The FITSPRO Podcast Annie Miller

I’ve done my fair share of yearly, half yearly and quarterly reflections. Big fan. Today I am sharing some of my all time favorite reflection questions. 







These are questions that I believe best set you up for a more successful and aligned year ahead of you.







That’s the goal. I am NOT a fan of planning next year in the absence of reflecting on the current one - whether you had goals and plans this year or not.







Reflection questions:







We start off positive, and then get into some more challenging questions - where I want you to question and push yourself.







Answer these for career or business and personal.







What went well this year?







Where did I grow the most?







Where did I surprise myself?







Where do I feel stagnant or apathetic? 







How did I get uncomfortable? Did I get uncomfortable? Or did I stay in comfort?







What did I let go of, if anything? AND what should I have let go of - Totally or sooner?







Monthly bullet point + emotional reflection







Got this from Hillary Rushford's year in review. I don’t know what she currently offers, but I love this exercise and it’s the most important thing for me to do annually.







Go month by month - look at your planner (this is what I do), and jot down key events. I do this for life and work.







For instance if I was on maternity leave, or we had guests every weekend, or we were moving, or had 7 contractors at the house that month, I’d note that. 







These add context to the emotion or theme you’re going to choose for that month.







You can note revenue as well. See trends, highs and lows. When you got influxes of clients. Did you join a course or go to an event? Jot these things down.







Once all your bullet points are in for the month recap, then choose ONE WORD - an emotion or theme that encompasses that month.







This is a challenge, and where things get…real.







You will likely see a trend or overall vibe of your year - maybe seasons. And that, in my opinion, leads to clarity on what might need to change for the year ahead.







AND THAT, leads to our last question to ask.







How do you want to feel next year? 







Then plan some decisions that 









* You have control over







* Will bring you that/those feelings regardless of circumstance.









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It’s no secret I am team lift for life. That is largely where my phrase “long haul mentality” came from. Because I am a sucker for the grind - the day to day that no one wants to do, but everyone needs. The process by which they get the REAL results that they want.







It applies to weight lifting, career, building a business, any pursuit of something more than the mundane.







Today we dive into physical, mental and spiritual reasons for women to lift weights. Most of these apply to men as well, but 85% of you are ladies, and that’s who my clientele have always been, so, that’s who we speak to today.







Weight lifting is in the simplest sense, applying science to a set of skills that you build over time. This CAN and more often than not, does, manipulate the body in the form of adaptions.







Those adaptations are WHY women need to lift weights. Being stronger, more mobile, having higher self efficacy and esteem are rarely bad things.







First up and possibly the most focused on FEMALES:







1 Increase bone density







Osteoporosis is far more prominent in women than in men. We naturally hold less muscle mass, and provide less tension to all of our connective tissues.







Bone is not highly vascular which means it takes LONGER for the bone to adapt to stimulus. Muscle adapts quickest, tendons and ligaments next, due to their lack of vascularity. And lastly, bones.







Locomotion happens via our muscles pulling on bones via tendons. That’s literally how our bodies move.







Providing tension to these tissues is how we cause NEW tissue to grow, and become stronger. That’s what we want. In this case for bones.







It can take six months to a year for significant bone growth to take place from weight lifting. Again, applying LOAD and tension to the skeleton is what causes this demand for new growth. 







Load and tension can come in many forms - ie jogging. But weight lifting is the most superior way for this to happen.







Improve and USE mobility 







There is some kind of saying about your mobility and age or lifespan. Like you’re only as old as your spine is mobile or something like that.







This is true in my opinion for all mobility. I trained people in person for five years before going fully online. And for me, the sixties was where I saw the largest gap in ability.







I trained three to four 62-67 year old women. One was a national swimmer and had amazing fitness, though she did lack strength, which is what we were working on. One could not get off the floor from a split squat and had a terrible base of fitness.







I’ve had family members in their sixties hiking mountains and playing with grandkids and those who need assistance for daily movements. There is obviously context there, and many variables at play. But witnessing these differences is what brought the importance of mobility and strength to my mind as a trainer.







Mobility, and many other pieces of fitness fall under “you don’t use it, you lose it”







2 Increase muscle mass







This might be an obvious one. But important nonetheless.







I like to think of this in relationship to other tissues which the human body can be comprised of - mainly fat.







If you’re not building muscle, or largely comprised of muscle…and muscle is how we cause our bodies to MOVE, what are you made of? Truth is, a fair amount of that will be fatty tissues.







Overall health benefits from hosting and maintainin...

