Ep. 31 Behind the Scenes: Tips for Aspiring Health Coaches featuring Michelle Leotta
Hello, and thanks for listening to Becoming a Health Coach with Megan J. McCrory.
Visit becomingahealthcoach.ch for a full transcript, and resources, and to comment on what other health coaches you'd like to have interviewed.
When Michelle Leotta became a certified health coach, there was no such thing as board certification and most people had never heard of kale. Join this lively conversation about the industry's evolution and how to get started on your health coaching path from someone who has been in your shoes and continues to move the industry forward.
Michelle Leotta has combined 13 years as a practicing health coach with 20+ years of online marketing experience, to help aspiring coaches earn a living doing the work they love. She is the creator of Healthy Profit University, an online learning center to move your business forward.
Michelle's Links:
@healthcoachpowercommunity on Instagram
Research Links:
- Mental Health for the Internet | Healthy Gamer - Mental health for the internet generation Helping people take control of their lives
- National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching - The National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) has collaborated with the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) since 2016 to provide a robust board certification examination which has led to more than 9,400 National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coaches that hold the NBC-HWC credential. The esteemed NBC-HWC credential represents training, education, and assessment standards, allowing for the profession to advance in all aspects of health care and wellness.
- International Coaching Federation- Professional Coaching Association - After 25 years, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) has evolved to become the hub for all things coaching. We’re more than a membership organization for trained professional coaches – we’re bringing together, in one place, several key aspects of the growing industry. Discover the ICF ecosystem of six family organizations, created to better serve you on your journey to empower the world through coaching.
Mentioned in this episode:
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00:00 - Introduction
01:42 - Michelle's Journey to Becoming a Health Coach
05:54 - The Evolution of Health Coaching Certifications
11:36 - The Importance of Identifying Your Niche
19:58 - Common Mistakes New Health Coaches Make
21:44 - Effective Ways for Health Coaches to Promote Their Services
23:54 - Stepping into the Game: The Conundrum of New Health Coaches
25:28 - The Importance of Giving Away Value for Free
28:06 - The Art of Listening: Creating Solutions for Your Community
28:51 - How do we improve the success rate of health coaches as entrepreneurs?
34:30 - The Changing Landscape of Health Coaching
36:17 - The Rise of Health Coaching MLMs
38:53 - The Value of Being Your Own Coach First
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Megan J. McCrory: Today I have the honor of talking with one of the OG
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health coaches and fellow IIN graduate, Michelle Leotta, and I have to admit
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that I am fangirling just a little bit.
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I am Megan McCrory, and this is the podcast all about becoming a health coach.
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When I started looking around in late 2017 for a different path from my corporate
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career, I stumbled on health coaching, and Michelle's website was one of the
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very first that popped up demonstrating that even then she had great SEO.
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So I joined her private Facebook group, Health Coach Power Community, along with
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14,000 other health coaches where she is super active and engaged in helping
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health coaches with their businesses.
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Thank you, Michelle, for joining me today.
Michelle Leotta:
Ah, thanks for having me.
Michelle Leotta:
When you put it like that, boy I makes me feel like I, I have been around
Michelle Leotta:
for a while, it's been a minute.
Michelle Leotta:
Wow, that's so cool.
Michelle Leotta:
That's so cool that you found me way back when.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah, definitely.
Michelle Leotta:
I mean like in 2017, I had no idea what health coaching even was.
Michelle Leotta:
I was looking up like nutrition programs and dietician programs
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and IIN and you both popped up.
Michelle Leotta:
I was very clear in my memory how that happened.
Michelle Leotta:
Wow, that is something.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, it's, the field has really, really exploded and I'm gonna say the last five
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to 10 years, um, like really the last five I wanna say, it's just been bonkers.
Michelle Leotta:
But early on there are very few of us out there doing anything, especially
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with a, a strong online presence.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah, yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
So that's great.
Michelle Leotta:
Why don't you start with, um, maybe sharing a little bit about
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your background and what inspired you to become a health coach?
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, well, I like you.
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One day was like, I gotta do something else.
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And I'm researching and I'm looking for stuff and I was looking up nutrition
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programs and it all came about because of my own health issues that I had been
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suffering with that led me, kinda through that winding maze of doctors who just kind
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of shrug and say, your blood work is fine.
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And I'm like, but I'm not fine.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, I was having fainting episodes.
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I had debilitating IBS symptoms.
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Never talked about it though.
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Never diagnosed.
Michelle Leotta:
This is just in retrospect, you know, I had anxiety, you know, up to here.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, but yeah, but my blood work was fine , so it really was this, like my own, like
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digging, like I have to do something.
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What can I do?
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Who can I talk to?
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And like putting the pieces together myself.
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And then I tried yoga and then I tried, you know, some various
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rudimentary diet changes.
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And eventually I got to a place where, uh, I wasn't fainting anymore.
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In fact, I felt pretty darn good.
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And along the way, I, I met, a couple of people who told me about the Institute
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for Integrative Nutrition, and I was like, that's like if I was gonna go
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back to school for nutrition, I'm gonna go back to school for nutrition.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, I lived in Boston at the time, so I was looking into Tufts
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program, their graduate program.
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I was looking into various, uh, other programs and all of them
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were going to cost so much money.
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I was already . Uh, I, I was working in advertising.
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I used to work in big advertising as an art director, and so that thought of going
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back to school for something other than art and getting all my prerequisites and
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the years it was gonna take to do it, not to mention the money it was going
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to take to do it, was a huge turnoff
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as well as I.
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Like, did I really want that job?
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Like I wasn't so sure, but everything, every time I kept circling back to
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IIN I was like, that's the message.
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That's what I wanna do.
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That's what I wanna help people.
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That's what's helped me, you know, this more holistic approach.
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So, um, I.
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I just kind of took the leap and went for it.
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I really never thought I was going to A, have my own business.
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B, ever health coach, anyone, I just thought it was like for my, my own
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personal growth, I was going to go to IIN.
Michelle Leotta:
I thought at that point, career change will never happen hard.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, that's really interesting 'cause I've talked before on a couple other
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episodes about like why people go into health coaching and it's either corporate
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burnout, they want to do something different or you've had a health issue.
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You kind of a, a little bit of both in there.
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But I also knew people at IIN when I was in 2018 going through the course
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that simply just wanted to do it.
