Treat Your Business

139 Coaches Corner: Breaking Old Habits and Leaning Into Growth

• Katie Bell / Philippa Aldridge / Jodie • Season 1 • Episode 139

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Welcome to this week’s episode of the Treat Your Business podcast. Today I’m joined by two of Thrive’s fabulous coaches, Philippa and Jodie. This week, we’re talking about something I hear all the time from clinic owners, when things get tough, it’s so easy to slip back into “I’ll just do it myself.” We see it at every level, whether you’re running a solo clinic or leading a big team. Your old habits and your ego want to keep you safe, but they also keep you stuck.

What’s inside this episode:

  • Philippa shares a real story about a client who wanted to jump back into sales when conversions dipped, instead of trusting her team.
  • Jodi talks about wearing all the hats, that fear of letting go, and why it’s so tough to delegate.
  • I’ll be honest - I’ve had moments where I wanted to run away from my numbers too. But facing up to the truth is where real change starts.

Key takeaways:

  • You’re not alone. Every clinic owner has wanted to run away at some point.
  • Your comfort zone feels safe, but nothing grows there.
  • Knowing your numbers gives you power, even when it’s uncomfortable.
  • You cannot do it all yourself. Delegating is hard but necessary.
  • Community matters. Surround yourself with people who get it.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or ready to give up, you’re not failing, you’re on the edge of growth. Take a breath, be honest about what’s tough, and remember you can do hard things, and you don’t have to do them alone.

Thank you to Philippa and Jodi for joining me, and thank you for listening. Keep going and keep thriving.

Episode Sponsor:

VBS Medical Ltd, exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland of K-Laser Therapy & Indiba Radiofrequency Therapy.
To learn more about K-Laser Therapy, visit: https://klaseruk.co.uk/why-klaser/
To learn about Indiba Radiofrequency Therapy, visit: https://vbsmedical.com/product/indiba-radiofrequency/
Book your free trial at https://vbsmedical.com/contact/ – quote "THRIVE" to receive a free set of goggles or Indiba cream with your equipment purchase.

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by MBST, the groundbreaking technology revolutionising recovery and rehabilitation. Offering a non-invasive, drug-free solution for musculoskeletal conditions and nerve injuries, MBST works at a cellular level to stimulate regeneration. Expand your services and deliver long-term patient improvements without increasing your workload.

Learn more at mbstmedical.co.uk. 

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: Hello, listeners, welcome back to this week's podcast. I am very excited, as you can tell by the tone of my voice because I have my very special people with me today. Philippa say hi.

[00:00:10] Philippa Aldridge: Hello everybody.

[00:00:11] Katie Bell: Jodie, say hi.

[00:00:13] Jodie: Hi everyone.

[00:00:14] Katie Bell: So this is another episode of Coaches Corner, and Coaches Corner Area is where I bring one or two of my coaches into the podcast and we talk about something juicy.

[00:00:25] Katie Bell: And I wish we'd turned on the recording about 10 minutes ago because it was wild what we were talking [00:00:30] about. We've been everywhere. Philippa was doing a spiritual dance, then you were singing, then you were getting your castanets out literally. You should have been there to see that.

[00:00:38] Katie Bell: Jodi was talking about her hair being on crazy on the top of her head. What else? Dunno what else? So much stuff. But then we realized that it was actually nothing to do with what we're here to talk about. So I've pulled some order back in and we were saying before we came on what's the biggest challenge that we are hearing from?

[00:00:58] Katie Bell: Our clients that we all coach. [00:01:00] So Jodi, you coaching the Activate program, Philippa you coaching the Activate on the Elevate and the Ascend program. And we get to have fabulous conversations with our community every single day, every single week. And so we hear lots of repeated stuff, don't we? But repeated, but in their own unique way.

[00:01:20] Katie Bell: And one of the things that we've heard a lot over the last few weeks is I'll just do it myself.

[00:01:27] Katie Bell: They are on the cusp of, [00:01:30] becoming something different or being somebody different, which is going to create different behaviors and therefore different results in their business. But as that's happening, what we're seeing is their old way of being and their ego is oh shit, this looks scary.

[00:01:45] Katie Bell: This might not work. So I'm gonna pull you back into what is your kind of habit, your old way of doing things, which has got you to where you are now, but it ain't gonna get you to the next level.

[00:01:57] Katie Bell: [00:02:00] Welcome to the Treat Your Business Podcast with Katie Bell. I'm Katie, and this is the place where clinic owners like you learn the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts needed to transform your clinic into a thriving business. One that gives you more time, more money, and more freedom. Born from a passion to challenge the idea that average is normal.

[00:02:20] Katie Bell: We empower clinic owners to create extraordinary businesses, incomes, and lives through our world class coaching programs. We help you step out of overwhelm and into [00:02:30]confidence, turning your clinic into a business that fuels your lifestyle, not drain it. So are you ready? Let's dive in.

