Guest Speaker Series: Building a Community Online with Kelly Altman

Hey, everybody This is Tara Bryan and you are listening to the Course Building Secrets podcast. Whether you're a coach or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based on your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give you practical real life tips that you can use today to build your online experiences that get results and create raving fans. Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people without adding more time or team to your business? If you're looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

Hey, everybody's so happy to be with our special guest today. Kelly Altman. And Kelly Altman is a client of a friend. And she has been on this journey for a while. So I'm excited to bring her into the podcast today. So she can give you some corresponding tips and secrets, and some super cool, maybe mindset tricks that will help you as you are moving forward. So with that, Kelly, welcome to the show. We're excited that you are here. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your business and what you've been up to?

Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Tara, for having me. I'm excited to be here. I listened to your podcast all the time, as you know. And every time that I do, I learn new things, things that I should be doing things that I have seen and implemented, and all of those things because you have been crucial to my success in bringing bringing our businesses online. And so a little bit about me a little bit about my background is that first I was a personal trainer, then turned gym owner. And we started our business about 12 years ago. And as you can see, if you're watching the video we are we have a physical gym, so a physical location where we've been running group training for the past 12 years. And in addition to that, about five years ago, I also became a health coach for women primarily, just looking to live their best life looking to kind of put themselves on the top of their to do list. And if not the very top every single day, at least somewhere on their to do list so that they could take really good care of themselves and live a happier, healthier life. And over the course of the last couple years, obviously we know that all in person, gyms, group training, large group gatherings, has really changed. And so over the past two years, I have been taking lots and lots of strides to bring more of what we do to deliver an amazing experience to our clients to the online space, as well as trying to shift and navigate to what in person training looks like, depending on the day.

Yeah, awesome. So you have had your hands full, one of the things. So I want to talk about your journey once you sort of had to shut down your physical location and, and how you pivoted online. But before I do that, I want to just cover one thing that you may actually have even forgotten is that before all of that happened, when you started the health coaching business, you were starting to design kind of a framework and an approach for how you're helping women that didn't really that wasn't limited by geography, right? Your gym location is really like you have people who are in just your area who are coming to the gym. So you actually went through that transition for the first time when you started health coaching. And it wasn't, you didn't have to keep keep the model where it was only just people in your in your area. So you started down that road of, you know, creating here, you know, here's my approach, here's the the way that I want to teach it. And you went down that path of starting to create an online kind of presence at that time, even before you were forced to a trigger to get into as packing. But tell me a little bit about when you went through that you're so you actually and I know a little bit of your story because we're pretty close. But you went and got certified as a health coach, and then you started to get some clients and you started to think about what your approach is. Can you talk to me a little bit about how that went for you? Like how did you decide what your approach was going to be? How you were going to structure it? And then how you're going to start kind of maybe pivoting a little bit from people knowing you as as you know the person who was doing fitness to somebody who's doing health coaching

Yeah, absolutely, um, you know, I think that kind of with everything I mean, it has been that journey right of of trial and error of learning. What I heard from my clients, right, doing a lot of outreach and realize they asking questions, asking questions of the people that I knew I wanted to serve. And I would say, for me, one of the huge things about why I wanted to become a health coach is because all the time in the gym, the people that were coming to me were saying, I know what to do, I just am not doing it. And so I think that that can go even over to business. I mean, in any sort of thing that you're trying to make change on, there are so many times that we know a lot, we just have to do the work. And we feel a little bit crazy in our own minds and in our lives, if we are not in alignment with what we know we want. And we just are not making progress towards it, and not doing it. And so I really wanted to just work more with people beyond just the exercise portion. Because I really knew that it was about lifestyle, it was about the way that they're thinking the way that they're the way that they're eating the way that they're moving the way that they're sleeping, the way that they're did I say thinking because I could just keep saying it's the way that they're thinking all about the way that they're thinking, right. And so as I started to develop that framework for being a health coach, I just started to hear the same things over and over again. And I started to think, Boy, this is so much more than what I was delivering, when we were just focusing on giving our clients nutrition programs, because well, everybody has, you know, some unique newness in their lifestyle and their journey, were all very, very similar. And that kind of started to go into what works for one person can be shifted and adjusted a little. But boy, we all kind of are coming up against the same things. Which right then just kind of leads me into that next part of then I realized I could bring that to groups of people and kind of package it up. Because if I was saying something to one person, a lot of people would say, oh, yeah, me too. I, I struggle with that, or I need some guidance.

