Do you protect yourself and your fitness business? Do you know the art?
The art of saying no?
Betty Rocker just declined an interview with me. Eloquently. I’ve met her in person a few times in the past month and love her. She is the real deal. She also protects herself. She’s walking her talk.
Saying no probably wasn’t easy for her. She is a helper, a giver and just like you and I have a compulsion to say yes when we’re asked and we could easily complete the request, and would like it, she has to do the hard task of choosing.
If you’ve not met Betty Rocker, or Bree, she is a fitness leader online not just in exercise and nutrition but in mindset and the email response I just received from her reflects that so well.
When you say no because of your personal mission and need to manage energy and time so that it serves you so you can serve others, it’s necessary.
Yet, doing so in such a way as to respectfully decline and acknowledge that it’s an honor to be asked when you do say no and explain why?
That’s teaching at the same time. It’s justifying what you need to do for you while making the other person feel valued and justified for asking. Most importantly though, it is feeling good when YOU walk away. We’ve all been there when we said yes in the heat of the moment or a face-to-face with someone and then regretted it moments later.
What if we all took care of ourselves as well as our personal mission in life that well? How much more would we get done in that one area we focused our attention on?
- Where have you said yes recently that you know now should have been a no?
- Where was it “yes” out of ego, or obligation, or something else?
- Did a yes turn to something heavy and awkward you wish you could put down?
Maybe it was something you want to do but really can’t do well right now. Maybe it is something you said yes to that allowed you to be off the hook for going full out in another area. That’s both a form of self-sabotage and of self-protection. You’re afraid of failing but then, you can’t fail if you don’t really go all in, right? You’ll always have that thing to fall back on instead.
Fast Fitness Business Growth: Step Backwards
I remember not wanting to give up private clients when I was personal training director. Yet, we were growing at rapid speed and with more trainers to train, more programs to implement, more physical spaces to maintain and more incoming inquiries to respond to something had to go. To grow a fitness business there will be a few tough decisions.
There was an immediate ego stroke from meeting clients face to face that doesn’t come as frequently from managing a rapidly growing department. And then, what if my numbers hadn’t grown as much or I hadn’t made changes as fast? What else would I have to blame but, me? My effort, my focus, my… just me. Nothing else would have been taking my time and attention.
So, keeping obstacles in your way that reduce your growth – fitness business, or personal – can be a form of self-preservation. That mythical comfort zone that really doesn’t exist.
Fortunately for me and the fitness business, it worked out. We did grow faster, steadier, and it worked well in fact. Those are the things that can hold us back. We can’t do only the things we love to do and only the things we’re good at. There’s much more to a fitness business growth model than that.
Had I not had a general manager holding the date and time when I was no longer be training private clients I might not have made a clean cut.
And I might not be here, loving where I live and what I get to do every single day. There never would have been room for the kind of fitness business growth I’ve had in a short three years.
In total transparency this “yes” thing is like an addiction to a drug. I’m doing two things this month I should have said no to. I justified them in some twisted way to connect to my real “yes.” But what they’re really doing until they’re over is taking the time up that would have boosted my revenue dramatically had I focused on that in this last 28 days.
So, if you like me are a serial “yes” because you love to do things – for me it’s write articles, and be asked to be subject matter expert, and possibly writing the book I’m doing now (I believe I just made a confession- ugh!) – realize this is like OCD and you’ll battle more than the one first time you overcome it.
Just say no. It allows the yes you really want.
If you need a little help to see where you’re doing this and what will get you to your goal faster, reach me before March 1, 2018.
I’m looking for a few potential coaches for Flipping 50 programs. Here’s how I’m screening them. You have the chance to do accountability coaching with me for 90 days at a 1/5 the coaching rate. We’ll work on your business, your branding, your offers, or… your hormone balance, your fitness.
The ideal trainer is a female going through peri- menopause and hormone changes or the guy who wants to train and attract midlife female clients and give them better results. You can contact me via fitnessmarketingmastery.com/contact for details.