IAM1454 – Coach Helps Small Businesses Grow Profitable Fitness Businesses

Nicole Spencer is a former fitness studio owner turned small business coach who helps entrepreneurs from the US to the UK to Australia grow profitable fitness businesses. Her company, Authentic Conversion, provides two avenues for magnetic client attraction and abundant conversion. She also runs Asheville Crypto Consulting, a company designed to educate people and help those who wish to turn 3 or 4 figures into 5 or 6 figures passively in the next 3 years do so with the support and as safely as possible. Her primary interests lie in the positive global impact of cryptocurrency from a humanitarian perspective plus mining and trading aspects.

• CEO Story: Started opening her own gym which was a boot camp in South East Georgia, determined to transform that community. And it was very successful. Then moved into business coaching and consulting for fitness entrepreneurs and traveled around the world. She further focused on marketing, and how to attract the ideal clients that you are to serve.
• Business Service: Serving all levels. Subscription program – Writing very powerful, emotionally driven, connective content for her clients. They will also have a newsletter and other content. Coaching program – marketing focused.
• Secret Sauce: Deep desire to create transformation for her clients and operate in the name of service.
• CEO Hack: Have a coach or a mentor / Focus on constant personal growth / Mentorbox
• CEO Nugget: Mentorship / Have a really strong why
• CEO Defined: Freedom / Trading certainty for uncertainty in the name of freedom / Having an impact.

Website: http://authenticconversion.lpages.co/ac-info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicole.s.spencer.7
Instagram: http://instagram.com/nicole.authentic.conversion
Book a breakthrough session with Nicole at https://authenticconversion.lpages.co/5-step-formula-schedule/

Episode Link: https://iamceo.co/2018/11/02/iam099-coach-helps-small-businesses-grow-profitable-fitness-businesses/

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Transcription

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00:11 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share it with you Precisely. You're in search of this is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:36 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nicole Spencer of Authentic Conversion. Nicole, it is awesome to have you on the show.

00:49 – Nicole Spencer

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

00:49 – Gresham Harkless

I'm excited to have you as well. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Nicole so you can learn a little bit more about all the awesome things that she's doing. Nicole Spencer is a former fitness studio owner turned business coach who helps entrepreneurs from the US to the UK to Australia grow profitable fitness businesses.

Her company, Authentic Conversion, provides two avenues for magnetic client attraction and abundant conversion. She also runs Asheville's Crypto Consulting, a company designed to educate people and help those who wish to turn three or four figures into five or six figures passively in the next three years and to do so with support and safety and as safely as possible. Her primary interests lie in the positive global impact of cryptocurrency from a humanitarian perspective, plus mining and trading aspects. Nicole, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

01:41 – Nicole Spencer

I am ready. Let's do it.

01:42 – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it. So the first question I had was just to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

01:49 – Nicole Spencer

Yeah. So I think, you know, for the purposes of this interview, I'll focus more on Authentic Conversion versus the crypto consulting if that's okay with you. It's a slightly more concise story there. So I actually decided initially to open my gym, which was a boot camp. I specialized in helping kind of middle-aged women, 45 to 60 years old lose anywhere from 25 to 75 pounds. And I opened that boot camp in a very small town in Southeast Georgia about a year after I moved there.

I really didn't know anyone and was really determined to make it work and transform the community in that way and that was very, very successful. I was actually able to sell that business about three years after I started it and about a year before that even, I had started moving into business coaching and consulting for fitness entrepreneurs and was traveling around the world doing that.

And so kind of, long story short, I decided to branch out on my own and do that and really create a unique approach that is mostly focused on marketing but has emphasis also on kind of how to, how to really build a better you so that you can better attract your ideal clients that you are meant to serve. If you are a fitness entrepreneur, whether you're a gym owner, studio owner, yoga personal trainer, nutrition coach, or really anything in that wellness arena. So that's kind of the short version of it.

03:15 – Gresham Harkless

No, that's awesome. And I love the fact that you talk about focusing on you because a lot of people forget the aspect of that and how people get that connection, feel that relationship, maybe even before they meet you or see your name, just based on everything that you're putting out or all the information that you have there. And it kind of connects with them.

03:31 – Nicole Spencer

Totally awesome.

03:33 – Gresham Harkless

And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear like, how are you doing and how are you helping those fitness professionals to I guess, get that client attraction and that abundant conversion that you mentioned before?

03:42 – Nicole Spence

Yeah, so. And you kind of read this in the bio too. I have two avenues in which I support people. So for those who have. Actually, I do have clients at all levels, from startups to, you know, close to million-dollar-a-year fitness studios using this part of my service. But what I actually do in part one is I write very, very powerful, emotionally driven, and connected content that they can basically copy, paste, and deliver to their email list, put on their blog, and put across their social media. So it sounds like it could be something that is, you know, a little bit generic, but it is not. It has a very open voice.

