Protect The Asset E9 - Amy Bowe - Be True To You & Have Confidence In Your Story.

Welcome back to another episode of the protect the asset podcast.

A lot of experience, personal trainers want to have more freedom in their life, but they're stuck trading time for money because they lack the business skills to succeed on their own.

I get it. I've been working in the health and fitness industry since 2010.

If you're like me and you believe the personal trainers deserve to have a sustainable career that gives them both freedom and financial security, then you're in the right place. In this podcast, I aim to interview experienced online coaches who are creating a business that supports their dream lifestyle.

I will also interview business experts to gain insights into the business skills that personal trainers need to create a successful online business.

I hope you enjoyed the show.

It's time to protect your number one asset.

My guest today is Amy Bowe, owner and creator of warrior school, which teaches women how to train, to build strength and feel confident in their bodies.

Amy has been in the personal training and coaching game for 14 years. She has a wealth of experience and knowledge to share, and I really enjoyed our conversation.

I love Amy's confidence around who she is, what she does, who she serves and what her role is as a coach.

Amy shares her insights into building a business that stays true to her values and beliefs while also meeting her clients where they are at.

Not only does Amy have a super clear client niche, but there are certain prerequisites to joining warrior school and she's not afraid to say no to clients that are not a good fit for her program or who are not ready to start the program just yet.

She puts the best interests of their clients first and her super high standards and attention to quality has allowed her to build an online business that suits her lifestyle and pays her well.

I hope you're ready for a kick-ass episode.

Amy, welcome to the protect, the asset podcast. Great to have you.

Oh, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to have a conversation with you.

I can't wait myself. I really want to unpack you know, what you, what you're doing with your online career and talk to you about how you went about, you know, building that online career just for the listeners.

Can you maybe just start by telling them what you're up to now and what your role is?

I am Australian, but I live in Vancouver, in Canada and I've been here for about five and a half years. I run a online coaching business called warrior school and it is for women and I teach women how to get strong and feel better in their body.

Through training nutrition and helping them work with their physiology. So I've been doing that online now for the last few years. But prior to that I've been in the coaching health, fitness space for, I think this is like 14 years. I keep saying 13 and the other day Carson heard me. Who's my partner. And he's like, I swear you've been saying 13 years for the past five years. So really look at that. Like how long have you actually been doing it? So I think it's about 14 years or so that I've been coaching gets it.

That's a long time mate. And I suppose it just all blows into one sometimes. Doesn't it, it's hard to keep track, whereas that like, I'm still, I'm still 21 years old.

I'm still 21 years old.

It does. I think when, you know, you look at your story as part of you know, you'll work and then you tell that story over and over again, you know, you, you kind of forget that. Oh, okay. Like I've been telling this story and when I was telling it, it was like, yeah, I've been doing it for 10 years and you kind of hold onto that for a long time.

And then you realize, oh, actually, you know, five years is gone, like passed and you know, been doing it for about 14.

Wow. That's awesome. I really want to hear more about that and obviously the journey that's sort of taken you to Canada as well, and then just moving to the online space. So can we rewind just a little bit?

Can you talk to us about maybe what you were doing before you went online?

I'll go back to, I guess, not the beginning of time, but I'll give it like the shorter version. So it was actually going to go into performing arts. That is what I did through high school. And I got into a performing arts school in Australia, but then my sister injured, anorexia nervosa.

So an eating disorder for quite a few years. And then I decided that I wanted to become a dietician and specialize in eating disorders. So I went and did my bachelor of exercise science and nutrition. And then I moved to Melbourne to do my masters in dietetics. So I had a year off after I finished my undergrad degree when I started PT in, in Melbourne, in the PWC building, which is like in the city and it was mostly corporates.

And so I started as a PT at Genesis in Melbourne. I worked as a PT for a year and then got into my master's. And so I took time off training people to do my masters for two years. And then I did both of them. So when I finished my master's, I was a dietician in private practice working mostly with eating disorders.

And then I started to coach people again still at Genesis. And I did that for quite a few years. And then while I was doing my masters, I had a back injury and there was a lot of stuff that contributed to that, like high stress relationship breakdown sitting for a long period of time running a lot, you know, just not looking after my body.

And so one of the girls that I worked with at Genesis at the gym, she started to go to CrossFit, St'Kilda. And she said, I know this guy, this coach that is amazing with rehab and injury. So I was referred to him and then found, yeah, Jules was in 2012 or 13, I think. And it was him that really taught me like how to train, you know, I had done my undergrad degree.

I did my master's in dietetics, but I really still didn't know anything about like how to train properly. And so I worked with him, we rehabbed my back and I was still coaching. And I was still coaching at the corporate gym. And then. Okay. Like why, why am I in this corporate space? You know, and I started to transition out of that and then began coaching at CrossFit St. Kilda. So a lot of my clients followed me.

So yeah, I've been coaching and gyms. I think it was up until I moved to Canada in 2016 and I still taught mobility and was still coaching in gyms for a couple of years while I moved here. And then I started to work with John who's, our business coach.

And then we started to work on this, the whole concept of like being online. But yeah, before that, before going online, I've been in a gym coaching since I think 2009. And. And coaching and different I guess, different areas. So PT I've done for, for the whole time. But then through working with Jules, I got really into mobility and rehab and Olympic weightlifting.

So then I would teach mobility in Olympic weightlifting at gyms. And so that's how I met John, who is our business coach. He asked me to come and teach mobility in the Olympic weightlifting there alongside my PT work. And I remember it was a conversation with John when I was still in Melbourne, I think in like 2015, when he asked me like, you know, like, what do you want to do?

