to be able to get deep with clients to not just stay on the superficial, “Hey, you need to like count your macros and like, track your protein”, right? That's really superficial. And that's where a lot of coaches started. That's where I started, was like, I didn't know anything other than like, tell me what you did, what were your measurements, let's make some adjustments to your macros. It was all about the numbers. And the more I coached clients, the more I realized, like, all of those action behaviors are driven by something so much deeper. And that is when I learned how to get deep with my clients and figure out what really is causing them to self-sabotage, what really is why they aren't tracking their food, why they are like, you know why they're doing the activities that they're doing from a behavioral from a belief standpoint, and identify that and help clients shift that it's when everything changed in my coaching, and I was able to get so much better results for my clients.

 

TJ  58:03  

So Coaching Academy is gonna be basically teaching other women or coaches essentially how to work with beliefs. And we can affect change at a top level.

 

Amber B  58:14  

Yeah, we call it transformational coaching, right? And we've already run, we've already trained a bunch of coaches in it already. So it's already going like it's happening. But that's definitely where I see us going. So yeah, we talked about this idea of being the transformational coach, you know, which is different from the advice-giving coach. It's like, it's just someone who gives advice, right? That's what I was like, “This works for me started should work for you, too.” 

 

TJ  58:36  

Why isn't it working? 

 

Amber B  58:37  

Yeah, I don't know. It works for me like it just like, you know, it's just like giving advice. There's like the coach, that's just the teacher, which again, I love education, I think education is really valuable. But on a behavioral level, education doesn't actually change behavior, because we all know that we're supposed to, like, brush our teeth for two minutes. And like, does that mean we always do. You know, like, there's just a lot of things that we know we're supposed to do, and doesn't mean we do it. And so education isn't like the only thing that's going to make a difference. The other thing I saw was just like coaches just cheerleading, just like, “Go you're doing it like you didn't do this week, you're gonna do so much better next week.” And while on some, level that feels good, it doesn't actually create long-term change. And so I saw all of these pieces of myself like this, it's all came about because like, I frickin made all this, like that was me that was the type of coach I was like the cheerleader, the advice giver, the teacher and when I learned how to be the transformational coach which encompasses those things because we're not leaving those behind but it really allows you to coach from a deep belief shifting level, identify the root cause of what's keeping someone stuck identify it and then help them shift it. When you can do that, well now all of the other things clear up and all the other behaviors follow it in the are permanent, which is the big thing like I saw this was a pattern I saw in my coaching was like I could get clients results, but then like, four months later, they'd be coming back be like, “Can you coach me again because I like fell off the wagon.” And that didn't feel good to me as a coach, like, that's not the type of coach I wanted to be where it was, like, I'll help you while you're with me, and then you're, but I haven't set you up for long term success, I wanted to be able to set people up for long term success. And that happens when you shift from a belief to an identity level. And that work is so fun, and I love it so much. And I figured out some really important ways to be able to help could just do it. And so that's what I teach in Coaching Academy. 

 

Amber B  1:58:37  

So if that's you, and you're listening, you're like, oh, my gosh, that sounds amazing. I really want to learn to like the coach from a deeper transformational level to be able to create that long-term change in clients, you can get on the waitlist for Coaching Academy will be opening it up one more time, this the end of this year. So if you go to bicepsafterbabies.com/cert,  C-E-R-T. It's our Coaching Academy certification or transformational coaching certification. We'll let you know when that will be opening up and you can come to join us and Coaching Academy. When do you ask where we're going? That's where we're going. That's where we're going. It's like MACROS 101. Yes, I love that and I'm not getting rid of that. Yeah, but I see the next level where I can really help people is developing coaches that can coach deep can go deep with their clients. And you know, to me, that's also like the next level of change that I can create in the world. It's like you can create change when you change a person. And especially for women, I feel like this is something I get so passionate about. Because like when you change a woman you change like a family, you change like a marriage and you change like kids, and like it just has this ripple effect. But how awesome would it be if not only I'm not only able to impact women in their own journeys, but I'm able to impact coaches, who then go on and on and impact women, right? It's like that exponential factor of If I can impact coaches, that they can all go and impact all these women, and now just like the ability to be able to reach women and serve them has now exploded. And so that's what gets me really excited to think about what's coming in the future.

 

TJ  1:02:00  

Super exciting. Looking forward to it. 

 

Amber B  1:02:03  

So hopefully this was interesting and fun and insightful. And hopefully, you enjoyed seeing TJ and me together.

 

TJ  1:02:10  

 Hey, hey, hey. 

 

Amber B  1:02:12  

No, now we have-

 

TJ  1:02:12  

Oh, bye bye bye. 

 

Amber B  1:02:20  

I did have a.. so I don't know.

 

TJ  1:02:22  

 If you guys ever ask Amber, maybe she'll make a reel of this dance. 

 

Amber B  1:02:27  

I don't know what anymore. I did in my teenage years. I used to do the whole entire Bye, Bye, Bye dance. I rocked it was a pretty epic camper. Yep. So anyway, 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

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