#206: [Coach the Coach] Getting into Workplace Wellness

Michelle Leotta:
Well hello there, health coaches. We are back with another Coach the Coach session. And today I'm here with Ellen who's one of our weekly mentorship members and Ellen wants to talk about getting into workplace wellness. Thanks for being here.

Ellen:
Thank you. It's great to be here.

Michelle Leotta:
Can you give everybody just a little background, how long you've been coaching and what you've done so far?

Ellen:
Sure. So, I got my health coaching certification through IIN which I know a lot of us have gone through that program. I've been doing group health coaching for about five years. I collaborate with a gym, which is great because they advertise my programs, but the downside is that I'm somewhat dependent on them to do that advertising. And, and for the past, like six months, we've kind of hit a few hurdles. So, I'm kind of looking to pivot a little bit. I also have certifications in workplace wellness. I took some classes through the workplace wellness center of excellence and I've sort of been exploring that and kind of would like to shift my focus a little bit.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. So, you have some good amount of experience running these groups and your story is not too different from what I often hear, which is I've developed this one great partnership

Ellen:
mm-hmm

Michelle Leotta:
Like, and then something happens. So it's like, and then the gym closed.

Ellen:
Right.

Michelle Leotta:
Or, in your case, you said, you know, there's been some hurdles, so it's like, uh oh. So, do you... Are you feeling a little bit like your eggs are all in one basket

Ellen:
To a degree, but at the same time, I feel like I've got, you know, a lot of balls in the air and I, I wanna try to like stay focused, you know, like we all that expression, you know, throwing spaghetti at the wall, like I'm like, I'm done. Like I want, I wanna kind of stay focused and, and concentrate a lot of my energy in one area.

Michelle Leotta:
Smart, very smart. So, you've been part of our weekly mentorship group for a while. Now. I just wanna remind everybody that we are opening enrollment in a couple of weeks. So, if you're interested in joining us and having the opportunity for a one-on-one session with me like this, you wanna go ahead and put your name on the wait list. It's at healthcoachpower.com/mentorship, and yeah, Ellen, we've talked about lots of different topics. I wanna ask you this first, why not take what you're doing and take it to other gyms, other fitness locations?

Ellen:
I mean, that's a great question. I mean, I could, and I think the idea of partnering is always a good idea, any kind of collaboration. Um, right now I do have a collaboration with someone that is a seasoned coach that does workplace wellness. So, I've already started to develop a relationship with her. She has offered to mentor me, which is amazing. Um, so that's sort of why, I mean, um, other reasons why I don't wanna just kinda keep doing the same old thing. Um, you know, I don't feel a hundred percent comfortable on social media. I think that is one reason why my business hasn't grown in health coaching. Um, I, you know, I have a Facebook group. I don't post a lot on Instagram, so I, I just don't have a real comfort level with social media and with workplace wellness, I would be working more with the human resources, reaching out to them personally. And I do have a lot of contacts in the business world. So, I think the idea of using my own personal contacts, I think I'd like to sort of give that a try.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. I mean, there's certainly something to be said for, I've been doing this for a while and I'm tired of it. Monetarily, there's also something to be said for I'm doing something that works. Let me continue doing it even while I explore maybe some other options. So, anyway, that was the first thing that came up in my mind. Yeah. You've been running programs. You could just go run them somewhere else.

Ellen:
I could. And I even do have some fall programs with this specific gym planned. So I'm not totally cutting ties with this gym. Okay. I think I'm at this point where I would like to slowly pivot and I totally agree, you know, I think the more experience that I get, I'm always learning new things about technology and just how to run my program more smoothly. I'm always sort of tinkering it a little bit. Should it be eight weeks? Should it be 10 weeks? Um, so I I'm still in that world, but I'm definitely wanting to explore workplace wellness.

Michelle Leotta:
And do you think that the program you've been running thus far will also work in a corporate setting or will you be developing something new?

Ellen:
So I have some programs that concentrate on stress and sleep that I've been developing. So I think those two areas would be great with workplace wellness and then to throw in some mindful eating, um, programs. Also, I think it would be the idea of using a few different pillars could work very well.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay, good. So you'll leverage some of the content and maybe structure that you already have and we're just bringing it to a different group.