Like, what do you want to do with it? I think it was a really long day. I had done like a 6:00 AM and I was then still teaching, like Olympic lifting at 6:00 PM at night. And I think during that day we'd had a conversation and I remember telling him, yeah, back in 2015, it's like, you know, like I'm tired, I've been doing it for a long time.

I want to create something that's, you know, that's bigger and I didn't know what that was then. And I moved to Canada. And fell kind of back into the same work I had been doing. So I taught mobility, I taught Olympic weightlifting and I did coaching, like one-on-one coaching in gym spaces.

And this was like 2016, 2017.

There's two things I want to sort of just rewind and talk about there. You talked about Jules obviously being a big part of teaching you how to train properly. And you talk about meeting John and John starting to ask you questions about where you want to take your career.

Like back in those days. To have access to these people and to have these questions sort of put out you, how much did that change your line of thinking? Because I think so many coaches are stuck in that corporate gym or stuck in the typical mainstream fitness culture and thinking that this is the way to do it.

This is how everyone does it, but it sounds like you've got this opportunity to see something different. Like how much impact did that have on you? Do you think?

Yes. Stretch. I really love this question. And you know, I think about, I think about this a lot and I have just like this immense sense of like gratitude for Jules and John, because they are probably two of the most unconventional, like innovative.

Really pioneers in like what they do. And so to meet Jules who, you know, he was my coach for a really long time. And he's one of the smartest. Yeah. Most unconventional amazing coaches that I got to learn from. And I think that's when I really realized the importance of having a mentor or having a coach.

And I've had one ever since, and I will have one for the rest of my life. I often say to John, like, I'll keep you forever. Like I want to keep you forever. And so working with Jules, he really taught me like how to build a foundation, like how to actually train properly. And, you know, I see it with so many of the people that we work with as coaches, you know, I've been in the space and you've been in the space for a long time, a lot of coaches and trainers have never been taught actually how to build that proper foundation and how to actually train properly. And so to find someone pretty early in my career yeah, I'm so grateful for that, that experience. And look, we used to train a lot and like, I'll put that out there. Like I, from my back injury, I dedicated like my priority became my health and my body.

So we would train for, you know, like three or four hours a day outside of coaching and yeah, Jules just really taught me the importance of mobility and flexibility and stability and body weight strength. And he was the one that started to teach me about stress and stress management and the nervous system.

And, you know, the impact that it can have on our training. And then he taught me how to Olympic weight lift. And so that's when I got into competing in Olympic lifting. And I think it just the, the volume of training that I did, there's just so much experience in that so much learning. And I think as, as a coach, we can get very stuck in our way of training, but working with Jules who was a generalist, so we really had to be good at everything.

Yes, I did specialize in Olympic weightlifting, but so much of my practice was about mobility and flexibility. And then we did like hand balancing and gymnastic strength training. And so I got these insights into all these specialist modalities to support Olympic lifting, which, you know, as a coach to experience that It was amazing.

And I was also surrounded by a tribe of, of other coaches that, you know, we taught each other a lot. We inspired each other. Yeah. And then John, you know, I met John and again, I'll super unconventional and innovative and just looks at the world very differently. And so John has been a very dear friend and a mentor since 2015 for me.

And he's, he asked hard questions. So he's been asking me hard questions for a really

It's great that you've got such gratitude for those people in your life. And I couldn't agree more like for me as well, Wasn't the education in terms of the certifications and qualifications that opened my eyes to what training was it wasn't until I started hiring a coach and started seeking out different coaches and working with different coaches that I actually started to go, wow, this is actually what training's all about.

And the insight that you got, not only from obviously the training programs, but just from working with these coaches and seeing how they deliver their service and seeing what was important and what wasn't definitely changed the perspective. And I think a lot of coaches are just running around grabbing qualifications, trying to learn as much as they can, but failing to put it any of, any of it into practice.

And it's a really big shame, I suppose, but it sounds like, you know, you've got your finger on the pulse early and it's something that's inspired you to follow this journey which has been really, I suppose, successful in, in the long run. Talk to us a little bit more now about warrior school.

How did this come about? And maybe like, why did you choose, you know, this niche. Yeah.

Great question. I think just one point that you just made before around, you know, like I spent a lot of my twenties just in experience, learning from coaches and teachers. And, you know, it's a hard thing when we want to make an income and when, you know, like being a PT and a trainer, it's hard work like it, there are long day days. It's, you know, we have to hustle a lot of the time. But I prioritized the learning, like the experience. There were times, when I was doing my masters, but prioritizing my training, that I'd be on the phone to my mom being like, mom, I don't have enough money to buy eggs and veggies.

You know, the focus was on like, you know, I really need to actually learn like how to rehab myself and how to train properly, how to coach properly. And so I think we can feel a lot of friction as very new training. Around, you know, we, and I, I totally think that we've got to put the time in, I would never take it back of working those long days in corporate health, because, I learned so much, but, you know, there was a time where I had to make the decision of like, you know, what, I'm actually going to prioritize being in the experience of training and learning from these people over making money.

Because I knew that I could do that, but like that is, I was talking to John the other day, you know, that came like 13 years deep, which is what we can talk about now. Okay. So when did, when did warrior school be birthed into the weld?

It was a few years ago. That I reached out to John and I said, okay, I really, this is when he started to get into business coaching. And I said, okay, I want to create something that allows me to move from Canada to Australia. You know, I don't want to be in a gym anymore. I don't want to be doing a lot of one-on-one in gym sessions.

