In this inspiring episode of The One Small Change Podcast, host Yvonne McCoy engages in a transformative discussion with guest Ron Tester. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial and coaching experience, Ron shares his journey from being a physical therapist to owning a successful business and eventually becoming a full-time coach. The key to his success? Embracing authenticity. Listen in as Ron and Yvonne explore the power of showing up as your true self, the importance of societal expectations, and practical steps to be more authentic in your personal and professional life.

Guest Bio:

Ron Tester is a seasoned entrepreneur and coach with more than 25 years of experience. Originally trained as a physical therapist, Ron built a successful mid-7-figure business from the ground up, learning invaluable lessons along the way. Inspired by his own journey and the desire to help others, Ron achieved several coaching certifications and now dedicates his time to coaching others full-time. His approach centers on authenticity and personalized connection, helping his clients achieve meaningful success.

5 Key Points Discussed with Timestamps:

1. Ron's Journey to Coaching [00:01:14]
2. Ron shares his background as a physical therapist, how he started his business, and his transition into coaching.
3. Impact of Authenticity [00:03:09]
4. Ron discusses the small yet significant change of giving himself permission to show up as his true self and its massive impact on his business.
5. Overcoming Societal Expectations [00:05:25]
6. Both Yvonne and Ron delve into the reasons why people often hide their authentic selves, such as societal expectations and the desire to fit in.
7. Practical Steps to Authenticity [00:16:32]
8. Ron provides actionable steps for showing up authentically in small, manageable ways to gradually build confidence.
9. Building Genuine Client Relationships [00:11:40]
10. Ron emphasizes the importance of developing deep, meaningful relationships with clients, rather than adopting a mass-market approach.

Main Quote by the Guest:

"In the end, the person who matters most, the person whose judgment matters most should be you. And if you practice that, eventually, it will be." - Ron Tester

Links to Guest's Website:

Ron Tester's Website - Client Attraction Readiness Scorecard

Hi, everybody. I am thrilled as always to be here,

to share the journey of exploration transformation with you. And I'm Yvonne

McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial

experience and passion for discovering growth through the

power of seemingly small change. And I wanna

thank you for joining me because I know there are lots of places that you

could be, but this is a journey of exploration and inspiration.

And this week, we are talking with one of my favorite people,

Ron Tester. Hi, Ron. Hello. How

are you? I'm fine. I'm fine. So let me tell

everybody upfront. Ron and I have a multiyear

relationship. Ron, at one point, was my coach.

Then, you know, he became my best buddy, and now we are collaborating

on some things together. And

I have learned so much from him, and so it is a

pleasure for me to be able to share him with

you. So, Ron, tell us about

yourself and about the small change and

what you're gonna be talking about. Why it impacted how you do business

today? Okay. So I am

a physical therapist by training. And about 25 years

ago, I started a business knowing nothing about business,

and, all I knew is that I wanted to help people in a way that

I wanted to, not listening to what everyone else wanted me to

do. And so I did, and I did no thing,

except how to be a good physical therapist. So I learned over

time a lot of trial and error and, honestly, finding

good good input, good coaches, how to run a business,

and, did that, for more than 20 years, grew

it very successfully to mid 7 figure business. And

along the way, I learned all these different things that I wish I had known

right at the beginning. And as my business became successful,

I had friends that owned businesses that were coming to me saying, how are you

doing this? What you know, help it help me to figure this out for

myself and for my business. And so I started coaching really without

calling it coaching. I was just helping my friends. And, I

found so much satisfaction in it. I just loved it, and I decided I wanted

to do it all the time. So I went and got a couple different coaching

certifications, and I began offering coaching as a thing.

Eventually, I exited my businesses, had a nice exit

in 2020, and I've been doing it full time ever since.

So over the course of these years

so let me just also add, Ron is an excellent coach. No.

