#209: The 1 Thing You Must Turn “ON” For Business Success

Well hello health coaches. I'm Michelle Leotta. I'm a still practicing health coach of 13 years, and I'm a mentor to my fellow health coaches. And today I'm going to tell you what you have to turn on and what you have to turn off, if you wanna build a successful health coaching business. It's actually very simple. Now, if you're here with me live either on zoom over on Facebook, on Instagram. Hi, you guys, wherever you are, please say hello in the comments and ask questions as we go along. That is why I'm here live and not just recording by myself in my studio with none of you. So I see that you're here and I appreciate your presence. Let's chat. I wanna hear what you think about this topic today.

Right now we are kinda rolling outta summer. I know that may be hard to accept unless you have kids like me, that you can't wait to get back to school, but the fall is approaching. So, I want to see lots of health coaches showing up, getting back into the game. It is that time. It's that busy time of year when people need us and they want our help. Fall is an ideal time for health coaches to find clients. But before we talk about what you have to turn on and what you have to turn off, first of all, hello to Amy and Jennifer over there on Facebook. I see you guys. Who else is here? TM Delame. I don't know who that is, but hello, and oh gosh, it's so hard when I have to pronounce the Instagram handles but hello to you guys over there too.

I wanna let you know that this episode is brought to you by my newly updated free training. It's called earn a living, doing the work that you love, where I show you how to put together a 12 month action plan for your business. Yes. Action. We're gonna talk more about that today, but grab the training. It's quick. It's powerful. It's worth the time I promise it's at healthcoachpower.com/training. That's pretty easy to remember, right? Healthcoachpower.com/training.

I also need to give a shout out to A Highdoc who happens to be with us live. Hi Amy. She left this five star review on apple podcast and she said, "Certificate. Now what? Any newbie health coaches out there that just got a certificate, but are left thinking. Now what this podcast is for you. I'm a new I health coach and stumbled upon this podcast. I'm so glad that I did. I found all the episodes I've listened to, to be extremely helpful and packed with awesome nuggets of info that I can use to help me grow my own business. I enjoy listening and learning from Michelle so much that I joined her Healthy Profit University and have made so much progress in a short amount of time. The value she provides is immeasurable. Thanks, Michelle."

Thank you, Amy. Please send your mailing address to us at support@healthcoachpower.com, 'cause we have a little thank you gift to send your way. And for everybody listening and watching, if you'd like me to read your review, live on the air, maybe next week, log into apple podcasts, scroll down to reviews and share how this show has helped you. Your reviews actually mean the world to me because helps us. It's like the main thing that helps us reach more coaches who need this kind of support. And we know that they do right. And it allows me to keep bringing you free content every week, just like this. So thank you so much for that.

Okay, back to today's topic. I was scrolling through Facebook the other day, which I'm trying to do less of PS. But I was scrolling through Facebook the other day. And I came upon a question from a health coach that really kind of stopped me in my tracks. Not because I hadn't heard it before, but something about it just really struck me. See, I think because there are so many courses and business coaches and systems and social media strategies and guides and gosh, all these self-proclaimed experts and mentors for health coaches these days, we think the answers are out there. Like we think that if we don't inherently know how to do something in our business and let's be honest, none of us know Jack in the beginning. I sure didn't but we think, okay, someone else is going to give me the right answer. It's kind of like you're making a recipe and a calls for eggs and you don't have eggs. So you go to the store and you get eggs. We're gonna get the thing that we need for our business, from an outside source. Right. And okay, that's true to some degree every week, I'm up here trying to help you with your businesses aren't I?

And I run healthy profit university as Amy mentioned, which is one of the longest standing courses for health coaches who wanna turn their passion into a real salary. But I digress. When I started out as a health coach, none of that existed, there was little to no guidance. After we got our certification, it was like the wild, wild west. And there was basically no really nowhere to turn for advice or for these answers. So, this question that I came across on Facebook the other day, it was actually not asked inside my Health Coach Power Community, Facebook group. I just happened to see it elsewhere. And I don't know the context at all to be fair. The coach was saying that she's trying to do market research, but most forums online don't allow it. To which I was like, yeah, no kidding. So, she felt stuck.

