50. “I Just Had to Get Started” with Michele Stamn

Andrea Nordling 0:00
My friends, welcome back to the profitable nutritionist Podcast, episode 50. What episode 5050 feels like such a big number because it is 50 podcast episodes under our belt, and we’re just getting started. Ah, how fun is that? So today for Episode 50, I get to introduce you to a student of mine in the profitable nutritionist program. Her name is Michelle Stam. She is incredible and has so much to share about getting started in your business. In fact, just one year ago, she was absolutely terrified to tell people that she had a business so she wasn’t doing that. And she has come a really, really long way since that point, which she talks all about. In this episode, she gives so many great tips. And like really, I feel like really specific insights about what got her from the point where she was terrified to tell people that she had a business to the point now where she has almost full client mode. And just I’m not even going to get a foreshadow, I’m going to let her tell the story. She has wonderful things going on in her business, and has a lot to share for you. So no matter what stage of business you’re at, I know you’re gonna get a lot out of this episode. But if you are at the very beginning, for sure, this is a must listen, probably want to save it and listen to it multiple times, she has a lot to say about what she was she had known at the beginning of her business that she knows now and shares a lot about that too, which is wonderful. As you know, this series about what I wish I had known at the beginning of my business is featuring students in the profitable nutritionist program. And as you may or may not know, that is open for enrollment this week on Thursday, September 15th. So here’s what you got to do, you gotta be on the waitlist to join the program on the 15th, which is at Build a Profitable practice.com/join, you will get all of the details on the program exactly what’s included exactly how it works, you have lifetime access to everything. But all of that is spelled out on the details page, which is build a profitable practice.com/join. If you are listening to this episode, when the doors are not open, you will have an option to join the waitlist. If you are listening or going to that page on Thursday morning, when the doors are open, you will have a button there to enroll. And to get started right away. Michelle does a great sales pitch for the program, I must say and talks a lot about it. So I’m guessing you’re going to come away from this episode, if you’re not already in the program with a desire to have some of the transformation that she has had. So come on in Thursday of this week, if you’re listening in real time, which is September 15, the doors will be open. Okay, again, that’s build a profitable practice.com/join. And without further ado, I’m going to turn it over to Michelle so she can tell us all of her juicy nuggets. Enjoy. Right welcome Michelle stem to the podcast. So excited my friend to have you here today to share all of the goodness that I know that this conversation is going to bring I don’t even know what direction we’ll be exactly going in. But I know it’s going to be so valuable because you always have the best insights and the most just useful gems that you drop constantly inside the lounge in the profitable nutritionist program. So I know that this is going to be no different. Before we get started. Can you just tell everyone who you are just a little bit about you let us know what you got going on.

Michele Stamn 3:37
All right. Well, that sounds really good. Before I start, just thank you so much for those kind words. And honestly, I am just so excited to be on your podcast. I love this podcast. And like Tuesday mornings, I always get up and I’m like, yay. You know, whether it’s I don’t know, cooking or running errands or whatever needs to be done. I’m always excited on Tuesdays because I have your podcast to make it a little more fun. So thank you. Oh, thank

Andrea Nordling 4:02
you for that. Yeah,

Michele Stamn 4:03
long story short, I am a physical therapist and have been a physical therapist for over 30 years, which means yes, I’m in my 50s. And over the last probably 10 to 15 years, I’ve worked a lot in long term care, like nursing homes with people who’ve had chronic diseases for a long time, and they’re just not in a good place. And at the same time, I was learning more and more about a plant based diet, which I shifted myself and most of my family to a plant based diet and we’ve all been feeling great. I was learning about that just kind of informally. I just started realizing more and more like how much food has an effect on health, which I already knew but then to just hear so many people stories about how they reverse diabetes or you know, lower their blood pressure their cholesterol so they didn’t have the stroke or they didn’t have the heart would attack. And at the same time, I’m working in long term care with people who adult those problems. And I thought, Jeez, what if I could have met these people 10 years ago, and help them change their diet and their lifestyle. So they didn’t end up in a nursing home. And I mean, I worked in some pretty nice nursing homes over the years, but there’s no nice nursing home, like, nobody wants to be there. So I thought anything I could do to help these people 10 years ago, not end up there. That’s what I wanted to do with my life.

Andrea Nordling 5:32
First of all, I didn’t know that that’s incredible.

Michele Stamn 5:35
Okay. Yeah, so obviously, I needed to get a little bit of schooling. First, I thought, oh, gosh, I could go back and get a master’s in nutrition or this that and it all just sounded like a lot of work and a lot of money. So I was really excited when I learned about health coaching, because I could learn kind of, you know, what I needed to without all the other stuff that I would have needed to do to get a master’s or something I could learn, you know, just the facts, just the stuff I needed to. So yeah, I got a couple of different certifications, one in plant based health coaching, and another one, just more plant based nutrition and stuff. And I got all that done. Still super excited and terrified to start my own business. And sign business.

