Andrea Nordling 0:00
Welcome back to the profitable nutritionist podcast, my friend, Episode 103. How exciting is that? So today, I have an interview case study, testimonial, whatever you want to call it with a student in the profitable nutritionist program. Her name is Sam Lubitsch. I think it is so fun that that is anyway said, Sam. I don’t know how to pronounce your last name. And she’s like, it’s like French for libbets. And I just I died. I think that that’s so fantastic, especially because she’s a former kindergarten teacher. And she said, I’ve always wanted to tell the kindergarteners, that that’s how you say my name, but you could say it’s so. So fun that we are welcoming Sam today she has a lot to share with you about how she has grown her business. And how she started initially thinking that social media was going to be the way that her business totally took off, and sold her online course. And then what has actually happened, which is she took the pressure off of social media and tried some other things which she tells you all about in this episode. And her business has grown really quickly since then, since she actually removed herself from social media and from the pressure of creating content, and trying to increase her reach there. So it’s a fantastic episode, she also shares what she is now using social media for instead. And I know you are going to get so much value from this episode, I do have to tell you, we talk quite a bit in our interview on things that she has implemented from the profitable nutritionist program. Like I said, she is a student in the program. And if you are listening to this, when it is released, you have the opportunity right now, to join the program. The doors are open until September 20. This is coming out on September 19. That means you have one day depending on when you are listening. And you need to join us inside you get all of the strategy, all of the coaching all of the support, and all of the insights from other students like Sam, who have done it, who are having great success and are sharing all of it on a weekly basis inside our private community. So you have to get your butt in there. Doors are open until September 20th, we open enrollment for the public quarterly. So you got to get in there. Now. If you are listening in the future, and the doors are not open, you will go to this same page to join which is the profitable nutritionist don’t forget the profitable nutritionist.com/join. So if you’re listening to this in real time, doors are open come in, we would love to have you if you are listening in the future and the doors are not open, you can go to that same page and you will see the future enrollment dates, we always put the date that the next enrollment period will be so you can plan ahead. Again, that is that profitable nutritionist.com/join It is a tremendous program is going to help you to grow your business. Like I said, you’re going to have the coaching and support from me for my team. And from the really, really smart ambitious practitioners like Sam that have done it that can help you along the way. And you have lifetime access to all of those resources. They don’t expire. This isn’t an open closed program, you have lifetime access. Once you’re in, you are in and I put my money where my mouth is you will make your investment back or I give it back to you no time limit on that either. So like I said, Get in we would love to see you that profitable nutritionist.com/join us now take it
away, Sam. Okay, Sam, welcome to the podcast. I’m so excited for this episode. And I’m so excited to hear more about your business journey and your story, which I don’t know, I get to learn all of the details. The nitty gritty like goods, highest lows, all of it along with everybody else because I don’t know the full entirety of how you got to where you are now. So welcome. And let’s just jump in. And do you want to talk a little bit about your origin and all of the things?
Sam Lebicz 3:49
Sure. Um, okay, so I let me start by saying nutrition fitness, like health world was not a thing for me. Until I was probably like, in my I always say it was like 31 was the year that sort of like kicked, kicked things off.
Andrea Nordling 4:10
What is it with 31? I don’t know. But same same with me. That’s so funny.
Sam Lebicz 4:14
So I definitely grew up 100% processed food diet, not a lot of physical activity. I was on like in high school I was on the stage vocal music not dancing. So like, like I said, not a lot of physical activity. So I for as long as I can remember was dealing with gut issues truly from like B I just remember being a little girl and always having stomach aches or always being sick. And those things developed over time. Like once I was on the birth control pill at like 14 so for really painful periods. So you know, as I got a little bit older, I started to get things like I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. You know, eczema ended up with like gallbladder issue at one point, like all these things yet, like on paper, I was healthy. I didn’t have any, like major diagnoses other than IBS and whatever. But then also just
Andrea Nordling 5:11
that little small thing, no big deal.
