Jen (00:00.802)
Hey, Nikki, welcome to the Mumsafe Movement podcast. How are you today?
Nikki Knieriem (00:06.098)
Really good, yes. Thank you for having me.
Jen (00:09.214)
I'm very excited that you're here. Let us kick off straight away. We'll go straight into it with the way that I love to kick off the podcast with a word to describe how you're feeling or how you're showing up, something that you're winning out and also something that you're working on. And it doesn't have to be business related.
Nikki Knieriem (00:24.65)
Hmm, absolutely. No worries. So my word for showing how I'm showing up today is actually not business related, but it is plate full with doing all the things that come with mum life. The shopping, paying bills, et cetera. And.
Jen (00:44.146)
I thought you said playful and I'm like, and you said plate full. And I was like, how is that playful exactly?
Nikki Knieriem (00:48.25)
Oh, no, yes. That is definitely not playful. Plateful. Yeah. Um, my win is, um, I've come into term four, um,
Jen (00:55.042)
No, plate full. I can relate to that at the moment, actually. So yeah, yeah. All right. Awesome. Plate is full. Cool.
Nikki Knieriem (01:10.618)
The first time being I'll say majority fully subscribed I've only got two of my group sessions that have got one spot available in each so really excited. That's a big win for me
Jen (01:23.178)
and you're gonna fill them this week, right? You have to, you're so close. Like I can't wait to see like that big sold out sticker on your sessions, but that is an awesome achievement. Well done, well done. Very cool.
Nikki Knieriem (01:25.574)
That's the goal. That's the goal.
Nikki Knieriem (01:36.366)
It is, yes, thank you. And then for what I'm working on, this is an interesting one. I'm always working on, I've always got new ideas coming into my head, but next week I am doing a presentation at a pregnancy group for moms. So I'm currently finalizing what I'm going to talk to them about. And that's what I'm working on at the moment.
Jen (02:02.574)
Amazing. Who's the group that you're talking for?
Nikki Knieriem (02:06.33)
Um, it is a local group and I've got to quickly look up who they are because I can't remember their name which is really bad. Uh, Shoalhaven Pregnancy Support.
Jen (02:18.786)
I like, I always love calling out the groups that welcome MomSafe trainers into their environments because they realize that it's so important for moms to be looked after. So I'm very excited that they will be having you with them next week.
Nikki Knieriem (02:32.186)
Yeah, I am too. It's the first time, yeah, first time I've spoken with that particular group and there aren't too many groups that I've discovered around our local area so I'm really excited that there is a group and we can start getting some talking across about exercise through pregnancy and postnatal.
Jen (02:44.856)
Mm-hmm.
Jen (02:52.926)
Amazing. Awesome. So Nikki, let's start at the beginning. Tell me how you got to or got into the fitness industry to begin with and then also how you started to work with moms. Give us give us the background.
Nikki Knieriem (03:01.53)
Hmm
Nikki Knieriem (03:05.47)
Okay. So I've been in the fitness industry for over 20 years now. And originally I had a business, it was a dance and fitness studio, predominantly dance. That was my background as a dance teacher. And then I started to move into doing the fitness side of things with adults. So that's where I moved into doing my personal training certificate, et cetera.
When I had my first son, I lasted probably one more year in that business and then decided to close it down. I'd reached a complete state of burnout. That business was in no way set up for the life I wanted to have with my family as well. And yeah, I just had completely burnt out. So we closed that down and...
that was going to be it. Then the entrepreneurial bug in me started getting involved, I guess, developing a bit more interest in exercise for moms. There were obviously a lot of moms that I'd done a moms group with and there were people around that were doing free exercise for moms. And I just felt that it was probably time I could bring in my knowledge.
and improve my knowledge around exercise for mums. And it was around that time too, that I started to attend group exercise classes myself. And I found a really great group who, I was in Canberra at the time, and that was Project Fit Mum. So I know you know Laura, she's worked with you before. Yes. So I started training with Laura.
Jen (04:56.47)
Yeah. Yep.
Nikki Knieriem (04:59.978)
and that was awesome because I could take my children to the sessions. So then I moved into developing my current business which was then known as Mummy Fit Time and I became an online personal trainer because while it was great being able to take my children to sessions, there was often times when I couldn't get to the specific session that I wanted to get to
or it was just one of those days or whatever. So I thought, oh, well, there's a gap here. I'd like to provide moms with exercise opportunities who may not be able to leave their house. So that's where I sort of moved into and developed that business. And then we moved interstate. So we're now on the New South Wales South Coast. And...
At the time I was working for a federal government, I had a federal government role as well as managing my online business and I did not enjoy being stuck. Paper pushing for want of a better word. So I thought, no, okay, it's time to expand my business. So I then moved and I do group, small group training and personal training from my home
Jen (06:11.54)
Mmm.