And were you surprised at all by sort of what started to happen when you were doing that? Is that then your group, people in your group started connecting with each other? And that's a whole different dimension to what you were doing. Talk a little bit about that? Like, was that a surprise to you when that started to happen?

I don't know if it was as much of a surprise to me, because I had seen it so much in the gym, I started to realize right from being a one on one personal trainer, realizing that I'm sort of their whole world. But I knew that it could be really fun and wonderful to have them feel like they have a whole community and tribe kind of behind them that it didn't have to all lay to me, right, I could be the leader of the thing, I could give them a space to connect. But I didn't always have to be there. And so yes, I think that's where the magic happens for me is in connecting groups of like minded people and saying we're all in this for the same common cause or identity or just we need that camaraderie and accountability somebody else to be able to show up for? Yeah, I think that that's happened a lot. But I was surprised by how easy it was to do it online, as well as in the gym, when people have kind of been forced to look at all different avenues of where their people are.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Awesome, which transitions us into what 2020 Was it 2020 When you literally had to make a decision overnight to shift the way that you are showing up for not only your gym owner or gym members, but also for your coaching group. And, and you had to, like figure out a whole different way of delivering what you do. So talk to me a little bit about that. And, and not so much the mechanics of it. Because, you know, we could talk about that all day of, you know, how you how you showed up and, and, and went online, but more like, what was your kind of mindset around it? Like how did you embrace this? Like, it was a stressful time. There's a lot going on, but at the end of the day you showed up for your people and delivered an amazing experience. So talk to me a little bit about like, how did you get there with that? Like what what did what were like the biggest aha or tips that you can have now in hindsight that you can go back and look at it Like, what were the biggest things around that, that time that that you took from it?

Isn't it crazy? I mean, I think that anytime that you're just thrown into something like you just do it with such like, you're you really there's not a lot of time to think you just think about tomorrow like, how, what am I going to do tomorrow? What am I going to do the next day. And I just remember it was very, it was very reactive, right? And I think everybody a whole world was in that same position. So it was a good position to go into it that way with everybody kind of feeling the same way and not knowing what was going to happen. So we didn't know is it going to be two weeks? Is it going to be three months? And it turned out that our gym was shut for three months? And thinking back on it? I can't even believe it was right, because we just kept going. And I think that's what I would say that anybody is that there is an opportunity to just show up. And that's what we did. We just showed up, it didn't really matter how right? We just said, Okay, are we going to do it on Facebook? Are we going to do it on Zoom? And then what are we going to do with our content. And so we just started really small with one day at a time. And we just realized that the real, the really big thing that mattered is just keep the connection. Everything else is kind of bonus, right? I mean, really, honestly, when I look back on that, even my people that were used to working out in our gym three to four times a week, I don't think they really cared if what they got was exercise. Because I would show up in different ways. We started out, like a community huddle, like every morning 8am I think we just did it Monday through Friday, but it was just come online. And anybody could come on Zoom and just talk about how you're feeling like how are you let's check in because we're not seeing you in person. And even though we were a gym known for coming in and exercising, we had more people coming just to check in and say how they were, then even the exercise. So a lot of times, right? When I think back on that is, you know, you're so known for one thing, and you think you always need to give them that. But if you're really paying attention to what's going on maybe in the world or with people, there's something different it's it really is the community and the connection that people crave. Even if they're not getting what they actually come to you for.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Because everybody craves connection, and especially during that time, everything was crazy. It was just like, you know, show up and and be together. And I think that don't you think like, looking back, you showing up in your basement, you know, your trainers showing up in their basement, all the people on Zoom? Who were like showing what their, you know, living room look like or their basement or whatever, like, No, it wasn't an ideal situation. But it connected people almost more Yes. Then when they come into the gym, and you know, not that they come into the gym, you know, all dolled up. But it's, you know, they're intentionally going there when you come into someone's house. It's a different experience.

Yeah, it made it super real. I think that's what it was right? It was like, and it just made us just show up really imperfectly like and have a lot of grace and say at least we're doing something and something is always better than nothing. We just start.

