Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Jen Esquer: How to STAND OUT on Social Media as an Entrepreneur - 105

Episode Date: June 29, 2019

In this episode of Inside Look, Jen Esquer - physical therapist and entrepreneur,  talks about how she was able to leverage her social media account into a source of income! Most people use Instagram as a place to post or look at the pretty pictures, but Jen was able to turn a passion of exercise and the human body into a business, and a page of half a million followers!    “Friends making money with friends” “You created content that was worthy of being shared”  “The human body is a chain”  - Bedros Keuilian   Here’s what you’ll discover: 2:02 - How Jen found her passion with helping people, specifically by getting them to help themselves 8:35 - How she leveraged her social following into profit 16:05 - How keeping your message simple can be better in the long run  21:50 - Jen’s experience with personal development and how she grew from it 35:15 - How Jen built a community from scratch, and it's still perfecting it today    “Break it down so it can be done by anyone”  “It’s your opportunity to learn”   “I don’t fix you, you fix you”  -Jen Esquer   Follow us on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian / @docjenfit   Buy Man Up and get Bedros’s High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   Make sure to review us on iTunes: http://bit.ly/theempireshow

And I remember I shot this one video that I thought, I just need to get something up there. It did a million views. Good Lord. And within that week, I gained 40,000 followers. I had friends asking if I bought followers. And I'm like, do you know me but at all? No, I didn't buy followers. Hey, friends.

Welcome to another episode of the Empire Podcast Show. My name is Bairos Kulian, and today we're doing an inside look on someone very special for many reasons. One, if you're a registered dietitian, a physical therapist, a personal training, chiropractor if you're a massage therapist nutritionist and you think that you can only work locally well we've got another thing coming for you and number two the person that we've got on the show today is a powerhouse female entrepreneur who I respect immensely Dr. Jen Esqued. Welcome. Thank you. Did I pronounce your last in correct? You did. Very nice. You got to roll the R Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. All right. So, seriously, though, welcome to the show, to the Empire Show. And you're a powerhouse on so many different levels. And on top of that, here we are in beautiful Chino Hills in our Empire Studios. And this used to be home for you, Chino Hills. Hometown. Yeah.

Yeah. So welcome back home. Thank you. And thanks for making the time to get on the show. We really appreciate it. Now, obviously, you started off as a physical therapist. Now, I've had an ACL reconstruction, a torn bicep. I've seen physical therapists, and I've always assumed as a physical therapist, you have to work

in a brick and mortar because you're going to be so hands-on with people. Yet you've got this massive following on social media. You've got an enormous business, and you help people with their musco skeleton problems, and you're not hands-on with them. Tell me about what you do and why you do it. Yeah, it's so beautiful. I'm like, I mean, every day I'm just so appreciative for what I'm doing and how it even got there. I have no idea how it even happened.

It just is like, okay, this is where things are going, and I'm just going to move into it. I mean, it's just my whole message is the fact that I don't fix you. You fix you. Like there's no one else that can actually do the work for you. We facilitate. We can help. I mean, it's the same as like, I was just talking with eighth graders this morning at a school,

and it's like teaching them too. It's like, you know, your teacher isn't going to do your homework for you. They're not going to learn the lessons for you. They're going to facilitate the path. And it's the same within our bodies. It's the same within a nutritionist, a dietitian, a personal trainer. No one else is going to actually be able to do the work for you to build the muscle, to lose the fat, to do whatever it needs to happen.

It's the same with pain. It's the same with alignment. It's the same with other issues. You've got to do the work. I'm just facilitating the path. So if I could do that from a place that I don't have to be hands on, what a beautiful thing. So let me ask you this, though. but for about a year and a half, you were a physical therapist who was hands-on.

So at what point did this click, like, wait, I don't have to be hands-on? Like, they will, you will fix you. When did that, you will fix you mantra kick in? Well, I think it's always been there. It was just that when I first graduated school, I came out and as most physical therapists, unfortunately, need mentoring and feel like, how do I actually help someone? I can diagnose. I can make sure, you know, if I need to, if it's coming from a referred organ or any other place,

I could refer back to an MD properly, all these other things I could do. But to actually treat is a whole other issue. Because what we're taught in school is like, here's the shoulder, here's how to diagnose all that's happening at the shoulder. Now here's a different body part. And we're broken up into all these different body parts. And we go through all the layers of our muscular skeletal system and all of that. And so we know a lot of information. But we're not taught how to put that all together. We're not taught how the mind really plays a role into that and into pain. We were, like, I will say it, well, Melinda, we were given a quarter to be able to learn about pain science and how that's related to the body, but it's not enough to actually be able to

see a human as a whole. Because now when I'm treating, it's, okay, your shoulder's hurting, let's look at your feet and see how that plays a role up the body. Because that is a chain. Ultimately, it's a chain. As a personal trainer, I know the human body is a chain. Yes. No different than as a physical therapy. Exactly. But yet we treat it differently. Same with a chiropractor.

It's like, oh, my neck is hurting. Let me go get a neck adjustment. It's typically what we're thinking. It's very well be that your hips are off. Right. And it's radiating there. Right. Or your feet are off.

Like, why would your hips be off? Maybe it's from the way that you're standing. Right. So it all plays a role. And we can't just look at one thing and treat that one thing. And so I always had this mindset of like, how can I help more? How can I help more? How can I continue to learn?