I need to create something bigger because I've been doing it now for so long. And I want to earn money. Like I, you know, I want to earn good money. And so I did work with him one-on-one for quite a while, like really intense work and then joined APA, which was like his first group program. And what I started to do is I had maybe like four women that I was working with online.

So I stepped out of the gym completely, like in 2017. So I stopped teaching mobility. I stopped teaching Olympic weightlifting. I stopped taking one-on-ones in a gym. We got the apartment, I set up a space here. And then I was taking some people here in the apartment one-on-one but then I started a women's body weight, strength classes here in the apartment.

And I had about four women that I was working with online. So a couple from Australia and then a couple from Canada that I had met and worrior school still didn't exist. And I still wasn't. I wasn't even sure what I was doing, but all I knew from the work that I had done with John is that I wanted to piece the training, the nutrition, and then the menstrual cycle piece together.

So. The menstrual cycle piece kind of came into my work when I was competing in Olympic weightlifting. That's when I started to get really interested in female physiology and the menstrual cycle and the impact that training has on it, or it has on training. So I knew I had these three pillars that I wanted to work in, and that I knew I wanted to just work with women and that was kind of it.

For a year or so, we just trials a few things. It was called something completely different. It was still just like one-on-one work. And I was programming doing a bit more within nutrition, a little bit more with the hormones, and then it wasn't until I think worrior school will be three years old or two and a half years old at the end of the year.

We came up with this concept of a school, you know of having women come into this school to learn about how to get strong, like how to train properly, how to nourish themselves properly, how to recover properly and how to really work with their body together. But then also there's this individual part to it.

So I don't know if you want me to go into it or you can ask me questions about it.

Yeah, no, it's awesome. I love the story and that's it. Like I said, it's a really great thing to reflect on it's you know, you said there was 12 years of hard grind, hard hustle before you sort of got to this point and, you know, we can obviously feel like, oh, I want to jump online and I want to build this product and this service.

But if you don't have that experience and you don't have the knowledge, you don't have a niche, you don't have an idea. Like, what are you going to do? Like, how are you going to stand out? So it's great to sort of hear that backstory and how you got there. There's two questions that come to mind when you, when you talk about that story and one is. The time before you did it, do you think that there was a chance that could have been accelerated? Like could you have potentially started this niche earlier or started something earlier now in hindsight knowing what, you know,

good question. No, I don't think so.

Like, I really believe that. Like we've, we've got to go through all the stuff, you know, the trying and the failing and the figuring it out. And I did have this idea of just working with women, I think around late 2016. So when I was stealing gyms, I was actually working with a lot of males. So one of the other, I guess, clientele that I, I worked with a lot was very successful corporate males who were in their forties or fifties, extremely stressed out, but love to train hard.

So I had those guys and then I had women and women who, you know, hormonally were really struggling. Didn't know how to train properly. Didn't eat enough weren't strength training. So I had these two niches and I remember in 2016, while still in a gym, really thinking about like, who do I want to work with?

And for me, you know, it was women in the end. And I think because of my own story, like I remember sitting down and going back into like my story around. You know, my sister with an eating disorder and the, and the food stuff and our relationship to food. And then, you know, me training and then Olympic lifting, which is a very male dominated sport.

And I've had male coaches all of my life who are amazing, but again, didn't talk about female physiology and hormones. And so, you know, that just the rumination on that, I was like, you know what, I'm, I'm, I'm meant to be helping women. I got to help women learn how to train and nourish their body. And so I think like 2016 was when I made that decision.

And from then it was just like, iterations of like, what does that look like? And I've, you know, it started off with only four women and now there's like 33 women in warrior school. But we can even get into that of me getting clearer and clearer around. You know, what is warrior school who was at for, you know, who is at, not for over the last couple of years, I've had to do a lot of work in that as well.

I kind of knew a little bit before that I wanted to just work with women. And then I knew that I wanted to have a business that allowed me to be able to travel back and forth between Australia and not that I've been to that. And I knew I wanted to create something bigger, you know, a bigger impact than just this one-on-one.

But it took, yeah. It's just taken a few years to really get to this place of like having warrior school.

There's so much great advice in there. I love the way you talked about the failure as well. Like you've tried and you keep trying and you keep reinventing yourself and it's like, what's going to work and you've pieced it together. I want to work with women. I know. I want to help women. I want to create these pillars. I want it to be training. I want it to be nutrition. I want it to do the physiology and also really found it great that you look back at your own journey and your own story and how you came to get to where you are.

Because I think every coach has a story, whether they know it or not. And to be able to reflect on that story is really authentic. And it shows that, you know, you've really put in a lot of thought about how can my experience, my life experience come into this career and the people that I want to help, which is just super powerful.

Let's let's talk a little bit about. The initiation when, when worrior school first started and you've sorta got four clients, like, how are you feeling then? And like, what was going through your head at that time? I've just made this big jump to go online and I've got four clients and this is what I've got to work with.

I won't lie the last few years. It's been hard, you know, it's like, like starting a business, an online business. It's like, it's really hard. I'm not even going to say it was scary. Look for me. Like I've done and tried so many things, especially over the last, like four or five years since I've like, I came to Canada, like I came to Canada, I had to start from scratch.

So I'd built a business in Melbourne over seven years and I was doing well, then, you know, well enough to support myself to train a lot. I had built such an amazing client base. And then I left it all and I left it all and I didn't back then. I didn't even think about this whole online concept. And I started from scratch and you know, that, that wasn't scary actually really love. I love it. I love the challenge of it. And when we first started, we would playing around with this whole idea. I tried so many things. Like I would try like live like master classes and workshops and only maybe two or three women would come to them, you know? And. This is when I started to try like my content stuff and my social media and I still wasn't clear, like I wasn't super clear on exactly what I wanted to do, but I remember there was one like key moment in time. And that was almost three years ago when I came home last time in November, I set up a couple of workshops to do, which was called training the female warrior, I think it was.