Nikki Knieriem (06:25.162)
private gym, my home gym, as well as the online training that I still offer. And then a couple of years ago, I ended up changing my business name. So I became Body for Mind Connections because the big thing that was coming through to me was a lot of women not necessarily wanting to train for weight loss. In fact, I don't even really focus on that. That's a happy side effect.
a lot of women want to train for their mental health. And so I thought, okay, there's a huge connection with the body and mind when we're moving our body in terms of how it can help our mental health. That's where I'm going to really focus. And then I changed my business name and grown from there.
Jen (06:55.415)
Mmm.
Jen (07:12.026)
It's funny because I came across you when you were mummy fit time and I always noticed the business names obviously that speak to mums and it was an interesting observation for me when you decided to change your business name and there's never a right or wrong right and you did it for all of the right reasons and I just kind of always go hmm okay what does that now mean like who is
Do people easily know who, how you're talking to? So I'm going to segue back to some other stuff, but when you've changed your business name, do you find that you're still attracting the same demographic or how else are you clearly communicating that you work with women and moms?
Nikki Knieriem (07:41.856)
and
Nikki Knieriem (07:58.03)
Yeah, so I guess the clear communication that I'm working with women and mums is through my socials and my website, my email tags and all that. So once people make contact with me, it clearly says women's health and fitness coach. But in terms of, and I guess all my messaging is around how to help women with their health. I very rarely talk.
generally general population so it's always very women specific. I lost my train of thought there but I was going to say something else.
Jen (08:37.846)
I think you answered it and I've actually just, and I've seen your Instagram before obviously, but I've just flipped through to it now and you go to Body for Mind Connections. It then tells us your name, tells us where you are, which is amazing because especially lately, I can't tell you how many people's Instagram I've gone to that are small businesses. And I've had to go on this like huge, like almost a manhunt to try and find.
Nikki Knieriem (08:43.176)
Hmm.
Jen (09:02.614)
where their business even is. So the fact that you've got Sanctuary Point on your Instagram page is amazing from a small local business perspective. And it says very clearly, women's strength trainer, health coach, online trainer, pre and postnatal, connecting body and mind and health. So yeah, you're right. I just wanted to make sure, cause sometimes when we move from, people ask me all the time, should my business name talk to my ideal client? And
Nikki Knieriem (09:21.754)
No.
Jen (09:31.422)
I think in many ways yours does talk to your ideal client because you want the client that wants to connect their mind and their body. It just doesn't talk directly to moms themselves before you delve a little bit deeper, but you're doing all the things obviously. So I just wanted to ask, because I remember when you did it and I was like, oh, that's interesting. But I love that you stood by what you were doing and there's reasons behind it and it all makes sense online as well. So very cool.
Nikki Knieriem (09:38.857)
Hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (09:44.586)
You.
Nikki Knieriem (09:51.993)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (09:57.99)
It's interesting too, because I've just remembered the point I was going to make before is, I guess my demographic has changed a little bit while it is very women specific too. I'm having a lot of ladies coming through now that are perimenopausal, moving into their menopausal years. So I've still got a lot of ladies that are postnatal and prenatal as well. But then a lot of ladies that are in that season of life where their children are,
Jen (10:14.379)
Mmm.
Nikki Knieriem (10:26.474)
primary, high school, even leaving home aged. And so I guess I've also changed my focus to where I'm wanting to help all the women. Yeah, so I think that comes through in my messaging, hopefully.
Jen (10:41.886)
Yeah, no, it's good. I like it. So let's just circle back. So when how long ago was it that you how old is your first son? That is the question.
Nikki Knieriem (10:50.73)
Yeah, he turns nine in one month. So, nine years old.
Jen (10:55.146)
Nine. So not nine years ago, you closed down your dance studio. And I know that you said eight years ago before he was born. And I know you said you were burnt out, but do you want to tell us a little bit more about that kind of period and then and what had you going? I'm not going to do anything again. Like why didn't? Yeah, tell me more.
Nikki Knieriem (11:01.298)
I easily am. What?
Nikki Knieriem (11:16.072)
So I guess that particular business, the population that I was providing a service for was mainly children. So it was after school and into the evening. My fitness studio, I had I guess a bricks and mortar premises. So I rented a premises that was fit out as a dance studio.
I had a staff of up to 15 at one point. So I guess the approach that I was taking with that business back then was someone asked for a class, I put a class on, so it was very different to the oversubscribe model that I've learned through MumSafe. So there was a lot of classes running, which meant I needed a lot of staff.
And it was getting to a point, so Callan, who is my eldest son, he was born and that whole first year I'd get a phone call and just dread looking at my phone who was calling because I was thinking it was a staff member calling in sick and then you've got the stress of well how do I cover this class because I've got all these people expecting a class and I've got my little one here. So
Yeah, there was many times that my son came along with me to dance classes so that I could cover if I couldn't find a staff member. I just remember this one turning point. He was probably about four months old at that time. And one of the staff members, I'd set up this whole, I guess, staffing structure so that I was covered while I was taking some time off and this staff member resigned.
