Podcast Intro
Welcome back to a brand-new episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast. Today I will be sitting down with Karuna as she thinks about how to get her health coaching business up and running with a growing email list.
And she knows that starts with growing her email list. Growing an email list is an important part of building a sustainable and healthy health coaching business. After all you own your email list, no one can take it away from you. Unlike social media channels or other borrowed platforms, the email list is going to be critical to not only getting started, but then sustaining that business over time. I like to think about it as a long-range battery. It, what helps it’s what helps you to go the distance with your business instead of just kind of fizzling out after a few months or even a year or two, that email list is critical.
Now, if you are starting to build your health coaching business and you aren’t quite sure what things to think about, I’d love to invite you to take the coaching hive blueprint assessment. You can do that by going to www.coachinghive.com/assessment. And you will have a chance to complete a brief less than 10-minute quiz about your coaching business.
And in return, you’ll get a report that shares ideas about how to build, grow, or scale your coaching business from where you are today to where you want to be. So I invite you to check that out again, www.coachinghive.com/assessment, and it will take you straight to that quiz and you can get started.
Now, if you are ready to jump in, learn more about lead generation. What I would invite you to do is grab your tablet, grab your piece of paper, your pen, something to drink, and then let’s chat lead generation. So, if you’re ready with our theme of simplicity, clarity, and vision for 2022 in mind, let’s jump in.
Conversation with Coach Karuna
(Transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any errors.)
I would love to hear a little bit about what you’re doing with your health coaching business, kind of where you’re at and where you want to be. So I thought that might be a good place to start. Yeah, I know. So I, I got my certification a year back and, and since then, I mean, I, I work full-time with,
with an organization and then I worked part-time as well as, as a health facilitator. And so apart from that, I’m now getting into my own business. So some kind of threatened, but it’s, I’m in a good place because it’s something I enjoy doing, you know? So, so it gives me, it gives me the ability to, to kind of walk on different levels of coaching in the way that the work that I do.
Like, I work, it’s an approved training program, so I am a content creator, you know, and we, we, we put the coursework together. So a lot of facilitation training, a lot of PSA’s and all of that stuff. So we train coaches to take the certification. So that’s a different aspect. I did that for six years.
I know exactly what you’re talking about. Yeah. Yeah. So with my part-time job, it’s a group coaching that I do, which is like a video, you know, setting. So it’s a group coaching that I’m doing. And then with my own business, it’s, you know, again, focused on one-on-one and a culinary culinary nutrition is what my niche is.
So, so yeah, so that’s, that’s, that’s where I am. Okay. So when you think about that and you think about six months or a year down the road, where do you want your personal health coaching business, that culinary nutrition niche to be? Where do you want that to be? So it’s funny you asked that because I was asked that question sometime back also,
and I had, and I was still in the process, so I didn’t have a solid answer, but now the more I’m getting into it, you know, obviously I kind of want to build it out in a way that I have more clients, of course, science, and I definitely want more content on my website that I’m looking at. So,
so providing some bit of like free content to people who come in onto the website. Right. It’s just like, for us also, when we logging in or when we are looking for resources, that’s our first instant is that we look for free stuff, so, right. So it’s like that. So, you know, kind of having that accessibility of giving that accessibility and,
and yeah, just kind of networking a lot and just kind of getting some visibility for the work I do, because I think I’ve been in this profession for a very long time now. And, and I, I’ve kind of, I think I’ve touched all the areas of health and nutrition. That’s amazing. Yeah. So, so I just want to kind of now,
you know, make sure I get all that information out, get some getting times and yeah. And just grow my business. I don’t know if that was a specific answer, but that’s what, where my mind is right now. Okay. So you, you really do want to add more time. You kind of, so where, I guess, where is this time going to come from?
That’s my first question. Yeah. I mean, I think if I have, if I get some good clients, then probably I can cut back on some hours and give. Okay. All right. So if you have those extra hours and you’re thinking about kind of building your business to take up some more of that other space, that’s currently allocated somewhere else,
do you imagine that to be full-time or do you imagine that to be part time? What do you think that looks like for you? You mean my own stuff And stuff. I would love it to be for dying. Right. Because, you know, I enjoy, obviously I enjoy the work that I’m doing the other two places also, but I’m not at a spot of being like,
you know, letting it go because it definitely, there’s a paycheck that comes in at the end of the month. Right. So, And my own business is not at that level yet. So probably if it does get to that level, you know, I’ll be able to do for, you know, cut back. Maybe I’ll just do part-time because I have to.