[00:02:38] Katie Bell: Today's episode is sponsored by VBS Medical Limited. It's the exclusive distributor of K-laser therapy and Indiba radio frequency therapy in the UK and Ireland. K-Laser and Indiba are non-invasive therapies that enhance and accelerate the healing process complementing standard of care. Broadening therapeutic opportunities, [00:03:00] improving clinical outcomes, generating new profit, and distinguishing your clinic from the competition.

[00:03:06] Katie Bell: K-Laser and Indiba have a medical device regulation approval, meaning they have scientific publications to validate their clinical applications in practice. To learn more, visit www.vbsmedical.com and book your free trial today.

[00:03:21] Katie Bell: Philippa, you heard this from somebody this week you were coaching? Yeah.

[00:03:25] Katie Bell: And what, tell the listeners the scenario, the situation. 

[00:03:29] Philippa Aldridge: So it [00:03:30] was somebody looking at their conversion rates and conversions to sales and they had looked at their past few months of conversions. They were looking at their numbers and they'd sent me the numbers and had said, I don't know what to do with this.

[00:03:46] Philippa Aldridge: It was great in January, and now it's just gone down and down, and I just simply asked the question, tell me what was different in January. Then, and the answer was so and so was sick [00:04:00] and I had to do some of the work. And then they said, oh, so that means really I should just take, go. I should do the conversions again.

[00:04:09] Philippa Aldridge: I should be in charge of that because I'm good at it, even though they've just made themselves completely nonclinical. And so therefore it's not their responsibility. And actually, but the part of them was like, we need more sales, so therefore I will just do this part. Yeah, because I can do it because there is some evidence that actually when I do it, [00:04:30] it works.

[00:04:31] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah. Rather than thinking, okay, how, what can we do about this? Yes. Yeah. Because for a part of them, it's so much easier to go back to a way of being Yeah. Where they know how to behave or parts of them know how to behave than to do something new. Where they don't have the evidence, they don't have all of the information, and also they are changing and actually [00:05:00] stepping into becoming who they're truly meant to be.

[00:05:02] Katie Bell: And this is fascinating, isn't it, Jodi, you, I forgot Jodi to say you also coach on the Evolve program. And so what we see in terms of behaviors and attitudes and beliefs in the evolve level are very different to the activate level. And then when we compare activate to Elevate, they're very different again in elevate to Ascend One's not like better or worse, we're not judging them on that.

[00:05:27] Katie Bell: One's beliefs and behaviors and [00:05:30] attitudes and thoughts are creating the results that they are seeing in their business right now. So in Evolv we are we work with people who are young, small clinics and they're making up to 5,000 pounds worth of revenue. So their money thermostat is currently set at that level.

[00:05:46] Katie Bell: That's what they are attracting in. Their behaviors, their beliefs are at that level. And Philippa please, say your mindset stuff piece around all of this. But this is what I feel is like I teach them in Evolve and [00:06:00] then I teach them Ascend. And it's like we're teaching two totally different things because.

[00:06:05] Katie Bell: For them to, all of the Ascend members started in Evolve. Like we all started with a zero pounds or a small business, or we bought into something that was small and we've grown it. But to grow it strategy is one part, and I think it's relatively a small part compared to the changes that then need to go on.

[00:06:24] Katie Bell: Inside the business owner to allow them [00:06:30] to step into, as you just said, Philippa, who they truly are and what they are here to actually do in the world, rather than play a small game. Jodi, I know that when you're working with people in the Evolve program, a lot of what you see is just a belief pattern that's keeping them where they're at, where they're at now.

[00:06:50] Katie Bell: Would you agree? 

[00:06:51] Jodie: Yeah, it's a, it is a belief pattern, but most of those people are on their own. They don't have team yet, so they're generally what we would consider as time [00:07:00] poor. So they feel like they are working five different hats and actually it becomes quite a fear factor for them to offload.

[00:07:08] Jodie: Certain things that isn't, their zone of genius isn't where they need to be to pull the business forward. And that's really difficult because they're, they've learned that behavior. They've learned, they all evolves on them. Yeah. So it becomes a really tough challenge when they're starting to learn their numbers, which they have been doing, and.

[00:07:27] Jodie: Then they've got the whole, can I [00:07:30] afford this? So for example, marketing's a big topic conversation in Evolve, but actually we are probably not naturally great at that as therapists. So we should be getting someone else in that seat. Yeah. But it becomes very hard when your numbers aren't currently where they are.

[00:07:44] Jodie: I knew all the revenue generator solely. So it becomes a real challenge for those individual owners. But actually it's then, I guess a it's a jump. It's a leap of faith to go, actually, if I offset that, I can focus off the revenue generator and the good quality care and the [00:08:00] delivery of the sessions, which is inevitably why people come into them,

[00:08:03] Jodie: and then that increases their revenue in general.

[00:08:05] Katie Bell: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:08:06] Jodie: So then you can reinvest in the business and push forward even further. But it, I guess it's that mindset challenge to start with.

