It has been a whirl wind of a week and I am finally sitting down to catch a breath! I was officially announced as Team Beachbody's Top Coach, we hosted Carl Daikeler CEO of Beachbody and 21 Day Fix Creator Autumn Calabrese in Pittsburgh on Friday night {pics to come} then Saturday I hosted a Dream Team Live Event {pics and recording to come} along with a Diamond dinner and a Dream Team Celebration Saturday night! I feel like we just hosted a mini Summit here in Pittsburgh! Then this morning, I was on the National Wake Up Call to share my Top Coach Story with the entire network of over 230,000 Team Beachbody Coaches! For the first time in national wake up call history I maxed out the lines with 2,000 people and the spill over line was created to allow for 2,000 more people! So I shared my journey and gave people some little inside nuggets of my mindset and tips that have helped me to achieve the success that I have in the 3 and a half years as a coach!
The recording is at the top and the questions are below!
1. Tell us about who you really are. (mom, wife, PTA, church, professional cheerleader for the Steelers) ie when I called to congratulate you , you were dropping off kids, doing laundry…all the glamour stuff.
I am a mom of 2 boys Landon and Bryce ages 5 and 4. I am married to my best friend Matt who I actually bought for $6 at a bachelor auction in college. I live in a small town called Mars just 20 minutes north of Pittsburgh. I have my masters degree in special education and an undergraduate degree in psychology. I am a Christian, I love my family and in my free time I really enjoy spending time with my kids, shopping and when I grow up I want to be a professional napper! LOL
My big dream in life was to get married, have kids and be a stay at home mommy. Never in a million years did I imagine my life taking this path.
I still to this day even with all this success still place my family as my #1 priority. Laundry, cooking, driving the kids to school and doing homework, playing leggos are still a huge important part of my life. I am just blessed to have this career as a coach to add a whole new level of positivity to our life.
2. How and why did you get started?
I got started 3.5 years ago as a challenger. I was really struggling to get the weight off after my second pregnancy and I was feeling very down on myself for the way that I looked. I felt guilty for being so hard on myself bc after all I was blessed with 2 happy babies. But the way I feel about myself actually determines my mood and my confidence. So I was truly at an all time low with my body image and confidence. My coach invited me to join a challenge group after I made a Facebook post about eating celery and trying to lose weight. She reached out to me to see if I wanted to join a challenge group. I had never heard of a challenge group before, beachbody or even shakeology. I agreed to join, borrowed Insanity from a friend and actually didn’t even drink shakeology the first 60 days.
But I was absolutely 100% committed to my results. I loved the entire idea of challenge groups and when my coach approached me about being a coach at first I said no, but she gave me a video to watch on what coaching was all about and the wheels started turning. I asked my husband if I could join as a coach and he quickly said no. He told me it was a waste of my time and money, it was a scam and that if I wanted a job then we would put our kids in daycare and I could go back to work. I will admit I was a little crushed but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I just had this feeling in my stomach that I could really do something big with this. I could make and run really awesome challenge groups and I wanted to help others feel the same way that i did.
So what I did was this. I saved up all of my birthday money that people have given me and I bought a bag of shakeology and paid the $40 coach sign up fee. I didn’t even tell Matt until a week later. When I did tell him that I signed up he said to me, I hope you enjoy that bag of shakeology bc that is the last one that you will get, don’t think you will get another one and you just wasted your money!
Honestly that was a little bit of motivation for me to prove him wrong. I honestly knew that I could do it! So I set out to start my first group which was actually a free clean eating support group.
3. As a new coach, what was your most daunting challenge? Rank, Inviting, rejection, focus etc.
As a new coach my most daunting challenge was establishing myself as a coach. I had less than 100 friends on Facebook, I wasn’t a health and fitness guru, I never even made status updates so it was weird for me to go from posting nothing to 3-5 times a day with selfies, motivational quotes, recipes and more. People really gave me push back with what I was doing. I was literally starting from ground zero and building trust and credibility. That was hard!
There were days when I would get zero likes on my posts, when people would tell me they were going to block me bc I was posting to much, and when everyone I invited gave me the price objection. It was like one door after the next was closing. I didn’t even hit success club my first month as a coach. So there were a lot of cards stacked against me.