Thank you. Yes. And I benefited from his expertise

at a time when I was really trying

to put together I need a

clarification. Maybe that's the word. I I had too many things and

couldn't figure out what to focus on. So

so talk about, the thing that made a difference or helped you

be more successful that you didn't expect.

Well, there are a lot of things, that I think made made a difference

for me. Initially, it was it was

more like sales and marketing and processes and things like that.

The the change that I made, though, that that really has made the biggest

difference, and it took me a really long time, even though it wasn't a big

change, it was a small change, was giving myself permission

to show up as myself. Right? In in my

growing up, I didn't know any business people, and the business people that I knew

I knew from television or whatever. And so I always felt like, you

know, there was this this ideal of what I was supposed to be,

and I was always trying to show up as that person.

And and so whether it was, you know, mostly on television, eventually, I

got to know people. There I never felt like there was space for me to

be me in my business ownership and in my

coaching. And so, you know, I would I would, you

know, be on on the on on doing a video or

something like that, and I I would lose all personality because I I just

wouldn't show up as myself. I was trying to be something that I wasn't.

And I was I was doing that with with for a good purpose. I really

felt that's what I was supposed to be. That's who I was supposed to be.

But, eventually, I I just realized that that it wasn't

sustainable. And honestly, people weren't people didn't really

know me. That people knew this shadow or this pretend

me. And and in the end, that didn't work for

me. So the biggest change was

showing up as me. Yeah. You know, I I I

think it may be that may be

a small change, but it is the impact of

that is like a massive earthquake.

And so my question to you because people may

say, well, that's not me. I'm you know? Because what my one of my

things used to be is I'm gonna take off my my my business

veneer. Do you know? You know, that I am I I

am the person who knows things. I'm so professional. I have an

MBA. Do you know? But why do you think we do that? Why do, you

know, why do you think we are afraid to be

ourselves? I I think,

for me, it was, societal expectations. I was

putting on a role of what I thought everybody else

wanted. Right? I thought people wanted this super

polished, you know, always knew what to do, never

never made a mistake or whatever. And I thought that in

order to be seen as authoritative or, you know, having,

you know, knowledge or whatever, your subject matter expertise, that I

had to be like that. And so I just thought, well, this is what

people want. This is what I'm gonna give them. Actually, I I don't think that's

what people want. And and over time, what I've found is that

the more authentically I show up as myself, people you know, I

don't have all the answers, and I'm not the authority and everything. But for the

things that I know, they know that I am gonna be who I am.

And, I think that that makes a huge difference

in terms of people going, oh, I like Ron, and I can work with

Ron. Well, I think, you know, I agree with you. I think,

that our societal expectations and for people who listen to

this podcast, you've heard me say this almost every time.

And that is, you know, we were we were educated in kind of the

industrial thing, and also our parents wanted to keep us safe. And

so they wanted us to stay within the lines, and so you weren't supposed

to, stand out. You were supposed to, you know,

be seen and not heard as a kid. You know? I mean, that kind of

thing. And, you know, people put all kinds of

rules and regulations on you. You know? If you were if you

were, you know, this kind of person, you had to do this. I mean,

it it it amazed me. It well, it didn't amaze me. I mean, I

expected it, but it you know you know, how many times my mom

said, why don't you get a job? You know, you've

got, you know, you've got these degrees. Aren't you supposed to get a

job? Do you know? And so

somebody else's expectation is

constantly telling you that you don't fit in. And

I think that probably the most amazing thing

is as we, get

into the informational stage and we have more information, it's the way

you present that information with your own personal twist on

it that makes you connect with people. I mean

excuse me. I mean, everybody teaches about

change, and I remember saying to myself, well, if this person is

teaching about change, why would anybody come to me? Mhmm.

