Nicole Aucoin (00:04):
Welcome back to the Grow Your Nutrition Business Podcast. At Healthy Steps Nutrition, we believe something as fundamental as nutrition shouldn’t be complicated, which is why we focus on a simple habit-based approach when working with clients. We help gym owners and coaches build successful nutrition programs without reinventing the wheel. I’m your host, Nicole Aucoin, registered dietitian and founder of Healthy Steps Nutrition, CrossFit HSN, and HSN Mentoring. I’m also the author of the Basics of Nutrition Coaching, CrossFit Preferred Nutrition Course. I am going to teach you how to take one step at a time to build a successful nutrition program where you finally feel confident talking to your members about nutrition.

Nicole Aucoin (00:53):
Let’s get to today’s episode. According to the US Bureau for Labor statistics, about 20% of US small businesses fail within the first year. By the end of the fifth year, roughly 50% have failed. And after 10 years, only one third of businesses survive. People love the product of being an entrepreneur and having a successful business, but they don’t love the process. I’m not here to tell you that scaling a business is as simple as these three things. In fact, it’s not at all an overnight success. It literally takes people years and years. But instead of 30 years that it might take, it might only take 10 if you truly listen and absorb everything that we’re talking about today.

Nicole Aucoin (01:47):
In this episode, Ashley, our Director of Nutrition Education at HSN Mentoring and Healthy Steps Nutrition, and I discuss three secrets to scaling a business. At the end of this episode, I will give you three of my top business resources that I’ve used to scale my business and I know will help you too. We will get to this episode on scaling your business right after this message.

Nicole Aucoin (02:12):
Did you know the HSN Mentoring is hosting a live in-person workshop to help you work on your business instead of always working in your business? I’ve personally been doing these for years with my mentors and I absolutely love them. We’ve been hosting HSN Mentoring live events for the past few years, and it’s been really fun. But this year we are expanding it and hosting a two day event. Here’s a few of the high level overview details. The event will take place in Naples, Florida, on July 10th and 11th. There will be two tracks, one for business owners and one for nutrition coaches. If you wear both of those hats, awesome. You can bounce back and forth between the two different presentations going on. The theme for this year is building a resilient business. I think we all learned in 2020 that we need to have more diversified revenue streams and we have to get creative to scale our business. This year, at HSN Mentoring workshop, we are talking all about it.

Nicole Aucoin (03:16):
Here are some of the topics that we’ll be discussing. On the owner’s track, building an incredible team, strategic planning, effective communication, how to scale your business using partnerships and corporate wellness. When I look at gems who bring in six plus figures with nutrition only, corporate wellness and partnerships are a huge part of their programs. On the coaches track, led by Ashley and some of our other team of dieticians, they will be talking about increasing retention through engagement, performance nutrition, motivational interviewing, increasing your virtual presence and really just providing a world class experience for your nutrition clients.

Nicole Aucoin (03:56):
We are so excited to do this awesome event. It’s really going to be run like my mentor, Michael Hyatt, runs his intensive events. We’ll talk about a subject, then we’ll give you time to work on it and create your action plan. Lastly, you’ll get in a group and share ideas, best practices and walk through the how. Think sometimes of these conference events. It’s like a fire hose. You learnt so much information, but then when it comes back to going into the whirlwind, going into your business, you don’t actually take action. And that is not what we are about at Healthy Steps Nutrition.

Nicole Aucoin (04:32):
We want you to take action, so we are going to give you a step-by-step process on how to do that and actually implement these ideas to help you build a resilient business. Click the link in the bio and lock in your spot today. We’re only selling 200 tickets to this event, so we would love to see you there. Lock in your spot today by clicking the link in the show notes. All right, enjoy this episode on scaling your business with Ashley and I.

Nicole Aucoin (05:02):
Ashley Osterman, welcome back to the Grow Your Nutrition Business Podcast.

Ashley Osterman (05:07):
Thanks, Nicole. Always a pleasure to be on.

