Episode #8 – Q&A Day with Debbie Bellenger: A Gameplan for a Career in Fitness and Corporate Wellness

welcome to the society pod a podcast for entrepreneurs marketers and leaders here’s your host Jessica yarmy hello everybody and welcome to today’s episode of the society pod this is a new format that we are trying out this is called Q&A day and I am here with Debbie Bellinger her and I are connected for a long time because of LinkedIn and because of the fitness industry but Debbie was nice enough to volunteer and participate in this first ever Q&A day and the idea for this stems from whenever I have people reach out to me and they have questions or they want to jump on a call I usually stack them on Fridays and this so happens to be a Friday where I had three calls stacked like back to back to back with people that are all amazing people that are in my network that I love and um and hold dear to my heart and so I figured instead of just keeping all of your wisdom um locked up let’s just record it and put it out to the world as a a Q&A podcast so Debbie with that I will kick it over to you you can introduce yourself tell everybody where you’re from what you’re currently doing and then um and then we can dive into to where you’re at and what questions we can answer for you okay sounds good um so yeah thanks for the trust here we go let’s have fun my name is Debbie Bellinger I’m from Canada originally from Ottawa and I’ve been working in the state since and probably an important fact I have three citizenships now I did my American citizenship October of and I have British citizenship as well so currently I am running my own company Jessica and it is called DB Fitness and Wellness Solutions LLC and my company is focused on a couple of things one is to elevate the fitness industry to become a wellness industry that’s in my soul and I’m doing that by providing CC approved education for Fitness professionals via zoom in Master Class format and tons of webinars and speaking at conventions so leaning into my educator role and then the other portion of the work is to support Employers in the strategy build and the analysis of gaps in workplace well-being so for a company that really wants to get started knows that they should have it but really has no place like just no idea in their mind where to begin I offer services to support them in starting that journey and it always starts with data I’ve done a little bit of work with some clubs in North Carolina South Carolina kind of in the same genre of work in supporting small to medium size fitness clubs in partnering with employers so how do they take what they offer in their bricks and mortar and expand their Market outside of the four walls right so I’ve been doing a little bit of that as well and I love all of it I love all of that work are you you’re based in North Carolina right now upstate South Carolina about minutes from the North Carolina border yeah one additional piece of background that I have to provide everyone is I connected with you first on LinkedIn we’ve been connected on LinkedIn for a bit now and then recently I connected with you on Facebook and all of a sudden I’m getting all of these friend requests from people in the fitness industry and we have only one shared connection and it is you I didn’t know this you are a master connector in the fitness industry maybe that’s a good additional background for us to like set before we dive into things where did did you start in Fitness uh where have you been in Fitness and then how do you know all of these people in Fitness who are super active in the fitness community so thank you for pointing that out to me because I didn’t know that that’s kind of a fun fact right it’s fun when you get you have super fans you have super fans out there there are there are there are Debbie super fans floating out in the Facebook social world that’s hilarious so the fitness background started in immediately upon graduation from my Master’s Degree as fate would have it my first real job was at the Ottawa YMCA in the leadership Center which was responsible for all of the fitness instructor training so the -hour base instructor training was hours back then Jessica cracks me up and all the workshops that we did I had the best Mentor so I started as an educator there I did teach Fitness while I was doing my Master’s Degree actual group X and the fitness cord Ator so I had a little bit of that as well but really getting into the role of Fitness education Fitness connector probably was in that y role and at the same time I joined the fitness Ontario leadership program which was another instructor training Workshop so I’d be flown around all over Ontario to different clubs to teach individuals how to become Fitness instructors and then I joined the Canadian rebok master trainer team right before I moved to the states of course that gives you the exposure of the Canadian Fitness scene I did a lot of speaking and presenting for marine Hagen with canfit Pro and I’m back on that circuit which is these full circle moments right it it’s really fun and then I joined the American Reebok master trainer team in Texas I started in Houston Texas and whoever was the Reebok trainer in the state of Texas at the time had just retired so I was super blessed because I landed in a state where I could continue on with my role so it’s it’s yeah it’s been a journey of remaining very connected to the fitness industry teaching Fitness through all