128. How to Make Your Passion Project a Career

How do you downsize and what part does community play in your aspirations? Brad and LL recap Tiny House expert, Ethan Waldman, and give their thoughts on the importance of community, how sharing your story leads to success, and what decluttering today may look like for you. 

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected] .

 

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

How you train people to treat youHow sharing your vision allows other people to be a part of it Taking what you know to “retool” it laterPracticing seeing yourself in others' stories leads to evidence you can do what you wantThe value of decluttering and leaving a smaller footprint 

Episode References/Links:

AGENCY MINICADILLAC PILATES FLASHCARDSTINY HOUSE BLOG

 

 

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Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guests will bring Bold, Executable, Intrinsic and Targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co host in life, Brad and I are going to dig into the building convo I had with Ethan Waldman in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that interview, feel free to pause this now and go back and listen to that one and then come back and join us. You know what's really exciting, is we're getting surveys in. Thank you everyone beitpod.com/tellme is where you're gonna give me your opinion, if you haven't done that already. And what we're finding out is some of you love the recaps. Some of you love the interviews and some of you will love it both. And it's really exciting to find out why you liked that. So, you listen to both and tell us which ones you like and if you've listened to all of them like a few of you I know that's amazing. (Brad: Yeah) Thank you for staying up on top of every single episode.

Brad Crowell  

We love having you.

Lesley Logan  

I love having you. Okay, so today is the day.

Brad Crowell  

Okay, Cardi.

Lesley Logan  

The Cadillac decks are shipping. (Brad and Lesley laughs) Holy moly, I, you know I feel like I birthed an elephant, baby. Like this is how long, this has been in the womb. And (Brad: Yeah) we have had supply chain issues and other things that have just made this take a lot longer ...

Brad Crowell  

Design stuff, puzzle. I mean (Lesley: Yeah) the ... the puzzle of content itself.

Lesley Logan  

How do you get 110 cards in a box is like (Brad: Yeah) really a thing. So if you bought the Cadillac deck on presale, it shipping now. Thank you so much.

Brad Crowell  

Yeah. It will be shipping. And if it's not the exact day, it'll be like in the next day.

Lesley Logan  

Yeah, don't scare them. It's happening right now. We're putting into the universe. It's happening right now. The other thing is, if you haven't bought the Cadillac deck, and for like I have the tower Lesley, that's fine, most almost all the cards, except for teeny tiny handful can be on a tower. And we have, we have descriptions how to do that, and how to set yours up as well. You can buy the cards now. And (Brad: Yeah) for a very, very brief moment if you're listening to this not in real time, if just listening to the future, it's not happening now. But if you're listening to this in real time, go to onlinepilatesclasses.com because we will have special situation going on this week. Or if you buy a Cadillac deck, you get a deal on a Mat deck. (Brad: Yeah) That's just for you, very special, so ...

Brad Crowell  

You'll find that on the home page or maybe on a pop up. But you can also go to onlinepilatesclasses.com/flashcards.

Lesley Logan  

Oh, you could do that. That's where you can go. Okay, and we are exactly, today's a special date. (Brad: It is.) We are one month from the start of Agency Mini number seven. What does that mean? It's our seven day coaching program. It's the seventh time we've run it. So I can't think of another lucky number to get in on but Agency Mini number seven.

Brad Crowell  

Yeah. So this is obviously Profitable Pilates, and it's a week long snapshot of our ongoing coaching program. What's in it for you, you are going to walk away knowing exactly how much you should be charging your your clients. So figuring out your pricing, schedule, your product offerings, you are also going to understand, you know how your story can help you share. And we're going to, we're going to talk a little bit more about this today. But passionately sharing your story is going to help you connect with your future clients.

