Andrea Nordling 0:00
Welcome to the profitable nutritious podcast, my friend, we are talking all about how to start a health coaching business step by step. And this is such a meaty, big topic that we’re tackling today, because although I’ve done a lot of podcast episodes about most of these topics separately, and I’m going to reference those as we go, so you can deep dive on those, I want you to have this roadmap all in one place. So you can see the big picture, I know, this would have been massively helpful for me when I was getting started in my holistic nutrition practice. So I want to create this for you, if you are just starting out. And even if you are further along, in your health coaching or nutrition business, you’re gonna find this really valuable to kind of do a little audit for yourself, as we go through and figure out have I done these things? Have I missed some steps? Is there something that I need to revisit, especially when we talk about the foundational decisions that you need to make before you really ramp up your practice, and luckily, there aren’t that many, and they’re very simple to make, but you may be have glossed over a few of these, and it’s gonna be really helpful for you to go back. If you’re starting out from the beginning, like I said, this can be really helpful for you, you’re gonna just gonna have a step by step on exactly what to do. So here we go, the five steps to start a health coaching business, or any health and wellness business where you sell products and services directly to clients. So this is called a b2c model, meaning business yours, selling directly to consumer. And even if you have never successfully run a business before, you can very quickly have a thriving health and wellness business, when you follow these really simple doable steps. That’s news of the day. So let’s get into it. Step one, is a choice you need to make about yourself. As a business owner, this is something I like to think of as your business owner, self concept, your CEO self concept, choose not to be confused, my friend, first and foremost, choose to be resourceful. And to figure it out, I have been a business owner for almost 20 years at this point in three different industries, I have never had a corporate job, I have never had a cushy salary, I have been commissioned only CEO for a very, very long time. And I know one thing to be true, as long as you commit to figuring it out, you will. It’s sometimes messy, which we’ll talk about, especially in terms of not knowing how things are going to work out. Again, we’re going to talk all about that. But just know that you will figure it out, you will figure something out. If something doesn’t work, you’ll try something else. As long as you don’t quit, and you are in this for the long run, you’re going to be successful. First, you’re going to make decisions, then you’re going to take very imperfect, scrappy action that feels absolutely terrible. Because in the moment, it feels very, this messy, messy is the word that’s what I’m gonna go with, it feels very messy. It’s very imperfect. And most of us really like perfect, we like well planned out, we like super professional polished, all of our I’s dotted and T’s crossed. And as a business owner, you’re not always going to have that, in fact, especially the first time you do something, it’s going to be feeling very imperfect, very uncomfortable. That is okay, move forward, and then evaluate every step of the way, I’m going to teach you exactly how to do that. But before we dive into it, I want to touch on something I think is really important. In this entire conversation, which is the privilege of being an entrepreneur, especially right now, there is very minimal overhead to get started, especially in an online business, which I’m assuming is what you are going to be working with if you’re watching this video. And along with the very minimal overhead to get started. There’s unlimited income potential. Just It blows my mind, I pinch myself all of the time, when I think about this, our grandparents and our great grandparents, they never had this opportunity that we have right now, especially in the industry that you are in and that I am in. So let’s touch on this for a second. There are three industries that history has proven time and time again, are completely recession proof. That’s money for teaching people how to make money, or keep more of their money or invest their money, you’re in good shape. That’s a recession proof business. If you teach people how to increase or improve their relationships, that is a recession proof business. And last, but certainly not least, if you teach people how to improve or maximize their health, that is a recession proof business. So luckily for both of us, were in those industries. I am always going to have an abundance of clients that want to learn how to make more money, you are always going to have an abundance of clients that want to improve their health that is not up for debate whatsoever. It’s not even remotely a question. It is the truth. So congratulations on choosing to start a business in an iron clad battle tested, rock solid industry where your expertise and the tools that you teach are so valued and so transformative to your clients lives. It really is incredible that we get to do this. So be grateful, be excited, you are in the right place. Now, how does this go wrong? Some people get this wrong and make it way harder than it needs to be by relying on confidence instead of self confidence. I’ve done an entire podcast episode about this. But let me explain what I mean. Just give you the nuts and bolts confidence is knowing that you can do something based on past experience that you have suffering sample, you’re confident that you can walk, or that you can type. Because you’ve done it before. You’re confident you’ve done it, you have the evidence you can do this. Self Confidence, on the other hand, is knowing that you can do something because you’re the kind of person who figures it out and doesn’t give up. So before you ever learned how to walk, I think babies learning how to walk is a great example of this. There’s no evidence to support the notion that the drunk, toddling, pulling up falling over baby is going to figure out how to walk, there just isn’t evidence for it, there isn’t it looks completely implausible. But they just keep going. And they figure it out. Imagine how much perseverance is required to get to the walking stage. If you have kids, or you’ve watched kids go through this, you know how frustrating it is. But imagine how babies would never ever walk if their brains were more developed, and they were self aware enough to know that quitting was an option. It’s a great thing that they don’t know that quitting is an option and that they don’t quit. They do figure it out. Okay, so I just want to think about I want you to think about this in terms of, are you self confident? Or are you relying on confidence, meaning evidence that you can already do something? Because especially as an entrepreneur, that’s not going to work? You haven’t done it before? Or if you have, your brain is still gonna argue that you haven’t done it in this industry, or you haven’t done it this way. And it’s going to find the nuances and the loopholes to tell you, No, this is different. It’s not going to work. There’s no evidence, it’s not even possible. Or what I suggest is you rely on the self confidence knowing I’m the kind of person that figures this out. Even if I’ve never done it before. I’m the baby that just keeps going and learns how to walk instead of quitting. Okay? So self confidence versus confidence, super important to bring yourself back to the self confidence whenever you find yourself having some doubts, and you will. Of course, nothing has gone wrong. When you’re having doubts, just bring yourself back. Oh, yeah, I’m the kind of person that figures this out. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t quit. Think about other areas of your life where you don’t quit, and where you figure things out. There’s a lot of evidence all over the place to support it. But you just have to find that for yourself. So step one, essentially, is to choose to be resourceful. Make a choice about yourself, as a business owner, that you are curious, and you are scrappy, and you’re resourceful, and you’re humble. And you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty a little bit. And then above all else, commit to yourself that you won’t quit when things get hard. Because that’s not an if things get hard. It’s a when they get hard. But you can do hard things, it’s going to be so much more enjoyable to do when you have this figured out mentality. Just like your clients know, everything that you work through as you are charging towards your income goals. And your business goals are exactly the same skills that your clients are going to need as they are charging towards their health goals. Okay, they need to have a figured out mentality, they need to be curious. They need to be humble, they need to expect to fail. Sometimes it’s not always going to be linear. And perfect. Our brains want this, our brains want it to be very predictable, linear journey. Really, it’s like this, just like for your clients. Okay. So the more that you know this for yourself, the easier it is for you to facilitate that and to explain it to your clients and to give them that calm reassurance that nothing has gone wrong. When everything has gone wrong, is it it’s so fun, it’s so fun. All right, so step two, step one is all about your self confidence, and your self concept. As a business owner, step two is actually getting into setting up the infrastructure of your business. I have an entire podcast episode on this. It’s Podcast, episode number five, all about branding, and naming and financial decisions that you need to make. So definitely go listen to that if you want the full scoop on all of this, but I’m gonna give you the brief, brief ish overview.
Here’s what you need to do need to have infrastructure in place to get paid. Legally, this is not a big deal. People make this way harder than it needs to be, do not be one of them. Don’t let this keep you stuck. Here’s what you need a business bank account that is separate from your personal bank account. Now it would be the best case scenario, if this is an actual business bank account tied to your actual business tax ID number in a legal entity that is separate from your personal finances. That would be fantastic. Do that. But at the very least, okay, have a separate bank account and credit card however you set this up from your personal even if it’s not a dedicated business account. Again, that would be ideal. Don’t like that’s not that’s not hard, we’re gonna talk about it in a second. Do that. But even if you don’t make sure that it is separate from your personal finances, I find a lot of people want to hide from their financials in their business and not know how much money they’re making or losing or not making by just commingling it together with their personal accounts. Because that makes it all all a tangled web and then they don’t actually have to know if they’re making money or losing money. Don’t do that. Okay, what gets measured gets improved. You want to make sure everything is separate is going to make it way easier for you at tax time, obviously, but also just mentally, you’re gonna feel like a business owner when you’re treating your finances like they are separate from Your personal super important. Now you also need a way to take payments, people in the current world that we live in, want to pay you online, make sure that you have a way for them to do that. I sometimes have clients that say, Well, maybe people pay me with checks, they send me a check. Fantastic, please also have a way for them to pay online like 99.9% of the world would like to do. So that’s super simple, you are going to need to have a payment processor like Stripe or PayPal, or both, where people can pay you online, and you’re going to need to set up those accounts, usually with a like a legal tax ID number. If you’re taking things through PayPal, like personal PayPal, I wouldn’t recommend it, could you get started that way and just get some momentum and get going? Absolutely. And I’m always wanting you to err on the side of just getting going and then figuring out the details later if that’s how your brain works. However, when you are a professional business, and you are charging people for your services, which is what you are doing as a health and wellness business owner, you want to be able to take those payments professionally. So again, this leads us to the next point, which is set up a legal entity. If you don’t already have one. Most people think that this is way harder than it is I will only speak to how this looks in the United States. It means making one phone call to your CPA or to whoever prepares your taxes and asking what structure based on your circumstances you should be filling out a form for and starting is that an LLC? Is it an S corp? Is it a sole proprietor usually it’ll be an LLC or an S corp. Ask your accountant, you don’t need to go down the rabbit hole and spend months and weeks on end researching all of it only to be still confused. Just ask someone, you don’t need to be a tax expert, just hire a tax expert to help you on this. So you can move faster, okay, ask them what sort of structure you need. And then you’re going to go on line to your Secretary of State website, and you’re going to pay about 150 bucks online and fill out a form and then you’re going to have that entity already filed, you’re going to have a tax ID number, you can be able to go set up your business bank accounts, you’re going to be able to get payments through stripe online using that entity and the corporate tax ID number and the information there, just do it. Okay, people put this off way too long think it’s way too hard. And then once they do it, they feel so much better, they feel so much more confident, like I have no real business, I can actually get payments, I have seen people that spend years looping on this, and they energetically push clients away. Because they’re thinking I hope I don’t get clients because I don’t know how to get them to pay me, or I’m gonna have to set up this payment stuff. And that’s really hard. And so they kind of, like deter people from even paying them or even