Hi everyone
For those that have been following my blog for a while you may recall my Be My Guest post Interview Series that I ran last year. I’ve decided to resurrect it again. I love learning how others are running their businesses, don’t you? We can spend so much time trying to learn things ourselves, but what better way to learn things than from other people. People who have tried and tested things already and from whom we can benefit from their wisdom?
So today’s lovely guest is Fiona Brown..
Fiona Brown is an accredited fitness education specialist and technical expert who has worked actively in the health and fitness industry for more than 28 years. She holds numerous industry recognised qualifications including AFAA Personal Training, Mat Pilates,Ante/Post Natal Exercise & Exercise to Music plus specialist training in Post Mastectomy Pilates and Pilates for sufferers of Osteoporosis. Her main interest and area of expertise is with females aged 50+
In 1998 she established her Personal Training business from scratch and quickly built this to 35 appointments per week in a matter of months. She sold this as a going concern in 2006
to allow her to concentrate on training the trainers and has grown her company The EnergyWise Academy, into one of the UK’s foremost training providers with students now scattered around the globe.
Fiona has trained and mentored 100’s of health & fitness professionals including Osteopaths, Physiotherapists, Personal Trainers, Pilates and Fitness Instructors. She is renowned for her passion for excellence and enthusiasm which is definitely catching. She is also the owner of Realistic Pilates, Realistic Fitness and Realistic Ballet Fit and continues to actively teach.
1. Describe yourself in 3 short, fab and fun sentences
I have been told that I am scary …because of my passionate conviction for what I believe in… by the same token my middle name should have been Pollyanna (She was sickeningly positive) and that I am inspirational. I can add that I love to help people and that because I’ve reached the age I have… I no longer feel the need to impress. Is that three sentences? I am also rubbish with keeping things concise J
2. What motivated you to become an entrepreneur?
I think I would make the world’s worst employee. I like to get involved with all aspects of my business and have occasionally had nightmares that I have a job. Quite literally waking up one morning from a vivid dream where I started work at 9 and finished at 5. I can’t describe the sense of relief I felt when I realized it was only a dream. I remember attending fitness classes after our second son was born and thinking “ I could do that ..and I could do it much better than her” The ‘her ‘ in question was a good teacher but I could just see where I could do things differently.
Over the last 28 years of being self employed I have met and dealt with many challenges. Most recently I had an accident which almost put me out of business. This was when I was forced to find a different way of earning my living …not just as an instructor but also as a teacher trainer.
Four years later my Pilates business is thriving. I no longer teach any of the classes and I have taken on a second studio right next door where I have a team who teach Fitness classes. I plan to franchise both studios …sell my training academy and focus on my online mentoring business! If this is not classic entrepreneur behaviour then I don’t know what is?
3. Who has been your biggest inspiration in business?
My Dad. He would have seriously benefitted from Business Advisers and Business Incubators to advise him on how to run a business? Back in the 70’s you were pretty much left to your own devices and there was no such thing as a Business Plan or help regarding VAT. He knew things were not going his way when he asked the VAT Inspector if he took milk in his tea. Only to be asked “Have you got a VAT Receipt for that fridge.”
Next inspiration was a guy called Raymond McLlellan who I used to listen to every week at BNI meetings talking about working ON your business rather than IN your business. He encouraged us to read The E Myth by Michael Gerber where I learned that I was indeed an entrepreneur rather than a technician or a manager.
Most recently though I respect Alisoun Mackenzie who promotes Heart Centered business and who has selflessly taken time to work with Rwandan orphans helping to develop their Entrepreneurial skills. These kids have no fathers, mothers or grandparents. The teenagers are the next generation and despite literally being left for dead in the most atrocious circumstances are now beginning to thrive and rebuild their lives.
4. What’s the best business advice you’ve ever been given?
Hope is not a strategy …you need to make things happen. I took part in the Business Investment for Growth Programme run by Scottish Enterprise, and was owner of the smallest business amongst a number of well known large businesses. I was really proud to be told I had the most customer focused business in the group despite me feeling like an imposter who had no right to be there. That was a turning point in my career.
5. What three tips would you give to people when they are considering running their own business?
- Trust your instincts. Your gut is probably telling you what you need to know.
- Never give up. You will frequently feel you are sailing really close to the wind. You need nerves of steel
- Learn to say a slow no rather than an immediate yes and are already formulating a way out in your head! If when you decide that yes might have been the right answer…if the opportunity is still there ..then it was the right decision. If it has gone ..it was not meant to be. There is an old Scottish saying “ What’s for you will no go by you” which means the same.
6. What are the three biggest mistakes that people make when trying to run their own business?
1) Feeling too grateful that anybody wants what they are selling.
