the bossbabe podcast - 188. How Lilly Sabri Went From 30k Subscribers To 3 Million In One Year

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

You keep showing up on social media, but for some reason...you just can’t seem to get the results you want. Can you relate? We’ve all been there. And this week’s podcast guest, Lilly Sabri, is no exception. She spent 4 years growing her YouTube Channel to 30k subscribers. Then one day – her following totally exploded. Lilly Sabri ended up turning 30k subscribers to over 3 million – and it wasn’t by accident. Want to know how she did it? Well, in this week’s episode Lilly is revealing how she made that leap + what it really takes to grow a massive following on YouTube. If you’re tired of slow growth on social media and want to understand how to start seeing results – this episode is for you. But be warned: the answer might surprise you.   Links: Olive & June  Use code BOSSBABE for 20% off Audible Influencer School Our 12-week, guided coaching and certification program designed to help you gain full clarity on your personal brand, learn how to create easy, consistent content, build an audience of engaged followers and create a full-time income from social media. Influencer School Reviews   Follow: BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/BossBabe Lilly Sabri: @lillysabri + @leanwithlilly  Lean with Lilly: leanwithlilly.com

I often describe it, I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel and if I step out at all, the momentum might stop and I'm having to learn to find balance in life and enjoy what we have achieved because actually it's insane the amount that's happened, but you keep re-changing that marker of where you want to achieve. Welcome to the Boss Play podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to balance it all. I'm your host, Natalie, and this episode I'm joined by Danielle and Lily Sabri. So Lily is a good friend of mine, and I'm very, very excited to have her on this

episode. And I know I say they're all amazing, but this one might just be my favorite because Lily's story is absolutely phenomenal. Now, as you'll hear in the episode, Lily went from 30,000 YouTube subscribers to 3 million in the past year alone. So she knows exactly what it takes to grow an audience of raving fans and be able to turn that audience into a real business. Lily is building an empire around her newly formed audience from a fitness app, which has over 450,000 users after just, by the way, a few months of launch to a supplement range to actual workout products. What she is building is absolutely incredible. And in this episode, we really get into the nitty gritty of what it takes to succeed on social media. There's no bullshit. There's no of that fluffy strategy stuff. We're really, really

getting into it. And Lily is talking about her journey. She's really bringing it all to the table and telling exactly what it took. And the thing I admire most about Lily is her willingness to stick with it and be consistent. I know we talk about it all the time, consistencies being the thing that will move the needle. Consistency is the one thing behind everyone's success, but consistency is often the hardest thing to do. And it's why most people give up because they cannot and will not stay consistent. So if you're one of the few who is willing to say, you know what, I'm in this for the long run and I'm going to do what it takes, that is where you'll see results. So I'm going to dive straight in because this episode is just

too good. I know you're going to absolutely love it. You might want to listen once or twice to really get the most out of this. And it would mean the world if you could leave a review. So subscribe if you're not already subscribed, then please leave a review. Five stars, of course. And let us know what you love about the podcast because it really helps other people to learn about what we're doing. So with that, let's dive straight into the episode. Okay, Lily. So when was that time I saw you in London? How many years? Three, four? No longer. Longer? Like five. Oh Three, four? No longer. Longer?

Like five. Oh my God. Yeah. Okay. So tell me about where you were there and where you are now, because even in the past year alone, you've been on like the skyrocket. So tell us the story. I can't believe it was five years ago. I think it was five. So at that time, was I still working in the NHS maybe? No, I would have been still working full-time as a physio yeah you were um and social media was like a idea and it was one of them like oh you could

actually make a living out of social media okay um but it certainly it it felt like a very far away dream to leave not that I didn't enjoy physio but to leave the day job let's say and make a living out of being online I remember you saying that I didn't enjoy physio, but to leave the day job, let's say, and make a living out of being online. I remember you saying that. I remember you saying to me distinctly like, oh, that would be such a dream for me. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was looking at other people in the industry, like Kayla at Senners is just kind of the biggest still in my industry. And I looked at her and was like, wow, how has she done it? How has she made it happen? And it just kind of felt like I'm like a grafter right so I've always known that it's possible and whatever I set my mind to I can make it happen

but at the same time there's that periods of self-doubt we are like oh you know have I missed the boat or am I a bit late with it and ultimately I am just a physio like should I just stick to the day job um so I think yeah five years ago, I never thought I would be where I am right now, if I'm honest. And so paint the picture where you are right now. All right. So I guess the best way of describing it, and let's use YouTube as the example. I met Alex five years ago. And at the time I was only on Instagram. And Alex said to me when he met me, your personality belongs on YouTube. And at the time I was still working full-time as a physio. And I was like, I don't have time for YouTube. There is no way. I barely have time to take a selfie and post it on Instagram. Like

there's no way I was working in football as a physiotherapist. And Alex was like, you need to invest the time, like do it. So then fast forward four years, four years of graft on YouTube. I grew from zero subscribers to 30,000 subscribers, four years, pretty much working full-time on YouTube. I grew from zero subscribers to 30,000 subscribers, four years, pretty much working full-time on YouTube. It was the biggest graft ever. And there were so many times when I was like, you know, 30,000 is great, but I can't make a living out of 30,000. Then the last year we went from 30,000 to 3 million. So you just don't know when your break's going to be, right? Like you just got to keep going and you hear it all the time. And, you know, people always say like, it's so hard at the beginning, like keep going, keep going. But when you're working

full time for pretty much free, you know, because it's not just filming, it's not just being in front of the camera, you're editing, you're uploading for a 30 minute video that you watch that video from start to finish takes a day to film, edit, upload. So it's relentless. It's absolutely relentless. But the last year, I would say everything has fallen into place. It's far, far from the end. I think your goalposts change, you know, you achieve your goals and then suddenly you want the next thing, you want the next thing. And even with launching the app recently, we thought we'd be able to do a two week holiday in the Maldives, but I'm more tired than I've ever been in my life because, you know, you launch something and it brings, especially with tech,