Michelle Leotta:
Like you said, for your own health, for your, the health of their family, their
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kids, you know, even parents sometimes.
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It's just, I often say that I was the healthiest during 2018 when I was doing
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all of these various things and exploring, mostly just paying attention to my
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body and trying different things and
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I mean, that's really what health coaching is all about, is paying
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attention and listening and then helping others do that with them.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
To get along their health journey.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, I think a lot of people end up going down this route
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with, with no real end goal in mind, which is a beautiful thing and, and
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it's lovely that you can do that.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, you can't Go to get your bachelor's degree or graduate
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degree going, Hmm, I don't know.
Michelle Leotta:
I'm just gonna dabble in this.
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It's gonna cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars
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But with health coaching, it's accessible enough that you can go,
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Hmm, let's just see what happens.
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And I love that.
Michelle Leotta:
I think any healing I've done in my life has started with that thought of
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like, Hmm, let's just see what happens.
Michelle Leotta:
Let's just give it a try.
Michelle Leotta:
Let's just, I'm slightly intrigued.
Michelle Leotta:
I'm being led down this path, so let's just
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take that one next step and you know, maybe it's great, maybe it stinks.
Michelle Leotta:
We'll just find out.
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this case, it was really life changing.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Now you kind of dipped into a little bit about
Michelle Leotta:
like your thought process on going to actually get a certification.
Michelle Leotta:
And at the time when you were doing it, I'm imagining there wasn't too
Michelle Leotta:
many options that there are like now.
Michelle Leotta:
So can you kind of compare, or maybe you have a little bit more insight on
Michelle Leotta:
the different levels of certification.
Michelle Leotta:
'cause I get this a lot.
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People are like, do I do this whole year program?
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Do I do this six week program?
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And like what are your thoughts on that?
Michelle Leotta:
Well, you're right.
Michelle Leotta:
I didn't really have to make the choice because . In my
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memory, there were two options.
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One was IIN in New York City and it was still in person, and
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I went there on the weekends.
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I took the bus from Boston down to New York for classes all
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weekend long, once a month.
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The other option was Bauman, which is on the West coast and.
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That really just wasn't an option.
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You know?
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It didn't make sense for me to travel, although it's hilarious.
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'cause once I was in school at IIN, we legit had people
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in our class who would fly.
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I think she was from Japan, one of the women she flew from Japan to
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attend classes in New York City.
Michelle Leotta:
don't know, she must have had fa, I don't know the specifics.
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I was just like, I really can't complain about my three and a half hour bus
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ride, you know, . So there, there really, there wasn't anything else
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unless you were gonna go, you know, to a college, get your degree, your
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bachelor's, your master's, et cetera.
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But these days, oh, so many options.
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And everyone always, I'll say, oh, what school are you from?
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And they give me some acronym and I'm like,
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Megan J. McCrory: Ah,
Michelle Leotta:
that's good.
Michelle Leotta:
I have no I can't even keep track of them here's what I know it doesn't matter.
Michelle Leotta:
It does not matter what school you go to, what your certification
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is, short of being a credentialed.
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A licensed medical professional, a licensed medical, that's different.
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Your scope of practice is way different.
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But if you're like a nutrition consultant, a health coach, a
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nutrition co, whatever, I don't care.
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It's all the same.
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It all means you are not a licensed medical professional but in one way,
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shape, or form, you can help people with their health and that's awesome.
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And we're all pretty much operating in the same sphere.
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You're a functional medicine, this, that, or the other thing.
Michelle Leotta:
I don't, it doesn't matter.
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It doesn't matter.
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Our scope of practice remains the same.
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We can't diagnose, we can't prescribe, right.
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All we can do is what we can do, which is a lot.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, so I think.
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That as more schools have popped up, it's created this like every school.
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As with any branding, you have to try differentiate yourself,
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or you come to our school and you're gonna learn about X, Y, Z.
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You go to my school and we're gonna make you more about.
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But in practice, what matters is the work you do, how you show up in the
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world, how you help people, the presence that you build for yourself, your
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marketing, your branding, your outreach.
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That's what's gonna set you apart more than the school.
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Megan J. McCrory: Over here we have a lot of coaches that are, uh, part
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or trying to get credentialed through ICF, the International Coaching
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Federation, and like being credentialed by an organization like that.
Michelle Leotta:
I don't know.
Michelle Leotta:
In the US do you see health coaches need this kind of additional credentials
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does that make a difference in your market versus some over here?
Michelle Leotta:
I feel like it kind of levels the playing field against all of the
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European countries a little bit.
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I'm not sure.
Michelle Leotta:
I, it's always also another question that people have asked me.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, so that's another thing that's happened.
Michelle Leotta:
So we have all the different schools with all the various titles.
Michelle Leotta:
I should add, when I first graduated from IIN, we were called
Michelle Leotta:
Holistic Health Counselors, HHC,
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: okay I haven't
Michelle Leotta:
and
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: that before.
Michelle Leotta:
That's
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it.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, that was our official put HHC after your name, that's
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what you were supposed to do.
Michelle Leotta:
These days, someone will keel over and die if you say the word counselor.
Michelle Leotta:
Oh my God.
Michelle Leotta:
That's not what we do.
Michelle Leotta:
We're, you know, that's what we were called.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, then at one point they changed it to holistic health coach.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Okay.
Michelle Leotta:
Keeping that word holistic in there these days.
Michelle Leotta:
I don't know what the heck it is.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, oh, then it was certified, certified Health coach.
Michelle Leotta:
But now you can't say certified 'cause if you're certified, that means
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that you've gone through and become certified through the N-B-H-W-C.
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That's what everyone is, um, uh, becoming board certified.
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So this layer has appeared over all the schools of now we're gonna
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board certify you after you've gone through your various programs.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and a lot of coaches are doing that.
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From where I sit, the only difference it makes is if a coach is looking
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to work with a functional medicine, facil, a practice of some kind,
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doctor, some sort of clinic.
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You're looking to be hired by someone else, like a, an organization who, and
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this is not all of them, but who is aware that this board certification exists?
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Because of course, if you were gonna hire someone and you knew this
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certification exists, you'd say, well, let's, let's make sure we hire someone
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who has it but it's not very well known.
Michelle Leotta:
Not too many of those opportunities even exist.
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Most health coaches are still going at it from the entrepreneurial route,
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which is what I have always done.
