How To Build A Successful Health Coaching Business Archives

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Ask Us Anything: Karen and Kathleen Answer Your Questions

by Kathleen LeGrys | Mar 25, 2024

Ask Us Anything: Karen and Kathleen Answer Your Questions

We haven’t done an Ask Us Anything episode in a while, so we thought this would be a good time to bring it back. This is where we answer questions health coaches either asked in our Facebook groups, posted on social media or emailed us about.

We have 3 questions we’re answering today including how much content to share without giving away everything for free, how we work as business partners when it comes to sharing income and expenses, and lastly, is it better to offer a free or paid in-person workshop.

Our first question is from Patty:

“I struggle with how much content to share without giving away the farm so to speak.

Do you have any tips on how much to share so I don’t feel like I’m giving away all the content from my paid program for free?”

This is a great question because you want to share helpful and valuable information, but you also don’t want to feel like you’re giving away your whole system – which honestly, is kind of hard to do when you’re sharing small nuggets of information. We have an entire lesson about this inside our Wellness Business Accelerator program, and we’ll be opening the doors with a very special announcement in a couple of weeks.

The best approach for not giving away the farm is to share content that teaches about the “what & why” about your area of expertise and not so much of the “how”. For example, if your niche includes women in menopause, you could discuss why women get menopausal symptoms, what they are, how one symptom can trigger another, etc. but save the info about how to fix it for your paid program. OR you can share an occasional “how” but just one step of it and not the whole process.

Another example would be that if your niche is helping women balance their blood sugar through whole foods and lifestyle, you can focus much of your content on the types of foods that elevate blood sugar, why managing blood sugar is so important, stats and data about how different type of exercise can help, general tips on types of food that slow sugar absorption when you eat. You can even do occasional healthy food swaps where you showcase a healthier option for a common food that is high in sugar. People love food swaps. You’re not giving them a plan to follow but it’s more like leaving breadcrumbs of tips to follow and then in your paid program, you give them the complete “how to”.

Also remember to sprinkle in client success stories and testimonials in your content, because that helps your audience imagine what’s possible for them if they work with you.

Question #2 is from Michelle.

She’s teaming up with another wellness coach to provide online programs and eventually retreats. She wants to know how we divvy up income that is generated from our joint ventures. Is it split 50/50 or do you track the clients we bring in separately?

I love this question, and this is something we just figured out on our own in a way that works really well for the both of us for the past 7 years since starting this podcast and then eventually the Wellness Business Accelerator.

Karen has an accounting degree, so I really lucked out with that because I am not a numbers person by nature. We keep track of all income and expenses for our joint ventures –we track them for the podcast, and then separately for the Wellness Business Accelerator (WBA), so we know what expenses we have, where it’s coming from and where it’s going out. We have a Google sheet for the podcast and one for the WBA where we list everything by date. You can decide how often you want to settle expenses, distributions, but we do it every 2 months, and everything is split 50/50 which keeps it simple.

Our 3^rd and final question is from Julie:

“I want to host a workshop at a local restaurant that offers a room free of charge for the community. My goal is to educate, gain email subscribers, customers and health coaching clients. Should I offer it free or charge a small fee? If I charge, what do you think is a fair amount?”

This can be tricky to decide and there isn’t one right way to do it, so it may involve some testing to see what gets the best results. Generally, if your main goal is to grow your email list and get clients, a free workshop works well. Karen did many free workshops at local gyms and it was a great way to get clients. A free workshop is typically covering the WHAT and the WHY of the topic and you’re laying the groundwork for how your program is the solution to the problem they have or the goal they want to achieve.

A paid workshop would include more of the HOW because people are paying to get information they can leave with and implement. That doesn’t mean you’re giving the whole solution in 45- 60 minutes, but the content of a paid workshop will be more robust than a free workshop, so keep that in mind too – expectations are going to be higher when people pay.

So, either way can work, but if you’re starting out, testing it by offering it for free can be the way to go. When you get clients from a free workshop, you’re earning income to also help pay for any expenses you incur. If the restaurant location is free, that’s amazing and one less thing you have to pay for.

If you do decide you want to charge and provide more in-depth workshop content, you can start out as low as $15 and you can even do a promotion where if you bring a friend, the friend can come for free. This is free marketing for you if people bring a guest, so that’s a win-win too!

