Brianna Battles: Training During and After Pregnancy

Brianna Battles is the founder of Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism and the CEO of Everyday Battles LLC. She’s also the host of the Practice Brave podcast, a strength and conditioning coach, an athlete and a mother of two. 

In today’s episode of Women In Fitness Business, Brianna talks about the identity shift and physiological changes of motherhood and pregnancy, the stigma and preconceived beliefs about coaching or training pregnant/postpartum athletes, and what drew her to change these beliefs.

She also discusses creating her own online certification program for pregnancy and postpartum coaching, building her business, personal branding, and her future goals for her brand and company. 

For more information about Brianna’s brand and mission, visit https://www.briannabattles.com/.

01:13  - Identity changes of motherhood

04:43 - What drew Brianna to create this business

09:16 - Biggest mistakes made by coaches of pregnant/postpartum women

18:01 - Does motherhood make you a better athlete?

20:05 - Inspiration behind Brianna’s business model

27:12 - Details of Brianna’s coaching certification course

31:23 - Practice Brave podcast

37:41 - The future of Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism and Brianna Battles

Transcript

Tiffy Thompson: 0:04

Hello, and welcome to Women in Fitness Business. Today, I'm speaking with Brianna Battles. Brianna is the founder of Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism and the CEO of Everyday Battles, LLC. She's the host of the Practice Brave podcast, a strength and conditioning coach, an athlete, and a mom of two. Brianna specializes in coaching pregnant and postpartum athletes, as well as educating coaching professionals on how to help athletes navigate these special considerations of training during these chapters in a women's life. In this podcast, we will chat about her own experience with pregnancy and the postpartum period. We'll talk about how motherhood humbled her as an athlete, what drew her to working with pregnant and postpartum athletes, and what coaches need to keep in mind when working with women in this season of their lives. We'll talk about how she built her business, personal branding and her big plans for the future. Brianna, welcome to the podcast.

Brianna Battles: 1:10

Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on.

Tiffy Thompson: 1:13

So I wanna talk about the identity shift that happens when you become a mom. Like in the months after I had my son, there was so much euphoria, but also exhaustion. And there was this kind of sense of, like, having an out-of-body experience. Like I wasn't in control of my body anymore. And as an athlete, I would assume that you're used to some degree of predictability and reliability when it comes to what's happening with your body. So that period would seem extra disconcerting. So what was that experience like for you?

Brianna Battles: 1:52

Oh man. Well, I'll start with answering the first part of the question where we're talking about that identity shift. I think that for so many of us, myself included, as an athlete, you're used to having a routine and having some predictability, like you mentioned. And you're used to knowing, well, if I do this, then I sort of get this result. It's like, there's just a process there. When you become a mom, everything about your life changes. Your body changes, your routine changes. You've gone through a significant physiological and mental event, regardless of if it was positive or maybe a little bit more traumatic than you were anticipating, birth and pregnancy. And those early months postpartum are significant physiological stressors to our body. And that then kind of influences how we feel, what we're able to do, the"normal". And I put normal in air quotes. Like, our"normal" is no longer normal and it's about finding a new normal. And I see so many people, myself included after my first pregnancy, kind of focused on"what can I do to just get back and feel like myself again?" And the fastest way to feeling like yourself again, is by shifting your focus to looking forward and sort of taking a new inventory of where you're at, what your life circumstance is currently, what your capacity is currently, and what you need to do for your body and brain to support your long- term health and wellness.

Tiffy Thompson: 3:19

And what was that experience like for you personally? Like, was it a,<laugh> wake up call?

Brianna Battles: 3:25

Yeah. I mean it flipped my world upside down. Yeah. Flipped my world upside down. This was eight years ago, so social media is not what it was back then. The access to relatable information straight up didn't exist. Like it didn't, and it was because it didn't exist. And I was able to take my experience as a strength/conditioning coach, but also an athlete who was in this season when I was like, man, I'm not alone. I know I'm not alone in feeling the way that I do. Just sort of spinning, my body has changed. I don't know what's normal. I don't know what to do. I felt like I should know what to do. And yet everything was either super generic and felt really lame, or it was really extreme and dogmatic and shaming and just like, get your body back and just be a badass. And it's very easy to gravitate towards that, which I very much did until it just like- motherhood humbles you, right? It humbles you in different ways at different times for different people. That was one of the ways that I got incredibly humbled was, my ego<laugh> was trying to serve me, instead of just kind of surrendering to all of the changes that my brain and body had experienced. And then again, being able to take that inventory. And that acted as a significant catalyst for everything I've created the past eight years.