Sam Lebicz 5:14
I’m healthy. I’m like, you know, I wasn’t like, super overweight or like nothing that on paper, they’re like, oh, here are the things that make you unhealthy. So, and you know, what’s a little what’s a little hypothyroidism, right. So the really big thing was, I was very, very uncomfortable in my own body, and just had really poor self esteem, because of it, you know, was in a long relationship in my 20s. And I sort of sabotage that from being so insecure, and just just really didn’t, didn’t feel good in my own body, but always attributed to the aesthetics, the physical fitness that oh, well, I’m just not fit, and I need to lose weight. And I need to get into exercise and all this stuff. So after having sort of like the year 30 was sort of like a bit of a strip show, if you will, like just a little bit too much drinking and like, over the top, and I just eventually was like, You know what, this is not the woman that I want to be I know, that I made for more, I need to figure this out. So I started to get into fitness. Really, finally, for the first time, like got into a routine with it, and was really driven and motivated by aesthetics. And I did start to see changes in my body. However, I still felt really insecure and terrible, because, weirdly enough, just losing weight doesn’t solve your constipation, I don’t know. And so, ya know, I still felt really gross. And so I started to get more into to nutrition and slowly like started to notice changes. And I was like, ah, there it is, like, there’s the key, it’s not about what you look like. And it’s not about those physical changes, although, of course, like getting stronger. And building cardio capacity is all healthy for a lot of reasons. But I realized that I really needed to figure out what was going on internally. And the more over the years, every time I asked about like all these digestive issues, then it was just told to, you know, eat more fiber, take me relax, keep a food journal, like never anything tangible. And I feel like anyone who’s dealt with any type of IBS things has been told exactly the same. And then on top of it, things like hypothyroid, like, I didn’t know, there was even a way to solve that. I just assumed you take medication for the rest of your life. And
Andrea Nordling 7:36
you do, of course,
Sam Lebicz 7:39
that’s it, you’re golden, we put so much trust into our medical professionals, we expect them we like sort of, you know, we don’t think that we are in charge of our bodies, we think somebody else’s. And so, you know, I think that’s the big dynamic that I try to help people shift now. But anyway, went back to school to the NTA became a functional nutritional therapy practitioner, to continue to figure out how to solve my own issues as well as wow, you know, if I’m going through this, I know there’s a lot of other people and the difference it made in the way I felt in my body. And my confidence was so incredible. And it just made me realize like how much power I had over my own life, that I now wanted to bring that to other women. Because yeah, like I just was like, Oh, I’m not no longer trusting in someone else to take care of me like I’m gonna do this and take care of myself and figure it out once a
Andrea Nordling 8:34
year is this timeline, not that we’re trying to figure out how old you are. But I mean, I will do mental math.
Sam Lebicz 8:41
So I’m 39. But I went through the NTA and 2019. Okay, we did that at the very end of 2019. And started my business and I actually started my business. So obviously, it was like, right before COVID is when I finished and TA and I was a kindergarten teacher. So I was a full time teacher. And when we went virtual in 2020. I was like, Oh, this is the perfect time to like really jump into like some type of a business coaching program and try to figure this out and get going with my business. So I did actually jump right into a business coaching program because I was doing before that I was doing all the free trainings like spinning the wheels being like a little bit of it’s in a little bit of that and everything your brain explodes. And there was no way I truly there was no way I would have ever gotten myself together if I hadn’t invested in one solid program. So that for sure, like was huge. And so I do think that people need that right off the bat. I don’t think that you know, it’s easy to say like, and that that program actually was quite expensive and I just made it work and hadn’t really made much money at my business. But the problem was that I jumped into this program that was was different from the profitable nutritionist It was sort of this like they do all the stuff for you. So you essentially come up with it’s it was to build a course. So that was one of the first problems as much as I do. Now down the line want to have like a course or a group program? I don’t think I guess I can’t speak for everyone. But I do think it you need to work with people one on one because you don’t know what you want to do and how you’re going to do it until you are doing it and seeing how it works. So I didn’t do an
Andrea Nordling 10:34
entire podcast episode on that because I did the exact same thing. For anybody that doesn’t know my exact story, I did the exact same thing Sam did I got I was like, Okay, this is it. Perfect course, I can help all of the people all at once this is going to be great, I’m gonna go straight into that. And I wasted so much time because what you end up doing, you don’t realize that I’m I mean, maybe I’m projecting a little bit of what my insecurities were like, I don’t know if I for sure know all this information. So I want to, like have it all in front of me and record it. So I never get caught off guard like nobody can ever stop me because it’s like recorded. And I know that this is right, because I wasn’t trusting myself. So for me that not having that trust in myself and wanting to just skip a bunch of steps ahead. Really what it made is, like years of me redoing this course. Because that insecurity of like oh, is this right? Just shows up in a different way in a lot of extra work in it. Oh, like unanticipated other jobs that you end up doing later, like redoing your course over and over again. So I totally
Sam Lebicz 11:35
agree. Yeah, I mean, I try to, you know, see the, I guess just because I don’t want to cry myself to sleep thinking like I wasted all this money. But I don’t I mean, I, I do you have a lot of content that I did pre record that I can use eventually like because I spent, it was a long time creating this course and like scripting everything out. And luckily, because a lot of that I can still use but at the time, I truly didn’t know what I wanted to do yet. And so I sort of created this whole course on like, oh, I guess we’ll just focus on like, weight loss because I think I can help people do that. And honestly, after not a long time, and you know that you think the people are going to come around in and you’re don’t really. And so I was like, Oh, I don’t I didn’t feel good about just preaching weight loss. Because in the end for me, like I knew that that wasn’t really the game changer for me. So I then I went back to study with restorative wellness solutions. So I did my first course with them in the fall of 2021. And that was a big game changer. Because once I started bringing functional nutrition in so being able to do lab testing, that really helped give me the confidence to truly believe like, okay, now I can really help people.