[00:08:14] Katie Bell: Completely. And interestingly, I ran a masterclass last night and there was a lady on there and I said, how much do you make in the clinic in an hour?

[00:08:20] Katie Bell: And she said, I got 80 quid, or a hundred quid, whatever it's, and I said, if we were being brutal about this, right? If I was just looking at this, I would say anything that is less [00:08:30] than a hundred pounds. We could pay somebody else less than a hundred pounds to do. We should be delegating because the only way you're gonna grow your business quickly.

[00:08:37] Katie Bell: And she was like, like this light bulb moment happened for her because we also established actually by automating and bringing in software and something that was gonna cost a 30 quid a month, we realized would leverage about something like 12 hours a month of her time. Wow. 30 pounds. And I was like 12 times a hundred is 1,200 pounds, and it's only gonna cost [00:09:00] you 30 to get those hours back.

[00:09:02] Katie Bell: But it's not until Jodi, as you've just said, Philippa, you just said, we have the evidence that we can then start to make these critical and crucial decisions about how we grow and scale our business. But then when we have the evidence Philippa, we can make decisions that make us go backwards. Yeah, because the evidence scares us. 

[00:09:24] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah. Because we don't understand how it's going to, or a part of us does [00:09:30] not understand how it's going to make life better. And because it's stressful, whether you realize it's stressful or not, it's a stress response. Part of you still processing that as a life and death situation.

[00:09:40] Philippa Aldridge: And when Jodi was talking, there's the decision to make about the pain of not having enough time. And the pain of doing something different, and investing money in marketing. Choose your pain. Yeah. Actually, if you've got no evidence that marketing and that investment is going to work, of course you're [00:10:00] gonna stay where you are.

[00:10:01] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah. 'cause. You are, as we've talked about before, the bottleneck in all of this. Yeah. And for some people, and Jodi used this phrase too, that leap of faith has to happen. And we do see time and time again depending on colors as well, who needs the most evidence. There has to be evidence, and I've talked to people before about why this, you might be finding this challenging is have you given a part of you enough evidence?

[00:10:26] Philippa Aldridge: Have you asked yourself what you actually need? [00:10:30] And some people do that so far, and then they aren't reminding themselves constantly. They think, yeah, I've got this, I've got this. It's easy. It's easy. And then part of them goes, no, it isn't. No, we hit a bump in the road and they go straight back to old behaviors.

[00:10:45] Katie Bell: Yeah, and we were talking just before we came on, we were gonna rename our clients 'cause we didn't wanna share their names. Not because actually I think the clients would be totally fine with it, but the right thing to do. So we decided Beavers and Butthead Bill and Ben, what were the other ones?

[00:10:59] Philippa Aldridge: [00:11:00] Ben and Jerry.

[00:11:00] Katie Bell: Ben And Jerry

[00:11:01] Katie Bell: choose any of them. 

[00:11:03] Jodi: And it could be clients of ours, you never know. 

[00:11:05] Katie Bell: Could be true. So client X. Whatever you gotta replace their name with, said to me on a on a q and a call yesterday for clarity for our listeners, every single week our clients connect with us in one way or the other, don't they? And this week has been our q and a week, so they get to log in for 90 minutes and they can ask basically any questions.

[00:11:26] Katie Bell: They can get a kick up the backside if they need it. They can get a refocus, [00:11:30] they can get a, I just need to offload all of this and somebody needs to listen because it's lonely being a clinic owner. But this particular question was. That we are, we finally, for the first time, and I think it's 11 years, this lady has got evidence and clarity on her numbers, like absolute clarity.

[00:11:50] Katie Bell: For the first time in 11 years, she's just started working with us and what that has revealed is that she is doing a few things. We are have, we've got [00:12:00] no tax planning, we have zero cash flow. We have zero cash flow because we are drawing out more than the business is making as a director's salary. So we then owe the business money at the end of the year.

[00:12:14] Katie Bell: This lady is also VAT registered, so we have to have a provision for that. And so I said to client X, we are literally just living from one day to the next day, to the next day, to the next day. So she said, yeah. And I said and by having that evidence, what is that made you? [00:12:30] I feel I wanna do and she's like a massive fucking part of me wants to just run away from this.

[00:12:37] Katie Bell: A massive part of wanting to run away. So she said, and do you know what I did Katie? She said, I'm ashamed to admit it 'cause she's doing a lot of work with you, Philippa. So she knows this stuff. She said on Friday I even went to the local health club to see if I could get some classes for 60 pounds an hour.

[00:12:53] Katie Bell: And everybody on the q and a call looked like, this massive shock on their face. 'cause we are all, we've all [00:13:00] been there, we've all gone through this journey. And she was like, but I know that's not the right thing to do, is it? And I was like, okay, let's step back here and look at the bigger picture of what opportunity we've got in May.

[00:13:11] Katie Bell: And this client said, oh, I've done a campaign for move more in May. So she's got loads of Pilates members and she's got this functional side of the business that is. Not optimized. So she's invited every Pilates member to come and have a free month in her functional fitness suite or studio, whatever, right?