all these problems that then come and it's just relentless, but so grateful and so happy with what I guess has happened, particularly in the last 12 months. And it feels like all of the work that I've done over the last five years set me up for that moment and now it's falling into place. Actually you and I have something in common because you're a physio and I was a chiropractor. I knew about this. So we were both in that kind of world of one-to-one and I'm really curious how you like for me I know what was the driver to going from one-to-one to one-to-many but I'm really curious as to like what gave you that initial ambition first of all I think it's always been in me and I guess this is a battle that I've always faced of wanting to be the caregiver and wanting to help people but also wanting to be center stage without a better way of putting it

so you know you're kind of taught at school you go into science or you go into art or, you know, you have to be one or the other, which I've learned, especially over the last couple of years, that's just not the case. But I think, you know, society as such tries to put us into a box. And for me, that was physio. And it was very much train up as a physio, go into the NHS. Like as a woman, I was already starting to kind of try and like fight battles of going into professional football like no women were working in professional football rugby yes um but football no uh soccer for girls in the states who are listening and it was one of them where I always knew I guess my goals were different to the traditional physiotherapists out there I love

helping people that's why I got into it. But I soon realized probably two years into my career that I only have one pair of hands and I can only help so many people throughout the day back to back at half an hour intervals. And then there was the kind of businesswoman side of me where I was like, okay, so that means I can only make a certain amount of money. How can I reach the masses? And I remember Nat, you saying to me on a phone call, said you know if you've got two rooms um one is you make a thousand pounds and there's three people in there and or dollars and then the other one is five thousand people you make the same amount of people uh same amount of

money it was a no-brainer like without even thinking I am all about the energy and all about inspiring people and motivating people and bringing people up together in that huge environment so without doubt it was I want to be in that big room you know I want to be motivating as many people as possible changing as many people's lives as possible and I learned that the only way you can do that is online really you know you you can then do your mass scale talks and events and all of that but the only way you're going to grow the audience is by being online totally Natalie do you want to share what you said at that point i'm curious do you remember the two rooms i do remember because i i remember when we had that conversation you were just at such a pivotal point where you were like i really want to go all in on this but i don't know if it's

actually possible it's scary as well like it's a risk yeah and it is you can you know you can support three people and you can charge a certain amount for that or you can all like widen your audience and like we did with the membership we can now be impacting thousands and thousands of women's lives and we're charging so little yeah for doing that versus working with just a handful of clients at a much higher price point and it was such a big motivator for us because we both had our individual businesses and seen what worked, what didn't and what the problems were. And we wanted to be able to support other women through that. And so that's how the one-to-one versus one-to-many came to us. I want to go back because what's really interesting is a lot of people often see the overnight success. Oh gosh so they see oh my god look how quickly she grew in a year she's come out of nowhere exactly this happens

all the time yeah and I've always seen how hard you've worked I was telling this to Danielle it's been a graft yeah you are the kind of person that has stayed consistent no matter what and you are on not just YouTube Instagram you've always've always been consistent. You've always stayed. What was it that kept you motivated when you weren't necessarily seeing the upside and the growth? It's just remembering my why. Like I want to change people's lives. I want to help people. And one exercise that I do a lot when I was feeling a little bit rubbish, when you know you're not getting the results that you want numerically, I would go into Instagram DMs and just read the messages. And that's something that I still do. I still, you know, we've got three and a half, nearly 4 million now across platforms.

And even the mailing list, the mailing list is 600,000. Like it's just a huge, huge numbers that I can't even, you know, it doesn't make sense. But still to this day, I'll spend between midnight and 1am voice notes back to the audience in DM. You know, that for me is the, okay, I've changed someone's life. And it can be a mum who's given birth, you know, she's postpartum six months and, you know, she was really struggling with mental health and like working on her stomach. And, you know, I've given her the confidence to come back. Or it can be a 14-year-old girl who was suffering from an eating disorder and has seen how much I love food and you can love food and still get results. It's just things like that that they mean the most.

And, you know, when you're struggling or there's times when you're like, it's not going as I hope, getting actual feedback from people whose lives you are changing means a lot yeah do you know what I'm seeing it again like so much synergy between you and I because Natalie and I always have this conversation like there are a lot of people out there who are like born entrepreneurs like Natalie will tell you she always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur I came out the womb as like a child and that was not me and I imagine that wasn't you either we kind of like mother that traditional route when we sat down in school what you want to be oh a physiotherapist or a chiropractor a lawyer or like whatever those things were

and then reach that point and for both of us being like well we went into this because we wanted to help people yeah but now this kind of like one-to-one is not necessarily fulfilling and we're like we don't want these like ceilings put in front of us we want to go faster than the average person and just starting to feel that grow within you being like okay great I can help this one person in this room at this one time but I actually feel like inside I'm destined to do so so much more and just really letting that come out of you and I think that's what a lot of people wrestle with they feel like they choose these paths okay I'm going to be a physical And I think that's what a lot of people wrestle with. They feel like they choose these paths. Okay, I'm going to be a physical therapist.

I'm going to be a chiropractor. I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm going to have this career. I'm going to have this job. And they feel guilty around the pivot and judgments. Yeah, did you have that? Because I felt like, oh my goodness, I've studied all this time to be a chiropractor

or I've studied all this time to like do this career and now I'm on a pivot. Yeah. How did you feel like oh how do I make this decision it's incredibly scary is the first one but also for me uh my biggest limitation has always been fear of judgment because I'm a people pleaser and I know from listening to your previous podcast you are as well and I really struggle with any form of conflict I hate you know it's been a real self-development journey to be able to, you know, now we have a team of nearly 20.