So it will work for anyone who is serving your average adult population, but it connects with all of their emotions and their trigger. And I know this information because these are the people that I worked with and that I served. And some of my clients who subscribe to that service, get a monthly newsletter and a quarterly lead magnet, and some other pieces as well, plus the 10 pieces of monthly content. Some of them are actually reporting that that is their greatest source of new clients right now. Because what they're doing is they're really nurturing the audience that they've already built up.

So they are bringing in people who had been sitting on their email list for multiple years sometimes, and the messages that they're sending out are simply sent to these people in a whole new way that's getting them to say yes to themselves really for the first time and yes to working with that business owner. So that's pretty cool. That's kind of the subscription side of my business. The other side is I actually run coaching programs. So I have a marketing-focused business. It starts with my 12-week marketing intensive where we have a couple of really tangible outcomes.

But ultimately the goal is to create your authentic conversion machine that creates clients and leads on autopilot. And so what that looks like is getting crystal clear on messaging. I'm a copywriter, so I really get kind of my hands dirty in helping people establish what that messaging looks like to them, I call them your soulmate clients. And then we build out some digital or kind of in-person long-term conversion pieces that not only attract but also again convert people into becoming new clients. And then the continuation after that is I actually host a mastermind where we go into very, very in-depth all things marketing and with the consultation of a variety of experts in the marketing space as well. So it's pretty robust. And I know that's a lot of info, but hopefully not too much.

06:16 – Gresham Harkless

No, I mean, as long as it hits the goal, I think everybody will agree that it is definitely important to be able to have all those things in place. And I think it's. And you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And I know that obviously being a fitness professional, somebody who's actually done it, is probably a really big differentiator in and of itself because you know exactly what these business owners are going through. But do you have that or anything additional that you can touch on as far as your secret sauce?

06:43 – Nicole Spencer

Yeah, I mean I definitely think it gives an extra level of credibility. I've had, you know, a brick-and-mortar fitness facility. I've had an online weight loss coaching slash nutrition business. So I know what all of that is actually like. And obviously, I have an online-based coaching business now, so that's certainly a good differentiating factor, I think. Do you know what makes me different, I've been talking about this a lot on my social media is I still see I'm targeted by Facebook ads by people who are in the fitness marketing space. So I see what a lot of other people are doing and offering gym owners to grow and most of it is Facebook ads based.

There are a lot of people out there promoting bait-and-switch offers. It's all very, very focused on just bringing in clients, and getting revenue right away, in my opinion, without the big picture in mind. And so my approach is very, very different. I am not going to be a good coach for someone who just wants to, you know, fill up their gy whatever way possible. I'm going to be a better coach for people who have the deep desire to create transformation for their clients and who operate really in the name of service and who are looking for humans that they can deeply connect with to create that transformation. And not just dollars in the bank.

Because it is my belief that when you create deep connections with people and you let them know that you care and they are getting those great transformations, not only will they stay longer, they'll refer more people. They'll be willing to do any for you to help you grow and they'll be willing to really pay you for it because they see the value that's there. Too many gyms, in my opinion, have very much that like turn and burn model where, you know, when the next gym pops up, they want to go try that for a while. And so what I'm teaching people to do is build the most loyal community of clients possible.

So again, it's kind of that long-term game. And all of the marketing strategies I teach in my intensive are free. So I don't ever talk about paid ads. That doesn't come until my mastermind level when people are ready to get bigger. But I fully believe that people can grow their fitness studios, and their personal training businesses from 0 to over 10k a month in under 6 months, which is what I have done without spending a dollar on marketing. So that's really my focus.

09:01 – Gresham Harkless

That's a big focus. Isn't that a great focus? Is kind of like having and helping people understand what your secret sauce is to help them understand what their secret sauce is so that they can have long-term relationships with their clients.

09:11 – Nicole Spencer

Yeah. And again, that's only going to be for people who really care about that kind of thing. And I fully acknowledge that that's not for everyone.

09:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Well, cool. Well, I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This could be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a CEO.

09:32 – Nicole Spencer

Yeah. I would say, number one thing, I'll talk about two things. Number one is always, always, always having a coach or a mentor. So I have two mentors that I work with right now across kind of different arenas. One's more helping me work on me and then the other is really helping me work more on my business. And that has been the. I will say the only reason I've had the level of success that I've had is because I've always sought mentorship. So if you're not doing that, that is absolutely essential.

