How to make money from a fitness blog – how Jenni used mindset and accountability to turn a passion project into a business that puts her family first.
Jenni is a graduate of the Monetization Accelerator Program; she’s had a lot of successes both with and before our work together.
She created a community of many thousands of people that she’s just been serving for free for a million years. Even though she was happy to do it for free, and loved serving all those people and getting results, she really wanted learn how to make money from her fitness blog, so she could serve her family in a different way.
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We’re going to dive into her story today, and Jenni, I have a lot of questions. I’ll just let you start by introducing yourself how you want to, and then we’ll go from there.
Okay. I’m Jenni, and I fell into my career by accident. I had a need – I was struggling with not being able to get in shape the way that I wanted to, because of four kids under the age of six at home and not having very much money.
I ended up starting a blog, giving away free workouts for women to do at home. They could be done in a short amount of time, with minimal equipment. It just all started from there.
Then, for 10 years, that’s what I did.
I provided daily workouts for women to do at home. It was rewarding because I knew I was helping them. That was reward enough for those 10 years, but then my kids started getting older. and I had more time at home by myself. I could do more, because I had more time and, I should probably learn how to make money from my fitness blog.
Transitioning a Free Offer into a Paid Offer
Where were you getting stuck in taking the idea from really, really fun way to serve people, to actually making money from it?
I was really stuck because I had limited knowledge on technology side of it.
I didn’t know how to build a website, I was doing it all through blogger. How to do that transition, from posting a blog on a workout each day, to a website that had more information and multiple pages and things like that…that’s the first place that I got stuck. Then after that, it was really knowing how to market myself and figuring out what I had to offer that was worth anything.
Yeah. I loved your program too. What I loved about your program was that you made it up, created this system and these challenges. That’s why they became so popular – because they were effective, people were really motivated.
That’s what started it: you’re posting the daily workouts.
Those are growing your email list, all the time people are finding these workouts.
Then you created the 90 day challenges. Tell me, how did they come to be and how did you grow those, before you were selling them?
I was getting a lot of positive of feedback, just from posting the workouts. People were saying, “it’s changed my life, I’ve lost all this weight.”
But, they were also asking a bunch of questions like, “I don’t know what to do about my diet, or what do you eat every day? Or how did you get in the shape that you are after having four kids?”
I realized that they needed more than just a set of reps to do every day. They needed more guidance.
I started the 90 day challenge as a way to implement different lifestyle changes that I knew they needed to make, week by week, so that they could slowly start to either eliminate or add things that were going to result in the most success that they could have after 90 days.
How long have you been doing the 90 day challenges for?
Since 2014.
How did you feel after you did the very first challenge? How has it felt over the years, continuing to do them? That’s so many years, eight years.
I think after doing the first one, because first one’s always experimental, it was my ideas and figuring out if it was going to work for people.
The results that the women were sending me, their before and after pictures, I was just blown away. It felt so good to know, just even their thank you letters and their testimonials, it just built me up to keep going.
I didn’t care whether I was getting paid or not. I was just like, that’s enough right there, that I’m changing these women’s lives for the better. They’re happy with themselves, meeting their goals, feeling better than they’ve ever felt. These women have better health than they’ve ever been before. They’re able to be better moms, better wives, better themselves, better women.
That was the biggest reward that I could have had, and then it just kept going from there. Then they told their friends. Every 90 day challenge, it just got better and better, and there were better and better results.
How to Make Money from a Fitness Blog: Organic Visibility
That’s amazing. A lot of heart centered entrepreneurs have the message, so whether they want to make money with it or not, they’re like, I know that people need this. You’ve had unique success in that a lot of people who have that idea just hear crickets. They know this message needs to be out there, but they feel invisible. Do you have any advice or tips for how to grow that visibility? How to get that message seen?
Wow. It’s hard for me to say because I feel like most of my visibility has been through word of mouth, friends telling friends, one person trying it.
That’s how my whole business started.
I started doing my own program, and all my friends started noticing my results and said, what are you doing?
It’s continued that way, where people are getting these amazing results, and they’re friends are saying, wow, you look amazing, how did that happen to you? They said, oh, I’m doing Hiit Mamas, and then they say what’s that, and then they figure it out.
I have a small presence on Facebook, and a small presence on Instagram, but I really neglect them. I don’t do a lot on Instagram.
I’m just so busy with my family; my family’s my priority.
That’s got in my way, a lot of the time, of being a true business woman, I guess you could say.
We do a lot of construction, and my husband’s a firefighter, so I have all of these conflicts of interest.
Doing your program, the Monetization Acceleration Program, was huge. I needed somebody to kick my butt and boss me around. I needed that, because I wasn’t going to put myself first, I wasn’t going to put my business first. It was just enough for me to carve out 10 minutes of my day to do my workout, to put myself first, and then after that, it was nothing about me the rest of the day.
I really needed you, Alison, to give me the harsh truths and to tell me, Jenni, this is what you need to do and I need you to do it by next week.
I was like, okay, good, give me a deadline, tell me exactly how to make money from my fitness blog and I can do it. That’s really what held me up, I think all that time, was really not knowing how to do it, how to get there, and then doubting myself that it would work out. I really think that investing in yourself, finding the right coach to lead you on the way, so you’re not just spinning your wheels or wasting your time, because I’m so annoyed by inefficiency.
The Importance of Accountability
She’s in the best shape of her life, if you guys are listening and not watching, Jenni is a bombshell and that’s why people are like, oh my gosh, I want to be a mom like Jenni.
You transitioned from talking about your wins to saying, that’s why I needed Alison for the accountability, which is definitely true for most people.
Even buying courses, it’s sometimes hard to finish implementing without a big motivation.
You have to have a really big, huge motivation or deadline. Or, you have to have a coach or accountability, someone to ask questions with.