[00:13:29] Katie Bell: She's got [00:13:30] loads of uptake. So we established zone of genius is sales. She's brilliant at sales. Great. So what should you be doing in May? You need to be at every one of those tasters and you need to be having conversations. Every single one of those people, we worked out our average client value. What would a client pay you?

[00:13:49] Katie Bell: What would an upgrade look like? And we're talking, shall I spend one hour making 60 quid in a gym, teaching a class for somebody else that I still have to pay tax on [00:14:00]that is going to stop me from making literally thousands of pounds in her own business. And I tell that story because, you know what a part of me felt sad for her, and I felt sad for her because I was like, oh, I've been there as well.

[00:14:17] Katie Bell: We all have these desperate moments where we think, shit, there's gotta be an easier way than this. I wanna run away from this evidence of what I'm seeing. I then felt really excited for her 'cause I was like, you know what? We've got so [00:14:30] much opportunity. Your business now is moving forwards. We're not doing it the old way.

[00:14:34] Katie Bell: But I said to her, you are gonna have to lean in hard here and you're gonna have to suck this up. And it's gonna be really uncomfortable for about 30 to 60 days. And then you are never gonna look back again. And you've both been in this position in your own businesses, haven't you? Where we've had to make.

[00:14:51] Katie Bell: The easy decision. Jodi, you've had it. I'll just go back and do more clinical work. 

[00:14:56] Jodie: Yeah, and I've had that situ, the same situation that client's had with [00:15:00]director's loan, everything. But it, again, it just proves a point that when you have the right people in the right seat, so for example, employing your accountant or outsourcing that profit first method, all that side of it, that clarity.

[00:15:15] Jodie: We can work with that and we can get it back on track. Yeah. But it's so important you keep working with those people because otherwise you do just end up rolling, rolling, rolling. And it does get worse. And then it's really, it's a real challenge to get yourself out of that place and [00:15:30]you then have to employ more strategies to work to get that.

[00:15:34] Jodie: Back to where you want it to be. And it's a really hard it's a mindset challenge and I absolutely remember being in that position and yeah, balling in my eyes out about it. So it is scary. And then we just outsource. We wanna just outsource and leave. Of course you do. 'cause you're like, I'll just go and work someone else.

[00:15:50] Jodie: I'll be employed. Take a salary. Yeah, but actually if you broke that down and sat and said, if tomorrow we [00:16:00] took your business away from you, would that break your heart? I think all of our answers would be absolutely. That's not what one, it's just, it's very blink. It's hard to get yourself out of that place.

[00:16:11] Katie Bell: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:16:11] Jodie: Especially if you've got hard evidence in front of you and your accountant's ringing your email and you to say, your director's loans here, and your profit's here. And it's scary. 

[00:16:20] Katie Bell: And I guess Jodi, the importance of. Numbers cannot be ignored. And anybody listening to this who are being, has been an ostrich and [00:16:30] bearing their head in the sand and not really wanting to face this, or anybody that's listening that has, that waits for their year end.

[00:16:38] Katie Bell: So we, funnily enough, like we're recording this in May. For many businesses, they've just hit their financial year end at the 31st of March or 5th of April, whatever. It's 4th of April. So what a lot of people will be in the scenario right now of is they'll be clueless as to how their business is done in 20 24, 20 25.

[00:16:58] Katie Bell: And we'll be waiting for the [00:17:00] accountants to produce their year-end accounts with their p and l, their profit and loss report. And on your profit and loss report, it'll say You took this amount of money out the business and your business made this, and therefore there is list left over. Or you are in a deficit.

[00:17:14] Katie Bell: And Jodi, you've had this before. And it's not because we're greedy fucking hell. If we were greedy, we wouldn't be in this industry. Because making money is hard. We're not all of us in it for making tens and [00:17:30] 20 and thirties and thousands of pounds because we are here because we care about our clients so much, but we've just tried to pay ourselves what we think is a normal salary, and because we've got no oversight of what we're actually making every month, then we have often a case of where we paid ourselves too much and the business hasn't made it.

[00:17:48] Katie Bell: And that is a super stressful position to be in. 

[00:17:51] Jodie: And I think it comes from if you are seeing the accounts, you are doing your accounts month to month pay and payroll, you basically just go off of, this is a positive amount in my [00:18:00]bank account and I'm gonna take that. And if you haven't got, and if you haven't got those pots, then suddenly the tax man comes around.

[00:18:06] Jodie: Yeah. So it, yeah. The evidence for someone that isn't in tune with their numbers is I don't understand and I know I was there. I don't understand that. I'm not in the overdraft, I'm not borrowing money. So surely that money that's left after I paid everyone. It's mine. Yeah. But it just doesn't work like that.

[00:18:23] Jodie: No. And becomes a little bit more complex when VAT and everything else comes into play yeah. 

