Following my morals

I’ve been thinking a lot about success and what defines it.

Growing up, I thought money = success but never had any idea how much.

I tried to chase it by studying Actuarial Maths in university, but then I realised that I didn’t think I would be happy if I was working as an Actuary so I attempted recruitment for a year before feeling very lost.

I loved training and I was a bit obsessed with dieting, but when somebody suggested I became a personal trainer, I didn’t even entertain it because I didn’t think I could make a success of myself.

But I was miserable and willing to try anything.

Fast forward 7 years and I still don’t know what success is exactly but I think I have it. I wake up every day with very little stress and I have a lot of joy in my days.

My work is rewarding because it helps women feel good, and I have amazing coaches who also find success in helping women feel good.

But I sometimes find myself getting caught up looking at other people’s success online and wonder am I doing it wrong. I see so many PTs and coaches boasting 5-figure months and selling high-ticket online coaching.

I know there are some women who would pay a lot of money to work very closely with me.

But I couldn’t charge high-ticket prices.

I don’t believe that anyone, besides maybe athletes and perhaps people who need very high-level nutritional help, should be paying over €1,000 a month for online coaching.

And I’m very aware that I am not qualified enough to help people like that.

Even at €89 a month, I know that I could sell many more spaces on The Furnace if I used better sales tactics - like before and after pictures. But I don’t believe that before and after pictures are a morally correct way to sell my coaching. No two people are alike and everyone will get different results.

Plus there is an underlying risk that by sharing transformation photos that I would be insinuating that the “before” photo is something that needed to be changed.

(I look back on my old transformation photos that I used to post to inspire people, and I realise that I didn’t even need to change!)

When I first launched the original version of The Furnace in 2017, I knew I wanted to educate women on what I had learned about nutrition and training.

I realised I knew how to get shredded (and I did, for a bikini competition) but I realised that’s not where my happiness lay. I wanted to teach women what they needed to know to do it, but also the mindset tools to decide themselves what is best for them.

Another decision that would be frowned upon by the "business coaches", was that I wasn’t trying to get people onto a subscription service forever. I wanted women to be self-sufficient and never get tricked into a miserable diet again.

So at the end of the 12 weeks we usually part ways because they don’t need us any more.

I am also very careful to refer on anybody that needs extra help that we can’t provide. By keeping the client’s health and happiness at the forefront of our goals, rather than their money, we can be sure that we are doing our best.

Luckily, by sticking with my morals, when it came to business tactics, things really did pay off. Eventually, mostly by referrals, we had waiting lists every week to join.

So if you are running a business, don’t look at success in terms of revenue. Look at the people you are helping, the problems you are solving and the rewarding feeling it gives you.

My morals will be different to yours, and mine will probably change again over the coming years, but I guess I’ve realised that success to me is making enough money in a way that is helpful to people.

Thank you for reading my essay!

Siobhan “English teacher couldn’t get me to write this much” O’Hagan