my years I have never stopped to this day I still teach Fitness classes being an educator on stage and holding some big jobs where I was responsible for big teams of Fitness instructors so all told how many years of Fitness industry experience do you have and don’t be shy I’m picking up my calculator if you’re following this on audio only and you’re not on the YouTube link she has a calculator in hand to do this math okay it is Friday afternoon years years yeah and so what I’m hearing if I’m going to play it back for you you love the fitness space you are a servant within the fitness base you believe in Fitness as a piece in the overall Wellness puzzle you believe in the potential of Fitness to be preventative in the health space and you want to help companies incorporate it into their overall health and wellness ecosystem for their employees and so you currently are sitting in like your sweet spot of everything you love and have built a career on over years that’s right is that correct that’s correct okay so break down the problem for us Debbie so here’s the problem it is I have yet going into year three of my business full-time Allin on me to regain the corporate salary that I was earning when I left corporate and to Fe feel like I am working at top of license at the hospital I worked years as a wellness director for two hospitals and in the clinical space we call it topof license it means the same thing in Fitness though so I don’t feel like I’m working to my full potential Jessica and it’s making me crazy so those two things when you know you can you know your value you have complete faith in what it is you’re doing but I have not realized working at my potential in this full-time gig all in on me and replacing that salary that would be a goal I mean it’s a legit goal I earned it one time I know I can get back to it so that’s that’s maybe that’s a two-prong problem maybe yeah so if you’re within your current business model break down your revenue streams you do some speaking you do some like we would call it BB Consulting yes what are other pieces of the pie or is that really the pie it’s kind of in those two buckets yeah I would add a third I have a regular stream of income teaching group X so there’s to eight Fitness classes a week and I also do one eight hour Workshop a month for TX because I’m a TX master trainer so that’s that’s pretty regular as well we can add that to the list and then the occasional writing but that’s that’s just kind of here and there as it comes articles and got paid to do it which was a nice surprise what if we’re going to look at those those revenue streams speaking BB Consulting teaching group X teaching TRX writing what percentage is coming from the BB Consulting that’s probably only % right now I would have thought it was higher which is why I started there give me the other percentages and they don’t all need to add up to % we won’t we won’t test your math today we’ll just go rough numbers uh okay what percentage what percentage is coming from speaking uh speaking is probably it’s probably Jessica I don’t make that much I do aot much yeah group X is probably % oddly enough okay TRX yeah about the remaining or so percent okay and then writing like a bit yeah a little bit yeah it seems like you see you see a bigger opportunity in BB Consulting and then you see a bigger opportunity in speaking I do and so taking time and and making sure that time at group X is appropriately attributed to like obviously % of Revenue coming from groupex you can’t leave that behind but it’s also a lot of hours to do that it is I think the question you had originally emailed to me was is it time to restructure things or is it time throw in the towel or is it time to like what what is the what is the next step given you’ve been pushing on the BB Consulting side and haven’t unlocked it is that is that a fair a fair assessment of where we are % Fair assessment yes because I’m in Fitness and I’m also a believer in Fitness and its role in businesses health and wellness ecosystems for their employees and I know nobody does that well I think there’s a market there there’s a space there but it’s clear like if we’ve been banging our head against that for two years and it’s only representing like something in your pitch on the BB Consulting side is off and one of the difficult things that I have found in getting into BB relationships is sometimes there’s High switching cost or there’s High obstacles to becoming a preferred person but once you’re in the door it it gets easier I guess if you’re looking at the BB Consulting side of the business because that would be the side that you’re under tension about right now we just say what’s your BB pitch and and do you have thoughts on how you would maybe like switch it up yeah it’s um so the pitch has been how to get started in workplace well-being programming the switch up needs to be because I’m very skilled in this and I just ran it past vice president of benefits from the last company I worked at because we work together all the time and said let me just run this by you because it’s not it’s not Landing what am I missing basically where we landed in the conversation was super helpful is my strength is actually in the analysis of the data give me your data give me your company data medical claims data Pharmacy spend data Employee Engagement data employee needs assessments whether you’re doing PRC or any of the other engagement surveys right and any