Andrea Nordling 6:26
Michelle, give us an idea of when would this happen? I

Michele Stamn 6:30
finished my coursework at the end of 2020. Yeah. And so I started thinking about that I had to do that, you know, I say it like that I had to do this next thing. And it was, that’s how it felt. I knew I wanted to, but it was so scary. So I did what I now know is called passive action. I learned that from you. I did a whole bunch of like, organizing my notes. And I thought about lots of other certifications. I never ended up doing that. But I thought about it, as you know, I already have to. And then honestly, this is gonna sound so dumb. But in January of 2021, when I was you know, trying to get up my gumption to get started. I broke my arm i i went down the world’s smallest Hill on my cross country skis. It was my first time cross country skiing. And I felt just right and broke my shoulder. And this this is the part that’s gonna sound dumb other than the falling on a bunny hill. But when I broke my arm, it was like, Well, I can’t start my business. Now. It there was almost a relief in that that like, now I had this obvious excuse, right? So anyway, that gave me a reason to procrastinate more. And then I heard about you in the summer of 2021 through the I can’t think of what it’s called right now. But like a health coach, group nutrition group anyway, so I started reading about, you know, reading your website or whatever information I could find. And I remember one night I was reading it aloud to my husband and my daughter. She’s now 18. So anyway, I was reading this and it was like you had been spying on me. Like every single thing you said about being afraid of what people would think or being afraid I didn’t know enough technology to do this or feeling bad about charging people or needing the extra certification to be smart enough to help people the parts I didn’t know enough about business and then the real gem was that I you know, I was procrastinating by cleaning my house. And the good news is I got my whole upstairs painted while I was procrastinating. But the bad news is I wasn’t getting my business started. Anyways, then I signed up for your program at the end of September 2021. So I guess it’s almost been a year but of course, there was still some procrastination involved after that, but but the main first thing that I learned from you, and again, this is probably going to sound dumb was that I had to tell people I had a business or they wouldn’t know that I had a business.

Andrea Nordling 9:18
Just so true, though, isn’t it? part but it just is a really critical component to business success is for people to know you have one.

Michele Stamn 9:27
Yes, yes. Oh, I know. But the cool thing was when I told people I had a business, like all the things that I thought, I don’t know what I thought, I mean, I have nice friends. I guess I should have known they weren’t just gonna laugh in my face or something. But nobody did laugh in my face and they were so supportive and then they told their friends about it. And that is kind of how I got my first couple clients was friends telling other friends about me and sharing. I know this isn’t a big social media group here but I do have a Facebook paid for my business and just a few shares. I got off that and stuff was really how I got started. So

Andrea Nordling 10:05
fantastic. No shame in that.

Michele Stamn 10:07
Yeah. So I guess that’s that’s how things kind of got started. All right.

Andrea Nordling 10:13
So I love this I love how you’ve teed up a great conversation here about just getting started. But tell us a little bit I know if I was listening to this, I would be curious about how you are working with clients. So you brought us up to fall 2021 You start telling people in your life about your business, the word starts to spread as it does, we need to trust the people in our lives that love us that want to go spread our goodness about to their networks, which they totally do. So that was happening for you. What was your sales process looking like? So they would send a referral your way then what would happen? And what were you selling them? What was that?

Michele Stamn 10:45
Like? By the time I was starting to talk to real potential clients? No, I shouldn’t say real. I had a few like still like friends that were you know, I was barely charging and stuff kind of at the end of 2021. And then as New Year’s resolutions will have it. I was like, Okay, here we go. It’s January. I just I kind of did what you talked about, I had the konsult call or the discovery call. I don’t know, I haven’t even landed on what I’m going to call it but I kind of mix it up. Yeah, lo and behold, I just took the phone calls. I did a lot of listening to people’s stories. I think that’s that’s a lot of what it seems people want to do is tell you their story, listened a lot and then shared what I had to offer. And honestly, two out of my three first console call sign up, like right away. And then testing was amazing. Yeah, no one was more surprised than me. But yeah, it was so exciting. And I can’t say like both of them had their glitches those first two clients, one, I started working with her. And I think she got afraid of going plant based. I know she liked me because she still keeps in communication with me. In fact, she just emailed me today, I feel like she’s still a future client. But she after we work together once she decided, I think, I don’t know, she talked herself out of being plant based. I’ll leave it at that and was disappointing. And I ended up you know, refunding most of her money. But the thing is, I learned how to do that. And I think because I had been listening to you, Andrea and learning from you. I mean, there still it did feel a bit like a failure, or whenever I felt disappointed about it. But at the same time I was looking at as an opportunity to learn and and I was like, Well, I guess I need to be really clear in my console calls that this is what I do plant based health coaching. And I also learned about the percentages different systems take when you give refunds and all of that kind of stuff. So I learned that I won’t refund quite as heartily next time. But the other new client I signed at that time, she has done amazing, like better than I thought better than she thought she would do. And the great news is with her I’ve had so many emails to write about all of her great progress as I’ve started doing that there I love going Yes, and but I was thinking about what I learned from her she was really wanted to meet in person and she doesn’t live far from me. And honestly, I kind of wanted that too. I felt like that would be easier for me to you know, see a real person face to face and sit with her and I thought I would coach better and learn more from her if I did that. And I did I mean it was super helpful to both of us, I think it was a really good process. But as her three month package went along, I started getting a few more clients and realizing oh, this does take a long time to drive somewhere and meet with somebody and drive home and figure out where you’re going to meet and if you’re meeting at a coffee shop then there’s the expenditure of you know, you can’t go there and not buy coffee or tea for yourself and then the real kicker was one time we met somewhere I was unfamiliar with and I got a parking ticket. And I was like come on I’m not gonna make any money. But in doing that, again trying to take the idea of learning rather than you know, the failure of it all looking at it as a learning opportunity and realizing how much more efficient it would be to see people virtually on Zoom or whatever and then if so for the most part I really tried to steer my business that direction now. And like I said there was other I can’t say that was a fit she did amazing and so and that just boosts your confidence to when your clients are actually making all the progress and supervising themselves and and you

