Some founders are wary about using brokers to sell their businesses, but for Nicole Spencer, it felt like a natural choice. As a trainer herself, she saw the value in leaning on an expert.
"I wouldn’t have felt as confident in the whole process if I was trying to navigate it on my own," she admitted.
Spencer ran Authentic Conversion, a business training program that helps online coaches in fitness and other fields convert audiences into customers and grow organically, avoiding pushy ads. She crafted her company's step-by-step methods from her experience in growing a fitness business and attributed much of her success to her own willingness to be coached.
This mindset also applied to working with her broker, The Cornerstone Team at Website Closers. Despite the stress of the selling process, she successfully sold her business to micro private equity firm Kings of Deals for seven figures in September 2023. "I don’t know that I would have done it any different way," she said.
Transforming Authentic Conversion into a sellable business
When Spencer launched Authentic Conversion in 2018, she already had a track record of bold career moves. She started out as a high school English teacher and had just wrapped up grad school, aiming to be a professor, when she realized that wasn’t her calling. With her dance and choreography background, she switched gears and became a personal trainer at a New York City fitness club, which she saw as a "fallback" while she figured things out.
That fallback evolved into a unique career path. In 2012, she opened her own fitness studio, Best Body Bootcamps, in Georgia. Running her business, she used a business coaching company to grow her studio, and the process intrigued her.
Already working with clients in fitness, she saw helping other fitness business owners as a natural progression. On the side, she joined the company that had assisted her and began supporting other entrepreneurs. "That’s when I finally discovered my real purpose," she wrote on LinkedIn.
At the time, online fitness training hadn’t taken off yet, so her clients primarily ran brick-and-mortar fitness businesses. After a year of juggling gym ownership and coaching, Spencer decided in 2015 to sell her studio and fully focus on coaching fitness business owners.
In 2018, she took another big leap by launching Authentic Conversion. At first, she focused on supporting brick-and-mortar businesses, but eventually, her attention turned to the online world.
With Authentic Conversion, Spencer was well-positioned to help shape the growing online fitness industry. She offered valuable free content online, using Facebook Live videos and interviews with successful students who had earned significant income quickly using Authentic Conversion strategies. This approach drove more business her way, which is why she taught content marketing as a growth strategy to her clients.
One of her biggest challenges was feeling like she had to do everything herself to deliver top-notch service. This made it hard for her to delegate tasks to a team. "Part of it is just trusting other people," she said. "Believing that it would be OK even if people bought because of me that someone else was also helping support."
However, her ability to let go helped her company grow. She trained former coaching students to join her as contractors. Since her method involved group training, Spencer could be on some of the live calls while others were handled by her team. "The good thing about what we do is that it’s very systemized," she explained. "All the team members have implemented and integrated those things in their own businesses — they know it inside and out."
This systemized approach allowed Authentic Conversion to expand beyond fitness. By 2023, the company reached $3 million in revenue, with over 50% profit. Spencer managed all this with six contractors and no full-time employees.
How Spencer sold her training business
After five years, Spencer felt ready for a change and a bit burned out, so she decided to sell.
"Mostly I just wanted a lifestyle change versus running a multimillion-dollar coaching business," she said.
She was looking forward to more balance, enjoying activities like hiking and spending time with her chihuahua mix, Mila.
Selling her business turned out to be much more complex than she anticipated. When she sold her gym, the whole process took less than two months. This time, it dragged on for over eight months, with six months just to finalize the deal with Kings of Deals. It was a seven-figure deal, and it included a year-long transition period that wraps up in September 2024.
Spencer is now charting her next adventure, exploring passive income opportunities like investing in a construction equipment business. She’s also excited about sharing her expertise through public speaking or even writing a book.
"I have worked so hard to build a name for myself and a personal brand," she said.
"I don’t know where my next step is headed, but it’s got to be a whole lot easier than what I’ve already done to get where I am."
Conclusion
Nicole Spencer’s journey from an English teacher to the founder of a multimillion-dollar online training business is nothing short of inspiring. Her ability to take risks, adapt, and trust in others not only led to the creation of Authentic Conversion but also to its successful sale. Now, as she explores new ventures and opportunities, Spencer continues to share her wealth of knowledge and passion, proving that the next chapter can indeed be easier and just as fulfilling as the last.