And I went into aim academy in Sydney VIX gym, and you strength, which is a Newcastle. And I did a, a live workshop there on the menstrual cycle and training. And that was when it kind of really clicked for me. It's like, okay this is like how it fits together. And those live workshops went so, so well.

And so I came back from that trip. And that's when I started to create these pillars. I had these full women and from there it was just really getting clear, getting clear on what those four pillars are. Those three pillars where, you know, who did I want to work with?

What, I guess the avatar like that was all the work that I was doing back then. And then. I just showed up every day on my social media. And I think that for me is like, I'm not afraid to just like keep going and be consistent. Like, I'll just always like, just showed up, just put it out there. You know, I started my podcast quite a while ago, now 115 episodes in, and now it's just starting to like really get momentum.

But yeah, I wasn't scared. I think the thing that I've struggled the most with and I've had to work really hard with John is knowing my value, especially when it comes to a monetary exchange. But I also believe that I know that I'm an amazing coach and I know that because I've had amazing teachers and I've been doing it now for so long, and I know how to train.

So it's a really hard thing for me. When I started warrior school, there was this like confidence and shortness within me because I knew what I was doing as a coach. Like, I can make a woman strong. I can help her understand how to not her body. Like I'm a good coach, but I think the scary thing for me was how do I put a monetary value on that? And I've had to work really hard with John around my value and the pricing of that. So I would say over the last few years that's been one of the hardest things for me. And then of course there's been lots of learning within warrior school around like, who's it for?

Like, what do I want to do with their journey? And so last year I remember I had a minimum three month commitment initially. And then last year I was feeling a lot of friction and I had a few women come into the school and they just weren't right. So I really sat with that for quite a while for a couple of months.

And then again, I went back to like, well, what do I believe? You know, what what is part of my story? And I honestly believe it takes years, not months, not weeks years. So this whole idea about warrior school being like the long way home. And I asked for a nine month minimum time investment. And to be honest lately, I've been thinking about, okay, you know, soon it's going to be longer.

I'm going to ask for a longer time investment from them, because I know that it takes years to get where they want to go. You know, these women have a vision and that vision, I know truly takes years and years of work. So, you know, I guess that's another example of me, you know, initially having, I guess, this model or this structure of this business, but then, as it grew. And some women came in that just weren't right. It was just a learning experience. So I always pause. I always reflect as like, okay, I'm going to take responsibility for it. Like it falls on me. It's not going to fall on them. Okay. My, I take responsibility that I truly believe it takes years.

So why am I asking for three months? Because then I'm going to attract people or women into my business. That thing. Okay. Yeah. Just, it will be for three months instead of, okay. Actually it's a nine month minimum time investment that I asked for you. Yeah. So that was another race of learning.

It's so great.

What I love about that is I like there are so many coaches that are afraid to niche. I don't want a niche. I'm going to be pigeonholed and that's going to turn away clients, but you've just thrown so many layers on top of that. Not only are you niching, but you're asking for a huge commitment and not only that you're going against mainstream fitness culture, you're telling women to get strong, to lift weights, that it's a journey it's going to take a long time.

Don't expect this instant change or this instant transformation. There are so many walls that you're putting up that, you know, as a coach would go, well, that's just turning away too many people, but I love your confidence. Like, you're just like, no, this is what it takes. This is what I believe. And if you want to be a part of this, like I'm going to be honest and authentic with you and just tell you how it is.

Like, where does that come from? How have you managed just to build like that confidence and be able to set those requirements, do you think.

Yeah, I think, look, the cool thing is, is that coaches have people like you now that are doing this work that are really helping. Like when I first started, no one was really talking about like niching and growing a business and doing the work that your doing.

And so look, I do believe that there is a bit of magic in like just being a generalist for a while, and just really like working with a load of people because you really get to. You know, if you think of the training concept of a generalist and a specialist kind of think of as a coach, just like working with the general population of people.

And I did that for so long. Then I remember feeling friction though, even when I was trying to get clear on my like avatar, my woman and I'm writing her down, I remember that it still wasn't like super, super, like clear on like her problem. You know, how, like, what did she want?

How could I help her? And so there was, yeah, there was friction, but, and John, I remember John saying, if you just get clear and you get a niche, it's going to feel better. And I was like, oh, I don't know, but he was right for sure. And I've have actually been really thinking the last, you know, year or so that my niche is even tighter.

So it's not just women, it's women who are in like their forties and fifties who have like been in fitness culture for years or decades and are, you know, stressed. So it's even smaller than that. And it just helps everything. Like it helps you create your business. It helps you get clear on the client journey.

It helps you create your content. Like it helps, you know, my podcast, I'm just speaking to her. And so it helps with clarity, for sure. It's not an easy thing to do, but again, it comes back to your story. I think like if you have, you know, you had a major injury and then you went into the world of rehabilitation and mobility, like that could be the start of your niche, but then like within that, like who do you want to work with? Cause you've got to go deeper than that. It can't just be like, I'm a coach, like a mobility and rehab coach. No, like, are you a mobility and rehab coach for maybe construction workers that get injured?

And that will come over time.

Yeah, definitely. And it must come with like the iterations I wanted to talk to you about that. And you've already sort of given us a little bit of an insight, like, you know, warrior school started, you had four women, you came up with these excellent pillars to help you build, you know, your signature training method.

