Client Spotlight with Nicky Lawford

• 00:00:00 – Treat Your Business Podcast Introduction.
• 00:02:55 – Nikki’s role in the pelvic floor health industry.
• 00:06:26 – Nikki’s transition from teaching Pilates full-time to running a business.
• 00:12:00 – Nikki’s new favourite phrase.
• 00:13:26 – The biggest challenges that Nicky has had to overcome in the last two or three years.
• 00:17:10 – You can’t out train a bad diet, but you can out train a faulty mindset.
• 00:21:11 – The more we can grow from each other, the better.
• 00:25:44 – Nikki’s one piece of advice for someone who is in a position in their business where they need to do something different.
• 00:25:44 – Nikki’s one piece of advice for someone who is in a position in their business where they need to do something different.

You’re listening to treat your business with Katie Bell, the podcast for health and wellness business owners that want a need to give their business the treatment plan, it needs a treatment plan that will create more time back in your life, more income and more confidence when it comes to running your business. I’m here to share with you bite sized episodes full of tried and tested tips from my own real experience of growing a successful physiotherapy and wellness clinic. And from working with many businesses to do the same. The treat your business podcast is sponsored by hm DG. Marketing is always one of the top three issues for clinic owners that I speak to. It’s too expensive and complicated. They’ve had issues in the past, or they just don’t know where to find a trusted expert. It’s always said only recommend products or services you’re confident in using yourself. Well, when it comes to marketing, we use HMD G for our own clinic. They’ve proven to be exactly what you’d want from an agency. As a specialist, they understand the industry. They’re responsive and always deliver. We can’t recommend them highly enough. Head to HMD g.co.uk To find out more. Hello, everybody. Welcome to this week’s episode of the treat your business podcast, I am really excited to welcome Nikki Lawford on to this week’s episode. And we are doing something a little bit different for you all this week. And we are doing what I would now call the client Spotlight Series. So we are going to have lots of episodes coming up over the future over the coming months, where I really spotlight some of our most inspirational clients and Nikki is one of them. Welcome to the podcast, Nikki.

Nicky Lawford: 1:43

Hi, Katie. Thanks for having me.

Katie Bell: 1:45

You are welcome, Nikki, for all the listeners out there. I want to use this kind of client spotlight interview as a way of inspiring business owners as a way of helping kind of really give a little bit of a motivation to those people that are listening, because I think it’s really hard isn’t it in the world now that we are comparing ourselves constantly to what everybody else is doing. And we’re seeing, we only see this glimpse on Instagram, of people’s business lives and personal lives, which always just show the highlights that you know the highlight reel doesn’t it, but it doesn’t really show the kind of the highs and the lows of being a business owner in the health and wellness industry and the challenges that we have to overcome. So I wanted to kind of be able to interview some of my fabulous, gorgeous people, and let you kind of explain and really share your story of where you were where you want. Now the challenge that you’ve been through how you’ve overcome it from the horse’s mouth rather than from me, do you want to, first of all, tell everybody who you are what you do who you help. Right?

Nicky Lawford: 2:55

So my name is Nikki and I work with men and women who find themselves either structuring the daily lives around the nearest toilet, or who restricted fluid intake, who feel nervous about going out. And I help them gain reach, get regain control of their bladder and bowels. But also give them the confidence that they once had to live freely without worrying about, you know, where they where they’re going and what they need to do, which is a massive worry, when you’re dealing with pelvic floor health. Something that people are only really talking about openly now. It’s a great privilege. And I came to that, because I’m a Pilates instructor. I work with people who again, also struggle with body issues. And some of them are super simple that can’t put the socks on. Some of them are really complicated. They’ve had a hip replacement or knee replacement, and find themselves struggling to get back to where they were where they’d like to be. And so in working with them that way, you start asking some real, real deep questions, you get to know their bodies. And then they’ll come and tell you about all these other things that aren’t working, that they don’t share with their doctor, because they’re too embarrassed. And so I’m very lucky I work with two sets of people. And sometimes it’s the same people. Yes, in a professional capacity. So that is my job. And that is what I do day on day.