And I just remember breaking down because I was like, oh, the stress just got overwhelming. And it was kind of, I think that was the turning point. It was very hard. I mean, I'd had that dance studio, dance and fitness studio for nine years. So it was very hard to make that decision to step away because a lot of...
Jen (13:10.578)
Oh, yeah, I feel you. I feel you.
Nikki Knieriem (13:30.282)
The children I was teaching dance with, I'd been teaching them since I were three and four years old. But yeah, I was breaking down. I was getting all my trigger feelings for when I'm not in alignment with my values. And of course, I didn't even know what my values were at the time, but I was just crying all the time. I was exhausted. I was snapping. I was finding I was snapping at clients. It was just not ideal.
Jen (14:00.77)
So you were brave enough to close it down for all of those reasons, which hats off to you because it's really, I think sometimes people don't let go of the things that are not right because, well, because they're afraid of what will be instead. And I think, you know, and I don't, you know, want to assume your position, but there was an opportunity at that point where you could potentially close your business down and concentrate on being a mom.
Nikki Knieriem (14:00.819)
Yay!
Jen (14:28.802)
for a short time, for a time until you felt ready to do something again. But yeah, I think too many of us stay stuck for too long which I guess, tell me then about starting to understand. So did you learn about your values pre-MumSafe or did you learn about your values post-MumSafe? Because you started your fitness business. Did you say post? Post, okay.
Nikki Knieriem (14:56.114)
Yeah, post mom safe. So yeah, post. So once I joined mom safe.
Jen (14:59.138)
So let me ask, yeah, okay. Let me ask a better question then, because you trained with Project Fit Mums, and then you launched an online business. So I'm thinking that not only was you not wanting to create the same situation as you were in before from a business perspective, and also wanting to provide sessions for mums to go to when they couldn't turn up. So is that what shaped, was it both things that shaped the online business or?
Nikki Knieriem (15:06.71)
thing.
Jen (15:28.846)
Tell us about that.
Nikki Knieriem (15:30.558)
Yeah, it probably was. It was probably coming from that point of overwhelm when I owned the dance and fitness studio to going, I don't want to run classes anymore because I don't want that stress of letting people down if my family, something's going on in my family and I can't be there. So that's...
Jen (15:47.543)
Mm-hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (15:56.182)
why I mainly focused in the online space because I wasn't running online classes, I was running online challenges, I was providing online programming and providing accountability, etc. So I didn't need to be somewhere at a set time and for me at that point in time that's what seemed manageable because I
Jen (16:16.181)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (16:23.094)
had two children by that point, and there's 20 months between them. So yeah, I was sort of, Mummy Fit Time came about when Liam, my youngest, was, he was a year old, and then I developed Mummy Fit Time. So yeah, yeah. I ended up having about two months away from the fitness industry or owning a business before I started doing my training.
Jen (16:40.725)
Okay.
Jen (16:51.836)
Two months from like, I'm done, I'm not doing it anymore.
Nikki Knieriem (16:58.014)
I meant to say two years but yeah two years makes better sense yeah
Jen (16:58.21)
The things we do. Oh, two years, okay, two years away. That makes more sense. Yeah, yeah. Cool, so you were running Mommy Me Fit Time or Mommy Fit Time and then we must have met formally, like you jumped into MomSafe just as you were changing your business name or you just changed it and then you jumped in.
Nikki Knieriem (17:24.066)
Sorry Jen, the reception's gone hazy, I can't hear you.
Jen (17:30.05)
Okay, can you hear me now?
Nikki Knieriem (17:31.859)
Yes.
Jen (17:33.418)
Okay, I asked a question, so I will ask that question again. So we're coming back in at about.
A 1745.
Jen (17:46.85)
So I met you, properly met you, because obviously I'd seen the Mummy Fit Time on social media and we connected just as you were changing your name or you just changed it. That's when you came into Mum's Safe. Do you wanna tell us about that little part of your journey?
Nikki Knieriem (18:00.51)
Yep.
Nikki Knieriem (18:05.554)
Yeah, absolutely. So, well, you, when you first launched MumSafe, I was lurking in the background and I was like, yep, that sounds pretty cool. But at the time I was also like, no, I don't need business mentoring, I'm all good. And then I did safe return to exercise with you. And I did that just because I knew I wanted to upskill.
Jen (18:16.942)
Hehehe
Nikki Knieriem (18:33.042)
And it was after Safe Return to Exercise, you and I had a conversation. And that's where I learned that Mumsafe, I'd get heaps of professional learning in there about how to work with women and support women. So I jumped into Mumsafe. And then ironically, while all that education is great, and I use it all the time, it's the business education that I've most thrived with since then. So yeah, that's kind of where, yeah.