wanting to hire them. Because they don’t have this setup. Don’t be one of those, okay, my friend, get your legal entity figured out, just rip off the band aid do it. And if you are struggling on this, because you don’t know what to name your company, again, something I see quite commonly. Just get out of your own way. Use your name, okay, like I said, I have an entire podcast about this, go to episode five of the podcast, and listen to all of this in detail. But seriously, use your name or as close to it as you can so that you have the flexibility later on to pivot if you start selling something a little bit different. If you’re offering different services, then you have the flexibility, okay, it just makes everything so much easier. I did this in the beginning, I had a different website URL, feed yourself. wellness.com was the name, which I anguish over for months trying to figure out what is this name going to be? What am I going to call my website? What am I going to call my company finally made the decision. Now as I look back, I’m like, Why did I spend so much time on this, and it was very short lived anyway, because I think I only have that website for a couple months. I only use that for a couple months. And then it just changes the whole thing to Andrea nordling.com. Use it for years never thought about it again, which was so much simpler wish I had done that from the beginning. So all that to say keep something simple, close to your name, make the decision, move on, don’t let this slow you down. Now, website, client management software, all of the tech stuff do you need this to get started with your business maybe, but only if it’s not going to slow you down. So again, we want the momentum here. We want you to get clients we want people to pay you, we want you to start testing out your processes and working with people and actually getting data under your belt to figure out what’s working and how you can do it even better. Not sitting at your desk all day perfecting your logo, redoing your fonts and moving, moving the drag and drops all around. We don’t want to be doing that that’s progressed to working. That’s definitely not what you need to be doing to get clients Okay, so if you can quickly get your website up and running, get your payment processor figured out and hooked up to it and you can make these decisions quickly with just like the four or five pages basic pages that you need and get them going then do it and move on to the next step. If not, if this is your buffering action of choice, we actually call this in my program we call it passive action so massive action are the things that you do that make you money passive action are the things that you do that waste your time but make you feel good like you’re working but you’re not really producing any money. Okay, so if working on your website or working on the tech is your passive action of choice. Know that about yourself, and don’t let it waste any more of your time, just move on to step three, and you can come back to that later. So what is step three, you ask? Great question, it is making these foundational decisions to launch your business, there are just a few things that you need to figure out. This is not a big deal. Don’t be overwhelmed, take a deep breath. Say it with me, there’s just a few decisions I need to make. And there’s no right or wrong answers here, you’re just going to decide you’re going to commit and you’re gonna move on don’t ruminate don’t second guess yourself. That is where things really spin out of control for most nutritionists and health coaches that I work with, and it cost them months, if not years of lost income, I want you to really think about this every single week, that bleeds into a month and a quarter, and even a year or two years that you aren’t making the money that you want to be making in your business is actually you losing that income. It’s not You’re not making the income or to losing it, think about that. And when you think about it, that way, it’s gonna help you be very motivated to make these decisions quickly, and to get some money flowing into your business. So first of all, you’re going to decide on your niche, or no niche. This is such a big topic, I have, again, done an entire podcast on this podcast. Number seven is choosing the most profitable niche for your business, where we go into extreme detail on defining if you should even have an edge if you shouldn’t, what is going to be profitable. So definitely go listen to that podcast if this is something that you are having a particularly hard time with. But I’m going to give you the overview version here, okay, you do not need to have a niche. I know I know. It depends what you’re selling. And it depends how advanced your business is. So the caveat to that is when you are scaling with a digital product or a group program, so an online course a membership program like I have, or a group program where you’re bringing people through a journey and getting them the results together. On a common goal, you want to have a niche, it’s going to make it much easier to sell and deliver those products to your clients. If you are serving a similar person that has a similar goal. Okay, I’m sure that that makes sense to you. Having a niche having a really tight defined niche at that point makes sense. But for most people, when they’re just starting out in their business, they don’t even have that they’re working with people one on one, which is what I suggest you do, because you get paid the most money to do it. There’s the most flexibility, where you don’t have a bunch of tech to set up in the background. You can customize everything, it’s the lowest hanging fruit. And it’s also the easiest to sell. So I suggested that in the beginning, and when you are working with people one on one, you don’t need to have a niche, if it’s stressing you out. And you’re just like, oh my gosh, I don’t know if it’s the right niche. Is it specific enough? Is it not specific enough? Are there enough people there’s so much drama around niches, if you’re having that just decide not to have an edge, work with people one on one decide not to have an edge. And I even suggest that you commit to this decision until you’ve made 100k in your practice. That’s my recommendation. And here’s why. by just putting your head down, making the decision not going to have an edge or I am going to have an edge, you make the decision once you put your head down and you just execute on that decision. Till you make $100,000, you are going to see that it doesn’t matter what the decision was, as long as you just make one you don’t second guess it and you move forward. Remember, cannot do this wrong. The only wrong decision here is not deciding. Okay? only wrong decision is not deciding. So this pattern of not making a firm decision trying a few things, then they don’t work out perfectly the first time you try them. So you think oh, it was the wrong decision, I knew it. It’s not the right niche, I’m gonna go back, and I’m gonna try something else. And then do it again. And then again, and again.
