The Best-Kept Secret Problem: Why Serving Others Starts With Being Seen | Vanessa Raymond

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Welcome everyone to Doing Business with a Servant's Heart Podcast. I'm your host, Steve Ramon, and I am thrilled to have you join us today. I've got an amazing guest. You're gonna love her to death. But this podcast is dedicated to exploring the idea of doing business and living life with a purpose, serving others, and yes, achieving success. Remember the word achieving, because that'll be part of our conversation. We believe that when we approach our work and our lives with a service art, we can truly make a difference. We created this show for you because we want everyone to be motivated, inspired, and educated to make an impact in your world. Whether an entrepreneur, a community leader, or simply someone looking to bring more purpose into your daily life, this podcast is here to support you. So let's dive in together. And while we're diving in, think about how you're going to serve today and what impact you're going to do today. Don't wait till tomorrow. Let's do it today. With that being said, my guest has built an incredible community. I was just at an event last weekend, so the timing's perfect. Incredible, wonderful entrepreneurs that are out there serving the community, serving the world. Vanessa, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Thank you so much, Steve. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

You know, I'm interesting that you were performing on stages around the world and then you became a fitness and wellness coach. What inspired that shift?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Well, you know, my first love always was dancing. So as a dancer, being physically active was always part of my life. Also, uh, I remember clearly when I was about eight years old, my dad came home. And uh I know he had come home from the doctor. I didn't quite understand it back then, but I learned later that he learned from the doctor that he had hypertension, right? High blood pressure. And the doctor said to him, Well, you either go on medication for the rest of your life or you get fit. And uh the next day he was in the living room there doing push-ups and setups and doing all the things, and then uh became really serious about bodybuilding. And so I also grew up with a dad who was an IFBB judge and a bodybuilder. So, you know, had a lot of time spent in the gym and in the Dawn studios, and uh that's what inspired that shift.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Amazing. You know, that's why I love having guests on. I get to learn about them. My family launched a health club we had for 22 years. I worked there 22 years, so no vegan bodybuilding. So did not know that about you, but that's why we jumped out.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

I didn't want to know that about you either.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

So yeah, it was 78 to 8 or 78 to 2000, 22 years.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

So I'm I'm very inspired by fitness and wellness coaching. Appreciate that. Now, this avenue came Achieve Systems, you and your husband, your husband started it, you Rob, and a shout out to Rod Raymond. He's done an incredible job with this Achieve Systems. But what inspired him to start it and you to get involved?

SPEAKER_02 3:54

The story goes like this because Rob started Achieve Systems back in 1995, and I only met him in 2008. Okay, so uh when Robert had a career in music, but he was also an exercise science major in college, he's always in sports, and so he's also in the fitness and wellness industry, really embedded, but also a very, very smart businessman, also studied business. And um what happened with him is he started his own mobile fitness training company here in Denver, Colorado, and he did extremely well. He built a million-dollar grossing fitness mobile fitness company within two years, and he observed how many trainers and gym owners were struggling and closing their doors after a couple of years. And so he really wanted to spread the wealth and really spread his expertise. So it started with just the fitness industry, and then in 2008, um, as you mentioned, I was traveling, performing. Uh, I was a musical theater major in college. That was my passion. But I also reached a stage in my life where I wanted to dig roots into the ground. And that's when I started my fitness business, quickly realizing, you know, I had all the certificates and the certifications and all the things, but no one had ever shown me how to run a business. Uh, I wanted to just help people out of pain and help them with weight loss and all the things that we do in the fitness industry. But if you don't understand how to be successful in that industry or in any industry, uh, there's no way you can help as many people as you want to help. So I actually went on Google and I went, I need fitness business help, and up popped Achieve Systems, who at that time had their conferences in Las Vegas where I was living. And so I actually went to a conference just like you did this weekend. I went to one of these events, I sat down with Robert, and uh he inspired me to create my own kettlebell certification program, which achieved ended up helping me grow, bring to market, and then eventually actually sell the company uh 15 years later. But the rest is history with him and I, because of course that led to where we are now as a couple, uh married, running the business together.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