The other side I think is focus on constant personal growth, kind of like what you were mentioning. So whether I'm driving or hiking or cleaning or whatever I'm doing, there's always something that's helping me grow in my ear. So I have a very active audible account. I listen to things, particularly in the crypto space on YouTube. I have a membership to an app or a service called MentorBox which basically provides you with.

It's a couple of different things and you can do some different things in there, but they provide you basically of, you know, 20ish-minute summaries of books. And so that's been really helpful because you can get a lot of information in a very short period of time as well. So yeah, mentorship and then constant personal emphasis on growth, I would say.

10:51 – Gresham Harkless

I love that. And I too have a very active audible and I do have a mentor box as well. So I would definitely echo both of those as great examples. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or if you had a time machine you can go back and ask yourself and give yourself your younger business self a piece of advice. What would you say?

11:12 – Nicole Spencer

Yeah, I mean, it's such a good question. I think again, mentorship like you just need that, you have to have that in order to reach the levels of success that you're capable of and in many cases to even be able to see what's possible for yourself. So, you know, I've brought in a couple of clients into my marketing intensive lately who actually own fitness businesses, CrossFit, gym studios, that kind of thing. But they want to launch into the online space and it's actually been working with me and understanding what my business model looks like that has shown them what's possible and really built their belief in what they are capable of too.

This is so cool because it's the same experience I've had in working with coaches, so can't emphasize that enough. And then I think the other thing is also, you know, having a really strong why, you know, there are very, in many cases, even for entrepreneurs who say they want to make a lot of money and things like that, there can be very negative Associations with success and money and those types of things. And I think it's very important to be connected to your why, you know, your personal why that being successful is so important,

Whether that is a particular lifestyle you want to live or, you know, supporting a family, sending kids to college. It could be a variety of things, but also connecting with a why outside of yourself and your personal life, whether that is wanting to support a cause or something like that. Just having a why that is greater than yourself, keeps pushing you forward, even when things feel really hard, as they do at times for every single entrepreneur.

12:48 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, definitely, that's a great CEO nugget. And I think a lot of times when you're trying to figure out what to do or not to do, sometimes if you can go back to that why, that helps you to kind of understand like, what decision you need to make.

13:00 – Nicole Spencer

Yep, exactly.

13:02 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of being a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So I wanted to ask you what. What does being a CEO mean to you?

13:13 – Nicole Spencer

I think it means, you know, freedom. That is what be. You know, that is why I love being in the entrepreneurial space. You know, when you are in this space, you are absolutely trading your certainty, right? Like the certainty of, like, specific hours and a paycheck and you know how life will work week to week, that you are saying no to that and you're saying yes to uncertainty. Right. But in the name of freedom, whether that is financial freedom, location freedom, or time freedom, those are all of the things that I think most CEOs are working toward.

So that's part one. Part two, I would say, is the CEO. To me, along with that, freedom means impact, right? It's about having the greatest impact in the world that you can. And so I know that the more successful I am, the more money I make, the bigger my business gets, the more people I'm helping in transformation, and the more good I am able to do in the world, Whether that is putting resources back into my business. To help more clients, or it's supporting a variety of charitable causes that I enjoy supporting. So, yeah, I would definitely say freedom and impact is what a CEO means to me.

14:22 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love those two aspects of that definition. And again, I truly appreciate you, Nicole, for taking some time out of your schedule. What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and also how best people can get in touch with you.

14:36 – Nicole Spencer

Yeah, I would say again, you know, I think oftentimes, and right before I jumped on here with you, I was writing up some copy for an email just about why we don't step into our next level self, why we never really rise into that greatness whether we are CEOs or not. And that doesn't just mean brand new people starting up, it can be people with multimillion-dollar businesses who aren't stepping into that next level of themselves.

I think the thing that really comes up for me around that is again not seeing what's possible and letting things like fear and doubt hold us back. It is my fault belief that if you want to create greatness for yourself and have the most amazing life possible and have the most impact possible, you have to really be conscious of those things and where you're going to get stuck so that you can plow through them as they come up for you. And again, for like the 10th time, you know, have someone in your corner who can help you through those times as well and help build your belief.

So yeah, that's it. I would say the best way for people to get in touch with me is really on Facebook. My name is Nicole Spencer. I'm pretty easy to find. My business is Authentic Conversion so I am tied to my business name as well. Interestingly enough, I've grown Authentic Conversion from nothing to a multi-six-figure business in the last nine months literally just using free Facebook strategies and email marketing. So anyone can do that too. I'm still having my website worked on and all of that stuff. But yeah, so that would be the best way.

16:10 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. And we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes and definitely of course remember to make sure you have somebody in your corner. I'll say it for the 11th time so everybody hears it as well. And again, I appreciate you, Nicole. Have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:21 – Nicole Spencer

Thank you so much.

16:23 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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