Jen (00:01.784)
Hey Nikki, welcome to the Mom's Safe Movement podcast. How are you going?
Nikki Knieriem (00:06.572)
Thanks for having me. I'm doing pretty good, thank you.
Jen (00:09.73)
We've seen a lot of each other this week. You are on the Gold Coast, so we caught up on Monday for a little jog walk chat, and then we had a mentor session, and then here we are. It's like you'll be sick of me by the end of the week, anyway.
Nikki Knieriem (00:15.456)
We do? We have, yes. I'm getting all my inspiration flowing into my body. Ready for the year ahead.
Jen (00:25.39)
I love it, I love it. Nice. Hey, let's kick off the way that we always have done on the podcast with a word, a win and something that you're working on.
Nikki Knieriem (00:34.592)
Yeah, so my word would be focused. I'm feeling very focused with getting the stuff done ready for the year ahead. Working on, my working on at the moment is pretty much exactly what I just said. So it's just putting together all of the processes and bringing everything together with my planning. So I've got really good strong direction for the year ahead.
Jen (00:58.851)
Mm-hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (01:02.516)
And my win would be feeling comfortable financially going into the year and already knowing my numbers and where my finances are going to be for term one.
Jen (01:20.546)
This makes me so happy. So happy. Like, do you know how many, and I know that you do, and we talked about this last week, and then we had, not last week, on Monday, and then you were my inspiration for my newsletter, and so many trainers get to, you know, December. They want to have a big, big amount of time off work, but they know that there's no money coming in. And then if they do manage to get through that, they're in January.
Nikki Knieriem (01:26.699)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (01:33.268)
Yep.
Nikki Knieriem (01:44.94)
Mmm.
Jen (01:50.932)
struggling. It's like I need to get paid again and it's a very different energetic feeling when you're planning the year ahead when you're coming in with kind of scarcity and like I fucking I just have to earn money. What is why is why does it feel different for you this year?
Nikki Knieriem (02:03.201)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (02:07.604)
it's been probably about two years in the works. two years ago, I was in a place where I think I mentioned this in my last podcast recording that I did with you, but I can't even remember what the tax debt was, but it was something like $14,000 or something like that, that I just, had just got hit with and, I hadn't
I didn't have good processes in place. I was pretty much just sort of living, you know, what's in the bank account this week? What can I pay? And so then I just started to get to know my numbers and I started putting a plan in place and it definitely didn't happen overnight. It's been, yeah, two years of getting myself from being in debt to now being in a place where
Jen (02:59.875)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (03:03.508)
I have been able to pay myself over the school holidays. I even managed to take my family on a holiday. So yeah, it's been a little bit of time, but it's been putting those little steps, guess, baby steps and being patient as well and going, okay, well, it's not going to happen right now. But if I start putting in and implementing these steps and these processes, then I'm going to slowly see start, see the money.
build in the bank account so that I'm in a good place for future years.
Jen (03:37.998)
I can imagine there's some people sitting, well, number one, congratulations, well done for actually learning about it then doing what you learn because I think a lot of people learn about it and go, yeah, I know that now, but I'm not really going to implement it. Number two, facing a challenging financial position because I think again, it's one of the hardest things is when you know you've got a tax debt and you know that the year ahead, not only have you got to pay back the tax debt, but you also have to plan for that year's tax as well. So you've got to go through some pain to
Nikki Knieriem (03:50.848)
Hmm.
Jen (04:07.962)
to where you are now and a lot of people will ignore that. How would you feel about chatting through the actual things that you put in place? Because I think that would be really helpful for people listening and going this is how I start to put my money in different places and understand where I'm at financially. Cool.
Nikki Knieriem (04:27.808)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. yep. So I guess the first thing that I started with, one of the resources that's available for us within our MumSafe membership is our financial spreadsheet, which has got your actuals, your projections, and then I call it, I'm not sure if it's actually called this, but your big dream.
of like what, yeah, where I'd like to be. That's what I've named it. So that's been really useful because when I actually did the, when I did the actuals, which was the reality of what's actually going on that, put a lot of fear in me. And then you sort of do the projection and you're like, yes, that would be great. And then your big dream is like, yeah, wouldn't that be amazing? So first of all, it was getting
Jen (04:53.49)
I like that. That one.
Jen (05:07.342)
you
Nikki Knieriem (05:21.74)
clear and admitting to myself, this is where we're at. And if we continue going along this path, this is where we're going to continue to be at as opposed to, well, let's start implementing these little things. Whether it be like you're going to need to offer more face to face or you're going to need to find more income streams.
Jen (05:36.494)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (05:49.234)
Or just get really real with your numbers and work out, what are my monthly expenses versus what's coming in? And working that out. And that was painful, too, to go, wow, that's my actual expenses. I think I'm earning all this money, but in reality, I'm kind of not. So, yeah, that was a big step, too.
Jen (06:16.278)
Yeah, did you make some cuts on the expenses? Or did you keep everything and decide you needed to earn more?
Nikki Knieriem (06:22.748)
a bit of both. So there's, yeah, there's certainly been cuts. It wasn't, it wasn't just a one decision. This is something that I monitor every month and go, well, what, what can I cut now? What, what am I spending money on that's no longer serving me? yeah, so it's, that's an ongoing process.