Andrea Nordling 14:35
right right because those first few clients when it starts to work before that it’s almost like it’s a theory you go I’m pretty sure I know this I’m pretty sure this works the my instructors told me it did in my world that does this has worked for me but will it actually work for other people when they pay me money? Can I teach them will it work for them? And then it does and it is kind of a surprise like holy cow. This actually is working They’re so happy.

Michele Stamn 15:02
Yeah, yeah, and best

Andrea Nordling 15:04
surprise, and then I love that you learned how to handle refunds you learned from these experiences, because I think that we can’t really gloss over how big of a deal that is just these little things that if you never had to handle it, if you’ve never had somebody that asked for a refund, if you’ve never had to issue one, if you never had to address in person versus virtual, and you didn’t have that experience behind it, on some level, your brain is anticipating that that’s going to be a big obstacle in the future. Whereas now it’s not because you know how to do that. So you won’t even be kind of bracing for impact, especially for refunds. I know that refunds are something that if you’ve never dealt with it before, it’s like, Oh, I hope that never happens. I don’t know how I don’t know how to do that. What will I say? And we kind of work that up, even if it’s not a conscious thought. It’s simmering somewhere in the background of like that, but that would be scary. And now you’ve done it, you know, it’s no big deal. And you know exactly how you want to handle it. Which is so great.

Michele Stamn 15:59
Yeah, yeah, thank you. And the good news is I haven’t had any buddy asked for a refund since then. And she’s like I said, even literally today, she emailed me in response to one of the emails I sent, I wanted to be very gracious and careful of as we sort of temporarily close the door. I didn’t want to think of her as a never client. I just thought of her as a not now client and just kept treating her like a customer and thanked her and you know, did all those things, because I feel like someday she might be back or somebody else she knows might be back. So

Andrea Nordling 16:32
absolutely, yeah. Oh, that’s such a good reminder. I love that. And not today client does not mean and not never client. Right? Definitely. Such a good reminder. Okay, I have a question for you, along the lines of like just getting started and thinking of just jumping in you were having a lot of hesitation, the beginning of your business kind of want to go back to that about just throwing it out there throwing caution to the wind saying I do have a business and it’s open, and I’m ready. What would you tell someone who’s just starting out with their holistic nutrition business right now? To help them avoid some of that uncertainty in the beginning? Is there anything that jumps out at you? Yeah, I

Michele Stamn 17:10
have a couple of things. We’ve kind of talked about this a little bit, I think already, but the imperfect action and just getting started just just doing anything to get started. And then if it doesn’t work, go back and evaluate it and change it. But if you don’t do anything, you’ve got nothing to evaluate. All of that is your words, Andrea, coming through my mouth. But it really was true. I am definitely a procrastinator. And you know, I didn’t want to start anything until I had it all figured out. But the truth is, you can’t have it all figured out until you actually start doing it. I don’t know that sounds very circular. But I think it’s true. You just have to get going and you don’t have to have all of the everything figured out because you’re gonna learn as you go I like with that client, I learned how to do a refund, or I’ve learned how to do a better job on Zoom. Or, you know,

Andrea Nordling 18:04
Coach, I feel like I remember us coaching last fall must have been one of these first client consults where we were questioning like, how long do I wait to follow up afterwards? And like, that’s, that one’s coming to mind. We’re just got in there. You did it. And you figured it out. We talked about it. You know, you took imperfect action and waited through. But yeah, you can’t wait until you know the answers to all those because you don’t even know what you don’t know in the beginning.

Michele Stamn 18:29
Right? Well, I think when to I totally know what what call you’re talking about. I feel like I’m blushing over here on my side of the microphone. Because I remember our conversation really well. I found somebody that I thought was the perfect client. And she still probably was the perfect client even though she never ended up working with me. But I, I was talking to her about my business. So I did that. Well, I talked to her about my business. She was very interested. And, you know, I’ll spare all the details. But she did not end up working with me. And I didn’t have my mailing list yet, which I wish I had because I think she would have joined the mailing list. And you know, that could have been working on her over time. And maybe someday I’ll get her on my mailing list yet. But anyways, I think I was just thinking about her 24/7 Like, okay, I sent her this email, and then she responded 48 hours later. So do I wait 48 hours to respond to her again? And what do I say? And like, as you probably recall, I was asking everybody I knew about it, and mostly talking to my husband about 24 hours a day about it. And all it was was like it wasn’t even a client. It was just how to respond to an email and when and I was worried about all of it. And then one of the things you asked me was, well, how would you handle this if you had a booming practice? And I was like, Oh, well, I mean, I don’t know exactly what I said. But in my head right now I’m thinking well, I guess I would, you know, wait a week and then I would and you know, send her an email and if I didn’t hear for a couple of weeks then I would send her another one and then after that I would just probably kind of put it on the back burner, but it but it removed all of that emotion from it like to just think about it as, as future me who had a thriving business and not like, Oh, if I send her the wrong email at the wrong time, then she won’t like me and I’ll never hear from her again. And, you know, she was this was before I had any clients. So I thought, Oh, if I could get this perfect client, then it would allow me to say I had my business. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah, that’s interesting. Yeah, he would make me legitimate. Yeah, legit. But I didn’t need her to make.