Ellen:
Yes.

Michelle Leotta:
So, now here's gonna be the biggest difference when you're working through the gym, it's the individuals who are paying you or paying the gym. How does it work? Through the gym.

Ellen:
They pay through the gym and the gym then pays me through, you know, payroll basically. Yes.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. So in this case it could go one of two ways. It could be, you go into a corporation, you do some free stuff for them. Maybe you do some workshops, some lunch and learns and you offer a group, two individuals and they're, they're paying out of their own pocket. And you're working with them as a group. Or you could pitch to the company, the company's gonna pay you and offer this to their employees for free. Which one of those are you kind of thinking about right now?

Ellen:
Well, I'm hoping to be working with human resource directors. And from what I have been told, they do have wellness many times as part of their budget. So something like this could fall into a human resource department's budget. So I'm hoping that I would be paid directly from the company and they would be offering this as a service to their employees.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. It's interesting. Cause I was having a conversation with an HR person several weeks ago, who is definitely already paying for, um, some type of health coaching in their company. They're not happy with it. It's hard for them to figure out what's going wrong. One thing she mentioned though, was that because it's free people kind like half show up, they show up, they're not really into it. They just do it to check a box because they get some, you know, there's some incentive for them to show up and they're not like all, all there. So, there is also that third option where the company subsidizes the cost, but there is some monetary, you know, uh, cost for the participants so that they have skin in the game.

Ellen:
Yes, I totally agree. And I've heard that also. I've been trying to do some interviews with, human resource directors and just kind of learning from them of what they're doing, um, presently and what they think they would like to do in the future.

Michelle Leotta:
Well, tell us what they're saying. Number one, cause I think everyone will be interested, but for number two, I'm curious what they're saying that you're like nodding your head and going, yeah, I can do that. What do you think they are looking for?

Ellen:
Well, I think post-COVID, if we can even use that terminology post, COVID not sure, but um, I mean, I think that we've seen a lot of changes in the corporate world and one area is that they are definitely trying to offer more benefits to their employees and something like this would fall under an additional benefit. Um, so they're definitely interested in exploring wellness either in house by actually hiring someone to work in a specific company or bringing in like an outside consultant. They look at it as, um, benefits also could be like a team building sort of atmosphere also.

Michelle Leotta:
It sounds very good, especially when they're onboarding new, um, employees, we have this work life program or we have this health and wellness program. So yes, it's very, very attractive to the employers for that reason. Um, do you get a sense of specifically, are they looking to run workshops or looking to run eight week groups? They want people to get one on one coaching or, or do they have no clue?

Ellen:
Well, I think there's definitely a lot of people out there that have no clue. However, um, the two different areas that I've been exploring is sort of a lunch and learn slash webinar program that could still be virtual. It could be done anywhere. It can be live, it can be in person. Um, also a lot of companies are looking at sort of a membership base where they would pay that's more of a cost effective way to go about it, where then individuals could just log in to a membership site and sort of do it on their own at their own time with the idea that once a program is completed, maybe there would be some kind of an incentive from the corporation, maybe a gift certificate to Amazon or a health food store. So there would be an incentive for them to complete the program, but they would be able to employees would be able to do this on their own time. And interesting, a lot of companies would also allow family members to take advantage of something like this because it sort of falls under benefits. So, it's not just for the specific employee. It could be for the entire family.

Michelle Leotta:
Understood. Okay. So something like a simple lunch and learn, you show up for an hour, you do a thing in the cafeteria or it's over zoom to something that actually sounds rather complex. Having a member site, people are logging in and there's a lot of technology sort of involved with that. That might not be the place to start I'm thinking.

Ellen:
Okay. Good advice. Good advice.

Michelle Leotta:
I mean, would you agree or do I have no idea of how you could do that?

Ellen:
I do. I mean, I agree like right now I am not set up to handle something like that, but I am exploring different types of websites that could work as a membership based portal. Um, again, this is something that, again, that I'm researching, I'm looking at on my list of things to do, but, um, I mean from another piece of advice that I've been told is that you need to be ready to go, if so, if you have someone in human resources or for that matter, any client that wants to hire you, you can't say, okay, I'll get back to you in six weeks, you, you have to be ready to go. So that's kind of what my short term goal is kind of for the next six weeks. I really wanna kind of get some of these things in place. Um, because I think fall is a great time to start something like this.

