Bel, (Belinda Benn) from AussieTransformationCoach.com is an International Fitness Model, Fitness Expert, Transformation Coach AND HOT SURFER CHIC. Before Bel achieved all of her success, she thought she had it all… the so called “perfect life”… then it all came crashing down around her. The journey she took from there is TRULY INSPIRATIONAL. We’ll share the transformation secret ingredients that Bel took to transform her life and body…
If you’re feeling like you’re constantly failing, but you genuinely want to make changes, but aren’t sure where to start. We’ll show how successful people do it! The sooner you learn these steps and put them into action, the sooner you can start implementing them.
Transcript Of Transformation Coaching Webinar With Belinda Benn
Mandy Gibbons: Hi everyone, it’s Mandy Gibbons here and I’m really excited about today’s coaching lesson because I know a lot of what we’re going to share with you today you’ll relate to.
Belinda has helped transform thousands of people’s lives by her Get Lean program and up until two years ago – was that right Bel, was it two years ago…
Belinda Benn: Yeah. Correct, two years ago, yes.
Mandy Gibbons: Belinda’s program was based solely one to one. With Bel’s unique approach she was a secret transformation weapon for her exclusive clients and having her here today with us is pretty damn cool!
Bel, Belinda Benn is an international fitness model, fitness expert, transformation coach and hot surfer chic and on top of all of this she’s fun, down to earth and does it all with absolute class.
Now, before Bel achieved all of her success she thought that she had it all – the so called perfect life and then it all came crashing down around her. The journey she took from there is truly inspirational.
I’ve asked Bel if she can share her story later in today’s coaching lesson along with covering the techniques and steps you can apply to your life to jump start your own transformation.
And with that being said how are you Bel?
Belinda Benn: Excellent Mandy, how are you, great to hear your little Aussie voice and very excited to be here sharing with all of your people today.
Mandy Gibbons: I’m great, thanks and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into today’s coaching lesson and thanks so much for taking the time today to share your advice with our members.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, a pleasure. I’ve been following your newsletters for a while and I’ve got this kind of behind the scenes peeks into what you’re doing for your people and I’m very excited and I know that you’re going to have a big impact and change a lot of lives through the work that you’re doing online. So I’m just really thrilled to be a part of that.
Mandy Gibbons: Thanks, thanks Bel.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, it’s true!
Mandy Gibbons: Well, shall we get started. Are you as excited as I am?
Belinda Benn: Let’s get into it!
Mandy Gibbons: Okay, first off I want to say Bel you live life with great enthusiasm and you certainly lead by example.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, thank you. I think a lot of people say that actually Mandy and that’s, I think, one of the big differences is when you can look at someone and see that they walk the talk so to speak.
Mandy Gibbons: Yep.
Belinda Benn: …but they show you and I’ve thought about it a bit because I’ve had that comment a lot and I think it’s – I know what it’s like to walk in the shoes of somebody who doesn’t feel good about themselves, who is carrying extra weight or haven’t achieved their fitness goals and just isn’t happy with where they’re at and that’s where I was at before I started exercising and working out and eating right around my late 30’s and I never forget that. I always remember it and when I’m helping people they can feel that, they can feel that I know what it’s like, how hard it is, and what it requires to make those positive changes.
So I really believe that leading by example is one of the big secrets to my success in helping people.
Mandy Gibbons: Definitely, definitely. Bel, this is something that you’re very passionate about in your advice to your clients and that the word transformation, and that it means different things to different people.
Would you mind expanding on this for our members attending this coaching session today?
Belinda Benn: Absolutely, I think the word transformation has a lot of preconceived ideas as in it has to be some very big dramatic change and that just isn’t the case because transformation is simply a change for the better and making a change that there’s going to create a trickle down affect that by making one or two positive changes in your life that then leads on to fuel inspire other positive changes.
And that’s really the secret and what I’d really loved people to do today is think about what transformation means to you because it’s only meaningful in terms of how you see yourself and what kind of changes you want to see and they can be big things and they can be really small things and it’s simply just making a mental adjustment and changing your focus to start making those changes on a daily basis no matter how small that are aiming towards your transformation goals and they can be really simple things like, hey, you know what, I want to fit into my old cloths again, all of the old cloths in the back of my wardrobe. I want to get into my skinny jeans, for example, or I want to be able to wear a bikini on the beach and feel great, it’s been ten years and every family holiday I just dread having to get out on the beach in my daggy old cover-ups and I’d love to be able to wear a bikini. That’s a transformation!