Andrea Nordling 12:57
At this point, are you still teaching kindergarten? Yes, virtual or in person,
Sam Lebicz 13:02
in person. So 28 years virtual. And then the fall the next school year, we went back full time. So I was working all day, you know, say seven to 330 Coming home working on my business from like 330 to 9pm every day. So yeah, I was tired. I was trying to keep up with my own health too. So like trying to keep up with working out. So now I’m working out at 5:30am classes, so I’m compromising on my sleep. And I am trying to have a social life on Friday nights and Saturdays. I was also going through all the restorative wellness courses. So I’ve done three of their four courses. So when I look back now and like how did I do it? I do not know
Andrea Nordling 13:52
what it is like having young kids, and like building a business when you have young kids like anything when you have young kids and you’re not getting a lot of sleep. And I think I got way more than that. Because you just have to like if you when you make the decision, you’re like, I’ve just have to do this. And you do and you look back like, wow, how did I
Sam Lebicz 14:10
is because I will say like this is kind of jumping ahead a little bit. But now. So I did that for two years, the school year of 2020 to 21, and then 21 to 22. And then my goal was always to leave and pursue this business full time. And I was waiting for sort of this number and I don’t know, I think I was waiting to be able to match my teachings in common and I will say, you know, obviously everyone knows teachers are drastically underpaid. But I had two master’s degrees in education. And I had been there for 12 years. So I was pretty far up on the pay scale. So I did have to come you know, it just got to the point where it’s like there’s no way truly I don’t feel like I’m gonna meet my income goals while I’m still still Working this other full time job like timewise, I just couldn’t put in enough. So I knew it was going to come to the point where I was going to have to take this drastic leap of faith. So the last summer so the end of the 2022 school year, I was so burnt out my own health was suffering. And here I am preaching to other people about slowing down and resting and taking care of yourself. And I couldn’t do that. So I took the leap. And I actually was working within someone else’s practice at the time, I had started working with another practitioner. And she was wonderful. And I learned so much from her. But in the long run, I just, I truly wanted my own business, I knew it was something I really desired. I really have this I’m such like a perfectionist like, motivated type of gal. And it just once I had that in my head, I couldn’t get rid of it. So I ended up parting ways with her. But she was the first person who showed me I could make good money from this. So it was a scary leap. I will say, luckily, I had saved myself a little cushion. Because while I was working as a teacher, I any money I made in my business I didn’t touch so I other than like putting back into the business. So I had a good little bank account built up to help supplement income while I needed it. And I truly thought in those first few years of business, I thought I had built a Instagram account to about 6000 followers, which isn’t crazy, but it’s not small. And I really thought that that that Instagram account, all the people were going to sign up and I was going to have this wonderfully successful thriving business from online only boiler alert. That way, I had built that that Instagram account when I had started really getting into fitness back in like 2015. And it was just like I was part of this program and other people were doing it too. And so we all had these accountability accounts. And honestly, that’s how it grew. And Instagram changed so much over that time. And so once I started promoting my business, all those followers sort of weren’t as active anymore. So, you know, again, I thought I was like, well, once I go full time, like I’ll have more energy to put into it, and it’ll grow and more people will come and it just didn’t work out that way this past fall. So
Andrea Nordling 17:15
this is right now as we’re recording, this is August of 2023. So this is a year ago. Yeah, you have you’ve made the leap, you know, you’re not going back to school in the fall. Let’s go check. Okay,
Sam Lebicz 17:26
yes. And I thank God, I had that backup account. Because things did not quite start out as I had hoped. I just really I was struggling to get clients, I just was feeling very stuck. And I felt like I spent the majority of my time working on trying to create social media content. And it wasn’t converting like it was I was not getting a lot of interaction with it. I wasn’t gaining new people, I just really was feeling stuck. listening to your podcast, I had come across your podcast, and I’ve come across you a little bit earlier probably earlier in 2022. And listened for a bit before I decided to join. But that whole idea of not feeling like a slave to social media just was so appealing to me. And I do still use my Instagram account, I do still create content. But so I decided to join your program in December of last year. So I joined in December of 2022. And one of the things
Andrea Nordling 18:29
I know a great decision
Sam Lebicz 18:32
has helped in so many ways because it helps me really take a look at my business and step back and you know, I started going through the I’m a bit of like a rule follower. So I was like going through page by page in the in the manual. And assessing like where are my clients really coming from I had never really stopped to think that and although I’ve gotten a few from like social media or strangers on the internet, as you’d like to say, most of them were really coming from my personal community. So I’ve been a member of a CrossFit gym for quite a few years. And I realized like they were coming from that they were coming from personal referrals, they were friends or family or friends or friends and I really liked was like wow, I guess I really didn’t stop to think about that. And so I really at that point decided I need to start making a much bigger push into community and in person connection and stop thinking that all my clients are gonna come from strangers on the internet. So I did that. So I joined a local women’s business group. They’re they’re started here locally in Massachusetts, but they actually are blowing up they’re like expanding all over the country. So it’s the Women’s Business league. And I joined that group and so there’s a lot of in person stuff like chapter meetings and then they do social like bigger social gatherings and just I started to learn to network. I had no idea how to network. I’ve never, never had to do it a teacher you don’t do that you just you network with five year olds. So it was different. And it was scary at first. But what you happens when you put yourself in these positions is you learn how to talk about your business on the spot, right? Like not having to pre record everything, not having to write everything down, first read it, you learn how to just the more you practice, the better you get at summarizing what you do. And you see how people react to it in person. So then you start to perfect the way you talk about it.