[00:18:28] Katie Bell: Yeah. And in contrast to that, [00:18:30] another conversation that we had this week one of our other clients we call her whatever funny name we could imagine now, but she said yesterday, she's in a position where she's had to make somebody redundant.

[00:18:42] Katie Bell: Super stressful, like we are all with her every step of the way here because it doesn't have to happen very often, but when it does have to happen, it's awful. And and she openly says she wouldn't have got through this phase without all of the Thrive community around her and guiding her and leading her through this.

[00:18:59] Katie Bell: But she [00:19:00] said, she ran her numbers this month and she said we've made some money. We've not lost any money. We've made a little bit of money. She said, but I've had to pay 4,000 pounds out in redundancy. And we were like, wow. That's huge for most businesses. Most businesses don't have that sort of cash flow.

[00:19:15] Katie Bell: And she said, had I not got clear on my numbers with Thrive, had I not introduced the Profit First Model, I wouldn't have had that money. We would now be in a position where her business is overdrawn with no [00:19:30] access to more funds, and that could close somebody because of this knob of a member of staff that we've had to remove, but.

[00:19:40] Katie Bell: Because this person has diligently got on top of their numbers and gone through that growing pain of my business is not making enough money here and I need to do some stuff about it. She's come out the other side and that's a really positive thing for her. But Philippa, you see this all the time, don't you?

[00:19:56] Katie Bell: In terms of people's ego? Like [00:20:00] it works so hard, even though the business that we're running. Is not the one we wanna run. We're not making the money we wanna make. We're not got the time or the freedom or the energy or the confidence we want to do something different requires a shift. And isn't it so hard for our ego to accept that it just wants to keep us in the shitness, even though we don't wanna be there.

[00:20:23] Philippa Aldridge: But it's comfortable. We know it.

[00:20:25] Katie Bell: Oh, but is it?

[00:20:26] Philippa Aldridge: Oh, it's for a part of us because we're surviving [00:20:30] there. 

[00:20:30] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:20:30] Philippa Aldridge: This is a very primitive part of us, which is basically saying, we're surviving. Why would you change? Why would you go a little bit further on the Savannah, yeah. We're eating here.

[00:20:42] Philippa Aldridge: Our tummies might not be full, but we're still surviving, so why look at that? Because that's too scary. And that is when we have to dig a little bit deeper and find out where that's coming from, but also talked about before that evidence that it's [00:21:00] going work.

[00:21:01] Philippa Aldridge: When you were talking earlier about client X saying that they just wanted to run and hide, that is such a beau. I was like, if I'd heard those words, I would be like, brilliant. We are stressed because that is fight or flight verbalized. I wanna run and hide flight. She's running. So we immediately, first of all, have got to de-stress you.

[00:21:24] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah. Because you wanna be able to, your brain is completely shut down at that point. You are blinkered, [00:21:30] you are just focusing on survival. But obviously everything that we do here is about thriving. Yeah. And. It's making sure, and it's beautiful that we have all of these examples to people that knowing your numbers is actually more helpful than not knowing them.

[00:21:49] Philippa Aldridge: Yes. And even if it is relatively bad, there is something you can do about it. Absolutely. Actions you can take 

[00:21:58] Philippa Aldridge: before [00:22:00] you are out of control in a situation where. You are gonna have to close your business or you're gonna have to go and get a normal job, or you're gonna have to leave the industry and start doing something else because it's too, sometimes it's too painful for us to actually look at what's going on.

[00:22:19] Philippa Aldridge: And I know, I think Jodi, I dunno if this was like Jodi when we met at the therapy expo. I can't, you'll have to remind me now. I remember when I was new in business [00:22:30] because it was me doing all the clinical revenue. I was like six days a week. I was maxed out seeing a billion clients a minute. I was the pilates instructor, I was the acupuncturist, I was the phone person.

[00:22:41] Philippa Aldridge: I people come in with having rubber gloves on. I was scrubbing the toilets like I was all on. I was the circus performer, but I was making some serious cash. When I say making some serious cash, my revenue, like each week I was like, wow, I've look at this amount of money because we're a cash business.

[00:22:58] Philippa Aldridge: Somebody comes in [00:23:00] 10 years ago for me in my business, pays you go, pays me 40 quid out the door. Next one comes in 40 quid and it was like, okay, this feels quite good. But because you see that evidence of it's gotta be okay because all these people are paying me these 40 pounds. I didn't look at my numbers to, to start with.

[00:23:18] Philippa Aldridge: And I just thought because my bank account had was in black, that was like, oh, okay. I can just pay myself what I need to pay myself. But there was [00:23:30] no future proofing. There was. There was. And was that the same for you? Like when you were 

[00:23:36] Jodie: Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking because back then it, I was a sole trader, so it's, yeah.

[00:23:42] Jodie: Very differently. Same as me. Yeah. So I think the biggest hurdle was actually going from sole trader to limited company. I still had the mind, the previous mindset before I joined Thrive. Yeah. So I was trying to run a limited company within the first [00:24:00] year as a director now taking PAYE and dividends. Yeah.