And you don’t realize that when you actually do that that it’s very, very powerful to create hope and belief in yourself that bigger things are even more possible.
Other transformation goals I’ve had, recent clients that I’ve worked with are getting rid of cellulite and being able to actually look at themselves in the mirror in the bathroom for the first time in a long time just feeling sexy again. That’s a huge one for a lot of women.
We just lose touch with our sexiness. We lose touch with sexuality because we just don’t like the way that we feel about our bodies and starting to feel good about that again and getting in touch with those feelings, that’s a huge transformation.
So there are just a few little examples that I’ve pulled out that it’s – if you can get a goal that’s just bigger than I want to get to the gym three times a week or I want to lose ten pounds, they’re very kind of factual goals and in a way they’re very dry.
If you can feel and tap into those bigger transformation goals you’re got to find the commitment and the daily discipline that you need to make the changes to achieve them.
Mandy Gibbons: I’ve never really thought of transformation in that way so what are some other examples that you’ve had with the people that you’ve worked with?
Belinda Benn: Yeah, Mandy, you know what, I was just thinking as you said that about – you know we’ve talked about feeling good about yourself, feeling sexy again, and even getting your libido mojo back. And that brings to mind a couple that I’ve been training here at Panama for about 18 months; a husband and wife, very, very, very successful. They’ve got two little kids and about four or five months into the program – I train the separately on the same morning, but the wife kind of said to me, Belinda, you know, I just got to tell you our sex life has gone through the roof!
And I’m like, really? And she goes, yeah. I said to my husband, I said, I didn’t sign up for this but it’s the fringe benefits of training with Belinda. And he’s like, yeah, I know.
I know it’s really touching and really intimate but she was serious. You wouldn’t believe it and so it got me thinking about how powerful it is obviously on a physiological level that you’re able to – you know, just basic stuff like your fitness levels but blood circulation, of course, and just getting back in touch with your body. It’s huge. And then it’s just then being able to connect with the person that you care about and take your sex life to the next level is so rewarding.
So, of course, all of these in the transformation aspects apply equally to men and that’s what I’ve said, I’ve worked with male clients as well and they tell me – a lot of guys they sort of have a lot of these thoughts of themselves on the inside but they’re equally as concerned if not more so about the appearance of their body and also about how they feel about themselves especially towards the opposite sex and things like that extra weight around the tummy. I’ve had guys with cellulite, for example, they feel they’re lacking in one area of their body in terms of development of their muscular development and just being able to make, change, that is transformational in itself. Like just even the smallest changes I’ve seen a guy go from feeling relatively self-conscious to having a new level of confidence that just exudes and is just really a positive thing to everybody around them.
So, I just love it when I see people – they say to me, hey, I can keep up with my kids now. I don’t feel tired and also just – I’ve had people say to me, you know what Belinda, I got my first compliment on my body the other day, the first compliment in years and it’s always me, I’m always the one saying, hey, you look great or what are you doing?
And now people are saying that to me and that feels really good!
So, all of these are just great positive affirmations that when you make that commitment to start being bigger than just like I said before, okay, I want to try and (unintelligible) 9:16 extra week or I’m going to cut out all of those – the nasty bad foods that I’ve know I’ve been indulging on or binging on. It’s not that, it’s bigger than that, it’s like what do I need to do to make these positive changes in my life so I’m going to feel really good about myself?
And it becomes a self fueling process and that’s where the real transformation takes place because you’re you as a total person not just your body and fitness levels and not just your nutrition but you as feeling successful, confident, healthy and strong for your life.
Mandy Gibbons: People get frustrated being able to get motivated all the time and it doesn’t come easy for most folks and it’s not just about someone being lazy is it? Like we see celebrities or even friends, colleagues, who are successful in their careers, personal lives and their fitness goals and think how the hell do they do it? Are they just like born driven? How come I can’t get motivated like them?
And you’re sort of feeling like you’re constantly failing but you genuinely want to make changes but you’re not sure where to start.