Tiffy Thompson: 4:43

Yeah. So I wanna know, what drew you initially to want to work with pregnant and postpartum athletes?

Brianna Battles: 4:51

Yeah, I didn't. I mean, if my birth would've gone the way that I wanted it to, which was uncomplicated and natural and, see? If you just train like a badass through pregnancy and then if you just drop a lot of weight postpartum, then you're gonna be fine. I never wanted to work with this population. It felt super, kind of, lame, you know? I was a strength and conditioning coach. I was in very much, like, an athletic performance environment. And back then there was no such thing. There was no title as pregnant athlete or postpartum athlete. I literally copyrighted those things, right? Because it just wasn't a thing back then. And it wasn't until I was like, man, I'm in my twenties and I still wanna be athletic. I still feel athletic. And yet there's not a lot of resources for those of us who want to pursue this lifetime of athleticism. It does not end just because you become a mom, but these are significant chapters that require different training strategy. The only information we had about female athletes in my undergrad or graduate or any of my certifications was like, oh, may be more prone for ACL injuries, or bone density issues, or eating disorders or whatever, or amenhorrea. There were so many! Like, that was the focus? There was never a focus on pregnancy and postpartum, cause I think we were sort of written off. And traditionally we had been. It's really not until we're seeing primarily a generation of millennial women who are saying,"Actually, I'm gonna keep training like an athlete. I'm gonna push these boundaries and I'm gonna do it for as long as I can, however I can." And so there almost wasn't information because there weren't a lot of people doing that as much. So we've seen a huge shift last 10 or so years where we're seeing that become more commonplace for female athletes and it's getting more attention. But it really has been a huge cultural shift that we've seen and I've been really happy to be a part of. Like, both personally as an athlete and then professionally doing something about it.

Tiffy Thompson: 6:50

What role did social media play in that growth?

Brianna Battles: 6:53

A pretty huge role, to be honest. I don't think I'd have an online business if it weren't for social media. I started sharing about my process personally, and I started sharing about what I was learning, and just the different resources I was learning, and being able to connect a lot of the dots. Seriously, I just felt like a crazy lady because I was like, okay, here and here. And I just felt like I was continually trying to connect the dots between what I was learning about core and pelvic health and the research there, and then also strength-conditioning research and what I knew as a coach, and just sort of combining the two worlds. We had really only seen clinical application of core and pelvic health concepts, or again, just those really generic pregnancy recommendations, which did not apply to people like me. And as a coach, I knew that I could figure this out. Coaching is reverse engineering and it's looking at what the problem is or what the goal is and then what process you can put into place to get there. Right. And that just became a hyper focus for me, and in many ways it was incredibly healing to sort of make right, so to speak, A lot of the challenges that I had experienced, and really getting humbled by that process and then taking ownership of like, man, I didn't really go about that in a way that I would recommend anybody else doing. And I didn't know any better. Now I do know more and I'm gonna keep learning and sharing. And then that just- over time, sharing online, people started messaging me or emailing me and saying, yeah, me too, where can I learn more? And I was like, I don't know, I'm just kind of sharing here. I didn't have anything to offer them. And this was probably like 2015-ish. And so then I made my first online course. I didn't know what I was doing at all. I didn't even know what an online course was. I had never taken an online course, aside from actual collegiate, college online courses, but not ones that you buy for continuing education. And then I just made my very first online product, which was like the Pregnant Postpartum Athlete or something like that where it was just like, if you know nothing else about training through these seasons, you need to at least know this. And then that sort of led to creating fitness programs and eventually a coaching certification program, which I'm really thrilled about because that's really what catapulted this business and this effort to the next level.

Tiffy Thompson: 9:16

So when you're working with, coaches who are training women who are pregnant and postpartum, what are the the biggest sort of missteps that you see?

