Welcome to the 37th episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast. My guest on today’s podcast is Jenna Epperly. Jenna is the founder of Jeneppfit, a personal training business for women in all stages of their life and body, that focuses not on before and after photos, or extreme all consuming strategies, but rather focuses on stewarding their bodies, honoring and cherishing them, so they can break free from body shame and diet culture, and embrace the truth that our bodies are good bodies in all phases of the journey. In this episode Jenna shares her story of becoming a personal trainer and how she eventually came to the experience that when she and her clients hit their goals, there was still something unsatisfying and missing. Jenna shares that she has gone through her own process of holistic physical and mental health around her body. Jenna leads women from her own experience and has created offerings for all women, everywhere, including her Good Body App with workouts, trainings, recipes and more. One-on-one personalized training online through the app, and pregnant and postpartum training that comes to you if you live locally here in Virginia Beach. And be sure to listen to the end as Jenna shares the highs and lows of imposter syndrome as well as how she defines success not through weight goals, or before and after photos, but through seeing clients minds and hearts change around their bodies and how they feel in them. So with that introduction I hope you enjoy this episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast with Jenna Epperly.
Welcome to the 37th episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast. My guest on today’s podcast is Jenna Epperly. Jenna is the founder of Jeneppfit, a personal training business for women in all stages of their life and body, that focuses not on before and after photos, or extreme all consuming strategies, but rather focuses on stewarding their bodies, honoring and cherishing them, so they can break free from body shame and diet culture, and embrace the truth that our bodies are good bodies in all phases of the journey. In this episode Jenna shares her story of becoming a personal trainer and how she eventually came to the experience that when she and her clients hit their goals, there was still something unsatisfying and missing. Jenna shares that she has gone through her own process of holistic physical and mental health around her body. Jenna leads women from her own experience and has created offerings for all women, everywhere, including her Good Body App with workouts, trainings, recipes and more. One-on-one personalized training online through the app, and pregnant and postpartum training that comes to you if you live locally here in Virginia Beach. And be sure to listen to the end as Jenna shares the highs and lows of imposter syndrome as well as how she defines success not through weight goals, or before and after photos, but through seeing clients minds and hearts change around their bodies and how they feel in them. So with that introduction I hope you enjoy this episode of the Self-Employment Success Podcast with Jenna Epperly.
Leland Gross (00:00.527)
week. Okay. All right. Welcome, Jenna Epperly to the Self -Employment Success podcast. Thank you so much. I'm pumped to be here. Yeah, I think it's gonna be a great conversation. Go ahead and tell the listeners about yourself personally and professionally. What do you do? Yeah, so I'm Jenna Epperly. I'm a certified personal trainer, a corrective exercise specialist and pre and postnatal performance training specialist. That's like my title. It's a mouthful. Yeah. Yeah. Most people are like, wait, what do you do?
But yeah, so I'm in the fitness industry. I live in Virginia Beach with my husband Landon and our awesome six -year -old lab mix, Nala, which is my favorite. Sweet Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I'm in the fitness industry. I have my own business under like Gen Up Fit LLC. And then within that, I have an app, fitness app called the Good Body app. And so what do those businesses do? Totally. Yeah. So within the app, it's a subscription blade.
based platform, so I have daily workouts, which is community workouts where anybody essentially can sign up, subscribe for the month. They get daily workouts, recipes, nutrition, advice to an extent. I gotta stay within my scope, because I'm not an RD, but I can give general recommendations, personal opinion. And then they have on -demand follow along videos, fitness tips, so it's kind of like the, like,
the home base for like everything for the monthly subscription. And then the higher tier is my one -on -one online training. So that's much more catered workouts to the individual. Since I'm certified in pre and postnatal, I have a handful of like pregnant clients, postpartum clients. And then I also do house calls locally in Virginia Beach. And that is mainly pregnant and postpartum women just because it's easier for me to travel to their houses because they have kids and can't leave the house. So lots of different tiers, but.
really focus on women and helping them with their bodies and really to feel confident and capable in their bodies and is the goal regardless of the phase that they're at in their fitness journey. That's awesome. OK, so a lot going on with your title. Sure. And that kind of literally what your title is, is what you do, which is kind of nice. Yeah. It's really straightforward. But so we have the app that kind of has the monthly subscription. Are you the one producing all of that content?