Jen (18:56.366)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Nikki Knieriem (19:01.839)
I ended up in mom's safe.
Jen (19:02.61)
Yeah, yeah, nice. So let's go back to values then. So you come into mom safe, one of the first things that we work with you on is your values, because we can't help you to build a business that we that you don't know that you actually want to create, because that's the trap a lot of people fall into. Case in point, the dance studio. So you've got this fear of creating something similar, hence you're not wanting to grow it up again, like build up something big or run face to face sessions.
Then you learn about your values and then you start to learn to deliver face-to-face sessions. Again, tell us about that part of the journey, because that must have been a big, must have been a big step to commit to being back face-to-face with people.
Nikki Knieriem (19:39.766)
Yeah, it's good.
Nikki Knieriem (19:46.298)
It was, so I'd actually gone back to working face-to-face with people a couple of years before I discovered MumSafe. So it was just after COVID, I think, no it was before because I trained people online through Zoom, through COVID. So it was about a year, 2019, I went into face-to-face training again, but not having a full awareness of what my values were, I found that I was
Jen (19:52.755)
Awesome. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (20:16.49)
people were wanting to do a session and I'd be like, yep, cool, let's do it. I wasn't conscious of timing, how that would affect my family. And I was starting to get all those trigger feelings again. So I'd start to feel overwhelmed, et cetera. And I actually had a joke with you about this earlier in the week, Jen, when I had a joke and said, oh, I've just remembered why I choose not to do 6 a.m. sessions anymore.
Jen (20:45.246)
Sorry. That's my fault that you did one as well.
Nikki Knieriem (20:50.529)
It was very affirming and it's fine one off I have no issue with that but it was very affirming to go actually I can I now understand how this is throwing me out of balance and balance is one of my values. I understand how this is doing that and I understand how I've landed myself into feelings of overwhelm and burnout in the past.
because I've been training people at times that just didn't suit me and my family and my values.
Jen (21:29.093)
So what's your other value? So one value is balance and the other one is...
Nikki Knieriem (21:37.322)
One value is balance, the other is trust. And you actually raised a good point with me the other day that maybe those two values are actually very similar and could be combined. Trust for me is having trust in the process and having trust in everything is happening for a reason and it will all unfold as it's meant to be. Yeah.
Jen (21:59.489)
Mmm.
Yep, fantastic. And tell us more about the other business stuff that you didn't think you needed, but then you kind of went, oh, that's actually kind of important.
Nikki Knieriem (22:16.614)
Yeah well this was a big one so um uh one of the things that uh you've worked with me in MumSafe and a whole bunch of lessons in there in MumSafe is around uh knowing your numbers, getting to know your finances etc um and it was it must have been two years ago now
I did my tax return and I ended up in a lot of tax debt that I then had to go on payment plans to repay the ATO because I just didn't know my numbers enough to know that that's what I needed to do to be successful with my business and not land myself in debt. So what I mean with that is I didn't have a financial spreadsheet.
that worked out, well, this is how much you need to be putting aside for tax. This is what you need to be putting aside for super. These are your outgoings. This is your incoming. This is what you could be doing if you had this many people coming in. And so, so now I've got my spreadsheet, which is my actuals, my projections going forward, and then my dream big spreadsheet as well. So it's been really, yeah, it's been a big important.
Jen (23:35.278)
I love that.
Nikki Knieriem (23:38.742)
learning for me and it actually helped me out of the tax debt having that resource there to be able to get to know my numbers.
Jen (23:49.378)
So the tax debt was from your fitness business. It wasn't left over from the dance studio. It was from the fitness business.
Nikki Knieriem (23:56.322)
No, yeah, it was left, it was with my fitness business. In fact, I'd been running the fitness business for a few years, but I think the tax debt came in when my fitness business started turning a profit and I needed to start paying personal tax for myself. And yeah, the fitness studio was structured very differently where I had staff, I was GST registered, et cetera. So...
Jen (24:13.966)
Mmm.
Nikki Knieriem (24:24.65)
the paying the taxes there was a very different story to being a sole trader with no employees. And yeah, it just didn't even occur to me to be putting aside money for my own personal tax because I was now paying myself an income. Yeah.
Jen (24:43.486)
Right, so before when you were, so let me just get this straight so everyone can understand and I can understand. When you were running the fitness or the dance studio, you were an employee of that company, personally? Okay.
Nikki Knieriem (24:54.638)
No, no I wasn't, no, but I wasn't drawing in an income enough to warrant me needing to pay huge amounts of tax and that was always sort of offset with the GST. I think, I think that's what's happened but I'm still not 100% sure how I ended up in such a how did I not know this situation.
Jen (25:13.602)
Yep.