Either way you decide to go, you will be getting in front of new people with the opportunity to get new clients.

We hope one of these questions were on your mind too or maybe it will help you in the future with some of your plans as you create content to share, run workshops or possibly from some sort of collaboration or partnership down the road.

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30 Day Fit and Healthy Jump Start

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How to Run a 30-Day Health Coaching Program that Leads to Long-Term Clients

by Kathleen LeGrys | Mar 4, 2024

How to Run a 30-Day Health Coaching Program that Leads to Long-Term Clients

Launching a 30-day health coaching program can be a great way to not only address a problem your clients have, but it can also lay the groundwork for a long-term coaching relationship. The goal is to have people join your short-term program and lead them to a longer-term program as the next step to continue to see results. Today, we’re sharing 4 key elements that make a 30-day coaching program successful by focusing on addressing the most common problems your potential clients face, providing small wins for them, and creating desire to continue the journey with you.

Let’s start with the first key element:

1. Identify and Address a Problem Your Audience Knows They Have

The foundation of any successful coaching program starts with addressing the specific problems your ideal clients are facing. Understanding their pain points is not only important in covering the right topics to help them, but it’s also critical for your messaging and marketing of the program. If there is a disconnect between what you’re offering and what they think they need, they aren’t going to sign up – no matter how amazing your program may be. What are your clients top 3-4 struggles? Where do they need help the most?

Let me share an example:

When I was a health coach, my clients top 4 pain points were:

Reducing processed foods and eating more whole foods
Meal planning
Finding time for exercise and figuring out what type of exercise to do
Reducing stress

Their main goal was weight loss. So, when I was designing my coaching programs, I was sure to include these topics.

If it’s a 30-day program, you can’t go super deep on each topic, since you will likely cover one topic per week, and you don’t want to overwhelm people, so you highlight a few key elements of each topic and showcase examples of how to implement them. This is about baby steps – not the whole kitchen sink.

If you had to choose 4 topics to cover, what would they be? Write down some ideas, and then come up with subtopics for each one that shares the why and the how.

So, for the topic on meal planning, you can share why it’s important, why it helps people reach their goals, saves them money and some helpful tips on how to meal plan. You can share any apps you like as well as any tips and tricks that make it easier to do.

As far as how to deliver the program, one easy way is to create a slide deck for each topic and then narrate it using Zoom or other software of your choice. Canva is great for this since they have slide deck templates you can use and customize. You can then upload the videos to YouTube or Vimeo and host in a platform like Thinkific, Kajabi, Karta or Practice Better or you can keep it super simple and just upload the videos to a FB group you have set up for the 30-day program.

When I designed my 30-Day Fit and Healthy Jump Start done-for-you program for health coaches, those are the 4 topics I covered because they are some of the most common that people struggle with when transitioning to a healthier lifestyle. etc.)

2. Provide Small Wins that Create Momentum

Focus on small wins people can get, especially during the first couple of weeks. Progress is always motivating and helps people stay committed and engaged. It can also be the reason they decide to continue working with you after the 30 days are over.

An example of this could be sharing the importance and benefits of daily movement and sharing options for tracking daily steps. You can have fun with this and encourage people to share their daily step count in the group for the week and at the end of the week, you’ll choose a winner at random for a $25 Amazon gift card. The winner doesn’t have to have the highest number of steps, but by having people make the decision to do it, track it and post about it, helps them take action and it makes it fun. This is just one idea, and it will depend on your niche what topics you cover, but baby steps and small wins can be very motivating for people.

How to Run a 30-Day Health Coaching Program that Leads to Long-Term Clients

3. Create Desire for Next Steps They Can Take with You

You want to introduce the idea that the 30-day program is just the beginning, and there’s a deeper, more comprehensive level waiting for those who want to continue on the journey and see even more results.

Throughout your 30-day program, plant seeds about what it’s like to work with you in your 90-day program. Example: “We go deeper into lifestyle changes that ease menopause symptoms in my Menopause Rescue program, and since we only have 30 days together in this program, I wanted to focus on 4 strategies that can start making a real impact.” In this statement, you’re mentioning there is another program, so it’s creating a bit of curiosity and then at the end of your 30-day program, people will be ready to hear what’s next. You can sprinkle statements like this in each week of the program, and this works well in any livestreams you’re doing, or you can incorporate it into the content of your slide decks (or do both).