Lesley Logan  

Yeah, yeah. And we go for so much. And so we have a special webinar that we, that Brad has mentioned, we also have a Q&A call, where you can ask us anything. And then during the week, you're in a private group, where you can ask us anything. Brad and I turned into like total gamers, everything is delivered. Everyone takes care of us that we can take care of you and answer your questions about your business because I do believe that you are the only person who can do what you do the way that you do it. (Brad: Yeah) And you have to be reminded of that regularly. And I also know that coaching can seem like it's out of your league. It's for somebody else and not you yet your business isn't big enough. Who are you? But every single one of us needs someone we can ask advice from who's been there. And Brad and I have been there we've coached over 1200 businesses (Brad: Yeah) at this point, just in our minis alone.

Brad Crowell  

I mean, that's kind of insane. (Lesley: It's insane.) 1200 businesses. (Lesley: Yeah) That's that's actually that's pretty amazing. (Lesley: Yeah) I'm patting myself on the back. I'm actually more just shocked that that's that's the actual number. We went back and looked at it and I was like, "Oh (Lesley: Yeah) damn." (Lesley: Yeah) Anyway, we we would love to connect with you. The reality is, we can help you answer the questions that you have worked through the concerns, the fears, the anxiety. You know, we have built an amazing community of incredibly supportive teachers and studio owners around the world who are in the same exact boat as you are in the fitness business. Right. And when you have a chance to connect with other people who actually get it, you know, they actually know what you're going through. It is such it's such a relief. It's an incredible support system. And that's all part of Agency the ongoing thing we're going to have, like I said one week of that with Agency Mini. So come join us. Just go to profitablepilates.com/mini, profitablepilates.com/mini.

Lesley Logan  

Yep. Okay, we have an audience question to respond to.

Brad Crowell  

Yeah, we totally do. The, I know you got this in a DM. And this was a little bit more on the business side of things. But, is there a gray area for when you should you would not charge a late cancellation fee? Because as I'm sure you've all heard, Lesley talks about cancellation fees all the time.

Lesley Logan  

I do. And actually this came from because I've been talking about why you need a scheduling tool. And if you want to know more about why use a scheduling tool and how to find one for you make sure that you go to profitablepilates.com because we have a free webinar on that topic specifically. But first of all, here's what I say, I know that there are emergencies like legit emergencies, I've had a client get in a car accident on their way to a session. (Brad: Right) Obviously, I'm not an asshole. Like they were on their way to the session. Had someone not t boned their car, they would have been at the session, right? So and I have had a client who on her way into a session got a call that she lost her brother, like, those are some legit things, and I am I human being. So I get that. And here's the thing I charge every other late cancel, so that I can not charge those. (Brad: Right) So for me the gray area is that I am extremely firm on my cancellation policy, I make people sign off that they understand the cancellation policy. And I am very clear from the first time that they late cancel that, that I charge it. So you (Brad: Yeah) train people how to treat you. (Brad: Yeah) And then if they give me pushback, I say, "Look, you know the fact that you forgot you had a meeting today is not my emergency. That's your emergency. That's not a health thing. That's like that's a lack of planning. And it sucks. And (Brad: Yeah) I feel for you, I wish you could be here right now." But if I don't teach them to make sure they protect their time, that's for them to become the person that they want to be, then they will always like cancel on me because they will know that I'm the one that will bend over backwards over those two scenarios. (Brad: Yeah) Right. Guess what that person is able to do? Call that meeting and say, "Can we meet in 30 minutes? Or can we meet on the phone?" (Brad: Sure.) Yes, they could. Right. So I am helping people make time for themselves. So the gray area is simply like, like death ...

Brad Crowell  

Yeah, I mean, it's not even, it's not even that it's extenuating circumstances that are out of the control of the person that you're teaching that they didn't plan for it. It's an actual emergency kind of thing. Where like, I mean ...

Lesley Logan  

I mean people make up the flu, and I still charge them.

Brad Crowell  

Okay, so but but I think that I don't I don't hate that. (Lesley: Yeah) Okay. But my point is that, you know, it's about boundaries. (Lesley: Yeah) And it's about you understanding, when is a reasonable time for you to be gracious, you can't be gracious every time. You're not you, you're doing yourself a disservice if you're always excusing them, because you're teaching them that they can treat you that way.

