Episode #1 – Conversation with THE sales guru of the health & fitness industry, Hensley Ellefritz

Welcome to the society pod a podcast for entrepreneurs marketers and leaders here’s your host Jessica yarmy everybody and welcome to the first fulllength episode of the society pod when I was starting out thinking about doing this project I asked a number of people for advice and one of the most common pieces of advice that I got about starting a podcast or you know just start starting down this journey was to pick a first guest that you could talk to for hours and would be an easy guest to talk to so this first guest I did the math and I think we are at about Zoom calls webinars conference calls co-hosted together and that number seems ludicrous but the math math so um say that almost seems low in comparison to like the amount of time we’ve spent in person as well so maybe yeah so let’s say between and conversations co-hosted on Zoom or whatever pick your digital format so my guest today she is a sales Savant she is a operational Guru she is a new entrepreneur a dog mom and a overall force to be reckoned with so welcome to the show Hensley elitz hi thank you I’m just like staring at the screen fangirling like I’m I’m first of all didn’t know until today that I was the first guest and second of all have been waiting for the moment that you create a podcast because there’s no one better suited to do this so I’m I’m honored and excited to be here well thank you for the vote of confidence and thank you for being the first guest and being that air quotes easy guest for me we need this we need this good start so actually let’s start today with you just providing a little bit of your background a little bit of your bio um generally like when I introduce you I say you are the best in the business at what you do but how do you introduce yourself um not the best in the business but that it’s something to strive for I guess uh I have been I’ve only ever known Fitness so um my my I guess most recent corporate Endeavor where Jess and I met was I was the BP of sales at Club Pilates um and then during covid was looking out at our industry and at the time one out of three Studios was closing and I was like why is no one doing this for independent Studio owners and so I started reboot um a little over three years ago and it was just my goal to consult with small business owners and here we are three years and hundreds of clients later and that’s what we do so we really make sales um organic and sustainable and I would say I don’t want to say easy um but integrated into your business so that whatever your passion project is it is a sustainably profitable model for as long as you want to operate it and what was the year count again is it three years now that you’ve been doing reboot a little over three years wow that’s crazy yeah it seems it seems at some point that that maybe entrepreneurship will feel less new but do you still feel like you’re a new entrepreneur yeah you know I I struggle to even identify as an entrepreneur I just I like to say I work for myself I run a small business but um I grew up watching my mom work for herself as a graphic designer for Apple at the time and then she kind of did similar to what I did recognized a larger need and I was like hey I could do that one day um so I think the entrepreneurial mindset is that you always have ideas and your business is always evolving because we get bored very quickly and our attention span is very short so it always feels like I’m tinkering with my business and in that way it does feel very entrepreneurial even three years later um yeah I’ve I’ve fallen into a little Groove but um but yeah I would still consider myself a newer business owner I love that you say fallen into a group when it’s very much orchestrated and intentional and thoughtful and planned out meticulously because that is who you are and how you operate um so we worked together at clip pilotes and we were doing that full-time ntothing I mean let’s call it like more hours than ninto five for sure but now almost like in a parallel timeline you and I both kind of took that jump and jumped into entrepreneurship or business ownership or working for yourself however you want to say it so as you look at ntoworld and as you look at entrepreneurship like what did you like about nin to-and what are you really liking about owning your own business yeah yeah I mean I think entrepreneurship is a blessing and a curse I actually loved the routine and consistency and accountability of a to-um so I missed that piece I definitely miss the consistent paycheck I miss the health insurance right there are so many things that you sacrifice when you go out on your own um and I also feel very blessed to have worked with leaders who gave me a Long Leash so I a lot of the entrepreneurial things that I do now I feel like I was able to do even in a nine-to-five setting um so as counterintuitive as it sounds I actually feel like I have much less work life balance um and you probably feel the same like your brain is always on it’s very difficult to like leave work at work and shut your brain off um but I’m very lucky that I get to spend my day working towards something I created and stand behind and the results are so much more gratifying um and I definitely think I’m serving a market way more um that needs me way more than Corporate America ever did so very very rewarding so you mentioned not ever really seeing yourself as being an entrepreneur how do you feel about that now and do you ever see yourself going back to a corporate environment like how do you envision the next few years or maybe