And then obviously you've reiterated through that. Like how do I make it better? How do I make it better? Like you're taking clients through that. You're exploring that you're gaining knowledge. They're asking you questions. You've built a podcast. You're interviewing people related to women's health. Like all this stuff's coming to you.

And it's, I suppose it's really helping you to get, just get tighter and tighter and tighter on that niche. And you talked about value before and the value that you're delivering, but your product must be just getting better and better and better with every iteration. How does that make you feel? And like, what can you share about that sort of journey of like these collaborations and the insights that you've been getting just through working with your niche clients.

Yeah. Like, I think like anything that we do sometimes we'll like, okay, like I just don't want to do it until it's like, perfect. Well, for me, that's a big thing. Yeah. Like perfectionism or it being right. And so that can stop us a lot of the time, in just starting, but we've, we've got a start and we've got to be in, I guess, in the sense in the arena or on the field and in the work of it to truly get clear on our vision, on our mission, on how we want to help our clients.

Do you think that confidence has grown because of it though? Like, you know, you are so confident in your product and you know, it, you know, it's what women need. And like you talking to other specialists and you working with these women and seeing what's happening, like, is it just allowing you just to go tighter and tighter and tighter with like, this is who it is.

This is what I believe this is what works like, is that part of it?

Yeah. Yeah. It is just, it's being, you know, it's being in there and I guess my women are my teachers, you know, they're teaching me. I, we could also say like, You know, what does your client want? What does the market want? What are they asking for?

You know, what, how are they speaking? And that was a really hard thing for me for a long time is to actually really listen to them. I remember having a great conversation with John and like looking at my journey and I was all the way up here, you know, 10 years deep into the practice. You know, do training this way, this perspective on health and food.

And then my women were all the way back here and I remembered I was trying to speak to them like where I was at. And it wasn't resonating because they weren't speaking that language. They weren't there yet , I wasn't helping solve their problem because I was so far ahead. So I think sometimes as coaches, we can get stuck in that, if like, if we've gone through a journey coming back to where the client is. And so that was an initial learning for me around, I guess my content and how I spoke to her. And then within warrior school, I've just learned over the last like couple of years, you know, it started off with kind of like this rough model and their, their journey.

But through that, I've learned that I just needed to be clearer or that didn't work or, okay, let's try this. Okay. This doesn't work. You know, what do they want? How can I help them better? Yes, I through it just through experience. And you know, if you want me to give examples, like I can give you some examples.

Yeah. Lay it out there. Like what what's maybe one or two things that you've really taken away from working with these women that's really gone. Well, that's an aha moment. That's something I should have, like I should include in the program or that's something I need to cover. Like, that'd be great.

Yeah. I think for me for a while, I, I wasn't really clear on their journey of like what it actually looked like for them.

And so that made it harder in like my marketing and my sales conversations, because there was no clarity around. Okay. What does this journey inside warrior school actually look like? Like, yes, I know that I'm going to train, but like what, what is it look like? So this is where this whole idea of like, okay, I asked for a nine month minimum time investment.

He is why, because the first three months were really just looking at what is your foundation like? What do we need to work on to build your training foundation? We're really working on mobility, flexibility, stability, body weight, strength, movement patterns, technique. And then, you know, the next few months we're going to build on that.

I'm going to teach you how to confidently like add weights. And so we start to look at, you know, adding weights. So I learnt how to, I guess, clearly show and articulate what the journey was like over nine months based on, you know, what I know. And, and my, and my woman, you know, a lot of them will come in and they thought, okay, well, they're just going to go for it.

You know, they're just going to train. But I had to get really clear on no, actually we have to build your foundation and this is what it looks like. So the first three months we do this the next few months, this is what we focus on. And then I was speaking to a warrior woman the other day she's been with me for a year.

And now she's just starting to lift heavy weights, you know, heavy, relative to her, but she's got a barbell in her hand. She's no longer in pain. You know, all her, her sleep's good. Her energy is good and that's a year deep. And that's what I have found. It takes about a year to get them to a place where they can start lifting load consistently.

So I think that was a big one stretch is just getting clear on that, like the time. And then for me a little while ago, it was a lot of like behind the same stuff, like a lot of systems and processes that I had to put in place to make it easier. You know, it's just me. I don't have anyone helping me.

So I program all of the programs for myself. I watch all the videos, you know, I give all their feedback. I do all the work inside the actual school, like warrior school. And so I was like, you know what? Like, it's just so much for me. Like what could I do? So I actually asked good friends of mine who are leaders in the nutrition and metabolic space to come in and record or guest lectures for me.

So in the nutrition module, in warrior school, it's not me teaching it. It's the experts and you know, my really good friends and leaders that actually came in and taught the content. So that was another big thing for me is like, we think that we have to do it all, all ourself. And we just can't, you know, even though I have these three pillars training as my main pillar, like that's what women come to me for.

They see me train, they want to move well, they want to be strong. And yes, I do touch on the nutrition and the menstrual cycle stuff, but it's not a key focus. And I think we can, we can get really stuck on trying to do it all. And I had to just let it go to be like, you know what, I actually can't, who can I bring in that is a leader or an expert that can lead these out a lot of women now if they need support with their metabolism or their nutrition, I send them away before they come into warrior school, because that's not what I do.

I don't want to help someone heal their metabolism. I want to teach them how to get strong. So I, and that was, yeah, I guess another example of me going actually. There is like a requirement coming to worry a school. You know, there's a bit of a checklist that we, that we go through. Like, if you're so stressed, your markers are a mess, your metabolism's a mess you know, you don't have a pretty good food foundation. Like you can't come in yet because that's not. What I do mainly I can support you to strengthen your nutrition strategy with our training, but I'm not going to build you one. So you need to go away and you need to see people to do that before you come in.

