Episode #022: Build a Successful Online Business & Heal Yourself Through the Power of Mobility with Dr. Jen Esquer

On this episode of the podcast we have someone that is going to get us moving in ways we never have before!

Dr. Jen Esquer (docjenfit on IG) is a doctor of physical therapy, ranked as one of the best fitness trainers on IG by shape magazine and has been featured in some of the best magazines like Self, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle and Fitness.

You may have seen her speak on some of the world’s most sought after stages, or heard her on podcasts, but this woman is thinking outside the box as she has created a massively successful online business and has a following of well over a half a million!

What I love about her is that she decided to do things differently. You don’t see many PT’s slaying it on social media, creating online courses and making an even bigger impact than anything she could have made in a physical therapy practice.

Have you heard of the Mobility Method? It’s literally revolutionizing how people move and heal their bodies.

And we get to talk to Jen about the power of mobility in our bodies and in building a business!

More About Jen

Jen Esquer is a Top 40 Physical Therapy Influencer.

With a Doctorate in physical therapy she is ranked as one of the Best Fitness Trainers on IG by Shape Magazine and has been featured in Self Magazine, Men’s Fitness, Muscle and Fitness as well as well as a select interview guest on CBS and on the RISE podcast with Mogul CEO Rachel Hollis.

She is the Founder and Owner of Mobility Method, LLC, sits on the medical advisory board for Women’s Health and Strong Fitness magazine and is an online sensation with more than a 1/2 million followers and viral videos with millions of views helping people shape and reshape how they use their body. As an expert in physical mobility she speaks all over the country on the topic of health and longevity attracting customers from stay at home moms to Hollywood actors and Olympic athletes.

As a self-proclaimed “mover”, Jen has spent more than 2/3 of her life upside down helping herself and those who are willing to listen to their body, reverse aging, eliminate pain and do the things they never thought possible.

What would you say to someone who is in that place in their life where they think this is just how it is? This is how my body is (or isn’t) and I can’t change it.

I would say there's always the ability to adapt and grow, especially if you were born with this capable, able body.  There's no reason that it doesn't have the ability to adapt. That's what's so amazing about our, about our bodies is that we have so much that we can change and that we can grow into. And I mean I, I talked about this whole conversation at the speech that you listened to me and it talked about even our external conversation. So what we get put on to us through genetics and like what we're told just gets passed down in family lines. That gets put onto us. And we're like, oh, this is just a part of me when really we now know that we have the ability to change the function of our genes based on what we do in our environment. So we're not even limited based on that. And then I have so many people that come into me and they're like, oh, well my mom has plantar fascistic so I have plantar fascistic.

And I'm like, it actually, it doesn't work like that. Pain diagnoses don't get carried down. Generation to generation.  What you've seen and how your mom walks or you know, some of her compository patterns that she stands in. Maybe you picked up some of those. And that's why you're now down the line having the same experiences, a pain. But it doesn't mean that because someone had this pain experience and this physical therapy diagnosis means that you're going to get it. So I think it's just coming back into the fact and the reality that we're actually responsible for everything within our body. We're responsible for taking the control back and having the power in our hands to be able to change and manipulate things. And knowing that that gives you so much power to be able to move into different things. And I get like surgery after surgery, after surgery, it can feel so daunting to be like, but I can't, like my body is literally not allowing me.

And that's where I would say, okay…

let's stop focusing on the knees and let's look at the bigger picture because your body works as a whole.

So how can we take pressure off of the knees? How can we not put our focus on this one area and open up what, what you do have. And that's another thing that I like to talk about is like we focus on what we don't have, right? What we are limited in rather than what we do have. Rather than saying, well, my ankles are working pretty good, my toes and my feet work well. So what if I work to open those up even more so I can take pressure off at the knees or to, if I work to open up my hips even more so I can take pressure off of the needs and so that I can move more.  So that I can work out so that I can do these different things. And when we start exploring the body as a whole rather than buy parts, we realized that we have so much more available to us.