So that is why I got out and was like, I need to go to a clinic where I for sure get mentoring. That was like one of my requirements. And I also wanted to be in Santa Monica because at the time I was learning aqua yoga and I was doing calisthenics and I fell in love with the community. And I also loved to be active. So I found a clinic where I would get mentoring. And that was awesome until eventually it was like my following continued to grow. I was continuing to help and educate people online. Now let me stop there.

and ask, while you're getting mentoring in Santa Monica and doing acro yoga, and anyone who follows Dr. Jen, by the way, you're gonna see how bendy she is. Like, you're just incredibly bendy. And when I see what you and, oh, what's his name? Align the other, Align the other. Yeah, Aaron. Aaron came out here.

I can say it, it's legal now in California. So he comes out here one time to interview me for his podcast. And he goes, hey man, I brought you something. I'm like, oh, cool, what is it? I'm thinking maybe a stretch band or something. And he pulls out a jar of weed, right? And he goes, here you go.

Yeah. I was like, okay, I'm going to have to learn how to, how to smoke a joint. That's hilarious. Mission accomplished, check. But anyway, all that aside, I see how amazingly acrobatic you are. And in my head, I'm going, I'm thinking, well, Instagram being a very visual place, is that how you grew your Instagram? Like, how do you grow your Instagram while you're getting mentoring?

Because you're going, oh, and then my Instagram was growing. Well, how? How did that happen? You know, I will say, for me, it was by accident. So it was in grad school and I was posted, I still remember the first video that I posted where like got noticed. And it was just my workout outside. So I grew up as a gymnast. I quit, oh man, a long time ago now, over 15 years ago.

But I still love to maintain my strength. I still love to be able to be like, I could do pull-ups and leg lifts and handstands and move my own body my own way. And so I still love to be able to do that. I posted a video of my workout outside on the bars, like at a park, and I would tag all the calisthenic pages that were big at the time, which like five years ago, there was one guy who had 300,000 followers. That was big back then. And he reached out and he was like, oh, we all get together in Venice. You should come down and train with us. And I was like, oh, my God, here's this guy.

It was like so many followers. What year was that approximately? That was 2014. Okay. So, I mean, Instagram is just starting to gain traction at that point. Yeah. And so I went down and I ended up training with them. Nice as people ever. I just remember like sitting on the beam down on Venice Beach and the guys like one by one introducing themselves. It was such a welcoming community. And so I started to work out with them and this calisthenic page would post anyone within the calisthenic community. He was very collaborative, very open to like sharing this community online. And so he started sharing me. I was one of the only women in the community at the time. There was just like, this other girl Rose and one of my other girlfriends. And I think we were the only ones

that were really doing this online. And so he, and coming down to the beach and training with all the guys. And so he started to share me and eventually just people started to come to my page. And I was like, oh, so I just do handstands now. So really where you say like, hey, I got lucky, I mean, you kind of didn't because you really

created a piece of content that was worth of being shared. Yes. Now, you did make the effort in tagging all the right people. Brilliant move, and that's a great Instagram hack, right? Still works today. And of course, you got the right person's attention who had 300,000 people following in that space. Yeah. And he starts reposting you and sharing your content and, of course, you build a network. Yep. And today on the show, we still talk about that. It's friends making money with friends. Yes. Collaboration is the only way I've really grown. Yeah. It really is a collaboration economy that we live in. Yeah. And And so I'm guessing you do more of that stuff and more collaboration and you see that your posts are getting more traction and your following is growing.

Yeah. And as that thing is growing, at any point, do you go, I think I can make money with this? Yeah. So it wasn't, so while I was in school, it was just about my calisthenic journey, learning aqua yoga, becoming affiliated with all like the fitness community from yoga, calisthenics to weight training to everything. I really created this amazing community of friends, and we would all, again, share each other, and just, and it just started to grow. But then once I graduated, and my handle, by the way, at the time, because this was created for friends, was Jen underscore ES underscore care.

Because remember, that's how you can pronounce my name. And so it had zero intention of this ever becoming something. But then once I graduated, I remember talking with my friend Vinnie, and he was like, well, and he was already starting to go in the rehab world with Instagram. And he was doing the half anatomy photo, half video. Yeah. And so he was like, listen, people already know you as like Jen the yogi,

because I was upside down all the time. I was like, nowhere do I post yoga, but okay. And so. You took that label, didn't you? Yeah. And so he was like, yogis are following you. That's what people know you for. Why don't you just start posting what you actually know about physical therapy

and the body and start talking. to yogis and like their stretches and what they do and how they could actually help themselves within those and I was like I don't know how that will take because I'm I'm all my content is fitness But I'll give it a shot and by the way new physical therapist. So I had just graduated not that long ago I had a lot of mental blocks as well around I follow a lot of my mentors on here What if I get judged? What if I say something stupid? What if I don't know the information? Yeah, what if I'm doing something wrong and I get called out? Yeah, right? You're brand new. And by the way, anyone online has that fear of criticism.

And so I gotta defer real quick. Did that ever happen? Have you been ever criticized online? Yeah, of course. How do you handle it? I talked to them. So it's interesting, like, I remember even one of the handstand posts I did, and I had one of my friends who teaches acrobatics and stuff commented on one of my photos and kind of

critiqued it and I was like you could have texted me that right like did you have to comment and so I did I text him I deleted and text him and said do you have do you want to like go back and forth about this like I'm open to hearing feedback but like you don't have to create drama essentially right on my timeline yeah exactly and so so that's how I've handled those situations either I private message someone and I say hey let's discuss like I'm open to discussion I'm not closed but at the same time I don't want to cause controversy. And if it's something so ridiculous and I don't know the person

and they don't really have an expertise, I could just delete it. Like I don't take it personally. Thank you for sharing that. That's why I just wanted to defer real quickly. I wanted you to share that because at least 10 times a day I hear about, but what if I get criticized or I just got criticized and it's the implication that is now it's the end of the world. No, it's your opportunity to learn and then build a relationship.

