If you are in the horrors with menstrual cycle issues or you want to learn how to harness your hormones, then you are in the right place.

Welcome to the Period Power podcast. I’m your host Maisie Hill menstrual health expert, acupuncturist, certified life coach and author of Period Power. I’m on a mission to help you get your cycle working for you so that you can use it to get what you want out of life. Are you ready? Let’s go.

Okay folks, I am already dying with laughter over here about – I’ve got to try and start. How can I…

Becca: This is going to be great.

Maisie: It is, and I think it’s just because I’ve been so excited to record this with you. And I was thinking just as I was making myself a cup of tea and getting ready to record. I was like, I wonder whose more excited about this because I honestly have no idea where this is fucking going to go, no clue. I don’t know what you’re going to say. I don’t think you know what I’m going to say.

Becca: I don’t even know what I’m going to say.

Maisie: And I know you’ve been drinking as well.

Becca: You’re not supposed to say it on the podcast.

Maisie: So I think just everyone’s going to be in for a treat. And hello everyone, this is a conversation between my good friend, Becca Pike, and I and this is part of the People of Influence series that I haven’t had a guest on for some time now. And was like, okay, we need to do this because we’re podcast buddies. We’ve had the podcasts, your one and mine for kind of the same amount of time. And our podcasts come out on the same day and our artwork is so similar. We’re both in the same pose in our photos.

And I just always see us together every Wednesday, on my podcast feed we’re there together because yes, I do subscribe to my own podcast.

Becca: Well, and it’s very safe to say, we didn’t plan this. We didn’t know that we were going to have a podcast at the same time on the same day. And then we became friends, and we were like, “The cover of our podcast is identical, what is this?”

Maisie: But I feel that’s quite representative of our relationship because I think we do have things in common and similar things in our background. But also, and I think this is why I’ve been really excited to have this conversation with you is we know each other really well in some ways. And we don’t know each other at all or not much in other ways. So I feel we’re at an interesting section in our friendship. And this is just a really fun time to explore that.

Becca: Yeah. That is super interesting. I would say that we’ve had some very intimate conversations about our life and our about our businesses. But then there’s some surface stuff that I have no idea about you. So yeah, I’m game, I’m game for it.

Maisie: Okay. So context for everyone. Becca and I – well, tell them who you are for a start, that will be handy. They want to know who you are.

Becca: Hello. My name is Becca Pike and I’m friends with Maisie Hill, period, that’s all you need to know. No, I’m just kidding. I am the founder and owner of Massage Strong as well as Hell Yes Coaching. So I own a physical therapy, muscle maintenance type of massage here in Lexington, Kentucky. I’m in the States. And I also teach people how to grow their businesses.

Maisie: And I love that you do this because, I don’t know if I’ve told you this. But a couple of years ago, because I think this is one of the things we have in common is that we both come from a massage background. And at one point in time I was thinking, because you know how much I love business coaching, I was thinking, I want to set up something to help therapists and practitioners to grow their business.

I could see there was such a hole in the market and such a need for people to get that kind of help to get their business up and running and to be successful financially in a really sustainable way. So I started creating a whole thing for that and I sold a few spots. And I was just getting ready to actually sell it and launch it. And I was like, wait a minute, what am I doing? And I just caught myself. And I was like, this is a great idea but I actually, I don’t think I’m going to do it or at least I’m not going to do it right now.

So I love that this is what you do and that this is your business because now when people get in touch and they’re like, “Well, I’m a yoga teacher. I’m an acupuncturist. I’m a make-up artist”, whatever their industry is. And they’re like, “Do you have any recommendations?” I’m like, “Yes, you should go and work with Becca Pike because she knows what she’s doing. She has built a massage business up from the ground up.” And now you have not one but two locations, or has the second one opened yet?

Becca: Yeah. We have two locations. We were going to do the third one in 2022 but with the pandemic it got pushed back a little bit. So we’re looking at a third location coming up as well.

Maisie: That blows my mind.

Becca: It blows my mind, Maisie. I don’t even know. That’s crazy. Yeah. And I did consider being only a business coach for massage therapists and I thought pretty hard about that. And there’s definitely a void in the market for that. And it’s an industry that I know so well. But I realized that it’s not just the massage business that I’m in love with. I am genuinely in love with business. I want to eat, sleep, and breathe business books and podcasts. And I have been sponging that knowledge for a really long time. I just was capable of putting that energy into a massage studio for a while.

And now I get to put it into all of my clients’ industries. I get to work now with all types of industries, brick and mortar, online and I love all of it all the same. So I’m glad that I didn’t go specifically with just massage therapists, but I thought about it for a long time.

Maisie: Yeah, because like you said, is definitely there’s a lot of people working as practitioners that are in need of some help, some coaching, some strategies, and things in order to create the business that they actually want to have and to succeed in it. Because so many people start off loving it and then they’re just like, “Well, I’m working my guts out over here trying to make ends meet.” And they start off really passionate. And then at some point start questioning, is this actually making any sense for me financially to do? And so many people start off and then leave the industry.

Becca: Well, and most people in that type of industry in the massage world as well is just anything that is like healing or nurturing. A lot of times they come into that industry because it saved them at some point. And that’s why they’re so passionate about it. I have so many massage therapists that they got into massage because of what it did for them. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re great at the business side of things. It is better to be very passionate about what you do and enjoy what you do and then hire out the business side. Hire out the business coach.

Get help in that department. I would much rather see people growing businesses that way instead of I’m in it specifically for the money and only the money. And massage, I don’t know much about massage, but I mean it should be pretty profitable, so good to go.

Maisie: Just figure it out.

Becca: Go just figure it out, yeah.