Leland Gross (02:20.719)
Like that alone sounds like a full -time job. Yeah, yeah, it is. Because every week, the Monday through Friday workouts go out. And so those have been programmed in advance. But it's a lot of back -end work of putting all the workouts in, writing, this is how you do this. There's an instructional video for every single exercise. So we really tried to make it feel like I'm.
they're like training you as a personal trainer without me physically being there. So there's a demo video for every exercise, written instructions, form tips, and then if it's a circuit or a superset, it's like you're gonna do three sets of this for 12 reps. And so it's really like so detailed. So that way a beginner could essentially open up the app and be like, okay, like I feel confident knowing what I'm doing without someone physically there guiding me through it. Which I can imagine.
is an incredibly large value add for people who want to work on their health, but like are intimidated to just show up to the gym. Or A, don't want to like shell out for a personal trainer who's going to meet them at a gym and they're like doing everything in front of an audience, you know, or they'd show up and they're like, I don't even know what to do to have something where it's like, I can log on and I have my personal trainer who's kind of teaching me how to do this is huge. And then you said, and there's also recipes and
Yeah. There's fitness tips, nutrition tips, and also additional access to all other plans. So I have a beginner's plan, a plan for someone who might be traveling. If they're like, I don't have equipment, it's like I could open up this travel plan and do these workouts from a hotel or from an Airbnb. That's There's a high intensity plan. There's a postpartum core recovery plan. There's an ab, three week ab burn plan. So there's a lot of.
content that an individual could access through the monthly subscription. Yeah. And then that middle tier, the one -on -one virtual, is that through the app or is that okay? So that's like the next level of subscription. So you would have an account on the app, but you wouldn't have access to the monthly subscription stuff. Everything is completely catered to you. So like if you were to sign out with me, we'd hop on a call, go over your goals, what it is you're looking for.
Leland Gross (04:36.783)
what style workouts you want, how much you can commit a week to working out. And then I would go and create a completely custom plan for you a month at a time, upload it up onto the back end of the app. So you would open up your app and you would have, okay, like Leland's workout week one, day one. And you would just go through the calendar and kind of follow your program like that. Man, that's awesome. And people can do that from anywhere in the country. Anywhere, yep. That's huge. It is, yeah. And then you have the like, I will come to your house locally. Yes.
Yes. And work with you in your house. Yep. Man. Yeah. I can imagine. I'm struggling to understand like how you would fit all that in your own week. Like I got to go to this house. I got to make this custom plan. I've got to add like which I'm sure a lot of the content on the mobile app's been created. Yes. And so it's kind of either adding to it or updating it. But it's a lot. How how did you get here? Like how did you build this gen app fit empire? It's a great question.
It's a very loaded question, so I'll try and condense it. So first job out of college was a desk job. I lasted three and a half months. It was like the worst three and a half months of my life. And so after that, I realized very quickly that sitting at a desk was not going to serve me if I'm not doing something that I'm passionate about. Because I grew up my whole life playing soccer, was a collegiate athlete, and so I was very accustomed to...
being very active, moving my body, like being with a team, constantly learning. And so then to shift completely to being at a desk for nine hours, doing something that I hated. I was like, this is not for me. So I very quickly was like, okay, I have to figure out what I'm passionate about. I know that I love to help people. I know that I love movement. How can I kind of like bring those together and make an income out of it? So I was like,
personal training and I kind of was interested in that to some degree in college, but I didn't realize until I was a senior and the university I was at didn't have kinesiology or exercise science. So I was like, I'm not gonna transfer my last year. I had just started dating my now husband. So I was like, best friends are here, I'm gonna stay. But what does that look like for the future? And so I was like, okay, tried the desk job, wasn't for me, let's bring this together. So started working at...
