When I started my business, I didn’t know anyone in the town I started in and had to build the clientele from the ground up.
It was difficult and it required me to do a lot of uncomfortable things at the time like putting flyers up all over the area in different businesses or put my business card under windshield wipers, etc. just to get my name out there.
Little by little, as business grew, I was able to forge relationships and get referrals that helped my clientele grow faster.
At the heart of it was me continually doing things that I was not comfortable with. It was new skills I had to learn, that I was resistant to learn, and stepping outside of whatever self-imposed box I had created for myself to be successful because I refused to fail at business ownership.
Throughout that time I chose to learn new ways to put my marketing out there. I’ve had no shortage of options either. There were blogs, there was YouTube, there was Twitter, there was Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
I would try and learn new platforms because I wanted the presence of the business out there and, while I could have hired someone to make these platforms work for me, I wanted it to be “my” touch on the marketing message.
Blogs worked well for me because it gave me a chance to let my rambling thoughts breathe a bit and I could talk about things that I saw my clients go through and ways I saw them succeed with their goals. However, if I wanted my blogs to be well received, I had to be consistent with writing. As a result, I made a vow to myself to write a new blog every week. That was 6 years ago. Now, there are over 300 articles on this site alone. (There’s a lesson there about consistency)…
Then I wanted to get better at Facebook marketing but I didn’t want to pay to boost ads. So, I started promoting the weight loss success and personal bests of my clients and I absolutely annihilated my personal Facebook page (and still do). As a result of that, I started getting more word of mouth referrals from friends of my clients who would inevitably ask about this business. That was also, coincidentally, about 6 years ago that I started doing those posts. (Another lesson in consistency)…
When Instagram came out, I truly didn’t understand it, nor did I want to. It was one more place to spread my attention and I didn’t think it mattered. However, once I came to understand the platforms and the algorithms, I had a change of heart. It also forced me to think about marketing in a different way: How do I craft an impactful 30 second reel? How do I write a caption that sparks action or inspires reflection? What (or how many) hashtags should I use? (A lesson in learning new skills and adapting to things that can change at a moment’s notice)…
Most recently, I came back to Twitter because it was another skill to learn. How do I make my rambling mind (that can easily write 500-1500 word blogs) pivot and have an impact to less than 150 characters? For the record, this is REALLY hard for me to do because it requires a complete reframe for how to get my point across.
What does any of this have to do with you and fat loss?
If you want to succeed at fat loss, you have to learn new skills, uncomfortable skills and you have to find ways to do them repeatedly. You have to change the narrative about the box you’re in or you will remain confined there. You can pay someone all the money in the world for the tools to succeed but ultimately, it’s YOUR work that makes the impact.
With social media marketing, I could pay someone to do all of that work for me: they could stay on top of algorithm changes, they could choose which ads to boost or not boost, they could craft all of these really nice eye-catching graphics to get your attention and drive more interest to my work.
Fat loss isn’t like that, no one gets to do the work for you while your body takes the benefit. Even if you elect to have surgery for weight loss, you still have work to do to adhere to a new way of eating and, potentially, new dietary constraints.
For me, I like learning new skills, I’m willing to fail (over and over again), I expect to have some efforts be well-received and some to fall on deaf ears (er, eyes), and I have rarely, if ever, been an early adopter. I’m the kind of person who needs a lot of exposure to something before I can understand the value and apply it for myself.
This is where we have a lot in common with fat loss. Reframe all of that last paragraph and apply it to you:
–Learning new skills: from meal prepping to food tracking to food measuring to embarking on a new exercise regimen, if it’s unfamiliar to you, it’s a new skill and perhaps a valuable one. Take the time to learn what you need, discard what you don’t and apply what works.
–Be willing (and ready) to fail: I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve screwed something up with my marketing. Whether it’s something small like a typo or something more significant like not being as sensitive as I could be to what a reader might perceive in my messaging. Keep trying, keep learning, and keep moving forward.
–Don’t expect immediate results/gratification: Sometimes, even doing all the “right” things won’t net the results we expect to see and this is true for marketing and certainly true for fat loss. You’re always playing the long game.
–Maybe it isn’t what you hear, but when you’re “ready” to hear it: Much like my exposure to different marketing tactics, some things just didn’t click immediately for me. When they did, I jumped “all in”. Your path with fat loss is similar. You probably don’t need to hear more about energy deficits, protein intake, better sleep habits, increasing your step count or cutting back on ultra-processed foods. You just need to have enough exposure to those truths before you embrace them, apply them and succeed as a result.
Pictured below, an updated look at our coaching staff. In spirit of this post, I’d love for you to follow these accounts so you can keep up with our mischief (Click on the name).
L to R