Lesley Logan  

And also, like just so you know, I had a client who never ever, ever, ever, ever got sick, and one time she got the flu, and I was kind of at it, because they never done it before. And I met someone else who like every other session, they had some sort of like allergy season happening. (Brad Right) So like, I think you really do have to like, figure that out. But you have to first I would rather you err on the side of charging every late cancel than charging zero because it is so much easier to be the kind angel who doesn't charge when you've always charged (Brad: Yeah) versus retraining people that you always charge, you're going to have to have way more tough conversations. And the other thing is, when I am sick and I had to cancel, I owed them a session. That was the agreement. So I late canceled on them versus early canceled on them. I owed them a session.

Brad Crowell  

Which was like incredibly rare.

Lesley Logan  

Yeah, so we're incredibly rare and then also, what you can do is I put in my contracts that if I got them a sub, they didn't have to take the sub. But then I owe them a session. So then if I can (Brad: Right) get another teacher to cover me if I was sick, then if they didn't want to take the session, I didn't owe them one. So there's ways of working around this. But ...

Brad Crowell  

And the easiest way to handle late sessions and actually can't billing them for them is to use our scheduling tool. (Lesley: Yeah, because they ...) You can set it up automatically, where it's they sign the contract when they join, and in the contract that talks about your late cancellation policy. And you can make it 24 hours, 48 hours, whatever makes sense for you. And then in the app, you can literally set it up where like if they have a package, or if they booked a session at all, and they cancel during your you know, inside of your cancellation window. So if you've got 24 hour cancellation window and they cancel 23 hours in, automatically they're getting docked from, like a session dock from their package, or the session that they paid for is you know, they they're they've already paid for it.

Lesley Logan  

Yeah, and this came up because I want you to do the math for a second. If you only charge $75 for a session which I know some people charge 120, some people charge less than like, let's just say 75 and you let someone like cancel without paying one time a week. Out of 48 weeks a year. That's not like that's not even an unreasonable number it's going to happen. That's $3,600 that you have left on the table. For some of you, that's almost a month's worth of income if (Brad: Right) you're teaching about 15 hours a week. (Brad: Yeah) Right. Like, let's it's almost your entire month's income, the amount of money you, imagine things you could use that money for, to either propel your life forward or make the lives around you better, like you could literally I don't care if you're donating all the money away. It's still money that you're you're taking away from somebody, whether it's you, whether it's a charity, whether it's people you could hire to help with your business, like that is real, legit money. And it's important to me that you are making real legit money so you can do more of what you love. And you can take care of the people that you care about the most. (Brad: Yeah) And if this kind of question is something you are really like, "Oh, I wish I had more answers like this." That's how I do my coaching. This is what Brad and I do all day long every day in our coaching business. So join Agency Mini.

Brad Crowell  

All right, let's talk about Ethan Waldman. Let's jump straight in here. Tiny House author, speaker and teacher. Ethan Wallman has a built a business around educating people on how to plan and build tiny homes from testing and turning a dream idea into his business. He is an inspiration for what can happen when you finally put the foundation down and begin progressing towards your next big thing. Yeah.

Lesley Logan  

I actually really loved that we talked about sharing the vision, the importance of like, of like telling people around you of like what you're doing and sharing this vision that you have. It allows people to be part of the journey, but it allows people to also help you. And again, (Brad: Yeah) it gets you excited about it. Because every time you ...

Brad Crowell  

Yeah. You're selling yourself every time you're sharing your vision, you're reselling yourself. Totally.

Lesley Logan  

Yeah. So I was really into that. I mean, I think ...

Brad Crowell  

He talked about how people would like offer to help. He's like, "Yeah, I'm building this tiny home. It's so cool. Oh, this weekend, I'm going to tackle this thing." And he's like, "Yeah, when I was telling people about it." They were like, "I'm not doing anything on Saturday. I can help." And he's like, "What? Okay."