Leland Gross (06:55.503)
a couple of local gyms just doing like front desk stuff just to kind of like get acclimated into that environment. And then I was like, I don't like being the front desk person. I want to be the person helping people and like leading the class or like leading the workout. So started taking certifications, studied, got certified, started working at a gym. But when I first got into, you know, being a personal trainer, it was not for all the wrong reasons, but a very different reason for why.
do what I do now, I would say that my approach and why I do it has completely shifted. I've gone through a lot in my own body, health issues, eating disorder, and so walking through that while being in the fitness industry and getting to a place where I realized that the way that I was approaching fitness and helping my clients at the time approach fitness wasn't sustainable, nor was it life -giving. I was like, there's gotta be a better way. So, slowly transitioned mentally to like,
this is kind of how I want to approach fitness and help clients because I found that I would like get my clients to their goal, but it was never good enough. It was like, there's, there always was like, okay, but what's next? Like we want more. And I was like, I'm not feeling satisfied. Even when I hit my goals, my clients aren't feeling fully satisfied. Not to say that goals are bad because I think goals are great and I still help clients do that. Um, but.
I realized there's gotta be a different way. So I shifted the perspective and have just found a lot more joy helping women especially find freedom when it comes to movement, nutrition, and exercise in a way that's not obsessive or controlling, but a way that they can use exercise to honor and steward their bodies regardless of the phase that they're at. Just because I do work with pregnant and postpartum women and that's like a
I mean, I have never experienced that, but just walking through that season with so many friends, it's like, your body goes through so much and it's, from having conversations, it's so much mentally to navigate. And there can be a lot of like speed bumps and like frustrations with the changing body as a female, especially with like the pressures that, you know, we feel in our society. And so it's just been really cool to create a process and a product where I help women to enjoy moving their bodies, but.
Leland Gross (09:19.631)
in a way that is sustainable, that brings them freedom and enjoyment on their journey. And it sounds like, well, let me back up. So we graduate college and we go to desk job. And it's stationary restrictive, nine to five. Actually, it was 11 to eight. But yeah. Not better. No, no, much worse, actually. Yeah. Yeah.
is actually legitimately worse. So desk job, not cutting it, no, going to the gym, kind of getting your feet wet, getting certifications, become a personal trainer. Yeah. But the way that you're doing it is not satisfying. And you kind of spoke to like, I'm hitting my goals, they're hitting their goals. But neither one of us is feeling personally satisfied. Can you? Yeah.
What is that? Because I've experienced that. I understand that. I'm in a very goal -based field. Financial planning is like, what do you want out of your life? And so I found when people set goals or the way they approach goals, it can oftentimes lead to burnout or unsustainability versus actually fostering an abundance mindset with their money or kind of working on some of these other areas of financial improvement from a holistic well -being perspective.
I'm sure there's a piece of that, but I feel like there's something psychologically to hitting your goals and not being satisfied. So can you, like, what is that from your perspective in that season? People are hitting their weight goal or hitting their strength goal, but. Yeah. So from my perspective, what I've seen with myself in the past, and then a handful of clients is when they focus so heavily on the weight loss or the one goal that it's all consuming.
and it's all controlling and that becomes the identity and that becomes the main focus. And so I always like to tell clients, I'm like, okay, fitness is a part of you, but it's not all of you. It's not the only thing that you are. And I think, at least from what I've seen, it's really when someone can step away from being like, okay, I am more than just...
