Ask Us Anything: Karen and Kathleen Answer Your Questions

Ask Us Anything: Karen and Kathleen Answer Your Questions

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 3rd 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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Feeling Like Your Coaching Business is Stuck? 3 Ideas for Giving It a Boost

Feeling Like Your Coaching Business is Stuck? 3 Ideas for Giving It a Boost

Feeling Like Your Coaching Business Is Stuck? 3 Ideas for Giving it a Boost

​There are times in every business when things seem hard or confusing, and it’s often at the very beginning because there is so much to figure out. If you’re in a place right now where you’re feeling stuck, we have 3 ideas that can help.

Even though Karen and I have each been in business for about 10 years, there are still times when things don’t go as planned and we have to take a step back to evaluate what happened and figure out how we can improve for next time. It’s all part of the process.

Today, we’re going to cover 3 specific areas of your marketing that you want to look at closely because these are the most common places where we see coaches struggle.

We see it with coaches in our Facebook groups and we see it with coaches when they first join our Wellness Business Accelerator program – our signature course that teaches a proven system for reaching your ideal clients online and consistently enrolling new clients within 60 days. We’ll be opening the doors to the WBA on Monday, April 17th, and if you’d like to be notified when the doors open, just message me on Instagram here.

Let’s dive into the ideas for giving your business a boost.

When we look at the health coaches who are struggling to get clients, one thing we notice is: 

1. They don’t have a marketable ideal client.  A marketable ideal client is someone who:

    1. Knows they have a problem – they are aware of their struggle or issue.
    2. Wants to solve the problem – they are looking for a solution.
    3. Has money to invest into that solution – this is important, so you have people who are willing and ready to invest in the solution.

This is one of the first things we cover in the Wellness Business Accelerator because it’s so foundational and critical for reaching the people you want to help. Once coaches have this in place, everything else get easier because they are attracting the right people.

You could be trying to reach people on social media who may be aware of the problem they have (let’s say it’s high blood sugar) but they aren’t actively looking for a solution and they don’t have money to invest, so those people will never become paying clients no matter how amazing your marketing is or how often you show up for them. These people definitely need help but until they are ready and willing to invest in solving the problem by hiring you they aren’t the people you are trying to connect with.

One way to solve this problem and make sure you are attracting the right people that have all of the attributes of a marketable ideal client is to be very clear in your messaging and the content you create – are you speaking to the people who already know they have a problem, they are looking for a solution and they are ready to take action because they have money to invest?

So, you could choose a niche, but you also want to be sure it’s a marketable ideal client.  We cover all of this in the WBA to make it easy.

Another common struggle coaches have is:

2. Not getting the attention of their dream clients on social media.  This is typically due to 3 reasons:

    1. Not speaking clearly with the words and phrases your ideal clients are using – you’re using industry jargon or words they are not actually using so there is a disconnect
    2. Not creating content around their pain points – maybe you’re covering more general content but it’s not specific to your niche
    3. No clear theme in your content creation strategy – you’re posting graphics and other content but there is no real path for taking followers to the next step of the customer journey which leads them to working with you.

Let’s look at not speaking clearly with the words and phrases your ideal clients are using because this is very common.  One example would be if your niche was helping women improve their menopausal symptoms through diet and lifestyle.  These women may be thinking about their frustration with hot flashes, waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, sudden weight gain around their waist and mood swings. If you’re focusing more on words like ‘balancing hormones and hormonal imbalances” they may not resonate with that because it’s not speaking to the pain points they have – it’s going over their heads. That doesn’t mean you can’t use those words in places like your sales page and other areas of you copy and your content, but you want to focus on using more of what they are already thinking and saying, so they can relate to you more and see that you may be the one to help them.  We covered this topic in detail on episode 296 about How to Find Out What Your Ideal Clients Really Want, so check that one out if you need help with this.

Remember, you’re not trying to reach the masses with your social media content. You are trying to get people to say, “Yes, this is for me” or “No, this is not for me”. You do that through creating content that speaks clearly and concisely about what you believe, your unique approach to solving their problem, and consistently inviting them to work with you.

Let’s move on to #3, which is…

3. Lack of consistency in making offers. This includes things such as:

    1. Opening and promoting spots on your calendar for discovery calls
    2. Opening the doors to your program/services at least once per quarter (open/close cart launch)

This is a big one! We know health coaches don’t want to come off as being salesy, but what often happens is the other extreme – they never or rarely ever promote their programs or invite people to book discovery calls. It would be amazing if our followers and subscribers automatically knew how we can help them, but they need reminders and they also need us to have direct calls to action such as how to book a call, how they can sign up to work with us, join a membership or other program.  There has to be an intentional strategy with this where you plan it out on social media, and you map out any launches or promotions you want to do.