the next step going oh gosh loaded question multifaceted question um Never Say Never I I always hate the question of like where do you see yourself in years or years because it has never been even close to accurate it anytime I’ve given an answer that is broader and better than I ever thought it would be so I don’t know I think um I I don’t know how how I don’t know if I would ever go back I think if the right opportunity presented itself again never say never but I am a very purpose-driven person I’m not following a paycheck in the same way that I was maybe prior and so it would have to be something that I wake up and believe in and get energized by and feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives to the same degree that I feel today I love that evolution in you and I’ve been honored to witness that live and it just brings joy to my heart to just see you in this Lane doing what you do best and doing it for other small business owners you know and paying it forward in that regard yeah um like that’s something that I’m proud of you for like as you look at your last three years like what are the things that that you are most proud of and how you’ve evolved or or grown as a as a leader as an entrepreneur or just as a person in general yeah I think overarchingly what I’m probably most proud of is I don’t want to say selling people on sales but selling business owners or convincing them that profitability has to be first it that has to the lens you look at everything because otherwise all of us as entrepreneurs will look at it emotionally and make um decisions that we might not otherwise and so you know I just got off a call with a um Studio owner and we were calculating her margins and she was like this is what I’ve needed for the last four years and it’s stuff that I just take for granted like I just I know it and assume others do too um so I think that uh like opening your eyes their eyes up to how to make their business even better and it’s not necessarily as difficult or hard to wrap their arms around as maybe they expected um and I think my ability to just pivot and stay in line with my mission you know two years ago we were five times bigger and I knew you then too um so I really spent this last year taking inventory on why I started reboot in the first place and what really energizes me personally um and admittedly it required me to really consolidate my team and pivot my business model and admittedly take a really drastic pay cut um so I think again just living in line with my true Mission um and where I see the need has been maybe what I’m most proud of instead of just chasing the the higher paycheck which is why a lot of people you know start their businesses is for the money component and from what I’ve seen that that doesn’t always work yeah and it seems like as as you and I were working at Club Pilates where we were both in consistent communication with these franchise owners who are their own version of small business owners now you’re having these conversations with small business owners from a business owner seat and it feels like you have a lot of ability to now really know where they’re coming from on things and relate to them in a way and when you have to have those you know psychiatrist kind of moments you know exactly why and and there’s like empathy that you can bring to those discussions because you are you’re there at that same time yeah yeah % I I definitely don’t feel like I’m in this Ivory Tower recommending things that I’ve been told to recommend and um you know I I just bought a house and it’s a fixer uper and I’m in a very different Financial State than I was even as a business owner years years ago and so I can absolutely relate when people want to take the most cost most cost-effective approach or can’t necessarily bring on a full-time manager or can’t invest in marketing I think it’s required myself to be scrappier in my recommendations but it’s also come more naturally because I’m I’m in that seat with them I also can appreciate the approach that you take because I think initially you labeled yourself as a consultant but to me when I’ve seen you coach with people it’s so um like handson and prescriptive and it’s not um like Cookie Cutters set it and forget it and walk away it’s like here’s here’s homework and it has to be done and like let’s reconnect next week and and it seems like you’re really like in it with them so do you identify with the term consultant or if you don’t like how do you see how how do you describe yourself to your clients um really and and it’s not something that I have called myself but I’ve been called it by clients as a partner in the business and really that’s how I feel um when I do partner with my clients I am by no means saying you know this is what you should be doing or this is what better performing studios are doing um so I think that would be the role of a consultant right here’s what his in the past here’s how to do it good luck we’ll check in in two weeks um and coming from a franchise background where any recommendation was always paired with the tools on how to do it and the exact directions on how to implement and the coaching on here’s exactly how to fish so that you can do this sustainably without my being there that’s the model that I really have embraced instead and have seen to be more successful because listen I don’t I don’t want to work with you forever I get bored you get bored that’s a big investment for you already so the goal here is that we’re doing this together but slowly I’m going to push you out of the nest and at that point you should be able to carry this out on your own