Leland Gross (11:39.183)
my body, I'm more than just fitness, I'm more than just this goal, this is just a piece of me that allows me to do other things in my life, whether it's have energy to play with my kids or my grandkids, or maybe you have a really demanding job for work and you need your physical body to do whatever it is, like the manual labor. Fitness should just be a part of what you're doing, not all of who you are. And I think when you can take a step back and view it from that lens.
it makes it much more sustainable because you have more to live for than just the weight loss goal or whatever, like the strength goal. And again, like those goals are great. And I think that stewarding our bodies and taking care of them is what we're supposed to do with the bodies we've been given. But I think it's when it becomes like so focused that it's obsessive, controlling and consuming that you lose sight of who you are because your identity and your worth is.
rooted in that one thing. Well, it's almost like, why do you want to hit that weight goal? Sure. Like when you're 10 pounds lighter, what is that going to be for you? Totally. Again, different fields, but in financial health, we talk about that a lot. You want to be a millionaire, what is that going to be? If more money is just your goal or a certain dollar amount in your bank account is a goal, that's not necessarily bad, but like,
if that is the end being, you'll never have enough. You're always gonna live in scarcity. Whereas if the goal is so that I can take a trip to my kids, I can send them to college, we can live in an area where our community is, or we can leave a lasting impact. Kind of like how will this serve your greater life? Because it's a tool, and we all have our health, our finances, our relationships, our like...
energy or attention or time, you know, like we have these finite resources and I feel like physical health is one of them. Which is really cool and I can imagine specifically, like you said, with the pressures, I'm obviously not a woman. I've obviously never experienced childbirth. My wife has gone through that and it really is an amazing thing that the woman's body does. But like you throw in the societal pressures of like, yeah, get your body back.
Leland Gross (14:00.737)
It's like, do you know what her body just did? That doesn't make any sense. I can imagine that that's a huge place where women are like, I'm just focusing on this goal, because I just want to feel myself again, or whatever it is. Yeah, absolutely. So that's incredibly powerful. And so you kind of recognize that in your personal training job. And that is what fueled.
the mission of Gen Upfit. But that's a big step to go from, you know, I'm doing this as an employee to now I'm starting my own business. What prompted the entrepreneurial side of that versus just saying at this gym, the way that I personally train is going to change to this more holistic mindset. Yeah. Yeah. So I kind of got to a point where I just felt like I had hit my ceiling just because I feel like when you work for someone,
you just get to a place where you're like, I wanna do more and there's only so much you can do when you're not fully in control. And that's not to knock the people who are in control, because I've had some incredible people who I've gotten to work under who've supported me and have helped me get to where I am today. But it just got to a point where I was like, I feel like I owe it to myself to take this leap to really see what I'm fully capable of my own.
And I had someone I worked for he like he was a mentor and he kind of helped me to get to this place and he also was the one who was like Kind of like you like I know you're gonna do it like you got to do it. And so it was a huge Like factor in helping me believe that I could do it But I definitely knew that I just wanted to see what I was capable of on my own because I have such a passion and a drive I I just got to a point where I was like, I feel like I will regret it. I
if I don't ever make that leap, even if it means failing, but at least I'll know I've tried. Yeah. That mindset, I feel like is like the key heart of entrepreneurship. Yeah. And there's lots of things you said in that one concise thing, which is, you know, I hit my ceiling where I was. I wasn't in control completely. Yeah. So there's only so much I can customize my own program within.
Leland Gross (16:24.493)
someone else's framework. But then also, I owe it to myself. Like I feel like when someone begins getting that entrepreneurial itch, it's like without at least trying, I'll never be satisfied in any other role. I felt the same thing. And I know plenty of people do where you're like, I need, it's terrifying, but like I owe it to myself to take the bet on myself and just go for it. So.
you come to the decision, you're like, all right, we're gonna do this. And it sounds like you had the backing of your mentor, who was at your boss at the time too. Yeah, at the time. Which is awesome. No messy or low mess separation. No, he's mentor, family, friend, totally supportive. That's awesome. And so what did you do? Did you kind of build while you were at his gym, or did you just day one leave and be like, all right, now I'm gonna...