Brianna Battles: 9:27

Total disregard. They're just like,"I don't really coach that population" or they give them really generic advice. Like, I don't know, just kinda listen to your body, do your own thing, you can do whatever. And then even though they're trying to be supportive, they're also being dismissive. Right. And it's just this fine line. Cause it's not in a mean way, it's just like,"I don't really know what to do with you". They're either treated super fragile or they're treated like they're incredibly invincible and neither of those are true. It's about being meeting somewhere in the middle of like, okay, you can train through pregnancy. This is good for you. This is good for your baby. And your training's not gonna look the same as it did prior. And it's not going to even look necessarily the same as it did last month or what it's gonna look like next month. And it's really being able to be creative. And that does require some time and attention. And also just knowledge because there's so much. Like, social media has done so many beautiful things, especially for my business. And now that a lot of this is a lot more mainstream, there is so much access to misinformation, right? And still extremes, and still generalizations, and still people giving advice that truly are not qualified to give advice. And coaches are kind of learning in the easiest ways they can, instead of being able to truly understand the big picture of it. And that's what I dedicate a lot of time and effort into coaching. I just don't think you can be a good coach if you're repeating. Like you have to be able to think and you have to be able to understand the actual problems, and then break that down on an individual level. And there's a huge disconnect. Well, if I just breathe like this, or if I just do this modification, then I'm not gonna have a diastasis or I won't have pelvic floor issues, or I'm actually training right If I'm doing these exercises. And that is not how it works. It doesn't work in<laugh> any capacity of strength conditioning or physical therapy, or rehabilitation. That's not how that works. Yet we see it so watered down for pregnancy and postpartum, at least mainstream. And I try to do something about that.

Tiffy Thompson: 11:29

Do you think that the reluctance to go there is partly fear of liability issues or injury, or, where do you think that's stemming from?

Brianna Battles: 11:44

Maybe, I don't know. Like, maybe, but I think we take on liability anytime we have any human in front of us, whether they've had an ACL surgery or back surgery or, you know, they have a variety of different considerations. They are a cancer survivor. There's so many things at play that if, as coaches we're letting liability dictate our work, I don't think we're in the right line of work.

Tiffy Thompson: 12:07

Yeah.

Brianna Battles: 12:08

We gotta do something about that.

Tiffy Thompson: 12:10

For sure. I wanna talk a little bit about diastasis recti. So I had never heard of it before I had my son. And then when I was having my daughter, I kind of discovered these influencers on Instagram and I was doing some of the exercises and the breathing practices. And it improved my recovery like a thousand fold after my daughter. Does your program help coaches when it comes to dealing with that specifically?

Brianna Battles: 12:49

Yeah. And diastasis is honestly just one consideration of many when working with pregnant and postpartum athletes and people in general. It is, again, something that is made mainstream, because it's really easy to be hyper-focused on abs. Right? Yeah. It's really easy to be like, Ooh, I don't know. I don't want my abs to be broken or my abs to be ruined, or I don't want my stomach to look like this. It is so easy as a culture who is, you know, it's ingrained in us to be hyper conscious of our stomachs, whether we wanna be or not. So diastasis is absolutely kind of call it like the gateway drug to everything else that we need to understand about coaching this population or being this population. Like, yeah, diastasis is a consideration. There are things we can do proactively in pregnancy with adjusting our exercise selections, volume, intensity, loads, et cetera, adjusting how we breathe, changing some positions. Just being a lot more aware of how we're training and the influences it has on our core and pelvic floor. And then postpartum's kind of doing the same thing. Like truly rehabbing and then progressing back into the exercise we wanna do so that we are rehabilitating the whole system. Not just the abs, but the pelvic floor too. Even if you've had a cesarean birth, that whole system has had a baby sitting in it and on it and pressing out against it and down on it for like a year. So it's been through a lot. And both the core and the pelvic floor have to be rehabilitated or there will be symptoms. Like there just, there will be. And it might not be your first birth, but maybe the second birth or maybe the third or whatever it might be. And these are such significant physiological stressors that we have to be aware of the influence pregnancy and postpartum has on that system, not just for pregnancy and postpartum-specific seasons, but every season after that, so that as we head towards menopause or perimenopause, we know that we're setting ourselves up to the best of our ability. We absolutely- You could do everything right and still have symptoms. I'll just put that out there. But like, let's do what we can control. Right? Because now we actually do have practical information and access to this in a way that did not exist 10 years ago, not in a practical way. It was like,"Go to PT and do a couple of these exercises", but that didn't translate into the exercise that we're seeing women pursue now. Running, CrossFit, powerlifting, MMA, whatever it might be. There was no one touching on that at all. Right. But now we have better information where we can really support proactively, just proactively prioritizing the core and pelvic floor during pregnancy, using exercise as a tool to do that. And then same with postpartum rehabbing and then using exercise to build the whole system and create whole body strength and coordination so that we are mitigating whatever symptoms we possibly can.

