#114: Turn Supplements Into an Income Stream Without Joining an MLM

Michelle:
Hello there health coaches today. I want to introduce you guys to a new income stream. Yeah. We love that. And this is a passive income stream that I think is going to fit beautifully into your practice as it does mine. But unlike when you normally hear a pitch like that, I'm not trying to recruit you into any kind of MLM or join my team or align yourself with any particular brand of supplements. I'm personally not into that. I never have been. However, there are many occasions when I'm working with a client and we're talking about different supplements that may be useful, things they could benefit from. And for years what's been the best option. Well, I'll send them an Amazon affiliate link. Of course. I mean, what else was I going to do? Or I could, you know, just tell them to write down, you know, something and look for it at their local store.
Michelle:
But there is a much, much better way, which is why I've invited Deborah from Fullscript to join us today. And as you listen, you're going to hear why I love Fullscript in my health coaching practice. You can get a sense of how you can be doing the same in yours. Plus I have a special bonus to keep you guys up to date on like what makes a supplement a good supplement and learn more about this whole idea of giving supplements or suggestions. So keep your ears open for ideas sorry for information that bonus and just a few minutes, if you're already like rip-roaring to get going, you already have kind of heard about Fullscript. We do have a special link that I want you to use, so you will get access to that bonus it's healthcoachpower.com/fullscript. We'll tell you more about that in just a little bit, but anyway, Deborah, thank you for joining us today.
Deborah:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Michelle:
We have a lot of questions for you. I'm sure I've been using Fullscript for a while, but you guys are always introducing new features and things like that. So why don't we just start at the basics? Like from our perspective as health coach is like, what's the premise? Like what's the process of using Fullscript with a client?
Deborah:
So, awesome. Great question. And I'm just going to back up a little bit and just answer the question, like what is Fullscript? Mainly cause I'm assuming some of your listeners out there are using Fullscript and some of them may not right now. So I thought I'd just start from the beginning, but Fullscript is actually a virtual nutraceutical dispensary for practitioners. So it's 100% free. It costs you no money to create your account. We don't charge monthly fees or anything like that. So it's 100% free for you to use. And you need to be a practitioner, so you would need to upload your certification. And then you would be approved to have a fullscript account. And especially what that allows you to do it. Fullscript gives you access to about 300 brands of supplements. So think of it as your own online like little mini pharmacy, I guess. So, you can send your patients to your Fullscript dispensary to purchase the supplements that you would like them to be taking, to get better for whatever situation you're talking about. And then you will make a portion of that sale. So you actually make 35% of each sale from within your dispensary. And you can certainly offer discounts up to your 35% margin if you want it. So you offered a 10% discount, then you would make 25% on that sale. So in a nutshell, that's Fullscript.
Michelle:
Yeah. And it's fabulous, you guys, Oh, I like that whole idea where you can offer a discount because then you are giving an incentive to your clients to use your link that, you know, I always say to my clients, you can buy this stuff anywhere that you want. If you want to go to whole foods, if you want to, you know, wherever, but if you buy through my link, you'll get a, I think I give a 15% discount and then I would earn the other 20%, right Deborah?
Deborah:
Yup, absolutely.
Michelle:
Awesome. So you get to kind of decide for yourself how you want to set up that percentage. I think that's super cool. And it adds up in a pretty cool way because first of all, supplements are not always that cheap. So 20% is pretty decent. And you guys, I have clients that I had set up with Fullscript recommendations years ago.
Michelle:
And so for some of their ongoing, like their multivitamin or whatever, they take on a regular basis, they continue to purchase. It's like an auto thing. So they just continue to get their supplements through my link essentially. And I see it just come into my inbox every couple months. Oh. So, and so just got there, you know, a new shipment of peppermint and magnesium. Okay, cool. And so, and so just got this and I'm still earning, even though these people haven't been my clients for years, not only that, but I can tell like, Oh, she must still be struggling with digestion if she's still ordering the peppermint. You know what I mean? So sometimes it can be a good way for me to know when and how to check back in with these people. So it's super cool service. I want you guys to check into it, but I know that one of the big questions that y'all have is how do we actually deal with the whole topic of supplements when we are health coaches and we want to stay within our scope of practice and this is pretty important, but I don't want you to freak out about it.
Michelle:
Everybody makes it into like a big deal. It's not that big of a deal. It's just a turn of phrase. So when I'm working with my clients, I will literally say to them, I cannot prescribe you anything. I cannot even tell you how much of this to take. Right. And you could just be totally transparent about it and they get that. They know you're not a doctor. Right. And they're going to appreciate you telling them that. And then I just say, but here are some things that I think might be interesting for you to talk to your doctor about that's it. Right? So we can always provide information about supplements. We just can never say,