There can certainly be a lot of carryover between how to grow your brand audience on IG and how to increase your income. Often just being front of mind for people is the lowest barrier to increasing applications or enrollments.







We’ll separate the two for clarity but know that there is mainly positive carryover from audience growth tactics *possibly* to income.







Brand GROWTH (audience)







None of these are new - I simply want to do a refresh for you in order to bring your focus back to 1-2 of these if you’ve slipped up in your IG approach lately - it happens. And we then we bring it back.







You know I love stories, but they aren’t for GROWING. They’re for selling and connecting with your warm IG audience so we’ll talk about those during income growth.







Client centric + personal story telling









* OWN YOUR STORY (past or present process)







* Bring it back to the consumer and THEIR experience







* Content that helps them NOW, where they are (they’ll share that!)









Frequency - high volume posting









* More posts = more reps for you, better messaging, better creatives, more engagement, more potential for exposure and viral status posts, and less overall pressure







* 7-21 times per week. 7 minimum if GROWTH is the goal.









***posted 2 times per day when I came back from my 8 week break this year and had 2 posts/reels go viral from that. Those posts alone Brough in 3,000 new people. The double posting was worth it due to those two posts landing.







Mother categories









* Covered in FitsPRO and IG 101. 







* Still live by this







* Provides bumpers - which build trust and area of focus (expertise)







* Go deeper with less. 









[repeatability + sharabelity])









* Growth = SHAREABILITY and relatability



* Something people get fired up about (positive or justice vibes), a common experience or struggle - can be funny (taking off a sweaty sports bra) or serious (over sexualization of women in fitness)



* Both are RELATED to my area of focus but not DIRECT. So it would bring in IDEAL CLIENTS. That’s KEY. Trends don’t always bring quality followers.















* But low key saying fuck the checkboxes and trending reels…YES even for growth. 









I find half the time that whatever the trend is, it dies or doesn’t work. I can count on one hand the amount of times that a trend worked in my favor - meaning I gained IDEAL CLIENTS into my audience.







By all means, if a trend feels right and you can capitalize on it within brand alignment, GET IT. But please don’t let the pressure of hopping on trends keep you from creating actual content that your audience and ICA would find helpful, relatable, or sharable. A twitter graphic with a bold statement goes a long way.







Income / application GROWTH (clients)







I was talking to a past 1:1 biz client turned colleague a while back. We were discussing lofty financial goals and what refinement it takes from a business standpoint - very “slow down to speed up” vibes.







She made the comment “I doubled my income in ___ (year) by just yelling about my offers more on instagram and email” and I died. Because #TRUTH.







I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a biz client, follower or fitspro embrace talking about their offer more consiste...

Today’s episode can be applied to any platform where you provide content to an audience. That means podcasting, email, YouTube, instagram or elsewhere.







I’ve been talking a lot lately about building trust with your audience because trust is the #1 thing we need as businesses in order for people to PAY YOU. And most online health and fitness coaches I talk to want to get paid.







If you happen to be building a personal brand, then I believe you have an extra opportunity to expedite that trust. People relate to, and connect with PEOPLE. You’re the face of your brand and likely who the audience is interacting with.







Do not limit yourself with how you could go about sharing any of this. I can see these sent in a newsletter, on an IG story, in a graphic breakdown with context, etc.







1 Walking the walk 









* Show them your process 







* Relatability







* Imperfection







* You are human and struggle to + this is how you make decisions easily.







* Ie: how you select foods, how you use a certain piece of programming within your training, mental struggles and processes









You don’t need to be more fit or strong than your clients. However, it might make sense if you are also active and share your own journey.







I always say you don’t HAVE to train the way you train your clients (or eat the way) but there is certainly power, and I believe, respect in seeing a coach apply to themselves what they as of us as clients.







2 Client case studies OR self study, OR use other other people as examples if you don’t have clients yet









* Allows people too see the HOW







* Take them behind the scenes 







* Ie: helping a client PR, decrease body fat, increase muscle mass, experience food freedom, ear more, get out of pain etc. Where were they? What did or do you plan to implement?









3 Providing SOLUTION based content







I think people get lost or held up when we say “solve a problem.”







Sometimes, thinking in the frame of solutions, or tips can be easier to apply.









* Bite size, digestible content 







* APPLICABLE IMMEDIATELY







* Keeps them coming back for more (aka THEY TRUST YOU)







* Shows you know what they are currently experiencing, thinking, feeling etc Sometimes before they were even aware of it.









