I’ve been a Beachbody coach for almost seven years and I could seriously write a book on my coaching journey.
But I’ll spare you the novel and try to give you the Cliffs Notes version (do they even make Cliffs Notes anymore??).
I reluctantly signed up as a Beachbody coach in May 2010 after a lot of deliberation and soul searching. I say RELUCTANTLY because at the time I had a lot of preceived notions about network marketing. I didn’t have a positive image of network marketing and I didn’t see myself as someone who could ever be successful at this type of business.
I’m an introvert and a writer. I don’t have a ton of friends and I’m not “salesy.” I stutter and I hate being on video. Not exactly the perfect match for a direct sales and network marketing business!!
However I loved Beachbody and I loved their products. I had just completed a round of P90X and it was life-changing. I knew that if someone else completed P90X it would change their life too. At the time I was heavily involved with blogging, internet marketing, and using my website as a way to generate extra income for me and my husband (in addition to two other freelance writing jobs and working 40+ hours a week as a veterinary technician).
So I ultimately decided to become a coach so I could put affiliate links for P90X on my blog. I also wanted to get a 25% discount on Insanity and Shakeology. I was strictly interested in the retail side of the business and I certainly did NOT want to build a team.
I was a blogger. NOT a leader.
Ain’t nobody got time for that!
I was still skeptical about the whole idea but I told myself I would give the whole thing my BEST effort for at least a year and see what happened.
I continued to blog about my journey with Insanity and other Beachbody products. At the time Facebook wasn’t as big as it is now, but I started to connect with new people who followed my blog on Facebook and it was kinda fun! Eventually people started asking me questions about coaching and before I knew it I had my own little team.
Your first year as a Beachbody coach is A LOT like your first year as a parent. You really have no flippin’ idea what you’re doing but you learn as you go. You have friends, mentors, and books to guide you along the way and give you advice, but really…your journey is going to be 100% unique and there’s no way to script it out!
After a while you start to build more confidence and before you know it you find yourself saying, “I can totally do this! No problem!” Of course as soon as that happens something changes and you find yourself back in uncharted territory.
But hey…it’s all a part of the learning process!
Over time as I started to learn more about the company and how everything works my belief in the business started to grow. Suddenly network marketing wasn’t so stupid anymore. My belief grew even more when I started studying the most successful coaches and noticed that the majority were introverts just like me and weren’t salesy at all. I had a negative impression of the business because the only coaches I ever noticed in the past were the obnoxious and “salesy” coaches who were doing it the wrong way.
On the three year anniversary of my Beachbody birthday I quit my full-time job as a veterinary technician so I could focus 100% of my time on my coaching business. I started to shift my focus away from blogging and more toward connecting with people on social media. I didn’t experience explosive growth in my business like a lot of coaches do, but I was slow and steady and that seemed to work OK for me. Over the years I’ve noticed that a lot of the coaches who experience explosive growth quickly in their business don’t know how to handle it and they end up quitting.
After being a full-time coach for a couple years my husband and I found out I was pregnant with our first child.
Yay!
I always wanted to be home if we ever had kids so this was definitely the cherry on top of my self-employment sundae. It was like everything I had ever worked for during the past 5+ years was FINALLY starting to fall into place. I was experiencing an upward-surge in my business and my team was growing and everything was going awesome!!
It was right around week 20 of my pregnancy and I returned home from our annual Coach Summit in Nashville. I can’t even explain what happened but over a period of about two weeks I quickly spiraled down into a deep depression. All I know is that something went wrong with my body on a biological level and I turned into a different person. I had suicidal thoughts and on a good day I was able to drag myself out of bed to get to my doctor appointments.
For a period of around six months I totally checked out of life and my Beachbody business. It wasn’t until my son was around 12 weeks old that I started to feel semi-normal again. By that time I had lost touch with a lot of customers and coaches who assumed I fell off the planet (I kinda did) and they moved onto other things.
After spending the last 5+ years building up my business and my self-confidence I felt like I didn’t have anything left and I seriously contemplated walking away from my life as a Beachbody coach. I thought that period of my life was over. It got me to where I was now and I was thankful for the opportunity but I didn’t feel like “Coach Amanda” any more. After all, I had all of these expectations to be this awesome example of what it means to have a fit and healthy pregnancy running half marathons until my water broke and how well did that turn out?!?
And then slowly but surely I began to make my way off the pity-potty. I began to realize that maybe being forced to start all over again wasn’t such a bad thing. One night while I was trying to fall asleep God gave me a major download and for the first time in a long time I had a crystal clear vision for the future of my Beachbody business. I realized that quitting now would be the biggest mistake I ever made. I felt entirely broken from my experience but at the same time I felt a lot better equipped to help people.
I also realized the true gift of what I had been given as a full-time Beachbody coach. Even though I wasn’t actively working on my business for a period of 6+ months I still had enough passive income built up to even have the option NOT to work. How awesome is that?!? If I think about it too much it gets me emotional. But instead of having to worry about going back to work and maternity leave and all that other crap that so many families stress over, I could focus 100% on taking care of me and my baby and that’s PRICELESS. Even better…we could afford to have my husband home a majority of the time too because Lord knows I needed the help.
Just like running and living a lifestyle of health and fitness, I feel like if I don’t make a conscious effort to pass on the gift of Beachbody coaching to someone else my whole experience was a waste of time.
So even though it’s been almost seven years I feel like my journey as a coach is only getting started!! It’s exciting! I feel like I have the best of both worlds when it comes to being a coach because I have all this experience and knowledge that I’ve gained during my 5+ years of coaching combined with a brand new vision and mission for my team. Things have changed A LOT with this business since I first got started and I finally feel like I’m in a place where I can properly equip my clients and teammates with the tools and support they need in order to be successful.
To wrap things up here’s a video of some of my favorite Beachbody moments leading up to Summit in Nashville in 2015.
I can’t wait to make more memories in 2017 and beyond!
This post was written as part of my Beachbody Coaching Open House series. If you think you might be interested in joining my team as a Beachbody coach please contact me or you can check out the rest of the Open House series for more information.