Jen (25:22.054)
Yeah, you know what's interesting, Nikki, as well, is because some people that have small fitness businesses aspire to having big fitness businesses. And what big fitness businesses can look like is a studio with employees and all that kind of thing. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that so long as you know your numbers. And it all makes sense from a, you know, you've gone from working in a park to, or, you know, low cost community center to, now I've got staff and overheads and all of that stuff. And for you, you went from
Nikki Knieriem (25:35.318)
Mmm.
Jen (25:51.318)
the big studio. And what I think I'm hearing you say is that when you were running the studio, you had 15 staff and probably quite a high turnover, but you weren't paying yourself an amazing income. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (26:03.786)
Yep, yep, that's it exactly. Yep, I was always working a second job.
Jen (26:10.038)
Which is insane, right? Because we go, let's grow our businesses bigger and bigger and bigger and bring on staff and have contractors and have people working for us and running all these sessions. And if we're not watching the bottom line, it's like we could earn more literally standing in a park and not a lot of our mom safe trainers do. Yeah. So do you have aspirations to...
Nikki Knieriem (26:30.682)
Yeah. Yep.
Jen (26:36.846)
grow your business now? Like what are you, I mean, I know that we've, we've just started working together in a, in the mastermind, but what is, has that left you never wanting to own a facility with lots of people again, or is it more a situation of I would, and I could do that. I just would do it very differently.
Nikki Knieriem (26:56.734)
think it's the second one. Yeah, I would do things very differently. In fact, because I have now reached a point where I am oversubscribed and I can't run any more group sessions because I know that I'll be stepping outside of my values and that's going to affect my family. I am looking at bringing someone else on to run some sessions because I've got large wait lists.
So I'm starting to explore that, but there's also that element of fear that I'm working through. So I'm being a lot more careful and really focusing in on making sure I'm doing the professional learning so I know what I need to be doing. And there's resources in the MUMsafe portal that I haven't yet tapped into, but I know that they're there for when I've got my head in that right space. I've
done my numbers of bringing on a staff member. So I'm feeling a little bit more confident in that. I don't know if I'd ever go to running, like renting out of premises, but I might. So I'm open. I'm still open to all of that. I'm just a little bit more careful with balancing what I'm capable of doing. So I can't do everything.
Jen (28:07.191)
Hmm.
Jen (28:20.078)
Tell me more about the fear. What is that for you? Because fear is an interesting one, isn't it?
Nikki Knieriem (28:25.144)
It is, yeah. My fear is that I'm going to end up in a situation again where I could possibly, where the business starts to take over everything else. So all the other components of my life impact my love and relationships, impact...
the financials impact my relationships with my children, friends, etc.
Jen (28:56.458)
Yeah, it's I hear that a lot, like there's a fear, especially from people that have had very, you know, outwardly looking successful businesses. And I'm not saying yours wasn't like it was incredibly successful by the sounds of it from a insider looking out. And even from a community, like the only thing that wasn't working was the numbers and, and energetically, of course, but from a big community and having staff and you know, having a
big brand presence, I imagine in your community, it was working really well. So you created this really fucking amazing, amazing thing. And people that have experienced that, that it's not had that element of freedom, that their energy is drained and hasn't had the financial impact that they wanted it to have, no matter what size of their business, often have that fear of getting too big again.
Nikki Knieriem (29:31.988)
Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (29:45.502)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (29:54.357)
Yeah.
Jen (29:54.626)
And I talked about this at the first, not the first, but not this year's mom safe retreat, the one beforehand. And I talked about how, you know, when you understand your values, they really are your true North and that you actually can't create that business again, if every single step that you make, you go back to your values. And now you've got the beauty of a spreadsheet, which I'm sure not everyone thinks is beautiful, but when you've been in it, I've been in financial.
Nikki Knieriem (30:01.314)
Bye.
Nikki Knieriem (30:07.198)
Mm.
Jen (30:23.742)
a shit financial situation as well with tax debt. So I know exactly where you've come from. When you've got those numbers on a page and you've got your values, you kind of can't fuck it up because if you start to fuck it up, then you go, oh, that doesn't feel right. And you talked about trigger feelings before. What are your trigger feelings, Nikki? So we've talked about overwhelm, what else?
Nikki Knieriem (30:48.691)
Overwhelming, becoming snappy, so I'll snap at my children or my partner when they really haven't done anything wrong. I get like tight chest as well, so that panicky feeling, they're probably my big trigger feelings.
Jen (30:51.971)
Hmm.
Jen (31:07.918)
So for you now, you've got trigger feelings, values, and a beautiful spreadsheet. And every step that you take, you go, how does this feel? And you might have to sit in it for a month. And obviously if you committed to another lease, and that's a really fucking big decision that you might wanna sit in before you commit to the lease. But you've got these tools now, which make it really exciting. And you don't have to grow in that kind of way. What other ideas have you got for growth? Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (31:13.45)
We'll be-
Nikki Knieriem (31:25.022)
Yes, yes.