Andrea Nordling 20:36
So that’s my next question then. So what did make you

Michele Stamn 20:39
legit? Some of it is believing in myself. But I thought belief in myself isn’t something that’s easy for me. Which I weren’t myself. I would wonder about that. Because I’m, I mean, I have been a PT for over 30 years, like I actually do know how to help people. Yes. So I wish I had more just natural self confidence. But the more I do, I think I get more self confidence. And I think you’ve said this, and I’ve heard this elsewhere. Like there’s, there’s nothing like starting a business to make you vulnerable and realize all your, your strengths and all your weaknesses and all your things you worry about and kind of lost my train of thought there. But

Andrea Nordling 21:20
But yeah, but there it is, you start the business, and then all of it comes to this to bubbling up, and you get to just sit in all of all of yourself, all of the things you love about yourself and all of the things that you don’t they just, it’s all swimming in, it totally happens. So I love this. You took imperfect action, you got comfortable being uncomfortable. I know this about you, because we have had so much fun coaching for the last almost year. So I know this about you, you are a really, really great student, you take imperfect action, you do it even it kind of surprises me that you think of yourself as not being confident because I think the exact opposite. So that’s I mean, perception is just that’s things interesting. I have no I forgot my train of thought. I’m just going to my next question. So well, we’ll we’ll wrap that one and just move on to the next kind of a curveball. I mean, not really. But instead of talking about the past, I’m curious about right now. So what is your business like right now? And what are you currently focusing on? Like? What is your your short term goals that you’re working on right now? And what does it look

Michele Stamn 22:23
like today? Well, I currently have about eight clients. And they’re all kind of in different phases of, you know, onboarding, or when I’m seeing them once a week. So I see everybody once a week, pretty much for the first month, the first four weeks, and then start spreading them out every other week, just to kind of get them over all their hurdles, initially. And then, and then I want to stay involved as they sort of take over their own health journey. Does that make sense? And I Oh, my gosh,

Andrea Nordling 22:50
that makes so much sense. And it’s a beautiful thing. Yes,

Michele Stamn 22:52
thank you. My business is called Wellness empowered. And one of the things that I really have learned that I like to do, I think through being a physical therapist, I, I like the model of teaching somebody how to take care of themselves, whether in PT, it’s by doing exercises, or by walking a different way or whatever, so they don’t injure themselves. And now with health coaching, and with food, it’s about helping them find food they like to eat or, you know, like I don’t give the same recipes to all my clients because some of them have kids at home. Some of them don’t. Some of them are single, some of them work. Some of them don’t everybody, you know, this, everybody eats different and cooks, some people don’t like to cook some people do. So I feel like rather than you need to do XY and Z, I find out what they want, how they like to eat and cook and then try and help them find a way to put plant based into that and gradually make healthier choices. And the whole thing is a gradual process, but I want to empower them to take care of their own health is my ultimate goal. So anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but I love it. So yeah, I have those clients and I, my daughter, my my baby, my last of three is moving out to college in a couple of weeks. So this is perfect timing for me, I feel I’m really excited that I’ve gotten things going and now once she moves out, I not not like an 18 year old takes up that much of your time. But you know, I’m trying to spend time with her and then the whole time I’ve had kids at home I’ve done I’ve worked part time as a PT but I’ve also had a lot of very intensive volunteering things that I’ve done and all of those things are starting to come to an end so I’m really excited that I can start just pouring my energy into my business. Yeah, it’s it’s time

Andrea Nordling 24:45
exciting for you. The timing is perfect.

Michele Stamn 24:48
Yeah. So I’ve got a you know, I’m I’m gonna keep doing I love what you teach about delivery creates demand. So I’m trying to do a really good job with all my clients and they and they They are doing great, which is so fun. And then turning that into hopefully they’re telling their friends about me and stuff. And then I’m using their testimonies in my emails that I write, I’ve got a few events coming up a vegan fest event that I’m going to and I’m speaking at our local public library in September. So hoping to grow my list and spend some clients off those things. And just all the other ideas that I’ve kind of had, I’m just going to keep moving forward with them. Keeping my you know, my package, I just want to work with one on one clients, at least for now. And probably in the long term, I that’s what I really love is one on one, I think that’s why I like being a PT versus being like a teacher or something where you have a whole classroom, I like the one on one. So I think that’s my sweet spot that I’ll probably stick with, I just want to think of more and more ways to get clients to my door, I guess, or to my zoom.