Yeah. Communicate with them, block them, delete them. There's a lot of options and then move on because there's like, Thousands of other people who didn't criticize you who actually love you. Yeah. Okay, so now let's come back. So you're like, well, listen, I don't know about the yogi thing, but I am going to talk about what I know, but I'm also walking on a little bit on eggshells because my mentors follow me and I follow them.

What if I do something wrong? So then what happens? I just started, I posted, I remember my first post that was educational. And I woke up in the morning and had more views than my fitness videos. And I was like, what? To me, it was like such basic information. I forget that I've had nine years of school. Do you remember what body part or ailment?

It was, I was talking about, you know, will pose in yoga, where it's like a bridge. I was going to lie and say yes, but I'm like, I have no idea. Where the feet are. My daughter is that, Clay does that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was that pose, and I was talking about, I was going to share for the week some exercises that you could do so that you get out of the low back. Because a lot of people go into it when they have all these restrictions through their body,

because they're just trying to force it, and all of a sudden, all the pain and pressures into the low back. And so I was going to share some methods that you could do to get it out of the low back. And I remember this one was just talking about the upper back, and to me, very basic information. I was like, who's going to need this?

This is everyone knows it already. But I woke up in the morning, way greater feedback than my fitness sons. And I was like, okay, maybe there's something to this. And so I did it again, and I did it again, and it just continued to grow. Such a great lesson here. I'm going to stop you again. Oftentimes what I do is I'll be the voice of the audience and guys and guys listening to this. I got to tell you right now, like it's always the most basic things that we think that they know. Like sometimes I'm like, well, everybody knows reoccurring revenue. Everyone knows that it's about profits and not revenue. When someone goes, I got a $100 million company, I don't go, oh, wow, I'm impressed. I go, what do you take home? Well, we're still breaking even. I know a guy who had a $300 million real estate company, they were upside down a million every month. Right? And so it's always the most basic stuff that you know that you're like, who's going to want to hear this stuff?

Everybody, because no one else knows the things that are basic to you and me. And so if you're an expert, nutritionist, in real estate, in physical therapy, and personal training, the most basic stuff people don't know. And if they had they known it, we wouldn't see so many people who make some pains or overweight and obese or broke. It's the basic stuff that fixes all this. So let's go on. Yeah. And so I just continued to go on that journey.

and really listen and I would ask like what do you want to hear for me what do you want to learn about and lo and behold I met one of my favorite mentors who's now a really close friend I've met many more mentors along the way who've been doing physical therapy for years way longer than I have and they've only become I've only become closer to them so I'm like thank God thank God I leaned in and I actually went for it and I decided to take a leap and see what would happen because it's only helped me to help more people. Sure. More people have been coming to my page. I remember I posted one video. And in the moment, it was like, I was still working in the clinic, and I was like, oh, I just need a post, like, on these stretches. I don't want to do the same thing.

I'm going to put it on the floor and just, and I would always have one of my aides shoot my stuff, and I would incentivize her by giving her free clothes that I would get from Instagram. Good little trick. People who just send you clothes. Yeah, exactly. And so, and I remember I shot this. one video that I thought I just need to get something up there. It did a million views.

Good Lord. And within that week, I gained 40,000 followers. I had friends asking if I bought followers. And I'm like, do you know me but at all? No, I didn't buy followers. What was, I'm sure everyone's asking right now, is they listening to this, what was so unique about that video versus all the others? You know, I think. Because you make it sound like it was just so impromptu, I'm just going to do it. For me, it was. Looking back, can you tell what was different? Looking back, it was a series of stretches that I put together into a flow. And so people liked that. People liked it.

It was attainable enough that it could be done, but you have to really watch and see what I did, like very intricately to see how the flow would go. So it wasn't just like one stretch and then another stretch. It was a flow into it. And so I can see how that, like any follow along type stuff people like. I even had a friend the other day. He does YouTube stuff,

and he's not the most flexible, but he posts about flexibility. And he's like, people like the follow-along. And he's like, I'm, and I think he said, too, it's like, I make it look attainable because I'm not the most flexible. And I'm like, that's a really good point. And I know for a fact,

the reason why my stuff has grown as well is because I've broken it down so it can be understood by anyone. And that's the thing that clinicians get carried away with is that they're trying to one-up the other clinician. Like, oh, look how smart I am. Or look at how fancy I'm talking here. No one cares. You're not attracting the general population. Jen, I'm going to stop you again. You're so much wisdom here. Here's why. As personal trainers, this happens in my industry as well. And this might happen with

registered dieticians, nutritionists, people in the financial world who can talk about EBITA and all this stuff, Right. At the end of the day, the reason Microsoft made Microsoft Office so successful, because out the gate, I don't know if you know this or not, Bill Gates was not successful with Microsoft Office, which is the Word and Excel and PowerPoint suites. It was too complex because they're coders, they're programmers, and they're like, what if we do this? And at the end of the day, they figured out, we think we need to reduce this thing down to a lower education level. When they got down to a fifth, the average fifth grader can use Microsoft Word, It took off. Ironically, when you look at the history of that, I started using Microsoft Word right when they got it to that level because it wasn't complex and frustrating for me anymore.

Exactly. And so this is a great lesson for those of you posting on Instagram. The way you communicate, you don't have to show, for example, your personal trainers are notorious for this. Mrs. Jones, we're going to have to do an overhead squat to check your posterior chain. She does not know where her posterior is, let alone a chain. She's thinking a metal chain, right? Exactly. And that's so off-putting. Mm-hmm.