Maisie: So that’s what Becca does. And everyone, definitely check her out if you’re thinking, well, I could do with some help on the business side of things because I know lots of you listening kind of fall into that category of people who love what you do. But you kind of want some help getting things up and running or getting them into a strong position for yourself. So you know the deal with this, Becca. We’re going to share three ish, because sometimes we kind of end up finding other things or forget stuff.

So three ish things, ways that we have influenced each other. And I’m going to get us started with one of our first interactions that we had. So I haven’t shared. So we know each other because we were and we still are in the same business mastermind with our coach, Stacey. And you joined the mastermind, I think it was my second round in it. Each round is six months. So I’d been in it and then I think you joined.

Becca: No, we joined 2 Million at the same time.

Maisie: No, but for 200K. We joined that at the same time.

Becca: Yeah, I was in 200K once.

Maisie: Yes, okay. Yeah, so our business coach has two masterminds and the one that we both started out in is 200K. It’s all about making your first $200,000 in your business. And so I was in that and then you joined. And our paths just didn’t really cross when we were in 200K. But I saw you on screen and first of all I was like, the idea of having a massage business that was more than just treating someone in a room, completely blew my mind. When you were talking about your business on one of the calls I was just sat there going, “What?”

She has this business where she hires loads of people. And they’re all massaging and she’s just running the thing. And she was a massage therapist to begin, it was like none of it made sense in my brain because I just hadn’t comprehended it before. And I think that’s really evident when you look at the way massage therapists, practitioners are trained, their kind of socialisation around having a business, making money, all of those things.

But then our first interaction, at least this is my memory of it is when we both got accepted into the 2 Million Group.

Becca: I love hearing it from you.

Maisie: And I always struggle to make the payments to take part in the mastermind because I don’t know why but my online banking, whatever the rules are, I don’t know. I just can’t transfer large sums of money internationally.

Becca: And apparently, I can’t even do it in the same state.

Maisie: So I’m always moving money days in advance so that I can make the payments within the time requirement. And then of course when we moved into the 2 Million Group it was double the money in terms of the investment. And I had called my bank in advance, spoken to them, “Look, I’m going to be paying this money. Am I good to go? Do you need me to do anything? Tell me now so that I know I can make that payment.” And they were like, “Not a problem.” Reassured me, all of the things. I was like, “This is amazing, I’ve been accepted into this group, I’m going to make this payment.”

Becca: You didn’t know you were going to be in the misfit’s category with me, unable to make our payments. We’re like, we have the money. Do you remember mine? I got so upset. I was like, “No, this is my money.” And they were like, “Well, you can’t take out any more than $10,000.” And I was like, “Ever?” I earned that money. Well, I’m also a former massage therapist. So numbers aren’t my strong suit. And that might be a stereotype that us healers, we aren’t very accountant brain but it’s a stereotype for a reason.

And I just am not a numbers person. I just don’t know how to do this paperwork side of backend things. And when they told me that there was a limit on how much money you could take out, not just in one day, but at all. I was baffled, I couldn’t understand. It was the wildest.

Maisie: It was, because I think I reached out to you because I knew we were both joining. And I started telling you about what was going on and I couldn’t make the payment and things. And it was just so helpful to me to hear that you were also having a hard time making the payments. Because what I hadn’t realised, I was doing was making it mean a lot about me, that there are these rules in place. I wasn’t in the place where I was thinking this is just a rule. And therefore it affects other people as well as me.

I was just thinking, no, it’s easy for everyone else because everyone else has it figured out. And it’s not working for you because you haven’t figured these things out yet. And I was just coming up against some of my mindset issues in that moment. So then when you were like, “Well, look, I’m sat in the bank trying to do it too and it’s just not happening.” And we were sending each other…

Becca: And I’m raising redneck hell over here. They won’t help me. And you were being so classy about it. I remember being like, “Man, this Maisie Hill is really soft spoken and nice. She’s so gentle.

Maisie: So I feel like that was a really great start to our friendship was just sharing a stressful day when it came to money. And I think what I ended up doing is I went to bed, but I set an alarm for midnight so that I could make another round of payments. We figured it out and we both got in there and it was all good. But that was really helpful for me just to kind of in that moment be like, it’s not just me because that’s my go to place of it’s just me who has these issues. I should be this. I haven’t figured this out yet. And that’s been a lot of stuff that I’ve been working on.

And you know from seeing me get coached, but yeah, that was just very helpful so thank you for having money payment struggles with me.

Becca: You’re very welcome. I’m sure we will do it again real soon. Pretty sure that we’ll be doing it next month together.

Maisie: Okay. What have you got?

Becca: Okay. Number one, this is a story about your corduroy pants. Are you ready? Your corduroy pants. So corduroy?

Maisie: Yeah. No, I’m just rapidly trying to think what on earth you’re going to say, but go ahead, tell the story.

Becca: Well, you have to wait for the story, Maisie. So it is easy to believe that – I don’t know – I always thought to myself in my mid-30s, I’m becoming a very independent self-aware person. I’m very aware of my emotions and why I’m acting the way I do. And I love looking about psychology and stuff like that. But something that I realised when I met you is that I had allowed myself to slip into peer pressure in the groups that we run around when it comes to the way that I would present myself and the way I would dress, and the way that I would show up.

So I genuinely think of myself as just a Converse wearing, tattooed, beer drinking girl. And money is not going to change that. I’m just an athlete. I love being outside and I dress very simply. I wear jeans, and plain shirts, and Converse shoes. And it’s easy to act like you can’t get caught up in peer pressure when you’re this self-aware. And I shouldn’t even say peer pressure. What’s the word I’m looking for? When you’re just wanting to fit in.

