#124: Planning Your 2021: Booking Workshops

Michelle Leotta:
Hello, health coaches. As we are headed into the final months of 2020, it is the perfect time to start planning ahead and thinking about what comes next. Thinking about 2021, we're going to make it it's going to happen. You know, especially when it comes to things that take a bit of planning when there's going to be some back and forth, and there's going to be like coordinating with other people. Seriously, you want to start now. You don't want to wait until January and then start trying to figure out how are you going to plan an event or hold a workshop or do something in January now is your time. And today we want to talk about workshops, cause they've always been one of my favorite ways for coaches, especially new coaches or any coaches to get exposure, build your mailing list and get yourself in front of prospective clients. All good things. And today we're welcoming Kristen Ciccolini back to the show for her expertise in this particular area. Thank you for joining us again, Kristen.

Kristen Ciccolini:
Hi, thank you. Glad to be here again.

Michelle Leotta:
Now, I mean, you've been on the show before. We've talked a little bit about workshops before together, but it's been a while. So for anyone who's new to the podcast or new to our Facebook group, can you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your health coaching practice?

Kristen Ciccolini:
Yeah, so my business is Good Witch Kitchen and I've been in business for almost four years now. So do you want me to go with like how I started with the workshops or?

Michelle Leotta:
Just tell everyone how awesome you are. I need them to know that we have practicing health coaches out there doing the work because we've got new health coaches listening who were like, Oh my God, how am I ever going to make this work? And you've only been in business for four years. So yeah. Tell us how you use a little bit about workshops, but just in general, what do you do with your practice?

Kristen Ciccolini:
Yeah, so I've, I've evolved over time. So when I first started, it was like very generic and, you know, the same thing that everyone else does, like before I learned to narrow it down and like all of the things that we do in healthy profit university, which is really nice and helpful. But yeah, I started doing all the generic stuff. Then I started moving more into focusing on emotional eating and you know coming away from the diet mentality and diet culture and all that. But now I've sort of found my flow a little bit. I feel like a lot of people in like year three start to really find their groove and find their voice. And that's kind of what I've done over the last year is you know, channel my feminism into my business as well. So now I focus on menstrual health from a feminist perspective and I I've been starting to teach more workshops on that, but for typical like corporate workshops, I still go a little bit more general.

Michelle Leotta:
Right, your not going into a corporation, talking about menstrual flow right off the bat. But that's interesting. It's interesting how you can combine getting exposure to a wider audience and then also having more focused niche. And maybe we can come back to that. I want to mention just right up front for everybody who is listening or watching, if this topic is of interest to you, it's something that you want to be doing more of. You want to be getting out there with workshops in your community, tapping into local corporations or even corporations around the world. We're we want to show you exactly how to do that, how to put together the actual workshops that you would be using and that you can sell and that you can earn money from. So if you're interested in that you can join me and Kristin on November 10th, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks for a free training and exactly how to do that. And you can register for free at wait for it. Healthcoachpower.Com/Createworkshop.

Michelle Leotta:
And for those of you who are here live, I'm going to throw that in the comments for you now. So Chris like I said, we've talked a little bit before about you giving workshops. Yes. Tell us a little bit more about the workshops that you've given how you have found them to help your business and how they've become an important part of what you do.

Kristen Ciccolini:
Yeah. So, like I said, I've started four-ish years ago. And I started with healthy cooking classes first at the local community center. So that was sort of my first foray into doing anything in front of anyone. And maybe you can tell them a little bit more comfortable in front of the camera now and in front of like talking to people where I definitely was not before. So that really helped. And as I did those, as I started to do more of those cooking classes, people would ask me more questions about nutrition and you know, all these different things always wanted more tips on healthy eating and all that. So I, I asked the community center if I could do more workshop style events. And that was great because that's, I think that's something you could learn is like pay attention to the questions that people ask you because you could expand that into a workshop.

Kristen Ciccolini:
So yeah, doing those really helped me get over my fear of public speaking. Like I used to, like in high school, I used to cry to my guidance counselor about doing any public speaking.

Michelle Leotta:
Oh no.

Kristen Ciccolini:
Yeah, like that's how that's how nervous I would get. So, but since then I've moved into more corporate wellness. So bringing the wellness workshops to people's offices, and I've been doing that for a lot of big companies, both in Boston and you know, all over the country because we're online so we can do it forever. So they used to be sort of like side income for me. I I'd focus more on my private coaching and just do corporate wellness, like every once in a while, but workshops are scalable and they require a lot less of your time than, you know, one-on-one with someone every week. So they can be really solid income stream for your business. So that's, that's how I've evolved over time and started working into my business as a very similar thing.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. And as a regular income stream, we love that. I think that, well, you already touched on this fear of public speaking and so that's a thing, right? We'll just, we'll just say that for everybody of us are scared to pieces before we, you know, get up in front of an audience for the first time, whether it's in-person or over the computer, sometimes the computer can be worse because like there's more technology to worry about, but let's set that aside for a second and talk more about where you're doing your workshops and how do you go about getting them booked?