um and better yet it should feel genuine and empowering and confidence inducing because you’ve shown yourself that you can do things like carry out a daily task list and Empower your team to pitch membership and follow up with leads that didn’t necessarily join and you don’t necessarily need me as a crotch um so I guess it’s somewhere in between a consultant and a coach but I truly do see myself now as a partner after having been called it so many times yeah I I love that term and I I see you working in that way which I think is is great and I think it’s also uh I don’t is it draining from an energy perspective where you have like you are a partner in their business and then you have multiple clients so you’re a partner in multiple businesses so if it so how do you how do you balance that for yourself or like how do you have do you have an outlet do you have a partner or a coach that you talk to so you can stay like balanced in your world totally I think if I had not come from the franchise that I did Club Pilates were there were Studios and coming into that role I remember asking my boss like H how am I going to do this how am I going to be a partner in their business times over and you learn you know who really needs codling and accountability during that time and who can um who you can afford to maybe pull back on or um you know you you get into somewhat of a rhythm where some of your kids are growing up and they’re a little bit more um self you know starting and so forth and then some that are just starting out that really need to be um guided and bolstered and encouraged and so forth so certainly there’s a Max right we can’t take every single client there are times of the year where we are weight listed um and that’s to protect my relationship with my clients I never want to show up and be like what did we talk about last call or what were our goals or what was your homework like I always want to be the one that’s spearheading that conversation and holding them accountable versus them reminding me um um but yeah it’s a it’s a balancing act but I will say when you really love it you don’t I don’t forget to check in on Studios that just open and ask them how their grand opening went I don’t forget to ask like hey did you hit your membership um goal that we had set for the end of February like it really comes from a place of genuine interest and love and so to me it doesn’t feel like as much work as maybe it does to someone brand new entering a business like this yeah because it’s how you breathe and and function as a as an individual maybe um so as you have all of these different clients largely in the health and fitness and and wellness space do you see common threads on mistakes that are made across the organizations that you partner with % And I think they they fall in into kind of two major categories the first is by and large most clients that I work with lack a sustainable sales process and I don’t mean one that’s entirely effective because there are plenty of sales processes that are entirely effective for a certain organization um but one that you and your team can carry out consistently and genuinely and that is trackable so scripts don’t work if they don’t fit your voice and attitude ude a follow-up call with every new client doesn’t work if you don’t have the manpower to carry it out so I’m really passionate about helping clients build a sales structure that fills that fits their brand culture and voice and overhead and that still allows them to remove themselves from the business for a week without seeing you know their profit completely plummet um but I think the biggest blind spot myself included is neglecting to see the leads that we actively sitting on you know we were talking about your podcast even to start and I said Do you have do you have guests and you’re like yeah I mean I have a network of thousands of people at this point and you do and the same goes with many clients that I talk to there’s so much emphasis on bringing in New Leads with catchy campaigns but then we’re neglecting to actually cultivate a relationship with them once they do reach out um so to me that’s like having the football be pass to you and then like immediately throwing it on the ground like you have so much underneath you and within your current mind body or Marana Tech or wallup whatever booking software you’re using those leads have expressed interest at some point or another they are warm enough and there is something that warrants reaching back out to them and re-engaging them with your brand um so I think that’s my again unsolicited advice and also like most common blind spot I yeah and I think um when we worked together we had a good Cadence of you had the sense that like we know we need to reach back out and you would say to me from a marketing function like we need something to reach back out with and even if it’s the exact same offer but we just say it in a different way just to have a reason to reconnect with everybody like top to bottom in your lead list I think that’s such a um it’s such an amazingly obvious thing but it gets lost and you you probably are on so many different clubs um lists you know just to like receive things either because you were a client or because you just wanted to see what their flow was and honestly the group that I get the most consistent Outreach from both text and phone call with unique messages is Orange Theory and it’s interesting because it’s like they’re one of the best in the boutique space and then you see them doing things that are like best practice for sales and marketing Communications to leads it it it’s it’s so obvious it’s