Maisie: I think it’s just being influenced by the group that you’re around. There’s an impact of that in all sorts of ways.

Becca: Yes. And we are around a group of very beautiful women who are interested in fashion. They’re interested in their designer handbags and stuff like that. And I’ve grown to genuinely appreciate that so much. But I feel like I lost myself in it until I met you. And I am so thankful for that because even my husband said this when I told him I was coming on this podcast. He was like, “The girl that you called me about because she was wearing her corduroy pants. And you were so happy that she was wearing her corduroy pants because then you felt like you could wear yours.”

And I was like, “Oh my God, yeah, that’s right.” That is an influential thing about her. So anyway, long story short, for a while I think I just lost my authenticity and dressing and just showing up exactly the way that I wanted to. And now I do. And now I’m like, I saw you, I remember thinking, Maisie looks so good. She’s so cool. She’s tattooed. She’s my kind of person and I get to do that too. And I don’t know if you noticed the difference in the way I dressed from when we were in Mexico together compared to when we were in Kentucky together, but I noticed, and it felt good.

Maisie: But here’s the thing, is I was in Mexico with you virtually, but I wasn’t there in person.

Becca: That’s right.

Maisie: So you’ve probably just seen me from, well, until January when we met in Kentucky. You’d only seen me chest up.

Becca: Well, and we had talked about what we were going to wear, leading up to Kentucky. We had talked about what we were bringing and stuff like that.

Maisie: Yeah, because I was really – because I know you’re pretty local to where we were going. So it was you and then Lindsay Dotzlaf, I was grilling on what’s the temperature going to be like? What’s the venue like? If I wear this, am I going to get too hot? Because I know if I get too hot or I’m too cold then I will get dysregulated. So I’m planning in advance, what is the weather situation? What’s the internal temperature? And making my clothing plans all around that.

You were both very accommodating and understanding. It was very helpful for me. But yeah, because a lot of our peers are really into fashion and like you, I love that. I love seeing them buy the stuff that probably it wouldn’t be my style of things to buy. But I just love women spending money on things that they want. Because I know for so many people that’s a real challenge for them to do at any place in life. And there are so many judgements from other people about doing that. And I love that the group we are in we’re just all for it and there isn’t any of that judgement or shaming.

It’s just, yeah, look at you with your money, spending it on these things. Amazing.

Becca: Yeah. I also love watching women spend money and watching them do it just unapologetically. And earning money unapologetically. Just receiving and giving money, it’s the best. For some women it’s designer handbags and designer shoes. For me, I was just telling my friend outside while we were landscaping. I have a bunch of people landscaping at my house right now and I was out there doing it with them. And she was like, “What are you doing this weekend?” I was like, “I’m throwing a party.” And she was like, “For what?”

And I was like, “I just really wanted chicken wings. I wanted to eat a lot of chicken wings. And so I’m going to invite my friends over and I’m having this guy bring in 220 chicken wings.” And she was like, “What? What are you talking about?” And I was like, “No, this is what I want to spend my money on.” I love having friends over and just feeding them. It’s my favourite thing and we do it all the time. That and cars, I love cars, I want a nice ass car all the time.

Maisie: I love it.

Becca: Is that funny?

Maisie: It’s great.

Becca: I wish you were here you could come eat chicken wings with us.

Maisie: I’d be into that, yeah. I get goosebumps thinking about this, women having money. It’s just so important, yeah.

Becca: Well, yeah, of course, yeah.

Maisie: Okay. Well, talking about money, this is kind of a little side track thing. So I’ve been on a real journey with my money mindset for well over a decade. And I’ve come so far from where I was. And I know there’s still stuff that I’m working on, stuff to sort out, clear out etc. But there was this moment at one of our get togethers because we have quarterly get togethers with our coach where we all get coached and kind of runs for the whole day.

And I was getting coached on something that was related to money and you just kind of chimed in reminding me that I come from a practitioner background. And it was just so helpful to be reminded of that in that moment that, yeah, all the training you get, the kind of influence of colleagues. And there’s this general thing of people struggling to make ends meet and working so hard to make any money. And it always kind of makes me laugh when people talk about how much people charge when you go and see them for a form of treatment.

And it’s like, yeah, but the place that they are working from take, at least here, 50% off straightaway, plus tax, plus materials, any of that kind of thing.

Becca: Well, and you’re not paying for them to do it right then. You’re paying for everything they learned over the course of the last 20 years. You’re paying for all the nights that they sat up reading their books and understanding your body for you in 20 years from now when they meet you for the first time and they instantly know what’s wrong, and what’s going on, and how to fix it. But yeah, I think people underestimate how much influence and culture is built into each industry. Every single industry has very specific rules, and processes, and beliefs.

You look at artists and you look at the way that they view money versus investors and the way that they view money, and the way that it’s talked about. And then you look at massage therapists, it’s very different than – I don’t know – coaches, whatever. But people underestimate how much influence they’re actually receiving that is very biased to that culture. And they just think that it’s normal, they just think that this is the way people think. And it’s, no, that’s the way your bubble thinks. And this is everybody, everybody has a bubble.

You and I have a bubble. We listen to roughly the same podcasts, the same coaches. Even if it’s a 100 people that we are influenced by on the daily, it’s still a very small bubble of people that we’ve surrounded ourselves with that think the same things that we do. Or that somehow tell us things that we want to hear is really what it is. And so yeah, so whenever you had that coaching I remember thinking, whoa, she is such a massage therapist. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’m a massage therapist too.

But there is a culture to massage therapy and to that style of practice, which is very much you care for, and you nurture people. And it is not about the money, and you do not need to be thinking about the money. And you’re not here to run a large company. You’re here to give your gift of healing. And I wanted to be, when I was growing Massage Strong, I was like, “Why can’t I have both? Why can’t I grow a very large company of people who specifically are phenomenal at muscle maintenance and injury therapy, and the physical therapy aspect of massage?”