Yeah. And then you started to formalize it and you created, you know, a hub for people to go to so you had the community you had recorded classes, you had live classes. So you really quickly were able to shift into a system that helped people be successful in whatever way they they wanted to show up. And, and so that was powerful, too, is reacting and just showing up and keeping with your people. And then also what kinds of systems what kinds of things can you put together so people can show up and they're not like, Kelly, I need you to teach class every single hour of every day because I need you to show up in my living room. 24/7. Right, where you are able to keep those boundaries. And do that. Yeah. Very cool. Awesome. So when you look at where you are now or where you're headed, what Where are you with all of this transition that's happened and now that the gym is back open? Are you keeping some of those lessons learned to stay online to stay connected in different ways to grow your coaching? Beyond the kind of local geography what's what's next for you?

Yeah, um, I've so many things. One other thing I was gonna say about what you were just talking about is what I have thought is fascinating about just this entire time and kind of going online is that just because there's a way that you've kind of trained your For people to interact with you and interact with your business that there's always an opportunity to kind of retrain them and have them unlearn the old way and relearn a new way. And that's been something that I have been learning again and again, like, constantly. And even, you know, at home, I'm trying to train a three and a half year old to be a decent human being. And just like that, and having to kind of navigate, you know, different patterns of not wanting to change, right, I'm seeing that in the gym as well. So there were ways that we ran our business. And now it's getting them more used to using the hub, getting them to navigate workouts and see that that's an option when maybe we don't have a class or when they're traveling or all different things. And so that's been one of the coolest things about having the technology is seeing how to just retrain people to think about exactly what you said, Not maybe needing me all the time. But being able to put their own tools in place to say, this is where I go, this is what I do, this is what I have access to all the time, and not forget about it. Because that huge too, right? People kind of get in this pattern of, Oh, I forgot I have all that stuff accessible. So I'm retraining them that these are all the benefits of being in our world, right, is that you constantly have access to all these great things. Don't forget about them, because they're all there.

Mm hmm. Yeah, that's awesome. So I'm going to go off script for just a second because I want to talk about something. So a lot of times in this podcast, we talk about ways to get people engaged and get people excited, and gamification, and just those kinds of things to keep people motivated. So they continue to, to go, one of the things that that was in your online program, when you shifted everything online, was you're able to do daily actions are daily accountability. And you had one member who like, was all in on that tracking every single thing. So a lot of times, you know, we talked about, you know, what, what's happening, like with your Apple Watch, or whatever, so you do a workout and it tracks it, or you don't do a workout and says, Wait a minute, you're kind of off. But this member, like took it to the nth degree. Talk to me a little bit about that, because I think that it, it helped. While while for from your perspective, like we had automated all of that. So from your perspective, it was great, but a little bit over the top right. But similar experience, where she was able to get that sort of reward and recognition on my head as she would get in into the gym. Tell me a little bit about how that worked. And having that as an option. Did it? Do you think that it affected the your people's ability to complete a program online? Or do you think that? Um, like, what were the kind of the the big things with that? Yeah, well, and

I have learned to I mean, I think that, you know, there, there's different levels back when we first did that, we didn't have as much automation, I can see how when there's more automation built in, and that's obviously something I learned from kind of running that first one was the beta. And absolutely 100% There are those people that will you give them a challenge, and they want to do it to the letter, right. And they got so excited to see every single one, this particular person would say to me, okay, well, do I track my sleep the day before? Or for that day? When do I do it? Like she wanted to make sure she was doing everything, right. And that's really cool. Because when I think that when you're providing a service, it is really important with your clients that they're under the right mindset of what makes you feel the most successful, right? Like, is it checking off every single thing and doing it 100%? Or do you have to give yourself more grace and still feel successful? If you're just modifying a little bit to put it into your lifestyle, the lifestyle that doesn't feel stressful and overwhelming? Right? And so I think that those things can be really really great.