Yeah. So, Okay. So to me, it sounds like one of the big obstacles right now is really getting your name out there and kind of generating some kind of email list. Do you have an email list yet? I do. And I did try that out also with, you know, with, with the, the website creators, like wakes,
I use, I used wake. So they have that option of, you know, even marketing. I don’t know, personally, if that, that kind of gives a lot of traction or not. Yeah. What are your thoughts about it? So I think having an email list is really important because you own your list, right? No one can take it away from you.
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik, TOK, whatever other platform you look at, you know, they own your content, they own your followers and they can shut you out at any moment. So if you have an email list, then it’s your personal list that you can grow and nurture, and you can love on those people in your list and let them know what you have to offer and how you can help.
And you’re building that trust in a different than just posting on Instagram, Facebook, whatever platform you choose. So having an email list, I think, is really critical to being able to grow and then sustain your business over time. Okay. So, so when you mentioned email list, like, is it like, how would we generate that list? Yeah.
So that’s where you, you also mentioned something that sparked my, my attention there is that you want to add more content to your website so that when people come, they can get something for free. That’s how you get their email. You say fine, I’ve got this content you trade me. Okay. And so the general rule of thumb is that an email address is worth about $10.
So whatever you’re trading for free needs to be worth about $10. Ah, okay. So it’s an exchange. I give you my email. You give me this thing I want and we’re both happy. Okay. So, so if I’m understanding it correctly, like when they come in opposing the, coming to the website, my website and, and so they would have to log in or sign up or no,
They would sign up. So you would go to a website and have you ever had to enter your email address to get the five top things? That’s what I’m talking about. So they don’t have to log in. They just have to fill out a quick little form with maybe their first name and their email address. And that’s it. And, and,
and so, so do you think that folks do that and it doesn’t like kind of turn them off from the whole, I think it’s pretty expected these days that you’re going, if you want something free, that’s meaningful. You have, there, there’s an exchange that happens. So, yeah, I think, I think it’s pretty much accepted and expected that if you’re going to a website and someone’s offering you a PDF or in your case,
maybe at some recipe tips Or, you know, something else that makes life simpler. Right. Well, they’re going to, they need to hand something over to get that. Okay. So that’s, That’s pretty, pretty well accepted. And the people that aren’t willing to give you an email address probably aren’t your ideal clients. So it acts as almost a screening tool.
Got it, got it. So the People who are willing to give their email, they’re more willing to go further with you to that next step. They may actually want to give you money for you to help them. Right. Right, right, right. Yeah. So it kind of helps both ways. Like it’s almost like that first step. Yes.
Wow. That’s a good, yeah. So when you think about what you could offer for that email, what big w what do you solve for your clients? And I know as health coaches, we don’t solve things, but what problem, I guess, are they coming to you for? Yeah. So, so as I said, you know, my niche has always been Eleanor in nutrition.
The reason being is like, I’m not a registered dietician, so I cannot give them any clinical advice outside the scope of my practice. I have enough knowledge around culinary nutrition in the sense that I’ve, you know, I’ve taken coursework. I have, you know, I have, I basically have done enough to kind of give them that knowledge. So,
so the information that they get is everything around things like meal prep, things like recipes, substitutions, you know, things like, you know, I wanna switch out this favorite for something, what can I use in place of say sour cream to kind of meet this more healthier, just as an example. So tips and tricks like that a lot, you know,
like grocery tips and, and yeah. And just, just everything around what we eat and how can we make, like, basically the marriage of culinary sciences and nutrition together. Right. Like, Okay. So when you think about, who’s going to come to you for those services, who is that person? Can you describe that person for me? Yeah.
And what I think is mostly a, those who want to learn how to cook, cook, healthy. Okay. Those who a lot of moms, you know, a lot of, because they are looking at not only making healthy lifestyle changes for themselves, but also for their family, for the kids overall. So it’s not just one it’s everybody, right.