Nicole Aucoin (05:09):
All right. Today, I’m talking about three secrets to scaling your business. And I think when we all open up a business, we’re super excited and we think, oh my gosh, we’re going to be a millionaire. There is a lot of work that goes into building a business that you don’t necessarily realize.

Ashley Osterman (05:28):
Yeah, a lot of hard work and a lot of being very intentional regarding your marketing, your launch plan. You have three secrets to scaling and growing a wildly successful nutrition coaching business.

Nicole Aucoin (05:43):
In gym, right? I think a lot of times as entrepreneurs, we get really excited with new things. I know there’s lots of different types of people out there. I personally get super excited with all the new things. Sometimes what happens is when you get excited, you end up dropping something else and it never actually gets done. If things never get finished, then it’s going to be a very frustrating situation. You’re constantly just spinning your wheels but you’re not actually seeing the progress. Let’s talk about this first one. I think it is the foundation and it is so, so important and it really is staying focused on your vision and your why. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into building a business, but it’s if you don’t have a vision of where you want this business to go and you don’t really know why you want to get there, the ups and downs are going to be tough.

Ashley Osterman (06:34):
Yeah, Nicole, I agree. Why is this important? Why is it so important to stay focused on your vision and your why?

Nicole Aucoin (06:42):
I think a lot of times you can get distracted by a lot of different things and you end up not doing or seeing things completely to the fruition or not seeing the growth that you want, and it’s frustrating. There’s a reason why a vast majority of businesses fail within five years, like a vast majority. And it’s because sometimes you’re not intentional. I heard this quote from our pastor recently and she said, the clear the vision, the fewer the options, the easier the decisions. Let me repeat that. The clearer your vision, the fewer the options, the easier the decisions. Let’s break this down. If you have a vision, like let’s say one of our visions for HSN Mentoring is increase the engagement that we have with gym owners. One of the things that we have done is release this owner’s mastermind project, a monthly meeting for gym owners to connect with each other and interact with some of the other leaders in the fitness industry and other members of HSN Mentoring.

Nicole Aucoin (07:51):
I am intentional with what we do to increase engagement with gym owners, because I know that when gym owners are engaged, they’re going to have better success with our nutrition programs. And if they don’t, they don’t. I think it really comes down to what is your vision for your business and what are you doing every day to help get closer to reaching that goal and that vision. And when you think about what that quote is, if you are super clear with your vision, there’s a lot of different options, but most of them are actually getting you closer to that vision. And if it’s not, if it’s an option that’s not getting you closer to your vision and reaching your goals, then it’s an easy decision. Like, yes, this is an awesome, bright and shiny object, but it is not going to help me get to where I want to be.

Ashley Osterman (08:41):
Yes. And you don’t get distracted by all those bright and shiny things because they don’t necessarily relate back to your vision, aren’t supporting your why and the goal of your business.

Nicole Aucoin (08:54):
And I think if you want to scale your business, it really comes down and starts with your why. What are you doing and why are you doing it? Because it’s tough and it’s hard. But if you don’t have your why, if it’s not like really nailed down into what is the core of your business, what problem are you solving and why are you so passionate about solving it, every decision you make is going to be tough because you’re not going to know where are you even going?

Ashley Osterman (09:21):
Nicole, one thing that we do in HSN Mentoring and our team of our awesome, awesome staff, one thing that you started with us and it really just comes right back full circle to this is our big three.

Nicole Aucoin (09:33):
Yeah. So that actually I learned from one of my mentors, Michael Hyatt. I think a lot of times as business owners, we have so many goals, like so many different things we want to accomplish and it can be super overwhelming. When you have these goals and you have these things, this never ending to do list and it never gets done, you feel like a failure honestly.

Ashley Osterman (09:55):
Yeah, of course.

Nicole Aucoin (09:55):
You just feel like, okay, I’m not getting anything done. What did I even do today? I’m sure we’ve all had those feelings. I remember having to do lists that were so long and it was just like I could never catch up. And as a business owner, as a coach, like you even in your position with us, like the work is never ending. There’s always something that you can do. But if you focus on all of the things, it’s going to be really overwhelming and your productivity is actually going to go down, versus if you just focus on three things that you’re going to get done, what does success look like? Moving the needle forward in your big three, then it’s going to help you be more productive.