Michelle:
I want you to take 300 milligrams of such and such twice a day. Like we can't do that. And even though some of you might think, Oh, it's a stupid because doctors don't know anything and doctors are useless. I mean, okay. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes that's not true. Sometimes there's really excellent doctors out there. And doctors are always going to have access to a person's whole medical record, their blood work, other information about other medications that they may be on that could have interactions that you don't know about. Even if you think, you know, so much, right? I think I know so much. So a doctor will be able to say, Oh, actually your iron is really high, so no, you shouldn't take iron or whatever. Right. So leave that kind of stuff up to the doctor, but you can always provide information.
Michelle:
And I do this for almost all of my clients because typically there's at least one or two supplements, I think they could benefit from. So all that being said, Deborah, you mentioned you guys have like 300 different brands within Fullscript.
Deborah:
Oh absolutely. We have such a large breadth of brands and products. And we w what's really interesting about what you just said is Fullscript can be the perfect tool to be able to, it offers you the flexibility to communicate to your patients and the way your, your clients in a way you were just describing. One way you can utilize Fullscript is you can create these personalized recommendations for your clients. You can include the, the products that you're suggesting, suggesting them to take, and you can even include a personal message for them. That would say, you know, if you, if you want check with your doctor or whatever language you would like to include within that recommendation you can do that.
Deborah:
And then what happens is you would email that recommendation to your client, or you would text it to them and then your client is, can purchase it and have the product shipped directly to them. So, another thing that I've seen practitioners also do is on these recommendations, because there's a lot of different products within Fullscript and a lot of different price points. They might choose a couple different multivitamin options. Let's just say that would satisfy their need. And of those rec those different options, they would be at a different price point. So then you can leave it up to the client to decide which one that they would like to take based on what they're willing to spend. So that's another way that you can offer choice to your clients based on what you would like them to take.
Michelle:
Awesome. I know I usually go for brands. I don't know about everybody, you know, watching and listening to this, but like some of my favorite brands are Claire Labs, Pure Encapsulations like, that's some of the stuff I'm usually looking for on Fullscript, but can you give us an idea of some of the other brands and even like the product Variety that's available?
Deborah:
Yeah, absolutely. We definitely have Pure we have Claire Labs. The majority of the brands that we carry are like practitioner grade brands, meaning they're not going to be able to find them at, you know, lots of other places. We also do carry some products that are retail or some brands that are retail brands. So you might be able to find them at a whole foods. We do have like Nordic Naturals, but they have both, they have a retail line and they also have a practitioner line. So you will find your prob... You will find a vast array of probiotics. You will find a ton of different mega three fatty acids. You will find many multivitamins, you will find protein powders and protein shakes and detox formulas. So there is quite a variety of what you're looking for.
Deborah:
You can pretty much find anything. And, and what's really useful about Fullscript is we do have a unique search feature that can actually allow you to search by categories. So say you're looking for a specific probiotic. You can go into our catalog and click that probiotic category, and then you can even further hone in on what you're looking for. You can, you can include a strain that you're looking for. You can include the amount of the, I use that you want in that particular product. You can, you can include if you want it to be gluten free or, or any other requirements. And that'll whittle down the list and provide you with a really nice list of probiotics that satisfies all of that all of those requirements for you. And then you can then attach it to a recommendation and send it to your client.
Michelle:
Yeah. I mean, if anything, you guys, you're going to be like, wow, there's like so many options, not the other way around, you know, like if anything, it's a plethora of options. Mindy is asking, how can I see a list of brands prior to deciding, to sign up for an account? I mean, it's a free account. So I would think the best thing to do is just go ahead and sign up. It's free. And then you can see literally everything including how it's laid out and the search functions. Would you agree that's the best way?
Deborah:
100%. And the other thing that's really great is yeah, obviously since fullscript's free, the easiest way to see the products and the brands that we offer is to create an account. But the way our company is structured once you do create an account, you will be paired with an onboarding specialist. Who's then basically your, your, your personal one on one coach to help you get trained on how to use Fullscript. It's super easy, but you can get that one on one demo and they can really walk you through how to use Fullscript specifically for your needs.
Michelle:
Awesome. So if there's something particular you're looking for, you can ask them about it and it can help you find it, or absolutely. That's terrific. I know were talking about this a little bit earlier in the week inside our group. And some people were saying, you know, I actually am part of an MLM and maybe they're getting all of their vitamins and whatever from particular brand, but every now and then there's one or two things you can't get from that brand. And then they're using Fullscript. So it can like fill in the gaps, or if there's like one line of products you normally like to use, but you know, every now and then I love that when I go to Fullscript, I know, like you said, these are practitioner grade brands. This is not like me walking into CVS and just going which ones are, these are any good or like the variety at trader Joe's, you know, everything within Fullscript is really top quality.
Michelle:
So I wanted to also talk about a big difference, not just in the brands that are available, but like the supply chain, because I know that when I used to send Amazon links to my clients, I mean, okay. One not so great thing about that was that you're only making about 1% of every sale or whatever it is, half a percent when you use an Amazon affiliate link. So that's no good compared to like 20 or 30 or 35%. But the other thing is that you don't know about the supply chain. It's like a seller on Amazon. It could have a bunch of vitamins just kind of sitting in their garage in a hundred degree heat for, you know, an entire summer. And as I later learned, like the supply chain of all of these supplements makes a big difference. So can you talk a little bit about how Fullscript does things differently?
Deborah:
Sure. So we, all of the brands that we are an authorized distributor of all of the brands that we carry. So that means we have a relationship which each and every one of these brands, we purchase the product from them. We store it in our warehouse base. We have two warehouses, one on the East coast, one on the West coast. We store the products based on what the manufacturers tell us to do. So it's temperature controlled warehouse. We have every week we have our probiotics and refrigerated, refrigerated devices. So there we're really keeping the quality there the way the manufacturer intends it to be, we even ship the products to the clients or to your clients based on manufacturer's directions. So if it's a probiotic again, and it needs to be refrigerated, it will be packed with a cold pack.
Deborah:
And we will recommend that this product should be purchased with priority shipping. That means it will get to your client's store within three days so that it will still not lose any of its strength. So we, we guarantee that, you know, what we are providing is what the manufacturer intends it to be. You know, the price point is the manufacturer's price point. So that's not determined by us. That's determined by them. And even if well, we also, your, your clients, aren't at risk of getting products that are going to be expiring soon either. There's a certain threshold where if a product's expiring within six months or so, we will not ship it out. So that's, that's another thing you don't have to worry about. And let's just say that a client does get a product and for whatever reason they want to return it.
Deborah:
So, you know, that's something that we will do on your behalf. You don't have to worry about that. They will work with us and they will return the product to us. We have a 30-day return policy if it's not opened and we will work with them to get them refunded. If a client does actually have a reaction say to one of the products that they purchase, we will also allow that to be returned and refunded. So we really do hold these products keep them as best quality as we can keep them getting them to your client's store. And if there ever is a problem, we'll take care of that as well.
Michelle:
This sounds so much better than, I don't know if any of you guys have like an office. I don't, I work from home and I do everything virtually, but I know some practitioners, you know, have an office and then you can buy supplements that you can then stock right there in your office and sell. Then you're providing all the customer service, you know, you're dealing with, Oh, I bought all of this, but now it's about to expire and I'm going to get rid of it, or like, we don't have to deal with any of that. Fullscript handles it all for us. I think that's a beautiful thing. Thank you guys for existing. I just want to say that.
Deborah:
No, I just wanted to add to that. You know, when you're talking about managing inventory and office and obviously everybody's needs to do what works best for them. But I used to, before I was at Fullscript, I did work at, I was a nutritionist for an OBG OB GYN clinic. And I was tasked with managing their supplements dispensary. And there was a ton of expired product that I would essentially have to dispose of because we couldn't, you know, we, we didn't turn the product over as quickly enough. So there is a lot of overhead and time associated with carrying products wholesale. And another way that Fullscript helps is we, we manage sales tax. So that's something else that you don't even have to worry about that. Yeah, I mean, so that's another way that we take that burden off of you. We don't charge you back credit card fees and when you get paid your payouts, we pay you via direct deposit. So super easy.
Michelle:
That's terrific. Let's see here. We've got a couple of questions. Rowanne's saying that she uses Fullscript regularly. It's great products and great service. Samantha's asking, can we use it with our IIN half way badge?
Deborah:
You need to have that's a very good question. I am going to double check on that. I believe the last I looked into this, it needed to be the full course. We do accept IIN. But let me, I'll get back to you and let you know if we do accept the halfway,
Michelle:
I didn't even know there was a halfway badge, I guess if you're halfway through the program, they give you something.
Deborah:
So I think within the past couple of years, yeah.