And beautiful kids, which you talked about this weekend. And audience, here's a great lesson. She made the decision to go. Decisions can be life-changing. In this case, if you didn't go to that Las Vegas event, you wouldn't be sitting here today, would you? In this position.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

No, no, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And you could be told, Steve, and I think you might have felt that this weekend too. You meet these people, you sit down with Rob or any of the leaders, and it all seems too good to be true. I was like, what's the catch with this company? And honestly, when you talk about servant's heart, that is Robert. Robert, everything that he does is because he wants success for everybody else. And uh the systems and processes that he has developed through the years are incredible and just there to really, really help entrepreneurs step into that role and understand what's needed to be a success, um, to be successful and to be profitable, right? That's always where we want to take our entrepreneurs. But yes, for me, it it was a huge leap of faith. And I am so, so grateful that I made that decision to go to that event and then the decision to join the community.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Fantastic story. Just incredible. I didn't know the story, just learned it right now. I knew part of the story, but now I know the whole story. And I like that because successful people always come to that first decision, which you did. One thing I noticed with Achieve Systems, and system is the key here, audience, of what they do. They have multiple, I call them pillars of ways an entrepreneur or a business person, whether you're a salesperson or a founder of a company, can grow your business with a servant's heart. Talk about some of those pillars because they're quite interesting to me.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Yes, absolutely. Uh, we help our entrepreneurs in three different ways. Well, number one, community, because we totally understand number one, the value of having support, because as entrepreneurs and business owners, we quite often feel so alone in our mission. We feel like we have to do everything by ourselves and figure it all out. Well, when you have community and support, uh, you do not need to reinvent the wheel. You have people that you can go to, ask advice. And also, of course, with the community piece, there's also always the ability to create amazing connections, power partnerships, referral partnerships, etc. So we do a lot of that with our community, as well as actively refer them to each other as we get to know them and we understand who. And I know you do this a lot too. This is part of how you grow your business, is by really understanding the power partnerships. And then we also have tons of resources in place for our community, including an online resource center where they can find anything from recorded mastermind calls all the way through to partnership agreements and liability waivers for their business. Everything is blueprinted. It's called Achief Systems because everything's systemized. So you can plug into these things, pull them out of the resource center, private label them and use them. They've all been, you know, lawyer created, lawyer approved. And so you don't have to. And uh we have marketing plans, branding uh programs, all the things are in there, as well as five virtual mastermind calls a week, one every day, led by a different leader every day for our members to come and get support and uh get the resources and answers that they need. And then the third pillar is revenue stream opportunities and coaching. Rob preaches seven plus revenue streams in your business. We are a great proponent of every business owner being able to create their own revenue streams in their businesses. So we do anything from helping our members author and publish books. We have a templated system for education, as I demonstrated with my Kettle Pass certification company. I did that through the Achieve templated system. We help them get it accredited and CEC approved. We do all that. We help with licensing and franchising. If you need to want, if you want to start a podcast, we have a division for that. We have a speaker division, we have a kids division, we have a veterans division, and um, you know, we help with invention of products. Uh, name it, anything you can think of that you can create in your business that generates income and visibility, these are things that we help you with. And and then, of course, achieve university is a huge resource for our members. They they get to take that for free. It's worth 15K, a two-day intensive with Robert Raymond, the man in a room, uh, in person, doing business building, business development, whatever you need to grow your business. So, you know, that's just it in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Can you tell us a success story of one of your leaders? Where they went from, where they started, where they went from. I know you have a lot of.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