Tiffy Thompson: 15:43

How much of a factor does mindset play in all of this? Like when you're training your coaches to work with this population?

Brianna Battles: 15:52

Yeah. I think that as coaches that's, I mean, that's honestly the number one thing we have to lead with is addressing getting that buy in and helping our athletes understand the process. Every good athlete, if you talk to them about process, they get it. But when we put pregnancy and postpartum in front of that, they think like,"Oh, I'm just gonna keep doing what I've always done. And like, I just gotta stay in shape. And that's,what's gonna be giving me the best result is just kind of maintaining". But really it's talking to them and saying, there's a huge educational piece that comes with adjusting that mindset and approach, and we have to touch on ego too. And I talk about athlete brain extensively in my business.'Cause if you don't understand how to talk to somebody who is maybe a little bit more intense and rigid and ego driven- and not even in a bad way, if you're a really good athlete, you got an ego. And you have to have that ego, but you also have to learn to leverage it, know when to use it and how to use it to serve you, and not work against you. And that is a hard line to watch. That's a hard thing to learn. But as coaches, if we can connect with them like that and be like, I know if you wanna do this at a year postpartum, then let's get you there by adjusting what you're doing here through pregnancy, here through postpartum. You'll still be able to do the things you enjoy, but you're gonna be doing them slightly differently and at different times. Because if the ultimate goal isn't just like being a badass in pregnancy and postpartum, it's what you wanna keep doing ongoing. Then let's have a strategic process here. And I have had that work successfully with a hundred percent of the professional athletes I've worked with. Because they're willing to say, I don't wanna put my career on the line. I'm gonna do exactly what you tell me. And it's the more recreational everyday mommy athletes that think that they're exempt and are like, well, no, but I can keep doing toes to bar or I can keep running or I'm ready to start running again. And it's usually not if, it's when they get injured or have symptoms that they're ready to sort of look back and say, I think I should have gone about that a bit differently.

Tiffy Thompson: 18:01

Yeah. Do you think that becoming a mom can make you a better athlete?

Brianna Battles: 18:08

Yes. But in a way that is different than I think what we've been told. Physiologically, some markers may improve like VO2 max, for example, but most of us are not measuring our VO2 max when you're becoming a mom. What I do think is you develop athletic maturity if you let yourself develop athletic maturity. And then that allows you to be a better athlete. And that's something that I have seen with myself. That's something I've seen with a lot of the professional athletes I've worked with. And that's something I've seen with a lot of the recreational, but maybe like higher level recreational athletes. They go to CrossFit five days a week. Like if you're willing to really reassess what you do and how you do it, and honor whatever season you're in, pregnancy, postpartum, sickness, injury, surgery, whatever it might be. And you're able to just be okay with where you're at and know that it's not necessarily a forever season and just a right now season and exercise will always be there. It will always be there to help you. It will always be there to heal you. The way it is performed, the way it is done is what will look different through different seasons. You're not gonna be 80 doing the same exact thing that you're doing right now. But maybe you're gonna be doing a variation of that. And isn't that what we can all kind of hope for, all of us athlete brains? Like, maybe I'm not dead lifting 300 pounds at 80, but like, I hope I'm still moving well and able to be self-sufficient and take care of myself.. Or I might not be doing these heavy farmers carries when I'm 60, but I really hope that I'm able to carry my grandkids and it's fine. Right. And I'm able to work out and have a really active lifestyle through menopause and beyond, right? Like we have to kind of be able to zoom out on what we want in order to be able to zoom in on what we need to do now on behalf of that long-term. And that's really what I try to focus on. So yes, you can be a better athlete, but that's because you've become a more mature athlete in your approach.