That’s what keeps people stuck for way too long. And the niche is not the problem. It’s always a messaging problem. And it’s just needing to do things with more repetition than we think that we’re going to, especially at the beginning. So you don’t need a niche. If you’re working with people one on one, do not second guess this decision. Or if you do have a niche, then just decide and go with it. It is the perfect niche. Go go to podcast episode number seven, if you need more validation on that, but at the end of the day, there’s no right or wrong decision, you just need to stick to it and make that decision work for you. Okay, the pros of not having a niche is you get to work with a really diverse range of clients. And you get to really blow their minds with what’s possible when they focus on your foundational processes, I assume and I think it’s pretty safe assumption, if you’re watching this video, that you work with people on the foundations of their health in some capacity, even if you have a really detailed, dedicated process for a specific symptom or a specific type of person or a specific goal. You have like a foundational process that you take people through. So if you don’t have a niche yet, then this is a great time to work on those foundational processes and to blow people’s minds with how no matter what thing you’re working on, like working on the foundations is actually going to affect all of it. And your niche will probably reveal itself when you take the pressure off of deciding and figuring it out. Because there’s just naturally going to be some topics and some types of clients that you gravitate towards, that you’re going to work with over and over and over again. They’re going to organically just be showing up because of the way that you talk to me people the way that you mark it, because these are the people that you’re most excited about. So you bring in more of them, I find with a lot of my clients that when they take the pressure off of the niche decision, the niche, the niche, the niche, when they take all of that just pressure off their niche, very organically comes to the surface, and they don’t really have to worry about it. Now, the pros of having a defined niche, which I kind of already touched on, is that you really are able to tighten up your processes. And for a very specific result that people are going to get, you get really tighten up your marketing around very specific problems and the very specific solutions that you offer, which is great for growing a community or a program group program or digital program in the future. Okay, so you do at some point want to have a niche, it’s going to help your business scale and grow. I’m not against niches, I just really see that it keeps people stuck for way too long in the beginning. And we’re all about momentum here. Okay, so your brain is gonna freak out. Either way, either, if you don’t have an edge, or you do, your brain is gonna freak out that it’s not right. So just commit, expect the freak out, nothing has gone wrong, when that happens. Just go for it. Okay, make the decision and keep moving forward. So next, after you decide on your niche, remember, there’s just a few foundational decisions that you need to make niche your niche, then make that decision move on, you’re going to decide how you are working with clients. So this is all about your offer, what to sell. And my recommendation is you sell one thing until you’ve made $100,000 selling that one thing, this also may freak you out, trust me, I’ve sold a lot of things all at once, and I’ve sold just one thing. And everything in your life will be better. As a business owner, when you sell one thing, it’s also going to get your clients way better results. Because all of your time and attention is going to be put towards making that one thing that you’re selling incredible. So you’re gonna get more referrals for people because they’re getting better results, your life is going to be easier, everything in your business is going to be better. And it’s just the way just trust me, it is the way I’ve worked with hundreds of people through this process, and I’ve done it myself. So one thing, get really good at selling that one thing, then introduce another offer, I recommend, like I have said selling one on one packages, unless you already have a course like a digital course or group program, or something digital that is created and it’s already working. I’m gonna say that again, if it’s already created, meaning you don’t have a bunch of work to do to get it created. And it’s already working, meaning like you already have proof of concept, it’s already working people are already buying it. If you already have those things, then by all means, don’t feel like you have to scrap what’s already working and start with one on one packages. If it’s already working, go with it. If not, I highly recommend one on one packages, because of the reasons I told you earlier, which is just less tech to get off the ground, it’s easier to sell, you’re going to sell it for the most money. And ultimately you’re going to have the most fun, maybe, should I say fun, I’m not sure if fun is the word you would I would use the word fun to describe it. I think it’s the most fun, but you may not in the beginning, you will have you will get the most experience. And the most feedback in your sales when you’re having one on one sales conversations with people much different than trying to sell one too many through copy. And through emails and that kind of thing. Very different skill sets. But it’s much easier to sell through copy when you’ve had a lot of one on one sales conversations with people. And you’ve heard the exact questions that they ask where they’re getting confused, what objections they have the questions they have about your processes, all of that information. It’s just it’s Intel, that you’re gathering through the sales conversations that you’re having one on one makes everything way easier when you’re selling in the future. I did not do this in the beginning, I started by selling an online course. And it was so hard. And I wish that I had had somebody telling me that there was a much better way to do this, that is going to make my business much more scalable and sustainable for the long term, which we will also be talking about. Okay, so you decide how you’re going to work with your clients. My suggestion, unless you already have something created that is vetted and validated and proof of concept working that you should do one on one packages, not one off one on one appointments, but one on one packages, which is much more lucrative for you and is going to ensure much better results for your people. People do not change their lives and make massive health transformation because of one appointment with you. You know that? So don’t sell that to them. Okay, it’s not best for them. Now, sometimes, a lot of times my clients will spin on the decision of how long should the packages be? Is it eight weeks? Should it be three months? Should it be six months? I don’t know how I mean, what is the actual amount of time that it’s going to take everybody to get the exact same result? And the answer is, there isn’t a perfect answer to that some people are going to get results faster than other people. That’s the name of the game. So you just make your best