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And in that case, absolutely 0% of average people walking down the street
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who gonna become your client know, care have ever heard about being board
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certified it's just like when I would say, oh, I'm a certified health coach.
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Nobody caress.
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They don't care.
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They don't know what IIN is.
Michelle Leotta:
They don't know what the school, that school, they do not care unless you
Michelle Leotta:
say Harvard, you know, or something like they've never heard of it.
Michelle Leotta:
So it, I think, makes absolutely no difference if you are looking
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for your own clients and working independently at this point.
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Megan J. McCrory: Now let's move on to actually like really starting a business
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because most of the listeners are either thinking about starting a business
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or in their certification program or maybe they just finished and they're
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really wanna like kind of kick off.
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and in a recent episode that I did, I talked about 20 different niches that
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you know are kind of popular just to kind of get the brain juices flowing,
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what people could think about, which I think is probably one of the things
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that I find most interesting when I meet health coaches is to learn their niche.
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'cause I'm like.
Michelle Leotta:
Whew.
Michelle Leotta:
I would've never thought about that very, very specific thing as a niche.
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So it's always kind of a, a little like a bingo sheet.
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Have I met one of these health coaches fitting this niche?
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So I'm wondering how did you determine your niche and what is
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some advice you would have for new or aspiring health coaches when they're
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trying to identify their niche?
Michelle Leotta:
It's funny, I also feel like I'm playing bingo a lot times when
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health coaches are talking about their niche, but I'm more like, Hmm, what is
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this person going to tell me That actually is not a niche, actually is not helpful at
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all in terms of defining a target market.
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We hear a, a lot of words, a lot of fluff, very little substance, and I think
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it's because everyone is Where I was and where every health coach I knew was
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when we started, which is like, I don't know, I don't know what I'm good at.
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I haven't done it yet, you know.
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I had no idea how I could niche down.
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And I, I think a lot of people use a lot of flowery language to describe, you know,
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like I help women who are sick of being sick and tired of being tired, become
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the most vibrant version of themselves.
Michelle Leotta:
I'm like, bingo, that's another one that doesn't actually say anything.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, , um, you know, or I help whoever with gut health.
Michelle Leotta:
Nope.
Michelle Leotta:
No you don't.
Michelle Leotta:
Nope.
Michelle Leotta:
Because no, like very few, hardly anyone that you were talking about
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actually cares about their gut health.
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They just wanna lose weight or they have migraines or they have
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autoimmune disease or whatever.
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Um, we might know things stem from gut health.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
It's not the thing anyone's actually looking for.
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A target market is all about your marketing.
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It's not about what you do or what you specialize in, or what you like, it
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has to do with how you draw people in.
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So it has to be a message that other people are gonna respond to.
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So anyway, when I started, I didn't know, and you just start doing
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the work you know, you just start holding workshops, meeting people.
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See what the universe has in store for you.
Michelle Leotta:
Uh, you can try, you know, you can try, oh yeah, I'm gonna do this kind
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of thing with my coaching business.
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But then opportunities come along you never could predict.
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So you give it your best shot in the beginning.
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Everyone.
Michelle Leotta:
I also give this advice, you should know your niche.
Michelle Leotta:
You should pick a niche, right?
Michelle Leotta:
Um.
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Do it the best you can.
Michelle Leotta:
It's almost like you're gonna carve a sculpture.
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You are Michelangelo, and it's gonna start very rough.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, in the beginning it's just some weird shapes that you, you know, you cut
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out of the block and then as you keep going with the marble, you know, you get
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a little more detailed here, a little more detailed there, and like, maybe like
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In five years, 10 years, you'll have your David statue.
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That's like, this is my niche.
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You know, I have really defined it, but it, it does take some time
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to get there and so it is, okay.
Michelle Leotta:
So if you're just starting with like, I'm pretty sure I work
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better with women than men.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
Great.
Michelle Leotta:
Start there.
Michelle Leotta:
You don't need any flowery language.
Michelle Leotta:
Just know that you're gonna be looking for women.
Michelle Leotta:
Okay.
Michelle Leotta:
Maybe they're moms.
Michelle Leotta:
Good.
Michelle Leotta:
Okay, that's a little more niche from there.
Michelle Leotta:
It's going to evolve, so.
Michelle Leotta:
So I always have health coaches take a stab at it, say, try to,
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you know, put a, put a stake in the ground, something useful.
Michelle Leotta:
I know it like that.
Michelle Leotta:
I know I work better with women than men.
Michelle Leotta:
Great.
Michelle Leotta:
Let's start there.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, is there anything in particular, you know, a lot about, maybe you
Michelle Leotta:
yourself have gone through Lyme disease, you're gonna be very well suited to
Michelle Leotta:
help people who've also gone through or are going through Lyme disease.
Michelle Leotta:
That's helpful.
Michelle Leotta:
That's really helpful.
Michelle Leotta:
But even within that.
Michelle Leotta:
What I found as I was working, and I mean I had been doing the work
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for years and years and years.
Michelle Leotta:
I must have been like, oh gosh, maybe six or seven years into
Michelle Leotta:
my practice, and it was actually my ex-husband pointed out to me.
Michelle Leotta:
He said, you know, a lot of your clients seem to be a lot like you.
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And I'm like, what?
Michelle Leotta:
Talking about?
Michelle Leotta:
And he said, well, you're always talking about how they send you
Michelle Leotta:
these like color coded spreadsheets when ask for like a food journal.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, and, uh, and he was right.
Michelle Leotta:
A lot of the, my best clients, the one that I, ones I really clicked with were
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very organized, very on top of their game.
Michelle Leotta:
Corporate types, like lists, bullets, color coded spreadsheets, like type A
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all day and uh, and that really got me thinking, and that was the first time
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that I think I really got detailed in, in my niche because I was doing it anyway.
Michelle Leotta:
I just didn't realize it.
Michelle Leotta:
I was just attracting people and I was working really well with people and
Michelle Leotta:
them being referred to their friends because I too am very type A and that
Michelle Leotta:
type of thinking makes sense to me.
Michelle Leotta:
When I had more type B personalities in my practice, it didn't, it just didn't mesh
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as well, so then it got me thinking, well.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, okay, type A women, great.
Michelle Leotta:
But then I realized, oh, type A women all tend to have the same health issues.
Michelle Leotta:
And again, I was seeing it, I was living it.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
But I hadn't thought about it in that way.