Katie Bell: 4:30

And that’s really Nikki when we first met you very much were in you. You would call yourself a Pilates instructor. Yeah. And we’ve worked together now for several years. And you You are now not only a classes instructor, but you are you are a pelvic floor coach. And that’s something that you’ve kind of grown and developed as I guess as your as your business is aligned to what really suits you and what you’re really passionate about. But you’ve kind of gone on to kind of diversify and mould your business in different ways because you felt perhaps as a plus as instructor, you’re kind of capped or slightly restricted from an income perspective from a kind of fulfilment. Juice is better.

Nicky Lawford: 5:13

Absolutely. So it has been an interesting journey I, you know, the more we’ve coached and the more we’ve delved into the business side, as much as I wanted to grow the business side, I’ve grown as a person I’ve grown as an instructor, I’ve learned more pushed myself more, but it all aligns with what I really want to do. And that’s helped people and make a difference in their lives. And for those people struggling, those are real concerns, real issues, and they really do impact the day to day and, and the freedom that they have as a person. So it’s such a privilege to be able to do both. And to kind of, as you say, uncap, where I just thought, Oh, I’m a Pilates instructor, I just teach a few moves and this little impact, but actually, it’s it’s much greater than that.

Katie Bell: 6:10

So tell the listeners, Nikki, where you were, and I remember our very first call together, and then tell everybody listening, what what was your business and life like, just before we sort of spoke,

Nicky Lawford: 6:25

okay. So I had just been to England, because I don’t know if anyone can tell. I have the accent. I’m from Cape Town, Africa. And my husband and I always knew that I would teach Pilates full time I’ve danced as a child, I became a dance teacher in my very early youth, and then scrapped it all to go and do a corporate mundane job, hating every moment and only ever wanting to do to do Pilates. And then, as we moved, it was a perfect opportunity for me to complete the Pilates full time and actually go, Okay, I’m not gonna go into a corporate job, I’m gonna go into Pilates full time. But as much as I’d learned Pilates, I’d been doing it for 16 years, and I’ve had great results with clients. I only knew the Pilates side was great with bodies, but not so great with business. And at that point, I literally walked away from the only gym that I had registered for here, because the guy just wanted to fill as many people into a class as possible. I hated every moment because I didn’t know the people couldn’t help on the level that I was expecting to help. And filling numbers for me is not a it’s not a way to win. So I walked away from that after three months and started at the local village hall, literally charging a fiver. If they came, I literally did not ask anyone to raise their hand and say I’m going to attend. I just showed up, cross my fingers and hoped and prayed someone would come and do a mat that day. And I can tell you what, that’s definitely no way to run a business. But I didn’t know any other way. I didn’t know how to talk to my client. I knew them really well when they were on the mat with me. But I had no idea that I needed to speak to them beforehand to tap into what they were thinking how they were feeling. And actually do the business side of things. Yeah, so what

Katie Bell: 8:28

impact was that having for you, Nikki at that time, like, you know what, what was going on for you to realise I’m not sure I can keep doing it this way.

Nicky Lawford: 8:38

So a number of things. I remember my husband and I walk in the fields, and him kind of throwing a number in and going oh, we hope you get to like this much money each each week or each month. And I remember thinking, how am I ever going to get that teaching Pilates the way I am. I knew that it wasn’t right. I knew that. There had to be some other way. It was a good thing, bad thing. COVID hit at exactly the same time. But I knew that, you know giving all this passion I’m dedicated to my clients. I’m 100% loyal and then and then you kind of feel despondent when people don’t turn up or they don’t. You know, and lives are busy people have their own life, things go on. They don’t mean to not turn up but something happens. And then you kind of feel really despondent, you know, giving of yourself 100% And then not return to people not getting the love and return, but not not getting the fulfilment of helping people each week. So it just it wasn’t great. I knew that there was no way that I could keep a roof over my head and food on the table for the kids. If this was the method I was going to use as a business method. Just not a business method.