So what’s the real secret ingredient to this and how do successful people do it?
Belinda Benn: Yeah, that’s an awesome question and you’re totally on the money there and I’m going to give you just a few points and probably the people listen have heard these before but I want to kind of package them a little differently and try to help you get some insights that you can – in fact, if you’ve got a piece of paper and a pen you might want to jot down some notes.
And so firstly about believing in yourself and I find a lot of people struggle with this, with a negative self image or self-esteem and often it stems from the people around them. They lack the support systems of people around them, their family and friends who criticize or don’t support their goals or belittle them or make fun of the changes that they’re trying to make.
And when you’re first getting started that’s really, really hard because you’re struggling to believe in yourself to start with let alone when someone’s like, oh my God, you’ve got to be kidding me, you’ve joined the gym?
And people are so mean. People are really mean and nasty and you’ve just got to – not in general, obviously not all people, but there are people who go out of their way to try and sabotage you and it’s simply because – and this helps me a long time ago when it happened to me is that they’re just projecting their own negative feelings about themselves that it’s very threatening to them when you start making positive changes because they feel uncomfortable when you’re failing.
Mandy Gibbons: Yeah.
Belinda Benn: They’ve got good company and they feel okay about themselves but when you start to make some changes, and this is what normally happens at the beginning, they feel very threatened and the way that they react is to try and pull you down and undermine your efforts.
So if you’re able to recognize that and go, okay, this is not about me, this is about you and your problems and I’m going to let that go and I’m not going to let it affect me. Already, you’re going to be ahead of the game and ready to keep focusing on your goals instead of wasting emotional energy worrying about what they’re saying.
And the other thing that you need to be doing is try to start visualizing the new person that you want to be, that transformation, and that can be as simple as, you know, for everyone it’s different. It might be pictures from a magazine, it might be an old photo of what you used to look like, I had a client the other day she brought in a photo of when she was 21 years old, she’s now 45 and she’s actually a famous soap opera actress in Latin America.
Mandy Gibbons: Oh…
Belinda Benn: Yeah, she’s a soap opera actress, they call them – oh, I’ve forgotten the name in Spanish now, telenovela.
Mandy Gibbons: Yep.
Belinda Benn: It’s like a novel and if you’ve ever seen them in Latin America they’re extremely (unintelligible) 13:20 this is like times by ten and she’s been doing that for like, how long, she did it for 25 years. She started in her late teens and she only just retired and she came to me and said, Belinda, you know, I need to get my body back. I’ve just been – my whole life I’ve been acting and it’s just been very hard to create, make, time for myself and so she brought this photo in and I said, you know, what, you can get that body back.
I can see all the ingredients there that she still has but she had just put on extra weight and hasn’t looked after herself and so an old photo can be really motivating for example. A holiday that you want to do in a years time, I’ve had people that want to climb Kilimanjaro, I want to go to Africa, I want to do something, an adventure trip, everyone’s different.
I just want to learn how to swim, I had one client tell me I don’t know how to swim, I love the ocean and to do that I know I’m going to have to get fit and so we did a combination of weight training and swimming.
So there can be a thousand different things so that’s the first thing.
Mandy Gibbons: Yeah.
Belinda Benn: Don’t listen to those negative people around you and to strengthen and fuel the dream on the inside you need to find things that are going to motivate you that you can help visualize the person that you want to be.
The second thing is being committed and consistent and this is simply that, my little thing that I say to myself everyday, just doing one little thing right everyday, it doesn’t matter if it’s just a tiny little thing but if you do it everyday it’s going to add up to a big long-term result and it’s like how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time. One of my clients always says that to me, she says, Belinda, that’s how I feel because we just – every time we come to the gym we just raise the bar a little higher and a little higher and now she’s lost 30 pounds and she’s transformed herself from that post-mom body with overweight, cellulite, tummy to now she has a six pack.
Mandy Gibbons: Awesome!
Belinda Benn: She’s lost 30 pounds, yeah, and that’s from doing – she’s doing her first photo shoot with me next Tuesday.