Andrea Nordling 25:58
So good. Okay, so thank you for kind of giving us a peek on what you’re working on right now. I love that. You mentioned you’re like building your email list and the event that you’re doing at the library, get people on your list. So I think that that’s a great segue to talk a little bit about email, I happen to know that you are fantastic at writing emails. So can you talk a little bit about that? Were you always a fantastic female writer? Is that No,

Michele Stamn 26:21
thank you. I didn’t know that writing email, like marketing emails was really a thing, or at least a thing that I could do. I’ve always liked language, if that makes sense. I love metaphors and alliteration and puns and, and all of that. So like kind of having I think it’s fun to write. But when I a lot of the, you know, marketing emails I get are just boring, like, you know, very scientific or objective or we’re having a sale on this. And but there’s no fun to it. And honestly, I love your emails, Andrea and I what I love about your emails is I can hear your voice reading it to me or say it’s just like you’re sitting there talking to me. That’s how I envision what you wrote. And I it kind of reading those, it gave me permission to just write like I talk. I guess I didn’t need permission. But I didn’t even know that was a thing. So I started writing. And it was funny. I talked to a couple people about it. And they were like, What do you mean, you’re gonna write an email every week? They just thought, you know, maybe you should do it once a month, or you’re gonna run out of things to talk about, or maybe they were just dreading being on my email list and getting one every week, I don’t know. But as I started writing, they were like, wow, these are really good. And yeah, I just, I just write like, I talk and I have fun with it. And I write about things that are happening in my life. Like I told you, my daughter is going to college, which means she just graduated from high school. So I wrote an email about, like, the food we served at her graduation party and the plant based food we had there. And then I shared the recipes, or I don’t know this, today’s email was called kale. Yeah, like, cuz I’m like, you have to write an email email about kale, if you’re a plant based health coach, like I feel like, obligatory so that was today’s but, and then I’ve written them about my, like I said, my clients, that one that I talked about, she did so well, like she had knee pain where she couldn’t even you know, bend into her lower cupboards and stuff without her knees hurting. And just by changing her diet, the inflammation in our body went away so much that she had zero knee pain. And as a physical therapist, that doesn’t, I know that doesn’t just happen. So I wrote an email about her and wrote it as like a fairy tale like once upon a time this happened, and she lived happily ever after. And then I wrote, but it’s a true story. It really happened. So that’s the kind of thing that I try and do in my emails and just I try and just I’m just friendly and nice and and it’s interesting I got my first client as you call them stranger off the internet about a month ago. And just in curiosity as we were working together I was like, Well what what made you sign up and she said it was my emails and it was that she two things that she could tell that I individualize my programming and two that she could tell that I was just a nice person and that made me feel so good because that is a lot of my goal in writing them so

Andrea Nordling 29:26
yeah, to be relatable to have a relationship with someone which is a skill when you’re writing emails to what 80 strangers that don’t actually know you are a lot of our email list is but also when it’s just a one way communication when you’re writing email broadcasts and you’re not getting a response. It’s a that’s a skill to like how do we have a relationship here, but I’m not getting anything back. If you learn how to do that, it’s so fun though. Can we please take a minute and celebrate your first client that’s a stranger from the internet. It blows my mind that we we seriously get to do this. We get to have an online business and work with people all over the world that we’ve never met before. On our computers like what is happening,

Michele Stamn 30:10
it’s so fun. I know it is. And it’s so she’s from I live in Wisconsin. She’s from Indiana. I currently, I mean, most of my clients are in Wisconsin, but I have one in New Mexico. And one of my I’m working with a college student, and she’s going back to college in a week and she’s in Colorado, or will be in Colorado, so I can keep working with her. So it is kind of fun. I’ll have to get one of those maps and put little pins on it or something to see how many states I can get clients. And

Andrea Nordling 30:37
yeah, it’s and then you go international, then your mind really blows. Yeah.

Michele Stamn 30:41
It’s a cousin who lives in Canada, so it could be done.

Andrea Nordling 30:45
It can be done. I remember this happening. I could I don’t remember how I could see it. But one of the first things I sold was to somebody in Brazil. And I feel like I talked about it to my family for like a week. But can you believe that somebody in Brazil found my stuff and bought it like can can we just go back to that guys? They’re like, mom. But it just blew my mind. It’s such a good feeling. So cool. Okay, so your emails are fantastic. Do you like how long have you been writing them for how it sounds like weekly But has it always been Weekly? I’m just curious.

Michele Stamn 31:20
Yes, I started them in the middle of January. You know, you can’t get that new year’s resolution started right away. So the middle of January and I call them wishing you wellness, wishing you wellness emails, kind of to play off my wellness empowered name. And I decided because I told you I’m in the alliteration. I send them on Wednesdays first. Yeah. And I just every morning, they they get sent out at 501 on Wednesday morning. So hopefully everybody can see them when they first wake up. And yeah, and there’s, there’s some times where I’ve got like, three ready to go. And then there’s been a couple times where it’s been Tuesday night at 11 o’clock. And but they’re going and I think that is a commitment to myself. They’re going out that’s important. And I think that consistency. People are counting on it. I mean, I you know, their life isn’t gonna be forever altered if I miss a Wednesday, but I think building that consistency even in seeing Oh, Michelle shows up every Wednesday morning. I think that probably translates to well, if we have a coaching call, she’s going to show up or if she says she’s going to have a console call with me. She’s going to show up. I feel like it’s building that trust, even in that in that way.

