Coffee Talk #185: Unstoppable

It’s Tuesday! Grab your cup and let’s chat.

I’m a what’s next? person – always planning, looking ahead, thinking about the next project. But I’m taking time, especially during this quarantine season, to reflect and honestly admire everything I’ve been doing. The hustle has been real. The pivoting has been real – I make quick decisions about classes, offerings, and everything right now.

I don’t know what next month will look like, but I’m eager to make plans to keep going. Will I be teaching in a gym in 3 months? 6 months? Will the gyms I teach at even be able to reopen? Will they be able to hire the number of teachers they had previously? Will I look at new gyms to work since I moved? It’s all up in the air, which is thrilling for me. I’m constantly testing the waters to see what I can do and what people are willing to do. Zoom classes? Live classes on social media sites? Meet me in the park? Meet me at a farm and we’ll pick strawberries after?

I’ve been busier than ever this quarantine season. I was talking to a friend last week about this feeling of guilt regarding how much I’ve been thriving. Like, thinking that it’s not fair that I’ve been flourishing in my fitness business while others have been shutting down or not doing anything at all. I realize that kind of thinking is unnecessary and not helpful, but it’s a valid feeling that comes with success.

I’ve chosen, instead, to take that feeling of guilt and turn it into something helpful. I feel unstoppable. Even though there is a strong air of uncertainty for me about the future, I’m leaning into my strong work ethic and amazing ability to pivot and move quickly. I feel like it’s my calling and duty to share my energy and passion with everyone. I do this in the form of high quality fitness classes, but I also like to share nuggets of wisdom here. I hope you can find this helpful!

And note — if you’re using this quarantine time to take a break, to chill, to reorganize, that is valid. I know a ton of fitness professionals who are not doing anything fitness related right now. Everyone responds differently to change. Change happens to be a motivating factor that fuels me, but don’t get caught up in the productivity and progress of others. We’re all in a different chapter in our life novels.

5 Ways to Become Unstoppable 

1. Think of setbacks as a comeback. Maybe you didn’t eat well or had a hectic week and couldn’t prioritize workouts. Slam your fist on the table and declare a COMEBACK! Use that adrenaline the fuel your comeback and prepare yourself for a stronger week.

I am a pretty confident individual, but I definitely let the hive mind get to me, and suffer from momentary uncertainty and ‘wtf’ moments, but overall, I stay true to me. I’m enthusiastic, goofy, knowledgeable, and motivated. I try to let all of that outshine the rest. Pick what you want to be and go be it.

2. Don’t let success stall you. This is a hard one — it’s easy to ride along the success train and get comfortable with how things are rollin’, but try not to be complacent. I like to look forward and think about what can happen next. The highs of success don’t last as long as you think. In one week, I was a guest on two different shows, had someone reach out to me about highlighting my small business, and filled up 5 exclusive classes. But this week? I’m right back to the grind, working to fill final spots for classes and hustling like normal. If I just coast, what’s the point?

Listen – you have to toot your own horn, you have to be proud of what you’ve accomplished. The best thing I can say is don’t let success get in your way. Keep building.

3. Let your work speak for you. I hear my AP English teacher’s voice in my head all the time, saying “Don’t tell me, show me.” She made me a better writer. And I’ll venture to say she made me a better entrepreneur. Stop sharing what you’re going to do. Do it and share it. Let your work SHINE. Don’t let your plans shine. Plans are nothing until they become tangible, something that you can show. SHOW your work and be consistent with it.

When I host a class I want people to walk away feeling 1) confident 2) like they learned something or tried something new and 3) ready for more. If I can achieve those three things from every single interaction, I feel golden.

4. Constantly check yourself. You’re going to screw up. It’s okay! Own it. Observe it, embrace it, move on from it and be BETTER next time. You’re not perfect, and being perfect would actually be pretty boring and expected. I aim for high quality with everything I do. That’s been brutal with social media (it has a mind of its own), but I let my enthusiasm outshine bad social media quality and then it doesn’t even seem like it’s bad.

I also ask myself these three questions every single week:

1. Does this event/class/video/tactic align with my goals for my organization? I like to revisit my purpose and organizational goals constantly.
2. Do I want to do this event/class/video or am I creating it to align with what everyone else is doing? This is a CHECK YO’SELF one. I’m guilty of falling prey to the social media ‘gods that be’ and share a cheeky photo or a gratuitous body image but we all make mistakes. It’s about looking at them and deciding whether you like it or want to be better. It’s also important to do it for YOU and YOUR GOALS and not just for the likes. But I know that if I share a photo of my strong body, I’ll get more likes than a photo of me working.
3. Am I still happy with this job? Yes, I ask myself this every single week. If you’re successful and creating content that people love, it’s possible to hate it. I’ve definitely had jobs that I was really, really good at doing, but woke up every day thinking ‘here we go again…’ and in the long run, that’s not healthy. You have to WANT it. I constantly check myself because there are absolutely moments where I’m like ‘do I really need to do this?’ As long as the happy/good outweighs the frustrated/bad, you’re solid.

5. Show up every. single. day. I don’t get ‘days off’ and I don’t want to take them. Do I go HARD every single day? No. There are ways to show up every day and not work 12 hours. My sister visited this past weekend and got a chance to see ‘behind the scenes.’ I’ll let you in on a secret – it’s not glamorous. I do everything that I can to make it appear easy and beautiful, but that means spending hours creating class content, answering messages, designing images to use on social media, creating forms for limited in-person classes, creating every single virtual class registration sheet, and more. It’s a labor of love for sure.

It’s important to automate what you can, but don’t lose yourself in the process. Too much automation makes you become complacent, and complacency does not equal growth. It’s about finding a balance of what can be achieved by flow/automation and what needs my attention to be better this week?

I also review, review, review. What content got lots of views and comments? What content produced crickets? What are people asking to see? What do I want to spend energy and time producing?

What actions can you take today to become unstoppable? We all have it inside us, it’s just a matter of turning the page and being ready to write it.