It is. How are you instinctively able to go, like, I got to make this simple and basic for regular people to understand. Like, how did you figure that out? Why didn't you go clinician like they did? Because that's how I talk with my clients, with my patients. I'm not talking to my patients like I'm talking to another clinician. I'm talking to my patients for who they are. They're not PTs.

They're not even in the health realm. So they're not going to know. And so I know if I'm talking, and I was with other clinicians in the clinical. where they would be talking all these huge words, and I'm like, you trying to show off for your patient isn't making them better. It's not connecting them. And really, like, again, no one cares how much you know

until they know how much you care. It goes back to that with patient care as well. Like, unless I can build that connection with you, and I'm not going to build the connection based off saying some fluff that you don't even understand. I'm going to build the connection when I can get you to understand it, understand it within your own body. There's a lot of self-awareness that you must have early on in

life that you figure that out. I guess. I know people in their 40s and 50s that have to figure that out. You know, I've always said, like, my superpower for what I do as a clinician is not my skill level. It's the fact that I bring compassion to my treatments every single time. Kandard spirit. I tell everybody here, look, I started a Fit Body Boot Camp. We have almost 800 franchise locations worldwide and every year at our world conference I go look as a personal trainer in a big box gym I was never the best trainer I made it so fun to work out with me in fact a gentleman named Mike Sorrell what's up Mike Surrell hope you're doing great and I see a personal trainer of the year during

that era when I was a trainer he would chastise me after every client you almost hurt them I look I'm not gonna have them do rows sitting down because at home they're sitting down I'm gonna have them use as much of their body as possible I'm gonna keep it fun and I would walk around and hike my shorts up really high like Zig Ziglar and I would make a big scene because I knew Mrs. Jones does not want to pay for something that's uncomfortable and intimidating and that she's not good at. And so the only way she's going to come back is if I can make it fun, entertaining, easy to understand, and results. And she would come back the next day. And these guys would get pissed off these trainers because there was so much better than me technically. Yet I had a schedule book full of clients. And that's exactly. It doesn't matter if you're registered dietitian, you're the heart surgeon, a physical therapist, a personal trainer. If you have a have lost them with the clinical words and you haven't made that connection that's it and I remember one trainer saying I figured out what it is you're every female client's secret boyfriend and your every guy client's best bud and I was like you nailed it you know what I mean and truly like obviously

there was nothing going on my female clients and myself but in my head once they said that it clicked that's right like I'm going to be the boyfriend that like you want to just talk to you up oh my gosh you're so beautiful, you're so amazing, that fits so well. So once they told me that, they clicked. And with every guy, I was the bro, I was the bud, we were hugging. And that only made me better as a personal trainer. Not once did I ever figure out where the posterior chain is.

And I don't think I still know where it. So that, I mean, you nailed it. And compassion goes such a long way. Oh, my God. Especially when you're in pain. Is compassion learnable? Can someone learn to be compassionate, empathetic? If they can, if they can tap into it for themselves, then I think they can tap into it for other

How would they do that for themselves? I think it's really getting real with yourself. It's doing some emotional intelligence work maybe and kind of working through your own crap. Because we all have our own stuff deep down that we're ashamed of, that we are embarrassed stuff, we feel judged about, we're judging ourselves about, whatever it may be. It's like this constant, like, tearing down. And until you can find that compassion for yourself to be like, oh no, I'm actually an awesome human, then how are you going to have compassion for other people?

compassion for other people. Amen. Let me ask you this. How much of your own personal and financial growth come from self-development stuff that you've done? I didn't launch online until I did a personal development program. Really? It was actually, so there was like three levels to this personal development program that I did down in San Diego. And it was in level three that I was like, I'm launching, I'm committed. I had no, I mean. Wait a minute. Can I ask you the name of this? ALA? L.A? Yeah. I was just. Just talking to Drew Canoli, his whole upper management goes through ALA, and we're putting our leadership team through the area. Oh, good. Yeah, that's a good one.

That's nuts. Highly recommended. Yeah, okay. Yeah. But it was, it was like my launching point to like really embodying me, feeling confident in me. I mean, I grew up behind the label of I'm shy. And let me just sit in the background and not talk and just observe. I probably looked like a biotch all the time. because I was never speaking. But really, I'm like a super nice person. I was just really shy. You're shy, yet everyone else was looking at you and going, man, she's really being a bitch. Yeah, exactly. And labeling you that in their head, obviously. And now, who had labeled you shy, or did you label yourself shy?

Oh, I labeled myself shy. And why did you do that? I have no idea. It was just like, I grew up really close to my two cousins who were around my same age. And one was like super outgoing and really funny. And the other one was like really controlling and dominant and everything. kind of overruled everything. And so I was just like Little Miss Perfect who just like slid in.

And it was always the peacemaker and always like, and I just, I kind of fell into my role with that and just, and kept the peace and was very quiet and was very, I just, I labeled myself as shy. And I remember when I was in, when I was teaching Pilates, because I taught Pilates through college and grad school. And I had these one clients that was stuck with me for a very long time. And they were like, we see you on billboards. I see you on like the first.

face of a book and I was like what are you talking about and I didn't understand really yeah they're seeing this gen 2.0 you haven't even tapped into it yeah not crazy what did you think they were crazy did you think like they don't know they really don't know me or yeah yeah I was like you guys are too nice you're just too nice so how do you how do you even decide like I think I got to do some self-development some personal work how do even decide I'm gonna go do a LA I was surrounding myself around people who have done a lot of personal development work. And it came to a point, you know, Natalie, Jill?