Nikki Knieriem (31:33.938)
No, no, I am just very new. Yeah, I was, we got the same thinking. So in terms of other ideas for growth, I still do the online training. So I really want to expand on that and help more women, not necessarily in my area or they might be in my area and just can't get to sessions with me face to face. So there's the online training and I've also got
Jen (31:37.802)
You were going there. Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (32:02.618)
membership which I've called reset and thrive which actually steps away from the exercise side of things and focuses more on that body and mind connection and pulling together the different pieces of the puzzle in terms of health. So we explore how stress affects your health, how sleep affects your health, how nutrition affects your health.
and then explore with different guest speakers, different areas like hormones, mental health etc. So providing that education, so we're tapping into my passion there for education.
Jen (32:44.631)
So I think I've got a feeling we did the numbers on this the other day. I know I've done it with a couple of people, but tell me how many members you currently have. So if you're oversubscribed, how many members have you got or minus two? But what's your, what are your, how many members you have? Yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (32:49.193)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (32:56.018)
Yeah for face to face. Yep so um I've currently got uh 46 face to face out of 48 spots available for my small groups so I train a maximum of four ladies at a time. Um for my personal training I've got um oh how many sessions do I do a week? Eight sessions a week so I've got two available. I've got six of those booked at the moment.
Jen (33:25.23)
cool. And how many? Oh, okay, carry on. No, no, go.
Nikki Knieriem (33:25.33)
The online, I could go on with my now I've got a lot of numbers. So in terms of online, ideally, well, I've got space to train up to 10 women at a time at the moment. And I've got two that I'm currently working with. So I've got eight spots available for online training.
Jen (33:46.926)
Cool, and I'm assuming, do the online people get like the membership stuff weaved in with that, or that's a separate product? They get that already.
Nikki Knieriem (33:53.01)
Yeah, they get that. So if you're doing face-to-face training, it's an additional add-on for them. But if they're doing the online training, my package actually ties in with the Reset and Thrive membership, so they get access to that as well.
Jen (34:00.859)
Mm.
Jen (34:08.99)
Yeah, amazing. And what so if you've got 46 spots full in your small groups, how many do people train more than once a week? Or are they just training once a week? Or how many clients does that represent?
Nikki Knieriem (34:19.847)
Mm-hmm. Um.
Oh, that's a number I don't know. I do. Yeah, approximately. I think last time I looked at my Facebook group, I think it was about 30 clients. So I've got a few that do two, I'm gonna do three small groups with me a week. But yeah, yeah.
Jen (34:27.211)
approximately.
Jen (34:47.062)
Yeah, awesome. And how much does your online membership cost a week?
Nikki Knieriem (34:52.956)
Yep, for the online training or for the Reset and Thrive package.
Jen (34:58.102)
The reset and thrive, yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (35:00.242)
Yeah, so that's $20 per week. So that gives them access to a range of educational classes, so pre-recorded short lessons that I've done. They get a guest speaker every second month, so a guest speaker in some allied health profession to provide them with education. And then they also get a group coaching session with me to keep them accountable every month.
Jen (35:18.958)
Mm.
Jen (35:28.638)
Amazing. So they're basically getting inside that membership, all of the things that they that you would give a one on one PT client or a online client out like in a group environment, which is what we all want to do with our group clients, right? We can't quite give them enough when they're paying for group training. And I just did the numbers on that, Nikki. So if you converted all, which you probably know this stuff completely already, but if all 30 of your trained clients,
bought into that $20 a week. You've earned an extra 600 bucks a week. And if we times that by 48, actually we wouldn't times it by 48 because they would just do that year round. So 600 times 52, you've earned another $31,200 per year by simply converting your group session, group clients into the membership. How good's that?
Nikki Knieriem (36:14.635)
Hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (36:22.798)
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Almost seems crazy, doesn't it?
Jen (36:27.731)
That sounds like a good plan to me. It's so easy man like so go out and talk to them. Nikki, let's just switch which you've been really awesome and really open about numbers and experience and business. I want to talk to you about the actual training of women and moms. So, you know, what do you stand for?
Nikki Knieriem (36:52.33)
So I stand for educating women to thrive in their health and fitness.
Jen (37:00.086)
And why do you stand for that? Like where does that come from and what pisses you off?
Because there's got to be something that's pissed you off to get to where you are right now, right? Or why you've chosen this road. Or is that just me?
Nikki Knieriem (37:11.571)
Um, yeah, well, I, I certainly, um,
oh my mind is going in so many different directions but the education side of it comes from my background because I am also a primary school teacher by trade so education is my passion. So I love being able to teach people things that they don't know and quite often and this is something that gives me that.
Jen (37:25.23)
Mm.
Jen (37:33.41)
Mm-hmm.