Michelle Leotta:
But type A women tend to be chronically stressed.
Michelle Leotta:
Many of them have lived through trauma.
Michelle Leotta:
That's why they take on this ultra like control freak personality, right?
Michelle Leotta:
So they have the health fallout that comes from that.
Michelle Leotta:
And that's everything I had been experiencing with myself, with my clients.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and is finally able to put a name to it or to describe it because of
Michelle Leotta:
this, you know, my, my ex-husband's sort of third party View or
Michelle Leotta:
perspective as to what was happening.
Michelle Leotta:
So, man, you know, it is, it is hard, but once I found it, I could
Michelle Leotta:
market to that group of women.
Michelle Leotta:
So much more easily.
Michelle Leotta:
Like I would offer the spreadsheets, I would offer, like the planning tools.
Michelle Leotta:
They love that kind of thing.
Michelle Leotta:
Before I was just shooting in the dark, you know, like, I don't know,
Michelle Leotta:
maybe I'll give 'em a, a recipe book.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, I was able to do things that I knew would really resonate with them.
Michelle Leotta:
I, I created a quiz that helped them see how all their different
Michelle Leotta:
symptoms, health issues, were actually related to chronic stress.
Michelle Leotta:
That's where my practice really.
Michelle Leotta:
Truly took off.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Wow.
Michelle Leotta:
I would have to say, I think knowing your niche, I feel like some women
Michelle Leotta:
that I've met, and men, who know their niche upfront, I feel like
Michelle Leotta:
they've already like five steps ahead.
Michelle Leotta:
Like a breast cancer survivor, she knows she wants to work
Michelle Leotta:
with breast cancer survivors.
Michelle Leotta:
Right?
Michelle Leotta:
I also know a guy in Texas who is working for a coaching
Michelle Leotta:
company that is geared to gamers.
Michelle Leotta:
It's Healthy Gamer I mean.
Michelle Leotta:
That is a excellent way of, you know, defining this niche of, you know,
Michelle Leotta:
we have people who are sitting in their chairs all day playing games
Michelle Leotta:
and they want to also be healthy.
Michelle Leotta:
And, you know, I feel like the majority of us have the windy path that you did.
Michelle Leotta:
And it's, I feel though it's like an egg and chicken, chicken and egg
Michelle Leotta:
scenario because we hear all the time you have to talk to your ideal client.
Michelle Leotta:
And if you don't know who your ideal client is, then who do you talk to?
Michelle Leotta:
So it I, I like kind of your kind of pragmatic approach,
Michelle Leotta:
just start doing some something.
Michelle Leotta:
Start doing anything.
Michelle Leotta:
'cause I feel like that's also where a lot of people get hung up, is that they try
Michelle Leotta:
to do something perfect, myself included, and then they don't produce anything.
Michelle Leotta:
They don't put their face out anywhere.
Michelle Leotta:
They don't actually interact with anybody and then they wonder
Michelle Leotta:
why they don't get started.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, so I think just doing anything to start then will get you onto the path
Michelle Leotta:
where you will eventually need to be.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, everyone has to accept the fact that you are
Michelle Leotta:
gonna be terrible at anything you do for the first time, and you're not
Michelle Leotta:
gonna be great at it the second time, either or the third time, right?
Michelle Leotta:
So it's just an iterative process of doing anything new,
Michelle Leotta:
including building a business.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
So that brings me to my next question.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, because you work with so many health coaches, what is a mistake
Michelle Leotta:
that you see the majority of health coaches making during their first
Michelle Leotta:
year of starting their business?
Michelle Leotta:
Um, expecting way too much with too little effort.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Okay.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, I posted on Instagram that I was accepting clients.
Michelle Leotta:
I put, I posted twice on Instagram with a link to my
Michelle Leotta:
application form or to my website.
Michelle Leotta:
No one completed it.
Michelle Leotta:
And I'm like, I'm shocked.
Michelle Leotta:
Oh, no way.
Michelle Leotta:
Like you mean they weren't beating down your door?
Michelle Leotta:
Like, I don't know where this idea comes from that you're gonna
Michelle Leotta:
come out of he, your Health Coach certification program, you're gonna
Michelle Leotta:
open up a social media account and the clients are just gonna flow in it.
Michelle Leotta:
Will 1000% not happen that.
Michelle Leotta:
I guarantee you.
Michelle Leotta:
So that is the biggest mistake by far.
Michelle Leotta:
And it has to do with, I think, too little effort being expected.
Michelle Leotta:
I think everyone's being sold into these schools.
Michelle Leotta:
Become a health coach.
Michelle Leotta:
Become a health coach.
Michelle Leotta:
It's easy is like the, um, the unspoken subtitle.
Michelle Leotta:
you're gonna sip smoothies and like do yoga all day and live your dream life.
Michelle Leotta:
And clients need you so much, and the money is just gonna, it really takes about
Michelle Leotta:
a hundred times more work than you think.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
That is the truth of it.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and then second to that, for some reason everyone thinks social media
Michelle Leotta:
is the way that you find clients.
Michelle Leotta:
It's not dead.
Michelle Leotta:
Like, and right there end the show.
Michelle Leotta:
It's not . It might be for like a couple coaches like make it
Michelle Leotta:
really big on TikTok or whatever.
Michelle Leotta:
They are the outliers.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
I think that's actually even my next question is kind of like how Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
Very, very well done.
Michelle Leotta:
what is the best way for health coaches to promote themselves and their services if
Michelle Leotta:
Well, think of any business, like, any, like think
Michelle Leotta:
of, uh, I don't know if you bought your house, your real estate agent,
Michelle Leotta:
the person who did your mortgage.
Michelle Leotta:
Think of your insurance broker or your accountant, uh, whoever who,
Michelle Leotta:
you know, you get massages regularly.
Michelle Leotta:
Who's that person or body work or et cetera did you find them on social media?
Michelle Leotta:
Did you like, follow a hashtag that they had used and then you found them
Michelle Leotta:
and then you hired them the next day?
Michelle Leotta:
Like, most of these businesses thrive because of their relationships.
Michelle Leotta:
So like my realtor is a friend of a friend.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
Uh, my mortgage broker was referred by another realtor.
Michelle Leotta:
Uh, my accountant, what I was referred to, like through my community, So it's
Michelle Leotta:
who knows who, that's how business is done, even at the highest level.