Yeah, no, I had been building for a couple years knowing like that was the end goal. But also, I think probably a little bit of being like for a while, I don't know if I can do this. Like, I don't know if I'm capable, not in the fitness part, because I'm like, I have that down pat. Like, I've spent so much time and effort to have the knowledge that I have and skills with fitness. But in terms of like the business sleep, I was like, I really don't know if I can do it. So I think for a while, just the cushion of knowing like, I while I'm growing this,
I also have this security blanket of knowing that I'll always have this to fall on. So it wasn't just like I went on my own and started then. I had been building it and had the app for probably like a year and a half, but wasn't taking online clients just because that would have gotten a little messy just because I was working for a gym. But the subscription was fine, but.
I had a vision for what I wanted to do once I left. And so then I had a lot of friends who were pregnant or postpartum and they were like, hey, I really want, like, I would love to work with you. I would love for you to just come to my house. And so I had that lined up as well. Cause I was like, well, I can do that like when I'm fully on my own. And so once I was on my own, I just had people being like, okay, like now can you come to my house? So I was like, yes, now I can come. So that kind of fell and came together. But there was definitely like a plan of like, okay, this is what I'm going to do once.
Leland Gross (18:47.471)
I'm officially on my own, which made it feel like a little bit less of a steep like step into that just to be like, I have something set in place. Which is awesome. I mean, if you can enter the self -employment field from the shallow end going to the deep end, your chances of success are probably much higher than just being like, well, I don't know if I can swim, but I'm going to jump in the deep end. And I mean,
It's really wonderful that you were able to kind of say, okay, I can build out this app. I can build out that, have that running. I'm still, I've got the stability of this other job with my mentor who's encouraging me along the way. All the while I have basically clients building themselves. Sure. Like, I want this offering. And you're like, I can't do that until I leave. And so then when you leave, you're like, and we're here. Yeah. So was it a pretty smooth, when you finally were like, okay, we're leaving the gym.
were 100 % gen app fit. What was that like? Was it a pretty smooth transition? I mean, there's still so much to be had from just like managing a business. Sure. It was slightly smooth, but I was also in the process of we completely switched app companies, which meant like totally migrating all the users. We did a whole new rebrand. I actually ended up changing the name of the app as well. So we changed it from something
kind of like punny that I wasn't super attached to the then good body app. So we had to like just market the heck out of it to be like, okay, we are a new brand, we're a new name, we're, you know, new everything. So there was that element, which I maybe should have thought through a little bit better as opposed to changing that at the same time. So that was a little not super smooth just because you have to put all the marketing efforts into being like, hey, it's like,
rebrand, but yeah, I would say it was relatively smooth, maybe as smooth as it could have been when you take the leap. I mean, I definitely wouldn't say like my insides felt smooth, like my emotions were not smooth. They were like very rocky as I was like, here we go. But since I had, I think that base, it was a little bit easier for lack of a better word to kind of make that jump. I love the, my insides weren't smooth.
Leland Gross (21:12.879)
Because how often is that true? Like you can talk to someone and it's like your business is going great, but you're like, oh, like, I'm still scared. Or even when business is maturing and going well, you have one bad thing or you get overwhelmed on this one thing. It can feel somewhat consuming at times.
my numbers look fine, everything's happening, but like, this is still scary. Absolutely. Something you said about the marketing, how have you been marketing? How are people finding you? Other than word of mouth. Word of mouth is a big one. Right now, so I have an assistant, part -time assistant, and she's helping me with Instagram, email marketing. We're diving into the...
horrific world of Facebook ads. At least I think it's horrific. Some people might love it or think it's easy, but I think it's like the most overwhelming thing in the world. I'm in your boat. I can't do it to save my life. It's miserable. So we are, we're in that phase of just social media, which I know we can't fully rely on that, but social media and trying to do the Facebook ad stuff. It's hard. In my own business, I've been trying to figure out like, what is marketing? Yeah.