Tiffy Thompson: 20:05

When it comes to your own business model, which is fundamentally online and it seems perfectly situated to go through something like COVID, who inspired you when it came to building out your business model? Did you have an inspiration or did it sort of evolve organically on its own?

Brianna Battles: 20:26

It was a hundred percent organic because there wasn't anyone who was doing exactly what I had started doing, at least not in the same capacity. And I'm very visionary. So it's almost like once one ball started rolling, I started to see the other gaps that were missing in this industry and missing in my own offers and creations. And it's like, well, if I'm gonna have a postpartum program, then I really need a pregnancy program. And if I'm creating resources for athletes, the most impact comes from coaching coaches and practitioners. And if those leaders can be better educated and can provide guidance in their online and local communities, well, God, then that reaches so many more people. So I really wish that there was somebody who was like, here's a great business model to follow. A, I probably would not have followed it anyway because I'm super stubborn and like to do things my own ways. But, you know, I think that what makes this whole brand really special is that it is so genuinely organic. I don't look at what my competitors are doing. I don't get inspiration from what others are doing. I get inspiration from the people that are in my DM's. And I get inspiration because I have actual lived experience. I know what this population needs,'cause I am this freaking population. You know what I mean? Like I am the athlete, I am the coach. I know exactly what they need. I know what they need to hear. I know how they need to feel. And I know that I'm the best person to help them find that.

Tiffy Thompson: 21:56

Mm-hmm,<affirmative> When it came to scaling, were there any sort of growing pains or..?

Brianna Battles: 22:03

God yes. And forever. Yes, of course. And still, and forever. And that's the privilege of scaling, right?<laugh> is, you know, I have an opportunity to keep growing this and turning it into, like, from hobby, to business, to company. And no one ever taught me business, no one in my family or who was in my circle was entrepreneurial at all. Online business wasn't even a thing when I graduated from college, at least not in the fitness industry and not in any way that I thought was possible. So, you know, there's a ton of growing pains with having to hire or knowing what different online tools and systems to use. And one thing that I feel like I've tried to do a really good job of is learning to delegate. Like I know that through all of my coaching is you have to have a really good team behind you. You can have all the vision. If you're a head coach, you got the vision. Right. But then you need that support system to be able to do all the things that you wanna do. And I wanna hire everybody who's smarter than me and they're given, like, the things that they're good at, the things that light them up in the areas of my significant weaknesses. Cause I don't know all that stuff at all. But I know what I wanna do, so help me do it and tell me what we need to do it. And so there's a lot of risk taking there and it's a lot of betting on yourself and betting on what you're able to do with it. And then riding the waves of like, I mean, even right currently, you know, it wasn't even just COVID, it's like now we're heading into a new considerations with the economy and just like the world in general, riding those waves that directly influence so many businesses. And it can be really tough, but I have to tell myself, if I've been in it this long, I think it's gonna be okay. Like I think it's just, we have to ride that wave and be able to be creative and again, stay focused on what I know this brand needs, what I'm hearing from my people and what they need, and not looking everywhere else. And I think that's a huge mistake that business owners make, is they compare themselves to what other people are doing. I know people compare themselves to me or model after that and fine. I wanna stay in the lead though.

Tiffy Thompson: 24:12

Yeah. What would you say is your entrepreneurial superpower?

Brianna Battles: 24:18

I just really believe in what I'm doing. I do. And I know that I am the best person at this job. I really am. And it's hard. There's so many people, and women especially, who suffer from imposter syndrome. I know that I am the best coach for pregnant and postpartum athletes. I am because I have so many reps and so many humans I've worked with and so much time answering and writing for almost a decade. Right? And that's not even counting all of the coaching I did before. I am the best person to coach pregnant and postpartum athletes. And if I can then teach others to do that, that's impact and that's joining arms and that's my superpower is like, I wanna be really freaking good at what I do. And I wanna elevate others to be really freaking good at what they do too.