Maisie: I mean we could do a whole episode just about that because yeah, and I think that’s the thing is just I was aware of that when I was in the industry, and I was actually working as a practitioner. And I became aware of it and that’s when I started to uncover all these thoughts that I had and beliefs that were there. But I think because my journey in my career has progressed from there. And I had just kind of forgotten about that influence still being there and definitely still showing up from time to time.

And it was just so helpful to have someone in that room be like, “Yeah, but just remember this is showing up because of that culture that you were around for so long.” And I was just like, “Oh yeah.” So that was very helpful, thank you.

Becca: Good. Good, you’re welcome.

Maisie: I’ve got another couple of good ones. What have you got? We’ll trade.

Becca: So I get to see a lot of the behind the scenes of Flow Collective and how you look at it, how you think about it, how you are problem solving for it. We get to watch your mind go through all the ups and downs of learning how to navigate, creating such a quality community. And something that I’m really influenced by, and this was the one that stuck out to me the most is how consistently you stay focused on your community. They are always at the forefront of your mind, every decision, every thought, every goal is will this serve them, is this in their best interest?

And I know that saying that you would think everyone looks at things that way. But it’s just more highlighted for you. It appears that you are so on the right side of the spectrum, on the – I don’t want to say the good side but on the more compassionate serving side of the business spectrum which is I’m here to serve first. I’m here to create a community first. And all of the fun stuff that happens afterwards, all of the money, all of the influence and all of the books being sold, all of that is just second-hand. You don’t even know how awesome you are and how many books you’re selling.

You don’t even know how much influence you have because you’re just focused on giving value. And that influences me a lot and I noticed it from the beginning when we first met.

Maisie: Yeah. And you’ve also pointed this out to me on occasion, you’re very good I think at pointing things out to me. You do that quite a lot actually. I really like that about you now that I’m thinking about it.

Becca: Is that a good thing or do I just have no filter?

Maisie: Well, I think it can be both. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. But I do really appreciate that because I would definitely say about our friendship is that you do point out things out to me. And you do call me out on things. You’re like, “Wait, what’s that about?” And I do really like that. I can’t even remember what I was going to say now. But when you think about what we go through as entrepreneurs and especially at this level where we really are growing and scaling our businesses and increasing our impact and everything that goes with it.

You have to have that solid foundation of why you’re doing it because there’s no way you could get through half the stuff that we have encountered thus far and everything that’s still to come if you weren’t rooted in why it’s important to you.

Becca: Yeah. Willpower is not enough to get through the waves of entrepreneurship that we’ve been through in the last few years. There is no just willpower. It has to be this is what I was created to do, this was my purpose. This is why I’m here. And the boat’s going to rock and I’m going to stay on the boat.

Maisie: Yeah. Exactly. And that’s the thing because if it was all about the money, I would have a different business model. I would not have invested in the way that I have invested in my business if I was just interested in making a profit. I would have done things very differently.

Becca: If it was all about the money, I would be a real estate investor. And I am. It’s not about the money. If it were about the money, I would have just grown Massage Strong more. It is about the obsessive love for business for me anyway, the obsessive love for business, the want, and the need to talk about it with people, the watching people double their revenue while they’re working less. The stories that I hear, the reviews, all of that I live for it, I love it. And so yeah, the speedbumps come and they’re hard. And the more successful that I get the harder they are.

The bigger the speedbumps are and the more it requires just coaching myself and getting coached and stakes are so much higher now. But it’s so good. It’s so good. It’s so worth it. I can’t imagine going through what we’ve gone through in the last year and just being in it for the money. You couldn’t, it would be too emotional. It would be too trying.

Maisie: Yeah. I can’t even comprehend that. To remove that or to go about things in a different way, for it to come from a different place, for sure would be like, I’m out, I’ll just go do this instead. So yeah, but I really appreciate that, you reflecting that back to me because I think it’s one of those things that’s just so normal when you are that way and that is how you go about things, that you don’t see it because it is just your normal.

Becca: Yeah, absolutely.

Maisie: Okay, so talking about growing a business, another time that you blew my mind and a lot of deep thought, and self-coaching, and getting coached came from this was you were on our coach, Stacey Boehman’s podcast and you were talking about Massage Strong and there being – I don’t know if it was a specific moment, but there was a point in time where you realised that when you were in the room with your hands on someone and you were actually treating them. You were doing a great job. And you were getting paid well for that.

But you realised that if you were out of the room you could have an even greater impact and you could set the business up to help even more people, and to make more money, and to grow the business, and everything that comes with that. And when I heard that I was just like, “Oh my goodness.” That just, it blew my mind, and it still does now because I had realised this when I was a practitioner, and especially as I was becoming more and more of an expert and being more sought after. And I was just turning so many people away because I didn’t have the capacity. I didn’t have the time to be treating more people.

And that’s when I started running workshops and online courses, and just thinking, well, at least if I can get the information to people then that is going to help them get started. And then that’s eventually how I moved to running an online course, creating The Flow Collective. So I’d recognised that I had done that there. I’d removed myself from the one-on-one treatments and moved to helping people in a group format. Amazing. But I hadn’t realised that I was in that same position again but within my own business.

And there were things that I was doing that it was really time to call it a day on those things and stop doing them. And even at that point I was paying other people to do stuff, my assistant, community manager. And I was still doing stuff that actually it was their job. And I spoke about this in, I think it will end up being the last episode after this. And that’s why, yeah, you have hugely influenced me because this is why I ended up picking up the project from master coach training that I did of writing my job description and then only doing my job.

