Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / Episode 35: The ONE Secret To Preventing Coaching Business Burnout

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Episode 35: The ONE Secret To Preventing Coaching Business Burnout · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. And welcome to the podcast. So today I really want to talk to you about how we can get the most out of our own performance, how we can get the most out of our own mental performance and really use nutrition, exercise, sleep optimization as a way to really ensure that the output of work that we actually deliver is of the highest standard that it can possibly be.
• 0:57
  But then also, and I think this is probably the biggest part that we're able to fully enjoy this process because we're genuinely enjoying it. And I find it is so hard to enjoy this process when you are knackered, when you are exhausted, when you have no energy and your capacity is just at a very, very low level. You know, this don't forget this journey of running a business, running a coaching business, it's very energy demanding, very, very energy demanding because I think the most important, sorry, the most energy demanding thing in life is dealing with people. It's dealing with people because you're not only just giving off your own energy in terms of, you know, the level of enthusiasm, the level of drive, the level of care that you have in terms of the delivery of your, your coaching and the relationship you have with someone, but also a lot of the time you can end up taking on your client's energy. What do I mean by that?
• 2:09
  Well, I'm sure that you've probably come to realize this, that being a coach, got in for the fitness side of things, but you're more like a therapist to your clients. I'm sure that has probably, probably happened to you and dawned on you that unfortunately you do not go down the path of becoming a fitness coach. You end up becoming a therapist who uses exercise, nutrition, and sleep as a way to basically deliver therapy to your clients. Yeah, that's how it kind of ends up. But yeah, the the reason why I kinda bring this up is that, like I said, that, you know, you can take on your own client's energy and that can be so wow.
• 2:56
  Hello? Echo. That can be so energy demanding on us. And I think that we can sometimes maybe kick ourselves because we feel like we're not getting enough done. And we label that as procrastination.
• 3:12
  And I think there comes a point where we do have to be honest with ourselves as to whether we are procrastinating or not. And at the end of the day, procrastination slows us down if we don't view it correctly. And we can then kind of beat ourselves up because it's like, oh, I'm just not, I'm just not doing this. I just don't, I'm just not moving forward with things. Or you may feel like you're spinning so many plates that you just don't have time to do all of the things that you need in order to move your coaching business forward.
• 3:44
  But I don't think it's a time thing. I think it's actually an energy thing. It's really about you don't have enough energy to be able to do those things. And that's because you're giving out so much energy when it comes to the delivery. And that's fantastic because it shows that you really, really care.
• 4:06
  You know, this whole business in general is so exhausting because not only do you have to deliver, but then you've also got to think about where am I getting clients from. I've got to do my marketing. I've then got a sale. I've then got to focus on my finances. I've then got to be a partner, a brother, a friend, a son.
• 4:25
  And and it can just rip you to pieces. And it can be exhausting and it can feel like you're not, you know, you're not getting anywhere or or maybe even you're you're not able to continue this at the highest level that you truly want to. And that can be really frustrating. And I understand that because that's exactly where I was at. And I occasionally fall into the trap of, of just having no energy.
• 4:54
  And, and why I want to kind of share with you is kind of two things. The first thing is that you're, what is, what is amazing about being a fitness coach is that you actually have the solution in the palm of your hand, the solution to this energy in the palm of your hand. What do I mean by that? Well, what do I mean by that? Well, the way that I can articulate this is again, as I always come to is tell your story.
• 5:31
  Effectively, if I look at my day to day, yeah, my day to day, I've got a brand new assistant. She's fabulous. She's very, very exciting. And she's really gonna help me kind of grow this thing even further. And I spent this morning really, planning out our meeting.
• 5:49
  Spent about two, three hours this morning planning out that meeting. Then I had a meeting with her, which was an hour and a half. And then I had a two hour call for the Next Level Coach, who was really delivering all about low carb and ketogenic diets. And if you've ever been on a call with me, you know that I don't half ass it. I very much throw an insane amount of energy out there and I really, really do try my best every single time to just put the most into it.