Yes. Yeah. Her and I had a very similar experience at a center in L.A. where we hated it. And we were both like, this is not for us, like, this is for other people. Is that the four-letter place? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't want to throw them under the bus. Yeah, exactly. And it just, it was, it was us, obviously. It wasn't the place. But we just didn't vibe with it. And so she was like, I'm going to level two at ALA, and I'm so scared. I don't want to be there. And she told me her whole experience through it.

And first day, hated it, walked out, second day hated it. And I was like, oh, my God, why are you still staying? But what I appreciate is that she shared openly and honestly her experience. And then on the last day, she was like, oh, my God, Jen, I get it. And everything changed for her. Everything flipped around. She realized so much. And so I was like, huh, what am I not open to that I'm missing?

How long ago was this? Um, this was two years ago. Get out of here. Yeah, that's it. Two and a half years ago, maybe. I mean, look at, like, you've literally hockey stick in that time. It's insane because then right from that program, I went to a speaking program and I was like up on stages and doing all the things. Like, it just, it really unleashed what was inside.

Yeah. You finally gave yourself permission. I did. And it was crazy because I was growing this Instagram for a while with no source. squeeze page, no, nothing up to collect emails. And then I was like, I'm going to launch online. You're nuts. Good for you. Good for you. And I was just, I came to a point where it was like, the algorithm was changing. So who's really seeing my, my stuff? If they even see my one minute video, are they really like getting help from it? I mean, and granted, I would get stopped sometimes

and people would be like, oh, I incorporated your shoulder, your shoulder video from the other day. and I've, and my shoulder feels so much better, and I'm like, what? Like, you actually, that means you saved a video that I posted, a one-minute video, you have to go back and watch the exercises over and over again. Yeah, there's no rewind. No. Like, that's pretty commitment. Yeah, and then you incorporate it into your life.

That's unbelievable. But I was like, and by chance, that video helped you, because it's not necessarily going to help everyone. Right. That might not have been your issue. And so how could I put this somewhere where people could actually get help? And so that's why I wanted to create an online program. Gotcha.

Because I wanted to actually give value. Because you wanted to actually give value. Pay attention to those words, friends. What you're posting on Instagram might be giving somebody a temporary hit of value. Yes. But it's not solving all of their problems. Right. And as experts, no matter the industry, our job, our duty, our obligation is to solve all of their problems until we create this outcome,

whether it's a better business, a better body, a better mindset, a better outlook. I love that. Now, earlier you dropped their word, you said, Squeeze page. I know there's many people going, what the F is a squeeze page, Jen. So explain what a squeeze page is, because I'll preface that by saying,

you know the 100,000 or 100 million followers that you have on Instagram? They're not your followers. They're Instagrams. They're Facebooks. They're Mark Zuckerberg's followers. He's just temporary loaning him to you based on the algorithm.

And so what does a squeeze page do to make these people yours? Yeah. So it's just a very easy lead page is probably the easiest place you can get at lead pages. And you just put it up very basic and you collect emails. And so people can talk to you through, you can talk to them through emails and build this closer relationship than you can on social media. And they do become yours because it's in your inbox. And that was a thing that I never understood.

I mean, granted, I got into social media because it was fun. I got into the fitness realm of just meeting people and learning cool stuff for my body. So I had zero idea this was going to become a business anyways. And then once I started to educate, I just thought it was cool that more people wanted to learn for me and wanted to learn about their body. So I wanted to keep posting into that, like, oh, people are liking this. What else can I give them? What else can I give them? And I stayed consistent with that posting every single day only because I felt obligated to continue to push value.

Mm. Mm. Yet another lesson. Posting every single day and you use the magical word that starts with a sea consistent. Mm-hmm. Because if you're not, someone goes, man, I've been posting for a month straight every single day and I'm still not rich. You've been posting consistently for how many years? Four and a half five years? Four and a half five years. Yeah. And it was about really like what, two, two and a half years before you even started launching asking for money. Yep. Right? So let me share something with you guys here. What Jen's done, what Dr. Jen has done, I wish someone would give me an honorary degree of like a doctor, PhD. That'd be really cool. But really what you've done is you gave value for so long, over 24 months on a consistent basis that you built a following on someone else's platform called Instagram.

Yes. And when you gave yourself permission through personal development, self-development, to go out and actually extract money and exchange of value, you created a squeeze page, which is a page that says, hey, I'm going to give you this bigger thing for free. if you give me your email address, your contact info, where we can start a longer, deeper, more intimate dialogue. Yes.

Right? And so as you did that, how did you, what was the first product that you launched to your email list and to your social media followers of where you were like, oh my gosh, I made money as a physical therapist using social media? Yeah, it was pretty insane. So at the time, I had left the clinic,

but I was still working with clients in person, treating the way I wanted to, which was amazing. But I was, so I was working with patients like five days a week. And then I started to learn, like I launched probably, I started working on how to launch, like two months before I launched. Two, two and a half months. So I needed a website. I mean, you don't need a website technically. I don't know why I need, I thought I needed one, but I put one up.

And I need to learn everything. I had zero idea. I finally put the squeeze page up, so this was only like a couple months again. Maybe you can give some tips. How did you, so you got the squeeze page up that obviously makes an offer for something compelling for free. What did you tell your Instagram followers and how did you tell them to move them there, if you don't mind? Can you share that tip? Yeah, I just shared that I literally didn't even have anything.