Nicole Aucoin (10:32):
Now, one of the things that we do as a company, you and I really, and Lindsay and some of our core senior team sit down to do at the end of every year is map out what is the big three for the business of the year. And then from there, what are the things that we want to do each quarter. Then what are we doing each month? What are we doing each week? And then what are we doing each day? And everyone in the company knows what our big three is, because everything everyone is doing goes back to those big three.

Ashley Osterman (11:03):
Always goes back to that big three. And those big three always go back to the vision and the why.

Nicole Aucoin (11:08):
One of the things that we want to do is empower confident coaches. That goes to our mission statement. Like we want to empower confident coaches. And your role in the company is specifically making resources and tools in simple trainings to help coaches feel more confident.

Ashley Osterman (11:25):
Yeah. I am just so passionate about helping people and empowering other coaches to be confident so they can truly see how many people they can help as well too. And one thing that we always talk about with our coaches and being confident is, again, bringing it back to the why and the vision. Speaking from experience, actually taking the time in practicing what you preach is so important and it really helps you to be relatable.

Nicole Aucoin (11:52):
John Maxwell, I’ve read a bunch of his books and I listen to some of the different trainings that he’s put out. One of the things he said is everything rises and falls on leadership. There’s a lot of different statistics, but one of those statistics says that the lack of communication from leaders is the demise of employees and companies.

Ashley Osterman (12:12):
Oh yeah. I’ve experienced that firsthand.

Nicole Aucoin (12:15):
And it comes down to your role as a leader and a business owner is to communicate with your staff. How often are you meeting with your staff? I mean, Ashley, you and I meet at least twice a week if not more than that. You’re in my office right now, but we meet through Zoom most of the time. It’s just to make sure like, okay, what do you need from me? What do I need from you? Are we on the same page and are we communicating with what we’re doing to go back to our big three?

Ashley Osterman (12:43):
Yes, absolutely. And it’s so important, and you’re right. Lack of communication is really setting businesses up for downfall. And it really does rise and fall on the leader. It starts at the top. Having that clear connection with the vision and have it consistently. Every single staff meeting that we do at HSN HQ starts off with our mission and vision statement. Every single staff meeting that we have at HSN Mentoring starts off with our mission and vision statement. Every single training that we do with our mentoring clients, we start off talking about our mission and vision statement and how that relates back to what we’re doing.

Nicole Aucoin (13:22):
I think that’s so important because if you have employees that don’t know the goal and the vision of your company, they’re not going to be as bought in. But if they know and they are bought in, they’re involved in those conversations, you’re going to build employees that are going to last so much longer, be more productive and really just be all in with how you are doing your business.

Ashley Osterman (13:43):
Yeah. It really does increase that buy-in.

Nicole Aucoin (13:45):
It has to be a two way conversation though. There are times where I come up with idea and you’re like, Nicole, I don’t know about that. Melinda is the best at it. If she says, “Hey, can we jump on a call?” I know in her mind that means, Nicole, this is not a good idea and we should not do it. In that spine, I think that’s important because they’re seeing things. You guys are seeing things that I’m not seeing. We all have blind spots, but it’s important that we’re all on the same page with what is the big goal and the vision that we want to accomplish. I think we’ve nailed this one down. Like you need a vision. If you don’t know what you’re doing or where you’re going, please pause this podcast and figure that out and really get down to the why. And when you’re asking why, you have to ask it a few times to really understand like, why do you want to help people? Why are you solving this problem? And what is your legacy at the end of the day?

Ashley Osterman (14:34):
Yeah. Also too, what does your perfect day look like? I think that’s so important as well.

Nicole Aucoin (14:40):
Absolutely. I think it’s interesting because there are things that we’re good at and that we love doing, and those are the things that we should hold onto closely. And then there’s things on the opposite end that we’re not good at and we don’t love doing and we get those things as far away as possible as soon as we can hire someone. It really goes into the next section and like tip number two, secret number two for scaling your business, you have to hire the right people.