guess. You decide on it and you move on. Now what happens if people don’t get the results? At the end of the time that they’re working with you? You resell them another package done? Perfect. What if people get results earlier than you thought that they were going to then they’re really happy. They feel like they are a star student. They’re ahead of the curve. They got the results they wanted because ultimately People aren’t paying you for your time, they’re not paying you for three months, they’re not paying you for six months, they’re paying you for the results that they are getting, they get them faster, they’re happy, it’s going to take them a little bit longer, they still want those results, they’re happy with that, too. So don’t have drama about this, make a decision on your best guess for the timeline and move forward. I know that there’s so many variables here. There’s different offers that you can sell, there’s different price points, there’s learning how to market there’s the tech piece to set up, there’s just so much to do all at once. And I want to see you make this really simple, especially in the beginning of your business. So everything I’m telling you here is in an effort to just have you making the most amount of money the fastest so that you can build on top of it and scale a bigger business much more efficiently without stressing yourself out and having to burn everything down and start over like I have had to do in my business. I’ve learned this the hard way, I don’t want that for you. So I just want you to keep things really simple. Okay, so one thing, and if you don’t already have something to sell, then one on one packages is the perfect thing to do. And do that until you’re fully booked. And you have a waitlist and have probably raised your prices even because you’re fully booked. So you’re really increasing the demand around this offer. That is the place that you want to be at when you finally do create and launch a digital something, something that is going to be perfect for your people group program, digital program, digital course, whatever that’s going to be for you don’t feel like you have to know what that is right now just know, when that comes when the time is for you to launch that you’re going to already have created such demand that you’ll be able to just sell that like transition right into it, instead of having a big gap in your income, which is another bummer that people don’t tell you about. So I’m just gonna tell you, there’s a way to do this, that will make it so much easier for you. So one thing, so I want to once in the beginning, it’s the best way to go. Okay, don’t take my word for it, you can listen to podcast, Episode 24. With my student peg on changing offers, we did an entire podcast interview on this about the different offers that she had changed, and what she settled on and how she really started getting momentum in her business. So episode 24 will be amazing for that if you want to deep dive a little bit more on offers. But at the end of the day, if you’re struggling with making a decision on how you want to work with clients, how long you want to work with them for niche or no niche, any of these things that you’re looping on, I want you to ask yourself, How would this look if I was truly keeping it simple for both of us, for you and for your future clients? Okay, how would this look if it was simple? If you ask yourself really good questions, you’ll get good answers. At the end of the day, you know, you have the answers already your brain is a genius at knowing exactly what is perfect for you. So just ask good questions. What would this look like if it’s simple? One thing you might decide to do is maybe take a certain amount of clients for free and the beginning before you start charging another decision that has to be made, there’s no right or wrong decision, you just need to make that decision ahead of time and love your reasons for it. Okay, I do have an entire podcast on that, which I forgot to put in my notes what the number is from January or February 2023. There’s an entire podcast on should you charge for free or not, I’ll set up again, now I just need to go look that up. But I’m not going to anyway, we will have that listed in the show notes for you.
The last decision that you need to make is to decide on your pricing, okay, you just decide. This is not a big deal. Once again, you just decide this is a variable that you can change along the way. So the rest of these decisions, I’m going to suggest you make the decision and you stick to it. And instead of changing and vacillating on it and going back and revisiting the decision, you work on selling yourself on the decision over and over again, on a wire that was the best decision. And you don’t change it. Okay, but we’re pricing you probably will change along the way as your demand grows. Okay, how do we want to say this, charge more? charge more. I have said this before, but I’ll say it again, it’s one of my favorite quotes, the transformation starts with the transaction. I’m gonna say it again, the transformation starts with the transaction. So give your clients the gift of that transformation. I’m sure you can think of plenty of examples in your own life where you have shown up at a really high level because you’ve paid more, and you’ve taken something more seriously. And you have really shown up for yourself because of the investment that you made. give that gift to your clients to Okay, nobody changes their life because of a $70 one time consultation, it’s just not gonna happen. People don’t take it as seriously, even if it is the most valuable time that they’ve ever spent in their life. They may not feel that way because the investment it doesn’t feel that way to them energetically. Does that make sense? So your price is really an opportunity for your clients to raise up to your standards and to really show up for themselves. There is no best pricing, there is no best structure. There’s no payment plan like five payments is the magic this No, hey, just pick something. Ideally have it be a number that makes you a little uncomfortable, which usually means you’ll actually be made Getting a profit, which a lot of people don’t do. So don’t be crowdsourcing this at all. I even did a podcast episode once again, right, I forgot to put the number in here called, like the going rate. And this was I believe, in summer of 2022. about figuring out the going rate, we can link to that as well. I don’t remember the number off the top of my head. But what I talked about in that episode is not crowdsourcing, what people are charging, not looking around at what everyone else is doing and figuring out what the going rate is. Because the sad truth is, most health and wellness practitioners are completely broke, they’re not selling their offers, their clients aren’t getting results, because they’re not even really delivering much to them, they’re trying their undercharging hugely. And then because they’re not making any money, they can’t really deliver on getting the results of people because there’s no money there, they’re not getting paid for it, they don’t leave literally are going broke. So do not be crowdsourcing, you need to make