Lesley Logan  

Yeah. And you know what, here's the thing like a being it till you see it, everyone, when you share your aspirations, whether you saw yourself in building a tiny home, or just like building anything else, and people want to help you say, 'yes'. That's what they they that is them sharing their love with you. That is an act of service, love gesture, and like they want to help you. And it's so important that we say 'yes', unless it's a stalker, then maybe say 'no', but like, if it's a legit person that you actually enjoy spending time with, I'm just saying, because someone's ... listening by my stalker want to help me. I don't need your DM, I hear you. But my point is like to be it till you see it, you should take help from others. (Brad: Yeah) That's how we get anywhere.

Brad Crowell  

Yeah, totally. Each time that you share the vision, you get better at sharing the vision. Right. And even though you might not be selling someone on the idea, it you know, the more you, you will figure out what people connect with, right? This is actually, when I used to work in food, it my, I had a goal, my goal was to learn the menu upside down and backwards to learn everything about how it was prepared. I wanted a story behind each dish. Oh, yeah, this specific type of fish comes from blah, blah, blah, blah. And the way that chef prepares it is X Y Z and something really, and then we do this thing. And it's amazing. And it tastes so good and smells all the things. Right. And my whole goal was to have a story behind every single dish on the menu. And it allowed me to know how to sell it. So that just takes practice, it takes time, you know, the more that you are, the more that you're thinking about that and re re saying it a different way. Basically, just like I literally just did right there, because I couldn't come up with a word. (Brad and Lesley laughs) You are gonna get better at selling, at sharing that story. And your vision is something that you ultimately we always talking about elevator pitches and all the things you know, whether that's like just you talking about who you are, and what you do in life, or you actually going out and selling a product, the more often you share your vision, the better at it, you get.

Lesley Logan  

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what's one thing you loved?

Brad Crowell  

Awesome. Well, okay, so I was really excited about his idea of taking something that he had figured out, and then effectively retooling it, and doing using that later. And he so it's ironic, because it's kind of what I just talked about with sharing your vision over and over again, I didn't actually realize that I was connecting these dots here. But basically, he had started a coaching business. And he said, the people that he really wanted to serve. Ultimately, he realized they can't pay me. And while I love doing what I'm doing, I can't pay the bills by bartering for, you know, for services. And what he so he decided to pause his coaching services and while he was still building and ultimately moved into his tiny home, and so it was at that time that he was like, "Wait a minute duh, I obviously can share my experience about the, you know, the tiny home process with other people." And that's when he really started to write a book. That was like 2013 2014, he released the book. And ... (Lesley: It's a good year to release books.) It was a good year ... (Lesley laughs) But it's also like 200 pages, it's not just like a (Lesley: Yeah) five page PDF. This is like a legit book, whole process. And he's he was excited to share about how it helps you ...

Mostly, I was just talking about my book, because I release at the same time. That's why. (Brad: Oh, yes you did. Yeah.) But I, but here's the thing. (Brad: that's funny) I think that a lot of people listen to this episode and they be like, "Lesley brought on someone about tiny homes. Why did you do that?" Because it was a story, an example of someone who's doing something else who decided to do something he's never done before. (Brad: Yeah) Did the thing and then made a career out of the thing that he just did. (Brad: Yeah.) And I think we often think who am I to do something, and I needed you to hear a story of like, here's someone who probably could have had that same exact question. And instead, still did it and hit obstacles along the way, and then took what they were able to do and took it as a skill set of theirs and like, break it down and put it into a 200 page book. I know, it's coaching and create communities around that.

