Investing In Yourself As A Movement, Health, & Healing Professional

One of the most important things that you can do is invest in yourself. This is especially true if you are a Movement, Health, & Healing Professional. We will go even further and say that if you are a self-employed business owner, investing in yourself and your business is an absolute must.

If you think about your business as a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro”, your main objective is to serve your clients well and provide an amazing experience that is predicated on your expertise, knowledge, and ability to communicate with your clients. This rings true whether you are a physical therapist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, life coach, nutritionist, personal trainer, strength coach, fitness tech entrepreneur, etc.

Table Stakes

Even though technology and large companies are scaling certain things within your world, coupled with the fact that consumers are changing, we truly believe that the human element that comes to play as a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro” cannot be replicated.

However, if you’re not investing in yourself or your business, you are not going to be able to keep up with the rapid changes that are happening in the industry. Whether it be something like a Peloton, where classes are being provided to consumers at a low monthly cost with variety (spin, treadmill/running, boot camps, yoga, mediation, etc.).

Or, if you think about massage therapists and products like a Hypervolt, there are constant changes in how consumers are looking at their fitness, health, and wellness. It really matters and it shows to consumers whether you’re investing yourself, you business, or not at all.

To go even further, if you consider physical therapists, who are trained doctors in physical therapy, there are many ways that this profession is also being drastically changed. Think about the MoveU Program (or something similar) and the growing trend of mobility specialists in recovery that are changing the landscape. This could be a bold take, but if there are more growth and emphasis on recovery today, how does that impact the future of physical therapists (if at all)?

Change Is Evident, Being Nimble Is Critical

With all of that to say, the reality is that things are changing every single day within your world as a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro”. What are you doing today to invest in yourself for the short-term, medium-term, and long-term, whether it be your own self individually or in your business?

If you think about yourself individually, whether you are a physical therapist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, life coach, nutritionist, personal trainer, strength coach, fitness tech entrepreneur, etc., there are so many things that you can do to invest in yourself that could really make a difference in your overall service to your clients (as well as your success in your business), whether that is working for a company or having your own practice, studio, or gym.

Investing In Yourself Through Free Content

The low-hanging fruit is the free option that you can easily access whether, it be a podcast, YouTube channel, newsletter, blog, or any other type of free content. Since we are huge podcast fans/listeners, here are a list of several that will help you start investing in yourself:

If you are a professional and you’re in the circle of your industry, it should be pretty clear where the high-value content is. If you’re not creating it, then you should definitely be consuming it to increase your knowledge & master your craft. Because your industry is always changing, continuing to learn, being active, and staying involved really matters. You must be nimble with actual changes and trends to know what is happening. This will allow you to pivot if needed or improve your services that you are offering to clients. You would want to maintain everything that you’re doing with your clients and by truly understanding their needs, you can then figure out how you can better serve those needs (based on new learnings, tips, etc.).

Investing In Yourself Through Paid Education

To go a step further, if you feel like you need more accountability, you may want to put your money where your brain is. You could (and should) consider paying money (investing in yourself) for something that is going to better you as a professional. This could be a conference, a continuing education program, new certification, etc. Depending on your industry, we are sure that you know the best and most cutting-edge things out there, but sometimes you may want to consider outside-of-the-box ideas. As an example, you could consider learning opportunities outside (but complimentary) of your industry to really bring value to your clients.

An example of this could be a physical therapist growing their human capital in the realm of nutrition by attending a conference for Licensed Dietitians & Nutritionists. The physical therapist may learn about how diet & nutrition may impact his/her clients. This learning would be very much worthwhile, creating client stickiness and adding tremendous value to the physical therapist’s client experience. Not only is it going to be beneficial for your clients, but it is also beneficial for you as you’re going to be considered a deeper expert in the service that you’re providing to your clients.

The first two ideas (of investing in yourself) noted above are usually pretty common for most people. We know there’s a ton of stuff on the internet (or our phones), and it is just a matter of time as a constraint to fit the learning into our schedules. For the second, the constraint is obviously money (for continued education, attending conferences, obtaining new certifications, etc.). However, irregardless of the constraints, both of these should easily be on your radar, especially if you are further in your career and you know this is where you want to be. This is even more true if you own your own business, because you know that if you get too content and stay static, your competitors are going to eat you alive.