other data that’s been gathered from the workforce let me have a look at that and write the story for you that you need to be concerned about for the health of your employees because I can I can write that story I can do the claims analytics and tell the story of what the ills of the workforce are based on the emergency room visits in appropriate emergency room visits which are super expensive the top three to five medicines being used by the employees the average cost of care in the medical spend um just having a look at that the high cost claimants have a look at all the employees that are running over $ perom which is going up and up and up so you look at all of that and then any Employee Engagement data how happy employees are at work how engaged what’s the attrition rate and kind of run the Gap analysis of based on the health of the population I could almost say here are your top three health concerns it’s interesting because the Brokers when they’re reporting out to employers don’t necessarily get to that you’ll get all the numbers but what’s the story and then what’s the solution I’m really good at crafting what that story is is and then offering up what the wellness Solutions should be customized employer Wellness Solutions so when you ask what do I need to do differently uh it’s not how do we get started let me help you review your data and finding the right script Jessica taking the time to write the script rewrite it and practice it really that I have to shift gears this is a space that I mean there’s so much red tape in healthare in the health care side of health and wellness it’s going to be a limitation the ways to break through the red tape having relationships with with people like having existing relationships and being able to like have direct conversations with people in your network who who can get you into the right conversations or it’s having a solution that directly connects to the bottom line where you could say to someone blindly via an email give me a chance to cut out your data or like look at what you’re doing and I could save your organization you know put whatever dollar amount to it or percentage to it or whatever case study but I think at the end of the day it has to be connected to if you hire me for X I could save you y and if there’s a case study that you have done in the past where you’ve worked with someone even if if you could say their name great if you can’t say their organization’s name at least alluding to the fact that like this is a Health Care system in South Carolina and it’s say however many million dooll ecosystem of medical practitioners and and really put bullets around what you’ve done for them so then when you approach somebody brand new who doesn’t know you Debbie who’s like Fitness expert knows everybody loves and breathes this health and wellness lifestyle so many emails are just ending in the trash if it’s not Crystal Clear of like what is your value going to be and the easiest way to cut through and show value is on dollars um I know I know there’s other things um you know in terms of like overall health of employees and you know things that are good for society as a whole but in a in a blind BB pitch the easiest way you’re going to get emails open calls back is to be able to show in a case study here’s what I’ve done I think there is a need to to maybe mix up your model uh like how you’re structuring your offering but then how are you marketing your model and going out with maybe leading with two different things like you could write the overall state of health and wellness in the healthc care space in whatever you could write a one sheeter on that that’s like free download of here’s the opportunities that exist in employee Wellness today you attach that to an email you collect open rates of like who has downloaded this file from this email they’re in an automation okay they’ve opened that one call them again hey I see that you looked at the you know overall state of Wellness here’s what I can do in your space I’m going to send you this case study send the case study you can track via email analytics like did they open the case study just to start to drill down into who are we really going after in our sales process um I think if you’re going to to stay in that BB Consulting space and you’re trying to jump that % up to a % you’re going to have to get a offering very tight and then a funnel very tight you know so you have whether it’s a formal CRM or whether it’s something even like a Zoho or something that’s fairly easy to set up where you have your leads and then you’re sending them different things at different moments so it’s a more structured sales process I I think that’s something that’s going going to be needed to get that BB piece up where it needs to be I know part of your question was like do I just kind of like abandon the Consulting thing and go back to full-time role and I think in some of the conversations you’re having with the people you already know not in your sales funnel like this is separate from like somebody who might be blind Outreach I think it’s worth staying open within those conversations of like and if you critical goal of yours for or Beyond like I could do this for you full time or I could do this for you fractional time CU you know you have your other streams of like speaking and teaching and TX and writing like you have other things going on so you’re not necessarily looking for a ninet to-but you’re looking