Kristen Ciccolini:
Well now, now that they have a roster of clients that I've worked with in the past I often just go back to them every once in a while and say, Hey, I've got this really great new workshop. I think your team might be interested in it based on how much they love the last one, you know and repeat customers are a lot of my workshop business, but for new clients, it's often either through a connection that they have at the company or through cold emailing. So if you have a connection, that's obviously a better way because then you can get an intro from the person directly and the conversation can easily get started from there. You know, you tell them what you do share a couple of workshops that might be interesting. Get on the phone, get scheduled. It's kind of like a seamless transition.

Kristen Ciccolini:
And in the past reaching out cold, meaning you don't have any connection, any in like that in the past, it didn't really work quite as well. But definitely I've noticed since March over the last few months, it's definitely been picking up. And I think because companies are looking for ways to keep their employees engaged from home and to keep their spirits up and you know, well, some people might feel a little bit tired from being on zoom all day for work. I know that other people look at it as sort of a little respite during the day, because you know, you're usually on zoom for, you know, boring work meetings, whereas your workshop can be like educational and interactive and something different and fun and your personality can make it more fun too. So, you know, I think people are looking for those kinds of things and also craving connection after being home alone for a salon. So yeah, long story short reaching out cold is a more viable, a viable option now than it used to be for getting workshops booked with clients, but also definitely take advantage of your personal network.
Michelle Leotta:
Wow. So there's like a silver lining in COVID and all of us in the health coach world, trying to make connections. People are more receptive to this, a cold, cold calling, cold emailing idea. I love that. And just going back to what you said about reaching out to who you might know and like your contacts just for anyone who's like, I don't, I don't know anyone it's likely you do. It's likely, you know, someone. So when you're talking about that, like who might, you know, at a company that would be helpful towards, do you have to know the HR person?

Kristen Ciccolini :
You don't. No, not necessarily. I mean, it's helpful of course. But you know, those, aren't always the people that make the decision. Sometimes it's an office manager sometimes, you know, so whoever, you know, you can just ask them, you know, do you have any, does your company have wellness initiatives? Do you do any extracurricular type workshops? You know, some places do like sort of tangential trainings or, you know, so maybe you could be the new wellness initiative. So whatever it is, you can just ask people what kind of, what kind of things that they do at work and see if they can intro you to the right person. Cause sometimes it is the HR person. Sometimes it's not sometimes like the person at the highest makes the decision depends on the structure of the company. So really can be anyone, as long as you have someone who can email you or email that person and CCU and give you that like direct introduction, that can be helpful.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. Awesome. So even if you know, an entry level, whomever at a company, they're still going to know their HR person or whoever in charge of the, of the business, you know, their boss or whoever it is, and then they can intro you. So you don't have to know like the president in order to make a connection. I just want to make that point. Michelle is here live and she's asking, what size companies are you targeting? I think that's a good question.

Kristen Ciccolini :
I personally target anything over a hundred employees because that's just what feels worth my time right now in terms of what I'm charging, because the smaller companies don't necessarily have a big budget for these types of workshops. However, if you are just starting out, they can be a good Avenue for you just to get some practice because typically they don't have a huge budget. So especially if you don't feel super comfortable charging a lot right now. If you're just getting used to it, not to say you can't start out charting lot, cause you totally can. But again, it's just, it's a starting point. So you can really target companies of any size. But I prefer to go with at least a hundred employees because at least I know that they have some sort of budget for that kind of thing.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. And tell us if a couple of the companies that you have gone into, you know, I think we'll recognize some of them and which have been your favorites.

Kristen Ciccolini :
I've worked with Grub Hub, which is the food delivery service they have the HQ, I think this is HQ probably big office in Boston. They're actually a repeat client, so I've done them, them a couple of times in person and online. So that was kind of nice in the transition. I went back to my in-person clients and said, well, we've done this before and it's been great. So why don't we do it online? I've also worked with my past. I worked with ButcherBox, which I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with. They're actually local to Boston. So that was nice. Yeah, I've done. I've done. I tend to focus on tech companies because that's what my previous career was. I was in social media marketing. So I focus on people whose lives. I, I understand. So typically, it's like the younger Butcher Box tech people, married baby, not married. Definitely don't have kids. Those are my people because I don't. That's the life. I know. So yeah, I try to find the companies where I can, I can relate to the employees, you know?