That they are targeting a lot of. Yeah. So, so basically those who have a little, you know, they, they really want to get invested in their own health. Like they want to kind of take control of it and know what they are eating or know more about how to Write, if that makes sense. It does. So mostly,
so the only specific I heard in there was moms. So would you say mostly it’s moms? Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t restrict it, but I would probably open it up to everybody basically, you know, even, even teenagers, like I’m going to, I’m going to be talking about culinary nutrition to middle schoolers, you know, as they go high school.
Right. So, so it’s just kind of it’s, I would say everyone, but if we are looking at like a target audience, then it would probably be a working women, you know, moms and just working professionals in general, which could be moms and dads books. I think when you’re, when you’re starting out kind of where you’re at right now and wanting to build that audience,
the more specific you can be the better off you’ll be simply because when someone comes across your website or comes across your social media, they want to feel that connection. Oh, she’s speaking to me. And so if we have kind of that everyone concept, well, I don’t, I don’t feel that special connection with you and that special connection is what gets me to reach out and say,
yes, I want that freebie. Yes. I want to work with you. I want to know that when you’re writing your posts and writing your things, you’re speaking to me. And so the more that we can dial that in and get that, even if you, yes, would take anyone who wants your services, that you are focusing at least right now on this one specific maybe working professionals.
And maybe if you don’t want to narrow it down to moms or working women, if you want to say working professionals that may cut out your stay at home moms. Right. Oh, okay. So, so do you see kind of where we say, even just moms, if you want to get more family stuff, You know, a mom is probably the most likely person to buy your services in reality,
it’s going to be mom, Right? Yeah, exactly. So something that addresses the fact that things are chaotic in their life. So maybe simplifying the family meal Or five secrets to getting everyone to the table and fed, you know, something simple like that, that they go, yeah, man, it’s really hard for me to get everyone to sit down and then to eat what I’ve actually prepared.
And yes, I made those healthy swaps, but they look at it and they roll their eyes. So how, how do we get past that? So if you can help them solve that kind of problem that we know happens around just about every table. Right. Right. These are not unknown things. These happen everywhere. Yeah. You’re right. Yeah.
So coming up with some, just a quick PDF like that, the five secrets to That’s really, it helps someone say, ah, maybe I can get some tips. Maybe this might help me. Maybe it won’t solve all of my problems, but maybe it’ll solve something. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. No, that makes total sense,
you know, kind of targeting, I think that content, you know, if targets are certain, certain genre, certain, certain, you know, it just hits home with them because then they’ll be, yeah. Because even with my Instagram, I was looking at the insights and everything, you know, the demographics and you know, all of that,
it’s mostly women because I think, I think just like it connects more with them. So it’s just that. So yeah, I think that, that, that’s a good tip And I think that’s really smart to, to take those insights that you do have and notice, Hey, if, if I’m getting mostly women and these are the posts that feel good for me,
then go ahead and tailor the message to be more toward women. Because you know, if a dad comes across your posts, it’s not going to scare him off if he’s truly invested in his family’s health. And he’s the one that would be the one to go out and get that stuff, he’s still gonna say, oh, well, that’s cool. Yeah.
I think, I think kind of orienting it more towards family. You know, it encompasses everyone because there could be a dollar sense. Teenagers, mom, mom, dads. I mean, there could be, you know, because the reason why I don’t want to make it very restrictive as again, because you know, the information because anybody could, anybody could be doing that at home and anybody could be cooking a meal or not.
Right. So, so kind of, I think I liked the idea of targeting it as like having a, giving it as a family approach. Right. Because I think that way, I mean, that’s, that’s ideally how it should be. Like, you know, if you’re right, if you’re changing your own lifestyle, you wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of others.