And I just had to like, I had a little giggle, not like in a mean way. Like I get it. We all have our stuck places. I've had so many of them. I'm not, there's no judgment here, but I just kind of giggled because what I see, well, what I see is a real shift in the way people approach business. Businesses have been doing market research for years, for decades, maybe for centuries. I'm not sure how many years back marketers were that smart to be doing research, but definitely decades long before the internet. Do you remember that time? You guys, I'm pretty sure if you're here with me, you're old enough to remember life without the internet. You are not my eight year old son who literally can't believe that I didn't have YouTube growing up. So isn't that nuts? You can do market research. You can even run your whole business without relying on social media as you're one and only go to, right?

She said online forums. Won't let me post about how I need to do market research. Yeah. You know what? People have been doing business and all these types of marketing activities since long before online forums existed. So, I took a moment. I advised this health coach, as I would advise any of you to tap into her real life network friends, family members, acquaintances, because yeah, you are gonna get yourself thrown out of Facebook groups if you try to use somebody else's group to benefit your business. It's really shortsighted. This is my opinion to waste your time trying. So I said, tap into your real life network. Anybody watching right now think that's a good idea? Have you done this? Have you reached out to friends, family acquaintances find people in real life. As you get your business off the ground. Another word for this is networking, which sounds kind of scary.

But this is... These are people you're already talking to. These are people you already know, find people in real life. I said, and do your market research that way. And you know what this coach said, she said, and I've heard this before. She said, I don't know anyone. She doesn't know anyone. You guys, she lives on this earth. She has not encountered other human beings in the flesh. Isn't that crazy? Like she doesn't have any friends or family members. She never went to high school. She never grew up in a neighborhood anywhere. She must, I don't know, live alone in a desert. And all her food gets airdropped. That's nuts. You know what? And even if that were true, I'm poking fun. But even if that were true, even if you don't know anyone, what's the obvious next step to take?

Anybody? Just go ahead, shout it out in the comments. If you're here with me live, if you needed to find people to talk to, but you didn't know anyone. Sure. Maybe you just moved to a new place. Maybe you're more of an introvert. Okay? You don't know a ton of people fine. You don't have 400 best friends. What do you need to do any guesses? Let me see what my people over here on Instagram are saying any guesses, any guesses. Here's what health coaches need to start doing to find success. We gotta turn on the old brain. The one in here, you guys, we gotta look inside ourselves for solutions. We have to stop thinking that the answers are outside of you. Stop assuming that you don't know anything, when really you are the only one who knows anything about what would work well for you. What's coming to mind right now is this conversation I once had with a health coach and it was kind of similar where she's like, I don't know anyone who I can help. And I'm not really part of any communities and da, da. And as the course of this 20 minute conversation went by. By the end we realized actually she is very, very involved in the salsa dancing community. And she knows loads of people. And she is already known inside that community. And it was like these things she had never even thought of, but I could never have told her that, you know what I mean? Only she knew that she was involved in this salsa dance community.

So, a lot of times the answers are inside your head. Not mine, not somebody else's. So, if you don't know anyone, your next step has got to be, let's see Amy's saying step out of your comfort zone and introduce yourself to people and mention what you do.

Yeah. Go meet people. It's very simple, right? Go meet people, join a group, take a yoga class, strike up a conversation with the teacher or the person on the next mat or both right to do business. You must have a network. And you must know people who know people who know people who know people, and then somebody knows Kevin bacon, right? That that's how it works. In fact, I'm remembering one of last Spring's Fast Track members, Susie. Susie, if you're out there say hello. Susie chose a target market. And then she immediately announced that she didn't know anybody within that target market. So it was similar to the gal online. She said she wasn't gonna be able to do market research because she didn't know anybody, but that I'm gonna confidently say this. That is the kind of BS that we throw up like a force field around ourselves because we are terrified. We say, oh, I can't, oh, I don't know. I'm overwhelmed. It won't work. I don't know anyone. And really what we're saying is if we're honest, I'm scared.

