IAM2128 – Coach Helps Small Businesses Grow Profitable Fitness Businesses

In this episode, we have Nicole Spencer, a business coach and former fitness studio owner.

Nicole shares her journey from owning a successful gym to becoming a business coach helping fitness entrepreneurs grow their businesses profitably.

She discusses her unique approach that focuses on authentic messaging and deep client connections to attract and convert clients on autopilot.

Nicole also talks about the importance of mentorship, personal growth, and having a strong ‘why.'

The episode concludes with insights into her marketing strategies and the importance of building long-term relationships with clients.

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Transcription:

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Nicole Spencer Teaser 00:00

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 my hands dirty and helping people establish what that messaging looks like to their, I call them your soulmate client.

Intro 00:17

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 Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:45

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.

Nicole Spencer 00:55

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

Gresham Harkless 00:58

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. And Nicole Spencer is a former fitness studio owner turned business coach who helps entrepreneurs from the U. S. To the U. K. 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?

Nicole Spencer 01:49

I am ready. Let's do it.

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Gresham Harkless 01:51

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.

Nicole Spencer 01:57

Yeah. So I think, 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 bootcamp. I specialized in helping middle-aged women, 45 to 60 years old, lose anywhere from 25 to 75 pounds.

And I opened that bootcamp in a very small gym. 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 3 years after I started it.

And about a year before that, even I had started moving into business coaching and consulting for fitness entrepreneurs. was traveling around the world doing that. And so 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 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, and really anything in that wellness arena.

So that's the short version of it.

Gresham Harkless 03:19

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

Totally. Awesome. And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper in here, like how are you doing and how are you helping those fitness professionals to, to, get that client attraction and that abundant conversion that you mentioned before.

Nicole Spencer 03:45

Yeah. So you 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 close to a million dollar a year fitness studios using this part of my service. But what I actually do in part one is I write a 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, 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 triggers. 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, they 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 speaking 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 the, that's 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 my hands dirty and helping people establish what that messaging looks like to their, I call them your soulmate client. 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.

Gresham Harkless 06:15

No, 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 kind of 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?

Nicole Spencer 06:40

Yeah. I definitely think it gives an extra level of credibility. I've had, 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 and obviously I have an online-based coaching business now. So that's certainly a good differentiating factor.

I think, what makes me different, and I've been talking about this a lot on my social media is I still see, I'm still targeted in 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's a lot of people out there promoting bait and switch offers. It's all very, very focused on just bringing in clients. 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, fill up their gym and 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 that not only will they stay longer, they'll refer more people, they'll be willing to do anything 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 churn and burn model where, when the next gym pops up, they want to go try it out 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 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, their personal training businesses from zero to over 10 K a month in under six months, which is what I have done without spending a dollar on marketing.

So that's really my focus.

Gresham Harkless 08:55

That's a big focus is that it's a great focus is kind of like having and helping people understand that your secret sauce is to help them understand what their secret sauce is so that they can have long-term relationships with their clients.

Nicole Spencer 09:05

Yeah. And again, that's only going to be for people who, really care about that kind of thing.

And I fully acknowledge that's not for everyone.

Gresham Harkless 09:13

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Cool. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And 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.

Nicole Spencer 09:25

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 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 an absolute essential. The other side I think is definitely a focus on constant personal growth, 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, on YouTube. I have a membership to an app or a service called mentor box, 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, 20 ish minutes.

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

Gresham Harkless 10:43

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.

example. And now I want 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 your and give yourself your younger business self a piece of advice. What would you say?

Nicole Spencer 11:04

Yeah, 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 gyms, 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, which 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, having a really strong why, there are very 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, your personal, why that being successful is so important, whether that is a particular lifestyle you want to live or, 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 that keeps pushing you forward even when things feel really hard as they do at times for every single entrepreneur.

Gresham Harkless 12:36

Yeah, absolutely. And then, 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 understand like what decision you need to make.

Nicole Spencer 12:48

Yep, exactly.

Gresham Harkless 12:49

Awesome. And now I wanted to ask you, you for 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 does being a CEO mean to you?

Nicole Spencer 13:00

I think it means, freedom. That is what be, that is why I love being in the entrepreneurial space.

When you are in this space Transcribed 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, 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 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.

Gresham Harkless 14:07

Nice. I love 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.

Nicole Spencer 14:21

Yeah, I would say again, 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 of self, why we never really rise into that greatness, whether, we are CEOs or not. And that goes, that doesn't just mean, Brand new people starting up.

It can be people with multi-million dollar businesses who aren't stepping into that next level of themselves. And 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. And so it is my full belief that if you want to create greatness for yourself and have the most amazing life possible and have the most amazing life, impact possible that 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 the 10th time, 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, so anyone can do that too. I'm still having my website worked on and all of that stuff, but I guess, so that would be the best way.

Gresham Harkless 15:51

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 11 times so everybody hears it as well. And again, I appreciate you, Nicole. Have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Nicole Spencer 16:02

Thank you so much.

Outro 16:04

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and 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.

Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at ceohacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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