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. If I, well, back in the day when I did stuff like this, I would go into advertising agencies. Another, another thing that would be useful is if you are local to these places, so you're in Boston, there are a lot of tech companies in Boston, right. So wherever you are that might help you decide what kind of company that you want to target. Have you ever called, I'm just curious if you've ever emailed or reached out to, or been connected with like a really large company, like PepsiCo or something obscenely large like that.

Kristen Ciccolini :
Yes. And it never worked out because they're cheap as hell. So, I hate to say that, but yeah, I've like Facebook, I've had conversations with Facebook and Amazon and Amazon didn't want to pay. And Facebook asked me for a discount and I just said, no. Because you know, it's like, yeah, sure, it's exposure. But you know, typically with corporate workshops, it's not really about getting clients. It's more about the income from that workshop because you know, when you go into a workplace, it's not going to be filled with your perfect ideal client. So I look at it more as just an income stream versus a marketing opportunity. So yeah, it just didn't make sense for me to do that because if I'm going to go in for a discounted rate to not talk to my ideal clients, like it's not worth it. So yeah. It's, it sounds crazy to me that even say that right now that I turned down Facebook and Amazon, but you know, it's, hey, you got to make your money.

Michelle Leotta:
You have your priorities. And that was a question I had for you. Like, do you consider... Because all right, to be clear, doing a workshop like this absolutely is a way of marketing yourself. Absolutely. Is a way of getting exposure of gaining confidence of honing your public speaking skills, like all good things, potentially finding clients, all of that stuff. And it can be an income generating activity. So it sounds like in your business, your success with workshops is mostly around actually generating income from them. Is that right?

Kristen Ciccolini :
Yeah. Yeah. And I have gotten clients through my workshops, but I don't set out to make that happen. That's not the intention of them. Like I said, it's more of an income stream than a marketing tool, but it does both. It does. It does both of those things if you do the workshops well, so, you know, unlike a webinar where you're giving that hard sell at the end with workshops, what you do is you can just pepper in the client stories here and there say like, when you're talking about something, like I had a client say to me the other day, this, or, you know, when this happens, I usually tell my clients whatever. So you can use those kind of brief stories to illustrate a point you're trying to make and then move on with whatever you're talking about. So it gets the point across that this is what you do for a living and you have clients and you're busy and you're working. But it's not overtly selling. It's more it sort of plants a seed with your hands. And like I said, I've had clients come from workshops that it's, I think it's because I treat them as an opportunity, not as an opportunity to sell, you know?

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, absolutely. They see you as an expert. First of all, you're the company that they work for has trusted you. So there's like this built in trust that you truly are an expert you've been vetted. So anyone that you're presenting to is going to be that much more likely to pay attention, treat you with respect, assume that you do know what you're talking about. Like all good things, especially when you're a new coach. And yes, I've had corporate workshops turn into clients without having, and you don't, you don't make a hard sales pitch during these things, you know, you're there to provide value. And I know that's what most health coaches want to do. We want to be out there and providing value, not selling, not, you know offering our services every time we turn around, like pitching ourselves, but actually being out there and helping people. And that's what you do with these. So for 2021 kind of looking ahead, not exactly sure what's happening in like the landscape of the world, but what topics do you think just based on your experience, people are going to be most interested in, like, what topics should we be pitching if we're planning for next year?

Kristen Ciccolini :
Well, obviously immune health is going to be top of mind just as it has been since March. I know that I've seen like in the Facebook group, everyone's saying like, Oh, I have this client wants an immune health workshop. And so-and-so like, it's been something that we've been talking about for months. So that can be an evergreen thing that you teach all year long, or it can be one thing that you pull out around winter time. But yeah, I think immune health is going to be pretty important over the next few months and beyond. And as we plan for the new year, of course, everyone always has resolutions on their mind at that time. So anything that covers new habits or getting into new routines might be helpful. So, you know, learning how to meal plan or finally kicking the sugar habit in 2021, you know?