[00:24:05] Jodie: But still was a sole trade. And inevitably that's where I got the deficit from my director's loan because I just didn't understand it. And at that point. As I know you guys know, like I didn't have the right accountant in place. They weren't working for me. It felt like they were working against me. And actually that caused problems because if they had potentially advised me a little bit better, then we may have preempted that.

[00:24:28] Jodie: That happens and we've made [00:24:30] a change. So I guess my advice would be do it earlier enough whether you're a small business now. Get on it now. And if that's you'll have more clarity when you first get your member of team and then you can kick on from there rather than, not knowing that stuff, then having team, then not understanding what NICs cost what that is, what this is, and then suddenly you are two, three years into it and every year you're a deficit.

[00:24:55] Jodie: And you're not seeing that cash flow and you're not seeing that profit margin. Because I will tell people that actually [00:25:00] when I was self-employed, I probably earned more in my last couple of years of being self-employed than in the first year of being a limited company. And I thought that's weird 'cause the revenue's higher.

[00:25:12] Jodie: And it just, it wasn't matching up and being a numbers girl, that was really confusing. So I had to learn the strategy behind that. And, the implementation of that stuff was where it started to kick off and thrive. 

[00:25:24] Katie Bell: Yeah. And I, do you know what? It's really interesting that you said that, because I remember my accountant, when we [00:25:30] moved to a limited company, she said, so everything that you've done so far, Katie cannot be done moving forwards.

[00:25:36] Katie Bell: This is now, this is not your pot as a sole trader. You basically just have whatever's there, whatever you want it. Nothing really is ever tracked. This is now a business entity that is not yours. It is separate. We have to treat this like a totally separate thing. And I remember trying to get my head around it and you, and this is the biggest challenge, isn't it for lots of business owners, is that it [00:26:00] feels like a massive thing.

[00:26:00] Katie Bell: It feels oh, is this all too much hard work? And but everybody we speak to, I can't think of anything more stressful than going to bed at night worrying about money. Okay, your health that's real. Obviously super stressful, but money is like a fucking massive thing, isn't it? 

[00:26:22] Philippa Aldridge: It's a massive thing.

[00:26:23] Philippa Aldridge: It's a huge thing. And I think if you don't know what you don't know. No, I think it's really important as well that we [00:26:30] recognize the fact that a part of us can really shame us. Yeah. About the fact that we don't know this stuff. Yeah. That I, but you don't know what you don't know, and. Yeah. I think you've talked about the light bulbs that go off for people when they suddenly realize that actually by knowing my numbers, I actually have a whole nother level of choice that I didn't realize I had.

[00:26:55] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:26:55] Philippa Aldridge: Is huge because we're there counting the 40 quids or whatever it [00:27:00] is. Yeah. They're thinking, see, I'm in control. I'm in control. I'm bringing the money and I'm in control. But actually you are not.

[00:27:08] Philippa Aldridge: Now, and that is a massive shift and that we talk about money mindset so much because it comes up at every single level.

[00:27:19] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah, 

[00:27:19] Katie Bell: It really does. And if you can start to work on this stuff really early, it sets the foundations up for you to. Really [00:27:30] accelerate on the path of business ownership. And there's a lot of things and I guess a part of massive passion and massive reason why I do this is that if only I'd known a lot of this stuff 10 years ago, I probably would've made an even bigger impact in the, certainly in the community of Sheffield, in terms of their health and wellness.

[00:27:49] Katie Bell: But in the world as well, 'cause what we do has a massive ripple effect. And you can't underestimate the power of what we are doing to the health of our communities that we work within. But I also [00:28:00] see so many clinic owners every single week, like struggling and not living the life that they deserve to live because they're not, I guess there's something that's stopping them reaching out.

[00:28:15] Katie Bell: For help or really looking at this and being brave enough to go, I'm gonna look at this and this is gonna be really fucking uncomfortable. And this, it's gonna show me a lot of stuff that I've, we're high achievers, I'm just gonna say it. We've failed at I, I look at stuff when people [00:28:30]tell me metrics and numbers that I might be directly responsible for.

[00:28:32] Katie Bell: If we've not hit target, I failed because I'm a high achiever and my mindset quickly shifts into what am I doing about this? How am I gonna take this forward? What do I need to learn? A lot of people will be faced by that scenario and turn around and go the other way. Now nothing improves for them.

[00:28:53] Katie Bell: In fact, it often gets worse. And that's what we see all the time, isn't it? Not when they're in Thrive, of course, [00:29:00]

[00:29:00] Philippa Aldridge: but it takes bravery, doesn't it? To be able to put your hand up and go, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. And for me in, with the clients that we are working with, because.

[00:29:11] Philippa Aldridge: You are all high achievers. Yeah. And you strive to be high achievers. Yeah. To actually acknowledge that, I don't know. 

[00:29:21] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah. 

[00:29:21] Philippa Aldridge: That can bring up all kinds of stuff and that needs to be dealt with. And if you don't wanna look at it, then you're not gonna be able to [00:29:30] move on. Yeah. 