I need to have conflict every day, you know, but I'm not great at it, but I've got better. But what I would say is, for me, it's been realizing that you don't have to fit the mold. As an example, you know, I was working in the football club, the first one of the first football clubs that I worked at. And I was one of the only women, the only other women in the whole environment were working in the kitchen. And, you know, I look a certain way and I'm smiley and I'm happy and I like to be nice to people. But as a woman, you kind of have to, you feel in those environments that you have to be serious and always have your hair tied up and not wear any jewelry or makeup. You know, you like,

you kind of feel like you have to be a certain way. So taking the risks of going from traditional, like, especially with my family, we're all in very traditional careers. It felt scary because I was worried that not only my family would judge me, but also my friends. Interestingly, I didn't care what people that I didn't know thought about me because they were in the big wide world and in the online world and they didn't know me, but I was scared because I felt like I was living a double life. You know, I was this serious physiotherapist who had to act a certain way and look a certain way and be a certain way. And then on Instagram, especially with my career, I'm showing my body. So where's the, you know, there's not an overlap there. My body effectively and personality is my product. And, you know, in this side of things, they were

telling me like, or society and pressure was telling me, don't fully be yourself. And then the other side was fully be yourself. That's the only way that people are going to really love you and fall in love with you. And some people hate you. Some people love you. And I think it was the moment that I clicked, you know, that moment, that kind of spark was not everyone's going to like you. You are going to be judged, but that's okay. Because the only way you're going to get to the top is being unapologetically yourself. And the lives were the way for me. You know, when I was originally filming YouTube content, I would refilm it, refilm it, refilm it.

I'd want to look a certain way. I would feel pressure. If I made a mistake, I'd redo it. Then, you know, COVID comes and I thought, you know what, I'm just, I'm going to go live. Like people are going to see me from every angle. I am going to be sweating with them. I'm going to be doing burpees and I'm going to be a mess with them. And that was the moment when women really related to me and really kind of grew that relationship where they were like, she sweats too. She struggles too, but

she's inspiring at the same time. It hasn't been easy. It's that battle with yourself of, I want to please people, especially my family family but I also want to be a businesswoman and risks come with that and did you face any situations where there were friends that didn't get what you were doing or question it or judge oh gosh yeah yeah not so much friends family yeah really struggled really struggled. Yeah. Even to this day, let's give you an example. My brother and sister don't have any forms of social media. WhatsApp, if you count that, right? They don't have Instagram. They both don't have Facebook. You know, I'm from a family of teachers, lawyers, nurses, like they don't understand it. And I think the moment that they started to

understand, my family are amazing by the way, and so supportive and they've had to learn themselves. This isn't because they don't want to, it's because they're not used to it. But actually what I found is when I got more traditional press, prints in magazines, newspapers, it made more sense. And they were like, okay, so this, you know, you're, you're at 3 million, you're changing 3 million women's lives around the world. But if I showed them that on YouTube, they wouldn't understand it as much. It's printed in a magazine. Okay. I get it. And monetary as well. You know, they didn't understand that I could make a very, very nice living out of it until, cause you know, you see the graft and you see very little return. Should she go back to physio? Should she go back to the clinic? Should she go back to the

NHS? It's stable. You get a pension, you know, all of these things. And it's been an education for sure. I think this is a big thing that a lot of people face with their families is that when we first started with social media, it was very much from the point of okay well social media is a pastime it's a luxury that you can have to communicate kind of like how video games started right so it's like oh you're just spending that much time on like social media like oh I'm better than you because I'm not on social media and I'm not wasting my time. That's the thing. It is. It really is. I know that because I had family who are not on social media too. So I feel like there was this era of snobbery around utilizing social media because no one was monetizing it in the early days. Let's be

honest. Everyone was like, this is completely new. We're on Facebook, but no one was really monetizing Facebook when it first came out. And then I felt like there's been this evolution and this education around, wow, hold on a minute. Influence is a currency. I can make money from my influence. Well, now the thing is young kids, yeah. And young kids want to be YouTubers. They no longer want to be a football player. You know, it's all they do as well. But you know, a YouTuber a youtuber from age you know I think 10 now kids are trying to get into it and make videos even younger like yeah my husband has a company that has people streaming he's like kids are literally like five and six year olds saying I want to stream I want to stream and it's but you know what's really interesting so I loved when you said yeah and

I wanted to be more center stage there's also still so much shame around saying I want to be an influencer there is there is I think um I want to be an influencer and I want to make money for a woman I think that's a really tough one especially with my personality and with what I used to do um as a physio and I think, you know, I've got some, fortunately, some very close friends who are in the same industry, not in the fitness side, but in social media. I learn a lot from them because their personalities are very different to mine and they really are unapologetic and they really are, I want to make money and I'm bloody proud of that. And, you know, I'm going to do everything in my power to grow this business. I think what I have learned, especially over the last couple of years, since I last saw you is, you know, I was making money

for other people before and I was getting paid for it as, you know, an influencer on Instagram versus I'm setting up my own companies and brand deals versus my own. And, you know, now we're at a point I only work with one brand. It's on a really nice monthly retainer. Great. But actually, you know, 95% of my income now comes from my own brands and my own companies. And I think that is going back to the influencer and the shame of being an influencer or people judging. I do think there's a huge shift right now where influencers, if you want to call them, content creators are actually creating their own brands. And there's a real shift in the way that they're making money. Yeah. And I think it's just the beginning. It's going to keep happening. Yeah. I think so too. I was just looking at the end of the day and I think it was something like of all really successful creators, I think only like 3%

monetized through their own companies. So the fact that that's about to grow and obviously the biggest was brand deals significantly. So talk to us about your companies and what that's about to grow. And obviously the biggest was brand deals significantly. So talk to us about your companies and what that's looked like setting them up. Cause you're building a real empire around your brand now. It's happening now. Yeah. I mean, as I said, the groundwork was five years, um, a very, very, very little return. And now it feels like, okay, yep. The audience is there. How can we, how can we monetize? But still helping people, which feels lovely, you know, you kind of have that double side to it. So yeah, where we're at, we have obviously me, I am the face of it, but then our companies are all under Lean. So Lean with Lily.