And I was just like, I'm going to come out with something. And I want you guys to be the first to be able to have access to it because you can't see everything on Instagram. because you won't see every single one of my posts. You won't see every one of my stories or all my lives. So get on the email list so that when it comes out, you'll be the first to know about it. Brilliant. So that's what I did. And then I heard about this book called Launch by Jeff Walker.

And I diligently started to read that one. Big shout out to our buddy, Jeff Walker, by the way. Product Launch Formula, great product. I'm not an affiliate. I just endorse it because I've used it. And me too. I used it, it's worked, it was amazing. And then I was at this event, and I wasn't getting much value.

It was like, create an email list, and it's like, okay. Got it. I know that. And there wasn't really a lot of value there, but then Jesse Itzler went and spoke. And what I took from his, he was awesome. He would make the whole event worth going to, by the way. But what I took from his message that day was just, ask. Just go out there, ask questions, reach out to people, see if you can get support,

and just go and do the thing. If you want to do it, go make it happen. Like, see what you got to do. And so that day, I text Lori Harder and I said, would it be possible for you to sit down with me and go over how you do your challenge? And she was like, yes, of course, let's do it. And I was like, oh my God. Isn't it funny how people are willing to help you if you just ask? Exactly. Yet another lesson, folks. You don't have the answer? Just ask. Yeah, exactly. And to that point, also come with a giving hand, right? I'm sure. And she was like, hey, how did you X? Yeah. You'd be more than willing to share. Oh, 100%. Yeah. And so we sat down. She went over with me for like

a few hours to make sure that I got things down of like how she does her challenges, what questions I would have, what I would want to do. And so I followed Jeff Walker's, formula and her formula. And I announced that I was going to do a free challenge, did a free challenge. And then the week of launching, I was like, okay, 100 is my goal. 100 sales would be great. I got 150 sales the first day. Whoa.

So I was like, okay, 200. Yeah. Let me just move the marker up. And it just kept, it was like consistent. And then the last day, doubled. Holy smokes. And so it blew my boyfriend at the time out of the water. It blew Natalie Jill out of the water.

Like everyone who's already launched, they're like, what? Like your first time launching, this doesn't happen. How did you feel when all of a sudden like people you've never met who have never purchased anything from you? Granted, you've given them so much value over so long, we're throwing money at you through the Internet? Overwhelmed. 100% overwhelmed.

I was just like, I couldn't believe it. I was such a I was so grateful it was just overwhelming gratitude and what was the product the course or the thing so it was the mobility method and I did and because I had like just decided to launch so quickly I didn't know what Facebook ads were I didn't know how to use them so I just asked again for support and I and I asked all my friends who have social media of followings and I said, hey, I have this free challenge. Like, here is a story ad. Would you mind putting this up with a link? If not, no worries. And I had some people who did, some people who didn't. So that was my advertisement. And so I built a list of 11,000 just from that first challenge.

Wow. Zah. Insane. And on the heels of that challenge is when you launched your course, the mobility method. Yeah. Holy smokes. So, And I'm curious, this is just my entrepreneurial mind. Yeah. Do you have a higher level program? Are there retreats? Are there, you know, coach with Dr. Jen? Like, what are the multiple income streams that you've created for yourself?

I'm curious. So I do, maybe I'll eventually get there. Right now, I'm just so focused on how can I continue to build this community. So I've built a subscription model as well. Yeah. And an app that goes along with that. So now people have access to not just mobility, because it's not. the only thing that's missing within the body, but it's actually functional strength and core stability

as well. And what does core stability actually mean? And my whole thing is to educate, educate, educate, and I just want to push that educational route so much more. It's not about losing weight. It's not about getting more fit. It's about feeling better within your body and learning for yourself, what your body is missing. Because what I've also realized is that though people come to me for pain, the problem they actually have is neglect. They're neglecting something on their body. And we think where I have the pain is my problem, but it's not. And that's what I want to teach people. Pain is your symptom, and it's your alert system to tell your body, hey, something is off.

But it's not necessarily the problem. So even though you have back pain doesn't mean that we give you back exercises. Even though you have neck pain doesn't mean that we give you neck exercises. We have to look at what's happening with the whole picture because you're neglecting something else in your body, and that's probably why that area is now having pain. So I'll play the devil's advocate. I mean, that sounds pretty intricate. I mean, what we do is personal trainer.

Someone says, hey, I want to lose weight or put on 10 pounds of muscle. We go, great. We know how to create a diet program and a resistance training program to create the outcome, easy enough. How in the heck, do through a digital course or even a follow-along thing go, okay, well, the pain is there, but that's just a signal, a warning signal. There's something else. Like, is it an assessment thing? How does that? So you can do that?

So I do an assessment. So I put it in other people's hands, which doesn't make it easy, right? You got to do work. But that's anything we have in life. You want to build a business. You want to lose weight. You got to put in the work. And so I give the tools to be able to say, here's how you can learn about your own body.

Here's a breakdown by breakdown assessment so that you start to learn, oh, actually, my shoulder hurts, but it's actually in my upper back that's really restricted. or my ankle on my toe are really restricted, that's affecting my knee and my hip. Interesting. And so I give people the awareness of their body, which is actually the mind-temp brace that I wear too, is awareness. Oh. Because without awareness, we don't know where to move into,

and we don't know what we're neglecting. And once you start to build your awareness, you start to learn how to listen to your body. And based on that, you start to learn how to get out of pain. You know, if I were to summarize you to someone else, I would say, oh, Dr. Jen, she teaches awareness. She teaches folks to empower, self-empower, and she comes with compassion. I mean, that's really what I'm seeing here. And this is the first time we've met.