And it really came from hearing you say that in conversation with Stacey and being, I could just immediately see all of the places in my business where I was staying in the room when it was really time for me to not be in the room and to let other people be in the room.

Becca: That podcast episode with Stacey, I am still getting messages from people with how much it influenced them. And I wasn’t even drinking on that podcast. So I just was surprised at how many people loved it so much. If it’s cool with you, we can link it in the show notes for anyone that’s interested in that. Yeah, I think it was kind of all of a sudden. Here’s what happened. I remember thinking, I was in massage because I specifically genuinely wanted to change the way people thought of massage.

In the area that I live in, massage is still very much just a luxury, it’s something you do once a year on Mother’s Day. It’s the gift you give someone for your birthday. And it blew my mind because I was like, massage is extremely healing for pain. People with knee pain, back pain, hip pain, SI joint pain, all you have to be is be taught that you can go and get your soft tissue worked on for x amount of times. I mean I don’t know, depending on how injured you are. But let’s say that you could technically be ‘healed’ in 20 sessions. Why don’t more people know this?

Why are people going into surgery? Why are people taking pain pills for the rest of their life, becoming addicted to pain pills? I watched my dad become addicted to pain pills because he was in horrible back pain. When I was a child, I didn’t know what the answer was. But now looking back at it, he just had SI joint pain. He just had genuine back pain. And they treated him with pain medicine. He became severely addicted to it and then I ‘lost’ my dad for 15 years to the addiction. He is alive but I didn’t have a dad during those addiction years, he was just gone, he was just a zombie, he wasn’t there.

And it just makes me so upset that this isn’t part of our culture. There’s not enough money in it for it to be a part of the message that is being sent out to society. And when I was building Massage Strong, I was like, “Okay, if I genuinely want to change the way that people view massage, if I genuinely want the masses to know. If I want all of America to know what massage actually can do. And is it benefitting that I’m stuck in this little room, massaging someone?” Yes, I’m ‘fixing’ this person. Yes, I’m helping them get out of back pain.

But this is one person, what about the other millions of people? It is not helping that I’m in here. And if I were just – if I didn’t have that drive or if I just wanted to make a good living and go home and call it a day, then it would have been a fantastic career to stay in that massage room. It was a very fulfilling career. But I asked myself, what would I actually do if I wanted to influence millions? And it was like, obviously I need way more hands on deck. I think I hired 40 people in the first three years, all people that were extremely well qualified.

I was very picky about who I hired. They had to represent the company very well. They had to understand the kinesiology and pathology background very well. And it was my duty to get behind the staff and manage the staff and bring them up. And also get behind a computer and begin announcing, and selling, and educating, people on how Massage Strong is the answer to their back pain, or at least is a stepping stone to the answer to their back pain. I need to get on this backend and just start educating my face off.

And so when people come to me and they’re like, “Becca, why was Massage Strong so successful? You’re so lucky or you just hit a niche that needed to be hit in Lexington?” I’m like, “Listen, I didn’t just hit a niche, there were 243 massage therapy places in Lexington when I opened.” The market was a little saturated. But the passion and the fire that I had in my ass, no one else had. And I remember thinking that. I remember, there is this other, Massage Envy is a very big chain, and they dominate here in Lexington, or they did dominate here in Lexington.

And I remember thinking, they’ve got nothing on me. Who knows who’s running that facility, some guy from a corporate office that was sent in. Has never even massaged anyone before. I’m going to dominate this city. And I meant that genuinely, I am going to educate because my competitors are educating that this is something that you give your mom on Mother’s Day and that’s it. That’s a rap, it’s something you do on Valentine’s Day maybe. And I was like, no, I’ve got to re-educate everybody. And that’s why Massage Strong was so successful.

Maisie: I’m just over here with a massive grin. I can see you all fired up over there through the screen. And I mean no wonder that it’s done so well. And no wonder that you’re able to help your clients with their businesses to get all these amazing results as well. But yeah, it was just so instructive for me and it’s one of those questions, or one of those things to consider on a very regular basis for me now. It’s almost kind of inbuilt into my week, spotting the places where I’m in the room when it’s more effective for me to be out of the room.

Becca: Yeah, exactly. So when I removed myself from the room there was a point in which I was working way too much. I was a massage therapist just not listening to my body at all. I was nine months pregnant doing seven massages a day. It was insane. But I got to a place where I was doing 20 hours of massaging a week. And that’s when I had this epiphany. And I was like, “Well, I don’t work that much in there.” But then I was like, “No, every single hour that I’m in that room hands on back I am not influencing the masses.” My company has frozen in time when I’m in there.

And if I’m in there for 20 hours a week, that’s a lot of hours for my company to be frozen when it comes to moving the needle and progressing towards what I’m really after. And so it took a lot of courage for me to step away because we weren’t by any means well off at that point. My husband was an accountant by trade. He was making maybe $40,000 a year. He had left that position to come on and help me at Massage Strong. And we were pregnant with our third kid, or maybe our fourth. I don’t remember.

But it wasn’t an easy decision, and it was very scary. And I knew that me massaging meant that I got to pocket that money and keep it. Whereas if I gave all of my clients away to other people I had to pay them for that. It would significantly lower that chunk of money. And then there was the worry that the clients were going to leave, or the client. There was just so much happening in that time.

And then when I finally did it and finally pulled the trigger it was one of those things where it was like, why did I wait so long to do this? Massage Strong just blew up. None of my clients cared, even the clients that were like, “You can never leave me.” When I told them, I’m like, “You’re going to be going to Tim now.” They were like, “Okay, great, when can I come back?” They didn’t give a shit at all that I was leaving. I was like, “Okay.”