painful but but they’re doing the work and therefore are getting the the results um so I don’t know like are there things that you encourage people to to do to like fix that IM immediate mistake like I know it’s a it’s a it’s definitely like within processes but it seems like day one there’s probably things that you say to people that are like huge unlocks and so maybe share some of those like Fast flips that you give people where you’re like do this tomorrow and it’s going to like kind of change your your flow yeah yeah so you know we look at your sales funnel and let’s say you have leads that come in and you convert two out of those leads you could get leads pay for leads now and get four conversions now or you can just convert four out of those so nothing changed marketing wise you still spend the same amount of money money but you sold four out of those instead of two out of those that’s what we’re that’s the example I’m speaking to right now and I the difference comes from qualifying your lead and doing that homework and spending the minutes to look them up on Instagram Google them look them up on LinkedIn identify who are you talking about what makes them tick are they going to fit in with your culture it’s like you’re preparing for a first date and the goal is not to sell them the goal is to figure out are we a good fit for you and are you a good fit for us and the more confident you can be in whether that even exists and what you are going to recommend once they walk through the door the easier that becomes so instead of what that then leads to is instead of looking at leads that you’re like I have no idea no I don’t know about these people at all you can start segmenting those leads into moms under you know coming from Orange Theory so that when you do bring out a new class format or you do a specific Workshop or there’s reason that warrant’s reaching back out to them you have a very specific audience that you can tap into so the example that I always use is if you’ve been broken up with and you’re just begging that ex to take you back but nothing has changed he or she is not GNA take you back right they’re like I know the deal but if you can say hey we’ve changed here’s specifically what we’re offering that is going to better suit suit your needs they’re willing to come back within your four walls and that’s where you really get the chance to engage with them and then sell them the second piece of that is when you do reach out no selling no like hey now we’re doing a five pack for this okay three weeks later hey now we’re doing a pack for this it is a crywolf scenario where your lead just becomes conditioned to waiting for the better discount and you never get a chance to bring them back through your doors so look for a really low barrier offer something that is free or low cost that hits the nerve that they’re looking for right and allows them to come back into your environment then actually cultivate the relationship correctly this time and that’s where you’re going to see the sale happen yeah and and the whole Buzz around community and our community is better than anybody’s you have to start that community building in those initial conversations that’s set the tone for what kind of community or relationship am I walking into like you you can’t approach somebody with the you know the five-pack class offers and and have it be so transactional and then once they’re in your doors oh we actually want to like have you as part of our family we actually want to get get to know you we actually care about you and it seems again like a like a no-brainer thing but it’s it I think people don’t do it because it’s high effort on the front end but when you have that high effort on the front end it just leads to a higher value like perception of what you’re of what you’re offering yeah yeah and I I know the question that might be going through people’s heads as you’re listening to this is like well what do it what does that script sound like what do I ask and the fact of the matter is there is no perfect script because your brand is different than hopefully than your competitors um but when you approach a lead with genuine curiosity and care for helping them make their Wellness better it starts to become really easy you start to ask things like hey Jess it’s been a few months what are you currently doing to work out or I saw you tried you know XY bar class would love to invite you in for your pilates class if that’s still part of your regimen right so when you can approach it with curiosity and instead of an intent to sell that’s when the gears start turning and you start realizing okay these are the questions that I need to know so that I can best curate something that she’s gonna latch on to okay so then if that’s true and there’s no script there’s no one way to approach a lead correctly where are you landing on all of the AI tools and the sales funnels that are out there in a big way and and trying to get a sales process streamlined especially on the front end I think goodness another loaded question the people the reason that your consumer is choosing you as a small business hate to bring it to you it’s not because of your workout and it’s not because of your community and it’s not even because of your culture or your location or your price point there is something between you and them where they trust you as as a business owner and they want to support you versus supporting a corporation or working out at -Hour Fitness or you know something that is more Anonymous and so where you when we Implement something like a marketing campaign like a drip email marketing campaign or