Kristen Ciccolini :
And one thing that you can do is sort of repackage those evergreen workshops. So you can teach those any time, right. But you could also switch up the titles. So maybe you, you teach that workshop on how to kick sugar all year round, but in January it could be like making 20, 21 year sugar-free year or meal prep your way to a less stressful 20, 20, 21, you know, just switch switching up the title throughout the year. So it's more enticing, especially if you're, it's like a free workshop that you're offering to your audience. Like you can only do so much with your audience, with corporate workshops, you can put those everywhere. So, in terms of topics, you know, early in the year, it's always good to focus on the resolutions and then definitely immune health as this time. I think we'll be, we'll be good.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. That sounds reasonable. And you're right. Like the same workshop you can hold it again and again, and again, and again, like if you're going to a different corporation each time, it can be the same exact presentation. It becomes so easy because you've done it once you've done it twice, you've done it three times. You can just whip it out. Like it's nothing and you're still getting paid for it. So that's an amazing thing. Sugar is always a topic that people want to cover. I remember doing sugar workshops that never goes out of style. And I think personally it makes more sense if you're going to put in the effort to creating a workshop, learning how to, you know, give that workshop effectively, do something that's evergreen, don't put all your effort into something that you can only do once. Like it's about, I don't know, like the 2020 election, I don't know what workshop that would be, but you know, like that's only valid for a very, very short period of time.

Michelle Leotta:
Create something that's a little more evergreen, it will, it will, then you can rinse and reuse. You get much more mileage out of it. And that's something that will, I know we'll be talking about during our training and a couple of weeks again, if you guys want to learn how to actually put the materials together so that you can feel really confident, pitching yourself, head over to health, coach power.com/create workshop. Kristen is going to be showing you like, here's what you need to have on your screen. Here's the kind of script that you need, you know, so that you can actually create something for yourself. And then, so on that topic though, Chris, and tell us, at least in brief for today, like what are the different components that go into a workshop with different materials? Do you have when you're walking in the door?

Kristen Ciccolini :
So you don't need a lot. You definitely don't need a lot. You need to prepare, but you don't necessarily need a ton of materials unless you're doing something really interactive or in person. At the very least you just need some notes to read off of. But what I usually do is I write a script for myself and I create slides to show because while you can definitely have it as just you standing in front of people talking or doing your zoom call with just your video, slides can be a nice thing to add because it can help add some context. It gives your audience something else to look at and it gives them, it keeps them a little bit more engaged. So, I recommend having slides and notes or Ciccolini: slides and notes or a script. So also if you really want to get fancy, you can put together a PDF or a workbook to go along with your class, or like a one-page PDF with all of the main takeaways for them to go home with. So they don't really have to take notes. I I'll tell you, I almost never do that though. It is good to know that that's an option because you can charge more if you offer more materials. So yeah, there's a one sheet type of thing with the takeaways. I've only done that when clients have asked and then if I've done a workbook, it's usually something that goes along with something more interactive or like a longer pre-recorded training, but yeah, at the very least like notes, slides.

Michelle Leotta:
Notes, slides.

Kristen Ciccolini :
Yeah.

Michelle Leotta:
Have you ever brought food? So when you're there in person, and I know this is maybe pre-COVID talking, but have you ever brought snacks?

Kristen Ciccolini :
I have. And it's more of a pain than anything. Cause like, people like it, but it's like, it doesn't, it's not going to make them sign up with me or anything. So I find, I mean, if I'm making it myself, I feel like a lot of people want to do that, but it's also just a waste of time. I find if you can get, if you do a corporate thing, if you can get them to like sponsor a lunch or something, buy lunch for everyone that attends that's happened before. But yeah, it's less work on your end. Don't do it.

Michelle Leotta:
I think that's wise advice. I remember doing it at the beginning and you're carrying a plate of cookies or something like this, and you're trying to look professional. Meanwhile, you know, you've got crumbs on you. It's no good. All right. Just want to ask about that. Boy. It's been a long time since I've held something like this. We have a question here. Michelle asks, do you use a contract?

Kristen Ciccolini :
Yes. I have a client agreement that I use or a speaking agreement that I use with everyone that lays out everything. So the date time, obviously, if it's, in-person how I want the room set up you know, payment terms and all that. So everything is laid out just so both of us are on the same page and that's always good to have, I have them sign that so I can keep the date. Okay,

Michelle Leotta:
Cool. And I mean, I don't know about you, but a lot of things in my business, I did very informally at first. And then when I had a problem, I was like, I need a contract or I need to formalize this. So has anything ever happened, like, you know, a funny little mishap or something where you then realize, Oh, I better formalize this in a contract?

Kristen Ciccolini :
Not with speaking, although no, not with speaking. Although the only thing that really happens is sometimes like they won't pay you soon enough, which is annoying, but I feel like it really depends on every company's different sort of finance department and what they do in their process and all that. So I always, now I do make sure to ask, like, what's your process because what my process might be might not, might not agree with their finance department. So we just try to figure that out and get on the same page. So I'm not like waiting for a check, waiting for a check, like weeks on end. So definitely good to figure that out beforehand. Yeah.