a decision on what you’re going to charge, something that usually is going to make you feel uncomfortable. Sometimes I say, take the number that initially jumps out at you, and double it. See what that does for you. Okay, so just decide on your pricing, it probably will change not meaning it’s gonna go backwards, meaning it’s going to go up over time as your demand grows. And that is it. As far as your offer is concerned. I know that was a lot for step three. But really, it’s just making these decisions, decide what you’re selling. Is it one on one packages? And if so, what are the details there? Is it a group program that you already have created? That’s already proof of concept vetted, viable, usable, if not, please go back to the one on ones that make your life easier. Is it an existing digital product that you already have created? Again, it’s ready to go, you don’t have anything that you need to create it or you already know, it works in itself, and you can just move, if so do that. Otherwise, seriously, stick with one on one packages, and then decide on the price, just decide the gift here is that you are not spending any more bandwidth after this step, trying to think of new offers trying to think of a new niche, trying to revisit your pricing, you’re just going to go sell it, which is the best part. So that brings us to step four, which is marketing and selling now you’re gonna go sell that offer of yours. And here’s where I have to be honest with you, I don’t know how you’re going to make your next sale. And I don’t know how you’re gonna get that next client. And the really mind blowing part is neither do you yet. But once you do it, then you’ll know. I know you’re like, Well, you’re not going to tell me exactly how to do this, there is an infinite amount of ways that you’re going to go sell this offer, I couldn’t even give you a list, because it would be so long. So the great news is that it’s going to reveal itself to you, you’re gonna go start conversations, that’s what marketing is. And then you’re going to do some selling, and it’s all going to work out. But you’re not even going to know how until you’ve done it. And you can reflect back and evaluate and go oh, yeah, that’s how that worked. I did a podcast episode on this as well. Do you know where your next client will come from? It’s episode 22. So you can go back and listen to that as well, where I give some ideas on the how the infinite how, like, how does this work? How do people find me? How does the marketing work? How did the sales work? I mean, there’s just so many ways, some that come to mind are getting invited to present at an event because you’re finally talking about what you do. And so people are hearing about it, and they want you to come and present amazing, you can’t predict these opportunities, they just come to you, when you start talking about what you do. You start being much more playful and generous with starting conversations about how you can help people, I say playful, because this really can be light hearted. This doesn’t have to be so serious. And so many people think marketing is like Oh, marketing, I have to put on my madmen marketing hat, like I had to put on my madmen suit and go to my office and do my advertising my marketing. And it’s so serious. And it just doesn’t have to be serious. It can be very organic and be very natural. You just showing up where you are in the world and telling people what you do and how you can help them and having really simple conversations, keeping things really simple. So like I said, getting invited to present at an event because all of a sudden you’re talking about your business and people say that’s amazing. Would you come and talk about it perfect. Having an old friend reach out on Facebook or through another friend because they hear what you’re doing. Having an old co worker that is posting or talking about acid reflux or something very specific that’s just debilitating to them and having you say, oh my gosh, I can help you. Did you know I can help you? Did you know that my favorite clients to work with have acid reflux? If you know anybody else that has acid reflux, send them my way they have to talk to me. Do you hear how simple that is? how easy that is? It doesn’t have to be hard. It can be playful. You can come at many different problems with many different solutions and just all the angles, okay? Your chiropractor your gym owner might mention how many clients they have that are struggling with weight loss, and that’s an opportunity for you to say can absolutely help them with that. It’s my specialty. Or someone else in your family complaining about insomnia. And you say oh my gosh, insomnia is my fave. Read that it’s like the most satisfying thing to dive into, I would love to help them. And if you know anyone else who has chronic insomnia have them call me. Do you hear how just simple that can be? Now, every time somebody hears that, they’re going to associate you, and insomnia, and they’re gonna go have conversations on your behalf with people that are complaining about insomnia or fill in the blank, whatever it is, that you aren’t even privy to. And those people are going to just start coming. You don’t even know how but the word spreading and the people are coming. This is what I mean, when I say you don’t know how. But after it works, then you’re going to know how, and you’re going to know that ultimately, you starting conversations is where all of this comes from either direct conversations with you. Or like I said, the conversations between your people and their people that you don’t even know, but that are happening on your behalf, which is amazing, or even mental conversations that your future clients are having internally with themselves based on something that they heard about you or they heard from you. And they’re having those conversations selling themselves saying I really need I need to do it, I need to work with her. It’s amazing, right? These are just conversations. So start as many conversations as you can, with as many different leadings as many different topics, as many angles as you can make it a game, make it playful, and just have fun with it. And then you sell, Okay, you tell people that you can help them win these scenarios, and these conversations come up, instead of leaning back and shying away, you lean forward, and you give the four word sales pitch, I can help you. That’s it. That’s it, watch the magic happen. I can help you now most health and wellness professionals that are struggling in their business shy away from the selling part because subconsciously, they’re afraid that they can’t help the person. I hear this a lot. They’re like, ah, what if I can’t help them. And so they go get another certification instead, with this thought like, well, then I’ll for sure be able to help people, but it’s just a cycle that’s going to keep coming up. And it’s a massive disservice to the struggling people who want the help that’s tuning into your message and would really like you to confidently say I can help you because they’re going to borrow your confidence. So in this step, your brain might freak out a little bit about not knowing how it’s all going to work that is totally normal. Most people will go back to step three at this point, and they’re gonna go remake their decisions. And when they feel uncomfortable about selling and they feel uncomfortable about the what ifs people don’t get results in this what if and that what if instead of figuring it out, they’re gonna go Hmm, I think I need to create a course I think I need to create a course Yes, that’s what I’ll do. Or I think I need a new niche. That’s what I need to do. No, no, no, no, do not do this. Do not go remake your decisions. Don’t do it. That’s very familiar. It’s very comfortable. Whereas plowing forward, when you don’t really know how it’s all going to work is very uncomfortable. Welcome to entrepreneurship. Uncomfortable.