Katie Bell: 10:00

Just not a business. I love I love how you said you better with bodies. And if you are with business, my new favourite Nikki phrase. So Nikki, what we then we then jumped on a call that we didn’t call like a business audit call where we talked about what’s going on right now, where you want it to be? What was stopping you from getting there. And I distinctly remember that you were in a position that you were very clear on that call when we discussed where you want it to be. You didn’t know how to get there yourself. You wanted you wanted help. And you were looking for that right, right person, we ended up being that right person that right fit for you. And but Nikki, would you mind sharing with the listeners you if if we looked at it from an affordability point of view with where your business was there? And then how I remember you having this whole conversation? Well, I have, I have no idea how I’m going to make this happen. To me ugly, yeah, if I don’t do something different, nothing is going to

Nicky Lawford: 11:01

change. So there’s one phrase I live by, and I suppose it’s what’s kept me sane, and moving to three different countries on two different continents with my husband, that keeps changing things for me. But the thing is, nothing changes, if nothing changes. And I remember going to my husband and going, Oh, I’m gonna afford this. I don’t know how I’m going to do this. But I need this money, and I need to do it, we actually pulled it out of a retirement, my husband was fully supportive. And he was just like, I believe in you, you can do this, which, of course puts more fear into me, because I’m like, if I don’t perform this is a big gulf. But having said that, if you don’t put that in front of you, you’re always so I find we’ll always rise to our own expectation, we will push ourselves to what we expect, yes, we often expect a lot of ourselves, that’s a given. But and if you’re on this, if you’re listening to this, generally you push yourself quite hard. But even if you fell short of the mark, you’re still exceeding most people’s expectations. And so I remember having that conversation with my husband with you. I know we did a couple of calls back and forth. But I was so worried. But to be honest, every penny so well worth spent, I’ve made back way more than that. And here are the statistics. So you’re gonna go the first year from first to second year. And this sounds like a lie. I did the math this morning and asked my husband to check my my business grew 250 252,500% I’m like, even then I’m like, it’s just stupid. No one’s business. 2500 That’s, that’s what I grew, which I suppose when you start with fixed and nothing easily done, but that’s amazing. And then my second, my second to third year, I’ve increased by 65%, which on most businesses is unheard of. So so I’m really grateful that I took the leap of faith that I leaned into coaching that I leaned into the business aspect, which frightened me no end to learn the things I don’t know. You know, because it you can’t know it all.

Katie Bell: 13:26

I’m still just picking myself up off the floor. Okay. I feel like that has exited my brain that that was even the thing and that is our first year because this was like three years ago now. Oh my goodness. And but it’s you you absolutely took the leap of faith you were in a place of kind of like you said nothing changes in less than nothing. If nothing changes. And you did take the leap of faith you came on into our our foundation programme. And we work together Nikki with my team for a while and we made a lot of changes in your business didn’t weigh what and, you know, we are here to inspire people. We are here to show people that it can be done anything is possible. But what I think is really important is to not just always talk about the highlight reel. But let’s talk about there has been challenges. We were in the middle of a pandemic, when we started coaching together, we have no idea what the world was going to do. We’ve come out of a pandemic straight into apparently and economic crisis and recession. So it’s not always kind of, you know, two and a half 1,000% increase year on year we know that Nicky share some of the kind of biggest challenges that you’ve had to overcome in the last two or three years.

Nicky Lawford: 14:43

Okay, firstly, there’s obviously the business model in terms of changing between COVID not COVID Are we on are we off the the constant rebalancing and really looking at the way forward and going how, which has been great because when you’ve got to go He can kind of go, I don’t know, help, or this is what I’m thinking about. What do you think? And I love that. Because then there’s, you know, no question is off limits. No suggestion is stupid. And you’ve got a team to help, you know, kind of go, Well, what about this? And you know, what about that, because sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, you can’t see the end of the woods for the trees, you know. So you’re deep into it, and you’re thinking, How do I get to the other side? So that’s amazing. And you do find that not just with COVID, but with little things, you will get bogged down with mundane stuff from the day to day and this happens to me particularly so regularly. I’m burning getting going. I’m in my own way. I’m overthinking things, underplaying things, what just lead me in the first step forward, and then we can kind of move on from there, that for me, is one of them. And the other thing is mindset. You know, so often, we believe things that we think are true, and and they so aren’t, and they’re not big. Say they’re not big things. They are big things. But we will have all grown up having our parents Western ideas going, Oh, money doesn’t grow on trees. You aren’t going to make a success from this type of career, which was my grandfather’s favourite one because I was not going to university. And I was not getting a degree. So technically, I’m a failure before I’ve started. Thanks, pot. I love that. So and it’s weird how they stick with you, and you don’t think it’s it’s sticking with you until you’re trying to get past something. And then you’ll sit with a mindset coach, and they’ll go Do you realise that you’re sabotaging yourself? And then sometimes when you’ve got someone sitting there you go, Oh, yes. Okay. Now, but it’s sometimes take somebody else to go, Hang on why you escaped? What? What is so afraid of making this next step? And so yes, that’s why I love that your programme isn’t just business, and even the mindset is about business, but that it balances both strategy and a mindset.