4. Offer Your Next Level Program

As your 30-day program comes to a close, let members know how they can continue to work with you to see results. You just had a group of people spend 30 days with you and some of them are going to want more. You can do this on a livestream if you have a Facebook group community for your members and of course, you also want to send promotional emails about it. Let them know who the next program is for and how it will help them. Paint the picture of what the next 90 days together will look like, by sharing the specific outcomes and benefits your clients can expect when they follow your system.

If you have testimonials, share those on your sales page as well as any videos of case studies you’ve collected.

Outline the topics and resources that will be covered in the next program, along with your ongoing support, guidance, and additional resources they’ll have access to.

Running a 30-day coaching program that leads to a longer-term program can be a fantastic way to build your practice because it allows people to make a small commitment that then shows them what else is possible with your help. Taking the first step is often the most challenging, so making it easy for people to do means you’ll have more clients and generate more revenue. You can rinse and repeat this process during the year, so you have a system you can replicate. In between each launch, continue to grow your email list, so each time you promote, you’ll have more people who see your offers.

Let’s recap the 4 key elements that make a 30-day coaching program successful:

Identify and Address a Problem Your Audience Knows They Have
Provide Small Wins that Create Momentum
Create Desire for Next Steps They Can Take with You
Offer Your Next Level Program

So, where can you start this week? You can do this very simply by starting with what you know your audience wants and create a program that covers some of the basics to get them going in the right direction. Make a list of your clients struggles and goals and where you know they need support and put together an introductory program to help solve part of that problem.

If you aren’t exactly sure what your clients want or how to find out, we did an episode all about this that you may find helpful. It’s episode 341 called: How to Find Out What Your Ideal Clients Want.

You can either create a 30-day program from scratch or check out my 30-Day Fit and Healthy Jump Start if you’d like to have a completely done-for-you online coaching program that’s ready to go. It will save you so much time and you give a step-by-step process of exactly what to do and how to do it, including the promotional emails, social media posts and more.

Here’s what Jennifer had to say after running this program for the first time: This program is made to perfection. I had over 50 participants and gained 5 health coaching clients!

And Pam said this:

I love this program and how I can customize it to fit my demographic and make it my own. I enrolled 26 people on my first go around and now I have something I can use again and again.

Whether you decide to create a 30-day program on your own or use one I’ve created, the strategies we shared in this episode will help make it successful!

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Episode 308: Getting Help Sooner Rather than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

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Our Top Tips for Conquering Overwhelm in Your Coaching Business

by Kathleen LeGrys | Feb 19, 2024

Our Top Tips for Conquering Overwhelm in Your Coaching Business

It’s common to feel overwhelmed at times when it comes to your health coaching business, so if you’re feeling like there’s a lot to juggle right now, you’re in good company. You wear many hats as a health coach and business owner, so there are going to be times when you feel like it’s a LOT! We’ve been there too and there are still times we feel overwhelmed, but we’re much better at managing it and dealing with it now. So today we’re sharing Our Top Tips for Conquering Overwhelm in Your Coaching Business

Sometimes, feeling overwhelmed can prevent you from taking action or making decisions which keeps you stuck, so by implementing our 4 tips, you’ll feel less stressed and be more productive.

Let’s start with tip #1 for conquering overwhelm in your coaching business.

1. Prioritize tasks and projects

This is the one that helps me the most and I use it all the time. Make a list of what needs to be done and include the due date or deadline. I like Trello for this but I also use pen and paper, so use what you like. For bigger projects that have multiple steps, I use Trello, but for my general to-do list that I refer to a couple of times a day, it’s old school pen and paper in my spiral bound notebook from Target. Each week, determine what tasks and projects are a priority for the week or for the month. Sometimes, a priority is based on a deadline you want to meet such as your weekly email or blog post and sometimes, it’s a deadline for content for social media or something else. Map out a timeline and what can be done each day or each week, so you have a plan to help stay on track. Even putting things in writing can help, so you have a visual on it.