We've obviously connected on social media. And it's funny, right, through no other platform out there, not even Facebook, the sister company of Instagram, can you really feel like you know someone like Instagram? Instagram is a very powerful platform. And that's how I saw you. I'd use those three words, right? Awareness, empowering, and compassionate. And then here you are. We've met, we talked earlier before we started filming and recording,

and that's the vibe I got as well. And that's an incredible, that comes across in your stuff. Now, so I'm going to ask you this. And there's a bit of a marketing, but you're so organically good at it, but I'm hoping you can teach our audience how to do this if they're not as organically good at as you are. Most of the posts that I see on social media and Craig Ballantan and I get plenty of DMs.

Hey, I have 1.2 million followers, but only have $2,300 in my bank account, help. And so I'll start trolling that person's Instagram. And I see that it's all about me and I and me and I and how awesome I am. Yep. When I see what you do, both in your writing and in your, so I guess your caption and in your picture or videos, it's how I can help you. Again, was this instinctive? Did you know this?

Were you taught? How do you do it? How do they do it? It's a lot of questions. I know. I mean, it really is, what is the ultimate goal? I mean, I think you have to go back into what's your purpose. What do you want to provide people?

And if you look at that, are you actually providing that to people? Are you actually helping and providing value? Because everyone innately is selfish. and they're saying, how can you help me? I don't care about you. How do you help me? And so unless you're presenting that on your Instagram, on your social media of how you can help someone else,

then why are they going to follow? I mean, I think... Let alone give you their money. Exactly. Follow, yes. You can get followers by making things look super gorgeous or posting provocative type photos or anything like that. Like, I get followers, baby.

I thought so. It's like a hairy gorilla. It's laughing over there. Yeah, easy, go. But that, yes, that can bring you likes and followers and all those things, but it's not going to bring you money and create a business because you're not providing value for anyone. You have to provide value before you get validation for yourself. Well said.

You know, it's guys and gals, and while we joke about this stuff, you know, again, don't attempt to picture me in a bikini. It would just ruin everything that you stand for in life. But what you ought to know is in my book, Jen, I talked about every single morning we as humans, because we are selfish. It's for survival, right? Just I imagine us with little spears and rocks, and we got to fight off the saber-toothed tiger, and we got to find a way to start fire and have shelter. So it's all about us. Like, how can I live and survive another day?

And that's still within us. And we carry that into our business life, into our personal life, into whatever. and unless we kind of consciously make an effort. In my book, I talk about every morning we wake up and you have the choice of wearing one of two shirts, the shirt that says, what can you do for me? And the shirt that says, how can I serve you? Or what can I do for you?

If you consistently put on the shirt that says, how can I serve you, you will begin to exchange money for value. And so when the person who has 1.2 million followers, the influencer who and I got so much rage and anger against those people because really is a selfish thing like hey you've got so much knowledge like I look at their body it's like holy smokes you look amazing guy or gal right and it's like obviously you took some effort time consistency you have the wisdom yet you're

so selfish it's all about you and this is why you're wondering why do I have 1.2 million followers but I only have $2,000 and I'm broke and they're looking for a Hail Mary move from Craig and I and so So in reality, if you're not making money and you have the followers, it's because the amount of money you have is a direct reflection of the amount of value you're adding. And you are adding tremendous value. Thank you. So I appreciate you kind of explaining where that comes from. Now, let's shift gears for a moment.

And as an entrepreneur, and I asked Sean Stevenson this. I said, hey, thanks for telling us how you make money with his podcast and with his coaching programs. But Sean Stevenson, a big shout out to Sean's to Sleep Smarter. Great book. Buy it, read it. I'm like, dude, what do I need to do as an entrepreneur? Because I like to think as entrepreneurs as fighter jets. Like, you know, we take on big challenges.

I mean, let's face it, you're, you were willing to go online, take a risk, take criticism. What have you launched that book and zero people bought the mobility method, right? Like, oh, God, how embarrassing. You were willing to take the risks that others aren't. So as an entrepreneur, we're solving problems, taking risks, taking on debt, hiring employees, spending money. Assuming the economy is going to be good. Always optimist. Exactly.

Right? And so I asked Sean, I said, what do I need to do to optimize my sleep so I can be more focused, clear-headed, make better decisions faster? Now I'm asking you, Jen, what do I as an entrepreneur need to do to stay at peak performance where physically, like if there was three or four movements, stretches, whatever, that an entrepreneur would need to do it to really put themselves in a place of peak performance, what would you say? You need to build resiliency within our...

sympathetic crazy system because as entrepreneurs typically it is stress stress stress managing people managing teams managing all these other things getting things done on time getting back to people all the things that we do it creates this and you just literally painted me by the way that I said a walk out of things exactly and we stay in this like really high intense sympathetic state and your body is not going to be able to perform there all the time and so we in less and and sleep is great you know it will calm you down for that moment, but if you're not taking that time during the day,

you are going to burn out quick. And so my thing is getting people back into in touch with their bodies. Like, you got to get back into that parasympathetic and teach your body even in those moments of stress how to get back down into that parasympathetic, that rest, relax. And people who do it really well, Wim Hof has taught this really well. Have you heard of him? No. Who does the breathing?

Should have him on. He's awesome. Okay. You'll make the introduction? I'll make the introduction. Appreciate that. And there's other people who are doing it very well. And basically it's understanding how to use your physiology in, you know, towards you so that it actually helps you. Benefits you. Yes, exactly. And so what I say is like if we get into these high intense stress states, typically, and this is for everyone, right? Anyone who's working at a job as well, it's like, oh, my upper traps, like I need a massage. and all this other stuff.