a drip text campaign you are eroding that customer trust whenever that whenever the consumer like can see okay this didn’t come from a so absolutely there is a place for automation I always recommend it for those leads who have not responded in more than days those people you’ve reached out at least times at this point let’s just have something that reminds them that you guys exist um and at some point maybe we hit a nerve and they come back but for those that you’ve interfaced with recently I would say in the last three months those are people that you have paid for that have witnessed hopefully been within your doors and that’s where I would put an actual human on the end of the line if I wanted to see conversion happen what it sounds like you’re saying and maybe you can like dig in more like what the next layer of it is but it sounds like if you’re getting leads a month like you’re in a prioritization kind of head space and so like talk about how you are maybe like allocating resources to or how you recommend someone allocates resources to a even like a lead kind of month yeah yeah and if you are getting leads a month that’s amazing great job um they have amazing marketing um I’ve heard okay they’re working with you I think yeah I’m sure so there are multiple parts of any sales process right so you get a lead that’s someone that raises their hand and says I’d be interested in more information then ideally they book into to a class or a trial ideally they show up for the trial maybe they join maybe they don’t but if I’m looking at that sales process the closer they get to buying meaning they’ve shown up or they’ve booked but haven’t yet shown up those are the people I want to prioritized because it’s like you already have the dominoes falling in that direction versus someone who just inquired you know or inquired months ago and hasn’t yet responded to you the other piece is you must research your leads there is not a single lead that I’ve gotten on the phone with for reboot that I haven’t looked up sorry if you guys are listening your LinkedIn your Instagram your Studio’s Instagram done my research on your business seen where you went to school see where you um live now where you have lived I’m looking for any sort of connecting link that can get that conversation started and during that qualification process I’m also figuring out is this someone that I want to invest my time with or not not in a negative or positive way but is this someone that can be serviced by us or is this someone who needs something else and that’s the same way that you can qualify your leads into buckets of okay this really looks like someone that could be our member I’m going to make sure my best salesperson is there or that I reach out personally as a business owner versus this looks like Hensley’s Mom that’s visiting from out of town and is just here for two days that’s not someone I’m going to invest as much energy in but unless you do that work it’s going to feel like a lot because you will be investing the same amount of energy into everyone and that’s not sustainable times over has there been a person or a company that has reached out to you where you’ve been like very impressed with either the research that they did or how they took a cold Outreach and kind of made it like really warm yes um and it wasn’t a company it was a person on LinkedIn and he was starting his own company and was kind of wondering if we had maybe positions open but was also looking for guidance but the time that it had clearly taken him to research me research reboot um you know find my email and compose this very clearly not copy and pasted email I was like let I will get on the phone and help you for free like that’s amazing right and that’s where again our consumer is willing to trust those that are going out of their way and taking the time but they’re blind to the clear copy and paste mass-produced emails and texts so yeah that’s the one that stands out at least most recently that’s awesome and I feel like it’s it is so you get so many messages you even get so many texts these days that are like yeah Outreach either from brands or from from individuals and it really becomes impossible to respond to all and so having a researched email Outreach that like comes to you personally does end up really standing out and and cutting through the Clutter yeah and I think there’s a reluctance to do that stalking which is you know what it is in lamest terms because you don’t want them to think think that you’ve stalked them and I will say they do want you to think they’ve stalked you they do they want to know you research someone who has requested me on LinkedIn you know follows just newly followed reboot that’s someone that I’m listening to a lot more acutely than someone who’s just booking a call and has no information to disclose to me you know yeah and it’s it is that um little like ego stroke also um I had in actually in launching this podcast I posted online that I was looking for someone to help me edit and distribute the podcast because I don’t want to put like all my time into this I want to put like partial time and this woman connected with me and then proceeded over the the next five days spaced out liked and commented on five of my most recent posts and I’m just seeing her like comment comment comment like like like and I’m like okay like she she cares she likes me and will put that same effort into her work for me so it is that like it just establishes the fact that this isn’t just going to be a transactional relationship like this will be like a community or like like a true partnership I guess in a way yeah