Jen (06:46.71)
Yeah, it's funny being a coach that teaches that because it's like every month you're up for the cut. Every single month you've got to prove your worth, which is actually a good place for me to kind of operate from. But it's like you teach people that, like cult things. Like, okay, see you Jan though. We're having this conversation so clearly we're still here.
Nikki Knieriem (06:52.18)
Yeah. Yeah, I actually did the opposite invested in more with you because I then started doing a mastermind with you. So I kind of went the opposite way.
Jen (07:08.415)
Yeah, you did. You did.
Jen (07:13.08)
But I think that's like the difference between someone who is not looking at their finances, who is keeping their head in the sand, who is scared then to invest in what they're doing. Because if you can't look at where you are financially, then it's really scary to look at investing money into, whether it's mentoring or a membership or whatever it is. But if you, so for example, you you've got this big dreams spreadsheet.
Nikki Knieriem (07:24.512)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (07:34.38)
Mmm.
Nikki Knieriem (07:39.852)
Mm-hmm.
Jen (07:40.054)
and you've got your actuals and you're like, shit, I'm over here right now and this is not a very good place to be in, but I've now got this tool in order to get me to here. The step that a lot of people then miss as well is they go, I've now got my big dreams, but I'm not gonna do the things that's gonna get me there. I'm just gonna stay over here and dream about the dream, but not do the thing to get you towards the dream. But you went, okay, I'm over here, gotta get this shit sorted out.
what is the fastest way I can get there? Well, that's potentially gonna be further investing in myself, my accountability, my ability to get shit done, which means spending some money, but by spending that money, I'm gonna get closer to that big dream.
Nikki Knieriem (08:11.18)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (08:18.326)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (08:23.946)
Yeah, yep, that's exactly what happened.
Jen (08:27.906)
Yeah. So if anyone is listening and we're going to skip over, we're not going to go into all the background with Nikki. We did do a podcast last year and I'll link to that podcast in the show notes, but Nikki, from where you were last time we spoke to where you are now, what was the decision that made you jump into mentoring? Was it everything that I just talked about or was it something else?
Nikki Knieriem (08:50.738)
It was, I sort of got sick of doing the same shit with no result. Is it Albert Einstein that has that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over without any result or something like that? Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I've done the year of working through my finances and feeling really uncomfortable and getting to a point where I've gone,
Jen (09:01.165)
Mm.
Jen (09:05.352)
Expecting a different result, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (09:20.492)
Okay, well, I'm now almost at capacity with what I can offer face to face. I'm going to burn myself out energetically if I keep trying to do more of that. And I had this online program that it was just like going nowhere. I was just repeating the same thing. I'd been trying to get this online program going for a couple of years and
Jen (09:27.342)
Mm-hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (09:48.638)
It was costing me more than it was to run it than I was making. So that's what made me step into mentoring initially. was like, I need some outside help. need someone looking over my shoulder with a broader perspective and maybe having a little bit of truth telling and telling me maybe what I'm not willing to hear at the moment.
Which was actually a really good thing because we started, you and I started, you didn't first of all, this shit's not working, Nikki, you need to change it. Test the market, get feedback. And so I did, and I tested the market and I got feedback and no one was interested in that program. So then I made the decision, well, cut that. What can I now focus my energy on? And because I've now been able to focus my energy.
Jen (10:35.949)
Hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (10:41.574)
on other things. So in the last year, I've launched my Strong Start running program. Now that I've had that mentoring, that push to step into launching that program and the support and the gentle push to get that developed and do all the steps and really understand all the steps to do that as well. Yeah, that has certainly seen me move forward and yeah.
start going forward with financially, what's the word, feeling good about myself financially, but also feeling like I'm travelling in the direction of my path that I'm meant to be going on, yeah.
Jen (11:11.501)
Hmm.
Jen (11:25.161)
Mm.
Yeah, so if we lay it out for people, there'll be two groups of people listening, there'll be people that are right at the start of their fitness business, they've not even got those face to face products and services up and running or let alone at capacity. And then there'll be people that are going, I'm kind of there and then now I want to take the next step. So you spent time inside of the MUMSAFE, like as in the membership with the business support in order to get to a position where you knew what your maximum capacity was in your face to face, you put into action all of the
Nikki Knieriem (11:34.124)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (11:50.113)
Mm-hmm.
Jen (11:56.924)
things that you needed to do to become locally famous and operate a sold out fitness business. That was the start, right? So share with us your numbers. They're pretty good. They're pretty good. The numbers on your yeah, face to face. So
Nikki Knieriem (12:02.23)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (12:08.043)
They are pretty good. Yeah, I've closed down my spreadsheet that's actually got my numbers, but I'm going to fly off and you're probably going to correct me, Jen. yeah, they're so my opportunities to exercise, which is the opportunities for face to face exercise is 79. And I'm currently sitting at 66 spots booked out.
Jen (12:17.078)
Wing it. I've got him in front of me probably.
Jen (12:36.044)
Yep.
Nikki Knieriem (12:37.58)
In saying that though, that's not just face-to-face, that's also my online programming. Where I'm sitting towards the start of term two is I've actually only got six spots available for face-to-face training, but four people are trialling in the next week. So there's kind of possibly only two spots going in that I'm actively trying to film.