Andrea Nordling 20:34
We forget that we actually know how to do this, you can tell when someone’s eyes kind of glaze over and they have no idea what you’ll notice, it’s a really quick test, you’re like, oh, Blossom. Okay, not to say it that way. Next time.
Sam Lebicz 20:49
Learning to read the room is it’s amazing. So yeah, so I joined them, and then I continuing to go through the course, you know, come spring. So I did start to get some I actually got some clients that way, and then continue
Andrea Nordling 21:04
for at all during this point, or do you have the same offer from when you started until this point? I think we should clarify that. That’s always
Sam Lebicz 21:12
interesting. Yeah, no, it’s changed a ton over the course of time. I mean, my first course I think, when I was selling that, that course it was I was selling it as a group program. So like people would come in, we’d do that. And I think I did a beta group. And it was like $600 for three months, which felt really hard to sell. And it was very exciting to get like six people in that but from the beginning and then I started doing the actually, before I did restorative wellness solutions, I started bringing in hair tissue mineral analysis. And so then I did like $300 for like a consultation with the test and at one time so slowly, like tried different things. But once I did restorative wellness solutions, and started using the duct testing and things, I created a package for 2500. And that was a four months, I think maybe six months, I don’t remember. But it included all the testing. And when I joined your program, I took the advice and charged more. So I went up in January went up to 3499 and still was including testing. And recently I decided I’m not going to include testing anymore. So I’m charging 3000 for six months. And then testing is all a cart so that I can personalize like what tests people need. Plus like including including testing and the package I find just when it comes to like income versus all these testing costs and just find out a little smoother if so yeah, so I have increased I definitely want to increase more and I know that I could I def I get stuck on the idea of am I offering my clients enough. But over the past like since the since last winter, when I joined into now I like I said I started doing a lot more community outreach. And I did like a library talk, which I’ll tell you, I used to hear people say to do stuff like that. And I was like a library talk like what? What is that? Like? What’s that gonna get me you know, and I got four clients from this one particular.
Andrea Nordling 23:21
Okay, let’s dive into that. I’m super interested in this i And I love it. And I have the exact same thoughts on things like that, or I have in the past, like, really? Does that work? Because we get so enamored with like the flashy, you know, run an ad on Instagram do this. And remember, there was business before the internet, it actually was so Okay, so you How did you get introduced in the library talk? What did you talk about how to get promoted? I want to know all of it.
Sam Lebicz 23:47
So I one thing in this whole idea of like, okay, I’m gonna do more community stuff. I was like, I want to come up with a signature talk and start to just to bring that to different places. So I was like, I’m gonna connect with different fitness studios and my own, you know, my own fitness community and whatever. So I but I kept putting it off. I was like, oh, like, just because putting together a presentation feels hard. And so we procrastinate. Yep. We got invited. And this was because of again, it was someone I know she owns a CBD brand. And she knew someone who was running this women’s wellness retreat. And last minute they needed someone for nutrition and she asked me to do it. So I had to throw that presentation together and like two days. Last thing because it made me do it. I am the queen of procrastination. And I just always wait because I work better under pressure. Not that I shouldn’t be doing that. But anyway, so the library talk was actually a woman that I used to work with. She had retired and she was working part time at this library in a little town next to me, which is a town that is, you know, people can typically afford these types of services. And she just was like, Yeah, we do these talks, like, you know, I can I can give you the name. And I was like, Oh, sure, that’s great. But again, in the back of my head, I was like, Yeah, okay, like, Fine, I’ll, you know, I’ll do that. And the room was pretty full for like an in person event on a Saturday morning, there were like, 30 people there.
Andrea Nordling 25:25
Libraries put, like, has promoted it. They’ve had like, signs up or something you didn’t promote?