Seven days a week, uncomfortable. Don’t resist it. lean into it, nothing has gone wrong. When you’re feeling uncomfortable, you’re probably doing something exactly right. Now, what you’re selling is decided you’ve already decided your offer, you’ve already decided who you’re selling it to 30 decided your pricing, you’re not second guessing any of that. But the thing that is totally up for discussion is how you’re going to make these sales. Okay, you can blank slate that at any time, if you want to be creative, and you want to start over on things, start over in your marketing, do something more creative in your marketing. This is the wild card always. So don’t be attached to what’s worked in the past. Don’t be attached to how you’ve done things before. Don’t think that there’s a magic formula that you see other people doing. It’s the only way know the how is totally blank here. When it comes to your marketing and your selling. You don’t know how it’s gonna work until it works. It’ll be just surprised to you as much as everyone. So just try lots of house. Be curious, be creative. Be scrappy, be playful with it. That’s how a profitable business owner shows up. Do you know how a broke and overwhelmed and overworked business owner shows up? They show up? Very perfectionistic very rigid, very unoriginal. Don’t be that guy. Okay, that’s not fine. Don’t do it. So the best question you can ask yourself when it comes to your marketing and selling is how can this be simple? Very similar to step three? How can this be simple? What would this look like if it was simple? And that’s always the how to start with. It’s always the action that you should be taking in the beginning is what is the simple way to do that. Those are the things to try. Now your brain is going to want to make elaborate complicated hoops for you to jump through. Especially if you are busy looking at other more advanced businesses and trying to model what they’re doing just a terrible idea. Please avoid that and just stick with what comes naturally for you ask yourself good questions. Okay, how can this be simple? And what would make this easier or unnecessary altogether? What would that look like? What would make this easier? What would make this totally unnecessary? When you when you ask yourself really good questions, you get good answers. Okay. Now if you want another podcast episode specifically about ideas for what to do when you don’t have clients, tune into Episode number 30 is called What to do when you don’t have clients. Lots of ideas in there, but Ultimately, you don’t know how it’s all gonna work. In step four, you just know you’re gonna go start conversations, you’re gonna practice your selling, and it is going to work, just keep going, don’t quit, and know that feeling uncomfortable is actually a good sign, okay, it’s uncomfortable for everybody. So get the uncomfortable out of the way, and just get used to that and get comfortable being uncomfortable. That is the ticket. Which brings us to step five, and that is growing sustainably and smart scaling. So this is a little bit weird to be thinking about when the topic of this entire episode is how to start a health coaching business. But I want you to be thinking long term, as you start out, I see a lot of people don’t do this. And I know at the beginning of my holistic nutrition business, I did not do this. And it cost me years because I ended up starting over a lot, because I wasn’t thinking long term. So I do want you to be thinking long term. So you can build on the success you’re having and not be starting over from scratch at any point in your business. It is not fun. Don’t do it. So in step five, I want you to be knowing kind of what the order of operations is going to be, especially for raising your prices and introducing potentially a new offer. Okay, well, you don’t have to do either of those things. But you probably will want to at some point. So this is what this looks like. You don’t reinvent the wheel, you’re just going to execute better and keep building your demand and selling out your current offer, and then raising your prices, and then selling it out at that price and then raising your prices as your demand grows. And when you decide that you want to be introducing a new offer, like I said before, you’re going to have already created the demand to now sell that new offer, instead of trying to do something totally from scratch. And you don’t know if people are going to want it, you’re going to already have the demand, it’s going to be just They’re waiting for you. Okay, so you need to be patient, you need to think long term and not scratch the itch like most people do. And I was definitely guilty of this, of creating a new offer or two offers, or I think at one point I had five offers all at the same time. Because I was thinking I need the next thing I need the next thing I needed a cheaper price point, I need a more expensive price point, I need a DIY version, I need a done with you version, your brain will freak out about all of the ideas, be patient, don’t introduce those until you have made a lot of money, I suggest being in the six figures. And more before you do this, and thinking long term, okay, what you’re going to experience which every single person does, is your brain will absolutely freak out and tell you this is a fluke, this is not sustainable. I can’t do this. It’s a fluke. I don’t know how to repeat it. I don’t know where the people are coming from, I’ll revisit stage four, where your marketing and your selling is happening. But you’re like, how is it even working? You’re just having conversations, you’re trying all the things? You’re putting things on your website, and someone’s sharing an email, and it’s like, how did that person even share it? And how, and it’s all very mysterious. It’s like, oh, is this working? But it is working? Well, your brain is gonna really have a problem with that. And it’s gonna argue with you that it is not sustainable. And it’s a fluke. None of that is true. Okay, absolutely, none of it is true. Because remember, you have the self confidence to know that you figure things out, and that you created those results in the first place. And if you created those results in the first place, you know how to keep creating them, and it will keep working. So we’ve we first of all, shush your mind on the it’s a fluke thoughts, because that’s not even true, but you will have them and they’ll come up. And if you don’t anticipate that they’re