Jen (13:00.588)
Yeah, cool. So yeah, so going into term one, you said term two, but we'll say term one, so no one gets confused. You've got six spots left to fill in your face to face training, and you've got four people trialing those over the next week. What have you done to, so the majority of those clients are existing clients that you've retained and they're coming back. What have you done to...
Nikki Knieriem (13:06.102)
Yeah. yeah. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (13:15.008)
Yeah. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (13:21.782)
Mm. Yep.
Jen (13:27.402)
maintain that level of, I guess, capacity, like occupancy, as in field spots.
Nikki Knieriem (13:33.034)
Yeah, so really building community and connecting with my clients, doing a lot of work around becoming locally famous as well. I actually had a little look today about what my opportunities to exercise were two years ago versus now. And it was 48 two years ago. So I have increased.
my offerings for people to train with me. Yes, but a lot of, I guess what I'm doing to help retain is like building community and support with my clients, continuing to get my name out there. the local, it becoming locally famous so that when people do want to train on one of the go-to trainers in the area or
people are recommending me on say social media and things like that. So I think that that's probably the been the big thing with building my waitlist because I do have a waitlist as well, especially for my evening classes. So all of my evening sessions have waitlists for those sessions. Yeah.
Jen (14:29.292)
Yeah.
Jen (14:47.99)
Awesome. So those those four people that are trialing, have they come off your waitlist or have they? Cool.
Nikki Knieriem (14:53.298)
No, they're daytime sessions. So those four people are, yeah, mums for my morning mums and bubs sessions.
Jen (15:00.822)
Yeah, you did say the other day that you just filled off a waitlist. So have you had some of those evening sessions, sell out, someone's dropped off, and then instead of having to advertise, you've just filled them? Is that right? Am I remembering that right? Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (15:08.268)
Mm.
Yep, yep, that's exactly it. Yep, yep. So it's been really nice the last year with the evening sessions in particular, if someone does need to drop out for whatever reason to just go, okay, well, like I'm sad to see you go, but I'm also feeling okay because I know that I'm not going to be left scrambling and trying to re-advertise. I'll just contact the next person on the wait list. Yeah.
Jen (15:36.014)
Yeah, that's really cool. do you still market? How are you getting the people on the waitlist in the first place? Is that are you doing certain marketing at certain times for that class or that class is now known in your area to be sold out and people organically come?
Nikki Knieriem (15:52.14)
So through last year, I at the beginning of every term, I was just doing some, I guess, light touch marketing where I post in local Facebook community groups and say, I've got X number of spots available. People were contacting me. January last year, I did do a bit of a Facebook paid ads campaign and I had a number of leads come in for that as well. So I think
All of that combined has led to me building the wait list. This year, I've taken a little bit of a different approach. So at the end of term four, so end of 2024, I created a wait list form for people to fill out that were interested in training with me. I advertise that on my wait list, my socials, et cetera. So I actually, had a couple of people fill out the wait list form, which had all of my sessions listed.
and they could select which sessions they were interested in. And I have filled spots based on them filling out the wait list form. So that's put me in a really good position this year where I've just gone, okay, well those last couple of spots are the hardest spots to fill because they are the daytime classes. I'm going to specifically target the people, the moms, because they're moms and bums classes.
Jen (16:58.414)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (17:20.172)
I'm going to specifically target them. Say I've got one spot in this session and then if people are available at that time, they'll inquire. So, yeah.
Jen (17:27.692)
Yeah, fantastic. I just realized that we talked about finances, but we didn't talk about how you actually paid yourself over Christmas, which I think is really good insight. you completed your financial spreadsheet, you face reality of where you were, you understood your capacity of how many clients you could work with, which means you also understood your capacity of how much income you could earn if you were operating at...
Nikki Knieriem (17:44.161)
Mm.
Jen (17:55.5)
being oversubscribed or at capacity. So then when the money's coming in, you're then channeling money into different places and how are you making sure that you are paying yourself in the holidays and it doesn't dry up.
Nikki Knieriem (18:08.522)
Yeah, so what I've got a whole bunch in my bank account automatic transfers. Yep. Yep. So a certain amount goes into a wage account each each time money comes into my account. So just taking one step back, there's two ways.
Jen (18:16.696)
Transfers? Yep. Yep.
Nikki Knieriem (18:31.052)
clients pay me at the moment and that's either by weekly direct debit. So there's a certain amount coming into my account every week that I know or they can pay for the term upfront. yeah, so based on that, I've got money over in my wage account and I know how much needs to be in there for I've tried to remain six weeks ahead all the time. So, yeah, I've got that. And then out of that, I've got a set amount.
that comes into my own personal bank account, not my business account, every fortnight. So I'm basically paying myself a wage rather than just dipping into my bank account whenever I need money. Yeah, and then I've got different, a number of other accounts. I've got a superannuation account. I've got a GST and tax savings account as well. So the money is funneling into those accounts. So I don't actually have to stress when it comes time to pay.
Jen (19:11.051)
Mmm.
Nikki Knieriem (19:29.701)
things.