Alternative Ways To Invest In Yourself

In this next section, we are going to outline a few alternative ways of investing in yourself, that may take a little more effort, time, and money (depending on which option). These ideas are not outlandish at all, but they may just be a little bit more outside-of-the-box.

Finding A Mentor

The first is to consider finding a mentor. This mentor can either be within your industry or outside of your industry, but what we are really trying to emphasize here is creating a relationship where your mentor can help guide you in reaching the next phase in your professional life. This could be launching your own practice, studio, or gym or simply growing within your current company.

If you find someone within your industry, you want to make sure that they have the experience that you’re looking to gain in your future. Alternatively, they may be a center of influence or have a network of people that would be helpful for what you’re trying to achieve. Either way, you want to make sure that the relationship is somewhat led by you (the mentee) in terms of creating a cadence or guide of how the mentorship relationship is going to work and what outcome you’re hoping to see. You must think about what you want to achieve from this mentorship and then also figure out how you can add value or help your mentor.

Now, if you find that you are seeking a mentor outside of your industry, to maybe help with the business side of having your own practice, studio, or gym, then it definitely helps to create structure. However, in this case, you must be aware that there could be a hurdle that you must overcome due to the fact that your mentor may not know the the ins-and-outs of your specific business or industry. When working with someone from outside of your industry, we think you’re going to find great value in the cross breeding of ideas.

However, you also want to make sure that you also obtain additional feedback or thoughts from someone that is specifically in your industry (or profession). When trying to get somewhere professionally, it isn’t always about rewriting what has already been done, but it is more so about figuring out what has been done and then making it your own while learning from other people’s mistakes.

Spending Money On Your Dreams

This other idea is more specific to those who are seriously thinking about opening a practice, studio, gym, business, etc. If that is part of your vision and you have goals of putting money towards saving for whatever your start-up costs may be, this is a huge!

By starting to save for this, you are truly investing in yourself and putting your money where your mouth is. In many ways, this should also light a from underneath you and hold you more accountable to be on track towards those goals.

As an example, if in five years, your goal is to open the doors to your practice, what little things can you do today to achieve that. Maybe you start a newsletter, blog, podcast, or YouTube channel to add value to your current clients and grow a loyal following? Alternatively, another good idea is spending money on yourself to obtain a highly regarded designation or take part in an advanced training within your profession.

Investing In Yourself Through Self-Care

The last thing that we would like to say (and this may not seem obvious) is that investing in yourself is so important from the lens of “self-care”. Whether that be fitness-related, health-related, diet-related, sleep-related, mental health-related, or finance-related, doing the things that nourish all aspects of your being is critical. It is easy for us to serve the clients that we are helping and that are paying us for the amazing experience that we’re delivering, but sometimes we lose sight of taking care of our own needs. We defer handling the things that we need to do for ourselves and instead end up being the last client to get served, or simply forget altogether. We need to think about putting ourselves ahead of others and creating a better balance to take care of our own needs.

Investing in yourself (through self-care) does take time, money, and resources. Some examples could be spending money on a nutrition coach, paying that extra monthly cost of going to your favorite yoga class, or maybe you are having one of your colleague physical therapists (or chiropractors) doing work on your body.

In addition, maybe you are a business owner and for the past several years, you have always been the one to handle your bookkeeping and accounting. However, you start to feel the added stress when tax season comes around. This could nudge you to consider investing in someone to take on the role of bookkeeper for your business.

Finally, maybe time has just flown by for you as you’ve successfully grown your practice, but you’ve realized that you have been neglecting to think about savings, retirement, and what personal goals you want to achieve outside of work. Essentially, you may not being thinking about your overall financial picture because you don’t have time (outside of your business) and you think it could be expensive to hire a financial life planner to look at everything, provide peace of mind, and help guide you towards your personal (and family-related) goals. By actually taking a step back and making time to consider this part of your life, you will realize a new sense of ease as you look ahead into your future.

We hope that this article is helpful in thinking about ways that you can truly invest in yourself. Too often, we forget that in order to grow further in our careers, we also have to invest time, money, and resources outside of our work life.

Additional Reads & Resources

Looking After Number 1: Investing In Yourself As A Small Business Owner
Don’t Just Invest In Your Business – Invest In Yourself
Investing As A Health & Fitness Entrepreneur
7 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Invest In Themselves
Fitness Career Path – Why Personal Trainers Have The Best Journey Forward
7 Tips For Creating A Personal Trainer Online Training Business Plan

For additional resources, you can always visit our “Resources” page.