[00:29:31] Katie Bell: And you certainly won't be the leader that you aspire to be.

[00:29:35] Katie Bell: Being able to be vulnerable and say. I do not know this and I do not know what I'm doing, and I need help is one of the quickest route to success. It really is. And I like, I have not been good at this for many years, but like in the last five years or six years, I've had to get really good at it.

[00:29:52] Katie Bell: And that's when things have really changed for me and for everybody. And I'm in a position right now where I'm trying to exit two businesses [00:30:00] in 10 and a half weeks. Because I am apparently growing a human. And it's going to arrive. It's going slide my body, everybody.

[00:30:09] Katie Bell: With one big puff and yeah. I'm manifesting Philipp. I'm doing, 

[00:30:16] Philippa Aldridge: I know you're putting it out there, man. Yeah. 

[00:30:18] Katie Bell: Put it out there. It's gonna slide out. I'm gonna look like a hun. Posting is gonna bring champagne and oysters. 'cause this is what I'm craving. Apparently that's not normal, but [00:30:30] this, I'm going with it, right?

[00:30:31] Katie Bell: And we're just gonna rock and roll. They're gonna be absolutely fine. So in 10 and a half weeks I've got to leave the business and there is still some seats that I sit, not so much in my clinic, but certainly in Thrive because it's a newer, younger business that are me. My name is in that seat and I'm having to say to people.

[00:30:50] Katie Bell: I need you to take this over and I need to be open enough to say, you are gonna probably do this in a different way to me, and I'm having to empower people and let [00:31:00] people run with it. And that's hard. It's I'm more so empathetic with what our clients are going through. I'm just doing it for another reason, for another level, but my God.

[00:31:14] Katie Bell: Is this gonna mean that Thrive will absolutely fly? Yes. Because it's forcing me to do things that I have not fucking done for five years and I should have done. So it's it's a great thing. So basically what I'm saying is everybody get pregnant because [00:31:30] then, you, the man can be of your choice, right?

[00:31:36] Katie Bell: And then it forces you to look at things that you've got off. And it forces you to look hard at the stuff that you are holding onto, that you are controlling, that you are not letting go of or take a mini retirement stress test your business in some way. Whether you are a sole trader or whether you are running a big company like we are, you've gotta put your business through a stress test [00:32:00] because if you, if your business cannot thrive without you being there, you do not have a business.

[00:32:04] Katie Bell: You have a job. And that's hard to hear. I know that's hard to hear for a lot of listeners, but that's the level that we have to be at to have actual freedom, to have actual time, to have the money that we deserve to have and the life that we deserve to have.

[00:32:19] Katie Bell: I've just totally left you silent.

[00:32:22] Katie Bell: You've got some smart comeback. 

[00:32:25] Jodie: I've got nothing other than I'm sending good energies and I hope it does come in. [00:32:30] One puff. 

[00:32:30] Philippa Aldridge: One puff. Yeah, one puff. I'm still on the one puff. 

[00:32:35] Katie Bell: You lost me at one puff. 

[00:32:37] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah. 

[00:32:38] Katie Bell: Women hang off trees and just pop it out and then go back to farming on the fields. 

[00:32:44] Jodie: Philippa, what have you been telling her to read?

[00:32:46] Philippa Aldridge: But 

[00:32:48] Katie Bell: I get it. 

[00:32:48] Jodie: You, you got this baby. 

[00:32:50] Katie Bell: I'm putting it out there. This is very absolutely fine. 

[00:32:53] Jodie: Yeah. Anyone can do it. You can do it in one puff. 

[00:32:56] Philippa Aldridge: But I think also this is about, we can all do hard things, [00:33:00] right? Yeah. All of us are doing you, you are living and breathing, all the sorts of things that we talk about.

[00:33:08] Philippa Aldridge: In Thrive. Jodi is living and breathing that, yeah, I'm living and breathing that in my business, but also in the way I manage my mindset and all of that. Nicola is and we're all doing that. Yeah. Yeah. We are not asking anybody to do anything that we wouldn't be doing ourselves or we haven't done, or we challenge each other to do.

[00:33:29] Philippa Aldridge: So I [00:33:30] think you're not on your own. Yeah. The hard things happen for a part of us at every single level. 

[00:33:37] Katie Bell: Yeah. And they always will, but that's gross. And how many times do we celebrate when clients say to us, I'm running away. I wanna just leave this, I want, I wanna cry. In fact, I am crying.

[00:33:48] Katie Bell: This is too hard. And we go. This is fabulous news. Yes. Yes. This is fabulous news and this is fabulous news because you are on the cusp of change in growth, and for most people, 95% [00:34:00] will run away from this, but we don't do that in Thrive. We are the 5% and we have to lean in and it's gonna be uncomfortable, but we're here to support you and you've got everybody around you and left to your own devices.