Sam Lebicz 25:31
I didn’t know. I mean, I think I did put maybe a post up like I shared on my personal Facebook page, but there was the there was only like one person there that I actually knew from my life. Yeah, no, they promoted it. Because they do these talks like this, they have a series of things. And so yeah, they promoted it. And it was virtual as well. But I don’t think there were many people virtually, it was mostly in person. And I’ll tell you between the women’s wellness retreat, and then doing that, and then I did another one that was virtual and doing the in person I actually preferred. And here I was thinking my whole business was going to be virtual, but that I did one virtually for a group, a local spin studio that I used to go to, and I knew the owners, so I, you know, reached out to them. And it was one of these things where maybe one person had their camera on, but most of the cameras are off. So you’re not talking to anyone. And I learned that maybe it was the teacher in me, but I really feed off of that live in person connection and like being able to read the audience. And I felt so confident presenting in front of people so much more so than I thought that I would. And I felt like kind of a mess when I was presenting to all the off cameras online. Yeah, it’s so interesting to learn, but I wouldn’t have known until I till I tried out all these different types of presentations,
Andrea Nordling 26:50
right? Oh, that’s so good. Okay, so you have your signature presentation? What did you learn? I want to kind of like, pull back on that a little bit. And because everything you said, so spot on, we put this off, it’s like this is going to be such a big deal. Because it has to be I think the reason we do this is because the thought the underlying thought is like this has to be perfect. If this is going to be my signature precision has to it has to be the right presentation has to be exactly right, that’s going to convert to clients, like I can never change it. This has to be good. And then of course with that amount of pressure. Who wants to get started with that project? No one, so we put it off. Okay, but you did it 48 hours you did it, you created it? How did you decide what you wanted to include in that presentation? And like, what did you learn from it? I’m just curious. Yeah, no, that’s
Sam Lebicz 27:35
a great question. So I decided to just focus because I didn’t know for sure exactly what area to focus on. So I am still like, I’m like slightly niched in the sense that I, the way I market is women who are struggling with gut and hormone related symptoms that are holding them back from really showing up in life the way that they want to. And again, clearly that was like the previous me. And so that’s just where I am marketing. So it’s not super niche. And so I just, I think something I have to remind myself, of when I’m working with clients is, especially the more lab testing you learn, the more you start to be get to nitty gritty, and you have to constantly remind yourself that we are here to support those foundational aspects and how much influence those things have. And so in something I try to preach in my messaging is like the fact that there’s so much information out there that it feels so confusing and feels so hard. When it really, we can really focus on some simple things that can make big changes. So I decided to really stick with the foundations like we’ve learned and like we learned in the MTA. And so I created the presentation to be like, you know, we need we want to support our foundations, here are the areas we need to focus on. So I did like I think I did like gut health, nutrition, gut health, blood sugar, and then like the lifestyle areas. And, and so for each one of those I talked about, like here’s why this is important. Here are some simple things that you can do. So what I learned from the presentation I put together was that, you know, I I think it was a little too many things. So now I know I need to focus it in a little bit more. And I think one of the biggest things although I did talk about my business and how I use testing to like really get like, Oh, if you’re really struggling with these things, testing will help and I did throw it in a bit but I think I need to craft it a little bit more to continuously bring the conversation back to and here’s how I’m working with me as the solution to this issue. I think I I struggle between wanting to just give support and help in general, buddy and not constantly be selling There’s also like you, you need to sell because I know that the only way to really solve a problem if someone is if someone is truly struggling with these issues, the way that I was simply like little things like chewing your food more is going to help, but it’s not going to solve the problem. And so I need to get more comfortable with the idea of remembering like I’m selling in, you know, again, you’re always in sort of in my ear, but like I’m selling this like not selling this is the bigger problem, because these people truly do need it. I love that. Okay, I
Andrea Nordling 30:33
think a lot of us do this, especially in the beginning, when I say the beginning, it doesn’t mean like the first day of your business, like in the beginning, when you’re still not feeling like your level of belief is 120%, that this person needs this solution, it is my job to bring it to them. When you’re like you’re saying, like, you’re still getting, you’re still working on that belief of like, No, I have to remember, this is what that I can help them and they’re gonna keep struggling if I don’t make it very clear to them, how I can help them. So that’s what I mean by beginning is like when it isn’t just so old hat. And it’s like, of course, you have to do this, you have to do this, I have the solution. So I think that just as you were saying that I was thinking about watching people sell and I know in in my business in the beginning as well, especially with real estate, because I’ve really, really like learning how to do all of the marketing and selling as a 20 to 23 year old and making all the mistakes, I can think back to that. But even watching people sell now, we forget to close the loop for people that we have all of the information. So in something like a free presentation like this, you’re giving them like information on what the problem is that they think they have. And but here’s the actual problem. And here’s the solution. And it could be if you don’t do a good job of wrapping it up in a tidy bow and saying, you don’t even actually have to know any of that, because I’m going to help you solve it. I just want you to understand what we’re doing together. But I have a process, it’s not going to be hard for you, I’m going to bring you through the whole process, we’re going to introduce testing when we need to like I have the solution, and I already have the path for you. I just wanted you to have the information. If we don’t really succinctly wrap that up, then people will leave a talk like that thinking, oh my gosh, now I have to go find out how to do all these things. Because we didn’t confidently sell and say no, you actually don’t I have the process. And I can help you do it. So we could actually leave them feeling much more overwhelmed. Because we think as marketers, it’s implied that I can help them. They understand that if they want it, they’re going to contact me they have my email address or whatever we think like, well, of course, they know how this works. They do not know how this works. People do not know how that actually works. They for sure don’t know that you have a process and you can you can help them every step of the way. So just a little reminder on that. Yeah,
Sam Lebicz 32:44
yeah, no, it’s true. And I need like that I know I need so I haven’t. So I did this like three times in May. And then I haven’t revisited it since this was definitely a little bit of a lull. And I took a little bit of time, like in July. And so I haven’t revisited but I do intend to. Especially because I really want to make a good push for this these last few months. I feel like September is such a great time for people to like dive into this work. So but some something else that really worked well for me. And it was when I was going through your program kind of coming up with that list of like, all the different ways that you can make money now was more of that personal network. So something I really didn’t do was talk about my business a lot on my personal Facebook page, all my friends and family like I just, I was like, oh, you know, I’m gonna keep it to my Instagram and like I have a Facebook business page, which just like kind of automatically transfers over. But I really didn’t talk about it a lot with friends and family. And people asked about the business. It’s like, Oh, it’s good. And that’s kind of it. So I did put out a post that was sort of it was asking for referrals from friends and family, but also in a way that was kind of like, but you too so I put it out as like, you know, oh, I don’t talk about this my business a ton here and a lot of people are interested in what I do. So let me tell you a little bit about it. And I basically put it out as referral as the best form of marketing. Let me so if you know anyone who and then I said you know is complains about not like always being tired. Think of me if you know someone who is struggling with painful periods, think of me and so I listed on all these different symptoms and that ended up being really powerful and I got a few personal connections that reached out. And then like my college roommate, who I hadn’t spoken to, since college, referred me to some random girl that she knew and she became a client so you truly never know who is going to push your message out there for you and as much I Think as we, as practitioners feel like the market is so oversaturated because we surround ourselves with people who do the same work as us. Most people who need us have never heard of anyone like us. Don’t
Andrea Nordling 35:14
know, it’s like, it’s like the secret society, they don’t know how to break into the secret society.