Katie Bell: 17:10

Yeah, and we say a lot don’t mean a key that you can’t out. You can’t out train a bad diet, you can’t out strategy, a faulty mindset. So with we can teach you the best strategy in the world, we can give you that, you know, we can look at your finances and your forecasting your projections, and marketing, all of the things that often businesses just want to go and do. Like we just want to feel our ego likes us to be taking action and ticking off that to do list. But very often, we find the biggest barrier biggest challenge is ourselves.

Nicky Lawford: 17:45

Yeah, yeah, I put my hand up so often, that’s me, you know, and, and you’ll get to a good place and you’ll think fabulous on a high and then the next moment, like gets involved or something goes wrong, whether it be you know, because that’s the other thing is that we all we all people with personal lives and personal issues, and then you know, things happen in your life, family members go into hospital, you have a wobble. Your friends don’t talk to you, you suddenly think you’ve been left alone on planet Earth. It’s yeah. And then and then as you say, the ego duck thing, and then you’re the one client doesn’t come to class. And suddenly you’re questioning why you’re such a bad teacher, which is ridiculous. But that’s what you do.

Katie Bell: 18:27

And that is really normal. We and we are wrong, you know, I still have those mindset, things that crop up. And we always say that this sort of new level brings the new devil doesn’t it? Because we think we’ve dealt with impostor syndrome. We think we’ve dealt with this belief around money at that level. And then we take that next step, and wham, bam, it’s back again. Oh, you’ve got to work through it.

Nicky Lawford: 18:51

Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. So yeah, so for me having coaching constantly helps me with that, because then that way, when I bump into it again, or when I bump into the new version of terror, army behind me

Katie Bell: 19:09

and talk a little bit more Nikki about the army because we all spent 24 hours together didn’t wait in the Cotswolds recently on a on an immersive retreat. Yeah, and it was I mean, there was a little bit of wine consumed on the Thursday night maybe just just to touch however, most importantly, you know, we have we had an incredible 24 hours but what did it mean Nikki, for you to be around? A cohort of business owners in the health and wellness industry who all get it you know, you’ve really formed some amazing friendships haven’t

Nicky Lawford: 19:45

yet I have. So this is the one thing I’ll say to anyone who is, you know, kind of doing working on the business side apart from coaching, which I highly recommend. The other thing is to keep reading. So push yourself to read books. It’s not just technical knowledge but but things that expand your mindset that push you to think the way up, you know, your habits, your how you play in terms of business, your habits structure. So yes, so for me, it’s, it’s pushing that, but then also surrounding himself with as many people that are willing to share and give of themselves. And I find, actually wellness is really good because most of us will be, you know, if you, if you sit us down, and we’re not in a clinic, most of us will be open and honest about our journey. And if you can surround yourself with people doing exactly that, that also go, Hey, I’m having a moment of having a word. And then when you can support each other, you can make suggestions, nine out of 10, one of your your team have done it before you or have been in a similar situation. And while it might not be perfect, it’s so nice to know that you’re not alone. And that, you know, you’ve got, you’ve got this team going through with you, and that we’re all growing together. Because, you know, you should never stop learning. I don’t believe at any age, you should stop learning. So for more that the more we can grow from each other, the better. So yes, being around people for 24/7 was so much fun and such joy. And yes, we had wine, yes, we laughed. We couldn’t stop laughing actually, we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, except when we had to do the work. And then we were all serious about the work because we know what that brings. And that was in itself as incredible as all the rest.