Andrea Nordling 32:39
1,000% I could not agree more. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. They may not notice if you miss, but they might. And it’s just it’s also that commitment to yourself that you follow through with the things that you said you were going to do, which makes you feel more professional in your business, which makes you stand a little taller and say the little bit bolder things in your marketing and on a console call, et cetera, because of that professionalism that you feel when you know that you do these things consistently. I love it.

Michele Stamn 33:10
Right, right. Oh, exactly. And then yeah, you like you said, I trust myself more. And then as my clients are doing well, then I trust myself more. And then it gets easier to talk about my business. And we’re just, you know, a year ago, nobody knew I had a business. And now I have to stop myself from talking about it all the time, because it’s so much fun.

Andrea Nordling 33:32
Oh my gosh, I love it. I love it. I love it. Alright, another thing that I know we wanted to touch on. So I’m going to just bridge over to it is the concept of being a mirror for your clients. And you you said you’re like I want to talk a little bit about this. Do you want me to tee it up anymore? Do you want to just take the reins? I

Michele Stamn 33:51
I can I can probably take the reins, but if you have anything jump in?

Andrea Nordling 33:55
I’m just curious if you have any specific examples, but why don’t you just like just go for it? Well, I think a lot

Michele Stamn 34:01
of it is like I told you I’m a perfectionist. So I get these clients who are perfectionist and it’s it’s so much mirrors my business of, of where I wasn’t getting started because I wanted to have all my ducks in a row and I wanted it to be perfect. And I wanted to know if if this happens and what and if that happened, then what and I wanted to have it all figured out. But then I got the encouragement to just jump in and get started. And once I did it all started working out and it wasn’t perfect at all, as I’ve already shared, but I was moving forward. And so now I have these clients that come to me who are perfectionist and they they don’t want to start with plant based eating until they’ve got it all figured out. Or they might go plant you know, eat a fully plant based diet for like three days and then they tell me Oh, and then I slipped up and didn’t on Wednesday or whatever. And I’m like, but what did you learn and and so I’m trying I have to teach them that they don’t have to be perfect and everything they do. And they’ll still get where they’re going it just and it’s actually a better journey because you learn from your mistakes. Yeah. But having learned that, so recently through this business has allowed me to better coach them through it, I think,

Andrea Nordling 35:19
absolutely. Because our clients will always struggle with the same things that we do, they will always be a mirror for all of those things. So we’re just one step ahead. And as we work through it in our business, then we are so much more equipped to help our clients with it every time.

Michele Stamn 35:33
Yeah. So that’s probably the best way I can think about it. But well, and another thing is, I think, and I’ve learned some of this from you, too, is that I do my business, the way that it makes the most sense for me, I’m writing the emails, because I love the emails. And I’m not I’m on Facebook a little bit, because I sometimes that works, but it’s not my highest priority. But I’m choosing to do it the way that makes the most sense for me. And that’s the same kind of thing that I already mentioned, I kind of like to teach my clients, I’ve never been one to read like a diet book, and then go to the end and follow the plan the 21 day plan, because I’m like, I don’t want to eat this because I have something else growing in the garden, I want to eat that or, you know, and I think that’s worked well for me in my life. But somehow I got stuck when I was starting a business thinking like there was a right way to do it. And if I didn’t do it the right way, it was the wrong way, instead of it was just my way. And then I feel like I’ve been able to coach my clients through that as well that everybody’s journey is a little bit different, but it’s going in the right direction.

Andrea Nordling 36:37
So good. So good. As long as you don’t quit, you’re going in the right direction. That’s for sure. Right, exactly. Okay, so I’m curious about where you see your business headed, do you have any idea about what your vision is for your business three years from now,

Michele Stamn 36:52
I’ve been thinking about that a little bit. Like I said, I see myself really is continuing with one on one clients long term. So just continuing to grow that. And then doing the fun one offs with like, you know, that I’m hoping will be kind of launchy kind of things like maybe some zoom cooking classes or you know, different I just want to get more creative with different ways to reach more people are so fun. My clients who are graduated, do seem like they like to keep in contact with me. And you know, send me an email about their wins that they’ve had and things like that, which is super fun. And it’s not that overwhelming right now, because I don’t really I haven’t had like hundreds of clients. But that would be the next thing I would see evolving is to have a group like a graduation group, people who have graduated that then it’s just us all supporting each other of oh, I tried this new recipe or there’s this new plant based restaurant in town or you know, whatever it would be to, because Because plant based is still pretty niche independent, especially, you know, in Wisconsin’s very niche, maybe not.

Andrea Nordling 37:59
So I’m well aware of we live in bratwurst town, guys.