Can you share a little bit more about the Mobility Method and The Optimal Body and how that came to be?

Yeah, I mean really it was just observing my audience over time. So I knew that once I graduated physical therapy school, it was actually a scary thing for me to be like, okay, let me start educating now he's, I felt like a fresh graduate. I felt like what do I know? But at the same time I didn't want to just post these fitness inspirational things because I knew that I had more to share and I wanted people to look at me in this light of being a doctor of physical therapy and knowing the body. And so I just, I got inspired by my friend Vinnie Pham who created mio detox and he encouraged me to start posting things that I knew my audience would like. 

At the time I did a lot of handstands. So I was known as gen the Yogi and so he was like, just start posting about the body and education based in Yoga. And I was like, okay. Even though I don't do yoga, I can understand the body in terms of like if you want to get into the stretch or avoid this pain, here are some things that you can do. And so I started to lean into that and I noticed that it picked up even more than my fitness videos. I was like, Whoa, this is crazy for me, this is basic information. I thought everyone knew it yet to find that more people were coming to me.

More people were watching it. I was like, okay, let just lean in. And so I continued to listen to my audience like let me lean in.  What are they liking, what are they gravitating toward? And that's how I also knew that over a year of doing educational videos, people really liked the foundational videos, which was mobility. Like if I talked about a pain area, whether it was the knee, the foot, shoulder, anything. I always started the week with a mobility and then would go into corrective exercises, strength exercises, skill, because that's how I see it built upon. Like it's the same way of a kid doesn't crawl or walk or start gaining strength until they put their toes in their mouth.

We literally have these developmental stages when we're babies of gaining mobility before patterning on top of that. And it's the same within our bodies that we should continue as what adults we need mobility before we start strength training in order to avoid pain and injury and actually perform at the level we want to perform that.  And so the fact that people gravitate towards that more, it was just, it made me so happy and it made me understand that like, okay, I can give them a whole toolbox of what they can create within their own bodies of mobility so that they can do it on their own. Because I also started to realize as a platform of Instagram started to grow algorithms, we're changing who's actually saying my one minute video, who's actually saving by one minute video and and getting value out of it and how could I provide more value outside of this platform that could be taken away from me at any time. Instagram is not mine. You know, and I have friends that lose their Instagrams and that lose their social media platforms because it's not theirs. And so how can I create my own thing that is mine and that actually can help people?

Tell us about the launch since we're on it. What was your first launch experience like and how have you launched it multiple times? Like how's your experience been with that?

Oh man, that first lunch was incredible. I was also, I must say I was in a personal development program at the time as well. So there was so much that was coming out of me that I was just like stepping into and growing into this confidence of what I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it and not feeling like I needed to hold back. And so if you want business to grow, I think you get to grow in personal development in a huge way as well. So I will just preface it with that because I was in such this light that getting on lives and promoting it didn't feel like promoting, right? It felt like speaking into what I truly believe in what I know can help people. So that was amazing. And so I sat down with Lori harder actually before I decided to do, I had seen these challenges go into launches and I knew that's probably how I can get my audience to get on board with what I'm talking about and get, give them a little bit more value and longer form than Instagram before I launched it to a program.

And so I read Jeff Walker's book launch. I reached out to Lori and asked her if she would help me, which she graciously agreed to and sat down with me and just kind of went over how she sets up her challenges and when she promotes and gave me some great nuggets and good ideas. And so I decided to launch a free challenge. I had no idea how to do Facebook ads. So I was like, let me not even worry about that because I'm just figuring out how to put a sales page together, how to put emails together. Like I don't anything in this space. So let me not try to put on something else on my plate that I can't figure out. And so what I did is I just asked for support. So I made these Instagram story ads with about my free challenge and just texted so many people and asked my friends, would you mind putting this up in your Instagram and sharing about my free challenge.