Yeah, well, and that she wasn't calling you all the time to say I got my sleep today. I got my sleep today. I got my sleep today like shaking a little box and know that she had you know met that goal, because you had clearly defined what that goal was. And then getting all of them right like I know that your intention was with that was here are some things that you can do during the day for this like pick a couple You know, she picked all of them. Um, but I think it's such a good lesson like you're saying is that people want to, you know, there's you're going to have the people who want to do it by the letter and follow all the things. And the people who are going to do a little bit differently. And the automation allows that to happen without you having to be the one to manage all of that. All of those conversations, so frees you up to have a little bit more time.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love that example. Just because I think that so often we think, well, is anyone using our automation? Is anyone using the things that we're putting out there? And, and it's always fun to have that person who challenges because you're like, Oh, well, yeah, I mean, it should be for the day before, or it should be the day of like, you know, kind of making those, those decisions. So awesome. All right. So what is your best advice or tip for someone who is trying to get started in either moving their business online or creating an online experience? Or course or whatever it is that they're trying to do? Like, what's your best advice for them?

My best advice is to just start and don't write, don't get into the weeds too much that something is better than nothing, right? Because I can have that tendency to want everything to look a certain way and be super polished. And think about you know, just is my video perfect. Do I have to look amazing on camera? Do I have to say it completely scripted all of those things. And those, it doesn't have to be for forever, it can just be good for right now. And really good for right now. I mean, as you know, we have a 30 day restore your core course inside of our online hub. And it's an amazing program. Like the best restorative core program that I've ever I've done it for myself, I have healed many, many clients. I've known my sister who had three C sections and couldn't even like engage any of our core muscles got completely fixed through that program. But the entire program is filmed from Facebook Live videos that my husband and I did while my 13 year old filmed us. And sometimes a dog runs in and sometimes a kid runs in and are the videos perfect. No, but is the content like absolutely top notch because we know what we're talking about. And our members can go in. And they can click through and do 30 days in a row of a six minute video. And it's great. And so it's good for right now, because we have four children, and we run a couple businesses and we're busy serving our clients. And so if we can put something in that lives on, and these have been there for a year and a half, and it's it's something that we have we aspire to get it to maybe be a little bit more professional, but again, building out our hub will take time. And it's good enough for now. So I would always just say something, getting your message in a place, right? Just like a podcast. It's all of your expertise just out there that people can consume. And that's the best part.

Yep, yep. take imperfect action, because not gonna do any good. If it's just sitting in Dropbox, or it's just sitting in your head, it's not gonna do any good. You have to get it out. Yeah, that's great advice. Yeah. Awesome. So what is one super cool technique or thing you do in your program to create an experience for people?

Hmm, one super cool thing we do. Um, I would just say it's probably, you know, the, the interactions of just reminding them what's there right now, right? Because, you know, our community we go in, and we've got discussion boards and ways that we can, you know, engage like within the hub, especially when we're doing a program. But I think that some of just the, the neat automation tools like for us, we have lots of recorded workouts in there extra programming, recipes, things like that. So it's kind of drawing people back into say, This is what's here, this is what you have access to, and it just kind of keeps bringing them back. Right. I feel like for whatever reason, in this day and age, like we just forget what's available to us. And sometimes we forget, right as a health and mindset coach, I always ask my clients, what's the one thing you know, that works that you're just forgetting? You're forgetting, because we're bombarded with so many other things. So It's the reminders, right? The binders that this is who you are, this is what you want. This is what you're a part of. And we just have to stay front of mind.

Mm hmm. Yep. For people. That's cool. And I think that one of the one of the cool things that you guys do is like if somebody is going on vacation, it's it's like the daily reminders. It's also like the reminder like, hey, go do the workouts now you have access to them now, while you're on vacation.

Yeah. And the other cool thing is that, I mean, for us right now, we're still are offering an online live experience. So we still have one workout per day that people can just join us live on Zoom for that connection. You know, I mean, I think sometimes the those recorded workouts can work for people for a little while. But they also really want that like, hello, and feeling like, I'm going to go in at this exact time. Because if I don't, then I don't get that Hello, from somebody live. And so that's been really cool to watch people say like, they'll log in to a certain time when they're off traveling, because that works best for them. Mm hmm.

Yeah, super cool. Awesome. So I know, this is gonna be your favorite question. So I asked all of my guests. So as a busy mom, wife and business owner, I'm always curious to what habits and routines other people have set up that helps them achieve success. What key habits? Do you want to share with our listeners around that today?