Jen (19:30.03)
This gets me so excited, like it's so silly. And I think also because I've been in that position like years ago now, exactly the same as you, where it's like, I had no idea what money was coming in. I was actually making a really decent amount of money for a PT, like over a couple hundred thousand, but I was getting to the end of the tax year with the tax debt and no money because it was all going out and I had no clue where anything was going. So the fact that
Nikki Knieriem (19:36.78)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (19:50.956)
Mm.
Jen (19:54.644)
me who can't do maths and can't run a spreadsheet has taught you how to or supported you I shouldn't say taught but supported you in running a spreadsheet and doing some maths and figuring out bank accounts it makes me really excited like if I could do it and you could do it they all can do it right?
Nikki Knieriem (19:58.25)
No, you have taught me.
Nikki Knieriem (20:08.337)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. yeah, absolutely. It's just knowing how to do it. And that's the issue. I mean, we can all add up, but it's knowing how to do it and how to forecast and how to, yeah, operate the money. I've sort of have for many years lived in this little fantasy bubble of it'll be all okay. But sometimes you got to get real with yourself. Yeah.
Jen (20:14.786)
Yeah.
Jen (20:34.638)
Yeah, absolutely. And then the other thing I just wanted to share with everyone is we did this today in our call that we've just been on, but in order to work out how much money you want to learn, learn, earn, or to account for what you need every month or every week when you're only getting paid 10 weeks and every 12, can you talk us through how we just did that? Otherwise I can try.
Nikki Knieriem (20:43.723)
Bye.
Nikki Knieriem (20:58.209)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (21:02.476)
I laughed because I came into the call going, Jen, I'm stuck with my maths. But yeah, so basically I've worked out what my annual income, what I would like to, and I'm going to take that one step back. First of all, I looked at what I would like to be earning as a profit, as in my wage, not the business profit, but my own profit.
Jen (21:04.162)
We did a whole bunch of maths and we were like, yeah, we just do this, this and this.
Nikki Knieriem (21:32.46)
per year. So I worked out that, then I worked out what my tax would be on that, what my super would be on that, what my business expenses are for a year and also GST. So added all of that up, came up with the overarching figure and then we worked backwards from there. So I knew how much I needed to be earning per year to reach all of those targets and then we've broken it down into well then I need to be earning this
per term and that was the tricky one because I operate on school terms which are 10 week terms but I also need to be paying myself through school holidays so we were you did the maths for me Jen but I'm pretty sure we did the annual amount divided by 12 weeks.
Jen (22:17.303)
You
Jen (22:26.222)
I think we did the 52 and then we times that by 12 and then we divided that by 10.
Nikki Knieriem (22:29.26)
Yep, okay, yep.
Nikki Knieriem (22:34.613)
Makes sense?
Yes, we did, we did do that, yes. Yep. Yeah. And then I went and broke it down further. then I worked out, well, what is it that I wanna be earning per month? And then what is it that I'm wanting to earn per week? So I've sort of got that little bit of a goal there so that when I'm looking through my bookkeeping spreadsheets, I can...
Jen (22:40.096)
And some maths person will go, no, you've got that wrong somehow. But I think that's pretty spot on as to where we ended up.
Nikki Knieriem (23:06.444)
which gives me my profit and loss statement for the month, I can go, okay, well, yeah, I'm on target or I'm not. But also, I track it then in another spreadsheet, which has got like my three month income. So let's say I've earned $10,000 in January, 10,000 in February, 10,000 in March. It works out well for that quarter or for that term, you earn $30,000.
Jen (23:09.709)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (23:35.338)
your monthly average is that divided by three. So that's kind of how I'm working out. Well, what am I earning per month? And yeah, am I staying on track or do I need to? Yeah, be doing something else. Yeah.
Jen (23:38.796)
Yep.
Jen (23:45.976)
to up it or down it. Yeah, nice, which segues are straight into you have got a maximum capacity that you can earn in your face to face classes. And that's where we talk about as a PT, we have this time for money exchange, energetic exchange, and there comes a point where we just can't or don't want to do anymore. So you know, if you're operating that at maximum capacity, I know I'm not going to give away the numbers, but I know that your maximum capacity of that is not
Nikki Knieriem (23:56.298)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (24:03.734)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jen (24:14.656)
in alignment with your overarching financial goal. So what are we doing to fill that?
Nikki Knieriem (24:17.803)
No.
Nikki Knieriem (24:21.718)
So now we're currently looking at what can I do that is going to help me, that is going to provide more income when I'm not having to be there face to face. So it's not that energy exchange time for energy. So for me, that is last year I focused on building my Strong Start Running Program, which is an online program.
Jen (24:36.526)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (24:50.566)
And that's kind of now for me, I need to sit down and do the numbers and go, okay, well, this is the difference with how much money I want to be earning. This is what I'm currently earning. What's the difference? And then how am I going to get myself to where I want to be earning with these online offerings? So for me at the moment, it is strong start running and then
Jen (25:12.85)
Mm-hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (25:19.754)
We may look at something else for the future, but I just need to focus on one task at a time at the moment.