Michelle Leotta:
I mean, when I was working in advertising, big deals were getting signed because,
Michelle Leotta:
you know, a couple of the CEOs went out and had drinks or whatever, you know,
Michelle Leotta:
spent a lot of money on a a weekend vacation together or whatever, like that's
Michelle Leotta:
how deals get done in every industry.
Michelle Leotta:
So your relationships with people are gonna take you much, much further
Michelle Leotta:
than something you're trying to do with the algorithm or whatever.
Michelle Leotta:
on a social media platform, it's who you know.
Michelle Leotta:
Who you talk to, who you've been helpful to, who they know, who
Michelle Leotta:
they talk to, how many times you've put yourself in front of people.
Michelle Leotta:
It is everything to do with human relationships, and if we can keep that
Michelle Leotta:
front and center, it does dovetail with a strong social media strategy, right?
Michelle Leotta:
Because a strong social media strategy helps you create and nurture more
Michelle Leotta:
relationships if you're doing it right.
Michelle Leotta:
But that's just one small avenue.
Michelle Leotta:
I know, I guarantee everybody you've ever met in your life, your high
Michelle Leotta:
school friends, your college friends, your, your local neighborhood,
Michelle Leotta:
et cetera, are, are stronger assets than, um, than any hashtag.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: So what would you say in terms of what kind of
Michelle Leotta:
percentage of content and value should you be giving away as a new
Michelle Leotta:
health coach in order to start making those connections with people versus
Michelle Leotta:
potentially charging.
Michelle Leotta:
And is there a difference in the, like, engagement of the participants,
Michelle Leotta:
whether when they have a free something versus they pay 10
Michelle Leotta:
bucks or 20 bucks for a workshop?
Michelle Leotta:
yeah, I hear a lot of coaches like,
Michelle Leotta:
I need to start making money.
Michelle Leotta:
Well, sorry sweetheart.
Michelle Leotta:
Like you don't get to make money until you've earned the right to do so,
Michelle Leotta:
meaning you've earned somebody's trust.
Michelle Leotta:
People have gotten to know you, you've proven yourself.
Michelle Leotta:
So it's, it's kinda like being an intern.
Michelle Leotta:
It'd be like if the unpaid intern, you know, waltz is into the office and you're
Michelle Leotta:
like, okay, you're in charge of making the coffee and, uh, putting the stuff
Michelle Leotta:
in the mailbox, you know, and they're like, well, I need to start making money.
Michelle Leotta:
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, . Why don't you just start with getting
Michelle Leotta:
the coffee and, you know, mailing the mail, and then we'll see.
Michelle Leotta:
So even though you're your own boss in this scenario.
Michelle Leotta:
You still have to, you have to get there.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, you have to, um, you have to earn the right to
Michelle Leotta:
sell your services to anybody.
Michelle Leotta:
So, um, so I, I kind of giggled to myself when coaches are kind of self
Michelle Leotta:
righteously or like entitled, like, well, I need to start making money.
Michelle Leotta:
I'm like, well get a part-time job then.
Michelle Leotta:
Because in the beginning, especially in the beginning, but also I've
Michelle Leotta:
been in this industry for 14 years.
Michelle Leotta:
You give and give and give for free because when people see how valuable
Michelle Leotta:
your free stuff is, they're paying you.
Michelle Leotta:
If they're paying attention, they're paying you with their
Michelle Leotta:
time with their attention.
Michelle Leotta:
So valuable.
Michelle Leotta:
So even though it's not money, the fact that they even paused to listen
Michelle Leotta:
to your podcast episode or read that thing that they downloaded or read your
Michelle Leotta:
blog post or show up for your workshop, they're paying you with their time.
Michelle Leotta:
And once they know that, that was like so, so worth it, that's when
Michelle Leotta:
they'll think about paying you.
Michelle Leotta:
And if you think it's gonna happen the other way, you are
Michelle Leotta:
gonna be very disappointed.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
No, that's a, I like the way that you presented that as an intern and kind
Michelle Leotta:
of earning your way through 'cause I definitely, I've also gone through
Michelle Leotta:
that mindset before of, you know, how, why should I give this away?
Michelle Leotta:
I've worked really hard on it.
Michelle Leotta:
Somebody should just want to buy it because they know it.
Michelle Leotta:
But you don't.
Michelle Leotta:
They don't know who you are yet.
Michelle Leotta:
And you need to, I think, I think the . The, the classic funnel is, you
Michelle Leotta:
know, you find, uh, nurture and grow, you know, like kind of, and I think it's
Michelle Leotta:
really the, this nurturing part where you're doing a lot of this free giveaway
Michelle Leotta:
because, I mean, you do this for your group, your Facebook group every week
Michelle Leotta:
for an hour, I think, or half an hour.
Michelle Leotta:
I'm not sure how long it is.
Michelle Leotta:
But you get up there and have a free q and a for anybody who wants to ask questions.
Michelle Leotta:
And I think that, and you've shown up that way for like years, , I think
Michelle Leotta:
that's kind of like your calling card and then you turned it into your podcast.
Michelle Leotta:
And I mean, you know, there's just a fountain of information that
Michelle Leotta:
comes out every week, and I'm pretty sure you probably feel like you've
Michelle Leotta:
repeated yourself a thousand times by now, , because you know every
Michelle Leotta:
Every December new batches of health coaches come into the world
Michelle Leotta:
and ask all of the same questions.
Michelle Leotta:
But, um, yeah, but you know, you're still there, you're still showing up.
Michelle Leotta:
So I think that that's, it's a great example of what you should do, uh, when
Michelle Leotta:
you're starting off as a health coach.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, you're right.
Michelle Leotta:
It's been many, many years now and even before I had the
Michelle Leotta:
podcast, I had the Facebook.
Michelle Leotta:
I've been running the Facebook group for about a decade and I still show up in it.
Michelle Leotta:
And when you see me in my Facebook group, it's me.
Michelle Leotta:
It's not an assistant.
Michelle Leotta:
And I'm Am I there as much as I used to be.
Michelle Leotta:
No.
Michelle Leotta:
Do I have help now?
Michelle Leotta:
Yes.
Michelle Leotta:
Am I still there every day?
Michelle Leotta:
Mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
. And, you know, again, when you see me leave a comment or whatever,
Michelle Leotta:
like it's, I'm actually doing it.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and that is why I have such a loyal base.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
And when I have something to offer, I'm not even
Michelle Leotta:
gonna say sell, because what I hear is the need for my community.
