How You Build It Is How It Will Go

I was doom-scrolling when I came across a post from a fellow business coach. The post I stopped on read:

“Online business is harder than in person business.”

The case she was building was that trainers who leave the online space to pursue fitness business in-person are taking the easy way out. That the online business challenge is worth it if you just see it through.

And like… maybe that will happen?

But also… it depends.

I’ve got some thoughts on whether or not you should/shouldn’t leave the online business space.

I’ve also got some thoughts on whether or not you should pursue online fitness full-time.

Today, we’re focusing on a new concept:

It doesn’t matter what or how you choose to run your business.
How you act & feel while you’re building it will be how it feels to run it and live it.

Fitness taught us this very rule: there is no arriving.

When it comes to our bodies, we first believe there is a number on the scale that will make us feel amazing.
Then we reach it and decide it’s a new number- that we’re not quite there yet.

The numbers can morph over the years: macros, barbell totals, body fat percentage, a new PR.

If the way you arrive at your goals feels like shit, you’re going to feel like shit once you arrive at your goal.

If I believe that I must be rushed, exhausted, and stressed in order to run a business, I will make business decisions that make me feel busy, exhausted, and stressed.

If I believe it doesn’t have to be that way, I will pause when I’m making decisions that feel rushed, exhausting, and stressful and say: “it doesn’t have to be this way.”

And when I make a decision that does rush me, exhaust me, or stress me out- I step back and say: “Interesting decision. Why did we do that?” so that I’m less likely to do it again as long as I don’t want to run a business that makes me feel this way.

But you can only do that once you know that however you build it is how it’s going to go.

Is online business harder than in-person business?

It depends.

Can you build a profitable and relatively ease-filled business in-person? Yes.
Can you build a profitable and relatively ease-filled business online? Also yes.

Did I do any of those things? No. Because I was not building anything with ease in mind at the time.

“Ease” was a place I would “get to”– no different than a dream body.

I worked 7 days a week, 15-17 hours a day- year round.
I hustled. I worked harder than anyone I knew.

How did I build it? Full of passion and energy but also full of urgency, fear, and uncertainty.

How did it go? Full of passion and energy but also full of urgency, fear, and uncertainty.

You will not “arrive.”

If you want your business to be a place of adventure, fun, and ease- you will have to tap into and access feelings of adventure, fun, and ease to build a business like that.

No one sets out to build a life-sucking, exhausting, stressful business. Yet, so many of us do.

That’s because we feel exhausted and stressed as we’re building it.

If you make decisions from a place of scarcity, you will find that your business is a place full of scarcity.

If you lean into your business to avoid yourself and your real life, you will find avoidance everywhere inside your business: avoiding making changes, raising prices, starting a new offer, setting boundaries, creating content.

Once you decide that your work and your business is there to support you in return, you can decide how you want it to go.

Once you know how you want it to go, you can reverse engineer how to build it.

In this case, we’re talking less about WHAT to do and more about HOW you do it.

Are you rushed and urgent?
Are you crowdsourcing everyone you know to make sure ‘this is a good idea’?
Are you full of scarcity and fear?
Are you tired, exhausted, and nearing burnout?

Yes, strategy matters and WHAT we do matters.

Less popular, but far more impactful, is HOW we do it.

The WHAT doesn’t matter if you’re clear on the HOW.

How do you want your business to feel to your clients?
How do you want your business to feel to you?
What areas of your business have you doing things that don’t align with the above?
What can you do to change that?

Remember, we are in charge of our actions and our attitude.

Our actions are largely informed by our attitudes.

If you have the attitude that you refuse to let your business takeover your personal life and personal health, then your actions will back that.

How You Build It Is How It Will Go

“Online business is harder than in person business.”