Ashley Osterman (15:07):
Yeah. You definitely need to have a team that is going to help support you and be a good fit for that position. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to gym owners or had nutrition coaches and hear the struggle about hiring somebody who turned out not to be a good fit.

Nicole Aucoin (15:25):
I think it’s interesting, and this can really relate to any type of solopreneur, anyone, because there are only so many hats that you can wear and if you make a list, and I would challenge everyone to make a list of, okay, what are the things that you love and you’re really good at; what are the things that you maybe are okay at and you love or that you are not good at and you need to do, okay, that’s the middle column; and then the last column is like what are you not good at and you don’t love, and those things, you should get rid of off of your plate immediately. We just did a podcast with John Briggs and he was talking about hiring people and looking at the financial impact of if you hired someone for $10 an hour to do X, or $15 an hour to do X job, what can you do with that time and can you make that money back? Absolutely.

Nicole Aucoin (16:20):
But at the end of the day, it’s decreasing your burnout. If you’re always doing things that you don’t love doing, as a business owner, we have to do things we don’t love, but at some point, hopefully our goal is to get rid of those things that you don’t love so that you don’t get burnt out. Because at the end of the day, there are so many people that need help and we’re in such an amazing field to truly transform someone’s life. You have to figure out how to scale your business, and it really comes down to having the right people that are truly bought in.

Nicole Aucoin (16:45):
Ashley, we are so intentional with hiring people, and it’s not easy to get hired at Healthy Steps Nutrition HQ. In fact, you have multiple interviews. We want to meet you. We want references. We want all of the things, because I want to ensure you’re going to be a good fit because culture is so important. And if you hire the wrong person, your culture could change really quickly.

Ashley Osterman (17:05):
Yeah. And also you don’t want to go through that unfortunate series of events hiring and training and investing all of your time and effort to turn out that that person’s not a good fit and they leave. That’s such a waste of your time and something that you could allocate differently. Nicole, we recently did a podcast, I believe it’s episode 64, on how to find a great nutrition coach. One of the things that we talked about is what key characteristics does a good nutrition coach have. And this can go for any type of a position. Listing out and identifying the key characteristics that you want that potential candidate to have, and then have a process for hiring.

Nicole Aucoin (17:43):
We have an open application. We have a Google form, actually, that’s on our website where we’re constantly collecting resumes. So before we even post a position, I’m going to that master list of like, who’s applied, who’s interested in our company, and are there any matches there? And then from there I’m looking at their social media. Do they actually walk the walk or are they living out a life of not someone I would want to work in our company. It’s awesome for business owners right now with social media, because you can easily see what someone is like through what they post on social media. Someone’s posting a bunch of curse words or provocative photos or something that’s not in line with the vision of our company, they’re not even going to get a response to the application.

Nicole Aucoin (18:27):
But if they are, then you know what, I think it deserves a conversation and we have multiple stages of interviewing to ensure that they’re a good fit, and then there’s a training process. But at the end of the day, you have to lay out the expectations of what you want, what success looks like for you, and ensure that matches with the person that you are going to hire. So yes, that episode 64 on hire to hire a great nutrition coaches is awesome. But if you’re looking at entrepreneurs and like solopreneurs, what are some things that you might want to hire for first?

Nicole Aucoin (19:02):
One of the things that I did was hire an accountant. That was the first thing that I did because I hate numbers. I hate managing financials. I want to help as many people and we’ll make the money, pay our bills. I don’t want to have to deal with taxes or anything to do with that. So hiring an accountant was on my I do not love it and I stink at it really bad. Listen, let’s get that off the list right away.

Nicole Aucoin (19:24):
Cleaning. I don’t like scrubbing the bathrooms. I don’t like doing that stuff. I don’t like cleaning the floors. Let’s hire someone to get that done. Like that’s time that I could be spending talking to other people or getting our message out and helping more people. Let’s figure out where is your time best spent.