Jen (25:24.674)
Yeah, totally. Absolutely. And with the Strong Start running, and this is how your that kind of thing works a little bit different to the terms if people are trying to go, okay, well, I'm in the same position. I'm operating at foot sold out. What do I need to do? So the next step for us is to figure out how many Strong Start running programs per month.
do you need to sell in order to reach that financial goal and then work backwards from there? And whether you use Facebook advertising or it's organic marketing or, and we can look at numbers deeper and go, well, I'm going to run a masterclass that runs into that, that program. need to get, I need to sell five per month, which means I need to get 30 people to register for masterclass, 10 people to sign up, 10 people to actually buy. And we don't quite have the numbers yet there, but that's kind of where we're heading, right? Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (25:44.396)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (26:07.628)
Mm.
Yep. That's right. Yep.
Jen (26:14.51)
And you ran some master classes last year. How was that process?
Nikki Knieriem (26:17.74)
Yeah, so I ran, I've run one masterclass last year, which was my, I guess, intro into me launching this program. And I had this magic number four that just kept appearing for everything, which I thought was obviously there was an energetic alignment with that number. But I had four after the masterclass. I think I had 10 people sign up to the masterclass.
four turned up and then I had four sign up to my Strong Start Running program. Some of them weren't the people that were in the masterclass but yeah four people signed up which I thought was a really good start and it was a really good process of understanding like the what I need to do with
launching a masterclass and how I can use a masterclass to sell a product, but also not do it in a selly way where, I'm like, for want of a better word, like trapping people into sitting through these things so that I can sell them this product. It was, I was teaching them and educating them with something, which is a huge passion of mine. And then if they wanted to buy my Strong Start Running program at the tail end of that, awesome.
Jen (27:23.767)
Hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (27:44.812)
Yeah, and I had four people sign up, so I was really excited with that.
Jen (27:49.026)
Yeah, it's really good. I think there's two things that kind of come to mind when you're talking about your experiences. Number one, a lot of people in the light for only for only 10 people signed up. Do you want to talk to that? Because you didn't have that feeling. But a lot of people do have that feeling.
Nikki Knieriem (28:00.669)
Mm. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, well, like I did have that feeling before I sat with it and became comfortable with it. Yeah, so I guess when you're developing an online program, you do have that expectation of I'm reaching the whole world, so everyone should sign up and do my thing. But it's actually a lot of work to become.
Jen (28:30.254)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (28:34.112)
no longer, what's the word, no longer locally famous, but beyond locally famous, yes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's a whole different ball game with getting people to know, like and trust you. So to have 10 people sign up to my masterclass and admittedly there was
Jen (28:36.386)
Beyond locally famous. Yeah. That's what we've coined it. It's like, cool, you're locally famous. Now we've got to get you to be, you can be beyond locally famous. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (29:00.624)
so much more I could have been doing in terms of trying to advertise beyond locally. But to have 10 people initially interested and then I think you coached me Jen around numbers and percentages of people that sign up versus people that actually then sign up to a program. What are the numbers again? It's quite low.
Jen (29:26.702)
Honestly, yeah, it's really low. Like I honestly can't remember off the top of my head, but it's you hit like 10 people signed up and I know not everyone that turned up signed up, but your numbers, your percentages are really good. Like that's 50 % or you know, 40 % of the people that registered signed up or 100 % of the people that showed up signed up, which is not, it's like 10 % or it's low is all I can say. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (29:36.576)
Hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (29:42.699)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (29:51.198)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it wasn't until we actually had that you and I had that conversation and the numbers and you coached me a little bit more and said, well, to reach this monetary target, which was the target last year, it's no longer my target, but to reach this monetary target, you need to have, I think it was like 40 people sign up and then you want like.
10 of those people to then sign up to your program. And yeah, it wasn't until you coached me through those numbers that I was like, okay, well, know, four is great. That's awesome. And for the amount that I was selling the program for, that's actually four people's great. I've made, yeah, I think it was like $1,600 from the four people that signed up, which is better than $0.
Jen (30:42.606)
And 16, I think people forget this and whether it's within your, you know, your face to face classes or you're just starting out or you're just launching something new. These are real life people who've gone, I trust this person enough.
to invest my time, my energy in their product or service. So it's like that obviously, not obviously, but often we want more, like it's human nature that we want more, but it's really important that we appreciate the people that come and get comfortable with it not always being lots and know that the growth.
Nikki Knieriem (31:17.142)
Mm.
Jen (31:23.232)
will or won't come. And you know what, you might find yourself in a position where it's like, well, I'm consistently getting 10, the number is four, maybe I can actually offer something that's a slightly high price point to these four people that because all I need then if I get the four, I could add in a couple of extra features in the program. And all of a sudden, I've doubled my 1600 to three and a half thousand or something like that. And that, you know, we test and we measure and we adjust things as we go.
Nikki Knieriem (31:44.236)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (31:49.18)
Mm, yeah, absolutely.
Jen (31:51.106)
Yeah, there was something else I wanted to say and I can't remember it. It was based on you talking about your masterclass.
It will return. It'll come back. And now I'm like, don't even know what my next question is because I was, that was it. What are some of the actions that you're doing to take you beyond locally famous?
Nikki Knieriem (32:02.016)
It will.
Nikki Knieriem (32:12.46)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (32:16.588)
Okay.
So I'm probably not taking a lot of action right now, but I need to be. am consistently posting on social media, which I guess is keeping my audience who are not necessarily local, but are keeping my audience engaged. But the next step social media would be going down some advertising routes, looking maybe at doing some paid advertising.