Sam Lebicz 35:19
We literally like we think there’s so many of us out there. And I truly like this, that one client that came from like the old college roommate, she was like, I have been searching for someone like you. And I couldn’t find anyone. I was like, really? Like, I feel like there’s so many, but she just really needed that gut health support. So So yeah, I think we get in our own heads about what we see around us. And we forget that like our the messaging we see is curated by us, because that’s who we are. But most people are just looking at like makeup tips on their Instagram, and they’re not seeing holistic practitioners
Andrea Nordling 35:56
know what to search for. If they did I think, as a nutritionist, or anyone that calls himself in to any sort of nutrition professional, we to your point, I think, well, everybody knows that nutrition. Like if you have insomnia, you would look at nutrition. If you’re pre diabetic, you would look at nutrition, if you have IBS, you would look at nutrition, we take for granted that people know that they would even search for a nutritionist to solve that problem, they literally have no idea, no idea that that’s who you would even search out. So like a well what a great service to people in your personal network to remind them like there are other practitioners other than your doctor that can probably help you better, I might be one of them, and kind of get that conversation going. But also, people in your life don’t know what you do, because they don’t know like what we can do as nutrition professionals, the kind of testing you can do, like people don’t even know where to find it. It’s such a great reminder. And I will say that in stage two of the profitable nutritions program, there is a letter template, like some swipe copy that you can borrow to do this kind of like a little post or email letter, you can use it in various different ways like Sam did to just get the word out to your people. This is the kind of person I work with, send them to me, and it will inspire conversations with those people in your life, like she said, as well as probably generate referrals, but they’ll get people talking to you like hold on you do what? I didn’t know you did that? I didn’t know you could do that. I didn’t know that that. Anyway, good conversation starters.
Sam Lebicz 37:22
Yeah, so So I think like the beauty of all of it is that I really had to take the pressure off of the idea of having to get all this new reach on social media, I still try to be consistent with posting on social media, and I’m in my stories a lot. And what I feel like right now is more that my social media is sort of that nurturing tool where once someone is referred to me, they are learning about me and getting to know what I do based on my content. But I’m not feeling stressed about like, Oh my God, I need to grow my Instagram. If it grows, would that be great? Sure. But I know that’s not exactly the place I want to be putting my time and attention right now. I’d rather be putting it into the personal connections. And the other thing with that, too, is like, when you meet someone in real life, or they’re referred to you, they are so much more likely to start working with you sooner than if someone just randomly starts following you from a real on Instagram. I recently I got to actually a new client yesterday, who we didn’t even end up getting on a sales call or like my my free strategy call. Because she was referred from a close friend of mine, who was also a client who was struggling to get pregnant, we work together, she got pregnant, yay. And she said he referred me to someone else. And this girl was just like, sold. Like, let’s do it. I don’t have time to get on the call, like let’s just sign up. I was like,
Andrea Nordling 38:49
Okay, any referrals, right? What about
Sam Lebicz 38:53
what, so I did create a referral program and just recently, like, reminded all my current and past clients of that. So I do like, you know, gift them or like our like reward system for if someone comes to me that signs up from them, then I send them a gift card. So I feel like I’m hoping that helps is a little extra incentive to get those referrals out there too. But I do think a lot of times people just want to tell other people about the success that they had. And so that’s really what, what gets people in the door.
Andrea Nordling 39:25
Yeah, absolutely. And that constant reminder that you are taking new clients. I’ve also heard so many people say they’re like, you know, someone wanted to send me a referral. And then they thought I was so busy and probably couldn’t take the referral. So they didn’t send it. And I’m like, well, that’s kind of fascinating. I mean, they they think that you’re like so booked. So that’s great that you know that that’s the perception, but just the reminder, like, Yes, I have openings, yes. And taking new clients, these are the kind of clients I work with. Always good to drip on that for the referrals too.