I will actually use Natalie as an example. You might have met Nataline Hecker at this conference. She was there with her uh e-fit exercise board. And again, you guys, we work with any entrepreneurs. We used to specialize in the health and wellness industry. We now work with anybody and everybody. We have quite a few coaches who have beautiful success story business coaches and life coaches and health coaches, anything and everything. But I'll use Natalie as an example because she went from zero to uh seven figures with us. And we we led her there. And actually, she's in multiple seven figures, she's like almost hitting you know, that eight-figure mark. But uh she did we helped her create, develop, manufacture, find all her manufacturing partners, uh, this product, as well as the education, and and that's where it actually changed everything for her. We developed this product with her, her eFIT exercise board with the bands. And then Rob and the team advised her to create education around this system. And it's the education that really blew up this system for her. And now she sells millions of those a year. She has master trainers around the country teaching her system, training her system, and she has a thriving company, which she's now adding biohacking to. She's now going to add red light therapy to these boards. So it's just growing and growing. And she's been with us as long as I have. So I've known Natalie for a long time. She's been with the Chiefs since around 2007, and uh have stuck with us because you know, she has seen the results and she's exceptional, exceptional.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Good industry to pick for a story because that's one of the hardest, which is why Rob saw business and my eyes saw it today. I see it, it's it's a much different animal than it was in 2000. But yeah, it's and a lot of industries are growing restaurants and stuff, but fitness is a lot of kind.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

I I think anything in the health and wellness industry is the hardest industry to be profitable and and uh creates the type of revenue that gives you that financial freedom that everyone desires, right? And so, yes, very good example.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

So I and it sounds like the Victory Factor your certification program came from Achieve. I'm interested to hear more about it.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

It did too. And I mean, I started developing it before I met Robert, but he encouraged me to rebrand it, so which was a great move. When I started it, I was living in Vegas, I was still in the performance industry, and I started creating this. Uh, it started out as a posture correction program. Then uh when I met Rob, he's such a visionary, he looked at this and he said, Well, you know, what do people get when they improve their postures? Well, they get confidence, they get self, you know, better self-image. And he's like, Well, why don't you turn it into a self-image coaching program? I was like, Oh my gosh, that makes total sense because you know, I've been in the beauty industry as well. I was an aesthetician and cosmetologist for a long time as well. So between the beauty industry, the fitness industry, and the the um performance industry, all my all my uh everything that I've learned through the years made so much sense. It all came together beautifully. And now, yes, I have this self-image coaching certification where I help entrepreneurs if they want to add this aspect to their coaching business or start their own coaching business as a self-image and confidence coach, I certify them to become that.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

That's fantastic, and I like the fact an esthetician is a great starting point because you're meeting people and networking and you're doing wellness and fitness. So you jump right in. You took that.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

My heart's always been in that industry, it's just something I grew up with. I, you know, I was like anything where I can I love on people, right? I'm I'm a I'm an affectionate lover type of human being, and I love to help people out of pain. And so the I'm also a massage therapist. So all the things they just come together. And um, and in the last three years, I've become a great marketer and salesperson too. So now I I feel like I've you know done that piece of work also, which was tough on me because that was never how I saw myself.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

You have it all now, and you learn from your experiences from mentorship from Rob. And that leads to a question I've been meaning to ask you. One of the reasons I want you on the show. We talked about your network community, but tie in this component, which I think is the most important to building relationships.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

So important, and I think very underrated in many cases. Even me, I I never understood the concept until, of course, I really stepped into the role of entrepreneur and understood that I was an entrepreneur and that when we talk about sales and marketing, which to me was dirt, they were dirty words, right? Like for a lot of us when we start out, I'm like, I literally said, if I wanted to sell the market, I would have gone to school for that, right? And I didn't because I don't want to do it. Here's the point though sales and marketing is really relationship building. And if you are going to be serving others, how can you serve people if you're the best kept secret? And as long as you are not creating relationships and you're not networking and you're not connecting with people, you can never help as many people as you like to. And it always starts with those real relationships that we are very adamant about creating a culture and achieve of understanding that that sales and marketing process is a relationship-building process, and if you're gonna be of service, you need to be creating relationships and selling.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