Tiffy Thompson: 25:08

When it comes to working with people. Do you find it a more natural fit to be working directly with athletes? Or do you prefer working with coaches?

Brianna Battles: 25:18

Both. And I think in my role, they have to coexist. Like, I love working with the professional audience. We have such an incredible network of PPA coaches, practitioners, people in the medical community who come from all different backgrounds and levels of experiences that are doing their own unique work out there. Right? And like, I love that, and I love learning from them. I love learning with them. It just feels like, finally people that we can ask questions because back eight years ago there wasn't just a colleague that I could reach out to and be like, Hey, what do you think about this? Or I have this client who has this. Literally did not freaking exist. So I'm so glad now that it's like a norm for them to have a lot of different colleagues who are doing this. Cool. But pregnant and postpartum athletes, they are sort of like what feeds that part, right? Like they're coming in. And so many people become coaches because they're like, I wanna become who I needed or why didn't I know any better. And even though I've been screaming my head off, it seems like for years now, there's still people coming in saying, why didn't anyone tell me? Why didn't I know about diastasis? Why didn't I know about incontinence? Why didn't I know about pelvic organ prolapse? Why didn't I know about the significant depression I was going to experience and this identity shift, and how I could have used exercise to work with me, not against me? Why didn't I know? Why was my coach such an asshole and put so much pressure on me? Like, those stories exist daily in my world, right? And those people then oftentimes either get the support they need through the pregnancy program, get the support they need through the postpartum program, get the support they need with ongoing coaching after that,'cause maybe they're not ready to go to the gym or they still don't really know what to do or they decide, actually I wanna become a coach. Whether it's to just coach myself or to coach a few of my friends. Or I'm a career strength/conditioning coach, or I'm a CrossFit coach, or I'm a running coach and I really wanna know how to serve my population better and I need to understand pregnancy and postpartum. So it all kind of feeds and crosses over.

Tiffy Thompson: 27:16

Mm-hmm<affirmative> When people take your program, kind of walk me through what that entails to become a pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach.

Brianna Battles: 27:30

Yeah. I mean, it's a completely online certification course and the curriculum covers everything from anatomy and physiology to fitness culture, to core and pelvic health symptoms, injuries like diastasis, incontinence, to programming, to pregnancy specific exercise recommendations and knowledge there, to then postpartum specific knowledge. And then into different parenthood considerations, like how sleep and our nutritional habits and mental health all kind of influence that. And then into how to actually apply this stuff. Like what opportunities do you have now? You have this knowledge, you have this inspiration and that's not enough. You have to actually implement it. So what are your options? Can you do remote coaching? Can you do one-on-one personal training? Can you do workshop seminars? Like whatever it might be. Right? And giving them ideas so that they know. Like, God, I hate public speaking. Well then you don't have to do that. What do you wanna do? Like you have a lot of different options on ways that you can use this curriculum. And then into some business dynamic things about just the basics. Things that I wish I would've known, like different systems to use and ways to set them up. So there's a lot of different support. And then I brought in a lot of my trusted colleagues to provide interviews to help round out the curriculum because I'm very big on staying within my scope of practice. At the end of the day, I am still a strength/conditioning coach. I am not a registered dietician. I am not a mental health therapist. I'm not any of those things. But I am very good at linking arms, once again. And I brought in so many of my colleagues that are super trusted and experts in their field to provide some guidance, to help round out that curriculum so that when they've gone through it, they might still feel imposter syndrome, which is normal, but we have that support network for it. And so much of that is solved by taking action and then doing something about it. And that's been really cool to see is just the different ways people have been able to take that action and use the certification as a foundation for everything they build upon after that.

Tiffy Thompson: 29:29

What's really worked well for your business? And what have you had to kind of reassess and reform?