I did this recently with a promotion I was doing. I felt like there were several things I needed to do in addition to preparing for the promotion, including outlining podcast episodes, writing copy for Facebook ads and more, so I prioritized based on the deadlines, and that’s always helpful for me. I also looked at my list of promotional ideas for my 3-day sale and looked at what was a must and what was optional, so I could decide what I was going to include. Not everything made the cut based on my timeline and other things I had going on and that’s okay. When I’m pressed for time or feeling overwhelmed, I ask myself what the top priority is right now and what is optional.

2. What can you simplify or streamline?

It’s easy to get caught up in complicating things or going too elaborate sometimes. An example of this would be that you’re going to be hosting a webinar and you want to have a workbook to go along with it for the registrants to download. While a workbook would be nice, it’s not a must, so if you’re feeling overwhelmed, perhaps this is something you can do next time. Another example would be instead of hosting your online challenge or group program in a platform like Kajabi, how about hosting it in a FB group for now? Instead of focusing on everything being perfect or having all the bells and whistles, focus on how you can help clients in the easiest way possible.

Our Top Tips for Conquering Overwhelm in Your Coaching Business

3. What can you outsource?

There is a lot to do as a wellness business owner and that means it’s very easy to get lost in the details of the behind-the-scenes tasks. Entering and formatting blog posts, creating and scheduling social media posts, writing emails, creating graphics and/or slide decks, setting up landing pages and sales pages, the list goes on and on. Write down everything you do and see if there are tasks you can have a virtual assistant do for you. Even if you take one or two things off your plate, it will free up some of your time to work with clients or reduce your overwhelm. We did a detailed episode about finding and working with virtual assistants on episode 308 – it was called: Getting Help Sooner Rather than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant. We highly recommend listening to that one if you’re thinking about hiring someone. I still have my very first VA on my team from 7 or 8 years ago. I remember feeling elated and relieved to delegate some things to her and I’ve never looked back. I was doing it all on my own for too long, so I know how that is. I’ve added more people to my virtual team over the years, and I’d be lost with out them. Adding even one assistant for a couple of hours a week can make you feel like you can come up for air and get a break from your long to-do list.

4. Take it one step at a time and one day at a time.

Remind yourself that you can only do one thing at a time and you’re doing the best you can and remember to take breaks. Taking breaks during the day and time off each week is critical because if you burn out, it’s so much worse. Sometimes, just changing your environment or physiology can help. Get outside for 5 minutes, take a walk, do some deep breathing, get a change of scenery by getting some work done at a local coffee shop, chat with a friend – whatever makes you happy.

Which one of these tips do you think will help you the most? Or maybe you have a tip that helps you with overwhelm. Come on over to Instagram to let us know. You can find me at @kathleenlegrys and Karen at @karenpattock.

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Episode 308: Getting Help Sooner Rather Than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant

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Get it Done: 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

by Kathleen LeGrys | Feb 12, 2024

Get it Done: 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

If you’re facing tech challenges as a health coach, you are not alone. We hear this quite often, so we know the struggle can be real and quite frustrating.

While having an online business requires some tech, coming at it from a different perspective can sometimes be helpful.

In this episode of The Wellness Business Podcast, you’ll discover:

A 5-step strategy that will help you determine whether it makes financial sense to stick it out to overcome the tech-challenge yourself or instead, hire a virtual assistant
The importance of analyzing the cost implications of choosing between DIY solutions and seeking external assistance
A super-simple strategy that allows you to hire someone to help you that won’t cost you a single penny
The best approach when hiring a virtual assistant to guarantee that you get the results you’re looking for within your allotted budget

In this episode, our goal isn’t to cover the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant to help you if you’re dealing with a tech-challenge, but rather to give you a 5-step process that helps you overcome your tech challenge once and for all. Yes, in some cases, that may require hiring someone to help, but in other cases, our system may prove that you are the right person for the job.

Let’s dive in!

Here are 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

Step 1 – Identify the specific tech challenge you’re facing

First and foremost, you have to know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, this could be setting up a MailerLite landing page, thank you page, email delivery & automated follow email sequence. That feels like a lot of moving parts but when you work inside one platform it does make it easier to navigate.

When you feel like the task is big and overwhelming it’s easy to stay in analysis paralysis. However, when you identify the specific tech challenge you’re having it may not be as big as you thought. For example, in the scenario shared above, it may be that you’re only having trouble with one piece of that puzzle, rather than the entire process. Hiring someone to help you with that one piece could be more cost-effective and a huge time-saver that makes it worth your while to bring them on board.