yeah and that’s why you know engaging with your members and even your leads on social so many are like oh that feels so uncomfortable to me and it’s like if I’m posting something on Instagram or on LinkedIn and I’m public I’m inviting you to engage with that content and maybe that’s a a sales specific way to see it I don’t think you lose anything from being the one brand that they’ve reached out to that then follows them and you know comments genuinely on their last relevant post yeah % I I think it high effort never is cringy and unfortunately has this maybe this reputation at this point that that high effort is is desperation and it and it really isn’t um especially when you’re especially when you’re connecting with with leads and actually showing that you care and and you’re going to be with them on their Journey like high effort is never I don’t know it’s never going to be the wrong way to approach someone and if it is like they’re they weren’t your M to begin with right but if they’re interested in your brand and they’ve inquired and they’ booked a class you doing that is not they’re not going to resend their invitation and be like oh now I’m not going like that it’s just like dating right there’s not that’s not going to be the straw that breaks the camels back and if that is someone that is already excited and looking forward to their workout with you tomorrow and you engage with them you’ve just increased their likelihood of showing up and being that much more willing to join afterwards yeah % I think it’s a big part of like again establishing that Community really early on um this is a little like left turn but I want your opinion on it because I hear from so many people in the fitness space like hiring is so difficult Staffing is so difficult it’s so hard to find good people and I know you you touch so many Brands um talk about what you’re seeing from a hiring and Staffing perspective and and if you end up having advice that you share with some of your clients like what are some of the top one or two things that you recommend business owners do yeah I will say of the hundreds of clients that I’ve worked with those that have no issues or very little issues with hiring and retaining staff are those who are very clear about their mission their value and their directions with their team and they’re willing to be transparent about what’s working and what’s not maybe not financially right but the true reason they wake up don’t take a paycheck yet and do this every single day um and they’re leaning into their instructor’s strengths and truly seeing them as brand ambassadors and allowing them to maybe not teach a class that’s completely off brand but maybe do a workshop that really speaks to something that they’re behind or help spearhead a um social campaign for a cause that really resonates with them so they’re bringing their employees into the brand and and making them kind of the faces of it versus seeing their employees as disposable um and I think if you can’t even get there yet even just being present in your business it’s that same idea of like your employees aren’t going to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself if you don’t if you’re not behind the front desk if you’re not teaching or taking regular classes if you’re not out there doing Grassroots marketing and sitting at a table they’re not going to do it either so I think it’s being willing to be humble enough um to be where they are and and thereby you know earn brownie points and have them actually listen and feel like they can empathize with you % yeah I mean I think we’ll have to do a whole separate episode on on leadership and team building maybe and culture because I think it’s such a undervalued skill and sitting in the fitness space where we have the ability to connect to Passion you know we have the ability to like help people live out there their mission we shouldn’t have Staffing problems right like we should be we should be magnets for people who love health and are passionate about working out and things like that so I think we’re still as a as an industry we’re still missing the mark in terms of how we hire and then cultivate Talent as as Business Leaders a million percent and if you think of it it in the lamest stance like I could teach a class for to bucks or I could do two hours at McDonald’s for the same rate why am I willing to put in that same effort more so right planning my playlist choreographing getting there early getting to know the actual individuals I’m not doing it for the money so those owners that are trying to um like like out pay what their competitors do that’s not why your your employees are interested in working with you they want to be able to live out their mission and feel like they’re running in the same direction and if anything helping you spread your message um versus doing it for the money where you’re in the wrong industry if that’s that’s the type of people that you’re with yeah yeah absolutely like you have to kind of be connected to that to that overall why yeah as you’re looking at the fitness industry as a whole I I I see talent and like Talent Development as as Green Field and a big opportunity what are some of the other things that you’re looking at where where the fitness industry as a whole needs to step up our game yeah I think there’s so much focus on how to capitalize on this or that Trend um but I’ve witnessed that if a business owner isn’t truly passionate about the trend and their clientele doesn’t have the genuine desire to adopt it it typically flops um so when clients instead want to expand their business or add another workout under