Michelle Leotta:
Well, it's interesting. You should bring up timing because I was thinking more about budgets and the fiscal year where I've noticed that sometimes towards the end of the year companies say our budget's all done for this year, but we could do it in January. So you might be well positioned now to approach them with an idea, but be prepared for maybe offering something larger in January or doing something that's very simple. Maybe it's just a one time workshop and getting a sense of, and I always recommend this with any type of collaboration, dip your toe in. Are they nice to work with? Are the employees pleasant? Is it, does it make you feel good to be there? Are they responsive? Do they pay you on time? Are they respectful before jumping into anything more complex? So I love the lunch and learn idea.

Ellen:
Mm-hmm thank you. You know, it's great advice. Definitely.

Michelle Leotta:
I mean, oh my gosh. Can you imagine selling some whole big package? I don't know, you know, and if they go for it, cuz they're desperate to get some sort of wellness program and then you start working with them in a night, it could be a nightmare for the next six months.

Ellen:
Right. And I always think that it, it does, it takes time to build relationships and it's, it's something that maybe will be, like you said, taking baby steps, maybe offering, you know, one lunch and learn or you know, doing something just to sort of get them interested, getting to know them, let them get to know me. And um, and that right. That's not an easy 1, 2, 3 situation that may take some time.

Michelle Leotta:
It might, yeah. And you know, then they have turnover within their departments or you have to talk to so, and so there's all kinds of red tape. So, I love keeping it really simple on your side. Do you have a lunch and learn or a workshop like that you've already created and you could show up tomorrow and do if they wanted you to?

Ellen:
Yes. I mean, I think my, you know, eight to 10 week program, which is sort of what I've been doing with this gym, each one could be its own lunch and learn it maybe would need to be tweaked a little bit, but um, I think each topic could stand alone as, uh, you know, one single lunch and learn or webinar.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. So gosh, you even have more than one, if you were talking to me right now and I was the head of HR and I said, we'd love to have you in, could you come in two weeks from now? You could say yes. And which of these eight topics would you like me to cover?

Ellen:
Yes.

Michelle Leotta:
Perfect. Okay. Um, okay. So you mentioned that you have some contacts you have, have you have eight potential lunch and learn workshops. Who can you reach out to it is that relationship that always gets you in the door. So I think before you even get all into LinkedIn or start, you know, hounding down people on Instagram or anything like that, let's start with who, you know.

Ellen:
Yeah, no, I think that's definitely great advice. And you know, I have a, uh, you know, a Google doc of some personal, um, contacts that I have that I have slowly started to reach out to. Um, and even just locally, like, you know, like reading a, a business, um, you know, media site about local businesses here in Buffalo, that could be a good entryway, sending someone an email and mentioning like, oh, congratulations on your recent promotion. Um, and kind of just use that as sort of an introduction to what I do and, and how I could help them or help their company.

Michelle Leotta:
I like how you've been warming up a list of potential leads. And are these people in HR,

Ellen:
Some are HR, some are, um, you know, CEOs of small companies.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. So if you just took, I don't know how many people are on your list, but if you took like your top five, the ones that you were like, yes, this would make a really excellent collaboration. What would be your next step to get the ball rolling with them? Cause it sounds like you're ready.

Ellen:
I mean the next step I think is just to send them an email, give them an update. If it's someone that I know personally, I think it could be more of a, um, casual email where I would say, you know, hi, just wanted to update you on a new project I've been working on. Uh, I'd like love to set up, uh, you know, either a zoom or in person coffee date, to tell you a little bit more about it. You know, I have Calendly, so I could include a link directly to my calendar and to make it easy, to just, you know, make an appointment and either talk to them via zoom or talk to them in person, whatever makes the most sense.

Michelle Leotta:
I got an email recently. I mean, it's totally different in a way, but it was like a, a reach out from someone saying, Hey, I do this thing with Instagram. Can I help you? And I gotta say, I held onto that email for like a week thinking I was gonna write back cuz I was like, I was interested, but eventually I just hit delete. Cause I didn't have time.