So it was kind of like, how can we monetize our audience, but still give them a service that they feel really, really grateful for. So we now have, we launched the Lean app. This was always a huge goal. It felt very far away, I have to say, but a huge, huge goal. And I was looking at other people in the industry, you know, what can I do differently? And what is there about me that will give people more? And the main thing is I'm a physiotherapist. I'm trained, you know, most people who have these apps, you're lucky they are a personal trainer but a lot of the time they'll be bringing in personal trainers so we wanted to create something that is a free 60 holistic approach to health and not only physical health but also mental health you know I touched on the fact that I love food before I

don't believe that you have to be cutting out carbs and you have to be restricting to achieve results and more than that to feel great right like and you have to be restricting to achieve results and more than that to feel great right like I want people to feel great and feel confident and feel healthy as well as look great I mean I'm just gonna say whatever you're doing I will do if I can get results like you you're amazing yeah sold I'm right after this I'm gonna be downloading everything but oh I love you girls well yeah so we wanted to to do that but also bring it's like Netflix of fitness so we wanted to bring classes to women's living rooms all around the world so anyone who's feeling intimidated by going to the gym you don't have to you know everything can be in your living room you need minimum minimal

equipment um I provide the motivation. You may be feeling rubbish in the morning, but that's okay. You just press play. It's not a GIF format where I just do it once and then it's quite boring on a loop. I'm there the whole time with you, sweating with you, struggling with you, screaming at you, keeping you motivated. You know, when you feel like giving up, I know you feel like giving up and I'm going to keep you going. So that was a really huge USP of, you know, bringing real-time workouts to people's living rooms. And I think that, interestingly enough, COVID was when that started happening because obviously gyms closed down and no one could access gyms or classes and everyone was having to work out from home. And, you know,

just following a PDF or, you know, just instructions is really, really boring. Nine times out of 10, depending on your personality type, but nine times out of 10 people don't want that. And that was the birth of real time classes. And what I found was everyone, the best way of saying it has is had jumped on my bandwagon. You know, I've been doing this for five years, five years of real-time workouts. And I would get 30 views and it took me a day to film and edit. And then I found, okay, so now there's a need. There's not just a want, there's a need for it. So everyone else started doing these real-time workouts, but effectively they were on catch up. I had five years worth of content already there waiting to be discovered. And this goes back to what you

said before, you know, I get it all the time, even when we get press, you know, this girl has come out of nowhere and look, she's changed this many people's lives and she's grown from this to this. What people don't realize and the best analogy is, you know, you'll get a singer who is absolutely phenomenal and people will be like, she's gone to number one and it's her first ever hit and she's come out of nowhere but actually she's had 10 years worth of music out there she's just just been discovered and that's how I feel it happened with us I think you know it was a hundred percent right time for us but the groundwork was already there for the discovery, let's call it. Yeah. So is that when you really noticed that full hockey stick was during COVID? Yes. That was our turning point. Honestly, it was crazy. So yeah, at the beginning of COVID, we were at 30,000 subscribers. And then overnight, quite literally,

we were looking at stats, Alex partner and I and I was like we're blowing up in Italy what's happening like out of nowhere just loads and loads of Italian subscribers like out of nowhere and we were like whoa and then a few videos started going viral and then the next day it was like okay now we're blowing up in Asia it was like what's happening and then we're looking at the news and it's like Italy goes into full lockdown everyone's stuck in their apartments then Asia is now and then and then the UK then Germany then actually the US took a bit longer but now the US is by far our biggest market really yeah by far yeah and I think that's partly the personality thing and I'm sure you guys will you you know, like my personality certainly suits the Americans.

Whereas a lot of the Brits are like, oh, shut up. Why is she so happy? I know I need to keep going. Stop telling me I need to keep going. I was like, come on, guys, keep going. I think the Americans love it. But, you know, sometimes the Brits are like, I know. Way that's so true.

So that's been interesting. You know, we've learned a lot about my brand and it's been like a fast track okay like this is this is where I situate myself and yeah it's been very interesting incredibly global audience but for us lockdowns was where we were found and I think we changed women's perspective of how you can get results and how you can work out and live a healthy lifestyle. And so many gyms are now open again, but we're growing faster than ever because I think people are still, some people are still cautious of gyms, but on top of that, I think people have realized, okay, I used to drive, especially somewhere like London, I used to travel on the tube for 30 minutes to get to the tube. Then I'd have an hour there. Then I'd come back. Then I'd have a shower. That's two hours out of your day. You

can get an incredible workout in 30 minutes at home. And it's really changed the way that people perceive fitness and health, I think. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to

share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. I agree. I think that with a lot of things like remote working, so many things people are like, oh, there's actually a different way to do it okay so going back to your businesses so not only are you creating content very consistently

but you got into tech you've created this amazing app you're in the product-based business yeah yeah how did you even get started with okay I want an app so I'm going to go look for tech or I want to launch a protein shake I'm going to go source product what was that process like so the app was an interesting one if I tell you about the dress especially because you guys know about tech like this oh yeah I am I don't by the way like I don't know how I'm a youtuber I'm dreadful like I can't work anything that's really good for people to hear okay good if that reassures anyone because I am absolutely dreadful like I'm talking turning on wi-Fi is a struggle. But yeah, I'm bad.