Jen (32:26.498)
What's on your radar?
Jen (32:30.883)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (32:49.59)
so that I'm getting across people's feeds some more. I have recently, and I procrastinated on this for months and months, but I ended up doing it was I submitted an article into a local magazine that gets delivered to all of the houses in our area. And...
big win because it was snapped up straight away and I even got like the title of my article on the front page. that yeah that is something and that's something that I plan on doing more often is submitting articles. This year I would love to be getting onto more podcasts, writing more blogs so that people are getting to know me because I think
Jen (33:20.846)
Okay.
Nikki Knieriem (33:42.304)
For me this year, there's a lot of getting known so that people can begin to know of me and then like and trust comes with that once they get to know me. So they're probably the big steps that I'm doing at the moment. Consistently sending out my emails as well. And another big thing that I almost forgot to share was
Jen (33:53.922)
Mm-hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (34:11.4)
Last year too, I also launched a local run club. we've sort of got the idea behind that is there's a little bit of an organic funnel into my Strong Start running program where they're joining me. It's a free running club for local women and they're all beginner runners and we meet every Sunday and go for a run. So I'm getting to know more ladies that may not necessarily
Jen (34:15.288)
That's right.
Nikki Knieriem (34:40.576)
want to do my other face-to-face offerings, they just want to know how to run or try running. So they're coming to that and then they may choose to sign up to my masterclass, they might choose to sign up to my online program as well. So that's something I'm doing to try to just get me out there a little bit more.
Jen (34:44.91)
Mm.
Jen (35:01.75)
Yeah, I like that because I think, you know, we talk about this beyond locally famous with an online product. The reality is, is if you're running a fitness business with, let's say you've got 80 people as part of your membership.
there's way more than 80 people in your community that may want to work with you, but they're waiting for an offering that means that they don't need to show up for it. So, you know, yes, we want to become beyond locally famous and we wouldn't stop doing that. And don't overlook what is in your back garden. So, you know, Nikki, you could advertise your run, like do a Facebook ad and advertise that free run club and see if anyone actually comes to the back. Now, obviously it's a free run club. You're to have to invest some money into getting people to that. But once you've got
Nikki Knieriem (35:24.172)
Mmm.
Jen (35:44.556)
And then you're getting them in person, like you're spending time with them, running with them. You educate them on the values of strength and running. And then all of sudden they're in your program. So there's a lead gen there or directly advertising your masterclass in your local area as well. I don't know if you've done that as yet. You haven't? Cool. Cool, cool, cool. It is. Now, Nikki, if I'm...
Nikki Knieriem (35:48.396)
Hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (35:59.413)
Mmm, yep.
I haven't, no, but it is something I should do. It's on the list now.
Jen (36:10.06)
looking for someone to be on my podcast, which clearly here we are, but if I'm looking for someone to educate moms with a thought process that you want to be able to drop a resource on that podcast that's going to lead them into running, like the strength training for moms, what would your pitch be to me in that kind of run space?
Nikki Knieriem (36:36.396)
So my pitch would be that I'm a women's health and fitness coach who focuses on helping women to grow stronger and confident in their body.
Jen (36:48.142)
And you said something about autonomy before.
Nikki Knieriem (36:50.654)
Yeah I did, yes, yes. So my overall passion is helping women to grow confident in their body and to have autonomy over their body.
Jen (37:05.006)
then what does that mean to you when you say autonomy?
Nikki Knieriem (37:07.852)
To have their own choice, be able to make their own choice, have a good understanding of what might be going on, to ultimately feel strong in what their body is capable of doing, but also strong in their health so that they're living their best life.
Jen (37:29.838)
Yeah, and then the running is one of the vehicles that you use in order to achieve that.
Nikki Knieriem (37:36.508)
Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Yep. So yeah, I've got the the face to face training, which is in my gym strength training and then the running for women as well. Yeah.
Jen (37:47.758)
Yeah, I love it. It's one of the things that we work on quite a lot inside MomSafe is pitching and making sure that we know how to pitch ourselves. Although you did say today, can we do this more often? Because I want to practice my pitch more. it's the same, like it's the same for all of us. And I think if anyone's listening and they can't articulate who they are and what they do and who they do it for in a sentence, then we need to do a little bit of work on
Nikki Knieriem (38:01.066)
Yeah.
Jen (38:18.008)
who they are and what they do it for because you can get really, really lost in, know, someone says, what do you do? I think it was you, Nikki said today, you said, you know, I can say this when I'm online, but when I'm talking to people, what was it you said to me?
Nikki Knieriem (38:31.708)
Yeah, just mainly whenever I meet people and they left what do you do? I'm a personal trainer So and I always say it and then I kick myself afterwards because I'm like that was an opportunity to say I'm a women's health and fitness coach and this is who I focus on Yeah, so it's just getting the practice of actually explaining what I do and I'm not just a personal trainer
Jen (38:55.852)
No, and it's interesting though, because I'm a personal trainer is not a bad place to start. So a mentor of mine, Daniel Priestley, he's just done a big podcast with Stephen. I don't know if you ever listened to Stephen, he's a UK entrepreneur. And he was talking about this on his podcast. And I learned it years and years ago when I did their program. But when you're doing your pitch, it's like, hi, I'm Nikki. So this is my name. And then it's same. And I wonder whether...