for more dollars more Revenue coming through the Consulting Revenue Stream So staying open to things that would be more like full-time roles or even three-month Consulting projects um would be would be interesting to have in your pocket as you’re getting into conversations either within your network or as somebody who’s farther down your your sales funnel so to speak yeah I love that I absolutely love that because I do feeling a chief Wellness officer role in a fractional way would be very interesting to me I also think being a chief Wellness advisor to some of the fitness companies out there would also be a win-win for them and for me to be able to use this ton of knowledge around medical wellness and fitness and corporate wellness and Community Wellness I’m kind of a unicorn in the industry for having being able to work in all those spaces I’m very blessed actually it’s it’s wonderful that I’ve been able to do that that would be very interesting to me as well I would feel like I was more productive and giving more of sharing more of my experience and knowledge and I do take great pride in staying very current I’m a research Hound because when I join a hospital system you don’t get to talk to the docs when you don’t know your stuff and it’s clearly it’s a passion of mine just to know the the latest trends and cross reference them like you said yes I could sit down without effort and write a one pager on the state of health and well-being in the states that’s just be so easy right and I’m smiling here as you you’re mentioning a case study why it is I’ve not thought of producing that for myself it was in my webinar corporate Wellness webinar at the medical Fitness Association in Baltimore in November and I won educator of the Year there this year which was very fun um yeah you did yeah I did thank you and I had it outlined in I deidentified the company name but there were two case studies from work that I had done with huge success very interesting why I’ve not thought to I’m putting it all out there and yet what you just shared is okay Debbie sit down map it for you map it for this is very interesting instead of providing it in an education Forum maybe adopt it for my business yeah that’s very yeah yeah I think sometimes in BB I think sometimes I’ll say we because I I do the same thing where it’s like I could help you with anything tell me what you need and in a lot of instances the decision makers and even the leadership teams like they don’t know exactly what they need and so having it as a case study where it’s like hey this is what some other organization needed even if you can’t say name and it has to stay a hypothetical but you’re at least outlining for them like here’s the ways I was able to benefit this organization and maybe their needs are slightly different but at least you’re showing in a more digestible way here’s what I could bring to the table because if you if you’ve read the book The Quarter life crisis you get to a place where you have so many options it’s it’s like you get Frozen because you’ve too many options and it’s like you’re in that place right now as you’re pitching yourself because you’re like what do you need help with do need group X do you want me to help you with your actual like practitioners do you want me to help with your you know like on this side because you have all these different perspectives and expertise that you bring to the table but it almost muddies the water when you’re going in Pitch yourself as a solution because it’s unclear then like what’s the best place for her to be and a case study just tells them here’s the best place for me to be I can do this this and this um y I think I think it is a superpower though of yours that you having years in the industry and having those years come from different perspectives does give you a unique perspective where you can connect dots easier than probably most people can and what I see in the industry especially as we’re entering this era of like OIC we’re kind of Crossing into prescription world it’s a important time for people like you to be loud about what you know because you know both sides of the game and and I don’t know what that means in terms of like a BB Consulting piece like does it best fit on the fitness side or does it best fit on the health care side I think it’s it’s about you being louder and more consistent with your expertise and the right people are going to to connect with you so where you said it would be very easy for you to put together a one sheeter about an overall view of what you see maybe if that’s easy like if that kind of flows because it’s it’s your lane maybe it be a monthly newsletter you know and then you get an email list going and then you kind of like you’re building in in that regard at a minimum like you should be actively posting things I would say I mean your Facebook is ridiculous we’ve already talked about that but definitely on LinkedIn as well and just adding your perspective to the top of them anything that comes out health insurance wise or employee Wellness wise or have amazing perspective but unless somebody’s come to see you speak like how do they know social media platforms give you an awesome opportunity to share what you know to people who don’t know you yet and so being a little bit more present out there would help you solidify like here’s all the different things that I can see and and have perspective in and the right people are going to connect with you