Yeah, people get whole degrees and careers out of this and I'm just supposed to like figure this out. And yes, someone was like, well, why don't you just like A, B test Google ads? I was like, other than the word Google, I'm like, I'm not quite sure what you just said. Yeah. Oh, man. OK, but your growth has been consistent and steady just throughout all the efforts you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. And trying to connect locally, because I really want to like have like a local community.
of women. So last year, last summer, I kind of started doing some little pop ups, you know, little workouts like in a friend's garage, and then friends would come, they'd bring people and then I did an event over the summer as well. And hopefully, the goal is to have more consistent events so that way I can get to know like more local, local girls and then also even connect with like other businesses who want to do some type of event or, you know, support it or be like a vendor at
Leland Gross (23:26.831)
a bigger workout space. So that's awesome. Yeah. What I find when I work with entrepreneurs or even just interviewing people on this podcast is I feel like there's two types of entrepreneurs. There's the one that's really passionate about the work they do. But then like business is kind of like, what is a PNL? How do I track my expenses? And then the other side is someone who's like, I love business and could not care less what widget or service I'm selling. It's just.
I love getting into spreadsheets. You're obviously the former. Sure. 100%. What has that been like for you now being like, OK, I file my taxes on my own. I have to track it. Like all the business stuff that comes along with entrepreneurship that most people, that alone would intimidate people out of entrepreneurship in many cases. Yeah, it's been rough. I mean, I.
I'm like, I could sit here and talk fitness all day with you. But when it comes to everything you just said, business, I'm like, can you repeat that and like spell it out? It's definitely been a learning curve. I didn't go to school for business. So I feel like I've been kind of having to like self teach everything. And sometimes honestly, with the business side of things, it feels like I'm throwing like wet pasta noodles at the wall and hoping something will stick and then like keeping the one, like keep the noodles that stick and then kind of discard the ones that don't. So I definitely feel like it's been a
trial and error, asking for advice from people who are entrepreneurs who are a little bit ahead of me, sitting down and being like, OK, I have questions. Can you help me? And just kind of seeking out mentorship in that regard to ask people who are doing it well and who have been doing it longer. Yeah. And have you felt like that has been well received, like other entrepreneurs are like, come on, let's talk about Yeah. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's amazing how much everyone is just willing to share.
their knowledge and like what worked for them, which is super refreshing because sometimes in the fitness space, sometimes people like gatekeep things. And so you have to figure certain things out on your own. I don't want you to find my secret sauce. Yeah. Kind of thing. As if they're going to have right monopoly on everyone. Yeah. Yeah. It is funny. Finance is the same way. There are so many advisors who like won't tell you tell you anything. And it's like.
Leland Gross (25:49.327)
Do you know how many people are around who need financial help? Like, you're not going to have all of Like, we can find an abundance mindset here. Totally. I'm like, there's enough room for everyone at the table. So we don't need to be But it is amazing. I do find, like, when you can find people who are like, I have been in the trenches. I figured this out. Like, we're all in a burning house, and I figured out where the door is. Yeah. Yeah. Like, please come. Here's a great analogy. Well, and it feels that way, especially when you're navigating, like.
Like specifically things like taxes where you feel like if I screw this up, some FBI agent's going to come knock on my door and I'm going be taken away because I paid my taxes a little late. Don't pay your taxes late. But if you do, no one's going to come take you to jail. Like a lot of that stuff is really overwhelming and daunting. And you're right. There's no, we don't know in America how to like handle credit cards or like basic personal finance. Right.
So then when an everyday human's like, I want to start a business, which is what this country was founded on. So much of our economy is built for small business owners. But then you go out and you're like, what is an LLC? How do I get one? Yeah. And things like, I'm embarrassed to say that I had a friend who was like, oh man, I forgot to go file with the city that my business is here. And I was like.