Nikki Knieriem (39:03.148)
Mm.
Jen (39:24.614)
you wanting to say I'm a women's health and fitness coach is too obscure when you put it into real life because it's not obscure for us and we're like well of course women's health and fitness coach you're saying health and you're saying fitness and I'm a coach you should be able to put it together but the everyday person on the street potentially wants to listen to us say I'm Nikki I'm a personal trainer and they're like Nikki personal trainer.
Nikki Knieriem (39:32.106)
Mmm.
Jen (39:47.628)
box, box. Now, instead of trying to figure out what the fuck a women's health and fitness coach does, because to the average person, it's not that easy, they can concentrate on what you're saying next. So maybe the way that it's rolling out for you is an interesting awareness and you can go, I'm a personal trainer, I specialize in working with women. And it keeps it so, so simple when you do that.
and then you won't be kicking yourself. And the other side of it is you'll say the words personal trainer will come out of your mouth and you're like, fuck, I just said it again. And now your brain will go personal trainer, who specializes in working with women? And you'll catch yourself immediately and you'll get your pitch out and it'll start to sound right.
Nikki Knieriem (40:21.292)
You
Nikki Knieriem (40:25.184)
Yeah!
Nikki Knieriem (40:31.764)
Yeah, yep, yep, yes, spot on.
Jen (40:35.438)
You'll to give it a go and tell us how you go with it.
Nikki Knieriem (40:38.026)
Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because one of the other Mumsafe trainers the other day in the Mumsafe Facebook community asked about, she was doing some Facebook advertising and she had a couple of taglines and she was getting our opinion on what one fit. And my feedback to her was choose this one because it's pulling out exactly who your target market is. And you're the same with the online pitch.
Jen (40:44.202)
Nikki Knieriem (41:05.578)
Like if you're talking to someone, want to, yeah, tell them exactly your name, exactly what you do, and then tell them a little bit about like, yeah, who the target market is. So, yeah, it's an interesting way of framing it. And it stops. I almost think that would stop the people from, you know, when you talk to someone and you just see the light go out of their eyes because you're just talking for too long. But I think if you hit them straight away and you go, this is my name, this is what I do.
And then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You've got their attention.
Jen (41:36.974)
Well, the goal-
Yeah, and the goal is for them to go personal trainer, I work with women, either like the goal is that they either go, how do you do that? Or they they then like then they tell you their story about how they're either a woman who's thinking about training or, you know, that's really interesting. I've got this problem or I've been doing x y z and then you've got them brought into what you're doing, you can start to share your expertise and how you do it. Because they've then opened the door. But you're right, if you can see if you find yourself talking for like more than three
sentences and people are just like what you've missed the mark massively yeah yeah yeah um Nikki what what would you say to you know new trainers or trainers that are wanting to make 2025 different than 2024 in some way
Nikki Knieriem (42:11.882)
Yeah, yeah. Yes, yep, yep.
Nikki Knieriem (42:33.24)
I would say ultimately get to know your numbers or get to know your offerings. And if you're looking to do to make that change, so do not do more of the same thing that's not working for you or whatever it may be. Yeah, really get across the number, get across your numbers, get across your services, get
real, get truthful, get honest with yourself about what is working, what's not. And then have a think about, well, how can I make a change? How can I make a difference so that I'm not doing more of the same thing that's not working?
Jen (43:19.95)
Are there any other key things aside from, you know, knowing your numbers, becoming part of MomSafe, becoming, you know, choosing mentoring that you feel like have really helped you to kind of move forward in your own journey?
Nikki Knieriem (43:24.716)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (43:38.9)
I think probably...
Knowing that you can't do it all in one go. And I spoke to you about this earlier in the week, Jen, about how I have trouble planning out what I want to be doing for the year because there's so many things I want to be doing and it all gets really overwhelming because I want to do it all now. understanding and knowing and accepting that you can't make like a huge change and meet, well sometimes you could, but
You can't, it's gonna take time to make change. every, this is my favorite quote, but I'll say it again. Every little step I take is going to bring me one step closer to my goal.
Jen (44:25.262)
And I think nothing speaks more to mums growing a business or parents growing a business than that because until our children leave home and even then who knows what demands they're gonna offer to us. You are never ever ever going to be able to if you're the primary parent at least just
Nikki Knieriem (44:35.5)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (44:40.576)
Yeah. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (44:47.532)
Mm.
Jen (44:48.606)
shut off and get done everything that you want to get done. And that's both a blessing, I very much believe it's a blessing and a head fuck. It's like that I have to versus I get to. And we were talking in our session earlier on about the extra load that women tend to carry, especially this time of year, especially kids going back to school, number one, what are all the things they've to organize? Number two, do they go off to school happily and smiling and that's the end of it.
Nikki Knieriem (45:00.748)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (45:06.06)
Mmm.
Jen (45:16.898)
but there is always a trade off and too many women don't do the thing because they think that they don't have enough time to do the thing. But if they just started to do, like you just articulated so beautifully, one little step at a time, they would be so much closer to where they want to get to by the end of the year, even if they've only done a quarter or 10 % of what they wanted to do.