going to come, what happens is you start chasing sparkly squirrels, you start doing crazy things, introducing new products, changing your prices, like trying new market and getting on a new platform and like deep diving on a new platform that takes all of your time and bandwidth and abandoning the things that were working before, which will really flatline you things like that. So there’s lots of different ways that this can show up. But ultimately, if you know that that is going to happen, and you can see it for what it is, when it does, you will be so much better served. So I do want to make a little plug here for being around successful people. Okay, success leaves clues. We know this, my favorite, I’ve should like wear that on my shirt everyday success leaves clues, surround yourself with others that are in the same stage or better yet further along than you. So you can see what they’re doing that makes them successful, and you can get support from them. And you can get strategies that work instead of getting overwhelmed with all of the sparkly squirrel tactics and all of the things that you could try and trying to figure it out on your own. Surround yourself with people that have already done it that can help you. My business went from $150,000 a year to over a million dollars a year in just a three year span. And the reason was because I invested in high level coaching programs full of peers that were way further along than me that I could learn from. And I sat there quietly, and I just learned, okay, I asked some questions, but mostly I observed, and I know this to be 100% True. That was the secret to my success. This is so lonely, and I did it for so long by myself, trying to figure it all out myself and just skinning my knees aligned. Like I was always falling down, getting back up. But wondering oh my gosh, how could this be simpler and I know to be just to the depths of my soul. I know that Being around people that are more successful that can help you and shorten that learning curve is the fun way to be in business. So of course, I have two ways to do that I have the profitable, nutritious program. And I have a mastermind, where the focus is truly learning from each other and collaborating. Yes, there are processes to follow inside. But the ultimately the learning from each other is the priceless aspect of both of those containers. So, two things, I did an episode a previous episode number 42. Called should you create an online course or membership? Because I do get this question a lot like when is it time to actually introduce a digital offer.
So if you would like the exact framework and criteria around that, Episode 42, Episode 43, which was obviously the week after that is planning for capacity growth. And I really took a deep dive on that episode on explaining long term planning in your business. So this is, in the step five, here, what we’re talking about is scaling in a smart way and building on your success instead of reinventing the wheel. So I really took you through my process of how I plan out three years in advance. In that episode. Again, that’s episode 43. Okay, this has been a lot. Remember, you don’t need to do this all at once. The purpose of putting this all together for you, in one kind of zoomed out big picture format was just so you can see the steps in order, you can kind of see where you’re going. And I wanted to be able to show you where I see a lot of people get stuck, totally normal that that happens. But you don’t need to be stuck, you can move forward. Okay, so step one was making decisions about yourself as a business owner, how you show up and your self concept that you can fall down and skin your knees and get back up. And nothing has gone wrong when that happens. Because it absolutely will all the time step to setting up the infrastructure for your business so that you can get paid, and you have the behind the scenes stuff, bare bones version of that setup, and you can move forward. And then step three is making those foundational decisions to launch your business about your offer about your people and about your pricing. Then Step four is to go sell it the marketing and selling which is the most fun part. And this is where all of your creativity will come forth. And you’re going to find the best, most perfect way to market and sell that is authentic to you that comes easily to you that simple and natural to you. And instead of trying to do crazy intricate funnels and things you know nothing about and that isn’t even easy for you, you’re gonna do it the easy way. And you’re gonna see how simple this business can be. And then step five is growing sustainably and scaling in a really smart way, which is again, where you build on top of what’s working. And you don’t skip a beat as you transition into a highly profitable Corporation really, at some point, which is very exciting. Now, of course, with all of these processes that I’ve gone through, there are nuances and there are strategies, and there are shortcuts that you can implement that are going to help you to apply these steps faster, and more accurately, just like your clients hire you to do, you show them the way and then they hire you to help them implement it and to not get stuck. And to go faster. Right. Inside the profitable nutritionist program, I give you the ultimate step by step guide for making that first 100k in your practice, including everything we talked about today with live coaching directly with me and my personally trained team of support coaches that are going to help you get across that milestone six figure mark without losing your health and your sanity along the way, which is very important. So join the waitlist for the next opening, which if you’re watching this or listening to this live is in September, and you can check out the upcoming Enrollment Dates always on the sales page for the profitable nutritious program that’s at the profitable nutritionist.com/join. And that is for setting up everything in the beginning of your business. So even if you don’t have your business yet, or you haven’t made six figures yet, that is going to be the perfect program for you. Now, if you have already made 50 to 100k in your business and you have the goal to scale your nutrition or your health coaching practice to multiple six figures in the next 12 months you actually want to be in the mastermind, mastermind is the best. This is where I personally mentor you through an advanced scaling process that I teach both in person and virtually so we actually get together IRL, which is amazing, and you can join the waitlist and learn all about the mastermind at the profitable nutritionist.com/mastermind That way you will be the first to be notified when the applications for the next round open in October. But if you’re listening to this in the future, you will also get the dates for both of those programs at the profitable nutritionists.com/join for the profitable nutritious program, or the profitable nutritionist.com/mastermind for the mastermind. The next enrollment dates will always be listed on those pages. Okay. We did it step by step how to start a health coaching business. Love it. Have a wonderful wonderful week, my friends