No pressure, no worries if you don't feel comfortable, all good. And I had like 95% of people agreed to support me and it was a free challenge. It wasn't about my, my program. And so people put it up and shared for me. Those are my ads, you know, it was my friends supporting me, which was amazing and beautiful. And I get, I think sometimes we get scared to ask for support as well. Right. And that was it. That's the only way that I was able to put this lunch together was asked for support, ask, reach out to Laurie. And that was scary for me. Like to ask for this huge thing and then to ask my friends to promote my challenge and see what would happen with that. And from that challenge going into the lunch, I was like, okay, a hundred is going to be my goal, a hundred sales total for the week.

And I blew that out in the first day and I was like, what is happening? Like it was just such a crazy experience and I continue to get on lives and I continued to promote that entire week not to promote it again. There was this connection that I was feeling and every time I talked about it, people understood it more and people could connect to why I created it and how it would help in their lives. And through each of those Instagram lives I was doing, people just kept saying, I get it. I'm an, and I felt this connection and to feel connection through a live screen where I'm not really talking to anyone was, it was so weird. But in, in other launches since I've had this experience of when people don't get it, I feel the disconnect and when people get it, I feel the connection.

So I'm always like, how can I shift my language? How can I, how can I connect to my people and to me because it's not about the sales, it's not about the money, it's not about the product. It's about connecting to the message, connecting to the Y and connecting to my audience, to me. And that's how I know that results are going to come when I'm able to as happen to that. But they don't come just based on this idea or this expectation of the result I want. And I mean that's been my biggest guide. My biggest win in all of this is the connection that I felt and the value that people feel from it is what drives me. And the results come from that. Yeah. And what would you say is your why? Like what is pushing you, like you're obviously successful in this, you've kind of got a groove going, it's working.

What's keeping you showing up when you could just put your courses on evergreen and kind of create some content here and there and just sit pretty like why are you still in it? Cause I, I see the value that people are getting from it all the time. And I just want to continue to push this message of I don't fix you. No one else fixes you. I mean, yes, if you get a surgery, you have an accident, something like that, someone's fixing you. But in general, like our idea and our mindset behind chiropractic work, massage work, physical therapy, all these things is that we go to someone because they're going to fix us. When really that's not the reality. No one else fixes you. You fix you, and we're just here to facilitate that path. And if I can give you tools to help facilitate your path and increase your awareness of what your whole body is doing, then I know that I'm tapping into something that can improve longevity, improve your health, and just take back the worthiness of your body to move into and to start to understand and learn.

Because I also realize that although people are coming to me for pain, it's not pain. That's the problem. The problem is that they're neglecting something within their body. And so I want to bring them back into the awareness of what they could be neglecting in order for them to start to heal and move into their body and take appreciation and take the control back into someone else's own hands. And I'm going to continue to push this message forever because it's so powerful when you start to lean in and you really start to do the work for you, not for someone else, not because someone else is telling you to, but because your body is worth moving into. That's freedom. That's freedom that so many people don't realize that they don't even have. And, and kind of speaking on that note since so many of the people that listen in our seeking that freedom in their life as far as entrepreneurship and building the business and having the income, but they're kind of neglecting this piece of it, what would you tell those high performers are those visionaries are those entrepreneurs that don't understand that like mobility in your body and in your life and your business?

It's a sign of growth as a sign of life. It can't afford to be neglected. Yeah. I mean with everything we need balance in life and we cannot maintain at this high energy, high push, push, push. It's the same way of like, you can't be the only one in your business doing everything. You have to have a balance of other people coming in, other people taking their brain, other people contributing. In order for this thing to grow, you have to pass it off to the team. You have to create balance within your system and it's the same within our bodies. So usually when we're getting stiff and we're, it's because we're not moving enough, right? We're not creating variability in our life. We're sitting at desks all day long. Maybe we got to stand up desk. I'm standing right now and that's great to go from sit to stand, but at the same time we're not putting our joints in their full range of motion and we're not creating true balance.