Michelle Leotta:
This is what we need.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
Then I create something to help them with that, right?
Michelle Leotta:
I offer them the solution to the thing that they need, and then They want it It's
Michelle Leotta:
so different from like, I wanna sell a product, or I wanna be this kind of coach.
Michelle Leotta:
I'm gonna create this program, buy my thing, buy my thing, buy my
Michelle Leotta:
thing, buy my thing to an audience that's like, I literally don't care.
Michelle Leotta:
you know, like they just, I'm not engaged at all.
Michelle Leotta:
It has to go the other way.
Michelle Leotta:
Then you're swimming.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, you're swimming downstream instead of like fighting it.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
So what can we do, to improve the success rate of health coaches as entrepreneurs?
Michelle Leotta:
I think a lot of people that come into health coaching are not business savvy.
Michelle Leotta:
They don't have marketing experience.
Michelle Leotta:
They don't, some people don't have any business or corporate
Michelle Leotta:
experience, you know, at all.
Michelle Leotta:
So, and I feel like, I don't know what the numbers are, but I don't
Michelle Leotta:
know how, what the percentage of people who go through health coaching.
Michelle Leotta:
Wanna be a health coach, try it either as a hobby part-time, or even, you know,
Michelle Leotta:
full, full-time and then quit because they can't get their business to go.
Michelle Leotta:
So what's, what can we do to improve that success rate with health coaches?
Michelle Leotta:
I am wondering as you say, that if is the goal to
Michelle Leotta:
improve the success rate of health coaches per se, or is the goal to
Michelle Leotta:
improve the health of the world?
Michelle Leotta:
Right, because that's why we got into health coaching.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
Or is it just to help all these people who became health
Michelle Leotta:
coaches just in one way or another, feel successful in their lives?
Michelle Leotta:
Like I think what I wanna say is, if you're gonna succeed in running
Michelle Leotta:
your own business, whatever that business is, uh, you need marketing
Michelle Leotta:
skills, you need business skills.
Michelle Leotta:
So get that support, you're going nowhere without it.
Michelle Leotta:
That's that.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, or you can spend like A decade figuring it out.
Michelle Leotta:
That's also okay.
Michelle Leotta:
Like I said, like it takes time.
Michelle Leotta:
You're gonna have to make mistakes.
Michelle Leotta:
You, you just have to have the bandwidth for that.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and some people do and some people don't.
Michelle Leotta:
Have the ability to wait that long.
Michelle Leotta:
Do you know what I mean?
Michelle Leotta:
To kind of like learn all the lessons yourself, but also be open to what
Michelle Leotta:
the universe is, is moving you toward.
Michelle Leotta:
And that sounds super woowoo when I'm not a super woowoo person, but like here I am.
Michelle Leotta:
Like I love my job.
Michelle Leotta:
I love where I have ended up.
Michelle Leotta:
Right now in my business, I've combined everything I know about marketing and
Michelle Leotta:
advertising and design and copywriting and you know, big business with health.
Michelle Leotta:
Wellness, you know, actually helping people, coaching, I, it's like it just
Michelle Leotta:
came, it all came together and it's going to be different for all of us.
Michelle Leotta:
So maybe your quote, success as a health coach is not gonna be health coaching, but
Michelle Leotta:
maybe it's gonna be something else that you get led towards through this process.
Michelle Leotta:
I think that's really cool.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, may we have health coaches who go on to, uh, change laws and,
Michelle Leotta:
you know, affect, like, change at, uh, at, at the government level.
Michelle Leotta:
They're not like health coaching per se, but they're definitely having an impact.
Michelle Leotta:
be open to it being a step on the path towards like, I don't
Michelle Leotta:
know what, and neither do you.
Michelle Leotta:
And that's the really cool thing.
Michelle Leotta:
And.
Michelle Leotta:
Anywhere you end up, if you yourself are trying to sell your own services or your
Michelle Leotta:
own products, you need marketing savvy.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
I did the health coaching program while I was still in my corporate job, and
Michelle Leotta:
instead of quitting right away and trying to start a business I actually
Michelle Leotta:
switched jobs within the company.
Michelle Leotta:
So that kind of freed up my mental energy.
Michelle Leotta:
And then my company was very happy for me to
Michelle Leotta:
Introduce some Mindful Mondays and some, you know, uh,
Michelle Leotta:
workshops and things like that.
Michelle Leotta:
And it was nice to be able to integrate what I was learning in as a health
Michelle Leotta:
coach into my corporate world.
Michelle Leotta:
And that for a long time really fed me, you know, until I was like,
Michelle Leotta:
okay, I'm really kind of, now, I'm, now I'm really done with corporate.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, but , but I, it, it is, I I really like how you're saying You don't need
Michelle Leotta:
to be a 100% health coach, try to make a business work to give the gift of health
Michelle Leotta:
coaching to people around you, or to be as IIN says the, to be the ripple, you
Michelle Leotta:
know, to start the and to get that going.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, I have a friend of mine, uh, I do another podcast called So Fricking
Michelle Leotta:
Healthy, and she's also an IIN grad.
Michelle Leotta:
And she started by, you know, teaching, having like, um, kids
Michelle Leotta:
cooking classes, you know, and it had no desire to be a health coach.
Michelle Leotta:
She just wanted to do kids cooking classes to like get kids in the kitchen.
Michelle Leotta:
And then the parents were like, can we do this without the kids?
Michelle Leotta:
Can you just help us eat better?
Michelle Leotta:
And, you know what I mean?
Michelle Leotta:
And again, it was.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, naturally, organically happening, and I feel like, if you
Michelle Leotta:
don't, if you don't keep your eyes open for those opportunities, you will miss
Michelle Leotta:
them thinking that you have to do this thing that you've set your mind out to.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, I mean, I've, gosh, um, I've had bookkeepers
Michelle Leotta:
who are health coaches, we have attorneys who are health coaches.
Michelle Leotta:
I have copywriters who are health coaches and They've helped me in my business
Michelle Leotta:
'cause they understand my business.
Michelle Leotta:
Like another attorney would not, another accountant would, not another.
Michelle Leotta:
Right?
Michelle Leotta:
So they are helping me and together we're changing the world.
Michelle Leotta:
Each one of us does not have to be MS.