Nikki Knieriem (37:46.762)
buzz when I'm working with women is finding that little key that just unlocks a certain piece of their puzzle in terms of their health. So it might just be, you know, those general chitchats that you have with your clients face to face, et cetera, where you might go, Oh, have you tried this? And their eyes just are like, wow. So it's those little light bulb moments. I don't know if something has pissed me off to get me to what I stand for.
other than there's a lot of education, actually no, there is something that pisses me off. So there is not a lot of education out there. So I'm thinking back to my teenage years and into early adulthood and even after pregnancy, is that there's just not a lot of information out there around how different
Jen (38:21.678)
Hahaha
Nikki Knieriem (38:46.186)
parts of your system, how it all interrelates, how the pelvic floor works, how hormones can affect the way that you're feeling and that's a huge one, how you might not be, you might be in this endless loop of drinking caffeine and alcohol and not sure how to get out of that loop, there's all these little things that just light me up and be like people don't know these things and I want them to know it.
Jen (39:17.982)
Yeah, I love that. And I think you're so right. Like, as women, we move through our whole life, pretty much not knowing. And it's as a mom, like I was talking to my daughter the other day, and, and she said something and I was like, Yeah, you know, you've got three holes. And she's like, duh. And I'm like, Yeah, but I bet half your friends don't know. And I bet half their moms don't even know. And their grandmothers don't know. And they've got through. Oh, that's right, because someone said that someone had been taking out a tampon. No, not
Nikki Knieriem (39:25.321)
Yeah.
Jen (39:47.638)
What was it? Oh, taking out a tampon every time they went to the toilet because they thought they had to urinate out of the same hole and they couldn't wear a tampon. And this wasn't indie, like this was a completely different conversation. But it was just like, how the fuck do we as women not know how many holes we have? Really? And how is that not education? And how is that not? So this pisses me off.
Nikki Knieriem (40:08.666)
Yes. Yes, yes.
Jen (40:17.114)
I get really, yeah, it gets me really wound up and frustrated that.
Nikki Knieriem (40:17.598)
But yeah, I had a really... You know... I can hear! Ha ha ha!
Jen (40:24.339)
Yes!
Nikki Knieriem (40:28.434)
It's great. I had a really interesting conversation with, I now participate in a dance class. And it's quite funny because I'm the eldest in the dance class by easily 22 years I've got on some of these girls. But we had a really great conversation a couple of weeks ago where we started talking about pelvic floors and I...
ended up taking over the whole class but the dance teacher was very supportive because I started talking about public schools and these girls were like what do you mean it does this and like it was just it was a really interesting conversation and I was thinking they're like these girls are 17 and 18 and don't know this stuff when does this education come in so yeah that's another thing that I'm hoping to do now is to start yeah it doesn't
Jen (41:14.666)
It doesn't come in, right?
Yeah, I think there's a huge opportunity, especially in the dance world, because, you know, dancers are so like we see it now in CrossFit land and you know, heavyweight training and there's a lot of younger women exercise a lot of women general exercising to a higher level. But in that dance world where it's all like, everything must be tight and sucked in. It's like it's a prime environment for hypertonic pelvic floors. And and you've got your 17 18 year olds who, you know, may start to have
UTIs recurring UTIs and then they have sex for the first time and it hurts and then they think that it should hurt and then over Time they create some kind of trauma and it's just like we Yeah, the question like when do they learn about this? They don't end of story like I was walking out of I do I've been I joined a crossfit gym a couple of months ago and One of the women in there is a school teacher and she was talking about how she was delivering The sex education or the maybe it wasn't sex education, but it was PDHP kind of stuff that you learn
as a, and they were delivering it to the boys and the girls together, which I think is good because boys need to know about boys stuff, like girls stuff and vice versa. But they were, she was saying like, there's nothing in there around pelvic floors and UTIs and hypertonic pelvic floors and painful sex or any of that stuff.
Nikki Knieriem (42:35.102)
Mmm.
Jen (42:36.914)
It blows my mind. Like what would you teach that like if you had the, like what were you, what were they most interested in when they were talking about pelvic floors at the dance studio?
Nikki Knieriem (42:45.766)
We started talking about the hypertonic pelvic floors. So pretty much exactly what you just said. And it's what they're experiencing is, well, why am I leaking? That's a normal, well, it's not a normal, it's a common thing. It's not just me that this is happening to, but this is something that shouldn't be happening at this age. So that was a really interesting conversation, just opening up and for some of the girls to be like, oh, that happens to you too.
Jen (42:49.122)
Mm.
Nikki Knieriem (43:15.034)
Okay. And then I was able to come in and go, well, it could be this. Here's who you might like to go and see. And I referred them to my women's health physio. Um, but yeah, that was a really interesting conversation. So I think, yeah, if I was to provide more, more information and reach out to more, um, more, more youths or even young adults, it would be around.
Yeah, the hypertonic pelvic floor. And this is how your pelvic floor works. And another thing that actually, I'm having a few thought streams there, but another thing that a lot of postnatal women that I work with is that connection between the diaphragm, the transverse abdominis and the pelvic floor as well. And how that all connects together and works as one system. So.