Again, a scary thing to do, because especially as a coach, we think, okay, yes, we're going to do the training. And then I'm going to do all the nutrition plans. And I do not write my women nutrition plans because that's not what I do because it takes up so much time.

You've set some great boundaries there mate.

I love it. And it's a great insight, like being able to call on the help of others and not be afraid to ask for that help. But I also love the fact that you're staying in your lane. You know what you're about, you know, what your program's about and you know what it's not about. And I can see, like, health is an important value to you.

You've had your own health struggles. You've had health struggles with the people that you love and you've prioritized your own health hugely, but now you're really, really prioritizing the health of your clients. Like it just shows them that you really care. It's not about, okay, I'm going to make more money.

Yes. Take on a client. Yes. I'm going to train you are she's you got health wasn't right. Or your metabolism wasn't right. And you shouldn't actually have started training until you fix that. And that must just be such a powerful thing for the client to hear, like for you to be able to come back and just say, look, I'd love to try new, but really you've got to go and start here before you come in the door.

Like, I think that's just going to help you build so much trust and confidence in terms of your clients. It's such a inspiring thing to hear. And it's great that you have that ability to sort of say no, because like so many coaches are just like, oh, I need to get more clients. And I've just got to take that on.

Can we circle back a little bit there too, to the money side of things. Cause you talked about, okay, I need to earn more money and I need to, you know, better build a service or build a career. That's going to allow me to do that. I don't want to go into like the fine detail, but how is it now for you having this online business compared to when you were working back in the gym?

Like financially?

Yeah. Great question. So, yeah, I think the work for me over the last few years has been on really knowing my value and really getting support in how to like price that value up in a way that like fits like my vision and where I want to take the business. So that's one part of it is knowing my value and then the other part for me is that I've never been financially focused or driven. We don't get into this for the money we get into it because we're so passionate about it. You know, we love training. We love coaching. We love helping people. We love doing it, but we don't get paid a lot of money for it.

Especially at the start. Yeah. You know, I know some amazing coaches that, you know, know their value and they get paid very well for one-on-one coaching. But. It was shifting that a couple of years ago for me around. Okay. You really need to focus on like the business, the financial side of the business.

And I needed support with that. So, John helps me a lot in , we focus on revenue and then Carson, who's my partner, he leads me and my finances. So that's not my strong area. It's not something that I enjoy to do. And so finding someone to lead you in that, or it's been really helpful for me.

So he manages like all of our finances. But what's been really exciting. I remember I got off a call last year with John and we spoke about money and I would never really speak about money before, but John said something like. You know, you can make this business into like an X business, you know, like you know, he said in a mountain and then he said, okay, we're going to start to focus on like a revenue.

I get like a monthly revenue target. And I remember last month or the month before was the most money I've ever made in, you know, in a three month period over the last like this.

Yeah. Sorry. It was like, it was super cool and now it excites me. So I actually had to change my whole mindset and just reframe it because for so long, I just, I didn't focus on it, but. You know, I need to focus on it. Yeah. Like it's really important for, for me, for the rest of my life to be stable yes.

To do something that I love, but actually make money for it. So there's been a reframe and now there's a focus on it and it excites me, you know, it excites me to, to grow the business, not just from a financial perspective, obviously that I want to grow it to, to help these women. But it is it is a part, you know, of building my world and building my business is to, to reach those, to reach those targets, to make money.

And for me, it's about. Making money. Yes. To support my life, but making money. So then I can make my business better. So pretty much for the last three years, it's all gone back into the business, you know, working with John, I have a coach for my training. It's like, how can I reinvest back into the, put my client's journey?

You know, their, their experience. Like, you know what it's like, you know, when you create a business, all the investing that you put into it. So that's what it's been like. And now I'm at this place of I can make some cool money.

As coaches, like say we get into this career because we're passionate about helping other people, and maybe we don't put money up there as like something that we focus on so much. But like you just said, I think money gives us that freedom. For our own life, but also that freedom to start to invest in the business, to grow the business, to make the product better. And without that financial stability that you talk about, then how can we actually go to that next level?

And I think a lot of us avoid money. We hate that conversation. We don't want to worry about too much, but when we can switch that switch, like, you know, you have, I think we can start to see that, you know, money can open more opportunities and more doors and actually help us do what we want to do, be passionate about helping people cause that's great that you've got that ability and you start started to get that backing.

What is it that you love about what you do now? Having this online business, what has it allowed you to do?

You know what, one of the key things that brings me such immense joy and satisfaction is when I go into their training, and I see their videos and, I see them getting stronger, you know, and this is at the start there's a lot of friction and it's really hard.

So I'm super honest with them when they come into warrior school, it's going to be really hard for the first, like three to six months, you know, you're gonna have to rebuild from the start. Like I demand a lot of quality from you. Like it's very slow. It's a hard journey at the start.

And then they get to about like six, nine months in, and then they like, they've built this foundation and they like got this momentum and they, they adding weights to the, to their movements and they're holding a barbell. So like for the first time they've never held a barbell before.

They've never squatted. Well, nothing's felt good. And they, they film themselves and they send it to me and I watch it. And they just move so well. And if, like, if I posted on my social media, a lot of the time people will write saying, oh wow, like your worry is move really well. And not just like to me, cause it's so important.

Like it's gotta, you gotta move with quality. And so for people to even notice that watching them move, there's just so much joy and satisfaction as a coach. And they then truly understand why they had to like, do all the hard work for six months because now their squat feels amazing. You know, now they're not in pain.