[00:34:10] Katie Bell: Like most people wouldn't do that, would they? None of us would. We all need people around us to go, you've got this. And for others to say I was there as well, I totally get it and I've come through it there. You can change, you can do things differently. I think really empowers. 

[00:34:28] Jodie: I think some people just are [00:34:30] not knowing the difference.

[00:34:31] Jodie: There is a difference out there. 

[00:34:32] Katie Bell: Yeah, true. 

[00:34:33] Jodie: We've all been there. I think as people, we come out of uni, we come out of education, we come out of whatever qualification we've gained and we are not trained in this side of it and we go, we wanna work for ourselves. We just don't know the how of the business side of things.

[00:34:48] Jodie: And then because of that we don't know there's any difference. And I think what's happening in Thrive is actually we are just changing the connotation of the health industry by saying there is a different way to do [00:35:00] it. There is a different way to do it and you can make good revenue and good income for yourself and you can create a business that serves you.

[00:35:08] Jodie: And, but that, to take that step can be scary. 'cause I know I was there and crying on you. So it does come, but it's just having that brave step and that desire and that want, and it is in people. It's just, it's a scary 

[00:35:22] Katie Bell: challenge. It's in everybody. Everybody's got it. It's just, we've gotta find a way of you, what did you say, Phillipa?

[00:35:29] Katie Bell: It's what do [00:35:30] you need to hear? What do you need to know and how many times you need to know it. For you to keep moving forwards in that way. What is it that your personality, that your color, as we say, thrive needs to help you keep moving forwards. 

[00:35:42] Philippa Aldridge: Yeah. What, and that's what's good about Thrive is Yeah.

[00:35:46] Philippa Aldridge: It's not a cookie cutter approach. If we go with that term, we still think about what you want as a business owner. Yeah. Yeah. What you want your life, what success looks like for you. [00:36:00] How you're gonna get there and we help you do that. 

[00:36:04] Katie Bell: What would be like your parting words for our listeners today?

[00:36:08] Katie Bell: Like what do you wanna, what do you want 'em to really take? From what we've said? Don't be rude about the puff. And I could see it. I could see it on your face. Philippa. You would dly. Try not to say anything then about the one puff. See, I've lost her. I 

[00:36:24] Philippa Aldridge: lost that. I'm still here. I'm still here.

[00:36:27] Philippa Aldridge: Okay. You've lost Jodi. Jodi's gone. Jodi's [00:36:30] beside herself, doesn't know how to contain herself. 

[00:36:32] Katie Bell: Yeah. 

[00:36:33] Philippa Aldridge: Pass out in one.

[00:36:35] Philippa Aldridge: Oh God. I think for me it's remembering that you don't dunno what you don't know. Yeah. But there are people out there that have done it and there is evidence that can su you can give yourself evidence to support yourself through this. Yeah. And the, there is that opportunity to grow, to change.

[00:36:55] Philippa Aldridge: And I know this is not one thought, it was never gonna be one thought was it? I am waffling on. [00:37:00] But growth comes where it's uncomfortable. Yeah. And you have a choice to either do what you always do, which might be run away, do whatever. Yes. Or you can do something different. And if you wanna do something different, that's what we are here for.

[00:37:16] Katie Bell: Said beautifully by the blue, obviously.

[00:37:20] Katie Bell: Beautiful. Jodi, as a red what would be your one word? Because that's all you're ever gonna gimme as a red 

[00:37:27] Jodie: three. Get it done. No. I would say, I [00:37:30] think the best piece of advice or takeaway I would say is. Just give yourself a day in your business and just basically audit, sit down and say, what am I genuinely struggling here with?

[00:37:42] Jodie: What do I know? What do I like about my business? And then get some clarity as a first step of where we are struggling or where you are struggling with. And then who do I need in those in place there to help me with that?

[00:37:56] Jodie: We've all been there and we need to, and then before [00:38:00] we do that, then we can go on to knowing our numbers and we can then work with the people like the accountants and thrive and all of that. But actually, sometimes the best thing to do is just take a step back and just take a bird's eye view of what's going on.

[00:38:12] Katie Bell: 100%. I love Red. Was it? It was not very red. This is because you've been working with Philippa. She does this to you. I told she does this to you. It's very mind. 

[00:38:26] Philippa Aldridge: Very 

[00:38:26] Katie Bell: look. Look at this. Do you even recognize this person, Philippa? [00:38:30] No, but there's a part of me that's really proud right now.

[00:38:33] Katie Bell: She's probably crying again, Jodi, oh dear. You've not got tissues remember? No, I haven't. Can't cry. No. You just got a rolled up pair of socks. Yes. Yes. Which I don't even wanna ask where they're right now, because I am melting in this office.

[00:38:46] Katie Bell: So anyway, on that thought, listeners, we're just gonna leave you with that lasting impression of the three of us. Thank you for listening to Coaches Corner, Philippa. Thank you for your time. I love you. Thank you. I do. I love you team. Thank you for your time. I love you [00:39:00] Also.

[00:39:01]

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