Brianna Battles: 29:37

I think what's worked well for my business is being very consistent in my messaging for a very long time. Like I think what we see now is people just wanna go viral. They wanna do whatever, like, thing is trending right now on social media. And that is fine. There's absolutely a strategy there and I will certainly partake in some of those strategies. But I think I can literally look back and like, Facebook, do people still have Facebook? I guess some do. But you go back on, like, Facebook memories and I see some stuff that I wrote like six or seven years ago and I'm like, cool. Still saying the same shit. Still saying the same stuff. Maybe slightly different iterations of it. Like I've definitely gotten smarter and a lot more experienced over this time period. But the basis of it is still the same. And it's just staying very consistent with that over time and sharing real life examples, many different pregnancy approaches and postpartum approaches, featuring different people's experiences and then letting the programs and the people that I work with and the coaching, like all of that has been so organic and so much word of mouth. Like it's not like I'm dumping so much money or, you know, prior, I had never used Facebook ads or any marketing tools at all until very recently. So much of it was just word of mouth and people endorsing like, Hey, this girl does a good job. This girl knows what she's talking about. I get a lot of referrals through social media and people that say like, I've been following you for five years now and now I'm pregnant. Or I've been following you for five years now and I didn't really like think it applied to me my first pregnancy, but now I'm pregnant again and I'm ready. I wanna take this or I wanna do that. But it's because of that consistency, like staying in the game, that's worked extremely well for me.

Tiffy Thompson: 31:23

And you also have a podcast.

Brianna Battles: 31:25

I do.

Tiffy Thompson: 31:26

Do you think that that's been a boom for your marketing efforts?

Brianna Battles: 31:30

I mean, I think it compliments it. I don't think I've leveraged my podcast well enough yet for it to be its own beast of a thing. There's so much potential there. And that's definitely on my vision of like, how do I keep scaling that in a really impactful way? But yeah, a lot of people do find me through the podcast and it compliments everything else that the brand is doing. And I'm just like complimentary topics. I didn't want it to be just focused on pregnancy and postpartum. I just kind of wanted it to be an extension of all things me. I'm a multi-passionate person. This is something I know a lot about, like pregnancy and postpartum athleticism, I know a lot about that. But I also know a lot about coaching in general and I know a lot about women's health. And then I know I share like different parenting, like youth sports and the parenting approach there coming from the perspective of somebody who's been coaching for so long. And so the podcast acts as a really good extension of me as a human and the things that I care about, and topics that I think are important both for the audience. And then, expand that audience.

Tiffy Thompson: 32:33

You've been saying like, you've kind of been saying the same thing since you started. Did you ever conceive of yourself as a brand? Like how did that sort of form a brand that is Brianna<laugh>?

Brianna Battles: 32:50

Yeah, no, it's still super odd. I never thought of that.'Cause again, entrepreneurship was not on the horizon. Having a personal brand was not even a thing. I had no idea. I wouldn't have known what that even meant like years ago up until honestly, probably like four years ago was when I really started shifting heavy into the online space where it was like, okay, things are getting really serious. Now the coach course had picked up a lot of momentum. I couldn't believe people actually bought it. And then it was like, okay, this is not just a little hobby anymore. Yeah, I don't know. I think I do my best to stay consistent in my messaging and to be really good at what I do. Like I just, I'm constantly learning through doing. Like, I won't be glued to a computer at this point in my career trying to take another online course, learn this or do that. Like I'm learning by working with really excellent athletes and then being able to sort of expand what I know or what I say or how I say it. Or I see something new and that's been really fun. Like I'm working with an MMA fighter right now who's gearing up for her first postpartum fight at about a year postpartum. So she's about eight weeks out right now. And that's a whole different world than say CrossFit, for example. So maybe I started in the CrossFit bubble. But now we're seeing a lot of this information infiltrate all sports, which I've said for so long, like this is not just specific to barbell athletes. This is specific to anybody who's pursuing any form of fitness Mm-hmm<affirmative> across that spectrum of interest or ability. Like, this is for all people. But I think that I have, I love it. Like I just freaking love it. I feel really fortunate that I get to have a business and a brand that is so heavily connected to my own identity and something I really put a lot of work and care into, and it's real for me. It's not just like, oh, I just wanna make some more money'cause I feel like there's a good marketing opportunity here or whatever. Like, of course I wanna make money. This is really freaking meaningful and I've put in a lot of work for it. But I also live this. It's not just another program to sell. This is good, helpful work that's doing good stuff for a lot of different people. And you know, like, we're seeing people create businesses for themselves. I never thought that'd happen, but people go through the coach force. Like I just couldn't have anticipated that. And well now I'm helping women to become small business owners.