So, I mean, I'm sure you've had that that that kind of, you know,

feeling as well. Right. Yeah. I think

that the the reality is that,

in in my opinion, we are meant to serve

certain people that we just are. There there are people out in the world,

that we are called to serve. And for those people, we are the right person

no matter what. I mean, if if Bill Gates is offering your

services and if, I don't know, somebody else famous is offering

your services, that doesn't mean that they're necessarily better at it than you

are. And for certain, they aren't better at it for the people you're meant to

serve. And so I just fundamentally believe that there are people that

I meant to serve. And when I show up authentically and and fully

expressed for those people, then the right people will say, yeah, I wanna work with

Ron and the and the people that I'm not meant to serve, I won't. And

and that's no big deal. And I think that that

really helps to reduce the pressure. You know,

there's I don't I don't feel pressure to perform, like, oh, I have to be

this certain that, and I have to say all the right things. It's like, I'm

gonna be who I am, but, you know, I wanna bring the best version of

myself forward, but it is always gonna be me. And then the right people will

say yes, and the wrong people will say no. No. Thanks. And I'll be okay.

No big deal. See so, you know, I think what kind

of what you're saying is you don't have to be vanilla for everybody. Next up,

everybody wants vanilla. And I think the other part is

that I think being new

starts with your values. Do you know? I mean, I

one of the things that we both agree, and and we have a collaboration that

we'll talk a little bit about before we finish. But one of the things we

both agreed is we do not like the salesy approach

Right. Of of getting clients, that we wanna be able to help

people. And that's part of who we are. You know, we probably

are never gonna be the the you know, have the webinars that have a

100 and or 200 people on the Zoom screen. I don't I don't

want that because I like that intimate feeling because that's who I

am. Right. Right? And so there's a place

for that kind of thing because not everybody wants to get lost in that

sea of Zoom screens. Right? Yes.

And I think what one of the things that that does is

it it helps you to identify

the things that you're good and you're strong at.

You know? And they can be and and and we don't recognize our gifts. That's

the other thing. So talk a little bit about what did

you discover about yourself once you decide to be yourself that you were really good

at, that you had never thought about?

Well, that's a really good question.

I I think the thing that, that I discovered

was that when I when I am more

fully self expressed and authentically who I am,

I resonate with people differently and more.

And and I also, it's it's

like before, I was so generic, you know, I

was always trying to be kind of generic business owner or generic whatever

that, you you know, people didn't really love me, didn't really hate me. And, you

know, honestly, it was like I was a cipher. You know, I just it's almost

like I wasn't there. And and what I found is that now people

have have a strong affinity for who I am when I show up and

and or they don't. Right? I mean, so, sometimes we're

like, yeah, that guy, whatever, you know. And and

that's okay. Right? But but I think that that the

ability to really develop deep meaningful relationships

I mean, a lot of the of my coaching clients have had for years. Right?

And and I love working with them, and and and we've become friends. And

and, you know, it goes much deeper than kind of a transactional, you know,

you give me x and I give you y. And I just I

feel like that is how I want to live. It really is.

I'm not a mass market type person. I don't I don't wanna I don't have

that in me. I don't want a 1,000 people in in a, you know, a

generic webinar. I was I was visiting with a gentleman,

yesterday, and, the it was our first

time to get to know each other and, because we'd met in a networking

thing. And it was so interesting because I felt like this super nice

guy, but I felt like he was just running me through his machine.

Right? Like like, I didn't feel like we were connecting.

I felt like, you know, he had a list of quick question. They

were good questions, but I really felt like I was just running through his machine.

Right? It's like, you know, you stick the input here and you get the output

there and boop, and there we go. It's like, wow. You know,

I I like I like people. I like connecting with people. I wanna know

you on a human level. Sure. I wanna know about your business, but I wanna

know about you. You know? What turns you on? What makes you tick? What

lights you up? And so for me, transitioning

to more of this is who I am, I really resonate with that.

And then for some people, I just don't. They they don't they're not into that.