Sam Lebicz 39:57
Yeah, I think it is that it’s that constant reminder. have, like always sort of selling quote unquote selling, but really just reminding people like, this is what I do, this is how I do it. And that it that feels hard. When you’re first starting out, it feels hard, you feel like we all got into this business to help people. And due to the do the nutrition thing, not many of us have a sales background, or a marketing background for that matter. And so it’s it is it’s just learning that constant, like constantly reminding people that you can help them and that you’re here and that you’re taking clients and doing all the things. So I will say like, things definitely started at my income has steadily grown over since the beginning of this year, I had almost my first 10k month. In June, it was like just a little bit shy. And then I and then I pulled back a little in the summer and it translated financially. So it’s just goes to show that we just got to keep getting getting there and showing up. But um, but ya know, so it’s, it’s been great. I actually like I can still pay my bills, and I’m making money. And so I haven’t had to go back to teaching. In fact, today was the first day of school and the district that I worked in. So
Andrea Nordling 41:15
that’s a great feeling, I would imagine,
Sam Lebicz 41:18
either, even though I love them all. But yeah, so it’s things are going good. I’m so grateful that I decided to make the switch, my quality of life has certainly drastically changed. But yeah, so now I’m just in the process of learning how to grow from here, making sure I’m getting those clients and consistently, I will say I pretty consistently am getting at least two clients a month, which is great. So obviously, I want more of that. And then I do my goal is to create a group program eventually. But I want to get really solid with the inflow of clients that I’m having. Now as with one on ones, and I like you know, because it’s so hard to have 1,000,000,000,001 on one clients, I put so much into my clients that you want to remember all the details. And once you get up to that, like 20 Plus clients, it’s hard to remember all the details of everybody’s story. And
Andrea Nordling 42:15
is that what you would say is full for you like full capacity would be 20 ish clients at a time?
Sam Lebicz 42:20
Yes, ideally, I think so I’m like, right there. Um, right around there. Now, I think I have 19. And I am not planning on stopping sales at the moment, just because I’ve had clients in the past that weren’t at the price that I offer. Now. I’ve had clients who have continued work. And so I’m trying to like figure out how all that works, too, in terms of pricing. So so at this point, I will likely go over that. But I ideally to 20, I would like to price my program in a way where 21 On ones is a good stopping point. But again, eventually, I would like to also have a group program so and work with less one on one clients. That is the goal down the line. But I need to get better about like planning for that three and five year one year, three year, you know, the goals I had, I’m not good at all that so. But there’s always just say it isn’t I do I do know that that is the next step for me, I need that more intensive community mastermind type of support.
Andrea Nordling 43:29
Well, okay, so I was going to ask you what your like what you were looking towards with your business. So I’m glad that you kind of transitioned into that, because that’s a really common, it’s a common, like a limbo area where, which is kind of where you’re at. Now you’re like, Oh, I like the one on ones, the one on ones are working for me, I can see that I’m not going to do it this way forever. So then you get to that kind of no man’s land where you’re like, should I be creating the group program now? Should I be still doing one on ones raising my prices here? So let’s I mean, it’s definitely lots of considerations there to figure out what the best transition is as you go forward. So yeah, I love that you’re looking towards it and seeing kind of what that’s going to look like.
Sam Lebicz 44:05
Yeah, yeah, that’s so I, my plan is to start building back and kind of kind of like a course but just starting to film all those bits of information that I’m constantly repeating for all my one on ones, right. So, so we’re sort of similar to what you have, but like having that course where we’re wills, I’ll still meet with my clients in the same way that I do and still support them at that one on one level. But I can say like, Okay, go check out this content, go check out this and start to implement this. So I figured if I start building that now while I’m working with one on ones, I’m hoping that as client interest or potentially the interest starts to increase, then maybe a smoother transition into like, let’s try out this group program process. And I kind of want to do it sort of similar to I really and that’s been a benefit of being in your program is seeing how you run don’t like that, that sort of that constantly coming in people might be in different places, but you can support everyone at the same time on group calls. So yeah, that is the goal. But the timing, it’s, it’s tricky to figure out when to do that. So my original thought was like, Oh, I’ll do it this fall. And then all of a sudden, this fall came almost. And I was like, I think I need to stay where I am for a little bit longer. But so yeah, so I think I do need that extra support to figure out like, when the transition is going to happen. And also, to have that little extra accountability and push and motivation, I think, would really benefit me because I tend to really focus on clients, get all my clients stuff done, maybe get some content up for the week, and then all those projects that are there that I know I need to do to move things along, those are the things that are easiest to say, Oh, I guess I didn’t get to it this week. I’m gonna, I’ll get to that next week. And I know I need to start putting more attention on those things. Yeah, I will
Andrea Nordling 45:57