and then as you have connect as you have conversations with those connect CS you’re going to say oh my gosh yeah this this and it’s going to be clear like where’s the Blue Ocean like where’s the opportunity and right now I think it’s like you’re in your Silo and you’re just churning churning churning solo preneur and trying to unlock it where the unlock is probably being more public with your opinions and what you know and having the opportunities come to you that’s brilliant Jessica and I’m not going to lie I’m really you know happy to share that I hold back a lot on LinkedIn because I have something to say about everything in health and wellness space yeah um I I really do and it’s because I do see the population Health side of it right so I do have loud opinions I have not been expressing them so I’m going to take this is good feedback for me because you’re right I do need to say what I need to say and yeah and more open about it and and even if you don’t feel comfortable taking a extreme point of view you could share just a perspective that’s like if this happens here’s the trickle down of like that one thing happening in the industry because you with your years of perspective like you can see okay if we do this it’s going to impact this this this and this so you can almost be like here’s some watch outs or you can say like here’s news in the space or here’s here’s news in the health care space that people on the fitness side might not see there’s there’s ‘s a need for people like you who are almost translators between the two industries because the two industries have to talk better yeah yeah we’re not speaking the same language at all um for whatever reason but we need to be in order to truly help the end consumer which should be the end goal for both Industries whether it is or not like TBD but there’s there’s a need for people like you to sit in that space who can sit in the middle and say be a moderator be a mediator between the two sides like here’s where the opportunity is you’re perfectly positioned to be able to speak on that and then also consult on it but I think it’s unclear maybe to a potential business how you can best like help them so I think more content and then clean pitches of like what you bring to the table is a great way to just try to jump that that % to be more like % that is the goal well I was just going to say that I that it’s that it’s doable especially if you’re thinking of it in ways I will be fractional I will be here’s a here’s an offering that I have in my Consulting Services where I come into your business for three months I dig into your data I’ll leave you with this kind of deliverable I.E you know case study kind of results you probably have things you’ve built for them that like you know can be shared um but I think there needs to be a little bit more clarity as to like why why should someone work with you yeah I agree I know why but but but I think it’s for them to know exactly why and like what you bring to the table yeah I agree I I agree with you % but I think in the meantime like I love that that you do the speaking that you do and that you do the teaching that you do because you have to share that passion you have to scratch that itch and I think the industry needs needs people like you to kind of to lead the way in in that regard and and to do it for the right reasons and all the more reason to to share and be louder about what you believe in and and not just do it in your in your micro groups but really be louder about it I agree that was that’s called kickassery just kickassery it’s one of my words for I made it up I like it I think it’s important because I think sometimes you don’t see how how powerful your combination of different things is and where I have people who who talk to me about like what do I do in my career I’m like put a ven diagram together that overlaps as many things that you’re passionate in as possible and here you are you’ve done the ven diagram you overlap everything that you’re passionate about and you’re good at and and then you’re kind of like sitting in your ven diagram like what do I do it’s not clicking and I think it’s it’s a sales and marketing kind of problem like you know you can execute on it once you’re in the door so it’s really like how are you approaching the pitch how are you approaching selling yourself and it’s a really hard thing to do when you’re when you’re somebody who just like goes in and executes sometimes it’s difficult to take that step back and and Pitch it and say like here’s what I could bring to the table yeah that’s an interesting observation because it really is sales and marketing marketing particular is not my wheelhouse I had no problem though this is this was an interesting learning jumping into my own business full-time I had no problem representing the hospital as director of Wellness selling employer Wellness agreements for upwards of per anom by the time I left the system was a half million dollars on the book of business for wellness Department right I didn’t have a sales team it was just me I had Wellness coordinators but I believed in what I was sharing you have to take care of your employees and here’s why of course I had the legal system and compliance and marketing and everybody behind me to prod all the things I needed but the point is because I was passionate passionate about it and truly believed in it it could take one meeting it could take five it could take one year it could