their roof we really work on defining how that new offering is going to underscore their core values or complement their existing service so that they can maintain a really clear cohesive value proposition um and the reason I say that is that consumers have gravitated from trusting businesses to tr ing people behind them so where I think our industry our greatest industry growth is going to come from are those trustworthy small business owners who expand their reach either through additional locations or additional offerings because they do have a clear Mission a clear following and they capitalize on that momentum to kind of keep their empire growing um that’s that’s my stance and and and being part of the brand and and being a person within the brand or like having a personal brand attached to the business brand and I see you doing that with with reboot and and I obviously lean into that a lot as well do you feel like that’s something that you’re seeing business owners Miss on and if they’re missing on it why you know is it because they they’re not comfortable doing it or because they don’t realize it’s important or like what are you seeing in terms of like owners kind of being involved or connected to their brands I think you know businesses are meant to evolve because we evolve as people and consumers evolve and our industry evolves and our economy evolves and where I see owners become less involved in their business it’s almost because of like a boredom um or they find someone who is maybe more excited about it than they are now to run those classes or manage the studio and I don’t know of a more successful business than one who the business owner is the most excited about it right like I think that that’s your business is going to be more successful if you’re the one that’s most excited about it empowering that and really acting as the heart and soul of the business um and so I that’s where I really encourage business owners to constantly take inventory of yes statistics like utilization and sales and Trends and so forth but also be pulling your clients on what they want and what they need out of your brand because we went through a a an evolution of reboot these past three months that i’ had been working on this past year which was hey here’s where what our clientele wants here’s what we’re offering and we’re missing this whole clientele because our we program isn’t a sustainable monthly option in the same way that we’re offering now and the root and core of what we do is still the exact same but it’s just delivered in a different way and that’s always what I work on with business owners who are like I think I want to do XYZ now it’s like okay well why don’t we go back to what you really really good at and what you really love doing and yes we can change the way that it’s delivered or ALS Al and evolve it into a better than today version um but I think you know stagnancy happens when when business owners get ignorant or they get negligent of really evolving and growing their business to meet what they want to be doing and what their clientele needs from them I love all of that and I think if if you’re a business owner like rewind those last seconds cuz I think that’s it’s huge and the ability to like take personal inventory and pivot where you need to um I’m going to Pivot a little bit and kind of go into I talk a lot about comeback season and just like how you operate when you’re in the mud when you’re in the trenches when you’ve like been knocked down so talk to me about a time when when you were at a low where were you why were you in that low what did you do to course correct out of that low and like what did you learn through that process yeah I think you know in speaking with more than a few Millennial girl bosses I think many of us have hit a burnout in these past few years we went through covid and a recession and now a much less powerful dollar than years ago and we’re tired right like a lot of the things that we were doing successfully um no longer work and admittedly I’ve been one of those women and then I this past year emptied my savings to buy a house and got into my first relationship in six years and decided to Pivot my business and to say I was at a complete from where I was three years ago would be an understatement so I’ve through this learned that my relationships with my friends and family and certainly my clients are more important to me than my business will ever be but I think being at that bottom point where you almost feel like making over the entire business again but with a quarter of the resources financially that you had the first time around that’s really scary especially when you have other priorities on your plate that you didn’t the first time around so it’s what I’m most proud of is to kind of be over the hump and be more excited and energized and ready to take on my business than I have ever been before um and also having gone through those learnings and feel like I’m doing it a lot more balanced in a lot more balanced way than I was three years ago coming out of the gates super super strong yeah and I can see a little bit of your competitive athlete brain coming through like you have like a hard charger uh constant Improvement kind of approach and and I can see where you you just go go go and then it takes like one of those big life changes that you reference to really like reset do this inventory wait I’m I’m miles from where I want yeah to be but I also see you having a resilience to how you operate as an entrepreneur and I I feel like some of that comes from from being like in a super competitive space for most of your life