Ellen:
Yeah.

Michelle Leotta:
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna challenge you. What if, as part of that reach out email, you included the phrase or the idea of how can I help you?

Ellen:
Okay.

Michelle Leotta:
Like instead of I'm Ellen, I'm doing this. Here's what I'm up to. Here's my calendar, flip the conversation a little bit. I was thinking about you. Are you still involved with X, Y, Z. I've been talking to a lot of, you know, corporations, like we were just talking about, about different needs and a post-COVID slash not post COVID world, how can I help you?

Ellen:
Okay. I love that. That's great.

Michelle Leotta:
They can tell you at off the bat, but they're looking for, and maybe they need something that you're not offering right now or you haven't thought of.

Ellen:
Mm-hmm

Michelle Leotta:
But I'm just thinking that might open the conversation in more of a conversational way versus a transactional way. Mm-hmm

Ellen:
mm-hmm I love that. Thank you.

Michelle Leotta:
You're welcome. Do you think that there's five that you could get started with right off the bat?

Ellen:
Definitely. Yes.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. So it's July right now, middle of July, as we're filming this, as, you know, people are gonna be on vacation, they're gonna be at the beach, they're not paying attention to things. So, what do you think the best follow up strategy would be if you don't hear back from your five in the next, however many, how long do you think and what would be the follow-up?

Ellen:
I mean, I think I would send an additional follow-up email if it is a warm lead, because yes, people are busy. People are on vacation. This may not be their priority. So, I may send a check-in email just to kind of see if, if that spurs on a reply. And I guess my other idea would be go on to the next five and just keep, keep plugging away.

Michelle Leotta:
It is a numbers game in a way, anytime that you're doing like a, you know, reaching out one to one. So yes, following up by email, maybe like a week later when hopefully they're back from their adventures. And are you, if you could think of any of these people, are you following them on another platform? Do you have another way of connecting with them?

Ellen:
I've definitely been building my LinkedIn contact. So, um, it's a good possibility that I'm already connected with them on LinkedIn. And I've been trying to just reach out, you know, through LinkedIn with local human resource directors. So, at least if we're already connected, it's easier for me to communicate with them.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay, cool. I, I was thinking about it cause I've had people reach out to me and say, oh, it looks like you and your kids had so much fun at the beach last week. I saw your pictures on Instagram. That's a great way to lead.

Ellen:
Okay, yeah.

Michelle Leotta:
You know like, and plus they see that you are, you know, viewing their stuff or you like their stuff or you commented on their stuff elsewhere and it builds just a little bit more like I'm in your world.

Ellen:
Okay. Got it.

Michelle Leotta:
Just a thought.

Ellen:
Okay.

Michelle Leotta:
Cause the inbox gets so full. Sometimes if you show somewhere else, it can be helpful. Oh yeah. I'm supposed to get back to Ellen.

Ellen:
Okay. I love it. Another great idea. Thank you.

Michelle Leotta:
You're very welcome. So let's talk money real quick because that usually comes up and again, so the sort thing, if I'm the HR person and I'm like, yeah, we'd love to have you in for one of your eight lunch and learns, Ellen. That sounds great. Maybe we can even do more than one before the end of the year. How much do you charge?

Ellen:
That is always a difficult question for me. I've always had a difficult time with pricing. I think one reason goes back to the collaboration with the gym, where their members, don't like to pay for a lot of extra. So I've been forced to keep that at a pretty low price. I mean I think for one lunch and learn, I would feel comfortable, you know, coming in at, you know, probably about $500 if they could, you know, get about in between, you know, 25 people in the room. I mean, that would be great from my end.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. That sounds like a solid place to start. And you gotta also think, you might be talking to companies of varying sizes. So, and also sometimes you can talk to companies that are so big that they feel like they're doing you a favor and may in that way, even though they have lots of money, they're like, oh, by letting you in the door, we're actually doing you a favor and they expect you to do it for free. So, I found that the answers can range what people are, you know, willing to pay, expecting to pay quite a bit from the smaller to the larger companies. What if I had a company I'm just like playing sort of devil's advocate here, you know, just playing at different scenarios so you can try them on for size. What if I'm like yeah, Ellen, we can get a group of about 30 people together, really excited to have you come in and talk about stress management. But we don't have any budget left for this year. We usually do this kind of thing for free cause you'd be getting so much exposure to our employees. Would you be able to do something for free for us?