Michelle:
I see, I know when I signed up with Fullscript, I was like, Oh my gosh, I don't even know where my certificate was to hunt it down, but then it was no big deal. I just scanned it and sent it in. Right. But I love that you guys do that. Cause you're like, we're only working with practitioners that have certain level of training. We love that. I mean, some people in our community are registered dieticians, nutritionists to kind of, you know, ranges. Can you just give us an idea of what schools and what types of certifications are accepted and which may not be

Deborah:
Sure. Absolutely. so we accept licensed practitioners and accredited certification courses. So if you're a health coach we do accept integrative nutrition. I know that's a big one that, that we have a lot of people from Ian. Obviously we would take the registered dietitian credential and we do accept other nutritionist courses. You'd have to throw some out for me to like tell you, yes, we accept that one. Yes, we don't because I won't remember off the top of my head. I did go to the university of Bridgeport to get my master's in human nutrition. And we did accept that it was a CNS certification. So we accept CNS. I remember that.

Michelle:
It's been pretty extensive,

Deborah:
Its a very extensive list. It's a very extensive list. And then outside of health coaches and nutritionists, we have chiropractors and functional medicine and medical doctors and naturopaths, other practitioners who you would expect.

Michelle:
Awesome. what else question here... Oh, I'm going to ask, this is kind of a cynical question, but I think it's a good question because you always want to follow the money.

Deborah:
I'll do my best.

Michelle:
What's the benefit for Fullscript to make this free? How are you guys making money?

Deborah:
Oh yeah. Well, you know, first of all, when, when Fullscript was founded, we one of our founders, his wife is a naturopath, so he was a web developer, or I should say, is web developer. So his wife was, did have that in office dispensary and he thought, this is ridiculous. There has to be a better way. So that's essentially how Fullscript was born. So it was, it was more on the premise of how can we make these easier for these practitioners? How can I make this easier for my wife rather than like hourly kind of like you know, make this the biggest money-maker possible, right? But obviously you need to make money. So the way Fullscript does make money, it's on the, the transaction. So we're, we're giving the practitioners the 35% margin. So there is a margin that that the practitioners don't say that's between us and the manufacturer. And that's how we ended up making money. Yeah.

Michelle:
I think that's amazing. And you don't have to do that. I mean, like I've been using you guys for years and like, it's totally the kind of thing where you would expect at some point they're going to start charging. Yeah.

Deborah:
It's just, we wouldn't, we're making it easier for practitioners. We also have such passion in our product. We're constantly making it better and improving it because we really want everybody to have the best possible experience.

Michelle:
One other thing I love about you guys is the integration with Practice Better, which a lot of health coaches are using. So if you guys are using Practice Better as your client management tool, Fullscript is, is already baked into that tool. You don't even, I don't even go to the Fullscript website that much anymore, directly because I'm just inside practice better. And I can just search right there for what I'm looking for. It's so great.

Deborah:
And I would also add to that. So that is an initiative that we're, we're, we're currently doing. We have an API and we're hooking out to, with EHR companies. So, if there is one that we aren't currently integrated with, like let us know, like, we'll see what we can do, you know, it's, that's a, that's where we're, we're, we're looking to grow. So yeah,

Michelle:
It's tremendous. Cause then it's, you know, it's just one less step for me. It goes right into the clients, the protocol that I'm sending to them anyway, you know, all the information's there. Oh, you guys, I can't even tell you how much I love this.

Deborah:
You can close out some windows.

Michelle:
Yes, exactly. A few less tabs open in my browser, literally. And figuratively. Ryan's asking, can clients purchase items outside of the US or, or is it just US/Canada? What do you guys do about that?

Deborah:
So that's a great question. So currently Fullscript does not ship across borders, so we do have Fullscript US and we do have Fullscript Canada. So to be able to use Fullscript, you asked, do you need to have a us social security number and bank account and address, and you need to use a Canadian Fullscript. You need the equivalent, but the Canadian version. Now, if you are a US citizen, but you have a lot of clients in Canada, you can create a no margin Canadian account. You can't make money off on it, but you can have a Canadian account and allow your, your clients in Canada to purchase off of it. And then vice versa.

Michelle:
Okay. Okay. So little tricky if you're going across borders, but I guess that has to do with like laws and taxes and all kinds of logistic.

Deborah:
And what's available here versus there. So, in regulations it's yeah.

Michelle:
Relations regulations. Okay. Understood. Maybe one day it'll be a worldwide thing, but for now we're mostly talking US/Canada. You guys. Okay. All right, good. What else? Oh right. And I don't know if you know this off the top of your head, Deborah, but Ryan also wants to know his Primal Health Coach Institute accepted?