do you feel like that the athlete brain like kick in in certain moments yeah you know and we were talking about it before the podcast that you have to as an entrepreneur in order to be successful have a certain amount of delusion and have a certain amount of Eternal optimism um and I’ve always been that way and I’ve always been like no decision is the wrong decision um right this is what we’re going to do we’re going to choose it and if it doesn’t work out that’s what the universe intended and we’re going to Pivot and make another decision and so I’ve never seen anything I’ve done as permanent or um you know unmalleable it’s just this is where my heart and intuition and gut is taking me and I’m going to lean in entirely whether that’s you know playing on the junior National badminton team and thinking I’m gon to play for the Olympics to getting a bad injury and then becoming the best salesperson at equinox and then running sales for Club Pilates and then starting a business like I’ve always been I don’t want to say onedimensional or single-minded but there was never any option that it was wasn’t going to work and that’s worked in my favor because it’s allowed me to really plow through and do so with endurance and hope and optimism and excitement and bger for what I do and you also have that uh single athlete uh sport element coming through of like like it took us a bit to get to a place of trust cuz it’s like I you you trust yourself and you don’t necessarily like to lean on others or feel like others will be at your your level um so I feel like this I’m going to end every podcast with a similar kind of question like a similar Lane like what are you working on right now and if what do you need help on and if somebody was out there listening to this podcast episode and like you had a magic wand like if I could have this help from this type of person like what would you what do you what do you need in this moment um oh that’s a great question because I feel like that’s how I kick off every question with my clients it’s like what’s keeping you up at night what’s fogging you down like let’s look at your day today and how much of it is just fogged down with admin stuff as someone who yes admittedly is very perfectionistic and wants my hands on everything um I think someone who I need help with that admin piece and I need help with the minua that goes behind um having a really successful call but then you know sending them homework and checking them checking in and continuing to cultivate that relationship outside of just Hensley um and for a while I think we were doing that almost to a degree where I felt too removed from the business but um yeah with my hands back in it entirely I think that’s where I could use the most help I also love someone who’s going to poke holes in my business and show me what I’m doing wrong and I always say like I want to reboot for reboot like that what I feel like I do for clients every day I want someone that’s going to do that for me and I’ve spoken with business coaches and other consultants and I’ve yet find someone who’s providing the same structure and reassurance and smart quantifiable goal setting that I feel like we do um so yeah I think those are the two things is a reboot of my own and uh you know I personal assistant yeah or an admin yeah okay yeah well that’s my wish list yeah I think I think that wish list is very doable and hopefully we’ll make some good connections here for you final parting thoughts any anything we didn’t touch on that you think is important that’s kind of like top of mind right now or any advice you would give to an aspiring or new entrepreneur yeah I actually had this conversation with a mentee is that what you call mentee someone that you meant yes a mentee yesterday think about if you’re starting a business don’t think about who you want to serve or what you want to B what you want your business to look like but the true function you want to play in it how you want you to spend your day as a business owner every single day because you’re going to be doing a lot of it um that has been my anchor this past year reminding myself of what I want to be doing um it helps fend off the impostor syndrome and delegate where I can and I also get to show up and be present for clients in a way that I haven’t been prior because I have been able to move things off of my plate and reformat our business so that I can be doing what I love and doing a lot of it um so that’s my two sents think about what you would want your day-to-day look to look like as a business owner before you start I love that it is spoton I would expect no less from you thank you so much for sharing your wisdom for sharing specifics for how small business owners can hold themselves accountable in their day thank you for everything you’re doing for the fitness industry I think people like you need bigger platforms because there’s so much effort that goes into the sales side in the fitness world and and I think you you approach it in a way that will shine a positive light on the positive side of the fitness industry and how it can be life-changing for people so I think the work you’re doing is important and obviously um the highest of high quality the best in the business so Hensley thank you so much for being with us today thank you for having me all right peep the show notes for all of Hensley’s socials and then all of reboots socials and anything else we find relevant we’ll like throw it in the the show notes section thank you guys so much for listening in on this episode of the society pod you love you all we hope you enjoyed this episode of the society pod