Yeah. And that's exactly what he said, he said, you know, in 2014, his business was able to grow, survive based on selling the book. And he said, today, people really want more like courses, tutorial videos, training sessions, or whatever plus community. And so he's built a community around tiny homes. And he said, he has people in there from all stages, whether they're planning it, or they're building it, or they live in it, and they want to make changes or whatever. And it's very inspiring, because he was able to take it from his corporate job to his coaching business, which didn't go the way you want it, apply more of those things to, now business coaching people through tiny homes. (Lesley: Yeah) So I thought that was great.

Lesley Logan  

I think it's just like, the more we can practice seeing ourselves in someone else's story, the more we can start to see that there's evidence around you that you can do whatever the hell you want.

Brad Crowell  

I think it's amazing. I do think it's amazing that there's like an infinite number of ways to make money.

Lesley Logan  

There is an infinite number. Okay, BE IT action items.

Brad Crowell  

Yeah, let's talk about those BE IT action items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your conversation with Ethan? So he had only one super clear and concise BE IT action item. And his assumption with that was that you're interested in tiny homes. So do you want to share?

Lesley Logan  

Yeah, it's so basically, if you're interested in tiny homes, like the and like, the one thing you could be doing is like start decluttering and downsizing in the current place that you're living. So like, how can you actually take up less of a footprint in your current space, so that you are ready to live in this tiny home. And I'll say this when I moved into my first tiny home, which was my apartment that Brad moved in a year later, I had nothing. I actually have a picture I showed, I showed Amanda, our producer, a picture of my apartment when I moved and it was just like 13 lego boxes, and a bowl, a bunch of those colorful balls, and a peace sign lamp. It's all I own. Right. And then I we like slowly built our way into it. But the point is, is like like, I don't care if you want to build a tiny home or not. If you are wanting to have more clarity, if you're wanting to feel less overwhelmed, declutter. Like Rachel Rogers says, "Millionaires don't have piles around." And I just every time I see a pile, I'm like, "Oh, is that's keeping me from being a millionaire." So like, it doesn't matter if you want to live in a tiny home or not. If you just want to, like have more abundance around you get rid of your piles.

Brad Crowell  

So, I while I was listening to you. He, I just decided what if I pulled up his site? I bet you he has information on how do you downsize? Right. And in fact, he does. If you search the tinyhouse.net and you search downsize, or how do you downsize to live in a tiny house, he has a post on this. And you know, he said the reason that he recommends that for you is because that's something you can do before you spend any money before you start pla... like laying out plans, any of these like big decision stuff. This is something you can begin to do now. Something you can take action on today and it will help you get into that mode of living in a decluttered downsized, you know space. And also it's very freeing. I know Lesley and I, like Lesley was just saying it was it was actually like really rejuvenating for me to get rid of almost all of my stuff. It was pretty much.

Lesley Logan  

Yeah. I think again, just like try it on. Just try it out to see what it's like to like, let go of some excess and see what it allows you to do in your life. I'm Lesley Logan.

Brad Crowell  

And, I'm Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan  

Thank you so much for joining us today. We are so grateful for you to be here. Thank you. How are you going to use these tips in your life? Let us know by sending us a DM and tag at the pod and we'll catch you on the next episode.

Brad Crowell  

Bye for now.

Lesley Logan  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review. And follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcasts. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the @be_it_pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others BE IT TILL YOU SEE IT. Have an awesome day! 

'Be It Till You See It' is a production of 'As The Crows Fly Media'. 

Brad Crowell  

It's written produced, filmed and recorded by your host Lesley Logan and me, Brad Crowell. Our Associate Producer is Amanda Frattarelli. 

Lesley Logan  

Kevin Perez at Disenyo handles all of our audio editing. 

Brad Crowell  

Our theme music is by Ali at APEX Production Music. And our branding by designer and artist, Gianranco Cioffi. 

Lesley Logan  

Special thanks to our designer Jaira Mandal for creating all of our visuals (which you can't see because this is a podcast) and our digital producer, Jay Pedroso for editing all videos each week so you can. 

Brad Crowell  

And to Angelina Herico for transcribing each of our episodes so you can find them on our website. And, finally to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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