But I'm creative at the same time. So it's been interesting. And Alex has been, you've been great. He's taught me so much. And actually to completely digress, obviously being back in LA, I was last here three years ago and I have a video of me.

I hiked up early morning to Runyon Canyon, the top of there. Took my little tripod and my camera and Alex had done me a video on the phone of how to set it up, right? How to film. So I'm following this video and I'm like making mistakes. You're going to laugh at this. And then, you know, I create this video, I do a workout and I was like, oh, the American people are so lovely. They're stopping me during the workout. Like, what are you doing? I was like, in the UK, this would never happen. They're like supporting me. So we've got this

video and it's wonky. It's slightly out of focus, goes onto YouTube. I want to recreate that. That is the dream to recreate it. Cause that launched on YouTube three or four years ago, absolutely flopped, like did so badly because it was such bad quality. But I now fast forward, want to recreate it and kind of, I guess, show the journey and the progression, which is really cool. But yeah, that takes me back to the app. So at the beginning of lockdown, we started blowing up and we were like, okay, we're doing all of this for free. Of course we earn YouTube ad revenue, which is great, but you know, with that could change at any point. You don't know, you don't own the platform, et cetera.

How can we create our own platform? And at the time we invested, which for us was a huge amount of money, probably a thousand pounds. You know, I wasn't earning much at that point at all. And that was for a, what's it called? The website where it's like a base. And like a web app. Yeah, like a white label. In one of those. And it was going to be going to be okay we'll film we'll put it on there and then we'll charge you know five pounds or whatever a month for a membership so that that at the time was like oh great you know like this is amazing and then the growth

on youtube just went it skyrocketed you know we're now i think the third fastest growing in the world at what we do on youtube yeah it's crazy's crazy. It's crazy. Third or fourth. Yeah. But we're not the biggest. It's just, we're catching up. So quickly. I'm actually more than content. I feel like, okay, I'm happy here. And that's the place you'll grow from. Yeah. When you're grateful for where you are and what you have. That's where you'll grow from. And disbelief. Because then you can just go into service. Yeah. Yeah. And it feels like, honestly, there's just pure gratitude and actual love of what I do,

which is so nice. But yeah, we, you know, we soon realized, okay, we're now going to be competing with the big boys. And the big boys have a lot of capital and a lot of money to invest into a huge, huge app

or whatever it is. We can't just white label or whatever it is, you know, a rubbish little website because by the time it launches, we can't just white label or whatever it is, you know, a rubbish little website, because by the time it launches, we're going to be a million, let's say, we're competing with others at a million who have had four years to build their app or, you know, their business plan. So everything was fast track, incredibly fast track. It was just, I would say it was a team of two and a puppy. Like that's literally Alex, I and little Teddy. And, you know, it's grown so quickly. We soon realized, okay, we need to up our

game. We need to be producing something that is of a really good quality. We didn't have any capital. We had our savings. That was it. And we were considering investment, but then we're like, no, we want to own it. You know, it was that kind of battle, like fully own it. So, what we did was we decided, okay, we're going to bring out products. What is the need right now and what can come very, very fast? And for us, that was products. And I've soon learned that I love it. I absolutely love designing products and finding a niche area and finding a need that needs to be fulfilled and all of that. My favorite part of the day is product development day. I absolutely love it. But, you know, to build an app, that's going to take six months to a year to develop a new product. You could do that in a couple of months.

So people needed products. They needed home workout gear. There was a global shortage of lead. So we couldn't do weights. You know, that was an absolute global shortage so what could we do to create resistance at home that isn't a weight so resistance bands at the time you know resistance bands are selling on amazon for two pounds or you know two dollars but they're they're rubbish plastic ones that snap in your face around your legs and pull off your hair if I used to say that, yeah. If you haven't shaved. But yeah, just dreadful, like so uncomfortable, like almost cut off blood circulation. So we were like, okay, what can we do?

And there were the fabric ones out there, but we wanted something that was different. Like how can we help people save money, but still get results? So we ended up bringing out our first product, which was different to anything else on the market, which was an adjustable fitness band. So effectively what people were doing was they were paying for three bands in light, medium, and heavy. And we were like, how can we make that into one band

and only charge them $5 more, but they're buying those three bands in one. So that was like the birth of the adjustable fitness band. So good old Alibaba went on there. So how we could go about it. This is obviously, Alex, you've kind of head up that side of things. And I like love the design of the product. And we found ourselves an incredible manufacturer back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, like testing, testing, testing, retesting. But we found our first product. And that was like, I guess the birth of that first product where we were like, okay, you know, this is a gamble, but let's put all of our money down, you know, order. I think the first order was maybe a thousand bands. That's scary. So scary. You're like, if people don't buy, I'm going to be left with a thousand bands. And it's an investment. And we just didn't know.

And then it was like, where do we set up? Like, where are we distributing from? So at the time, you know, I'm British. So I was like, okay, we'll do it from the UK because we know the legislation, but actually our audience is global and all over the world. So just all of these things to consider. And I was nervous. I was like, are we going to sell? So very scary, have all of this money that we've invested, advertise it to my Facebook audience. So my Facebook audience is tiny. It's a little group and I call it like super like familiar. We call it the inner familiar. It's like the women who helped me develop the products. They are so loyal and so supportive and so incredible of each other and me. And so I decided to talk to them about it. They helped me design it, et cetera, et cetera.