• 6:19
  And that that is fatiguing. It's like it's exciting. It's fabulous. But it's also fatiguing. You know, it takes, you know, it, you know, it requires energy to be able to deliver those things.
• 6:32
  If I look at it, I went from seven through to 3PM straight through. Now, also on my list of things to do because I needed to film some podcast episodes. I need to check-in with my assistant and now the tasks that we've we've set out. I've then also got to do 17 other different things And that requires energy. Now I finished that call at 03:00.
• 6:57
  It was a two hour, two hour masterclass that I delivered. Lots of energy delivered. And also it was off the back of everything that I'd done through since 7AM. Now in a past life, what I would have done is I just finished that course. Like, oh my God, I've got loads of stuff I've got to do.
• 7:15
  I've got loads of I've got to do. And I was, I was very fried at the end of that call. I was very, very fatigued. I was very, very fried and I was like, woah. Yeah.
• 7:27
  Now what I would have previously done is go right. Okay. My mentalities have got to work, work, work, work, work, work. So from that 03:00, I then go, I've got to film podcast episodes. Got to do this.
• 7:36
  I've got to do that. And I would have tried to carry on all the way through and fit it all in. But the problem is two things. First of all, the quality of podcast episode I would have done would have been absolutely shocking because I was exhausted and I didn't have the energy to go again. But then the second part is that I then sit down at my desktop, which I've been staring at for about five or six hours trying to do stuff and nothing's coming.
• 8:06
  Nothing is coming because I'm fried. And I end up just blankly staring at a screen trying to get something done but nothing's getting done, trying to push through but nothing's there to actually be able to push through. And then I ended up just getting frustrated because I'm not making progress. I'm not moving forward. I'm not getting my tasks done.
• 8:27
  But then, then because those tasks then don't get done, a backlog is created. It's then added to what I need to do tomorrow. And that used to be my life over and over and over and over again. And I'm gonna be real. Sometimes I fall back into that trap and I have to snap out of it.
• 8:48
  And it's challenging because my subconscious, my unconscious mind is programmed to do that because that's what we've always done. And also there's this mentality of just got to work, work, work, work, work. You work nine till five, but you have to work eight to nine hours in a day minimum or whatever because that's what society says. But just remember, you're an entrepreneur. You run your own business.
• 9:12
  I know it may not seem this way sometimes, but you run your own diary and that means because you run your own diary, you can plan your own diary. You can do what you want when you want. That is the beauty of entrepreneurship. You can do that. Whether we exercise that or not on a regular basis is a different conversation.
• 9:33
  And this is what changed for me today. I finished my call at three. That inner instinct and that inner urge was like, right, go and do some work, go and do some work, go and do some work. But fortunately, because I've trained myself over and over again, take a breath, breathe out. And I went right.
• 9:51
  I need to go and get some energy. I need to go and reclaim some energy, get some energy back to then put that energy into the work that I'm doing later, because that energy is going to require that work is going to require energy. And right now, in terms of my battery, battery's empty. So I've got to go and charge the battery back up to then go and utilize the power to get that work done. That's the mentality we need to have.
• 10:27
  I, I was very fortunate that me and Alice have just been away for five days. We went down to East Sussex. It was beautiful. But on the Wednesday, it was her birthday and we did this beautiful session. It was called Ying, which is a very, very, very, very slow form of yoga and breath work.
• 10:51
  And it was beautiful. I loved it. But she said something which was really, really powerful, really powerful to me, which was, it was about the yin and yang thing. She said, in order to have the yang, you need the yin. That really hit me because our coaching, our business, our life requires a lot of yang, a lot of, but we also need the yin in order to ensure that the yang is actually possible.