Right. So I think, I think that, I think that’s hitting, I mean, I think that’s resonating with me more Perfect Thinking about families and what problem you can help them solve today. What wind can you give them? That’s the question we want to answer with that, with that freebie, that lead generator that builds your email list? What problem,
what, when can we give them today and 10 minutes. Yeah. What is it? Yeah. And I think with that, I think with, you know, I think with that, it’s just like, you know, healthy meal times, you know, like you mentioned about, you know, like how can we all have healthy meals around the table or,
or something to do with the weekends also like done in your weekends, into healthy family time around, you know, and, and things around that, because that’s what I do with my family as well. Right. Like, that’s exactly what we are doing. Like I was, I was coaching, I was coaching a mom and, and you know,
she said exactly that, that, you know, I want my daughter also, and she’s learning a lot of all this in school. So I want her to be invested at home as well. We were talking about menu planning and I asked her that, Hey, you know, would your daughter be interested? Can you kind of play a DMO over the weekend,
y’all sit and make a menu for the whole week. And she said, yeah, I think she liked that. Right. Because again, like, you know, we are starting young, we starting small, they feel involved. So, yeah. And I, I think, I think something like, you know, involving your family to plan the menu or stuff like that,
I think would be helpful. I love that idea. Getting menu planning for the family, even, almost making it into a game of some kind That would be a really neat, you know, I know plenty of moms and dads that would grab that PDF and say, awesome. If I don’t have to plan all the meals by myself and my whole family is involved in,
they’re happy about it. And they’re having fun. Sign me up right now. I’ll give you my email address. Yeah. Yeah. So I think, I think you hit on something that’s really, really critical there. We want to make sure that we’re, we’re giving that quick win, You know, nothing, not much about health as a quick win,
but if we can offer some kind of quick wins and that gets that endorphin rush of, Aw, maybe I can do this. Right, Right. It opens their, their minds to the possibilities, which is what we ultimately want. Right. We want them to be open to the possibilities of what can be for their personal vision and their family vision.
Right. Yeah. And I think that the, I think that I like what you said about the quick win, because, you know, and I think it’s with us also, right. The minute we get a quick answer or, or a quick response to something, we, we kind of feel like, okay, I, I got what I was looking at without spending a lot of time or,
you know, spending a lot of just back and forth in Google. Right. So it’s just like something more specific. So yeah, that makes sense. So I, I honestly think if, if you want to build that, that’s your best strongest place to start is to build that, build that email list, because that’s allows for sustainability and the more you start putting that PDF or whatever you choose to do out there,
the more your message will come become clearer in each of your posts. You’ll know a little bit more about what to say. The more you start putting that kind of content out. So like if you’re sharing a recipe, I noticed on Instagram, you like at least one or two posts, you shared a recipe. Tell me why I want to cook that.
What does it do? What, who’s it going to appeal to tell me more about why I should go grab those ingredients out of my pantry or add them to my list for next week, why I should make that, you know, letting people know exactly what is this about, what, how can it help? How can it help? Yeah. Yeah.
So giving them some kind of a reason. Yep. And if it’s like a pasta dish, we’ll, it’s because it’s quick, You know, It’s an easy way to get quick food on the table. And if there’s a runner in the family, well, gosh, that pasta is going to fuel them the next day for that run, you know,
those little things that you can do to incorporate that also starts to build some traction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that’s all that makes complete sense. So how could you implement what we’ve talked about today? What would that look like? I think, I think just kind of like thinking around those lines of you’re my target audience, you know,
like looking at it, looking at families and, and kind of like, you know, seeing what, what problem am I solving for them? Right. And, and, and also kind of like, kind of weaving in my story as well, because, you know, I mean, I, I like, because I’m doing this, I am solving a lot of problems for my family.
So kind of like, just kind of like opening it up and being like, Hey, you know what, I’m doing this it’s helping me. And I think it’ll help you because some problems are universal. Right. Like, so, so like, so, so I think, I think I liked that approach. And then again, you know, like giving it,
like giving the quick wins, like, like, what am I going to get out of this if I’m doing? Or what, like, you know, what, what is somebody going to get out of this appeal? Yeah. So, yeah, I think that was going to be my focus to just start building my content or just start thinking about it.
And, and, and also like, even on, on Instagram, like, you know, when I am putting out the content, probably, you know, thinking around those domes, giving them that information, I think that might be a good step. And even having a post, if you’re not quite sure about what the most important thing might be,
you could always post and say, tell me what your biggest struggles are around meal time. And it might be that they start people start saying, well, it’s that I can’t get it planned. Or I forgot to defrost XYZ that was in the freezer. So I didn’t get to cook it. So we went for fast food or not everyone is home at the same time.