They don't wanna know too much. Right? It's like, you know, give me your top

three x and okay. Whatever. Oh, you know, that's it's

all fine, but it's just not me. Right? I I wanna I wanna get

to know people. When I take on a coaching client, I'm fully invested in them

and their success, and and I will go just as far as I

can to make that happen. Well, I think, you know, that's one of the

things I think that you and I really share in common. Mhmm.

I agree. I think, you know, for me, one of the things that

has helped me is

one of my values is when I meet someone, I

hope that we both will leave as better people whether we work together or

not. Mhmm. And I always I always feel like, you know, one of

my strengths is that I see

buried treasure in what you're doing. I come up with ideas

and, you know, opportunities and stuff. And I remember one

time I got on a call with somebody and he said I said, well, you

know, what business do you wanna go into? And he said, farming.

And I'm like, okay. Just broke my streak.

I know nothing about farming. But in the

course of the conversation, just asking questions and saying, well, tell

me more about that. Why do you you know? It it turned out it turned

out that he really wanted to go into aquaponics.

Mhmm. And it it turned out that had a he had a big background

in logistics. And I was like, you know, do you really want

a local business, or do you want a global business? It's not so much that

you know, it's just kind of helping people to open their eyes to what the

possibilities are. And once you do that, then

they can decide, do they wanna work with you or is it the tie is

it the right time? Mhmm. Because sometimes it's not the right time. And I think

that's the other thing is,

being truthful of saying, you know, you've got

you're you know, you haven't you haven't

done the basic stuff to work with me yet. Or

this I usually work with people like this, and this is what you need to

do before we can really work to get be because I think, you know, I

mean, a long time ago, I I used to say, you know, my

I think the reason I'm the feeling about sales that I do is, you know,

you would go in this really deets me. Okay. You go

in and there's a and the lady goes, oh, hon, you look really great in

that purple polka dot dress, and you know you look like crap. Right?

You do not. So it's like, you know, being

truthful. And I and I think the other thing that you were talking

about is even when you don't resonate with the

person, but it's a positive experience,

they remember you. Mhmm. And so when they find

somebody else I mean, I have a couple people, and it it

surprises me because at least every 2 months, I get an email that

goes, I found somebody you need to talk to. Do you know?

And Yep. You know, and part of that has to do with the they're not

their kind of people. Yep. You know? But but

but you are. So, let's do this

before we run out of time. I know that you've got I know that you've,

have some action steps and you have a freebie. So which do you wanna do

first? Let's talk about practical

steps. Okay. Yep. So

when I think about, showing up authentically, I I

think that it's it's not really a light switch. It's not like, you

know, flip. Okay. Now I'm showing up fully authentic. Because if if

if you're not used to it, it it's it's a bit of a shock. And

so what what I would encourage people to do is

find one area where they can show up and and just turn up the

dial just a little bit. Be be a little bit more themselves, be a little

bit less. Now I I say less self conscious. You can't really

be less self conscious, but you can act with less self

consciousness. Right? So, yeah, at first, for at least

for me, you know, I would go, okay. I'm going to

speak my piece about this, or I'm going to, you know, show up in this

way, or I'm I'm gonna if I catch myself wanting to just offer a

generic answer or whatever, I'm going to, you know,

take a step towards greater authenticity. And I think that that

for most people, my experience has been

that you can't just, like, flip a switch, and now I'm I'm super authentic

man. Right? It's it's it's a slow gradual process of getting

used to it, and you and you take a step forward and you say, oh,

nobody slapped me. Nobody you know, people

are nice. Right? Or whatever it is so that you you can gradually

build into it because I think there's a lot of fear attached to it. Right?

If I if I'm stay my generic self, then they

like me or they don't they don't really know me, so they're rejecting or

whatever, something that's not real. When you show up authentically and people

go, oh, yeah. It's not for me. That feels different,

and it and it takes some getting used to to be, oh, yeah. Yeah. You're

right. And and we're not for each other, and that's totally fine. So I

would encourage people to just think, like, the next time they're sending

an email or, I get emails

all the time that say that that be began with, I hope you're well. And

I and I know that that I'm sure they do, but but it's just one

of those generic sorts of things that I'm like, okay. I hope you're

well. Blah blah blah blah blah. You know? Or I hope this email finds you

well. Okay. Just could we just make it a

little bit more personal? Could we make just make it a little bit more real?