It comes through really easily when you talk about it, how freaking excited you were. Even though you were doing that for free for so long, you were doing it because it was really fun, because you loved it. Then you’re like, now I want to make money from my fitness blog. You stayed in alignment with what was fun for you, even though it was this task that you did every quarter for eight years.
The other thing I think is really important is that for you: the family was non-negotiable, period. Even in joining the program, I remember our first conversation, it was like, I have to be able to still have that be the priority and I want to do this, but I have to know that you could support me in doing this with like this much time, itty bitty amount of time.
Make Money from a Fitness Blog – The First Launch
All your people needed was space and accountability and they were willing to pay money for that, because it’s really hard to find quality accountability and space for free from a guide, so I love that. Tell us about your first launch. Lots of building up, technical hurdles.
Oh my gosh.
Family stuff, renovations. We got through it all, and then finally we sell the 90 day challenge.
It was crazy and it kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed. I was like, maybe I’ll launch on January 1st, maybe I’ll launch on January 16th. Life happens, right?
What finally led you to finally pull the trigger? How did the stars align? How did the launch go?
Man, what got me to finally pull the trigger? You did.
I had learned how to make a sales page, how to do the emails, how to show my followers what I had to offer. It was scary, because I had never asked them to pay me before.
I think the thing that really pushed me was that I knew that I couldn’t not do it and still be okay with myself. I did a one week launch and I just remember that week, I would get notifications every single time someone would join in, at first it was like crickets, right?
You’re like, oh no, I’ve ruined everything.
Yeah. Crickets, crickets, crickets.
Then finally on day three, I got one client, and then for two more days, that was the only one. I was like, that’s going to be so awkward if I’m only coaching one person in this group.
As the days went on and it got closer, of course, like we all do, we all procrastinate and buy on the last day, right? They started rolling in – just kept getting ding, ding, ding, ding, every single time I was like, honey, I got another one, honey, I got another one. I was hoping for maybe at least 8 clients, for my first launch, and I got 16! I was so happy and I’m really excited for my next coming launch. It’ll be coming up another couple weeks because, who knows.
Deciding What to Charge
How much did you end up charging for it?
For the first paid 90 day challenge, I just did $90. It was a dollar a day, just to get my feet wet.
Since this was my first time, and their first time, and I’m going to be experimenting, I just did it for $90. I told them that’s the last time we’re doing $90. I’m going to grandfather in anyone that wants to join the next one, they can also stay on for $90.
That’s a great idea. A dollar a day, $2 a day, that’s a really good pitch.
The 90 day challenges you were doing were really sophisticated. You figured out your own system for this and people were really into it, and you grew this huge following.
Mindset: The Critical Piece
What advice do you have for getting started or getting over hurdles? Or, self-belief, or any other mindset tips you want to share. What advice do you have for someone who has got some kind of following or really good ideas, and they’re just not getting over that next hump?
I do think that mindset is a huge part of it.
It’s believing in yourself. Thinking that maybe I was putting in all these hours, and all this stress, and all this heartache, and nothing was going to come of it was so discouraging. It’s letting go of that self-doubt. The only way to truly ensure that you fail is to quit and to give up. That’s the only way that you’re for sure going to fail. You have to give yourself the chance, you just have to try.
I knew I had to try, at least once.
If I tried once and I failed, fine, back to free workouts, fine, whatever. You have to try once. Not to toot your horn again, Alison, but I do have your little mindset cards. Every day, I’m flipping through and putting another one in the front. I can see and remember what my value is.
It really is that mindset, and then just not making any excuses. Its’s the same for any kind of success that you want to have in life. Whether it’s making excuses to not do your workout that day, or to not follow your diet plan. Or if you’re trying to build an online presence, making the time that you need to, and investing yourself to do a little bit so that you can progress.
What’s Next to Make Money from Your Fitness Blog?
A lot of what you’re saying reminds me of this quote that I heard today. One of my new clients is a tutor for high school students. She says, “habits are easier than discipline.” That goes for studying, but it also goes for building your business. It also definitely goes for fitness. Habits are way easier than discipline. Just doing a little bit all the time. I love it. What are you planning on next? What’s coming up next for you?
Next is summer vacation.
Well-deserved.
And lots more remodeling.
Our 90 day challenge is going to be ending on April 18th.
Then, I’ll have a two week break to get ready for the next launch. At the beginning of May, we’ll be launching the next 90 day challenge and it’ll just keep going like that. I’ve really enjoyed coaching, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my clients and interacting with them, keeping them accountable. They appreciate it, I love it. It’s just good for everyone.
Yeah. Super exciting, I love it. Now you’ve got so much momentum. Your program too is such a great way to monetize a fitness blog – 90 day challenges, every 90 days, launch it again, get more results, more people. It’s just going to build like a machine, and I can’t wait to see where you go. Tell us your URL.
Where can we find you? Where can we join the challenge?
It’s HiitMamas.com.
You can join the challenge, or she’s still doing the daily workouts. You can subscribe to her email list and get your workouts for the week. I remember all that. Very good. Well, thank you so much, Jenni, for sharing your story with us!
About Jenni:
I have always been athletic. I am a volleyball player and an avid extreme sports participant. I have always been interested in health, nutrition, and physical fitness. I have worked in gyms, I have gone to gyms, I have tried many different workout regimes and plans because I would always get bored and lose motivation.
Then I got married and proceeded to spend 8 years being pregnant every other year and nursing for the year in between, producing my 4 healthy, busy kids.
I have now had my HIIT blog for 10 years and it has completely become my passion to help women achieve their fitness and health goals.
I want things to be easier for moms and I know the joy and satisfaction that comes from achieving goals we have for our bodies, especially after kids.
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