Hey, I’m Sensei Sarah and I’m here with another Incredible Insights episode for every introverted Personal Trainer who wants to feel fully recognised for their expertise and stop worrying that they’re on the wrong path.
As introverts, we’re deep thinkers… so you’d think that we’d find it easier than anyone else to see our unique talents but we don’t.
In fact, it’s probably harder for us than anyone else because:
a) we’re capable of so many things, how do we choose? and b) like most adults, we’re terrified of making a mistake!
And BECAUSE we’re introverted, we probably won’t share our fears with anyone – we’ll just push through the best we can and hope for the best.
Well, I can tell you from personal experience that this doesn’t work.
So, how can you identify your own unique brilliance?
Well, certainly not the way I did it!
It dawned on me when I put a cup of tea down on a table!
It was just a normal evening where Pete and I were relaxing on the sofa, watching TV. I made us both a cup of tea and, as I put his on the table next to him, I turned the handle towards him, like I’d done a thousand times before… but this time, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I had spent years struggling to build a successful business around my injury prevention method called Injury Hacking. Through personal experience, treating patients, and training clients, I had developed a system that simplified the approach to injury prevention. But for all my decades of hard work, it seemed like nobody was listening.
Then, a friend asked for my opinion on a project he was working on. As I listened to him explain his challenges, I noticed a huge piece missing. I couldn’t help but offer my insights and help him fill that gap. Little did I know that this simple act would lead to a turning point in my life.
After about a year of being his personal sounding board, he craeted a role in his multi-million dollar company, just for me. He asked me to be his Director of User Experience, where I would be the voice of the customer, helping him develop training and products that would benefit more people. It seemed like a massive deviation from what I had been doing, but I knew it was a HUGE opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up.
This new job took away all the pressure I had been feeling to succeed in my own business. It gave me the space to step back and reassess my life. And in that space, I began to question everything I had once believed about myself.
I started to wonder if I had been wasting my time on the wrong path.
Friends and family members had been suggesting for a while that it might be time to give up on the injury thing and someone had suggested that I was good at helping people with their businesses, so I should teach people about business, but it just didn’t feel right to me.
But then, in that moment of turning the cup handle around, something just clicked in my brain. I began to notice all the little things, just like that, that I do every single day to make other people’s lives easier.
Like, the other day, I was planning on walking to my parents’ house with my dog but it was raining really hard and I knew that they wouldn’t appreciate having their house smell of wet dog, so we went in the car.
I work a lot with people in different timezones to me, and I’ll do my best to use their timezone when we’re communicating, just to make life easier for them.
I hadn’t really noticed that I do these simple, thoughtful things before, but for some reason, in turning that cup handle around that one time, I realised that my true value lies in the things that just come naturally to me.
So, I rebranded and pivoted my own business, wrote a book, and became a number one Amazon bestselling author. I did it to help save other introverted Personal Trainers from the years of frustration and heartache I had endured trying to find my purpose. I wanted to share the lessons I had learned, the ones that had transformed my own life.
Through this journey, I discovered that it’s not just what I know that makes me unique as a trainer, therapist, business owner, or anything else I might call myself. It’s my ability to put myself in other people’s shoes and FEEL life like they do. It’s who I am as a human being (the empathy and understanding I have for the customer experience) that truly sets me apart.
I also learned that sometimes, it takes someone else to see your unique gifts. My friend saw something in me that I hadn’t fully recognized myself. Now, I have the incredible opportunity to do the same for others. To help them see their own unique talents and strengths, and to help them avoid the pitfalls I spent years floundering in, so that they can be truly recognised for the amazing trainers they are.
So, to all the introverted Personal Trainers out there, let my story be a lesson for you. Trust your unique gifts and abilities. You don’t know it yet, but you have the power to help other people in ways that you don’t even realise. People need your talents and it might take somebody else to help you see them, so don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help.
You can find all kinds of help – including links to our Facebook community, coaching, and the book at kickasspt.com – oh, and when you sign up for our weekly newsletter you’ll get my free “Discovering Your Unique Brillance” checklist.
So don’t wait – get the help you need, in whatever way you need it, at kickasspt.com because there are people out there ready and waiting for you to step into your unique superpowers!
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Thanks for watching I’m Sensei Sarah, and I’ll see you on the next episode.