Ashley Osterman (19:44):
And to do that, you need to make that list, like you were talking about, and clearly define what you love doing, what you’re good at, and what you can kind of take off your plate and looking at hiring somebody to take that, and then making a list of those qualifications. How do you want the candidates to fall in line with your philosophy, your vision, and then making sure you have a process, a hiring process, for your internal applicants?

Nicole Aucoin (20:06):
I think in a gym setting when adding nutrition coaches specifically, you have to have systems and standard operating procedures for your gym with your nutrition program, because do you want it to be a consistent experience? That’s really, really important. Setting expectations, and I think one thing that you do really well, Ashley, is when we bring someone new on board, you are holding their hand, even if it’s virtually, every step of the way. And I think that’s an important thing. You hire someone, that doesn’t mean, oh great, this job is done and I can move on now. Your work is just getting started when you hire someone to ensure that you don’t have more work later. And what I mean is you need to make sure that you’re following up with someone. You’re setting regular meetings up, you’re setting expectations so that things are getting done and they feel supported so that they’re more bought into your company.

Ashley Osterman (20:54):
Yep. And in my experience, the more you invest your time at the beginning, the less you have to invest your time later on down the line.

Nicole Aucoin (21:01):
It’s so much easier to set expectations early and have those tough conversations up front than like one month, three months, a year down the road saying like, “All right. Now I’ve hit my threshold and I’m really upset with you. Let’s hash it out.” I think having those self conversations is your responsibility as a business owner. You have to. And trust me, they’re not easy. I have lost sleep. I have cried after conversations years ago. Like there has been things that have happened that have not been easy, but it’s my responsibility. And going back to my vision, if I want certain things for our company, I need the right people on the bus.

Nicole Aucoin (21:40):
There was a book, Jason and I had some struggles with one of our employees years ago. We were talking to our pastor about it and he’s like, “You need to read the book, Necessary Endings.” I read it and I was like, man, that is a really good book. Sometimes we keep people on, or we appoint people to positions because they’re really close to us. I think probably every person on this podcast who’s a business owner can say like, yep, we’ve done that. But sometimes they’re not the right fit. Instead of holding on to people longer than necessary, maybe they’re not happy but they don’t want to leave you too and sometimes those necessary endings are better for both people. So the real conversations having those, I would recommend listening to that book on audible or reading it, Necessary Endings. That was a really good book.

Nicole Aucoin (22:31):
But I think it’s important to understand who are the people, hiring the right people, ensuring that you’re building a culture that’s a feedback. I mean, we have conversations with employees every single month and ask them, what are you loving? What are you not loving? What opportunities do you see that I don’t see? As a business owner, you’re not in every single class. You’re not in front of every single client. You’re not hearing every single problem, but what are the opportunities for growth that you see that I don’t see. And from there you need to filter, go back to step number one, does that opportunity align with your vision and your why? And if it’s a yes, awesome, great. If it’s a no, then explain to the person why it’s not in line with the vision you want for your company instead of just saying, “Oh yeah, we’re not going to do that.” Let’s talk about it. Let’s make sure that we’re on the same page with where we want this company to go.

Ashley Osterman (23:26):
Absolutely. Nicole, I know we have improved so many processes, developed so many awesome supporting resources and had so many great partnerships because of that feedback that we’ve gotten from our team asking what opportunities that they’ve seen. But on the same page, there are some that we are like, “Okay, great, thanks for sharing but that doesn’t align. Here’s why. We appreciate your feedback.” That open communication is just so, so important as a business owner, especially if you want to scale your business.

Nicole Aucoin (23:57):
I love it. All right. If you’re looking to hire a nutrition coach, go listen to that episode, episode number 64. I think that’s a great one. But also think about the other options, the other places where you could have some support to better your client experience and increase retention and take some things off of your plate that you don’t necessarily need to have on your plate.

Ashley Osterman (24:20):
Yeah. It’s a great thing to think about. I love your ideas about the accountant and cleaner, things that you could easily find someone else to do while focusing on what you need to focus to scale your business.

Nicole Aucoin (24:31):
All right. Number three, and probably my favorite, is having a growth mindset.