Well, no, you just need to calm down and breathe for a moment. Because if you can get back into your system, if you can teach your body how to breathe again properly, efficiently, then you can actually tap and you can actually lower your stress levels. And when you're doing that and lowering your stress levels, you're actually freeing up nitric oxide within your blood, you're opening up your vessels, you're creating more oxygen to get more oxygen,

blood flowing up into your brain where you need to... Where you need to think... Exactly, and concentrate and be able to perform throughout the day all day long, because we don't stop as entrepreneurs, you know? It's hard to turn off. And so if you want to perform at that peak level all the time, you have to be teaching your body how to turn on the parasympathetic. And it's literally we can control it, and it's learning how to control it.

And so... What is the best book or course to get for that? Whose product? I always want to leave people with a general thing. Right, right, right. Going to, I mean, honestly, going to a Wim Hof course is great. Wimhoff? Yeah.

Going to a Wim Hof course is great. And folks, we'll add that in the show notes there for you. Jill Miller teaches a breath and bliss course, which is also great, teaching you how to turn. And it's all about turning on this system. Because we think it's an autonomic nervous system. So it's automatic, right? It's going to go on and off, just like if a bear suddenly appears, we get really scared. You know?

So that's automatic. in our brain, but at the same time, if we can learn how to turn on in those stressful moments, especially with our lives that are constant and going, then we're going to build resiliency within our body. I love that. I love that. Jen, what is the thing that I should have asked that I haven't asked that would benefit our audience?

How to breathe correctly. Jen, how do we breathe correctly? So one of the tips that I give is not, it's not just about belly breathing, because that's been talked about a lot. And I've actually had so many clients come in and they're like, I'm so good at breathing, and their belly is just like pressing in and out, and I'm like, hmm, that's impressive. And not necessarily true or not right. So the idea is that our diaphragm rests underneath our rib cage.

And we want to get that to be able to fully expand, lower, and lift. And so in order to do that, it's not just about the belly pressing out, but it's actually about creating a 360 pattern around our low rib cage. So that means it's going to come out to the sides and back. the thing that you don't want to happen is the shoulders to lift. So if I take... You just saw you look at my shoulders.

So if we take a breath in through our nose, we should be able to, belly will expand, but it's like holding onto your rib cage, kind of give a squeeze onto your rib cage so you can fill it, and then press into your rib cage as you breathe in. Let that expand into your hands

and then breathe out nice and slow. Oh, wow. And you feel that relax. And so that's good feedback right there, just getting into that rib cage and filling that movement. Oh, just putting my hands on my rib cage, too, prevents my shoulders from wanting to come up. There you go. Because I can feel I'm connected. Exactly.

You're giving that proprioception into your body, so it knows where it's supposed to expand into. And so that's why I like that cue rather than just this cue. And what does that do for us? Breathing properly does what? That's what's going to help to turn on that parasympathetic system. So if we can slow down our breaths throughout the day, breathe in and out through our nose more throughout the day, especially when you're sleeping. Sleeping is huge for breathing in and out through your nose. So there's some people that put tape.

I was going to say, what if I duck, I was going to crack a joke, but I'm like, you know what if I duct tape myself? I do that to my wife all the time. Don't do duct tape. I would use tape that could break apart. All right, I like to go away with the hardcore stuff. All right. I like to guillic tape. Don't suffocate anyone.

I would go with the tape. So really, people do that. Yeah. Okay. There's actually a company, I think, out there that it's light enough tape where if you needed to open your mouth, it would break apart. Sure. And did you know, I'm not kidding.

The average human swallows 17 spiders a year through. Isn't that nasty? It is so disgusting. When you're sleeping. It's so disgusting. I think about that all the time. Oh, I wonder how many spiders ate tonight. Protein.

Exactly. But when we do that, we're getting. way more oxygen into our brain. We're teaching our body how to be resilient and getting more carbon dioxide and so that when we get more carbon dioxide, it attaches onto the hemoglobin and release more oxygen into our blood flow. So again, we get more oxygen all throughout our body, oxygenate our bodies, tap us into that parasympathetic. And it's about, and you know how everyone's like, oh, breathe, relax, take a deep breath and it's always like, that drives me not. So every time I see it, because the reality is, too, when you're driving your shoulders up,

you're putting yourself in that sympathetic state. And to get you back into that parasympathetic state, you actually want to be focusing more on the breath out rather than the breath in. Interesting. So it should be a nice, slow breath out, and you want that to be a longer phase. How many times a day? Or is that that's how we should breathe? That's how we should breathe normally.

Question, question. I got it. Do you breathe that way all the time? I try to. And if I catch myself, you've got to be aware. You have to be aware, yes. And I remember specifically in moments where I get triggered or I get like something is like, like I'm surprised by something. I feel myself going to that sympathetic state of like, oh my God, what's happening?

And I can understand it though. And I catch it and I'm like, okay, breathe. And sometimes it's in through the nose out through the mouth until I can control it. And then it's just in through the nose. Goes back to what you said, awareness. Yeah. I love that. so much for sharing that. Now, if our friends, if our followers, our subscribers want to learn more

from you and follow you, where do they go? Dr. Jen Fit on Instagram is where you're mostly going to see me. I am hopping onto YouTube a lot more now, and then Facebook is Dr. Gen fit. Websites, Dr. Gen fit. It's pretty consistent. Good for you. I love that. Well, Dr. Jen, thank you so much for joining us on the Empire Podcast Show. Really appreciate all the knowledge and, of course, the tips on building an empire and, of course, building a healthy body. and friends, if you're listening to this episode, if you're watching this episode, be sure to share it with your friends.

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