Deborah:
Um I will find out, I don't know that off the top of my head, but I'm going to write that down. Primal health coach.

Michelle:
Yeah. We'll find out for you guys. I know the last time I saw the list of all the schools that were accepted, I was like, that's pretty extensive

Deborah:
Yeah. Yeah. Why, why? I can't, you know, just say everything in my head. Yeah.

Michelle:
And so I think one of the biggest questions that comes up aside from the, of how do we kind of do supplements with our clients? You know, the next thing, if you really check in with yourself, you guys, like most of us did not receive extensive training or even like any training about supplements when we went to school to become a health coach, but maybe very minimal. So even for myself, until I did some more advanced trainings, I would be like, Oh, I don't even know what to suggest. And just, how do I kind of even go about choosing a supplement for my clients? Sometimes your client will even say to you, do you have a recommendation? My doctor said, I should take vitamin C. Like, what brand should I buy? How does Fullscript aid with that?

Deborah:
Well, you have to, anyone who's new to Fullscript, and this is an issue you've come to Fullscript at the right time. So there's two specific ways that are popping into my head right now. One is our search capability. So I was describing that category search that you can that you can use that can help you hone in on specific on a specific product. And you can you know, give little criteria and it'll spit back the products that fit that criteria. But the other thing that's really nice about this particular search function is that when the products are given back to you, they're given in the order of most frequently recommended on the Fullscript platform. So, you know, the ones at the top, you know, those multivitamins that are fit, that gluten-free, whatever else you're putting in there, you know, the one at the top is going to be the one that's most recommended.

Deborah:
So that can give you a little bit more confidence in perhaps choosing that particular product over something else. The other thing that we started doing within the past about a year ago and it's growing is we offer decision based protocols. So we do have a lot of foundation type protocols to offer you that you can go through and find something that resonates with you. You can use it for you on personal education. You can use it for using with a client. These protocols that we have were either created by our medical team on staff at Fullscript, they could be created by our brand partners or they can be created by some of the decision leaders within the, you know, the, the healing community. So that's really something that can help you get an idea of the, the, the products that are available on Fullscript, the actual brands and as well as some of these specific decision, foundational decision based protocols that you can then do a little more research on our, use them as the base of a recommendation for your client.

Michelle:
Awesome. And the coolest part is you guys that Fullscript has agreed to do a bonus training us, dive into supplements. If you have expertise, it won't be with ever, I will be a member of your medical team, right. If you have questions, I mean, we did this a couple of years ago, and I know we all questions, like, what should I be looking for when I'm looking at on the label? Like, what is good? What is bad? What does this mean? What does that mean? Like, this is an opportunity for you to learn something you probably have not learned before and me too. So, so I love all your questions cause you know, I think we all benefit. It's just like a level of education that we typically did not receive. We're going to be holding that in a couple of weeks. We want to give you guys all time to get signed up with Fullscript and place your first order you can place for yourself.

Michelle:
You can play, you know, it could be something for your client, like whatever, just get a first order to go through your account by August 11th. And then you will be invited. You will be the only ones invited to this deep dive into supplements with myself and the Fullscript medical team or a member of the medical team. So that's another way that Fullscript is helping us out to get a little smarter about what we're doing with supplements. And I can't thank you guys enough for that because I really think this is needed within our community, right? Yeah, absolutely. And I know it was really popular the last time you did it and I apologize for the dog barking in the background, but yeah, it, it really is a great presentation. They're super knowledgeable, so amazing. So again, that URL that you want to go to is healthcoachpower.com/fullscript.

Michelle:
And that's where you start setting up your account. And actually RK here is telling us that you click on the go, if you go to that link and you start the application, you'll see all the schools listed that...

Deborah:
Yes, you can choose.

Michelle:
You'll immediately know whether or not it's something for you. And I can almost guarantee that you'll see your school there. She says Rosalyn's question is anyone order or can a client order for the class, any order that goes through the account, you just set up. So for yourself or a client ordering through, you will count. As long as it happens by August 11th, you'll be invited to the class. Yes.

Deborah:
Amazing.

Michelle:
It's going to be a good one. You guys, you don't want to miss it. So just order your next round of multivitamins this way and join us for the class. And then you can see for yourself and it's, you know, it's a great tool. It's an easy tool. You want to keep using it. And even if you don't, it doesn't matter. You'll still get invited to that bonus class just for giving it a shot. Absolutely. Deborah, thank you so much for joining us. We love Fullscript and we love having you here.

Deborah:
Thank you so much. It was so nice to be here. I really appreciate it.

Michelle:
Take care. Bye.