How often are you making offers – inviting people to take the next step in one of your paid programs?  If you don’t have enough clients right now, chances are, you aren’t doing it often enough.  One of the things we love helping our Wellness Business Accelerator students accomplish while we are together is to do a deep dive into how to make offers, how to map out their launches and the best way to get your followers excited about working with you before you even open the doors.

We know there is a lot to learn when it comes to growing your business with online strategies such as social media and email list building, but the good news is you CAN learn exactly how to do it. We love sharing our proven strategies to systematize and scale your efforts so you’ll save time and we’ll help you get the best results in the shortest time possible.

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90 Day Goal Setting – Why This Cycle Makes You More Productive & Profitable

90 Day Goal Setting – Why This Cycle Makes You More Productive & Profitable

90 Day Goal Setting – Why This Cycle Makes You More Productive & Profitable

If you want to become more productive and profitable, using 90-Day goal setting framework can help.

When you plan in 90-day chunks of time, it is much more manageable and works in your favor to avoid the revenue highs and lows that often come with trying to plan 12 months at a time at the beginning of each year.

In this episode of The Wellness Business Podcast, we’re sharing how to leverage your time and energy to build your business in a way that results in more profits and the healthiest version of you as a business owner.

In this episode you’ll discover:

  • Why working in 90-day cycles to complete your goals makes you more productive and profitable
  • A sample 12-week project plan for hosting a wellness workshop for client enrollment
  • Why planning a 12-month calendar for your business can lead to feelings of failure and burnout

Today we’re going to teach you how to leverage your time and energy to build your business in a way that results in more profits and the healthiest version of you as a business owner.

Okay let’s dive in!

If you’ve ever tried to plan out a year at a time in your business you’ve likely discovered that it’s almost impossible to stay on track for the entire 12-month period.

Things come up and life happens, and once you get off track from your 12-month master plan, it’s can be hard to rally your mindset back to feeling like you’ll accomplish everything you want for that year. Getting off track can happen in month 2, 5, 7. Whenever it happens, it feels like a failure which isn’t good for your productivity or mindset. Believe me I know because that has happened to me lots of times.

The flip side of this is when you work in 90 day cycles you can plan for success milestones in a more reasonable chunk of time.

In each 90-day cycle you’ll focus on…

  • One major revenue goal
  • One brand awareness goal, (summit, challenge, workshop)
  • One list-building goal
  • Social media growth goal, (FB, IG, Groups)
  • Optional: New project goal

In reality, many of these goals will work synergistically. For instance, hosting a workshop can grow your email list while also helping you make sales.

Once you’ve identified your specific goals are in the upcoming quarter you can begin to break each goal down into smaller weekly chunks over the next 12 weeks.

As an example, let’s say that you want to deliver a high-value workshop as a list-building opportunity as a way to sell your program. You’ve scheduled it for week 10 of the 12-week cycle.

Here’s how it might break down in your goal setting plan.

Week 1: Map out tasks and due dates

Week 2: Hire any outside contractors that you’ll need for graphics creation, video editing, etc.

Weeks 3 – 7: Write, develop, create all necessary content, (slide deck, social media graphics, social media posts, promotional emails, bonus content, etc.)

Weeks 8 – 9: Send out promotional emails, deliver stories and live video promoting the workshop, post on social, answer questions your followers have. Week 10 – Deliver the workshop & open cart

Week 11 – Close cart / Welcome new clients

Week 12 – Collect data / Crunch numbers / Analyze information

You can outline each goal that you want to achieve in the next 12 weeks in the exact same way. Many of those items will have sub-tasks but you get the idea.

One of the easiest ways to stay on track with your 90-day goals is to use a project management system that allows you to set due dates. Two of our favorites are Trello and ClickUp. Taking the time to determine tasks and map out due dates is the backbone to reaching your goals and objectives.   

We’d like to challenge you to map out your next goal in this way. Even if you feel like 90 days is too much for you at this time then try 30 days. Break down your goals, and then the tasks for each goal, and then due dates for each task.

We can’t wait to hear how it goes!

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How to Get More Health Coaching Clients

How to Get More Health Coaching Clients

How to Get More Health Coaching Clients

Whether you are a brand-new health coach or you have been at it for a while, you would probably like to know how to get more clients. Most of the certification programs don’t teach a lot about the marketing piece of running a business, but without a marketing strategy, you won’t have clients or a business. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be complicated.

We are sharing 3 steps to getting more health coaching clients, and when you implement what we teach, you will start to build momentum and get clients enrolling in your programs.

If you want to learn more about how to market and grow your wellness business with strategies that work, we invite you to check out our lesson library in the Wellness Business Accelerator.

In this episode, we explain each step and share examples, so you’ll know how to take action. 

STEP 1. Have a marketable ideal client – your niche.

STEP 2. Be able to communicate the BENEFITS of your program and the problem it helps solve.

STEP 3. Promotion – Invitations to work with you (in a non-salesy way).