Sorry, you have to do that? I was like, oh my gosh, okay, yeah. So same, brother, same. I'm gonna go do that. I'm gonna do that right now. And so many of these things that there's not like a here's your checklist. I'm like, you know what you have to do kind of thing. So it's really cool that you found people who are like, hey, we've done this, come. And I wish that that was like the spirit of entrepreneurship more or just the spirit of people in general more as like.
hey, we have an abundance and we want everyone to succeed and you succeeding isn't gonna take away from me. Or my success, yeah. Yeah, like, and I think there's like some level of like probably humility or empathy that comes with that that says like, there's enough for both of us. We live in a world that's abundant and therefore can operate that way. Totally. But so often not just in like finances or health, but like,
Leland Gross (28:18.479)
family, relationships, mental health, we just live in scarcity. And I'm sure in the fitness world, there's a lot of scarcity. And it's cool to me because I feel like what you're doing is infusing abundance. You can feel confident in your body. You can feel empowered. Your body can serve you. We can foster vitality, youthful vitality when you feel like...
my body's falling apart, I'm never gonna be where it was before. That's super cool. So for you on this journey, what surprised you the most of everything that's happened to get you to where you are today? Probably that you don't have to have it all figured out. I think that kind of caused me to stay in fear for a little bit of being like, I don't know what to do when it comes to business or taxes or.
how to make connections, but I really, it is a lot of work, but I don't think, like, it feels more, like, scary before you do it. And then once you do it, you're like, okay, this is hard, but like, I can figure it out. And so I think for being someone who didn't go to school for it, I'm, I kind of like surprised myself, I'm like, oh, I can do it. Like, that's honest, like, the business side of it was like, yeah, I can do this. So I think just not having to have it all.
figured out was surprising for me, but kind of a confidence boost of like, we're just gonna keep swimming and stick with what works and throw away what doesn't. Yeah. I want to stamp that into every listener's head. If you're drowning in it or if you're succeeding or if you're thinking about starting a business, that is probably the biggest nugget of wisdom is you.
You can do it. You can figure it out and don't let progress or don't let perfection get in the way of progress. Like you don't have to have it figured out. And you will figure it out along the way. And if you figure it out or if you like wait to try and figure it out, you'll get in day one and the whole thing will change. Yeah. Yeah. Like the less you need control to a degree, but it's almost like if you if you're too controlling it, exactly what you said, like so many little things can come in and just like poke holes and then.
Leland Gross (30:43.407)
it derails you, so just try it, take the leap. I had a colleague who started his financial planning firm the same time I did, and we were six months in, and we were touching base, and he was like, I'm just really struggling to create these client processes. And I was like, well, what's been the experience when clients have gone through it? He's like, well, I haven't gone and gotten clients yet, because I'm trying to get this process perfect first. I was like, you've been in here for six months, you haven't brought on a client.
And the second you make this perfect process, the client's going to come in and reveal all the potholes to it. And like, you just got to go get started and you can do it and you'll figure it out. And that's on the like doing the work side, but like on the business side, too, all these things that feel like the IRS agents show up to your house. It's like, you'll figure it out and it's going to be fine. Don't let that the fear of that not being perfect get in the way of you just making progress. Just start. Yep. Just start swimming kind of thing. That's awesome.
What was the low point for you? I feel like that's hard to answer. Like, cause I feel like some weeks are hard and some weeks are great. And so it's kind of a matter of like sifting through imposter syndrome constantly, I feel like. And so I don't know if there's been like a low, low point other than just feeling like some weeks are low and like some weeks mentally I'm good. And I think it's also like having to sift through
the lies that come in mentally of like, can I do this? Am I gonna fail? Like, do you, like the voice of doubt, like, do you really know what you're doing? And so it's like a constant, I think, fight to kind of pinpoint like, okay, what is a lie? What is truth? And if you lean into the lies of like, I'm gonna fail, I can't do this, then like, you'll stay in that low place. But if you can, you know, speak truth over.
the lies that are fighting for your attention of like, I can do this, like I'm capable. Like, then I think that can kind of pull you out of that low and carry you into like moving forward and as opposed to staying stuck in the bad spot that causes you to spiral. So I don't know if that answers the question. I just think for me, at least I feel like it's like dependent on the week with like how I'm feeling. It definitely answers the question. I've had people on here be like,
Leland Gross (33:08.239)
I mean, like the low point is pretty much like every day at two. Like you kind of start today, you're like, I got this. By two, you're like, we're failing. By five, you're like, I guess we'll try again tomorrow. I was going over some of the questions with Landon and I was like, I feel like I want to say like every day to a degree. He was like, don't say that. And I was like, I don't mean it like that. It's just like there are points in like every day where you're kind of like, can I do this? And then you got to be like, I can do this. I'm doing it. Yeah. Imposter syndrome is real. I don't care if you have.