Michele Stamn 38:02
Yes, yes, we do. broths. And of course Wisconsin cheese, of course. Yeah. So yeah, that would be the kind of the next step is to build a community. Yeah, like an alumni group. Yeah, exactly. So yeah. And then to just keep taking more clients, and I love that I can, I have this idea that I’m you know, will hopefully be busier during the school year, and maybe, you know, as my daughter’s home again next summer, maybe I can pull back just a little bit. I mean, I’ll have to see. But that’s something you can do when you have your own business that you can’t when you work for somebody else. So I’m going to be no longer working at my regular physical therapy job that’s kind of coming to fruition over the next couple of weeks. So oh, that’s a big transition to I love it. It is I’m all in because it seems to be working this whole health coaching thing, so and it’s not right. And I love it. I love it so much I can be having a day where you know, I’m just tired. And you know, one of those not great days. And then I hop on a call with a client and I just leave energized and I just love it. I’m so excited to be doing this work.

Andrea Nordling 39:12
I think that your clients can feel that for you. It’s so genuine. And I would imagine as somebody who’s considering hiring a health coach, I would be throwing my credit card at you.

Michele Stamn 39:21
Oh, thank you. Well, if you know anybody who wants to throw their credit card at me, send them my way. Like you say about authenticity and that I that was the other answer that I kind of lost earlier that I was going to say when you asked about what I wish I had known when I got started was to just be myself. And somehow I thought again like when you’re an entrepreneur and you you know you have a business you have to like put on your professional hat and your suit and I don’t know like I thought I had to be different somehow. But I think what’s working is being me and just Telling stories to my clients about oh, yeah, I’ve been there. And this was hard for me to or, you know, just, like I said, writing how I speak or I don’t know, I think people like when people are real, and it seems to be working. I don’t have all the answers all the time, but I’m really committed to helping them find the answers, and I’ll help them find them. And then I want to teach them how to find their own answers. But yeah, but as long as I can be honest and real with them, and then they’re honest and real with me. And I think that’s where progress happens. So no doubt

Andrea Nordling 40:31
about it. Yeah. Okay, so this is not something I was intending to ask, but I think I’m gonna have to, because I bet you’re gonna have a really juicy answer for this. So when this episode comes out, the profitable nutritionist program is going to be open for enrollment a couple days later. And so there’s gonna be people obviously listening to this episode that are considering joining. I am wondering, since you were introduced to the program, and had a few months before you jumped in, what were you like, what were your hesitations? Or what were you thinking about before you committed to the program, that now after being in it for almost a year, you would have some perspective on this or anything you can imagine people wondering about that you could answer for them.

Michele Stamn 41:11
I think I was thinking, I wanted to do it. I didn’t deserve it yet. Like I hadn’t proven that I was actually going to make this business work. And I kind of wasn’t worthy of investing in myself on a business program. And the truth is, it was the thing that got me over the hump to actually get started. So had I joined your program sooner, I probably would have gotten started sooner and would have experienced all these great feelings sooner. So I guess I would really just encourage people to get started. And you know, another thing you taught Andrea, and when you started saying this, I would just laugh because you you would say, Well, you have to get started because your people are waiting for you. And I was like, Oh yeah, they’re waiting for me, right? They can find somebody else. They’re not really waiting for me. But now that my people have found me, and we’ve been working together, and they’ve made the progress and are making the progress, like really, really, really great progress in their lives, I believe you. So I’m glad I got started for me, because I’m loving doing this. But I also am glad that I got started for them. Because some of these people are turning their lives around in significant ways. And it makes me happy that I get to be a part of it. But it just also it makes me happy for them that they’re living a different life. And I don’t want to take too much credit for it. But I know I was part of it. And that just feels really good. Absolutely.

Andrea Nordling 42:45
I’ve all the warm fuzzies that is such a great reminder to think about the not getting started. It is a detriment to you for a lot of reasons. But it’s such a huge, huge disservice to the people that are waiting for you. That is a great reminder. Fantastic, fantastic reminders. Is there anything we didn’t cover that you wanted to share? Did we get did we get to anything?

Michele Stamn 43:08
I think so I’m kind of trying to think through I’m sure there was something I forgot. But yeah, just on the keeping it real thing again to like, I know, this is just a little detail, but like how you use flip charts and a whiteboard. That in of itself was so encouraging to me because I thought I’d have to figure out how to have all the PowerPoints and the Canva things and you know, all the stuff that I mean I can do but it’s like pulling my hair out versus and they never

Andrea Nordling 43:35
look as good as we want them to especially as perfectionist they never look. Right.

Michele Stamn 43:40
Right. Right, exactly. And I think that’s another mirroring thing. Like knowing that I can do my business in a simple way allows my clients to see that they can do things in a simple way. They don’t have to make Instagram worthy meals, they can you know, just Yeah, potato and put some hummus on it like that’s fine. Everything doesn’t have to be fancy. So I guess that’s back to the mirroring thing. I’m struggling a little bit here.

Andrea Nordling 44:07
No, it’s a good reminder though. I think our energy to try to look more professional or make things more fancy is always a red flag that something else is going on. Like why do I need to be doing that? Hold on. I’m not keeping this simple. I am distracting myself. I’m procrastinating usually that’s what’s going on anytime we’re trying to make things overly fancy or telling ourselves it needs to be more quote unquote professional

Michele Stamn 44:32
for sure. Yes, definitely.