Michelle Leotta:
Health coach, you know, like sip in the green smoothie on Instagram.
Michelle Leotta:
There there's so many ways that we can create that greater good
Michelle Leotta:
that we're all looking for.
Michelle Leotta:
And like Everyone has their, their gifts.
Michelle Leotta:
So yeah, like take the mold, try it, and then break it and do the
Michelle Leotta:
thing that works best for you.
Michelle Leotta:
But you do it, like you said, you gotta keep your eyes open for it.
Michelle Leotta:
And I, for a long time I was shutting out the possibility of working with
Michelle Leotta:
other health coaches 'cause that's not what I was supposed to do.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Mm mm-Hmm.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and ultimately, you know, it really
Michelle Leotta:
is the better way for me to serve.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
Okay, so earlier you mentioned that the kind of the landscape of health coaching
Michelle Leotta:
has changed drastically in five years.
Michelle Leotta:
I can feel that too, because that's kind of when I entered
Michelle Leotta:
into, this was five years ago.
Michelle Leotta:
So where do you see the future of health coaching kind of
Michelle Leotta:
heading and do you see any
Michelle Leotta:
Trends, emerging trends that as future health coaches we should be aware of?
Michelle Leotta:
Um, I'm seeing a lot of changing
Michelle Leotta:
tides in like the rules, the regulations.
Michelle Leotta:
We have red states and green states and yellow states and what you're
Michelle Leotta:
allowed to do where, and these are not things that anyone was
Michelle Leotta:
ever talking about when I started.
Michelle Leotta:
It was not on my radar at all.
Michelle Leotta:
I think there's a lot more legal issues to be aware of, and I'm
Michelle Leotta:
hoping that schools will start to be more accountable in that regard.
Michelle Leotta:
So, for example, in the US health coaches in Ohio are pretty much banned from doing
Michelle Leotta:
most things that a health coach would do, and, uh, they may or may not know that.
Michelle Leotta:
They will happily enroll in a school and the school will not mention this to them.
Michelle Leotta:
And then once they graduate, someone like me has to break it to them, and
Michelle Leotta:
that's, it just feels bad, you know?
Michelle Leotta:
I just feel like we're all catching up.
Michelle Leotta:
We're all trying to figure out like, you know, what exactly do we need to do, um,
Michelle Leotta:
in this industry to be to practice safely?
Michelle Leotta:
Um, so that's continuing to sort of unravel.
Michelle Leotta:
I don't think anyone should feel bad about it right now.
Michelle Leotta:
I just think it's like, it's gotten messy.
Michelle Leotta:
So I'm hoping in the next five years or so, um, it will start to become
Michelle Leotta:
more clear and everyone from the outset will know what this industry is
Michelle Leotta:
that they're getting into as opposed to it being a bit of a wild card.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and the other trends I think are really Booming right now is this influx
Michelle Leotta:
of apps and tools and software and you wanna be a health coach and you feel
Michelle Leotta:
desperate 'cause it's not working.
Michelle Leotta:
And so let me sell you all of my wares and . You know, and I say this
Michelle Leotta:
as someone who does sell programs and products to help health coaches,
Michelle Leotta:
although I was doing it first.
Michelle Leotta:
Um.
Michelle Leotta:
There's so much of it now, and I feel like it is more of a, uh, shark
Michelle Leotta:
infested water of like, we just know that you're having trouble.
Michelle Leotta:
We are targeting you because we know you're having a hard time and now you're
Michelle Leotta:
spending, I know brand new health coaches that are spending hundreds of dollars
Michelle Leotta:
a month on these various services that they think they need in order to succeed.
Michelle Leotta:
And I want to tell you, you need.
Michelle Leotta:
To be a health coach, you need a phone, you need a pen, and you need, um, a pad of
Michelle Leotta:
paper that's all you need to make money.
Michelle Leotta:
So don't listen to anybody who tells you otherwise.
Michelle Leotta:
Everything else is just like extra, you know?
Michelle Leotta:
It's like try it for a while.
Michelle Leotta:
Keep your head your, and your expenses as low as possible because every
Michelle Leotta:
time I open my computer, there's another service that's trying to
Michelle Leotta:
get me to tell all my health coaches about what they have to offer, and
Michelle Leotta:
I'm like, my God, it's too much.
Michelle Leotta:
It's too much.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: my husband calls it the health coaching MLM, because it, it, and,
Michelle Leotta:
and not just for health coaches, life coaches, anything, any kind of coach.
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, Listen, there was no help when I started.
Michelle Leotta:
There was no one helping, no one with any service.
Michelle Leotta:
We didn't, Facebook groups didn't even exist.
Michelle Leotta:
I mean, there was very little available.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and, and it's just the pendulum has swung so much.
Michelle Leotta:
I would've loved to have some of these resources available to me back then.
Michelle Leotta:
However, don't go, you know, far into the red.
Michelle Leotta:
Before you've made a dime on your own.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, like, just be careful, just as you would with, you know,
Michelle Leotta:
spending in any category of your life.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, buy what you need, make the most of it when you're ready.
Michelle Leotta:
Maybe there's something else that you need, but, um, my goodness, right
Michelle Leotta:
outta school, you don't need very much.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
Alright, so the last question and a probably very iconic question is if
Michelle Leotta:
you could go back in time to the little Michelle, as she's starting off on her
Michelle Leotta:
health coaching journey, what is one piece of advice that you would give
Michelle Leotta:
yourself when you're starting out?
Michelle Leotta:
I think, um, I needed to hear continuously, like
Michelle Leotta:
you have to be your own health coach first you are your number one client.
Michelle Leotta:
And there were times in my, in the growth of my business and even, you
Michelle Leotta:
know, today where hit the brink of burnout and I've had health issues
Michelle Leotta:
and um, from like working so hard or pushing myself so much or getting so
Michelle Leotta:
discouraged because that thing that I really wanted to work didn't work.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, I.
Michelle Leotta:
I think that it's easy.
Michelle Leotta:
It's so funny, like as a health coach here you are telling everyone how to
Michelle Leotta:
eat healthy and take care of themselves, but you're in the middle of a big launch
Michelle Leotta:
and so you haven't been to the gym in three weeks and you're eating Cheez-Its,
Michelle Leotta:
and you know, that's like the reality sometimes that you can fall into.
Michelle Leotta:
You have to take care of yourself first and walk your talk like always.