Right? I wanna hear from people, and I want to show up. So when

I write an email, I try to show up as me and not some

generic and I'll I'll be honest. Sometimes I I I lapse into it. Right? Because

I did it for so long that, you know, I like, business speak and, you

know So let let let me just stop you right there. So you've said a

couple of things that I don't think you realize how important they are.

One is that you are changing a habit and a way

of being that you probably have done for decades, and so it

is wrong to expect that it's gonna change overnight.

And since we don't live in a vacuum, a sudden change

like this, if you don't tell other people, is gonna, like, shock

them to, like, oh my god. Are they sick? Have they lost their mind? What

is going on? Mhmm. So that's that's one thing.

And the other thing is that change can be simple, but it doesn't always have

to be easy. And Right. The thing that I would throw into

it is as you're as you're making the change, if

you can say to yourself, where was I that I felt the

most relaxed and I had the most fun and I was you

know, because it when you make that change, if you don't get a

positive reaction, it may not be you. It may be the people that you're with

are not the right people. So, you know, don't

make it one and done. Do you know? And sometimes you

can just, you know, do something you

could take something that you do the way you always do and just make one

little small change to it that it feels right to you.

You know, and I think that's where going back to basics because when we

started and we were unpolished, we

were probably more authentic Mhmm. As we got further

on in our business. And and I'm finding that now with with

my workshop that, I put back something in it

that I had taken out for whatever reason. I mean, I know the reason I

did it, but it's like, this was really good. I'm going back to this.

Mhmm. You know? And I like it. And if people don't like it,

then they're not the right people. Right. Right.

I think that combined with that, realizing that

you you have to be self authoring, you have to be

the one to decide this is right for me or this is not. And and,

honestly, early on in my in my business career, I remember I was

I had a a business mentor. And, one night, I was just

joking around with some friends on Facebook, and they were just saying silly things. And

I was and it it was not inappropriate. It wasn't political or weird or anything

else. It was just goofy. Right? Just being goofy. And

my business mentor, actually called me

and said, what are you doing? And I was like, what do you mean? What

are you talking about? And and she felt like it was very unprofessional for me

to be goofy on social media. And and I was just I

again, it wasn't inappropriate or weird. It was just goofy.

And she felt like it it didn't present well. And at that time, it

really shut me down. Like, oh, I I can't I can't be

this. I can't do this because this isn't right, because

I I trusted her judgment more than I trusted my own. And I'm not

I'm I'm not saying we should always trust our judgment. Sometimes we're just wrong. Right?

I mean, sometimes we need people to say, you know, cool it. But in

the end, for me, being able to say, but I believe that this

is right for me and that's sufficient. I don't need to explain

myself to anyone else. I think that's important.

And and and I think one of the things

that's important as you're saying that is

there used to be a time when when I didn't speak up for myself when

I got my feelings hurt and stuff like that. And when I

first started doing it, it it took me so long to get the

courage to tell the person. And when I first started doing it, I had

to say to them, I guess to tell you about the converse can we talk

about the conversation we had 2 weeks ago? I've

really been thinking about it, and I'm still really uncomfortable about it, and

I'm really doing this for me. Do you know?

Because I wish I had said something then. And, of course, they look at you

like you've lost your mind. You're still thinking about this 2 weeks later, and it's

this little but then it got to be so it was it was only a

week, and then it got to be just a couple of days. And then it

got to be where I could say, you know, there's I don't

this makes me feel uncomfortable. I don't know why.

Can we take a minute and talk about it? Do you know? So trusting

that what's going on in your gut is really the way that you

feel, and you don't have to hide it or swallow it or or whatever.