So balance isn't just sitting to standing or walking around. It. Balance is actually moving into your body and it to go from this high stressful state to this low parasympathetic state.

Let's start with Instagram -you have over a half a million followers and say, oh my gosh, what did she do? Did she just go viral? Did this happen overnight? How do I do that? What's the formula? Can you tell us kind of that progression and what that looked like?

It doesn’t happen overnight. Now I'm, I'm going on to almost five years of being on Instagram and it started purely just for family and friends. And along my journey it's expanded into so much more clearly and the only way it's grown is through collaboration. Like that was what got me started on getting followers is that I met this calisthenic community and this guy started posting anyone within the cows, then a community and all of a sudden I was like, oh, so I just do fitness things now. Like a lot of people are showing up to my page all of a sudden and so it was through these collaborations and meeting other people and being like, oh it looks like you're interested in the same thing.

I am like, do you want to work together? Do you want to do something together? And being open to share across platforms, being open to say like, Hey, this is what I've learned from this person. This is what I've learned from this person I this is, this is who I'm working with today or whatever it may be, and be able to collaborate together. And share is been the number one thing that has helped me to grow and I tell people all the time like just because they're in your space, does it mean that you can't help each other out? Like when I first launched my program, again, I go back to my friend Benny, he was just so supportive. He put the link for my program and his bio and he had over 500,000 followers. So it was like that was incredible amount of support to have someone not only just share my free challenge, but he shared my program and put the link in his bio.

Like that was insane. And he's a physical therapist, but there is no scarcity. There's no like, oh well if you're doing this I'm, I can't share it or I can't do it as well. It's like, no, there's room for everyone and people are going to relate to you on different levels. So collaboration, finding people within your tribe, within your community, within whatever it may be. There's so many ways that you can, you can collaborate, you can help each other. And it's about providing value for the other person as well. So if he can provide value for someone and then maybe they can exchange some kind of way, it's just you want to become natural to like everyone I've collaborated with. It's because it's, it's real. For me, it's natural. I support because I want to support and there's a real bond and I appreciation of the other person or what they're creating and doing in the world.

So that's my number one. And then number two is that, you know, the more information you give, the more you build credibility and the more consistent you are, the more you build trust. Because if I'm going to show up every single day providing value, even if you see it, if you don't see it, you know that you can trust me to deliver and continue to deliver. So I build trust through consistency. I build credibility through pushing all my information out. Like I've had several friends when I was building and be like, but what if I share all my information? Then people are going to happen, people are going to steal it. And you're like, people still things all the time. We have to get out of this mentality of like this is mine. No, you recreated the will from something else, which is okay because you do it in your own beautiful and unique way.

So just continue to push the information that you know, push the information that you've learned. Because the more that you do that, the more you build credibility and reliability with who you are and your brand and your message. And the more people know that they can rely on you to get help, to find value, to buy your products. So for me, it's just, I think innately a lot of these principles have been driven into me from a gymnast having to show up consistently, do the work, do the hard work when no one else is watching, you know, for hopefully making it and, and doing well in competition. But I created this platform purely and grew it purely out of what value can I give for other people. Not knowing that I was going to create a business out of it, not knowing that I was going to create programs out of it and just wanting to to show people that they can do it. And I'm super grateful because I have been able to share more of my personal self and people are gravitating toward that as well. And I'm open and I'm raw and I'm real and people can take it or leave it. And, and I appreciate the ones who stay.

And I love how you, you know, you lead with your mission over the money and the money came, you infuse that heartbeat into what you believed and you created something from that. And a lot of people come at it from what product can I create that will give me something versus what's something that I can create that will serve more people? And the ones that do it the ladder, they are the ones that they get it. They're, they remain passionate about what they're doing. They actually have a mission they believe in and they're fighting for that mission. And as a result, the bonus of that is building something lucrative and long term and something that, you know, reward them financially or personally or whatever it is.