That's another area I'd be super passionate about talking about.
Jen (44:13.31)
Yep. Amazing. I think we need we need pelvic health physios to go into schools, right? Like, yeah, we can go in and we can talk exercise and bring in as part of exercise. But imagine if every school had a pelvic health physio went in to talk to boys and girls, because boys have pelvic floors as well in that as part of that PDHP program or that series. So it's almost like where we as pre and postnatal certified trainers want to go into
talk to women when they're going through that antenatal or postnatal or they're more the antenatal classes. It's like it needs to be in there, but it also needs to be in the school system. So, hmm, there's very much a lot of work to be done, I believe.
Nikki Knieriem (44:53.514)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Nikki Knieriem (44:58.738)
Yeah, absolutely lobby a few governments.
Jen (45:02.654)
Yeah. Nikki, let's start to wrap us up. If you had any, let's talk to two different audiences. So let's talk to a mum who is experiencing something that she's never experienced before, before like before she had babies. What or she's, she's experiencing something and it's stopping her from exercising. What would your, I don't love the word advice, but what would your advice be for her?
Nikki Knieriem (45:07.178)
Good.
Nikki Knieriem (45:33.906)
My advice would be every little bit of movement is better than no movement at all and so I'm coming I'm saying this coming from the space of when my children were say really young a lot of those barriers come up which is
It's a bad day for the kids. The kids keep interrupting me. The kids keep jumping on me. I don't have time for exercise. I'm too busy doing all the other things. All of those excuses that come up, every little bit of movement is better than no movement at all. And if that means that you can do five minutes at breakfast time and five minutes at lunchtime and five minutes at dinner, that's better than not having done any movement at all.
Jen (46:22.658)
that because it makes it achievable, right? And not overwhelming because it overwhelms the thing. And then if you were talking to a trainer who knows that they want to make a difference in this space but they're lacking either lacking in confidence or they don't want to maybe they've had a successful business before that didn't feel good and so they're kind of fencing like what would you what would you share with either one or both of those people?
Nikki Knieriem (46:27.433)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Jen (46:53.358)
from your experience.
Nikki Knieriem (46:54.294)
Um, yeah, sorry, um...
guess the first thing I would say is and this is total plug to you Jen but do safe return to exercise because I've done pre and postnatal courses before and that was the best one that I've done by far. It went into so much detail so that really set me up on my path of going okay I know my shit with how I need to talk to pre and postnatal women and then from that
Within the MumSafe portal, there's so much lessons that you can do in professional learning. You can do around how to work with women of any age, perimenopausal, menopausal, etc. So access professional learning, do your professional learning if that's the space that you're wanting to get into. In terms of business, my advice would be it can be really lonely working by yourself.
And sometimes you don't know that you're doing something that's not going to help you because you're going at it alone. So having that person to bounce ideas off, whether that be with a business mentor, such as with you, Jen, or jumping into something such as MumSafe where you've got other trainers to bounce ideas off, or whether that be just having another, someone that owns a business and bouncing ideas off.
That for me has been the most helpful thing, having that community of people that I can tap into and just be like, hey, what do you think of this? Because, or yeah, that has helped me definitely. Did I answer the question right? Good.
Jen (48:41.054)
Yeah, it's a lonely world. You did answer the question and you answered it really well. Thank you. And you kind of, you pulled out all the different avatars that I suggested and you could have just done one. So that was very, very well answered. Thank you. Nikki, I wanna say a really big thank you for offering your time and energy today. I think that when we share our business stories, like I delve into business.
Nikki Knieriem (48:53.686)
I'm sorry.
Jen (49:07.758)
That's all I listen to on podcasts is other people's business journeys. And I listen to people that are on a similar journey to me. And then I listen to people that are a little bit further ahead than me. And then I listen to people that are a lot further ahead than me. And I think, you know, when you share where you've come from, one, it makes people really feel like they're not alone. And then when you're really open with the things that you've struggled with and the change that you wanna make in the world, it's, yeah, it's a really generous thing to do. And it's really supportive and helpful for other people.
And on a personal note, I've absolutely loved getting to know you over the last couple of years and watching your business evolve. And I'm super excited to be working that little step closer with you at the moment to see, you know, what is the next evolution of you and your business so that you can serve more moms and never have a tax debt again, have like surplus funds. Like, because we want to earn money as well, right? We want the time, we want the energy, we want the money.
Nikki Knieriem (49:58.15)
Yes! That's amazing! That's sweet.
Jen (50:06.298)
And there's nothing bad about wanting to earn the money to be able to have choices and do good in the world. So, yeah.
Nikki Knieriem (50:12.695)
100%. Yeah, thank you.
Jen (50:15.246)
Thank you. Well, have a beautiful rest of your day. I'll let you get back to it. And no doubt I'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Nikki.
Nikki Knieriem (50:22.826)
Thank you.