And that to me is just like one of the most satisfying things as my job, I think what else I love creating. Like, I really do. Like, I think I can bring in that performing background that I never went into. And so I like, I love my podcast. I love speaking, like doing this with you right now.

Like I love it. You know, I'm so it's so cool that I get to do this for my job, that I got to create a podcast and I get to talk into a microphone. Yeah. You know, like thousands and thousands of people listen to that. And I get amazing feedback on it and sorry. Yeah. To bring in that performing, I guess, arts background and that creativity and innovation is another really cool thing.

I really, really love that. I think as coaches, that's one of the big things we all love is seeing our clients make progress, but you bring up a really good point there that I just want to touch on because I think sometimes when we talk about online coaching, people are like, oh, how can you teach a client to move?

If you're an online coach, like, oh, you got to have eyes on your client the whole time, this, this, and this. What have you found? Like you've gone from being this in-person coach to being an online coach. What can you tell us about the client results that you're seeing? What can you tell us about the change in how you coach and how do you create these people that just move so well through this online journey?

Yeah, great. That's a really great question. I really liked that. And there's often a little hesitation with a lot of women sometimes around like, how does this online thing even work? And so this is, yeah, it's a really cool point stretch that you bring up. The first piece for me is that. Once you've been doing it for so long, like 13 years, you know, I can watch someone move.

It doesn't matter if it's online or it's out on the streets or it's in a shopping center or in a gym. And I just can tell straight away what's going on with the buddy. Yeah. Sorry. You've if you've just got eyes on a person or people for so long, you get very good at seeing movement, patterns and inbalances.

So that's one thing is just experience and time of truly understanding the human body and movement patterns. Two is my women. We do a movement assessment together. So when they come into warrior school, After our initial call, we actually do a movement assessment. So we are online and I'm watching them move.

I take them through an assessment. I write a bunch of notes. If they're inactive treatment for anything, with like a physio or their practitioner, I get notes from their practitioner to see what's going on. So it's quite in-depth for me to really understand what's going on with their body. And so from there, then I can stop programming their individualized program.

I film everything myself, so everything is done. You know, here so their videos that they get are by me and those videos are very like in depth. Yeah. I pretty much am doing the movement with them. So if they press play, so you'll see, like, I'll watch my women's videos and you see in the background, they have their laptops or their iPad set up and I'm on the screen there.

So when they click into their program and they're pressing play, like I'm there with them talking them through the movement. So from a technical perspective, they're very well supported because I've spent the time making sure that the instructional video. It's really well done. And so they feel like really safe during the movement and they understand, and then I get them all to film.

Now, again, a lot of, a lot of them don't like it. So, you know, if you're an online coach and you're starting to work with people you'll know that there's a lot of friction around filming, especially with women that don't want to do it. But when they understand why, like I have women now that have been with me for like nine or 12 months, they film themselves all the time and they notice things.

So one was doing a handstand the other day. She's like, I filmed myself and I noticed that my right elbow was bending. That's why I get you to film because then you get to see what's going on. So it's like a tool. So they film which allows me to watch them. And then I can give them feedback from there.

We also have a monthly call. And so on that monthly call, we do a lot of training work together. So right there, actually in the gym space and we're going through movements. So again, that allows me to see, you know, how they're moving, we can workshop anything. And so, but yes, you can, you can teach someone to move really well online.

It's it's the same as being in a gym. You don't need to touch them.

No more poking someone in the glute contract. It sounds like you do a great job at empowering your women for them to take ownership of their own training, to hold themselves accountable for them to video themselves, get over that sort of hurdle of them being on video.

But then you're giving them the ability to coach themselves. Like that's such a powerful thing. And I think a lot of coaches hold back on that, like, oh, if I teach my client to train themselves, why would they need me. You're giving them something that no other coach would ever give them. And because of that, don't ever leave you like, this is so like, wow, this is awesome, I know that my elbow is bending and I need to be elevating and pushing. I know that I need to be squatting deeper, or I know that the knees are falling in, whatever it is, just the reiteration of your coaching and the videoing and everything that you're doing is just giving your clients so much freedom in their training, which must just make you feel great in terms of what you're delivering with warrior school.

Epic might love it.

Yeah. And I also don't take on a lot of women, you know, there is like a cap for me. And I think that we need to be aware of that. If we're just one person creating a business, like how much can we truly take on to make sure we sit in this space of like delivering the quality service and, and like, that's really important to me, you know, there's only a certain amount of women that I keep in warrior school because.

I'm it for programming for giving them feedback on their calls. Not saying that we can't grow it of course. And grow a team and we for sure can, but for me, it's really important, the connection points with them. And I think that's their success as well.

I have such high touch points and connection points with them because that's really important.

Like you said, you're delivering such high value. You've got such great level of accountability, support and it even sounds like you've got this amazing education package that's coming along inside of all the pillars that you're delivering.

So to deliver such a high quality product, obviously it's going to have a cap. Can I ask what you think that is like for you and the quality of service you're delivering? What's the peak in terms of number of clients you think you can, you can coach online.

my goal is to get 50 women inside of warrior school at the moment there's like 33. So. And then I'm just going to see, I see what I'm going to see what that feels like for me. And then that I know once I get to, and it might be a little less, it could be a little more, they will be another like iteration of that, you know, it will take on maybe a different feel and a different form as it, as it grows.

Because again, I don't want to put a cap on us. Like, you know, I can only go here, but like, what does it look like to go? You know, more, it's going to have to look a little different, Like 33 people is a lot of people. Yeah. 50 people is a lot. It's a lot of people to deliver the journey that you want to deliver.