Mandy Gibbons: That’s exciting.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, very! And so the point is that when she came – in fact, we laugh about it because she came to me with these tiny pair of jeans, she was 148 pounds, sorry I can’t do the conversion, in pounds, and she had these tiny jeans and she said Belinda I want to get into these in six weeks time. And I looked and I didn’t have the heart to say, look, no matter what I do I don’t think that you’re going to be getting in those jeans. But I did – I said, look, you know what, anything’s possible with commitment and hard work and just staying focused on a daily basis.
And in six weeks time she was thrilled with the progress, she still wasn’t going to be able to get into those jeans because they were jeans that when she was like, you know, eight kilos lighter or whatever but the thing was she had a goal and she had seen progress and that was enough to keep her going.
And, of course, now she’s back in the jeans, well she threw the jeans out, she’s got a whole new wardrobe of course and she’s looking awesome.
So focusing on little things on a daily basis is really important. Don’t get overwhelmed with the big goal, focus on the little things that you can do right everyday when you wake up. And, okay, the third thing is staying focused on that goal.
If you don’t know what you’re aiming for how can you hit it? So there’s different ways of defining your goal but you need to have a really clear picture of what you’re trying to achieve both this week, in a months time, in six months time and the chances of succeeding will be much higher.
And finally, you need the right guidance. And this is where, Mandy what you’re doing, with your newsletters and your member’s site is just incredibly critical to success because without that guidance you can fail. With all the right intentions and with all the right hard work you can fail because simply we’re all different and we need that guidance. Okay, how do I just workout to suit my body and physique and my goals?
Mandy Gibbons: Yeah, definitely!
Belinda Benn: How do I adjust my nutrition, I’m allergic to dairy? You know, what am I going to do? I can’t have yogurt, I can’t have cheese so how am I going to get around these and you need the guidance. And so your site, this members site that you have, is going to be, I know, is helping a lot of people to get that guidance and keep people on track towards achieving their goals.
Mandy Gibbons: Thanks Bel.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, it’s true, good work Mandy.
Mandy Gibbons: Bel, your transformation story is amazing and to see you now you would never guess the hurdles and the dark place that you were in back then.
As I mentioned earlier in today’s coaching session to the outside world you were living the perfect life and sort of what made you stay in that situation for so long and what was the final straw for you or the turning point for you that made you say, like, enough is enough?
Belinda Benn: Yes, that’s also a question very deep, very powerful and I think why did I stay in that situation for so long? I think what happens is that you – a lot of people can probably relate to this but as life goes by you accumulate responsibilities; the family, financial, work and little – more and more of your energies are going towards focusing on those responsibilities which are most often outside of you, they’re not about you anymore, they’re about being a great wife, a great mother, being an awesome employee at work.
So whatever it is and all of your energy starts to be focused on external things rather than the internal things rather than you. And before you know it you’re living your life for everybody else except for you and that’s what happened to me.
I thought that everything felt okay and, you know, I had all my – I had goals I guess and longer-term dreams of what I wanted to achieve in my life but they were all focused around other people about it instead of myself and really getting in touch with the real me I like to put it.
So, that was why I stayed in that situation so long and sometimes it takes a sudden life shock or sudden life change for you to wake up and realize that there’s some common things, sometimes – often it’s a divorce because you suddenly have this big realty check. It’s like, okay, right, I’m on my own, how old am I? Where do I sort of fit in in the world now, that’s a big one.
Mandy Gibbons: Yeah.
Belinda Benn: Someone passing away can be a very big life-changing experience. One of my other get-leaners, her sister died at the age of 37 on a tennis court and she – yeah. She never exercised in her life and when that happened she took a really big step and decided in memory of her sister that she was going to get into incredible shape and live the rest of her life to the max as a tribute to her sister; really powerful.
Mandy Gibbons: Yes, yes.
Belinda Benn: And she went on to run marathons around the world.
Mandy Gibbons: Wow!
Belinda Benn: Yeah; incredible story. I’ve got the interview on my blog actually with her. She’s actually an aerobatic pilot and she’s flown with the Blue Angels in the US and has a tremendous career. And most of that happened after the sister passed away.
So sometimes it’s very dramatic things that kind of, unfortunately it takes something like that to kind of wake us up but it can also happen when you just kind of – through something so simple as an interview like this where you just kind of stop and go, hang on a minute, who am I living my life for? What are the priorities in my life? And if I’m not – I say to people, often we put ourselves five or six down on the list and to the detriment of everyone around us because if we’re not a happy, fulfilled person, strong and healthy, it’s going to affect our ability to be a good partner, a good parent, successful with our career.