You're a very smart lady. That culture word I wrote down is huge. That's the whole uh explosion of this is having that culture. And when you have somebody coming, and I'm sure you have every community has that bad apple, you've got to remove the bad apple. That's still a servant's heart because you're serving your community, but also serving that person because they're not a fit. Go find another community that fits you, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Right, and understand, and and we really try and educate our our entrepreneurs and understand that you need to understand the other person's needs before you can offer them anything. It's useless to go, oh, you know, I'm a confidence and success coach. Let me coach you. I don't know that that person needs that thing, right? You need to sit down with a person, get to know them, know what their needs are, and if it's not a good fit for you, introduce them to someone who has that service for them. Be of service in that way by pointing them in the right direction. Not every person is the right client or prospect for you, and know that, and know that you are still serving by pointing them in the right direction, giving them what they actually need.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

You just pitch slapped. That's what I call it when you do that. Hey, I'm a coach here. That's uh another friend of mine, Clay Hicks, says that. I love that pitch slapping.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Oh, I know, I know. And you know, my pet peep these days is these long messages I get on Facebook Messenger or LinkedIn Messenger, and it's just like, oh blah, blah, blah, blah, we can give you this. Let's schedule a call. I'm like, oh, how do you even know I need that thing? Why would I want to talk to you if I know I don't need that thing? Right. But there were other ways that we could connect if they approached it differently.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

They lost opportunity, the door of opportunity opened, they shut it on the shut it on their face, not yours. Yeah, I get a lot of leads, and we we don't need leads, me and you. We need to do find, you know, help people. That's what we're at. But other people do. So you're remarkable, Vanessa. I'm so enamor enamored of what you're doing. But the question I have for mothers, I there's mothers listening that have businesses. You wear a lot of hats from personal life, your family to business. How do you juggle all that?

SPEAKER_02 20:28

In the old days, I always used to say you need to find the balance, but honestly, the scales of balance are always shifting. There's never that specific balance. Sometimes we have to sacrifice one thing for another. And I think the important thing to remember as a mother, and yes, I do the mommy shame thing to myself too. All us mothers do that. I do work a lot. However, I make a point of when I have time with my children, I make it quality time. And I think that is way more important than the amount of time that you spend with your children. I also grew up with a mother who is an entrepreneur and worked full-time and a father who worked full-time. And I asked my mom about that one day because I was feeling guilty. My son actually made a comment, a very funny comment, because I said to him, honey, if you, because he's young, he's he's he was about eight when I asked him this question. I said, Sweetie, if someone asked you what mommy and daddy does, would you know what to tell them? And he just looked up at me and he said, No, I don't really, but I can tell them you work a lot. And I felt so bad. And I went to my mom and my mom looked at me and she said, Did you ever feel deprived? And I said, No. And she said, Because you only saw dad and I at night. We left in the morning and we came back at night, but we made sure to have quality time with you children. We sat down for dinner, we talked, even if it was only An hour a day. We had that quality time. And I have nothing but beautiful memories and fun times, right? And when we're on vacation, we were the focus. So I think that is the secret. You work when you have to work. Children are resilient as long as they get the love and care that they need. If they have a full tummy and they feel that mom and daddy's hug and love every night, or mom or dad's love every night or morning when they get up, I make a point of always greeting my children with a smile, no matter how I am doing. So they know they're loved and they're not feeling the stresses of my life. But I, you know, I go off in the day and I deal with my stresses so that when I come home, I can put on an honest smile and enjoy my time that I have with them. So that would be my number one tip or advice on that. And just if I could tell you another little story around that, quick, quick. I remember when I was about six years old. And again, you know, for parents, this is a personal choice. I think if you decide to be a stay-at-home parent, that's amazing. But if you decide to be a working parent, that's amazing too. They all have their advantage. But my brother and I, my mom and dad, sat us down, and my mom said to us, she said, Well, uh, you know, when we were young, mommy was thinking about this, and I wanted to know if you had a choice between mommy being home with you every day after school and before school and doing everything with you, or being able to buy you everything you want, which would you choose? Guess what we chose. Mommy can buy us everything we want. It's all good, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:46

That's a great, great story.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