Katie Bell: 21:40

Yeah, I just had, so I’m still buzzing from it. And it was four weeks ago, to clean energy that it creates being you know, like COVID is done well. Now, as far as I’m concerned, it is left my conscious brain, we need the connections, we need the connections. And we do a lot of what we do Nikki is on Zoom. Because it works really well you can connect him with us on on our group calls strategy and mindset calls every month, we also have one to ones each month together. So we have a way of connecting, but it is virtually because it fits into people’s lives. But then we also want to have these face to face events that bring us all together and really have that level of understanding that I think people other industries can

Nicky Lawford: 22:28

completely and it’s a way of filling your own cup, you know, we all give as coaches and as wellness people, we you know, you don’t ever go into a session with someone and I’m gonna say this room because I think, you know, anyone listening to this would would do this, you go into a session, and your clients not feeling great. You walk into that room, your smile comes on your energy picks up, you’re like, hey, let’s do it. And by the time they’ve left your session, they’re feeling 100 times better, not only if they move their body, they aren’t hurting as much. And they feel alive and good. And well. And then you think yay, but then you leave the room. And that’s a little bit of your energy into that you do that day on day without asking, you know, just comes naturally. But you need to fill the cup from the other end to and I think that is probably one of the places where we fall down the quickest is that we’re so easy to give. And it’s and we almost punish ourselves to refill and we shouldn’t be

Katie Bell: 23:34

Yes, such amazing advice, Nick. Thank you talking about advice for business owners that are listening and are massively inspired by by you and your story and your success. And you have a really exciting year ahead Nikki Do you want to give people a little flavour of what 2023 is delivering for you, Nikki and what’s going to continue to deliver over this next year.

Nicky Lawford: 23:58

So I am blending my pelvic floor work with Pilates. So I am going to do some individual sessions where we literally you go in for a Pilates class, but you work on your pelvic floor because so many clients come to me on the pelvic floor side and go I’m doing yoga twice a week and I’m doing Pilates. See not with me twice a week but I can’t find my pelvic floor when I when she tells me to lift it. I have no clue if I even have a pelvic floor. And I Yeah, okay, I’ve got to stop my eyeballs from rolling firstly, and then and then once we’ve helped them buy their pelvic floor I thought you know what, no, now we need we need to get some people in here. So I’m very excited that we’re bringing on a series where we can do both. And then I am expanding on the pelvic floor side. I have just started them in this class. And for me that is a challenge and a privilege all in one. They are super funny, super inspiring. Um, you know, the fact that these guys are not gym goers, they I think are allergic to lycra. But they get on the mats. And they, they love for me, because I’m asking them to do torturous moves. But each week they’re improving. And so for me if I can help more men out their case, absolutely. So there’s loads going on. I’ve got a couple of events coming up. Yeah, just a packed diary or around doesn’t isn’t stuff that is all safe and easy. No, I will tell you now that I am a particular words on this podcast, but just know that that’s what I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

Katie Bell: 25:44

So yes, there we go. You are unlucky, and you need that you need that support. When you’re moving out of that comfort zone. You’ve been in that that so we have felt for 12 or 18 months, and it was ready to move to that next level diversifying income stream looking at more ways, you were kind of at a ceiling in terms of that delivery work you have okay, how do I how do I take my life to the next level? How do I take my income with it? And but how do I do that without it just kind of flooring you and burning you out from a face to face delivery. So we’ve had to look at changing the way that you work, the way you structure your programmes and your packages and the pricing and all of those things.

Nicky Lawford: 26:24

Yeah. Which has been very helpful to have you as a coach through that stuff. But yes, those are the bigger decisions. But they’re in place. Now. It’s just a matter of, as I said, getting out of my comfort zone, getting out of my own head and moving forward.