Ashley Osterman (24:36):
A growth mindset is my favorite internal soft skill. If you don’t know what I’m talking about with soft skills, we have awesome podcasts about that as well. But growth mindset is an internal soft skill. What that means, it’s one of the skills you have internally to better yourself in your relationships. This mindset was actually discovered by Carol Dweck in her research about traits of achieving and successful people. She found that people have different mindsets, a fixed versus a growth mindset. There are lots of examples of different mindsets, but the fixed versus growth has been particularly breakthrough for people living in today’s rapidly changing and highly complex world.

Ashley Osterman (25:22):
So let’s talk about this. A person with a fixed mindset believes that people have fixed traits, similar to a scarcity mindset, versus a person with a growth mindset believes that traits can be changed and developed by working on them. So in other words, traits are abundant. You just have to be intentional on developing and working your traits. A fixed mindset sees the world as an either or perspective, like you have one choice or the other, whereas a growth mindset sees the world as a both and and. There are infinite choices for you. Lastly, a fixed mindset sees mistakes as failures while a growth mindset sees them as opportunities for learning.

Nicole Aucoin (26:09):
There’s no blueprint for business owners of like this is exactly what you need to do and every situation that you’ll ever have to deal with, here’s the answer. We’ve all made a lot of decisions that we look back and we’re like, “Ah, that probably wasn’t the best decision.” But hopefully no one died in the mix of that decision. Maybe you’ve lost some money. I have lost thousands and thousands of dollars in mistakes that I’ve made for sure. But you know what? I promise you I won’t make them again. I promise you that I learned like, okay, what can we do better? And anytime something happens, you should look at, all right, what communication failed on your part to make that happen? What did you do and what could you improve to ensure it doesn’t happen?

Nicole Aucoin (26:56):
Even if it has nothing to do with you, were the expectation set? Did your coach have all of the tools and necessary skills that they needed to handle that situation the way that you wanted it handled? But I also think when you are scaling your business, people are not you. They’re not going to do everything the exact way that you did it. So understanding, hey Ashley, you and I are pretty much on the same page with everything, but there are some things in the past where you’ve done and I was like, “Hmm. Different idea. I wouldn’t have done it that way. But you know what, it ended up working out better and that’s awesome.” And sometimes other things have happened in the past where it’s like, “Oh, it didn’t work out the best. What could we do again?”

Nicole Aucoin (27:36):
And I always ask employees, when a situation happens and I’m like, okay, well that wasn’t the best outcome, what would you have done differently? And then you sit there and you let them respond, because then how they respond to that question lets me know like, do they have a growth mindset or are they just going to point the finger on, well, you should have done this differently. You should have done that differently. If someone’s always pointing the finger at you or someone else, they don’t have a growth mindset. Like let’s own up to our mistakes. We’re all human. We’re all imperfect. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and plenty of things I look back and I’m like, okay, I handled that situation poorly, and a lot of times it comes with reacting instead of thinking about how could I do it better.

Ashley Osterman (28:19):
Right. Sometimes things happen and we do react and that’s okay. Can we own up to it? “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have reacted like that. I needed to take the time to process. And moving forward, here’s what we can do better. How would you recommend we could do something better?” So we know that a growth mindset is so important, but how do we apply having a growth mindset as a business owner to scaling our business?

Nicole Aucoin (28:43):
I think the first thing that you have to understand is like there’s not a blueprint for exactly what you need to do and you need to associate yourself with people who have been where you are.

Ashley Osterman (28:55):
Yes. That’s so important.

Nicole Aucoin (28:58):
I think the number one thing you can do to help your business is to invest in a mentor. Whether it’s us with HSN Mentoring or another mentor who’s been there and done that and understands and have made a ton of mistakes and wants to help others, I think that’s such an important aspect. And when I look at how we’ve been able to scale to over a million dollar business in a few years, it is because I’ve surrounded myself with people that are way smarter than me and I ask a ton of questions because I want to learn and not make mistakes.

Ashley Osterman (29:32):
Yes. I love that. You want to bring people closer to you who have been where you are or are where you want to go. And I think also having people around you who genuinely care and support you.