You have to know your ideal client and your niche for this. Which are not the same thing.







You’ll find clarity ON your ICA and your NICHE through creating content and interacting or receiving feedback from said audience.







IMO This is the foundation of the other two pieces we talked about.







Do this at a high frequency to build trust.







I know these can seem simple. And that’s because they are. Building trust is not a complex task. It’s simple, and takes intention, consistency and time.







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I asked my IG audience and my email list to send me topics they'd like me to either rate as over, or underrated, mainly in the field of fitness. And let me tell you, this was a FUN ONE.







This episode was unplanned. I literally answered these spitfire, off the cuff. First thoughts that came to mind is what you get here. So, tune in for details on the following topics. Here are my ratings:







Squats: Overrated by those who want to grow their glutes, underrated in terms of functionality and bang for your buck hypertrophy.







Lululemon: Underrated. I know. I know. Trust me.







Pre workout: Overrated







Converse: Undecided. Back in the day, overrated. Much better training shoe options now







Lateral raises: Underrated - sooooo many uses and variations if boulder shoulders are a goal of yours.







Spotify premium for workout playlists: LOL I don't listen to music.







What is underrated for shoulder mobility? This one was fun...Not giving it to you here. Tune in.







Personal training certification: Needed, overrated but they shouldn't be. They just wildly underdeliver. It's complicated.







Social media content creation: UNDERRATED. I said what I said.







Deload weeks: Underrated







Morning routines: Over romanticized but actually underrated in the simplest use of them.







Exercise Bands: Overrated by people who think they are going to built a booty by only using bands. And underrated by people who think they are dumb.







Scheduled non-working hours: Mmmm neither. Tune in for my personal experience with this.







Intermittent Fasting: Overrated. Big time.







Creatine: Underrated. Even with it's popularity. More people could benefit from it than do.







The (athletics) background of your coach or trainer: VERY interesting...







The equipment you are using: Overrated in the sense people put too much weight on this (no pun intended).







These answers require context. But I wanted to give you my short answers here. Again, listen in to hear more about where I draw these conclusions from.







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ALL THE LINKS YOU NEED:

You know the kind of testimony you read - either as a consumer or as the recipient - that just makes you go YES! That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! (the power of social proof!)







This can be the norm for your business if you help your clients out. YES, the way in which you ask for testimonies absolutely shapes the type of testimony you receive.







We want testimonies that do a few things:









* Meet the prospect where they are via the completed client taking them back to the beginning.







* Demonstrate CLEARLY the aha, takeaway, win, result etc. I am careful using the word “promise” here due to us not LEGALLY being able to promise an outcome.







* Generally is CONCISE.







* Authentic









WE have to ask the RIGHT questions to get all of this.







I am the queen of recieving long-winded testimonies - which are great for ME, but not for someone reading my sales page and wanting to get the bullet point takeaways from my services. 







With that… 







I find it interesting that a lot of coaches I work with and speak to find it awkward or strange to ask for feedback and testimonies from their clients. OR only use screenshots as testimonies and never get a formal testimony! WHAAAATTT ARE YOU DOING?!







There is so much more praise left on the table. And possibly great marketing material.







Today we’re going to go over different types of testimonies that you might receive in the online health and fitness space, how to use them; but more importantly, how to help clients give you the highest quality testimony that you are looking for from a marketing standpoint. 







The power of social proof







Low pressure marketing







Confidence for YOU & PROSPECT







When you have testimonies from clients, backing up your coaching approach, that gives you confidence in marketing your services. 







It can also provide confidence in prospects to invest their money with you.







…







Your motive vs a client’s motive is not the same. The prospect knows that.







Unless a current or past client is in an affiliate program of some kind, and they’re getting a kickback, most social proof is not from someone who is trying to sell you something. 







It’s from someone sharing their genuine experience, and likely some kind of transformation that they had in working with you. 







There are no strings attached for this person. 







And that’s why social proof is so vital for a brand. 







Because it can do a fair amount of the selling for you.  Or at least affirm the rest of your marketing. 







…







Other people have trusted your process and had success with it. And now potential prospects know that. Not because YOU told them, but because your clients did.







GAIN CREDIBILITY through “social PROOF” - YOU HAVE BACKING NOW.







You’ve gained credibility because people say that what you do works. And they’re using their own words to do that.







This is a massive reason people and brands will BETA test before launching something. Not only to improve the service or offer but to GET FEEDBACK that backs their marketing from consumers.







Let’s look at different types of social proof that you might receive as an online health and fitness professional.