Tiffy Thompson: 35:29

Right.

Brianna Battles: 35:30

Literally could have never anticipated that. I'm like, I dunno, I just wanted you to be a better coach. But then that led to the implementing and that led to, I'm gonna do something with this. And now we have people all over the world who are starting their own businesses because of what they've learned in this curriculum. And that to me is so freaking empowering. So empowering because so many of us were not given that as a, like, here's an option for you. It's like, we all kind of either fell ass-backwards into it or we have worked so hard to create that opportunity. And that's been really cool to see how that's transpired.

Tiffy Thompson: 36:02

Mm-hmm<affirmative> were there any major- looking back, do you see any mistakes where you're like, that was a learning experience?<Laugh>

Brianna Battles: 36:14

I mean, of course. Like with business, with coaching, with all of it, I think that there's- like, I move really fast. I move fast. I have big ideas. I have high energy and not everyone is able to stay at that level. And that's fine. I think there's- but that's why you have to have people who work alongside you, who can understand you and your vision and translate that. And then also know how to slow down and be really strategic with things, or you just kind of keep going and going and then you're not working strategically. It's a truly, like, what's the priority right now? What do we wanna do? How do we put a system in place to support that? And you know, it takes learning that the wrong way or the hard way a few times, I think, to get a better idea of how you operate. Like, know thyself, right? Like, I didn't know this about myself until I was in that kind of leadership position in business. Whereas like, well now I'm not just running a hobby. Like this is a whole thing. So now we have to have some strategies in place to really support that. And then investing in a business coach myself so that I have that kind of higher level support. Someone who's been there before mm-hmm<affirmative> who would really kind of take me under their wing to just help guide that big picture. Not just vision. I don't need anyone to give me ideas. I've got plenty of those. What I need is, how do I help those ideas scale the business and scale that.

Tiffy Thompson: 37:41

Right. So when it comes to PPA what's next? Like what's your sort of five year plan?

Brianna Battles: 37:49

Ooh, that's such a funny question because as much as I love to be a visionary, I just know that you can't really plan in five year increments. I'm like a year out person. Okay. For the most part, a year or two year out. I would like to get back to doing more in-person events. I was doing that pre COVID. I would travel a bit to do some seminars. I'm hosting my first, I'm calling it the coach course live here in Boise, Idaho where I'm having an online or sorry, having an in person learning weekend here with anybody who's gone through the coaching certification. So really just giving them that hands-on thing that so many of us been missing. Like I learned so well by doing and feeling and seeing in real time, not just through online and I know that so many coaches are the same. So being able to that in September is gonna be really cool. And then just traveling a bit more early in 2020, what year are we going into, 2023. I'd like to travel more for a couple seminars, to just get that out there, whether it's just to athletes or maybe some more coach stuff. I'm always up to, like, just linking arms with other professionals who are doing a good job and really expanding the entrepreneurship options for women in the fitness industry. Because I think that it just really has not always been an option. And then there's no real guidance on how to go about building a business or expanding your coaching offers both online or locally. We're all really good at what we do as coaches. The business side is a whole different beast.

Tiffy Thompson: 39:18

Yeah. How many have gone through your program?

Brianna Battles: 39:22

Hmm, gosh, I think at least 2000 right now.

Tiffy Thompson: 39:25

Wow.

Brianna Battles: 39:25

I haven't checked.

Tiffy Thompson: 39:27

So if listeners want to, we have a lot of gym owners and fitness coaches who listen, if they wanna get in touch with you, what would be the best way to go about doing that?

Brianna Battles: 39:39

Yeah. You can just go to my website and that's www.briannabattles.com. And then all of my stuff is just right there, from the certification program to the different fitness programs to the podcast to, like, whatever you're looking for. It's all right there.

Tiffy Thompson: 39:53

Awesome. Brianna, it was a pleasure.

Brianna Battles: 39:56

Thank you. Thank you for having this conversation.

Tiffy Thompson: 39:59

That's it for Women in Fitness Business. If you like the show, please hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.