Nikki Knieriem (45:25.653)
Yes.
Nikki Knieriem (45:33.004)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (45:40.492)
Yep, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And it is really hard because we're all sort of the same. We're all business owners. We're all ambitious. We all have goals for ourself, particularly in the fitness industry. We are very goal driven. Yeah, but also it's like what we tell our clients, isn't it? Like our clients can't expect to...
to suddenly build strength and be able to do 10 pull-ups in one session, it's going to take time. And it's the same with building a business and yeah, just doing what you can on the days that you can and with the time you've got.
Jen (46:15.436)
Hmm.
Jen (46:20.398)
Yeah, and it's why we use personal trainers, right? So that we use the time that we've got well versus going around the houses and doing half a workout or not really know what you're doing. And it's the same, same reason we get support in business every step of the way. Nikki, before we start to wrap up, what are some of the things that you would love to see in 2025, us move either toward or away from in the fitness industry when it comes to working with women or moms or and moms?
Nikki Knieriem (46:33.921)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (46:47.756)
that's a big question isn't it?
Jen (46:50.411)
Mmm.
Nikki Knieriem (46:55.692)
I do feel like there's a shift happening and I'm not sure if it's just because of what's coming through with my social media but there is more research coming out around like working with women and things like that so that's a really positive shift and I'd like to see the momentum continue there. A personal passion of mine is like
Jen (47:18.285)
Yep.
Nikki Knieriem (47:24.364)
educating young women around the benefits of exercise and how they can support their body. Yeah, although there's so much and then there's all the pre and postnatal education which I know this pisses you off too Jen but after all these years no longer having clients.
come to me after they've had a baby and just saying, why did no one ever teach me this? I think, yeah, wouldn't that be amazing if women were getting that education?
Jen (47:57.698)
you
Nikki Knieriem (48:05.708)
free having children or yeah, yeah. There's so much. That was a big question.
Jen (48:07.779)
Yeah.
Jen (48:13.248)
You can circle back. We can circle back at a later date. think, yeah, definitely all of those things and teaching our young women about their body before they're in menopause and trying to figure out what's going on. Yeah, lots and lots and lots to dig into, I guess.
Nikki Knieriem (48:24.672)
Mmm. Yeah.
Jen (48:31.598)
I was on a panel last year with the founder of FernWarn. And she was, I think, what did she say? Something along the lines of I've spent the last 30 years trying to get women to strength train. And I sat there and I was like, oh, 17 years trying to do this stuff's not that bad. And then I was like, fuck, I've got another 15 years ahead of me to even get to where we want to get to. But yeah, I think that the more conversations that we have.
Nikki Knieriem (48:42.944)
Mmm.
Jen (49:00.13)
And if we take full circle back into where we started in today's chat with a business conversation, the more women that run successful fitness businesses means that more change will come because it's really hard running a fitness business, trying to do it all yourself, not sure where you're going, and also not making any money or understanding how to build your business. So I think that's, you know, we're making a few changes inside MomSafe this year or externally.
Nikki Knieriem (49:06.412)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (49:22.262)
Mmm.
Jen (49:28.084)
externally inside Monsave, that doesn't make any sense. But really, you know, moving back into that, we want to support you in a business sense as well, isn't it? Like the education is not going to go anywhere. We're always going to do that. But we really want to work with those trainers who are ready to take those daily steps. Like it's not about putting the pressure on. Some people go faster, some people go slower. But how can we help women?
Nikki Knieriem (49:45.9)
Mmm.
Jen (49:53.29)
mums run really fucking cool fitness businesses that are earning, you know, multiple six figures if that's where they want to go definitely over the GST threshold. Let's like, take that glass ceiling out of the way. And really, really, you know, have more people having these conversations that can have them ongoing because life is better because they're earning money as well as well as having the conversations. So yeah, yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (50:05.974)
Mmm.
Nikki Knieriem (50:15.766)
Yeah, yeah. Yes, yeah, absolutely.
Jen (50:22.188)
Nikki, so anything you'd like to wrap up with today? Anything else you'd like to share before we go?
Nikki Knieriem (50:28.402)
No, I feel like we did cover everything. Yeah, yeah, no thank you for having me. It's been great.
Jen (50:37.57)
Thank you. Thank you for returning. Obviously the first podcast was quit. She's like, yeah, I'll come back again. I'm very excited to get this podcast back out into the world or at least out into the world now. And by the time this episode launches, we will have had a name change. I don't know what the name is going to be yet. So you're listening to this after the name change decision has been made. So I'm excited. Nikki, thank you so much for being with me. Thank you for.
Nikki Knieriem (50:54.208)
Nikki Knieriem (50:58.7)
Sounds exciting.
Jen (51:04.758)
I'm always stepping forward and being a cheerleader of what we're doing here at MumSafe and bringing your beautiful energy into that space as well. And kicking goals, because it's so cool to work with people that are like, yeah, I want to do this. I'm to take that action. Even if I don't get that as fast as I want to, I'm just going to keep going after it. So it's an absolute honor to work with you. Awesome.
Nikki Knieriem (51:24.46)
Thank you. Thank you, it's an honor to work with you too, I should say. Thank you, bye.
Jen (51:28.398)
Take care, Niki, I'll talk to you soon. Bye!