take three years to get it seated in a budget but eventually we took the step with the employers then when you start on your own you go through this whole thing of who am I what’s my brand it’s very different right and it’s much more vulnerable when you don’t have the organization wrapped around you it’s just you and that’s a challenge the marketing piece is a challenge for me I’m not going to lie it’s a lot to do as one person so and you’re you’re hitting the nail on the head these are real challenges for me yeah I mean it might be interesting and I would post this on Facebook probably because of your network but I would be more public about that challenge that you’re facing I am looking to grow my BB Consulting business in I’m terrible at pitching myself and marketing myself I am looking for someone to help me with my personal branding or or my business pitch and you because of the network you have will have a number of people who raise their hand and say I could do this for you very easily I could set up a sales funnel for you very easily I could create one sheeters for you very easily I could create a newsletter format for you very easily and then you take yourself out of the seat that you’re worst at and you let yourself sit in the seat that you’re best at now it’s going to be a matter of finding that right person who has the complimentary skill set to yours but I think to use your word like being vulnerable and putting yourself out there I’m sitting as a solo preneur I’m struggling like here’s the problem that I’m having I think you’ll find someone within your own network who would even as a side hustle help you do the things that you’re struggling with on that BB side and then the other sides can just stay like speaking can just sit teaching can just sit like everything else can just continue on as it is but where you need the traction is on that BB side and I would get some outside perspective going on it so that you can you can truly understand why it’s not unlocking right yeah that’s very helpful because those those things I don’t really care to do I I’ll gladly produce content all day long easy peasy and I love it but the Finesse of it and crms and all this stuff I put my corporate Wellness master class on kajabi I hired a consultant and just the process oh my gosh Jessica just the process of taking a lesson of minutes and putting it in eight modules and refilm it was the death of me it was so tedious worse than doing budgets like yeah yeah yeah and like I don’t like this I just I don’t like this at all well and and let’s take it out of take it out of your world and put it into entrepreneurship in general you start a business and you think you need to do all the things you think you need to be a solopreneur and and for me my sticking points are Financial things like accounting things organization and project management things but I am epic at like covering a lot of ground jumping all over the place bull in a China shopping my way through projects but then I need somebody on the on the complimentary side of me who’s like okay let’s Corral this like let’s keep it organized or let’s prioritize things so it’s it’s an exercise in in self-awareness I think you you have the self-awareness of like I I’ve been doing this for years I know exactly what I’m doing the self-awareness to say what I don’t do well is present my offering or present how I could be a solution and then raising your hand to your network and saying here’s what I need someone in your network is going to be able to help you and I have a few connections who might be able to help you also but but I don’t think you need a highle connection I think you could always have networking conversations with level but what you need is like in the nitty-gritty in the like automations in the you know kind of like somebody who’s going to be in the weeds with you and structure the weeds so that it makes sense and then you have your pipeline built and then you have your you know a couple different offerings you can send to people you have triggers that show you when those things have been downloaded like all of those kind of things that you don’t necessarily want to be bogged down with but you can get somebody to do those things yeah you’re exactly right that’s not stuff I care to spend time I have a website designer because I don’t I didn’t see myself taking hours to learn any web platform just you know so it you’re right it’s good awareness and leaning into strengths and not wasting time I’m I maybe too Focus I’m a Taskmaster too like maybe I’m too focused I know I am on the action things and I need to probably carve out more time with the planning some other things like that or or Outsource it you know if your brain isn’t naturally going there then it’s like find yeah find the partner who can who can be in that space where where your brain isn’t naturally going there so right yeah all right well you have your homework I do let’s reconnect we we’ll reconnect in a couple months and we’ll we’ll do a check-in and we’ll see where you’re at with things but I think you have a lot of options on the table I think you have full time options you have you know fractional options but you still have the Consulting option and I think it’s worth trying to hack at it structure it correctly and I think there’s the the potential for it to be that % that you’re looking for thank you stay tuned I appreciate you we hope you enjoyed this episode of the society pod