So I need a meal that can be eaten in shifts without it turning gross, because it’s been cooked for three hours now, You know, you might start getting some good insights as to what people are looking for as well. Like what, what does they say are their problems. Yeah. Yeah. So just crowdsourcing that so would be, would be a good step as well.
I th I think it’s perfectly reasonable and that’s a good way to use your stories on Instagram. Just pop up a quick little video of you saying, Hey, I want to make sure that I’m helping you find the solutions to your challenges. What is the hardest part about mealtime or what’s the hardest part about fill in whatever you want to focus on? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Or even offer choices, Then all they have to do is click a, B or C and they don’t have to do anything beyond that. It’s super easy for them, Right? Yeah. That’s, that’s one area I’m trying to kind of get back into and get comfortable. There’s in front of the camera. That’s the reason why I think the content itself is taking a little time because,
you know, I want to kind of get my face out there also, but I think it needs a little bit of, you know, your own self love and all of that to just kind of push yourself. You know, I, it’s funny because I used to do keto back in college and I used to love it. And then now it’s all changed.
So, but kind of getting back into the group. So, But I think that’s powerful because it, you know, your story isn’t different from, from other moms or other women. And, you know, we all get to that point where there’s some, there’s that shift, right. That happens in life. Right. And we have to take that moment to realize that that’s real life.
And when we show up authentically That that’s what matters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, this was great. This was helpful just to kind of, you know, get those wheels turning. And sometimes we kind of get stuck in our own thought processes. So it’s always good to talk it out and get another POV. So let’s just say, you know, and just kind of get that different ideas. It’s just like what we do in coaching. Right. We bring it on. So it’s like, okay. You know, you hear that? Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it’s good. So, yeah. Thanks. Absolutely.
Conclusions and Tip for the Week
Wasn’t that such a great conversation to be able to stop and think about what it means to generate leads and how to do that,
because it can feel like this big abyss of options and ideas and, oh my goodness. Do I need an email funnel? Do I need all of these different kinds of things? And what I would invite you to do is keep it simple. So today’s action item. Based on what we learned with our conversation with Karuna is to create your lead generator.
Now, how do you do this? One idea is to think about what questions do you commonly get asked as a health coach? And if you are new to health coaching, what kinds of questions did you ask about health and wellness when you were getting started on your own journey toward improved health and wellbeing? These are going to be common questions that many people ask that you can provide some insights,
some ideas, or some options that your potential client can try out or think about or simply learn about. We want to make sure that that lead generator is going to help them make progress. It’s going to give them a quick win. It’s going to be something that’s simple to implement, or it’s going to help them think about the big picture in a way that’s not scary and overwhelming,
but exciting and motivating. So motivating in fact that they want to work with you as their health coach. So this week’s action item is to create your lead generator. Now you might be thinking, I already have one, if that’s true, great, you are already part of the way there. So what I’d like you to do is look at that lead generator and see how it’s converting.
Are you actually getting people to sign up for your lead generator? Because if you’re not, it might be time to either tweak it or to try something different. It’s really important to remember that it’s all about timing with your lead generator. I had a lead generator that did absolutely nothing for months and months in fact for a whole year. And so I just kind of let it slide back.
I kept it because it was still good information, but I kind of let it slide to the background and created the current lead generator that I use, which is the coaching high blueprint assessment. And don’t, you know, a year after I published that first lead generator, things had changed in the health coaching industry and suddenly that PDF was in more demand.
And so I was able to share that. So even if you have a lead generator that’s not working quite right, or as well as you would hope right now, don’t throw it away. Just kind of put it on the back burner because sometimes things shift expectedly or unexpectedly, and you might find that your lead generator just needs a good dusting and you can put it back out there for the world to enjoy.
So either create your first lead generator this week or dust one off, revise it and think about how you can get it out there for the world to see that’s it, that’s today’s episode of the coaching high podcast. I hope that it’s helpful to stop and think about these more specific actions that you can take inside your coaching business to start building, growing,
scaling your coaching business, to be a business that you love. One that’s filled with satisfaction and fulfillment rather than chaos and overwhelm. Let me know if you have questions and if you are ready to think about your business and the next steps to take in your business, I would like to invite you to go ahead and check out the Coaching Hive Blueprint Assessment at www.coachinghive.com/assessment
I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful coaching business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
~ Dr. Moira