So my mom reminded me of that. I did not remember that, but she reminded me of that. And I vaguely remember I was about five or six years old when that happened. My brother was three years older than me, and we were both like, oh no, you go work. We're happy to see you all, you know. And like I said, again, it comes down to quality time and being able to provide your children with what they need and know that when you're working and you're working hard, they will look back one day and go, Wow, I learned from my parents' work ethic, and I learned from them being able to provide for me what I need.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yeah, and I need to correct myself. Fathers, you're this is a great tip for you. I said mothers because you're a mother, but this goes and the recap real quick, audience, you understand this. It's not quantity, it's quality. Right. That's so important. And that's a tip I'm going to share with mothers and fathers I work with. But you know, the other thing that you said was subtle is don't judge yourself to other moms and dads. If you see your kids two hours a night and those mothers and fathers seem six hours, it still works either way. Don't compare yourself and doing the shame game because I only saw two hours. It's how much because maybe six of those hours is only an hour of quality time.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Right. And I really make a point of when I'm driving my son to soccer, or I'm, you know, the little time that I have with him in the car, I spend that time asking inquiring questions, learning about his day, learning about what he wants to do later, you know. So every minute counts.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yeah, I love that. And and my one of my guests, Jen Drummond, who's got a world record climbing a mountain. Actually, I got to introduce you to her. I just said that live. This is networking live. Is she she does gratitude red lights? So when she gets to a red, she got seven kids. When she stops at a red light, she goes, Okay, what are you all grateful for? Give me before the light turns green.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Bravo, mom. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

It is beautiful. It's it's I love that. So we're coming to the end of the time here, but I want to get a little deep personal with you. Sure. You ready? I am, I'm ready. You're so your open book. If you could interview anybody dead or alive, who would it be and why?

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Uh Richard Branson. I'm I'm a huge fan, and I've always wanted to meet him. I feel like from what I've seen from him on interviews or whatever, he's such a smart man, but yet down to earth. And he has so much knowledge about life and business, and he's done so many different things in this world that are great. And so definitely he's probably number one on my list. And then um, I mean, there are more. There, there is more. Susie Orman, I'd love to meet her. I think she's amazing. Uh, Tony Robbins, I I I followed him for years. I still haven't been to one of his live events. I'd love to meet him in person. So there's just a few.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

It's beautiful. I love the Richard Branson uh comment because I agree. I think he's doing it the right way as a billionaire, trillionaire, whatever he is. He's got a lot of money, we'll just say that. Um, well, thank you so much, Vanessa. Two things. How can people get a hold of you? And how can people find achieved systems?

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Absolutely. I love new friends on social media. So if you uh look me up on Facebook, it's just Vanessa Raymond. I'm in Denver, Colorado. My picture's there. You should probably find me pretty easy. Um, my website is Victory in Biz, just like in the little scrolling billboard there. Victory in Biz. Uh, you will, and actually, it's victoryinbiz.com. You can find me there. And achieve systems is achievesystemspro.com. And you can find us there. And uh Steve, if you I have a little free gift for your audience if you're open to that.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

I have a special report with 50 ways to be visible in your business, and they can find that at victoryandbiz.com slash 50 ways to be visible.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

That's great. And I'll put that in the show notes. If you don't get a chance to write this down, you're working out, driving, walking, it'll be in the show notes. So click on those links. Vanessa, you are brilliant. I really appreciate you. Thank you for being on. This has been such a great show.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

You are the most gracious host, Steve. I've loved being here with you. And um, I'm so happy that I could share some nuggets with your audience and with you. Thanks for having me today. I'm honored.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

You're so welcome. And audience, don't forget about my TV show every Friday at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern. Together we serve. You'll find it on uh Apple TV, Roku, Fam Sound Long, just any streaming TV service. Uh, do great, have great guests like Vanessa today that you're gonna learn, educate, get inspired. You know, as always, uh, don't forget to comment. If you comment on the YouTube or the podcast, I will give it to Vanessa. If you need to connect with her, you can reach out to me if you don't have these notes. I would suggest to connect. You can see she's a powerful businesswoman. And to me, uh a little side note, I think they're taking over the world. I just said that as a man, but powerful women are are I love working with them. Um, and we thank you, me and Vanessa, for watching or listening to this podcast. And we'll see you on the next episode of Doing Business with a Servants Heart.