• 11:25
  Does that make sense? So if I look at today, what did I do? Well, and why, why did I say earlier that you actually have the solution in the palm of your hand? Well, it's quite paradoxical. Exercise tires you out, but it gives you energy.
• 11:47
  Changing your physiological state gives you energy. So I have a selection of different things that I use as tools to go and reclaim that energy. Now, it's very much dependent on how I felt the day has gone. So sometimes that will be a very, very high intensity interval training session. And I really, really go and push myself.
• 12:16
  I'm like, that's exactly what I needed. But then sometimes it's a I don't need that. I actually, things have been going very, very quickly today. I actually need something to just kind of reground and just have an element of like calm and tranquility. So today, for example, I did.
• 12:38
  I wasn't in that specific state. If I'm in that state, I'll go and do a yoga session or some meditation. But today I was a little bit like, right. Okay. I'm gonna do some breath work and then I'm gonna have an ice bath.
• 12:51
  So it was amazing because I've got a really, really lovely playlist now. I, I did some breath work. I did the year, the Wim Hof breathing. It was beautiful. I feel amazing.
• 13:02
  You feel so alive, vibrant, and yeah, I just feel very, very clear. And then I changed my state and went into my cold plunge and it just reinvigorated me, revitalized me. It just put some energy back into me to then be able to go and execute my tasks later on today in a way that is enjoyable. So what I say to you here is utilize all of the strategies that you're, you know, if you're working with me, that you're learning from myself or the strategies that you have available to you already from an exercise point of view, from a nutritional perspective, whether you're into yoga, meditation, breath work, cold water therapy, all of these things fall into one key category, which is changing your physiological state. So make sure that throughout the day you go and put time periods in, little time blocks in, to change your state, to really be able to ensure that you you have the opportunity and the time to go and put some yin back into you to then go and have the yang.
• 14:25
  Because I promise you, if you do this, this journey becomes so much more fun. It becomes so much more enjoyable. And when you're having more fun with it, when you're having more enjoyment with it, people pick up on that. Your clients, my clients have always kind of said to me, I know when you haven't been particularly enjoying this, it's come through in your energy. People pick up on that stuff.
• 14:50
  So if you want to attract more clients, if you want to have better relationships with your clients, but more importantly, if you just want to enjoy this thing, you know, sometime along the way, I know with myself, I very much forgot that I have the privilege of running my own business. I have the privilege of being able to do this, to go right. This is what I want to do with my life. I'm going to do it. And I've very much fallen into victim mode previously.
• 15:18
  We're gonna where is me? I've got a business and things are really, really hard. Like, that hasn't served anyone. So just don't forget, you are the product. You are the product of your business.
• 15:32
  You are the product of your coaching. Your clients are buying you, and you're the most important aspect of this thing. So we need to make sure that there's a good amount of energy available to you. So as an exercise or an activity, I'd highly urge you to go, okay, right, what can I incorporate into my day to really be able to change my physiological state? Whether that's going for a walk without headphones.
• 15:57
  I find the meditative practices really, really beneficial. So more mindful practices are really, really great in changing my physical state. So whether that's going for a walk without headphones, whether it's doing a cold water bath, whether it's doing some breath work, whether it's doing some yoga or just a standard meditation or like a body scan. So you doing like something like a yoga nidra, or as Andrew Huberman talks about a NSDR. Those are my favorite ones when I'm very much in go mode and when I'm very much in delivery mode because there's a lot of yang being put out there and that's where kind of high intensity stuff, I don't need more yang there.
• 16:43
  I actually need more yin. But then if I'm kind of in like sales mode or marketing mode more, I'm like, right, I need some more yang and the yin isn't going to get me anywhere. So, you know, we need to have that fine balance between, you know, contentment and peace, but then also drive and go. I. E.
• 17:04
  Need nice balance of serotonin and a nice balance of dopamine. And I think that's the real kind of secret that we wanna pursue. Never forget, for every single one of your clients gave you just one new client, you've doubled your business.