Andrea Nordling 44:35
So such a just such a good reminder. So helpful. Okay, Michelle, where do people find you tell us all of the ways that we can find your I know that they’re gonna want to know.

Michele Stamn 44:44
Okay, so you can find me on Facebook at wellness empowered plant based health coaching. And I thought you might ask this question, so I got a website up like two days ago but it is the very Hurry essence of imperfect action. There was action, but it is very imperfect. It is literally my business name and logo, my photo, and then a place to sign up for my mailing list it, that’s all it is. And it will be more. But that’s all I could figure out this week. And that was, you know, with the widgets and all that stuff, like I don’t even understand that was as far as I could get so and that website is wellness. Dash empowered.org. Perfect. Perfect. All right, my real gem I feel like is my mailing list are the emails that I send out, and I want to get that personality onto my website. But it’s definitely not there yet. But if anybody is interested in going to that website, you can sign up for my emails, and then you can get to know me better. And who knows, maybe by the time this broadcasts, my, my website will be a little less pathetic.

Andrea Nordling 45:55
Oh, it’s a wonderful, I’m sure of it. But hold on. So you didn’t have a website before. But you do have an email list. So how are people getting on your email list? Before I’m imagining people are wondering what kind of imperfect action? That was? How are people getting on your email list?

Michele Stamn 46:09
Well, I have a post pinned to the top of my Facebook page to have people join my mailing list there. I tell everyone that where does it take them to? It takes Oh, it takes them to a landing page. Also, I do I have an email service provider that I use. And then through that provider, I created a landing page with it. Okay, yeah. So I can link people to the landing page on my website, or I figured out how to do a QR code. So now I had another event earlier in the spring. So I took my QR code there, and they could sign up for my mailing list through that. Yeah. And now I just keep it on my phone. And if I’m talking to anybody, I’m like, Hey, do you want to join my mailing list? So there’s that too, but I’m up to 155 people on my mailing list. So he’s awesome. And they’re not all related to me anymore, and some are even strangers. So it’s exciting.

Andrea Nordling 47:01
That is so exciting. And the more you practice writing the emails, the better the emails get, the more people share them. And the more people come to the email list, it’s the best cycle.

Michele Stamn 47:09
It is it is and you are right. Like, I think the commitment to write the emails every week not only builds that trust with myself and trust with my community. But it also makes me a better email writer, I don’t think my first emails were bad by any means. But I went back, I wanted to share something in one of them with a current client and I went back and I was like, just six months later, I’m actually a lot better at this than I was six months ago. And I wouldn’t be where I am now, had I not started. So not only would I recommend to people that they jump in and start working with you, Andrea, and I would love to meet all the new people in our coaching groups, but also start your reading your emails, just start them, they just will get better, you will just get better. And I find that now I just think of ideas. I see an ingredient in the grocery store. I’m like, Oh, I could write an email about that. Or I see a funny little pun. And I’m like, Well, how could I use that as a subject line for my email. And I’m just always now that I’m tuned into it, I think about it. Not in a bad way all the time. But I’m just aware of it. And it’s just like a fun thing that I do. Unless it’s Tuesday night at 11pm. And it’s been pretty fun. But that doesn’t happen too much.

Andrea Nordling 48:21
But where we put our attention is where we will keep our attention. I mean, it’s just your thing. When you start writing emails, and you’re building that practice of writing weekly emails, your subconscious mind is now in the background humming along thinking of what are we going to write in the emails and it does find topics for the email. So great point, if you feel like you’re gonna run out of things to say you don’t know what to say every week, believe me. When you start writing those emails every week, you’re gonna find all sorts of things to write about that you’re just not even thinking of right now. Because it’s not a problem your brain is solving yet.

Michele Stamn 48:54
100% I couldn’t agree more. So good. All right. Well, thank

Andrea Nordling 48:58
you so much, Michelle, for coming in and giving us all of these, like mind blowing, and helpful and encouraging and transparent tidbits. And we go in tidbits. That’s what you gave us today, it’s going to be so helpful for so many people, especially if you’re getting started. And just feeling that perfectionism not knowing exactly what to do. First, I think that you have been so gracious in sharing your story, and people are going to really appreciate that. So thank you for coming on.

Michele Stamn 49:27
Oh, thank you for having me. And honestly, Andrea, thank you so much. You were just such a key part to me getting started and I think I’ve gushed enough already about how much I love this job and love my clients and love the progress they’re making and kind of what you said about how they wouldn’t be getting the help they needed had I not gotten started I feel the same way about you. I’m so grateful to you and the profitable nutritionist program that you created. Because it helped me to get to where I want to go and I’m so grateful to you and To the other people in the program who have encouraged me and you know, it’s just encouraging seeing other people having the winds and having the challenges and just being on the same journeys. So thank you so much.

Andrea Nordling 50:13
Oh my gosh, you are so welcome. And thank you. Oh, thank you for coming on today. Michelle was so good. Thank you. Thank you. You’re welcome.