Nicole Aucoin (29:46):
I think that’s a huge thing. When we look at support system, and this is the thing we talk about with nutrition coaches, like you need to help your clients identify who their support system is. It goes the same way with your business and in any aspect of life, honestly. Like for me personally, a big aspect of what I wanted to accomplish this year was getting a little bit closer with my faith and spiritual growth. Guess who I work out with every morning at 7:00 AM? My pastor. Guess who I meet with regularly? My pastor. I want to be better in that area, and she is the best person I know to help me get better. Like surround yourself with people who are going to be a positive influence on you.

Nicole Aucoin (30:27):
I read a statistic and it said 95% of your success or failure has to do with who you associate with. Think about that. 95%. And we wonder why such a high percentage of businesses fail? It’s because people don’t ask for help. They don’t surround themselves by other people who are doing really well who have been there and can help save them a lot of time and money from mistakes, because it’s so easy to make mistakes. As a business owner, you don’t know what you’re doing. Like I get it.

Ashley Osterman (31:00):
Nicole, you say something quite often that really always resonates with me too about growing your business, is you have to take time to work on your business outside of your business.

Nicole Aucoin (31:13):
I’ve hired multiple mentors and I’ve actually had three different mentors that I’ve had for multiple years. So I have three different mentors that are multimillion dollar businesses that really help me make decisions that I need to make, and I like different perspectives. But one of the things that when I have the mentors, and I do, is I have an intensive every quarter. So I leave my office and I go to Nashville and I sit down for a day and I talk with my mentor and I learn different things and I talk with other successful business owners and figure out, what am I doing now and where do I want to, based on the vision that I have, based on the why that I have, where are my next steps? There are so many different steps you can take, but if you’re not working on your business and you’re always working in your business, you’re never going to grow.

Ashley Osterman (32:03):
Sometimes you really need to step out and have an outside perspective and hear from those people who have been where you’ve been or where you want to be, who you aspire to be like. And I think that’s really important, and honestly, something that’s missed by a lot of business owners.

Nicole Aucoin (32:19):
I think sometimes you think like, oh, I can save money if I do it myself, right? I can tell you I’ve literally thought that. I made a website, the first Healthy Steps Nutrition website, I made it. I don’t even want to think back to how many countless hours I spent on making that website. It was terrible. It’s been redone four times since then. But I spent so much time because I didn’t have the money and I didn’t want to hire someone else, when in reality, if I would’ve hired someone else, I could’ve made that money in two clients and had a ton more time on my hands. So you really have to think about what are you good at? What do you love? Keep those things close to you, and what are the other things that you need to push away from.

Nicole Aucoin (33:04):
Ashley, we talked about three really big things today. The first one is staying focused on your vision and your why. The second one is finding a tribe and hiring a tribe of people, the right people, to be on your team, And the third one, having a growth mindset. We talked about you have to work on your business, not just in your business every day. And one of my favorite weekends that we do for gym owners and coaches is a live workshop.

Ashley Osterman (33:28):
Oh, I’m so excited for this year’s live workshop.

Nicole Aucoin (33:31):
This year, we are hosting an in-person event. It is in Naples, Florida, and we are going to have so much fun. We expect over 200 gym owners and coaches to be there. We’ve already started selling tickets and I would expect we’re sold out in the very near future. Basically it’s going to be two days and it’s set up exactly the way my mentor set up our intensives. There’s going to be a presentation. There’s going to be some time to work on things, and then there’s going to be a breakout where you’re talking with the experts in helping you really create a plan.

Nicole Aucoin (34:05):
So many times you go to these conferences and it’s like a fire hose of information and you leave with this fire hose, but you never actually create a plan to implement it to scale your business. That is the exact opposite of what we want for this event. But really the cool thing is going to be it’s on the beach. We have a reggae band. We have so much time to network and connect and just be in person with other thought leaders in fitness and nutrition business industry leaders.

Ashley Osterman (34:33):
Yeah, I’m so excited. And Nicole, when is this taking place?