Maisie: Isn’t that hilarious where you were just like…

Becca: I thought maybe…

Maisie: Because that’s the thing, for us our businesses, our clients mean so much because we’re, you know, even if you’re seeing them once a week, whether that’s as a treatment or whether it’s on a call, you’re seeing them once a week. So you’re actually a small fixture in their week. But your whole business is thinking about your clients. So we spend so much time thinking about our clients, and I think because of that we forget about how it is for them. And so we think this is going to be such a big deal.

They’re definitely not going to like someone else coming in and doing their treatment or whatever. And it becomes this big deal in our minds and then we finally do it and they’re like, “Yeah, great, I’ll see Tim.” And then we swing the other way, we’re like, “Oh my God, they’re happier with Tim than they were with me.”

Becca: Yeah. No big deal. I didn’t fix your fused disc back or anything, totally fine. I’ll go over here and cry. You don’t have a limp anymore but it’s totally cool.

Maisie: Oh man, the highs and lows of running a business.

Becca: It’s fine.

Maisie: Okay. Have you got anything else? I’ve got one more. Have you got one?

Becca: I’ve got one more. So my third one, it might feel kind of obvious to you. It’s probably something you get told all the time, but it was just so revolutionary for me. Is just learning about my cycle. I just didn’t know. I didn’t know and I’m raising a lot of little women. And I think about my cycle often and why I’m feeling the way I do, why I’m parenting the way I am. Why do I have a shorter fuse today? And it all makes so much sense now. And I think about what if I didn’t know this, raising these three girls? And what if my husband didn’t know this?

My husband is a very big fan of your work now and he knows and understands so much more. And I think about the future and how all four of us are going to be on the same fall and winter probably at some point. And the house isn’t going to burn down because I’m going to know what’s happening. And so genuinely from the bottom of my heart, thank you for the work that you have done and all of the effort that you’ve put into these books and into your teachings because I just found your work, honestly.

In the grand scheme of things it’s only been a year and it has completely changed the way that I view my moods, my feelings, my cycles of motivation, my cycles of rest, what my body needs, the way I want to eat. It has been really big for me so that is number three and thank you for that.

Maisie: You’re welcome. Well, speaking of burn it down, that’s what my third one is.

Becca: What? I don’t know what that means.

Maisie: Well, you’re going to have to wait. So back in the autumn and we had our coaching day together. Was it then? Or maybe it was when you were in Mexico for the event. I can’t remember.

Becca: If you’re talking about burning shit down, it was in August. It was in Mexico. Oh God.

Maisie: So I got coached before you. And I got coached on some stuff and then I kind of made this throwaway comment to Stacey. And she was like, “Wait, what are you talking about here?” And she ended up coaching me on something else as well that I hadn’t planned on getting coached on at all. And it was very uncomfortable coaching for me because it meant basically pulling out of a contract. Remember?

Becca: Yes.

Maisie: And it was bringing up all my kind of historic people pleasing stuff, everything just came to a head in that moment. And I just wanted to vomit. It was really…

Becca: Oh yeah.

Maisie: You can remember?

Becca: I was so wrapped up in my coaching from that day that I forgot how big your coaching was. I just now remembered.

Maisie: Yeah. And it was that moment where you get coaching, and it really challenges you. And in that moment you know what you need to do. And it’s the oh fuck moment of realising that and then knowing, okay, now, I’ve got to go do this thing. And I remember telling my clients afterwards, “Just so you all know, I get challenging coaching too as well that makes me want to vomit and that makes me want to wish I could reverse time by 10 minutes and not have this realisation.”

Becca: I don’t know anything about that.

Maisie: But I said to them, “The only relief I had was watching my colleague get coached after me and watching her literally turn green.” And you got the coaching you got. And it was, I think I was kind of riding the high of the relief of being out of the hot seat.

Becca: So you just grab a bag of popcorn and you’re like, “Thank God her life is falling apart in front of my face, this is great.”

Maisie: Yeah, basically, I was just cracking up. I was really quite amused just watching the whole thing unfold on the other side of my screen with my popcorn. But you got this coaching and just watching you, speaking to you as you processed that coaching and then the steps that you took in the coming months.

Becca: Can I just give a little context? Is that cool with you?

Maisie: Yeah, I just didn’t want to…

Becca: So very quick.

Maisie: I didn’t want to reveal details unless you wanted to, so it’s up to you.

Becca: Well, I think the story will go better if they understand what’s happened. So, Stacey told me I needed to leave my husband and put my kids up for adoption. That’s a joke, that’s not real. So I started Massage Strong, I built it by hiring massage therapists to do massages for me and it went really well. So I was going to do the same thing for Hell Yes Coaching. I hired a team of very high quality coaches, we were doing all one-on-one, but I wasn’t seeing a lot of the one-on-ones, it was mainly the other people, the other coaches.

And I had created kind of like – I hate even using the word ‘pyramid’, not a pyramid scheme but that’s the way I look at it, as a trickledown effect where I was front and centre of the company. But I had all these coaches working under me and doing all of the one-on-one. And the coaching that I received was, why are you doing it in this model? Is this the most efficient model for an online company? Is there a better way to do it, blah, blah, blah?

By the end of the day, I mean I probably got coached for, it felt like 90 minutes. Do you remember when I just gave the mic to Vicky? She was like, “Why are you giving this to me?” I was like, “I’m done, I can’t.” I got coached to basically let everyone go, remove my entire coaching certification training. I had a thing called Zero to Coach where we trained people to become certified. And I used my coaches to train that. We also had one-on-one. And my coaches were going to train that.