So, in fact, investing into ourselves is the best thing that we can do not only for ourselves but everyone else.
But somehow we could feel selfish or I’m putting my needs first. No! You deserve to have time dedicated to you, time and money and life energy dedicated to the person you are and you don’t want to wake up at 60 or 65 or 70 years old and realize that most of your life energy has gone in to everybody else except yourself and have the regret.
So, if you’re listening today really take that deep anxiety and how to think about it, reflect on it, and sometimes it’s a timing thing. Maybe right now you’re not able to make that shift but put it there in the back of your mind it’s a little seed and over time it’s going to grow and it will bring about the changes that we’re talking about.
Mandy Gibbons: Bel, using your own story, would you mind illustrating how you apply the transformation principals that you share to change your own life?
Belinda Benn: Yeah, sure Mandy, I’d love to do that and let me have a think now. My first point that I talked about, about overcoming negative thinking and fear of failure and self-doubt and visualizing the new you, I think that really started for me when I decided to learn to surf and I guess I’ve never exercised before in my life, before the age of 37, but I’d always dreamed of surfing and it seemed like a really radical step from zero.
But I was just – I guess what I did was I went out and I bought everything I needed before I could even surf and if you surf there’s actually a lot of gear especially from Adelaide, Australia where the waters like freaking freezing cold.
Yeah, I needed the surfboard, the leg rope, the wax, I needed a full-three wetsuit, I think I bought the little booties for my feet and I had all of this freaking gear, I mean, I had the new – I put the wetsuit back on, back to front the first time and it was just hilarious.
Mandy Gibbons: People have done that in the past.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, totally, yeah. And at the time I was working – I was (unintelligible) 24:17 so I had these long fingernails with the nail polish and my hair was all beautiful and what have you and all of the sudden, you know, I had on this surf gear and I was at the sea and I was paddling out and, you know, it was just – I can’t tell you just doing that like before I had even gotten up on the board, which took months, it was so empowering, incredibly empowering.
So if you’re sitting there today and you’re like, you know, I’ve always wanted to do X, Y and it can be simply I wanted to run or it doesn’t have to be anything extreme, it can be a small thing. Go ahead and just do something symbolic even; buy something or make a commitment like next weekend I’m going to do this. Just take that first step because that’s often the hardest and in doing that you start to visualize the person that you want to be or what you’re aiming for.
So obviously when I bought all of my surf gear I started to feel a little bit like a surfer. It took a while to actually be one but at least I was on the path and that was really empowering.
And the next thing that I talked about before was being committed and consistent and I think it’s simply that you need to make a decision that no matter what I’m going to keep working towards this even if I have setbacks, obstacles, challenges, that I’m going to stay making positive progress towards my goals and that’s where a lot of people run into problems.
We all have setbacks, some are small, some are big, it’s normal. You’ve just got to expect it, that’s what’s going to happen and the secret it not feeling like, it’s all gone now, that’s it, finished, okay, pack up shop and go home.
Mandy Gibbons: And it’s easy to do that isn’t it?
Belinda Benn: Yes, very.
Mandy Gibbons: It’s a little bit intimidating or daunting.
Belinda Benn: Totally, totally and you’ve kind of got, okay, well, I’ve failed!
No, you’ve only failed if you give up, it’s that simple. So don’t give up and another thing is, and this is the key, is don’t measure yourself against others and I find…
Mandy Gibbons: That’s a good one, I like that.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, and a big, big part of being able to achieve what I have is that I refuse to measure myself against others and that’s a lot harder to do, it’s easy to say but it’s hard to do because it’s human nature that we want to look at other people and go, ah, they were able to get abs in six months or they were able to, you know, get into their size 8 jeans in three months or whatever it is that we want.
We want to measure ourselves and feel like that’s the standard goal. And no, it’s something that you have to do even on a daily basis.
You know, when we look in the mirror we have this kind of picture on the inside or what we think we should be which is often measuring against other people and if you can start to let that go and measure against yourself like, okay, how far have I come? How much better am I doing now than I was two months ago?