4. How did you overcome it?
I overcame these challenges by telling myself that I am not hurting anyone by sharing my motivation, my recipes and my journey. If I can make an impact on one persons life then I am doing my job! I am not selling them a product that doesn’t work, I am not scamming or ripping people off. I truly am committed to each person that joins my group to get them the very best results possible. So I had to grow some thick skin. Also, I had to educate myself on the products and programs and learn how to handle those objections. I overcame this by inviting more, by using my blog as a way to teach people how to make better choices, the importance of shakeology, what a challenge group was, to share my progress in my fitness journey and to empower people to take control of their lives. I overcame these obstacles by daily personal development. I started with the slight edge by Jeff Olsen. I plugged into every national wake up call, every team call and joined any groups that I could to give myself more knowledge and confidence. I knew that I had something great and I just believed that I was going to be successful no matter how long it took. Quitting just wasn’t an option. It wasn’t about the money, it was about seeing my customers succeed. That is what kept pushing me forward in that first 6-9 months when I was really establishing myself.
5. Was there a “moment of truth,” a go/no go moment in your business that you had? What created that moment and how did you meet it?
I know there were a few moments in my business that were turning points for me. I would say the first one was when Lindsay Matway asked me to be on her cup team in my first 6 months as a coach. I said yes, but inside I was completely freaked out! It was in January of 2012 and for the entire month of December all I could think about was how in the heck was I going to hold my own. I had to cap out in points and I needed a strategy. I remember brainstorming ideas and getting a game plan in place and when January 1st happened I completely tore it up, I capped out on points, I went diamond and I proved to myself that I could invite more, I could step up my game and earn a lot of success club points and that this was my moment of truth. I could do anything I put my mind too!
Another moment for me was missing the deadline for the leadership retreat in 2012. I missed 2 star by a few weeks and I really took that hard. I remember that morning watching people sign up for the trip and I felt like I deserved it way more than they did. I felt like I was working hard, but I had this moment where I said to myself, NO, you are exactly where you are supposed to be right now bc of your hard work and effort. If you want more you gotta do more. Nothing in life is handed to you, you have to earn it! From that point forward I vowed never to miss another event. It was truly game face on from that point forward. That’s when the momentum began bc I started to plan ahead, think about the future and backwards chain my actions to reach my goals.
6. For a newer coach, what are most leveraged activities?
My most leveraged activities as a new coach were this. Posting 3-5 times a day my workouts, motivation, nutrition, and tips.
Always starting a challenge group every month and inviting to it.
Personal development bc its easy to get down on yourself when you aren’t seeing results right away. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme. It takes time to build relationships and personal development helped me see the bigger picture.
Events- attending events like super saturday, the beachbody challenge group trainings, getting together with my upline or local coaches to mastermind, getting on the national wake up call/team calls.
Being a product of the product- I created credibility bc I was living proof that you could do it, that it worked and that you never want to give up. That is what made all those no’s or no not right now people come back around. I was always there posting, working out, drinking my shakeology and I never gave up.
And the really really big one is hitting success club every single month! I made it non negotiable. It was just not a question in my mind and if it meant that I was down to the last day of the month with only 2 points, I wasn’t stopping until I had 5. If you are going for elite, top 10 or top coach then its at least SC10 every month no matter what.
7. What are the activities that time wasters and nonproductive that you see new coaches engage in?
Scrolling through the newsfeed. I actually don’t open my computer until I have my to do list ready and I have a plan of action. At the end of my to do list then I allow myself 5 minutes to scroll mindlessly.
Leaving on your notifications. It is extremely distracting
Feeling like everything has to be perfect before you start. Just jump and take that leap of faith and build your wings on the way down. Honestly, I didn’t have everything perfect before I invited or started my first challenge group. I didn’t have my blog perfect before I made my first post. I just did it, I learned as I went and I knew that it was more important to get content out there right away than wait until it was perfect.
8. To earn meaningful rewards it takes meaningful effort. How would describe what that effort looks like so a new coach knows what it really takes and looks like.
So sometimes I think we as coaches paint this picture that it is really easy to be successful as a coach and that it is all fun and games. Of course it is really fun and I enjoy every minute of it, I worked very hard and with a specific purpose to get here.
When you say meaningful effort I think about a few things.
#1 You are proactive vs reactive. You don’t live day to day but you think about how your decisions today will affect the long term plan. You look ahead to what obstacles you could face and you develop a strategy to overcome it ahead of time.
It means sacrifices. I gave up a few things along the way. And my thought process was this. “I am willing to delay instant gratification for long term success” I will do today what others are not willing to do so that tomorrow I can have what others wish they could have.