And we sold out in seven minutes. I think it was just wild it was crazy how did that feel I like couldn't believe it like honestly just pure disbelief and just gratitude disbelief like shock all of these emotions where I was like, wow, okay. And then, you know, it's problem solving then. Okay. So it's going to take a minimum of six to probably 10 weeks to get the next batch. So, you know, I hear this all the time. Like, what'd you do when people say, you know, like I'm making it as a business person, you reinvest 80% of your money back in. Like that money was gone. We didn't even, I don't think it even hit the bank account. We just went straight back in, reinvest next load. And that has been, I guess, our drop and release pattern since we first started

bringing out products because we just had to keep reinvesting, reinvesting, reinvesting, and then using that money to then develop other products. We're now in a different position where we obviously have some capital that we're saving and we're able to spend more time and plan ahead. And that was kind of where I started really looking at my passion, which is food. So we've brought out Lean Foods now, which is, it's just the beginning. Very, very, very exciting. Do you know what? I get so excited when I listen to this because this is the power of influence and building an audience. Because look what you're saying, right? You are able to build multiple different product streams.

So when I say product, I mean like a physical product. I mean a digital product. I mean, oh, guess what? You're earning ad revenue from YouTube. When you start from a place of service and audience and influence, you get to add on so many different income streams to get where you need. So then you're not just flying, okay, I'm starting a business. I'm going to create this product-based business. Now I need to go and find the audience for it. And you just got this one path. With influence and audience, you get to have multiple paths all at once. And like you say, like, okay, this app's going to happen over here, but whilst we're waiting, we're going to go down this. And guess what? Whilst this product is

waiting, now I'm going to add some food on. And that is so incredible. It's such an amazing place to be in. And I think it's really underestimated by, as we were saying, those traditional ways of doing business that now everyone is catching up on the era of influence, the currency of influence and what that actually means for you and your family. Because I'd love to hear like, how has this changed your life Lily? Like how has your life changed in the last year? I mean I I'm busier than ever um I think the graph doesn't stop that's something I've certainly learned and I know one of your favorite questions is about routine and what's your routine and oh mine's a shambles right now I have to say like I'm trying I'm trying to find a routine but you know this has all happened it's so fresh and I often describe it I feel like I'm trying to find a routine but you know this has all happened it's so fresh and I often describe I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel and if I step out at all the momentum

might stop and I'm having to learn to find balance in life and enjoy what we have achieved because actually it's insane the amount that's happened but you keep re-changing that marker of where you want to achieve. And I think we need to sometimes take a step back. Alex, you're a bit better than me at that, I would say, appreciating. But for me, a release before used to be to work out and to, you know, do a little bit of sport. But now all I do is film. You know, I'm a walking filming machine because the app isn't, you know, it's not, you release it, then it's done. You keep adding more and more and more content. But in terms of life changing a hundred percent, like, you know, I don't come from a deprived background, but

certainly, you know, my family aren't loaded. So even things like Christmas, like it's a really little thing, but being able to fly all my family over and, you know, they wouldn't have been able to afford that. And my nephews hadn't, hadn't traveled out of the UK. Well, one of them had, so just things like that, where I'm able to, I guess, give back to my family and my mom. And it just, that for me is like, yeah, I've, I've made it to where I want to be. And it's the financial side of things that, um, I know it's just the beginning and there's so much more to come and so much more graft of which I'm not scared of at all but just being able to give back especially to family like it feels really really good and let's be honest you don't have to ask for Christmas off from work anymore I hate that oh my god

take it in turns and he gets the time off like the freedom like just think back to that that's what I'm gonna say all those days you're like hey I have to be in the office at 8am for this Take it in turns and he gets the time off. Like the freedom. Just think back to that. All those days, you're like, okay, I have to be in the office at 8am for this client at that point. It gets freaking miserable. That sounds awful. I remember having to work nights. Oh, I don't know if you ever did that on call. No, I never do that.

Nights in the hospitals. I used to try and give them away. So people would be like, when some of the other physios were like saving up for a wedding or whatnot, they'd want the extra because nights is like double pay. I was like, just take my night. I love my sleep so much. But yes, exactly. So, you know, being your own boss is obviously incredible. But trying to find boundaries is something that's been a little bit difficult and will come. I know it will come. And I think awareness is a huge thing. I'm aware that my work-life balance isn't great right now,

but that's okay because I will find a solution for it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we can relate to it. It's sometimes that awareness is all you need. Like for us, we spent so long, we had different businesses before Boss Babe. So we had that time where we were just focused on audience building. And we didn't know what we were really building for. We didn't know what the product was going to be. We didn't know what Boss Babe was going to look like. But we knew we were, like you say, working full time, not getting paid, putting out all of this content, listening to our audience. And people often say, you know, what was it like going from six to seven figures? And I always say, I don't know. We didn't do it. We went from six to seven figures and I always say I don't know we didn't do it we went

from nothing to seven figures very quickly it was almost overnight because of the all of the the time and effort we'd put in previously to building an audience to getting our experience to listening to our audience then when things took off we'd have a work-life balance yeah Danielle was in the UK I was in San Francisco and so it was you get up when you need to get up and you work when you need to work and i'm so grateful that because i think there's two camps sometimes on social media there's hustle hustle hustle and then the hustle shaming and there's no one that's really saying you know what some seasons of your life you need to hustle your ass off and some seasons you need to chill and I'm so grateful

that we hustled our asses off in that I mean a good couple of years where there was no balance I mean Stephen was like do you even know I exist and now it's so different I mean we have such an incredible balance we can take time off whenever we want we decide how our days look but we wouldn't have that had we not done that yeah so it's like it's like take advice from people that have really been through the seasons versus like so easy to look on instagram oh you know my three hour morning routine well it's probably not the best thing for you to do right now yeah maybe just start with that quick 30 minute one and get to work but it's like that whole thing like if you i mean you can work hard now for an easy life later,