I I I feel like I feel

like so much of our

interesting bits have been ground down. You know,

you used to be like this little spiky ball. Now you're, you know, just a

surround ball like everybody else, And it's time to let the spikes

back out so that you can you know, and every once in a while, I

do an email, you know, or a post that is

really stupid, but it makes me laugh. Mhmm. You know? And it

it is, you know, and it it's kinda like, hold on. Okay. Sorry. Keep going

because we're gonna run out of time to hear about your freebie and stuff if

we don't keep going. No. That's fine. So I I just wanna say I

agree with you, and this is something that I first heard talked about probably

30 years ago, and I'm making progress even this week on that. So

I'm right there with you. It's, you know, that whole idea of dealing with things

at the time. It's like, yeah, I should do that. But I'm getting

better better than I used to be. As as far as the

freebies goes, I have a if if you go to my website, you'll

you'll see I have a thing called the,

it is called the client attraction readiness scorecard. And

what it is, it's an assessment that you take and it and it's and it

looks at all of these different areas of your business. Say, are you ready to

are you doing what you can to bring more clients in?

And for your listeners, what I'd like people to do is to,

go to to the website and they can do that, and then they can

schedule a free, no obligation, not trying to sell them anything,

session with me where we talk about their

scorecard, what it says, where they need to focus their attention, for the

biggest leverage to to help them to to attract more clients. Because in this

day and age, I think that's what people need more than ever.

That's fantastic because clients are the lifeblood of our

business. They are. Which is why you and I

I I I I will stick this in because this is also a freebie,

where Ron and I are collaborating where twice a month, we are doing the

practical client attraction lab where you can just come and ask

bring your questions and brainstorm and see what

see what you need. I usually when I put it in the, you know,

my Sunday post, I say, come for a minute, stay for the hour.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Fun people. Okay. So here's the

question. The question is, when was the last time you did

something new for the first time?

This summer, I I stayed for a month in San Diego.

My significant other and I are thinking about where we want to escape when

Atlanta gets hot and nasty, and, we loved San

Diego. So that was the first time that we've done that, and it was awesome.

Yeah. San Diego is a beautiful

place. So, guys, I hate to do this, but we need to wind this

up. 30 minutes can go really fast when you're with

the right person. And so the first thing that I wanna say to you

is, before I let you go, is the

commercial part. The part where I say to you subscribe, share,

and engage with the podcast on social media. You know, we

wanna supercharge your business through connection, and one of the ways of

giving back to this community is is being able to do this podcast so

that you get information that comes to you, and you can make other

connections and get free gifts that'll help you build your

business. So I want you to keep, coming to the one

small change and doing this, finding shifts that are gonna help

your help your business. And, you know, you can

listen to all the other episodes that are there and dive into a world

of bold vision and innovative possibility. So, Ron, if you were gonna

give us one some last words to live by, what would they be?

I would say that in the end,

the person who matters most, the person whose judgment

matters most should be you. And if you practice that, eventually, it will

be. That is great

information. But I have to tell you of all the stuff that we've

gone through, my favorite from you is,

how do you like to receive bad news?

That's a that's a valuable question to ask. Yeah. In the first coaching

session that we did together, he said that to me.

And I went, Do you know? And

it kind of said, you're gonna, you know, have to make some changes.

And what it made me realize was that for

me to be authentic, I needed to be

able to receive it the way I would give it to a client and act

on it, do what I would if I got bad news, I needed to look

at it the way that I'm telling my clients to. So that I didn't mean

to step on your last words, but that's the one that that has

stayed with me the entire time. So I

share that with anybody who's listening. Alright. So

like I just said, change sometime can be simple, but it is not

always easy. It requires courage, resilience, and a

willingness to step outside your comfort zone. So

join me on the one small change as we embark on this journey,

and till next time, please stay curious.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Ron.