One of the biggest questions health coaches have is “How do I get clients?” We asked ourselves the same thing when we finished our health coach certification program too. You’re ready to start helping people, but where do you get clients?

We teach a lot about marketing and client attraction in our Wellness Business Accelerator program.  The lessons we provide are specific to health coaches and wellness business owners, so you aren’t wasting time on strategies that are geared for other industries.

The great news is that you can join right now with our new on-demand learning format.  You can sign up for one or more lessons or save and get the entire lesson library and save 30%.

First, let’s talk about STEP 1: Have a marketable ideal client.

You are probably already aware that your niche is WHO you help and HOW you help them.  Being clear on this will help you stand out, get noticed and attract the RIGHT people – your dream clients. I saw a post from a coach in my Health Coach Biz Support FB group recently, and she said, “It seems that no one is out searching for a health coach” and that is true – they are searching for a solution to the problem they have, and it’s your job to let people know WHO you help and HOW you help them.

People will gladly pay for a specific solution, not general information or “health coaching” per se because most people don’t know what a health coach does.  But when you narrow in on an area where you specialize and you help those people with a particular problem, you become known as the go-to person in that space.

If you are still trying to figure this out, be sure to listen to episode 236 of the podcast where we cover 3 Simple Steps to Nailing Your Niche. We go into great detail on this, and it will be well worth your time to dial this in to help you stand out among thousands and thousands of other health coaches.

STEP 2: Being able to communicate the BENEFITS your program provides is critical too because people need to understand IF and HOW you can help them, so providing the right messaging on this is key. Benefits are what will get people to take action and sign up – NOT the features, such as how many sessions, PDF’s, videos, recipes, etc. People pay for a result and they don’t really care so much about HOW they get it. People don’t get excited about paying for a course or a coaching program – they are investing in what it will do for them.

What specific PROBLEMS do you know your ideal clients have that you help solve through your program? Make a list of 3-5 of them to get started and get the creative juices flowing.   

Think of it this way – When people go through your program or they work with you, what OUTCOME can they expect if they follow your plan?

We covered this in great detail back on episode 247, which is called Increase Client Enrollment by Focusing on this One Thing. If you haven’t listened to that yet, be sure to check it out since we give a lot of examples of benefits and how and where to use them for the best results.   

STEP 3: Promotion – Invitations to work with you. 

This can be a special promotion of an existing program, a launch of a new program or an invite to a discovery call.

This may seem obvious but how often are you promoting your services and

where are you promoting it?  Chances are, you aren’t sharing what you do often enough.

Because we hear this all the time – “I don’t want to seem pushy or come off as being salesy”, it’s easy to go in the opposite direction which means not promoting yourself enough or at all.

There are plenty of ways to promote what you do without being “pushy”.

Here are 7 ideas to get you started. Choose at least one strategy to use each week and watch what happens.

Some of these can be set it and forget it, such as the first one which is….

  1. On your website (with an online calendar like Calendly). Have a clickable button or link on your website home page and “Work with Me” Page that goes to your online scheduler for a discovery call or strategy session (make it easy for your potential client to book a call).
  2. In some of your social media posts and videos (cover a topic related to your niche and the CTA at the end is to book a free call with you or join your group program).   
  3. In your follow-up email sequence after people sign up for your free offer. This can be 5-7 emails people receive over 2-3 weeks, so you stay top of mind while providing helpful information and an invite to take the next step with you.
  4. At the end of your blog posts – include a link to your online calendar.
  5. Email promotion when you are launching a program with a set start date (online group program).
  6. A P.S. at the end of some of your weekly emails.
  7. Share an occasional client success story and the CTA is to book a free call to see how you may be able to help them too or if you’re promoting an online group program, your CTA will be to join that.

People need to see your messaging, promotions and invitations numerous times before they take action, so repetition is important.

How often are you sharing with your audience how they can work with you? Chances are, many of your subscribers and followers don’t know exactly how you can help them or what you do, so make it obvious and make it easy for them to take the next step. Decide which one or two strategies you can start with for now and add more when you can.

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BEST OF: How Often Should You Raise Your 1-on-1 Coaching Prices

BEST OF: How Often Should You Raise Your 1-on-1 Coaching Prices

BEST OF: How Often Should You Raise Your 1-on-1 Coaching Prices

When it comes to pricing your coaching programs, it can be tricky, and knowing when to raise your prices can be even trickier.

Back when we were health coaches, we developed a systematic approach to increasing prices that worked like a charm, and we’re sharing it with you on this episode. 

Here’s what you’ll discover:

  • How to evaluate your starting point based on your past experience with your ideal clients
  • How to figure out pricing if you’re a new health coach and haven’t had any clients yet
  • Establishing a starting price point for your coaching services
  • How to consistently raise your prices systematically without pricing yourself out of the market

If you’ve wondered how often you should raise your coaching prices and when you should do it, be sure to tune in.

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