It's like finding where the processes break and then rebuilding them again and going to the next level and find where it breaks and the challenges you said before about it definitely keeps us going. I mean, I'm gonna put you on the spot.

I'm gonna come and sort of get to the end of the podcast, but there's three questions I sort of liked to ask at the end of the podcast and hopefully, hopefully I can get some good, good insight from you, but what book or what resource podcasts, whatever it is that you listen to or read, would you recommend to personal trainers who want to build like a sustainable online career

Well, I, I feel like I really want to say John's, podcost like, I really want to talk about create a club and the creative club podcast. You know, I talk about that because like John's changed my life. You know, he's really helped me grow a business. And so, yeah, like I said, there's such gratitude and I want to highlight creative club and the work that they do.

So that would definitely be one. Cause I just love the way that John teaches us how to do business.

I would probably say Brooke Castillo that is the founder of the life school coach. There's a lot to learn as a coach, like as a trainer from her, she's created an amazing business. It's online. She has an amazing podcast, which we were just talking about before we started recording. Yeah, I would say to check out her work and what she's created she is a life coach, but, you know, she teaches people to be life coaches.

And so I think her model and her world, if you look at us as a world that she's created as something really, really cool. And then for me, I think I've just found people that have given me the tools, to just to be a better coach or to learn more as a human.

And so for a while there, I was obsessed with Ted talks and Brenae brown and you know, that, you know, daring to lead and daring greatly and you know, all of that stuff, you know, I really dug into that. And there was space where I read a lot of non-fiction books for a really long time. Actually don't do that anymore.

I haven't read a nonfiction book for a really long time. But I think like you said, stretch, just like before we started to record as well, you were talking about like, who else could I learn from, or have conversations with as coaches. That's what we need to do. If we can get very stuck in like, okay, I'm just going to learn, how can I like take

but like what, what else could you learn? You know, and from who else could you learn?

It something we need to be doing more of. It's just opening our eyes, stepping into different fields, different industries and figuring out what we can pull back to help our clients. Definitely great advice.

On advice, if you could go back and give your younger self some advice, what would that be?

What would that be? If I could give my youngest self advice, you know what I'm probably gonna say, like be true to you. It's been something I've been thinking about a lot being in the health and fitness space, especially being online, online with a lot of people that have very big platforms, really big audiences. There's a lot of coaches, a lot of teachers, there's just a lot of stuff out there.

And I think for a while, I lost my way a little or lost my voice. I wasn't being like true to me. I was being influenced by the culture and the language and what they were doing. And I think recently my podcast has helped me find my voice again and be true to me.

Just as a medium to speak. So I would say that, I think I got lost a little bit and I'm sure that's super common. So, yeah, be true to you and have confidence in your story and your journey because there is such power in that.

And I'm only just beginning to realize that again, of like who, who are you, Amy, you know, as a human, but as a coach, like be true to you. So, don't compare yourself or try and reach these people that have this certain audience or certain platform, because that's not being true to you. That's not who you are.

It's so easy to get swept up in the culture. So easy to get swept up in whatever else is doing and comparing ourselves and falling into that trap of just not being authentic and to come back to that grassroots, to come back to who you are as a person, that's self identity, your values, your beliefs, and really be able to have a voice that like that's how you build a sustainable career.

If you can't align your career with your beliefs and your values, then what are you doing? Like it's not going to be something you're going to enjoy for very long. So I liked that. Be true to be true to you.

Last one, I want to ask you if you could have dinner with anyone alive or dead, who would that be and why?

Oh. If I could have dinner with anyone I've played this game before, you know, when you have the dinner party and you invite like the five people to the dinner party. Yeah. Okay. If I could have dinner with one person alive or dead, who would that be?

For me, do you know Esther Perel? Yeah. And she is someone I would love to have on the podcast. She's taught me a lot about relating and relationships and language.

And she also can speak, I think about six languages and she has an extremely interesting story. And so I'm going to say Esther Perel. I would like to have dinner with her.

Just before we finish up. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Obviously, you know, this is a podcast for coaches who are looking to build an online career. Is there any words of wisdom you'd like to share above what you've already shared, which has been absolutely fascinating.

Find teachers and mentors that is, you know, that is one of my biggest beliefs. I think there's so much power in finding an amazing teacher or teachers and mentors. And so what you're creating is it's so magical and so important because yeah, like you and I, when we started, you know, 14 years ago, we didn't have that.

Like you said, you would have dinner with one of your mentors. You found amazing mentors and teachers. And so take the leap to invest in them, even though you might not be able to afford eggs and veggies. It's just priceless what you learned from them. And like I said, I will always have a teacher or a mentor.

You know, I spend over $700 a month just on coaching for myself, you know, having a coach like a trainer coach, and then having John and Ruby and create a club and I will do that forever. And so if you're new to the training space, or if you want to pivot and you want to shift and you, you want to start an online business, find a teacher, find a mentor, find a coach that can help you and lead you through that.

Yeah, that's my, that's my words of wisdom.

It sounded bias, mate. I really appreciate you, you know, sort of saying that sort of stuff and it's epic, what you've done. I watch you from the distance in terms of what you've done with warrior school,

Stretch. You're so welcome. Thank you for having me on and you know, I just really want to highlight like the work that you do, like what you're creating it's, you know, it's so important, it's essential and you're gonna help a lot of coaches.

So yeah, it's. It's it's really cool. And I love watching and seeing what you're creating and as you get clearer and clearer and you know, everything that was spoken about today, you know, it's such a powerful thing for coaches to be able to do. So, you know, thank you for showing up in, in this space.