Michelle Leotta:
So smart. I remember doing a set of workshops for a very prominent gym chain, which I will not name and they just didn't pay me. They just didn't pay. And every time I would email, they would just feed me a line of BS and no check would come and I had to then contact their corporate headquarters. And I ended up like eventually getting paid like part of what they owed me. And it was unbelievable. But yeah, even when you're working with, it's not, it's not like an individual who doesn't pay you a private client or something like that, who just forgets. I mean, you're talking about businesses that have finance departments, you really have to stay on top of them. So, I love that you're pre-empting all of that by talking about your terms of payment upfront and having them sign a contract. Yeah. Super smart. So when you're looking at next year in your business, or I want you to answer this two ways. Okay. One for yourself you've been in business for awhile, you have experience, you've done a lot of these, you're doing other things with your business. And then also for like a new health coach, like how many workshops are talking, are you doing it like once a month or have you found a magic number?

Kristen Ciccolini :
So, for me, depending on the time of year and the different things I have going on in my business, sometimes I'm doing one or two a week, sometimes it's once a month. So, you know, no real magic number. Um wish I could give you an easier answer than that, but it's like, it's the same thing as like figuring out how much to charge. It's like, well, how much money do you want to make? You know? And then, and then working backwards, m think for a new coach, I mean, it really, it depends on your income needs, how much you're charging, what else you have going on and, you know, do you want this to be one of several income streams or do you want it to be your main income stream because you can charge a hundred bucks and maybe do 10 small companies a month or you could do, you could charge a thousand bucks to be one big company.

Kristen Ciccolini :
So it's really, it's all relative. I know that for me in 2021, I wanted to try to get down to at least once a week. So that's my big, that's my big goal only because like, I want this to be my main or one of my main income stream. So like coaching and workshops, like that's all I want. You know, it just narrows it down a little bit, but I mean, starting out, I would just say like aim for once a month, you know, that might feel good. That one alone might just feel scary if you're new starting out. So, you know, maybe just start with the first one and see how you feel about it and then set a goal.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, I like that. I mean, definitely do your first, but I would say with your, with your first couple of workshops, or if you're new to this as with anything it's going to freak you out and you're going to plan like way too much and you're going to obsess over like what you're wearing and I'm like, God, and it's good. You know what I mean? It's just going to be a lot, even though it's later, it'll be easy. So like give yourself space for that. You know, and don't, don't book three in the same week. If you know, you're right out of the gate, maybe you're going to do one per quarter next year. Like that would be a very reasonable goal. If you're brand new to this or you're going to have just one workshop every quarter of the year, see if you can get that book, it could even be with the same company, right.

Michelle Leotta:
You're going to come in and do something seasonally for them. Boom done. You know, and then maybe from there you can up your goal to once a month, you're going to, you know, book something that way you still give yourself lots of breathing room, you know, you do a workshop and you realize some, I want to change a couple things. Do you have time to do that before the next one? You know, don't gang them up on yourself too closely, but once a week sounds amazing. Cause then it really does become like a steady stream of income. Do you think you'll do that by just having that many different corporations or by having lots of repeat repeaters? I know within the same corporation,

Kristen Ciccolini :
I'm definitely going to go back to clients that I've been with in the past first, just because like, I know that they like me, so it's just easier to get books that way. But yeah, I have, I have a couple of clients where we have not necessarily agreements, but sort of an understanding that I'm going to come every few months. Just because that's just what we've talked about, but yeah, ideally try to get a series going and you can offer a discount for them booking more than one workshop. And that's usually a good way to plan you plan out your income for the quarter, especially. So yeah, I would try that.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, no, that's super smart, super smart. If you're going to go through the effort of booking, try to get them to, you know, buy a package bundle. I love that. And I know you're like amazing at cranking this stuff out. Like you give Kristen the topics she's going to create a beautiful workshop and be, so I believe that you'll be able to do one of these every week. So I just want to remind everyone, if you want to learn more about this, get more specifics on how Kristen does her workshops and how you can do yours, not just for corporations, but for other organizations within your community or even for your own audience. We're going to go much deeper in our full length, free training on November 10th, it's called how to create a workshop for corporate clients and your community and registration is now open for that free training at healthcoachpower.com/createworkshop. And we'll look forward to seeing you there. Kristen, then thank you so much for joining us today.

Kristen Ciccolini :
Thanks for having me see you on the 10th.

Michelle Leotta:
Sounds good. Take care, everybody.