or you can take the easy route now and have a hard life later. And I know lots of people work hard and never get that easy life either. So I'm not saying that, but I do think that has its place in the sense that like, if you want to, if you want to get that plane off the ground, you've got to freaking hustle at some point. You've got to get that energy in. And it feels relentless. But I do think, yeah, we're now at a stage the balance right now is still giving for free um which we obviously still need to do especially because our audience is so global and we don't expect everyone to convert onto the app of course not so I still want to be giving for free and that comes back to my personality I never want to stop

that and you know we even said the other day someone was asking for a lifetime membership of the app and I just laughed I was, are you expecting me to still teach you in my 70s? Like, there is no way, you know, I can't keep going at this rate. I'm broken. But, you know, I still want to be giving all that free content. But then, you know, what are we giving to the premium users as well? So it's finding that balance. We're in a very much a scaling stage right now. Like, how can we offload me physically and mentally? Is it bringing in other trainers? But, you know, are we there yet?

There's just so many things to consider. But I think mental health has to take a priority. And I will burn out if we don't make some changes. So I have a quick question. If you were to look back and you were to visit Lily of let's say 2018 maybe right so you would like started your YouTube account or slow growth you're still working as a physio at that point yeah side hustling in the evening yeah there's that night and you're just like I'm never freaking gonna be able to do this like why do I even bother what would you say to her what's that piece of

advice firstly remember your why so remember why you are doing this you want to her? What's that piece of advice? Firstly, remember your why. So remember why you are doing this. You want to change people's lives. And the only way you're going to reach the masses is by doing it online. Secondly, you have no idea when your break is going to happen, but it will happen. It will happen, but I can't tell you when. And stop looking at other people. Stop looking at what they've achieved, what you haven't achieved. Stop judging yourself so harshly. You're doing great. Keep going, but it's going to be a graft. I love that. Just one thing, one bit of unsolicited advice I would give you because I've been in your situation where where I was like I can't keep being the face and everything else because I'm like you've seen me at my lowest like I can't keep

going I want to quit yeah because I was burning the candle at every end yeah and then you turn the camera on and you're you've got to put this personality on. And you're like, I have absolutely nothing to give. And I listen to everyone but myself. And so I was thinking, do we need to bring in other people? Do we need to put other faces on? Do we need to bring in other coaches? Okay, well, then I'm not going to be able to create content and someone else can do that for me. And it lost what I was able to individually give to the business.

And I wish back then everything that wasn't me and didn't need to be me, I found someone else for. And I know you'll probably say the same of you, Danielle. I wish I'd done that earlier. And I wish I hadn't given away some of the things I did because clawing it back was really difficult. So. So how I remember listening to something before when you were bringing on other people I think this was another podcast and you'd probably and I think Danielle had yeah asked you your opinion and you put together like I guess a job spec or what what people needed to fulfill that were your weaknesses and that's I, I think, where I'm at right now. Like,

even as an example, you know, I can't film everything. And it's not only mentally challenging, it's also physically challenging. And also it's like knowing my strengths, right? What am I trained in? My background is physiotherapists and Pilates and strength. You know, do I love doing all of the other workouts? Not always, but I'll always show up and I'll always feel great afterwards. But how can I bring on other people that fill my weakness gaps? That's kind of where I'm at right now. And yeah, it feels scary, especially giving anything away that you've worked so hard for. That feels really scary, but I think I need to trust the process a little bit more.

Yeah, exactly. And it's just like in a day, going through your day and just having this awareness to every single task, every single task you're doing, whether it's replying to your own email or doing like, should I be the one doing this? Which one would I rather be doing? And like so many times, Danielle would say to me, you know, you're way better at that thing, that end than anyone else. I was like, can you just give that thing

away? Why are you not doing it? And I'm like, cause I haven't got time. I haven't got the energy. There's no creativity left in me. And what I found to get back to that was just having to get rid of everything else, which is hard when it's your own business too. Cause you're like, I want to see everything and I want to touch everything. Do you know what I noticed as well? It's often the little things that actually take the most energy that you're like I'm not going to give that away because by the time I've taught someone how to do that I might as well just done it yeah but those little things add up add up over time and then like oh I've actually just got someone to do that months ago I've said all these hours over all

these days that's literally me right now yeah because I feel like teaching someone is just going to take so long so I might as well just do it myself but actually yeah that's where we're at yeah it's definitely I think that's one of a creator's most difficult things is scaling themselves yes it's such a difficult place to be but also such an incredible place to be so it's that double-edged sword. So, okay. So for someone listening who does have this secret aspiration to be an influencer, they have something they want to be able to give the world and impact the world. They want to start creating content. What are some tips and tricks you'd give them? Be yourself. A hundred percent be yourself. And

the best way to do that, in my opinion, is through a live. You may get three people tuning in, one person tuning in. It doesn't matter. It's just, it's so authentic. It's the best way of being authentic. And you know, you can do that on Instagram. You can do that on YouTube, wherever it is. Try not to be too squeaky clean with things because people aren't going to love you if you're not yourself. Amen to that. It's so true. That is dumb. It is.