It meant giving up my evening TV time to engage with challengers, invite and follow up. It meant getting up earlier before my kids woke up so that I could I get in my power hours so I didn’t interfere with their time. I sacrificed myself my sleep my free time to build my business so that I could still have balance with my family.
It meant persistence in the face of failure. Vision for your dreams. It means that no matter how long it takes to achieve a goal you know without a shadow of a doubt you will get there. Its doing your best to put your blinders on and not compare yourself to others. When you start to get distracted by someone else’s seemingly fast growing success or income its easy to get discouraged. But remember their journey is not yours. You are moving at a pace that is unique to you, that you can handle and you don’t know what their lives are like. But just because someone else is climbing faster doesn’t mean you won’t get to the level of success that you want. Just don’t even let yourself go there! Focus your energy on the positive and banish the negative from your life.
Each day you post, share and lead with purpose! You really put thought into what you do with your challengers and your team and you always always lead with your teams best interest, their goals and not your OWN agenda. If you put the needs of your team first you will create systems to help them succeed, you will deliver calls that make them feel more empowered and in turn their success ultimately leads to you reaching your goals to! But it creates a sense of teamwork, community and mutual respect bc your team knows that you are willing to do whatever it takes to help them succeed!
I am very consisted with my team calls, my coach apprenticeship groups, my challenge groups and even if everyone else bails on me I am still the one that is posting til the end bc I want to set that example that even if everyone else quits on me, Im not quitting on them!
9. What tools do you find most effective?
The tools that I have found to be the most successful have been the business activity tracker, the coach basics, emerald to diamond and the corporate events that this company provides.
10. How did you scale yourself?
When it comes to scaling yourself I always remember that it didn’t happen over night. This entire process was a 3 and a half year growing process. And as my business grew I readjusted my priorities, where I spent my time and I was able to afford to have some help with my boys so that I can devote working hours to my business. So this process has grown along with me and I am really cognizant of where I spend my time and my teams needs and I do the best that I can to listen and prioritize what is most important.
11. New Year, new opportunities. How do you break it up to make doable? Especially for a new coach.
I still focus on the basics, getting new coaches started right. Hitting success club in your first month, running your first challenge group either solo or pair up with your sponsor coach. And keep it simple. Don’t let all the things that you can do cloud the really important foundational skills of establishing credibility and developing relationships.
12. Favorite part of what you do?
My favorite part of what I do is training my new coaches, my leaders and developing my team so that they can grow their wings and lead their own teams with confidence and with success! That is the best feeling in the world.
13. You’re a pretty down to earth, practical type of person. But you msut have treated yourself in some extravagant way. What is it? Guilty pleasure?
This is very true, matt and I are very practical. Ok so the thing this year that we have treated ourselves to is this. We paid for both of our kids college educations this year by investing in an account for them. So that was pretty extravagant for us. We re-did our entire kitchen which was a huge project but as far as personally goes, I’m just thankful to have the opportunity to live life without worrying about finances and paying the bills.
14. How has it impacted an “everyday ordinary mom and wife from Pittsburgh.
I still feel very ordinary and normal. I still feel the same as I did 3.5 years ago, the only difference is that I realize that anyone, I mean anyone can achieve this type of success if you have the passion, determination, consistency and drive. I feel very blessed by the opportunity to impact in a positive way so many lives. And its really cool to be a part of something that I know my kids will be proud of me for.
15. Coaches who are wondering should I, Can I, will it be worth it? What would you say?
I say this, is it worth the sacrifice to you. If you don’t do it you will always wonder if you could do it.
Is it worth the short term sacrifice so that in a few years you can have the freedom to do the things you once only dreamed of.
It’s all about the sacrifice and how big are your goals. Do they drive you enough to keep going when its hard, when you don’t want to and it would be easier to give up. Do you feel that the bigger picture is worth it. Think about every single successful person in this world. They have failed so many times that its almost hard to imagine that they eventually became successful.
It takes work, commitment and dedication. In this life, if you want it you have to go after it with purpose, strategy and determination no matter what!
If you want it, you will find a way! If it means more to you than the short term instant gratification of a TV show or extra hour of sleep then you will do whatever it takes. At the end of the day you don't want to wonder if you could have done it any better! Give it your very best effort and you will be rewarded greatly!!!!
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Labels: Dream Team, Elite 10, Elite Coach, melanie mitro, National Wake Up Call, Pittsburgh Coach, Success Tips, Successful Beachbody Coach, Top 10, Top Coach
