Yes, you. YOU pretty much rock.
Why? Well, how about we start with, why not?
These two ideas sum up about 99% of this past weekend at the 1st annual Radiance Retreat in Asheville, NC. Jen Sinkler of Thrive with Jen Sinkler, Neghar Fonooni of Eat, Lift & Be Happy and myself co-hosted what turned out to be an amazing event with 40 incredibly talented and ambitious women in the middle of the NC mountains, where fitness, fat loss, mindset and a whole lot of fun rounded out an incredible weekend.
The weekend started out with half of the participants engaging in an Online Biz 101 for fitness pros on Friday, where many of the attendees had a passion for health and fitness but were stuck with where to go and how to make money. For many of them, they want to turn their love of fitness from a hobby to a sustainable career. The 3 of us had a blast chatting branding, marketing, sales, online products, building a fan base online and how to become a recognized expert in the field.
However, I was struck by how many of the participants expressed some kind of self-doubt about being the right person or “having the chops” to create an online business in fitness. We spent a lot of time delving into ways to get around not feeling worthy enough, the fear of failure, and even the fear of success. This is where the “why NOT you?” piece comes in.
“Why NOT you?”
Here are some of the highlights and insights:
- Nobody is going to tell you you’re an expert so it’s time to stop waiting. Declaring you’re expertise is a simple choice. And once you simply assume your expertise, you can move forward. There’s not enough affirmation in the world that can ever make you feel 100% ready. Just gotta jump!
- At some point, you have enough certifications. Stop trying to convince us of your knowledge. Do you have the knowledge and empathy to help people? Yes. Good, then welcome to the online fitness biz world. You are qualified enough. If you can make a difference, you can make a living. At some point, you have to stop thinking like a fitness professional and start thinking like a fitness entrepreneur.
- Success in any endeavor takes a mindset shift, first and foremost. Many people are scared of failure, and still others are scared of success. Hone your mindset to be one of abundance, not scarcity. Understand the need to invest in yourself with actual money through coaching in order to get to the next level.
Someone with a business mindset is not scared of the big leagues. And they get comfortable with discomfort.
- Be 100% authentic all the time. If you want to create a personality brand online, and you want your readers, followers and fans to know and trust you, you have to BE you. Besides, trying to be someone else does not last, and it also makes doing what needs to be done intensely miserable. Being you is effortless.
- Taking ACTION is the most important aspect of building your online business. Produce. Do. Then do some more. And do regularly. Be consistent. Finish stuff. Press Publish. The most successful people are the ones who believe it’s ‘Ready, fire, aim, aim, aim….’ and they have the self-TRUST to know that they can handle any negative outcomes that occur. They stay flexible and adjust on the fly.
- Be transparent with your struggles. All the ladies agreed that reading blogs and following those who pretend to have it all figured out, and claim, for example, that clean eating is the easiest thing on earth and they can’t fathom how people can struggle with it, is uninspiring, not motivating and plain old boring. The struggles are where the juicy stuff is! And if you can be honest with your own and cop to challenges (but also offer solutions), there’s an invaluable opportunity for relatedness. People need to feel like someone ‘gets’ them :)
The rest of the weekend was chock full of fitness–olympic lifting, yoga, metabolic conditions workouts, hiking–and plenty of chats on fat loss nutrition, mindset and introspection (the latter being JillFit faves).
The second take-away from the retreat can be summed up in two words:
You Rock!
On the last day, we asked the gals a few questions about their mindset and challenged them to go deep to ascertain their own level of self-love and how they felt about their own bodies. Neghar asked them to journal the ONE way they could remind themselves of their self-worth, regardless of their weight, size, shape, etc. “What can you do daily to love yourself?” she asked.
A few of the ladies shared their tools, and finally, Alyson Hell stood up and explained that she needed to “act out” her own reminder. We watched as she got into position, and explained that she and a friend went to see Iron Maiden a couple years back and had seats close to the front row. She and her friend were rocking out, like, SERIOUSLY rocking out. ROCKING THE HELL OUT. Hands in the air, heads banging and yelling their asses off all show long. Until finally, FINALLY, the guitar player of Iron Maiden made eye contact with them, pointed to them and yelled loudly, “YOU ROCK!!!” Holy shit!!! Alyson and her friend went crazy and couldn’t believe it! And of course, she rationed: if the lead guitarist for Iron Maiden thinks she rocks, well then, of course she does! How could she not?! It was the perfect affirmation to remind her of her power and as a daily reminder, she looks in the mirror and says, “Alyson, you rock.” Pretty frigging amazing, yes?
This moment pretty much summed up the underlying message of the retreat, and that is:
You are amazing right now. Not 10 lbs from now. Not when you get someone else’s approval. But right now. You’re it. You’re you. Who could be better? And by the way, you frigging rock.
Your light, your passion, your worth is inherent. It cannot be taken from you. No body, leanness, weight, size, shape defines you. YOU define you.