And I was coached to remove Zero to Coach, to remove one-to-one coaching, and to remove all of my staff members. And to just focus on selling a very cheap product that in my mind would never reach the amount of income that I was used to. I was getting rid of $6,000 packages to sell much cheaper packages. Long story short, the coaching was the sooner you do this and the faster you rip off the band-aid, the better.

And I was surrounded by very powerful women who had done something similar before me. I remember Samantha saying that she refunded $70,000 when she decided to do it. And Kristen said that she refunded a bunch when she kind of cleaned up her business. And it was the most intense coaching. I was literally sick, actually sick for 24 hours. I couldn’t partake in the festivities that night. I just remember Vicky and Maggie hugging me at the pool, “Are you okay?” “I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Everything I know is wrong. Everyone I love is wrong.”

Maisie: It was some big coaching. And I think it’s amazing how you took that coaching and what you did afterwards. And how you worked your way through those changes. And just really showed up for it. Because you could have just gone, “No, I’m not going to take that coaching.” That’s always an option, you never have to take the coaching. But you did and I just think that says a lot about you and your willingness to burn it down and build it back up even when it’s something that’s working.

Because I think that’s the thing, I know when we’re talking about our level of business it is often about, okay, this has been great up until this point but actually now probably things might need to be a little bit different in order to take things to the next stage.

Becca: Yeah. And it was such the right move. In the brick and mortar world, in the massage therapy world where things can’t be automated, it is hands-on, then that business model works really well. But why have an online business if you’re just managing a bunch of people? Why not do it this cleaner way where I have, I now have a lifetime access programme to help people grow their businesses. And it requires no people. There’s no management of people, it’s just quality control and making sure that I show up. It’s just significantly easier.

But yeah, I got home from that coaching, and I had everyone let go. And I had the entire website pulled down and rebuilt. And was trying to learn how to offer my new offer all within – I don’t know – six weeks or something. It was crazy. And I think it took me seven or eight months to recover emotionally from that. It was a really hard time. But again that’s why I hire a coach. That’s why I want a business coach is someone that is going to see things like that. And thank God that I got coached on that before it was a $2 million company because it was going that way.

I mean it was easily going to be a $2 million company in the next year or two. It was growing fast but it was growing fast and sloppy and not fast and clean, and simple.

Maisie: Yeah. I just think it’s a real testament to who you are that you took the coaching, and you went and did it and for everyone’s benefit. I mean look at how you have things set up now. It’s amazing. I’m so glad you did that.

Becca: Thank you. I am too. I’m really glad I did that too. The business is glad that I did that as well. And now I get to know what it feels like when I am coaching other people to simplify their business because it’s not something that I teach in the beginner’s group but in my more advanced mastermind, inside of Thirty More, we do a lot of simplification. I have a lot of people that run brick and mortar as well as online companies. And they have so many offers at so many price points, and so many packages, and so many different styles of gift cards.

And it’s just like it’s all over the place. And when we talk about simplifying I can see how they’re obviously resistant, but they’re excited at the idea that it could be that simple. But then I watch them go through the six-month river of misery when they’re trying to relearn how to sell their business at such a simple place. And tell people, “No, you have to have a strong skin to be able to turn down people.” When I got rid of Zero to Coach I never had more people randomly want to give me money to go into Zero to Coach.

Maisie: Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. It’s like you make a decision and then it’s like the universe is like, well, let’s just test that decision.

Becca: Going to test you. That month I came home, and I think I turned down, I don’t know, 25 people just that month that we’re like, “Please, take my $6,000 and do Zero to Coach.” And I could have easily just been like, “Okay.” Stacey will never know.

Maisie: Just this one more time, yeah.

Becca: Stacey will ever know, nobody will ever know. But I knew that if I did that and became successful in my new adventure, I would always attribute that success to the Zero to Coach. Any time you go, and you start tweaking with things, I feel you start attributing the success to those tweaks. And then you don’t know how to do it without tweaking. Does that make sense?

Maisie: Yes.

Becca: Think about it in a launch, whenever you’re doing a big launch, and you’re in there and all your work’s done. Your emails are written. Your things are done. Everything’s set in stone. Leave it because if you go in there and you start tweaking around, you’re going to always attribute the success to it to those tweaks. And then you’re always going to be stuck in the cycle of tweaking and twerking. Do you know what I mean? It’s a very fine line. I call it the tweaking twerk.

Maisie: But yeah, I think that’s it, just the willing to embrace that messy middle or that river of misery, of which we have them as businessowners and I think something that I have really appreciated from this conversation and I suppose part of why I wanted to have it and for everyone to get to listen to us talking about it, is because I think generally when it comes to business we’re used to online perceptions of someone’s business and it looking a certain way and this aesthetic of what success is.

And we don’t often hear about the failures and the struggles that are encountered, the river of misery, the times where we want to run and hide and go, “What on earth am I doing? I’ll just go back to one-on-one.” Let me just go back to one-on-one and make my life a whole lot simpler.

Becca: Yes. I told Mark, this was just six weeks ago. I was like, “I think I should just be a massage therapist again.” He was like, “Are you in your fall?”

Maisie: I was going to say. Where were you in your cycle?

Becca: I like my fall.

Maisie: That’s the hallmark for me of that hormonal drop off just before my period starts. That’s where I’m always just like, “What’s the point?”

Becca: Yeah. And then come spring you’re like, “What a silly thought. My life is amazing.” My husband said, “All of a sudden I understand now why sometimes”, and he’s so nice, he didn’t mean this in a mean way which is what makes it so funny. He was like, “Oh my gosh, this whole time I just felt like I was married to so many different people. And now it all makes sense.” He was like, “There’s spring Becca, there’s fall Becca, there’s winter Becca, there’s summer Becca.” He likes summer Becca.