like the most successful business in your field, you're still gonna feel like an imposter at some point. I know your friends with Will Francis, he was on the podcast A Handful of months ago, and he was the one that was like, I mean, every day we're just fighting the head trash that comes in of like, all right, I've got this, and then halfway through the day it's like, you're gonna fail, you're bad at this, everyone knows you're an imposter. You're gonna get found out, you're gonna live under a bridge, and you're gonna get eaten by a tiger.
Like, so specific. All right. Like, yeah. When and it's just it's just real. Like it doesn't say anything about your success or your qualifications, but we feel like it does. Yeah. Yeah. And even to like admit like these are the lies. These are the thoughts that go through my head. Feels scary. Yeah. Because you don't want someone else to believe that. Right. Right. You're struggling not to believe it and you're afraid that someone else is going to believe it. But really, like you bring it into the light, you say it and yeah, it no longer has power on you because then you can be like.
That actually sounds ridiculous. There's no tigers in Virginia Beach. I'm not gonna eat and buy a tiger at King's Pine. But I just think that that response has come up so much on this podcast. Unless there was some major crazy fallout in the past, the low point is just going through my day, a client leaves, or I realize I dropped a ball or something, and because this is my baby,
It's not like, ah crap, I'll fix it later. It's like, I'm a fraud. Why does my brain go straight to that? I know, I know. I'm like, well, he could rewire you just a little bit. I know. We're all just like, we're all just like neurotic out here. We can figure it out. So this is a podcast about success. But if you pull anybody on the side of the road and ask them, how do you define success or what does success mean to you? You're going to get wildly different answers.
Leland Gross (35:33.423)
So for Jenna Epperly, how do you define success? Yeah, I had to think through this one a lot because I feel like the nature of myself is like I'll hit a milestone and be like, okay, cool, what's the next one? So it's hard to like, I'm always looking for the next thing and it's hard to be content or even define like what is success for me. But I really think at the end of the day, it more so lies in my clients and not in the like traditional like.
transformation photo, which is like so pined after in the fitness industry of like the before and after and like you're only a successful client if you have the after photo or you're only a successful trainer if you get your client to the after photo. But more so in the sense of like, I'll get a text from a client who's like, I, you know, tried on this dress that, you know, I haven't worn in however long and it maybe was a little tight, but I felt really confident in it or just feedback of like,
I feel really good in my body or like I was able to do X, Y, Z today. I haven't done that in years. More of like a ability or like an emotional win that they have. I find like success in joining that. Cause at the end of the day, I'm in this to help those who have been like placed under my care, who I assist and walk through this journey with them. And so if they're succeeding in like what...
the goals we've set for them, then I'm succeeding. And I even feel like if a client meets their goals or the weight loss goal but is still super mentally obsessive or controlling or doesn't feel free, I'm like, I don't care if we've hit the goal. We're not done. We haven't succeeded. Yeah. So it's really the emotional aspect of seeing the client grow in how they feel about their body and think about it and view it. And like,
the capabilities that they achieve, I think that I find my success in. That's awesome. I can imagine that that is so much more rewarding. Yeah. Because also before and after photos change. Yeah, it's not you. I feel like the classic, like you lose 10 pounds and you're getting it right back because what you did was so... Extreme. Extreme. And so for you, you're like, we're working on hearts, we're working on head spaces. And the body is the tool to get there. But to see that...
Leland Gross (37:51.171)
impact. Yeah, I'm sure it's just like incredibly rewarding. It's the best. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. I've loved this conversation. Where can people find you if they're trying to get connected? Yeah, so they can follow me, Instagram, Jenupfit. So J E N E P P F I T or Jenupfit .com. Awesome. The best way to find me and reach out. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. Thanks, Leland.