Michelle Leotta:
Number one or else like legit, you won't, you just won't make it.
Michelle Leotta:
You just it just isn't gonna work out in the end either the business won't work
Michelle Leotta:
or your own health is gonna fall apart.
Michelle Leotta:
So in, in order to be successful, um, that's what I
Michelle Leotta:
needed to hear along the way.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Very cool.
Michelle Leotta:
Very, very cool.
Michelle Leotta:
So I alluded to your podcast.
Michelle Leotta:
Can you tell me a little bit more about, uh, your podcast and
Michelle Leotta:
what, what do you talk about?
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, so the Health Coach Power Community Podcast has been
Michelle Leotta:
going on for many, many years now.
Michelle Leotta:
We have over 260 episodes, uh, available, you know, everywhere that
Michelle Leotta:
you listen to podcasts and I, I.
Michelle Leotta:
Mostly pull topics from our Facebook group.
Michelle Leotta:
Um, and you had mentioned right now we have about 14,000 members inside
Michelle Leotta:
the Health Coach Power Community Facebook group, which all your
Michelle Leotta:
listeners can, uh, join by just going to healthcoachpowercommunity.com.
Michelle Leotta:
And it is a community just for health coaches.
Michelle Leotta:
Those already enrolled in a school or those already practicing and we
Michelle Leotta:
work very, very hard to keep all the spammers out and, um, make sure that
Michelle Leotta:
you're not getting bombarded with marketing messages the second that you
Michelle Leotta:
get in the door by all different creeps that find their way into the group.
Michelle Leotta:
We kick out like 10 people every day just we're like, Nope,
Michelle Leotta:
you're here to market yourself.
Michelle Leotta:
You're gone.
Michelle Leotta:
You're gone.
Michelle Leotta:
We work really hard to keep it a safe space.
Michelle Leotta:
I'm very, very proud of that.
Michelle Leotta:
So when people ask questions in the group, like right after we record this episode
Michelle Leotta:
today, Megan, I'm doing an episode.
Michelle Leotta:
Um.
Michelle Leotta:
Answering somebody's question that she posted like three days ago, and that's
Michelle Leotta:
my favorite way to use the podcast, is to share what I know at scale.
Michelle Leotta:
You know, it was always one thing to answer a single person's question, but now
Michelle Leotta:
I'm able to publish it and, you know, we have hundreds and hundreds of thousands
Michelle Leotta:
of downloads, so, um, so subscribe and join the group, and I think it's like the
Michelle Leotta:
best value out there for health coaches to get a lot of help and support for $0.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
But if somebody wanted to pay you for, for help, what kind of paid
Michelle Leotta:
help do you offer health coaches when they're starting their businesses or
Michelle Leotta:
to help them grow their businesses?
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, we have courses.
Michelle Leotta:
We have programs.
Michelle Leotta:
We have some done for you product.
Michelle Leotta:
It's all at healthcoachpower.com slash courses.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Okay, cool.
Michelle Leotta:
Very cool.
Michelle Leotta:
Well, thank you so much.
Michelle Leotta:
It has been a real treat to interview you for this podcast.
Michelle Leotta:
I feel like, again, like I've known you for years because I've just seen
Michelle Leotta:
your face all the time, . So it's one of those, uh, moments that I will,
Michelle Leotta:
uh, I'm very happy to have you, you here and, and thank you so much.
Michelle Leotta:
It was very insightful for me as well.
Michelle Leotta:
I, I heard myself in a lot of what you said.
Michelle Leotta:
So I have a lot of thinking to do as well as I am also trying my best to get
Michelle Leotta:
my health coaching business, but I'm definitely, I have ADHD, so I have shiny
Michelle Leotta:
object syndrome, and I'm definitely
Michelle Leotta:
In that camp of having way too many passions and trying to pursue, pursue
Michelle Leotta:
too many things and I really saw that in the last year have a, a major impact in
Michelle Leotta:
the ability to move my business forward.
Michelle Leotta:
And just, that was my little meltdown that I was telling you about before
Michelle Leotta:
we started recording over the summer
Michelle Leotta:
And I'm just like, I have got to narrow my focus.
Michelle Leotta:
I cannot keep doing 15 different things.
Michelle Leotta:
I have to do one thing for the next three months.
Michelle Leotta:
Just do one thing and keep doing that one thing, and then the next three months
Michelle Leotta:
I'm going to keep doing that one thing.
Michelle Leotta:
And I have to, I, I know that I work better in like three months chunks of time
Michelle Leotta:
because I do not have that future horizon
Michelle Leotta:
Ability to push myself.
Michelle Leotta:
So as an ADHD person, I have to have very short deadlines in order for me to
Michelle Leotta:
push myself and I have to be very public.
Michelle Leotta:
So I'm learning all this stuff about my myself, and it is a completely
Michelle Leotta:
different way of working than as a employee working for someone else.
Michelle Leotta:
So, uh, I'm going through all of those learning pains
Michelle Leotta:
and growing pains right now.
Michelle Leotta:
So I really do appreciate the time that you spent with us today.
Michelle Leotta:
You are so welcome and I will just add that like even
Michelle Leotta:
as a non A DHD person, being an entrepreneur is inherently distracting.
Michelle Leotta:
What about that?
Michelle Leotta:
What about this idea?
Michelle Leotta:
How about this other idea?
Michelle Leotta:
I don't have a boss to tell me what to do.
Michelle Leotta:
Therefore, everything that comes across my eyeballs I'm gonna give attention to.
Michelle Leotta:
So it's very easy to become
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Very.
Michelle Leotta:
distracted, and you know, unfocused.
Michelle Leotta:
And so one of the greatest skills that you'll ever learn as an entrepreneur
Michelle Leotta:
is, how to say, not right now.
Michelle Leotta:
Great idea.
Michelle Leotta:
Not right now.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: So maybe I put that in the, in the hat in your question.
Michelle Leotta:
How to, how to plan your business goals as a health coach to keep you on track.
Michelle Leotta:
That might be one of my questions to you for your next episode.
Michelle Leotta:
I'll put it, I'll put
Michelle Leotta:
Oh, okay.
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: it into the Facebook group later on,
Michelle Leotta:
Yeah.
Michelle Leotta:
Throw it in the mix.
Michelle Leotta:
thank you so much for having me,
Michelle Leotta:
Megan J. McCrory: Thank you.