say just like tactically for anybody that’s in the same boat. Well, first of all, apply for the best friend, like I said to Sam, but because we go through, like all the there is a process for this. But I will just say I don’t want to leave anyone hanging on that. It is a different beast to sell, like a group program, that’s going to have a start date, where you’re selling a bunch of people to start something at the same time. And what you end up doing is you spend a lot more time like considerably than you ever had before, on the marketing and the selling of it. So I see a lot of people kind of underestimate that because with one on ones, especially when you can take people on a rolling basis, it doesn’t really matter that they’re all starting at the same date. It’s it’s much easier selling, I mean, it’s different, maybe easier, harder isn’t the right way to say that, but it’s different. And so the appreciation for like, really how much time and planning needs to go into the marketing and selling of a group program is underestimated. I think a lot of the time. So I love that you’re stretching this out for yourself and giving yourself a lot of time, I would say for anybody that’s in that boat, when you’re looking towards transitioning from one on ones to group, give yourself a really long runway, because what you’re going to be doing is creating the marketing and selling you think you’re going to be creating your group program. Now, the group program was gonna come like last minute, the day before you deliver it for that week, or whatever your cadence is going to be. But the marketing and the selling is like months of preparation to do that well, so that you felt the group. So I would say that, yeah, that’s good to know. Cuz I really didn’t think about that. It is it like we just think it’s the content in the program, I have to nail the content in the program. And that is the least of your concerns when you’re selling a new thing. So first, we got to get people in the program, we know we’re going to show up for our clients, we know it’s going to be great. We know we’re not going to let them down. Even if it’s a couple of one, like all nighters, or whatever it has to happen to get the content for the program you for sure, we’ll do that. We’ll figure that part out. But we really underestimate the marketing and selling time. So yeah, just give yourself last time. Yeah,
Sam Lebicz 47:49
yeah, so I have yet to do level four with restorative wellness solutions. And I do plan to do it. And for me, it was really hard to not do it this fall, because I like to when I start something I like to finish it. That’s just the overachiever type A personality that I am. But I had to talk myself out of it. Because I know right now I need to be focusing efforts on my business and growing my business and remind and honestly, to reminding myself how many tools I have, and how much I can help my clients with exactly where I am right now. Because it’s so easy to the clients that are harder, it’s so easy to look at them and be like, Oh, I don’t know enough. And but I do have so many clients who have had so much great success. And I just need to remind myself that because I can do all the things now and I really need to not worry so much about continuing to learn, learn, learn, of course, I’m going to continue to learn as I go, like with nutrition and any thing like that we need to continue our education as we go. But there needs to be an emphasis on the business side. So that is my goal for this fall.
Andrea Nordling 48:57
I love this. I’m so excited to watch it unfold for you. I totally agree this is the best time of year to be selling to people for their health goals. I have the belief it has been true for me and I would just give it for everybody to take and run with it. But the end of the year I would say like September and on is when all the money is made. So go go help all the people is the best time for sure. Anything else that you wanted to talk about today that we didn’t? We didn’t touch on is there anything you like any words of wisdom you would impart to somebody there’s not as far along as you are?
Sam Lebicz 49:32
I think just that lesson of remembering like when you start out and we feel like we don’t want to be overly salesy with people that we know that to number one remind yourself that you’re doing this because not because you’re just trying to take people’s money like I have to tell myself that sometimes still too, like I because when I worry about feeling salesy or slimy or like a used car salesman, we’re doing this because we truly like We got into this work to help people. So talking about it truly is not a bad thing. Like you have to get out there. And you have to tell people what you do and feel good about it. And the more you talk about it, the more comfortable you feel talking about it. And just don’t be shy to like, meet random people and tell them what you do. You’ll figure out ways to kind of sneak it in there. But that you can make so much more traction than you realize just using the circle that you have.
Andrea Nordling 50:27
Yes, the ripple effect is so big, it’s so big. And we think we could go so far out to get that effect. Like no, it starts here just starts small with you in the middle. And those conversations that will be so easy to not have that those are the ones to have because then the ripples start going. I love that. So it’s okay Sam, where does Where does everybody find you? They want to come and stalk you? How do they do that?
Sam Lebicz 50:49
So I am on Instagram as Sam lives fit, which people always assume I’m a fitness trainer, which I actually am accidentally just because now I have a little more time in my life. So I have been coaching but um, that is focused on nutrition, gut health, hormone health, and just helping women truly show up as the person that they know that they deserve to be.
Andrea Nordling 51:14
Oh, I love it. I love it. Okay, so you everyone has a good idea of referrals to send to you, if they don’t work with your ideal client, send them Sam swipe. That’s how you connect with her. And I’m just so glad that you’re here. I’m so glad you could come and share especially on the topic of social media. Because it’s it’s a it’s a hot topic we talked about a lot people know that I’m not on social media. You don’t need to be on social media, but a lot of people still are and isn’t though. Like, it’s like their dirty little secret. And like, I mean, I still do, but it’s like, I don’t care, do whatever is working, I just want everyone to know you don’t have to. And if you don’t want to it’d be really smart to not rely on social media for a lot of different reasons. So I love that you’re an example of that. And I’ve had really good success in seeing oh my gosh, I was making this harder than it had to be and I could still use social media and that’s the icing on the cake. And it’s a bonus and it’s a way to nurture people. And it’s a way of course to still be out and about you know half those strangers on the internet find me but it’s not it doesn’t have to be the only way.
Sam Lebicz 52:12
I love that. Yeah, just not being like it takes the pressure off of feeling like you are truly a slave to Zuckerberg. Love it. two peas in a pod we
Andrea Nordling 52:23
are I can see that. Thank you for coming today. I so appreciate it. I know everyone’s gonna love this episode.
Sam Lebicz 52:30
Thank you so much.