It is. And it was the old era, right? If you think about what Instagram used to be, it was those beautiful, and it still is. But, you know, it was more of the beautiful travel pictures where the angles were perfected for 20 minutes and you took 7,000 photos and you chose one, you know. It's still that, but nowhere near as much. The people that are blowing up are the ones that are unapologetically themselves. They know, they go in knowing that, you know, 50% of people are really not going to like them, but 50% are going to wildly love

them. And that's what you need to concentrate on. And don't be scared of having people that don't like you. You know, an example is, you know, I'll upload a YouTube video and it hasn't been up for 30 seconds and it already gets them down with thumbs. You know, those people are there to hate and that's okay because it has a hundred times more upwards, you know. So let's focus on the ups. Yeah. And that's hard when you're a people pleaser. But if you're really wanting to make it online, you need to grow a slightly thicker skin, which is something that I've had to, you still need to care. You need to listen to your audience, but care about the people that matter. You know, this goes back to, I guess, the branding and

building our own brands. How have we managed to do that? And so, diversely, it's by listening to our audience. They've been telling us, they're telling you everything you need. It might not be verbal in the way that they're telling you, but they're telling you by the amount of views you get on a video or the amount of likes you get. And just keep following that because they're guiding you. You just need to keep, it's like dot to dot, keep following what they are telling you and you will get there. And also don't do it secretly. So that's, you know, someone who is scared about it and a little bit reserved like tell someone be verbal about it to someone because if you're hiding in your room a bit worried about telling your family that's fine don't tell your family but tell a friend like

be proud of the fact that you're going on the journey because if you can't tell someone in real life how are you expected to grow that audience online oh my god i love that such good advice i love that so much and the idea of the dot to dot too like people you know they'll tell you you have to create consistently and be willing to put out shit content that gets no views and no likes and then push it oh my gosh i think it's really important to acknowledge the bravery and courage that takes within yourself like by you doing that one video, by you doing that live, do you know what? You're braver than that person who's freaking criticizing you.

It is so true. And it's so scary. It really is. Like you're putting yourself out there to the world. But I've found it's easier putting yourself out there to strangers than it is to people you know. Because there's the fear of judgment with people you know. You will find your people,

your people will find you. And that's something, if you are totally yourself, that audience will find you. I literally used to block people I knew so they couldn't follow me. Oh my gosh, yeah. You did?

Yeah, in the early stages when I was like terrified. I was like, I'm blocking them, I don't want their criticism. I feel like you girls are polar opposite. I don't like it stuff it i literally won i would be like okay i remember my first life i literally didn't even wait for anything one person came on yeah no one came on because i was in and out so freaking quick

was it just she was just being oh my gosh that is brilliant yeah they can see themselves in either it takes bravery for sure and you've got to have humor with it as well like there's parts where like I look back at some of the stuff like we've done I did daily vlogs for a while the work that went into that and I think you know I got like the editing I think I got like two views on some of them but now ironically we have all this audience people are going back and watching them they want to know the story and the journey and all of that but yeah you gotta be brave and unapologetic and yeah if you need to block people you know that's fine

I love this okay Lily tell us about your product line tell us about Lily, tell us about your product line. Tell us about your app. Tell us about your channels. Where can everyone get started in working with you? So the best place to start is YouTube because all the content's for free and just get an idea of if I'm the person for you. I might not be as I said before, but if you are someone who wants to be fit and healthy, who wants to feel great and look great, but feel confident and look great. And maybe you're a little bit intimidated by the gym or you're someone who's already super fit and, you know, you want to take it to the next level. I have, I think over 600 free YouTube videos that are workouts and you can just come along and check it out and have a little taster, see what you

think. We have everything on there from like boxing cardio to Pilates to antenatal for my mummies. Like there's absolutely everything. And if you do like it and you cardio to Pilates to antenatal for my mummies. Like there's absolutely everything. And if you do like it and you want to take things to the next level with like a meal plan and all of that, and obviously a guided workout plan to get results, that's on the app. So the app is obviously available to everyone. There's free bits of content on there, but for the premium, it's like a monthly subscription. And then all of the products is all on my website. So that's all food products, which is launching pretty more stuff pretty soon. Did I see a pancake mix?

There's a pancake mix coming. Oh my gosh, I get so excited. What's your favorite product? I'm just such a foodie. So I'm like anything that involves yummy tasting food. So yeah, the background of the food is I was fed up of, you know, seeing the word healthy on the front of a pack and then turning it over and having a million ingredients where I had no idea what they meant. And actually it was packed full with sweeteners and additives and all of that. So it's an incredibly pure, all of the products, it's an incredibly pure line. What you see is what you get. It's about not only, and Nat, you'll know this from your background, like it's about

the skin glow and how it makes you feel and your health rather than just calories in and out um so yeah everything is plant-based um but it's appropriate for people who aren't plant-based as well I'm not plant-based but I like doing as much as I can and the line is just growing and growing so pancakes uh what else have we got coming out porridge protein bars superfood boosters we've obviously got this it's so exciting so yeah this is just the beginning for that but um super super excited about it and how does the protein taste if it hasn't got a bunch of things in so actually really good yeah it's amazing i'll give you girls some so um it's got added superfoods into it. It's made from a pea protein and coconut protein. It tastes, a lot of vegan proteins are very, very chalky and like lack of flavor.

It doesn't taste like that at all. It's absolutely amazing. And it has that like creamy texture, but purity with it as well. So we've got chocolate and vanilla at the moment, but we'll be growing out the line as well. Yeah. Hopefully some collabs with influencers which will be fun really honestly it's been so good like to watch your journey there's no one more deserving you're so genuine like what you see is what you get with you

and it's so incredible to watch everything take off I'm so so happy for you and thank you for doing this and sharing this with everyone too. Of course. Thank you so much for having me. You know, girls, I've loved your podcast. I love everything you do, as you know.

So it's a pleasure to be here. And thank you for like believing in me from the beginning. Like Nat's honestly been there. Like you can do this and you can make a business out of it. And I was like, I might just go back to physio.

Thank goodness you didn't. Oh, I know. I know. And this is Thank goodness you didn't. Oh, I know. I know. And this is just the beginning, apparently. So yeah. Yeah. Brilliant. Thanks, Lily.

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