Maisie: I bet he does. But I think it’s helpful I think for people to just hear at every level of business that we encounter these things and there are things that pop up to do with our cycle and to do with where our mindset is at that have an impact. And yeah, I think we are super fortunate I suppose because we are coaches, and we are able to coach ourselves and manage our own minds. But we are also in an environment in our community and the mastermind where we are surrounded by other people who are doing different things but going through similar stuff.

And it’s just, to come back to your point about community, having an environment where you can talk about these things, it’s same if it’s to do with your cycle or stuff going on with your life, stuff going on with your business. Just the benefit of being surrounded by other people who are doing this work is really huge.

Becca: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the power of the masterminds, the power of community, it’s unthinkable. I mean I work with people, people who come to me and they’ll say, “I’ve been growing this business for seven, eight years.” And I ask, I’m like, “Have you considered ever being in a mastermind?” And it has never occurred to them. This isn’t mainstream conversations. In the coaching world we talk about it all the time but the type of people that I work with, they are just like this guy at the taco shop or some woman that started a dog walking company. They’re not coaches.

And so when they hear about this idea of a mastermind a lot of times they’re resistant to it. And my thought is always just, they just don’t know. They just don’t know how powerful it is to be in a room of people that are growing their businesses and the conversations that happen in there. And understanding how everything works from a bank loan, to sales, to business growth, to retention. The conversations are so fire that they must be confused if they don’t want this and want it really badly.

Maisie: Yes, I love it. I love being in the mastermind, I was looking for one for a long time and just wasn’t finding people who I wanted to be in a group with or to pay my money to. So I was very thrilled to discover that Stacey had one.

Becca: Yeah. And then you saw me.

Maisie: Yeah. And I was just delighted. I do remember actually he first time I saw you on screen. You had your tattoos. You were just wearing a vest. You looked like you’d just done a workout or something. So it’s very interesting for me that you spoke about me wearing my cords. And just to clarify for everyone, when Becca is saying corduroy pants, she means trousers. I wasn’t wearing corduroy knickers.

Becca: Do you guys call underwear, pants?

Maisie: Yeah.

Becca: Really?

Maisie: Yeah.

Becca: You don’t use the word underwear or panties?

Maisie: We don’t generally say panties. Underwear, knickers, that kind of thing.

Becca: My great, great, great grandmother used the word ‘knickers’ I think. Probably because she was right off the boat from Europe.

Maisie: Well, but to go back to your point about my cords, was I have that standout memory as well of seeing you on screen and I was like, it’s amazing, someone coming and they’re just clearly being themselves.

Becca: Yeah, you’re right, that is interesting because I have memories of just dressing completely like myself on the calls. But I think it was the in-person events that I would start sliding into the pressures of wanting to fit in. And then when you and I talked about what you were going to wear I remember just being like, “Thank fuck, thank God.” I’m going to take my jeans, my Converse, these bitches are about to see the real me.

Maisie: Well, it’s so funny though that we do that, isn’t it? Because there’s none of that pressure is actually there, there isn’t.

Becca: No, of course not, nobody.

Maisie: No one’s there going, “You need to dress this way. You need to do that.” And I do think at a certain level when you’re working on your self-concept and you are making changes, it can be helpful to kind of become the person who does that by dressing in what you could describe as a successful, powerful way, whatever that might look like to someone. And I think there was definitely a stage for me where that was helpful. Even when there’s no one else around, just coming into my studio but dressed for success. And for me that’s still probably cords of some kind or whatever.

But I think it can be helpful but then I think when you’ve worked on your self-concept and your belief in yourself so much, it’s like you don’t need to rely on those things as much. And then that’s – so for me, I’ve gone from dressing smarter, still comfortable, and still me but dressing smarter to now tracksuit bottoms and nice fresh trainers which I think is similar to you.

Becca: Yeah, it very much is. Yeah, and the way that I look on the outside, now, this – I mean there are times that I want to look good. But you see me right now. Your audience can’t see me but I’m in a sloppy bun and a sweatshirt and I’ve been landscaping today. And I know for a fact that that has nothing to do with the amount of value that can come out of my mouth at any given moment. And that is the self-concept that has been built over time. It has nothing to do with the way I look. I have a lot of value to give regardless of if my hair is up or down, or brushed, or if I had beers at lunch.

Maisie: Which I love that you did.

Becca: I know, if I knew you were going to tell everyone I would have continued and just brought my beer with me.

Maisie: We can save it for next time. Well, I am so glad that we got to chat and just kind of marked this moment in our relationship. And I’m sure it’s been super helpful for everyone to hear just us shooting the shit, talking about our business and the ways that we have influenced each other. Is there anything else that you want to finish up with or let people know where to find you, anything like that?

Becca: Yeah, absolutely. I just want to say thank you, thank you for having me here and this was super fun. I love hanging out with you. You know that. And if you want to follow me on Instagram my Instagram handle is @1beccapike – B-E-C-C-A Pike P-I-K-E. And I have a podcast as well. So if you want to hear a much less professional version of Maisie just shooting the shit in the podcast and cussing away too much, you can subscribe to the Hell Yes Entrepreneur and that’s where you’ll find me.

Maisie: Amazing. Alright, I’m sure we’ll be back on again, I feel in a year or two’s time we’re going to come back.

Becca: Are you free tomorrow? Session two, Becca Pike 2.0.

Maisie: Alright, everyone, we will drop links to Becca’s Instagram and her podcast and things in the show notes so you can check her out there. And thanks for coming along.

Becca: Thank you, Maisie, I love you.

Maisie: I love you too.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of the Period Power podcast. If you enjoyed learning how to make your cycle work for you, head over to maisiehill.com for more.