Nicole Aucoin (34:36):
July 10th and 11th. And it is in Naples, Florida. You can grab a ticket if you go to growyournutritionbusiness.com. If you look on our main header, there’s live workshop. You can grab your ticket on that page. We hopefully will see more and more of you in person in July in Naples, Florida. Ashley, thank you for talking today all about three secrets to scaling your business. I feel like even with a business degree, these things are not talked about enough and it really holds people back from been able to build the business they want, help them out of people they want and really build a fulfilling career.

Nicole Aucoin (35:22):
I have to say this was one of my favorite episodes to record to date. And I think it’s because there’s so much opportunity as an entrepreneur. But you really have to laser in your focus to scale your business. As promised, I want to talk about some of the top resources that I’ve used and that we have to help you scale your business. The first one, if you are a gym owner or a nutrition coach, we released a free course called Building a Nutrition Program into a Gym. You can receive three CrossFits that you use for this course, but it’s a great introduction on how to start implementing a nutrition program and it’s completely free. If you click the link in the show notes, you can get access to that course immediately. If you don’t need to CFs, go ahead and take it anyway. I promise you will learn something to help you build nutrition into your business.

Nicole Aucoin (36:14):
The next thing is a company that actually has really changed the course of our business over the past few years, and it’s called StoryBrand. I became a StoryBrand certified guide in 2018 and Business Made Simple coach last year in 2020, but they have created an online platform of different business related courses. So not necessarily for coaches, but if you are an entrepreneur or a business owner, this would be a great option for you. It’s called Business Made Simple. Again, if you click the link in the show notes, I’ll have a list of some of my favorite courses within that platform. It’s super cheap. I think it’s like 250 bucks for the year, and there is new courses being added to that platform all the time. I absolutely love everything that StoryBrand does, Business Made Simple. If you have not checked them out, they have a podcast as well called Business Made Simple with Donald Miller, J.J., and Koula Callahan. They are a riot. I love them. Actually I think that is the podcast that got me listening to more podcasts. They’re great.

Nicole Aucoin (37:17):
All right. The last thing is some different books that I’ve read over the years in different podcasts. The first one, Building a StoryBrand with those guys I just mentioned in the course book above. Start with Why by Simon Sinek was a really great book. Traction, The One Thing, Atomic Habits. If you are a coach, I highly recommend that book. That’s an awesome book. I’ll link in the show notes, if you click that link, all of the different books that we’ve used and I personally love. So definitely click the link and you can get access to all those.

Nicole Aucoin (37:52):
Really, in order to scale your business, you need a vision. You need a team and you need a growth mindset. But one thing we didn’t talk about is systems. And even if you have an amazing team but you don’t have systems to provide a consistent experience, you’re not going to be able to replicate your business. I think that’s where HSN Mentoring comes into place for a lot of gym owners because every gym owner will tell you that they know nutrition needs to be a priority. They understand that it’s a big part of the puzzle, but the idea of building a nutrition program from scratch is so overwhelming.

Nicole Aucoin (38:28):
And that is the problem that we solve with HSN Mentoring. We provide a turnkey solution for gym owners and independent coaches to build a nutrition program without reinventing the wheel. I think we all got in this business to help people and creating the business and the systems behind the scene isn’t exactly helping people. But there are some people that are super passionate about building systems so that it can help more people. And that does. So if you’re looking for that system, if you’re looking for a turnkey solution, we would love to help you. The process is super easy to get started.

Nicole Aucoin (39:02):
You can click the link in the show notes and click the button that says, see how it works. There’s a quick video that you can watch from me. We also give you a tour of the platform. You can book a free call. After that we decide, is this a good fit or is it not? And from there you can sign up online. You’ll immediately get access to the course and the training process includes online modules, homework and mentoring calls. But the cool thing is that the process is just getting started when you graduate the training. The ongoing support, the new resources and an ongoing marketing material is what helps gym owners and coaches scale their business and not have to focus on so much behind the scenes. So if you’re looking for that turnkey solution, we would love to help you. Click the link in the show notes and book a free call today. Hope you enjoyed this episode. One last thing. If you haven’t rated this podcast, we would love for you to rate it and don’t forget to subscribe. See you next week.