That is way more powerful and motivating and I can tell you right now that’s all that matters, that is all that matters because when you measure against yourself the feelings, the positive feelings, that come out of that are really powerful and you’re going to exude that to the people around you and they’re going to feel it. You’re going to have that confidence and assurance that comes from feeling good about yourself. That’s how you feel good about yourself not measuring against someone else and feeling like you’re doing better or doing worse.
So that’s what I did and I got all set and wanted to learn to surf in a month. For me it took six months. There were tons and tons of things in my – of course, because I’ve never exercised. I could look around and go, gee, you know, how am I going to do this I’m 37, this girls 19 in the surf club, the girl’s surf club. They’re all (spitely) little girls sprinting along the beach with their little boards and here’s me, you know, at 37 trying to paddle out for the first time.
If I measured myself against the girls around me I would have given up a thousand times over, more than a thousand times but I just refused to because I’m like, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’m getting better.
And things like staying focused on your goals and having the right guidance. The other thing that I mentioned was when the time is right it’s not being too proud to reach out for help and because there are fantastic resources around you, life we’ve said, Mandy’s site, online programs, your friends that you may know that can offer you good guidance and support and you’re not an island, success will not come on your own. You need to reach out and have at least two or three really good strong relationships and strong resources that you can turn to when you need help and that’s been another thing that’s helped me tremendously in my transformation is when I’ve needed that help not being to proud to reach out and say, hey, I need you to step in and coach me here or I need you to step in and give me some support.
And sometimes, and I want to say this didn’t come from the most unlikely places, so don’t get – don’t be limited in your thinking, keep and open mind and sometimes the people you least expect can provide you the most support.
Mandy Gibbons: That’s right and Bel you probably remember just recently I had my photo shoot and you were very supportive of that and I came to you for advice because to me that was quite a big obstacle of my own and I really appreciate all the help and support that you gave me on that because I needed someone who also had the experience and had done it before and was very self confident in their own ability in doing photo shoots.
And so having your advice and your tips and even your nutrition advice was awesome as well. And so yeah, it made the world of difference and I want to thank you for that.
Belinda Benn: Ah, thank you Mandy, yeah, it was my pleasure. My pleasure absolutely and that’s a good example of when you get right out of your comfort zone how even though it’s challenging when you’ve got someone there to give you – it could just be a few words Mandy or sometimes it was just like two or three words that I said to you or the day I sent you a little video link to a music video to say, hey, you know, just stay positive, see yourself as a star, don’t see yourself as someone trying. You’re already there.
Just those few little words can make the world of difference because it’s just shifting your thinking. So be – it was a pleasure to do that and I was really proud of you to see you do it and also the photos that have come out of it.
Mandy Gibbons: It was a scary experience for me but it was an awesome experience and I couldn’t have done it without ya. Hugs and more hugs!
Belinda Benn: I give them back to you Mandy, yeah.
Mandy Gibbons: Well, it’s been great to hear some real life stories and what are you doing online with people that need help at the moment?
Belinda Benn: Okay, I have a couple of things that I’m doing and the first thing is my blog, BelindaBennsBlog.com and this is a fantastic place to get inspiration, motivation, some training resources and even nutrition.
The other thing that I have is my AussieTransformationCoach.com site which is a members site designed specifically to give you that guidance that we talked about before.
And when you’re ready I’ll be there waiting for you.
Mandy Gibbons: All right, and so that was BelindaBennsBlog.com.
Belinda Benn: Correct.
Mandy Gibbons: And AussieTransformationCoach.com and thanks again Bel it’s been awesome speaking with you today.
Belinda Benn: Yeah, it’s been great Mandy, it was a pleasure and keep up the awesome work. I love your newsletter, I love your site and you’ve got some fantastic people following you and I’m just really thrilled to have the chance to talk to them today.
Mandy Gibbons: Bel, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your advice in today’s coaching lesson.
Belinda Benn: Excellent, I hope so, I really do because that’s what means the most to me is seeing people change their lives and hearing their success stories.
Mandy Gibbons: Awesome, well, once again, this is Mandy Gibbons here and I’ll see you all in the next coaching lesson. Bye for now!
Bye Bel!
Belinda Benn: Bye.
END
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