Ellen:
I think I would be willing to do something for free just to get my feet wet and just to sort of go through the process. So, I would maybe take the fall and if anybody would want me to come in as a complimentary service, maybe I would do that, you know, five to 10 times just for that experience. But then after that, I feel like I, um, would be worth a payment.

Michelle Leotta:
I agree. You can only do the free stuff for so long 5 to 10 times. I'm hoping at five to 10 different corporations. Yes. Yes. Not for the same ones. Okay, good.

Ellen:
Okay.

Michelle Leotta:
That's a totally valid thing to do. Go in and get your feet wet. And if you think they're the kind of company that has the budget, I would encourage you to say something like I'd be willing to, to do the first one for you guys at half rate.

Ellen:
Okay.

Michelle Leotta:
And like negotiate because there often is the money there and like, you know, you you'll know if, if you don't ask, you won't know, they can always just say no and then you can decide to do it for free or not at that point. But just if you're gonna, especially if it's not gonna be over zoom,

Ellen:
Right.

Michelle Leotta:
You're gonna go schlep in somewhere. It's gonna take the time to get there and you gotta get your hair done. And the whole thing, that's a lot, that's a lot to be doing for $0.

Ellen:
Okay. Makes sense.

Michelle Leotta:
You know, and you've got plenty of experience. It's not like you're just right outta school or anything like that.

Ellen:
Right. Right.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. All right. Um, I like it. I like it a lot. Now let's say you do the lunch and learn with somebody. And they're like, um, you know, we'd like to do more. We, you know, we have this idea for a, you know, maybe they don't even know what they want. They just know that they wanna do more with you. My suggestion is you have a plan. Like you have something mapped out that they can look at specifically, like it would be this long, this program would take this many weeks. It would be this many people. It would cost this much money that you can say, great. Here's something I offer and they can, then they just have something to look at. Okay. And they can go, no or they can go, yeah. As opposed to keeping it like loose goosey, like we want you to do something. I would love you to just have like a concrete offer for that next.

Ellen:
Okay. Okay, sounds good. Sounds like a good things to do on my, my list of things to do.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. And you know, it doesn't have to be fancy. We're talking about shooting them over like a Google doc that outlines, you know, what an eight week program would look like. And so it's a proposal, you know, like this is how I propose, we do it. And again, there'll probably be some negotiation back and forth, but if you have that at the ready...

Ellen:
Okay.

Michelle Leotta:
And it's all buttoned up so much easier for them to say yes.

Ellen:
Okay. All right. Sounds good.

Michelle Leotta:
Ellen, this has been so wonderful talking with you. I have one more question. Are you still, or have you been this whole time working with individual clients in addition to these groups that you've been doing?

Ellen:
So, I actually just took on a individual client about three weeks ago. I've always been focused on group and I love working one-on-one also. And, um, you know, it's just great conversation, very personal, and she may be able to open some doors for me. I haven't talked about that directly, but she is in the business world. And, um, again, it's just been another really good, um, experience for me.

Michelle Leotta:
Good. Cause I was thinking whether you're doing something at a reduced rate or full price, or definitely if you're doing something for free part of the deal, especially if you're, especially, if you're not being paid is you're going to collect email addresses from those in the room. Now, if someone's paying you to do the workshop, you might not be collecting the email addresses, but that would be a good energy exchange because then you could follow up with those people after the workshop. And often these types of things do result in a client or two right away cause they've met you. You've been there in person. You're talking to them and you know, in their environment and they know that you get what they're going through. Um, and that would be another way to turn even these lower costs, smaller lunch and learns into larger, you know, income coming through the door.

Ellen:
Sounds good. Thank you.

Michelle Leotta:
You're welcome. Thanks for being here and thanks for everybody for listening and watching. If you'd like to be part of our weekly mentorship group and have the chance for one-on-one session, just like this, be sure to put your name on the wait list at healthcoachpower.com/mentorship. See you guys later. Thanks Ellen.

Ellen:
Thank you.

Michelle Leotta:
Bye-bye.