Step 2 – Decide if you can do it yourself with minimum learning or if you need to find someone to help you

This is the ultimate question, right? Do you need outside help which costs money vs. spending hours or even days, figuring it out yourself? There is a cost to doing it yourself. Time spent doing that task means less time for working with clients. Does the expense savings outweigh the lost revenue? Even if you don’t have clients at the moment, time spent working on back-office tasks means you’re not doing the marketing things that attract clients to you. That’s a major trade off and has the potential of lost revenue. It has to be part of your decision-making process.

As we discussed in step 1 – if you break down the project you’re trying to complete you may find that it’s only a small portion of it that you need assistance with vs. the entire project.

Step 3 – Look for someone in your family, friends, colleague group that has tech skills that would be open to helping you

In other words, get scrappy. While you may not be the techiest person in your circle of family and friends you have a skill set that you may be able to offer as an exchange for their services. Think of bartering your services for theirs.

Karen hired a high school student to edit her YouTube videos several years ago, and it was a great decision.

Maybe it’s a tech-savvy grandchild or girlfriend/boyfriend of someone you know. You can either offer a reasonable rate or offer something in exchange. Maybe a coaching session, meal planning, or a discount on a 30-day coaching program.

Outside the health coaching space, you could offer to babysit or a week of meal prep may be a good option. Be creative and see what you could do that would help them that doesn’t include paying them.

Get it Done: 5 Steps to Overcome Your Tech Challenges

Step 4 – If you decide to hire a VA, here are a couple options to find the right person

The easiest and best option is to ask for recommendations from other coaches. It’s always great to get an introduction from someone in your field. It takes the guesswork out of whether the VA is legit and reliable.

Another great option, and one Karen has personally used, is to post the job description in the VA Savvies FB group. This does require a little more work and keep in mind that the job description will need to be extremely specific to get the right person. Since this will more than likely be a one-time service it makes sense to ask the applicant to give you a quote to complete the job.

If hiring someone is on your radar, be sure to listen to episode 308 of the podcast. In that episode we walk you through Getting Help Sooner Rather Than Later – 5 Steps to Take When Hiring a Virtual Assistant.

Step 5 – Review applicants and quotes. Hire skilled VA with specific instructions, milestones, and timelines

Here we are at step #5 and at this point you’ve for sure made the decision whether you’re going to work through the tech challenge yourself or hire someone to help you.

If you’re decision is to hire someone then it’s key to set yourself up for success by giving them specific instructions, milestones, and timelines. Every subcontractor needs to have some form of accountability as a way of completing the job on time and giving you the results that you’re looking for. The more details you can agree upon before they start the less chance things will go off the rails. Do your best to make sure you are both on the same page.

Lastly, requiring a specific quote from them ahead of time is imperative so you know that completing the project is within your budget and they feel like they are getting paid what they are worth.

While tech challenges can feel stressful sometimes, it can be an opportunity to either learn something new or decide to take it off your plate and delegate it to someone else. As we always say: “There is always a way!”

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Link to episode #344 – Top 3 Reasons Why Your Free Offer Isn’t Converting Well and How to Fix it

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Takeaway Tuesday – Our Best Recommendations to Prepare for a Successful Photo Shoot

by Kathleen LeGrys | Jan 29, 2024

Takeaway Tuesday – Our Best Recommendations to Prepare for a Successful Photo Shoot

We’re sharing some behind-the-scenes prep we’re doing for an upcoming photo shoot we have scheduled. Photo shoots aren’t just about the clothes you wear or whether you’re having a good hair day. There are several key factors like location, props, etc. that should be taken into consideration for the best outcome.

We’re also diving into a trending topic related to offering a free download on your website. We’ve seen a trend lately of coaches only having popups on their website vs. a static opt-in opportunity and in this episode, we’re sharing why we believe it’s important to have both.

In this episode you’ll discover:

Our behind-the-scenes tips and strategies to have a successful photo shoot complete with a list of props we like to include
Ideas for great backdrops for casual photos on social media or B-roll for Instagram Reels
Our recommendations for the best place to locate your opt-in opportunity on your website and whether pop-ups are still a good idea

Grab your favorite headphones and let’s dive in!

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