Yes, so as you mentioned, yes, I'm a busy mom, I don't think I talked all about the business. But I didn't say that I have four children, ranging in ages from three to 15. And it is really, really busy. And so my biggest I would say my best habit is waking up well beyond or before my family, and just having some quiet time just to kind of strategize and check in with myself, first, kind of figure out what's going on, figure out the things that I need to do for that day before starting to think about everybody else, and all of those things. So I would say just, you know, it's crucial that I keep my energy up. So I am a die hard, like in bed by 930. So I can wake up at 430 or five and have that quiet time to myself. I exercise to have energy and not deplete my energy, eating for energy, all those things, because you gotta have energy to do all this stuff.

And I always reminds me of you know, when you're on the airplane, and they always say, like, you put your mask on first, and then you put your kids masks on. Like, that's such a great message of what you're saying is that, you have to take care of yourself, you have to make sure that you have the energy to go off and not only take care of your family, but also run a business. Yes, run a very busy business and be able to do that.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, for me, it really is about everybody taking really great care of themselves, like everybody's personal responsibility to think we can't just go out and serve and serve and serve and serve. And we can't have these fabulous businesses and serve the people that we want to serve, if we are completely depleted, because that will lead to just so much stress, overwhelm, which then leads to sickness and all of those things, right. And so, I used to look at, I mean, for many, many years in the fitness and health industry, there were people coming in, and they just wanted to look a certain way. And they wanted to know how to eat for certain things and exercise, you know, to look a certain way, and a lot of that can be depleting. And so in my coaching in my you know, in lifestyle coaching, it's not about that anymore, right? It becomes like, How can I be more have more not just feel like it's all about depriving and just powering through. We need to have that energy, we want to be those people. So focus on how are you feeling about all the things that you're doing? And then it's all just kind of magic from there, if you can, if you can get your habits in line. Yeah,

awesome. Very cool. So tell me about one book, resource tool, anything that you can give to our listeners. That's, that's one of your favorites, that helps you, you know, keep keep that energy up, have those habits or, you know, how you use you know, what, you've had to run your business or connect with your people like what are your favorite tools and books and resources? And so

books that I read that have kind of inspired me the most or I mean, I would say my two favorites, I mean, I I adore atomic habits, because I just believe in them right? I believe that the habits that we start incorporating they can either make or break and sometimes we don't even it's just about recognizing that right. And then the other book that I love, his personality isn't permanent, just always about the way of change his thinking that nothing is permanent, which we've seen in the world and ways that we thought we were going to be living our lives. It's just the only thing constant is that change. And so that's a great book about really diving into the way that we think and realizing that we've got the power to totally pivot all the time, and be whatever we want to be. Yeah,

yeah, those are great. And it's funny, so So for everyone listening, atomic habits comes up all the time. So if you haven't read it yet, you need to read it. Because I'm telling you that like most of our guests that come on, are talking about atomic habits. And atomic habits is it's such a powerful book, and it talks about the power of taking small, small steps towards a bigger goal, right? So by doing small things, creating those small habits that leads to being able to get to your goals. So if you haven't checked it out, you probably should, because Kelly is like, the fourth or fifth person who has mentioned that book. Maybe we'll do a podcast that we're all summarized the book. I don't know. But we'll see. All right. Very cool. Thank you for sharing those resources. And most importantly, where can people find out more about you?

Yes, absolutely. Um, probably the best place is just on my website, which is Kelly Altman calm. And I would say that that's probably the best, the best spot. I'm on an Instagram as well, at just Kelly Altman.

Perfect. So you talked about this program called Restore your core? Yes. So if people are interested in learning about restore your core, do they find that out on your website? Or is there a different place that you would have them go to find out about that?

No, I would say on my website, that would be the best place. Yep. Because I have all sorts of things for different programs that we offer and health coaching and things going on at the gym, all at that one spot. All right, cool. Well,

she told you where to find her. So there you go. Thank you so much, Kelly, for being on today. Any final words of wisdom for our course builders out there who are listening to this podcast today?

I would just say keep going. Right? Those smallest steps. It's so true that you just don't know where that like little tiny 1% can just start building and building and building and building. And sometimes when I look back, I think about it felt very huge and overwhelming in the very start. But all you got to do is start and then just keep going. Yes. Always find to make it better. But you don't have to do it all right now. Right, right. And

you look back and you think like oh my gosh, look at I mean, hundreds of videos, hundreds of things, assets that you were able to create during that time that now can serve you moving forward. So yeah, I love that advice. Very cool. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here today. All right, horse builders go out and take those small steps.