Particularly in the early days. I can remember when I had started my Personal Training business …it was as if somebody else was answering for me.
“You’d like an 8am appointment? Why Certainly.
“8.30pm? Of course I can “
“Sunday morning? I don’t see why not!”
I had to really discipline myself to set the hours I was going to work and just brass it out. If they really wanted to work with me they had to re-organise their diary.
2) Not knowing when to say No or when to quit!
I have gradually learned the art of getting clients to fire themselves if I don’t think they are a good fit! So that I can say with a huge smile…Isn’t that a shame that we can’t agree a time that suits ….PAUSE… I can recommend a colleague who will put up with your nonsense. That last bit is a lie. But it is what the comic speech bubble above my head contains as I smile sweetly.
Knowing when to quit is one of the hardest things you need to learn. Maybe the bright idea you had won’t make you money after all. Maybe you need to re-evaluate what it is you actually do?
3) Burying your head in the sand when it comes to numbers
You need to know your numbers. You need to know exactly how much each session actually costs to deliver, bearing in mind that while you are with one client you can’t be earning elsewhere. (Unless you have an online passive income or a team of staff working with you)
7. What advice would you give people that are considering working in the health and wellbeing industry?
It’s the cheesiest saying ever but it works for me : People don’t care how much you know ..until they know how much you care” Theodore Roosevelt
In other words your clients may think, “It’s all very well you having a Sports Science Degree (I don’t) but do you know how to help me with my dodgy pelvic floor and saggy abs?”
I would be very wary of a Personal trainer with a perfect body …male or female. Having a honed and toned physique takes a spectacular amount of time and discipline. My take on the subject is if they are so obsessed with their own looks …are they ever going to understand your chocolate or gin/wine addiction? Will they ever understand that there are days when you have no desire to exercise?
Eating clean and training mean is all very well when you are an ex-military bloke. Come back and see me when you have had three children in three and a half years (I did) and your pelvic floor is shot to pieces along with your seriously over stretched abdominal muscles. Then we can talk!
You also need to steer clear of fads whatever industry you are in. If you cannot justify or do not believe in what you are promoting your clients will see through you. Integrity counts for more in the end. Write down your policies in advance so you are ready for the salesperson you don’t want to work with.
8. What are the benefits of seeking a mentor whilst you are advising your own clients?
I feel it is always wise to have somebody to look up to and be guided by. You can become too wrapped up in your own importance if you are constantly coaching or mentoring your clients. I can’t emphasise strongly enough how much I benefit from having a mentor and coach…although I knew I had to call it quits with one coach when I brought HIM a book I thought he would find interesting! He laughed and said “I think we probably have reached the end of our road together” It hadn’t even crossed my mind that we had begun to reverse roles. I genuinely wanted to give something back because he had been great but he could see I had out grown him. This made me respect him even more. This also led to me referring a number of people to him over the years.
Having a mentor or coach gives you focus and also lets your clients know that you are investing money in bettering yourself and that you don’t believe you know it all. It gives you more credibility but much more than that it helps to keep you from stagnating and helps you to grow.
9. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
“Is this the best use of my time?”
I can’t remember where I first heard the phrase.
In the early days I used to pride myself in having written every letter, licked every stamp and cleaned the toilets!
Luckily I soon found out that if I wanted to grow a business …I needed to delegate and find people who were better at doing things than I was. That was a massive learning curve and a great lesson to have learned. Whilst I was so busy working in the business…training 35 clients a week…I had no time to work ON my business to make sure it grew.
Another nugget of advice came from one of my business advisors. It was quite bluntly put but made a big impression on me.
If you are growing a business that you have plans to sell…but get to the point that if you were removed from it and it ceased to be a business….then you don’t have a business. You have a job and you can’t sell your job!
I now know that my time is best spent writing and delivering teacher training courses to small groups who pay reasonably large sums of money. In the next year my time will be leveraged to sell online Masterclasses based on content I have already written plus running an online mentoring programme for female fitness instructors and personal trainers. That will be the best use of my time.
10. If I wanted to connect and/or work with you where would I find you.
My Website or Facebook
Fiona has kindly shared a great resource – click the link to sign up for your copy - 7 Top Tips for Exercise Newbies. It has also been added to the Resources page where you can find lots of other free resources.
Thanks Fiona, you’ve shared some great pearls of wisdom. Like reading about how others do things? Check out my archives entitled ‘Be My Guests’ for some more great info from people in business (click on the search box in the sidebar to the right)
Please share this post so that other entrepreneurs can benefit. Want to be a guest yourself or know someone that would make a great guest? Send them over my way. I’m always on the look out for new guests.
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