I don't believe in myself. I haven't done this before. I don't wanna look like a fool. So the solution for Susie and the solution for this coach who I have now sort of inadvertently dedicated an entire podcast episode to, even though I don't even know her name, the solution is to mentally turn on your brain and emotionally you gotta move past your own BS. You just gotta call it out for yourself. Am I throwing up a barrier? Am I making excuses? It's like the client, right? When you're working with your health coaching clients, it's like the client who says, oh, I can't, I won't. It'll never work. When you're trying to help them find an exercise routine or figuring out a way that they could pack a healthy lunch. It's like, oh no, that won't work. Oh, that won't work. Either excuses, excuses. No, it's not gonna work for me because blah, that's what I say to that, blah, just like Susie, who, by the way, ended up finding plenty of people to do market research with who now has a healthy mailing list, full of potential clients inside her very specific target market.

All that I can't turned into, I can figure it out. And she stopped looking outside herself for help with every step of the way and realize that she had the wherewithal and the inner guidance to find who she needed and what she needed. So here is my advice to all of you today, this career, health coaching, I can't hand it to you in a box. If I could. I would. And people try, right? Cause they can sell it to you for a whole, whole lot of money. Right? It's all in a box. All done for you. Just put your name on it. It doesn't really work that way. I can give you ideas. I can give you advice. I can give you, give you things like tutorials for how to use your email service provider. We do all that kind of stuff. But ultimately to find your path, you have to turn on your inner knowing. Turn on that brain and turn off the inner BS and go do the things, go do them, right?

You're gonna go do them well like this coach, she's gonna maybe take my advice and go to a yoga studio and strike up a conversation with a yoga teacher. And it's gonna go really well. Or maybe she's gonna talk to the person on the mat next to her. And they're just gonna scale and not wanna talk back and that's not gonna go so well. That's okay. Go do the things. Do them poorly. Make mistakes what's gonna happen is you're gonna learn what works for you. Right? You can't just do the things one time or two times you gotta do 'em again and again and again. And if you don't feel ready to do the things and the things could be as simple as go meet people, go make friends, right? Like that is kind of where this all begins. Any

Business starts with a network. If you don't feel ready, that's awesome. That means you're ready because there's never gonna be a more ready time. I absolutely assure you of that. So here's what I want you to do you feel that fear? The one that's saying I can't, I won't because this, because that notice that set it over here, like maybe on your kitchen window sill, it can go right next to that basil plant that you've been growing all summer. You can look at it, but don't get stuck over there with your excuses. You are smart. You've got this turn on your brain and take the next most logical step who has a situation right now where you're like, I'm not really sure what to do with my business. Maybe I should do that. Maybe I should do this. What is the next most logical step?

And then take that. It's what successful health coaches and really successful business owners of all kinds have to do every single day. So, in a way you're training yourself for this job where every day I'm like, hmm. I'm not really sure, but yeah, I'm just gonna do that. Let me try that. Hmm, I don't know. Why did, why did I make that mistake? That bit got all messed up. Okay. Let me try this instead. Like, that's the job you guys. It's in some ways it's a lot like being a mother, how many people here are moms, right? And there's no manual. And you're just like, Hmm, I don't know why my kid's doing that, but let me try this instead. Or, why won't they eat the kale chips? Okay, let me try something else, right? It's a lot like that. Turn on your inner knowing. That's the only way to navigate through the zillions of questions and challenges and hurdles that you're going to face. This is the game. This is how you play it.

Thanks for listening. You guys. I'm gonna be back next week. And in the meantime, you can check out my free training on how to earn a living, doing the work you love at healthcoachpower.com/training.