Katie Bell: 26:42

And now Nikki, you’ve just told everybody on this podcast, that’s what you’re doing. No pressure. Accountability, people. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Nikki, for those listening, that are really inspired by your story, what would be your one piece of advice for someone who is perhaps they they have, they’re in a position in their business where they need to do something different, they are continuing the same things, nothing is changing, because nothing is changing? What would be your one piece of advice,

Nicky Lawford: 27:15

I would probably say get a coach or a mentor, you need somebody to grab your hand and either lead you through or to stand behind you and push you through. But either which way to have somebody that supports you wholeheartedly. Whether you haven’t good days or bad days would be my number one piece of advice?

Katie Bell: 27:36

Yeah, and I would, I would, I would piggyback that with, make sure that the person that you you go and work with you do your due diligence, they have to align with you. You have to you have to have a fit together.

Nicky Lawford: 27:51

You do you do. And that’s why the calls we had beforehand was so important. I had spoken to other coaches. But there is something that happens between two people. And you’ll feel that with your clients too. You gel with some clients perfectly and you think yes, they could be my best friend. The other clients where they challenge you a little bit to end maybe aren’t particularly yours. And you’ll know because they disappear quite quickly from you know, they stop attending classes, or they just don’t fit anymore. And I just wanted to say, you know, you’ve got to find that connection. And you’ve got to feel, you’ve got to trust the process, which is hard when you haven’t hit the process. But you’ve got to have had enough really good conversation to go. I’m feeling good about this. I’m gonna go with it.

Katie Bell: 28:38

Yeah, Nikki, thank you so much for giving us your time, your very precious time to inspire other business owners. And I hope it’s given you a moment of reflection to show how just to just to see your journey, because we don’t ever stop to look back Do we were always on to the next thing

Nicky Lawford: 28:55

we are it’s like the hamster wheel doesn’t stop and you don’t, you don’t. And actually someone said to me, don’t worry what’s behind you don’t, you know, don’t look in the next lane, which I think during social media, especially at the moment, that’s the hardest thing. We all try to look left and right or going oh, but she’s doing this and she’s done that. And that’s really hard to keep that forward focus. But there are moments where you’ve got to stop, pat yourself on the back and go, Hey, let’s just honour what I’ve wanted done, how we’ve moved forward. Because otherwise you just you just leading yourself with a stick as opposed to the character you you want to you want to celebrate a couple of the moments that have been good. And that could just be because it’s Tuesday and everybody turned up but you know, you’ve got to take the moment to appreciate the good things as well as as reflect on the bad things. Don’t let them go just have a quick moment and nothing hold on to it and look at it and go oh I should have I could have let go hang on what went wrong? What can I Doesn’t matter, okay, move on.

Katie Bell: 30:02

Failure is the biggest route the quickest route to success. Indeed, I love it, Nikki, keep doing what you’re doing, you are a massive inspiration to, to not only be when I coach you, but to all of the other people within our coaching programme who love when you’re in the room and on the calls because you bring such a wonderful energy to it. And but to all our listeners as well, I’m sure they will be inspired by your story. So thank you for giving up your time, and leisure

Nicky Lawford: 30:27

anytime.

Katie Bell: 30:28

And that’s all from us guys, thank you for listening into this week’s episode. If you are really inspired by the history, and you would like to reach out and have a call with me or my team, we do something called a business and marketing audit, and I am actually practising what I preach. And in April from April, we are reducing how many of these are available. So we used to have a lot of these available in a month and we’re having to strip those right back. So we now only have five opportunities for you to jump on a call. Now I want to be really transparent. These calls are nothing to do with sales, if we are not the right fit. If I don’t think we could help you. We weren’t talking about it. But what we will do is look at where you are in your business. Now, those biggest challenges those obstacles that are in your way in where you want to be and you will leave with a really clear action plan, whatever you decide of what you need to go and do next. So I will make sure there is a link in the show notes for you to go and grab one of those business and marketing audit calls. And I look forward to chatting again next week. Thank you for listening to treat your business with Katie Bell, the podcast that tells you what you really need to hear. And now when it comes to running a successful business in the health and wellness industry that gives you the time, money and freedom you are wanting for access to our free workshops on how to get more clients in your business, how to make more income in the next 30 days. And to get more time back in your business and life. Head to our free Facebook group today. Treat your business or head over to thrive dash business coaching.com All of the links are available in the show notes