#214: 3 Signs That an Online Course is Right For Your Health Coaching Business

Hello there health coaches. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Michelle Leotta. I'm a practicing health coach of 13 years now and I've been an online course creator for at least 10 of those. Now. Last week on the show, I was telling you a little bit about my story, including how I came to run my first online program. So if you missed that one, you can go back into the archives and check out last week's episode. But I realized that you may also be wondering about online courses for your business and you might be thinking, Hmm, is an online course even right for me at this stage of business? It could be even if you are very, very new to coaching and if you've been working with clients for a while, then it's very likely to serve you. We're gonna get into all of that today.

I want to share three signs that point to yes, like yes, an online course would make sense for you in your business where you're at right now. And I'll actually be teaching how to create an online course, top to bottom, step by step in my upcoming five day bootcamp. From topics we're gonna talk about topics you want to choose to pricing to technology. You'll see what goes into smart course creation and walk away with your course outlined and ready to build. I want you to sign up now because this is a one time free event. I guarantee people are asking for this later when it's no longer available. So do sign up now. It's happening this October and you don't want to miss it. You can register at healthcoachpower.com/bootcamp.

So, let's say that you are like Jennifer. Jennifer is one of our Healthy Profit University members. She's also part of our weekly mentorship group and Jennifer's worked with lots of paying private clients. She's had clients who say yes right away and they pay in full. Like they're so in, there's lots of enthusiasm, but of course there's limited time in the day. This is true for all of us. So how many private clients are really possible at any given time in your practice? Of course, then there's also the women who can't afford to just hand over a check or hand over a credit card and pay in full. There are the women who want to work with Jennifer, but they can't afford private coaching. So, in this case, an online course or an online program can be a fantastic way to serve all of those clients who otherwise wouldn't enroll. And you're gonna increase revenue by doing so and limit private clients so that, in this case, Jennifer doesn't burn herself out.

So, if this sounds like you, that list of happy paying private clients is your sign that an online course could be exactly what your business needs. And actually, Jennifer has started offering an online group course and she's got this wonderful group meeting every week and all the pieces are falling into place. It's just a great fit for her and for her clients. So I just want to reiterate that the type of course that Jennifer is offering is live. It's happening in real time. There are different types though. There are different types of courses that you can offer. As a health coach, I've offered so many different kinds of courses throughout the course of my career and I'll be going into detail about these different types of online courses during our free bootcamp, Create your online course.

So don't forget to sign up at healthcoachpower.com/bootcamp. I mean, you know what? There may even come a day when Jennifer doesn't offer private coaching at all anymore, reclaiming that time for herself and her family. Or she could just offer like very, very high level vi P level kind of private coaching. These are options for the future as Jennifer's online course grows. And the same would be true for you if you were in a similar situation. How many of you would love that scenario for yourself? Just shoot a hand into the air, throw an emoji in the comments. If you're watching online, I mean, I know for myself I love my private health coaching clients, but I don't like having too much on my calendar because that means that my time is less flexible When I'm running an online course, I have much greater ability to be available for my kids.

Like today, they don't have school, for example, you know, there's always something. Somebody's sick. I'm always available thereafter, school hours, I'm able to take vacations whenever I want. Just booked a trip to St. Lucia. I am very, very excited about that. And if I feel like a midday yoga class on a Wednesday or a nap, I go for it. That's the power of having a flexible work schedule. Okay, so you may be thinking, Oh great, that's, that's really good for Jennifer, but Michelle, I do not have a roster full of paying clients or, I don't have any clients. Let's talk about you next. I got you. Don't worry about it, because that's pretty much where I was when I started my first online course. 10 or so years ago. I did have some clients but not very many. Definitely not enough to hit my income goals.

And it was like no matter how I did the math, I couldn't really figure out how I'd ever be able to sign enough clients to earn the salary that I was looking for. My list was just too small at the time. And what I found was that by offering a short detox course, and it doesn't have to be a detox, like that's just an example, that's what I did. And this was years ago when the idea of detoxing was very, very new and hot. It can be any kind of short online experience that you're leading people through. Well, I'll tell you what happened. My biggest fans showed up of course, and since it was at a lower price point and something very, very accessible, something that they actually wanted to do, they invited their friends, they told people about it, and my audience grew and grew.

Plus it was very, very low pressure. It was like a low commitment thing. It was sure it was not expensive. I was easily able to invite anybody that I knew that might be interested. I mean like it's one thing to look at someone and say, Hey, I think you might like my $950 course. You know, that's, you probably wouldn't just offer it to people that way, but it's another to say, Hey, I'm running this short group program. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I think you'd love it. It's $79. You know, it's just like an easy fun thing for for people to hop in on. So, raise your hand if you don't have enough clients and you need to be building your mailing list. Go ahead. You can just say me if you're in the chat online. I assure you, you are not alone.

This is probably the majority of our listeners and this is another sign that an online course could be perfect for you. Of course, you would run a different type of online program than Jennifer, but you want to do what makes sense for your business right now. You can always add more courses to your repertoire down the line. I've created many, many, many. Okay, Now you might be thinking, especially if you're newer to coaching or if you're not very tech savvy, like how , how big question mark there. How on earth am I supposed to run an online course to which I will say I've run online courses with nothing more than email and a Facebook group. Heck, sometimes I don't even have a Facebook group. It doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be expensive. I mean, if you're just using email or free Facebook group, there's no overhead costs involved here.

We're gonna talk more about choosing the materials and the platform that you need during our Create your online course bootcamp. I think you're going to be very happily surprised. You know, to this day I've got people, I still have like on my, my Facebook, sometimes on Instagram, people who have been following me for a long time, they've been part of my audience for years and years, and they'll say, You know, Michelle, I started following you back when you did your such and such program in 2011. You know, I still refer back to it. That shocks me. It's such a good feeling though. Or I still use recipes from your meal planning program in 2013. You know, it's amazing the kind of impact that you can have on somebody simply by engaging with them in this very light touch way. It's not like I had a private coaching relationship with these people, but they went through this course with me.

They feel like they got to know me, they love the materials, they had a great experience and they're still talking about it like 10 years later. I can say something else about running a short online group program or any online course. It's an asset. Once it's built, you can run it again and again. You can even run it for other audiences. You can take it to a corporate setting and you can run it there and you can run it over and over. And each time you do, it really does get easier and easier. I also remember thinking like, wow, I just coached 20 people, 30 people like in my first detox, and that was more than the number of private clients that I had ever had combined. So suddenly all at once, I was supporting a group in this online course format and wow, I got so much experience with so many different people all the same time.

It just happened very quickly. I feel like my comfort level as a coach increased dramatically cause I had exposure to these different people, different personalities, different challenges, and navigating that with the course made me feel even more confident to do my private coaching. Okay, so we're gonna move on to the third sign that you're ready for an online course. But if any of this is resonating with you so far, if you need to build that confidence, if you need that experience, and if you want to get an overview of what exactly goes into this whole course creation thing, or maybe you're just rip roar to go sign up for hour free five day, create your online course bootcamp. It starts October 16th and you can register for free at healthcoachpower.com/bootcamp. I know I have already said it several times, but when you're listening, sometimes you just need it repeated, don't you?

Okay, I have a question for you. Is there something that you know how to do that you're always teaching people or that people are always asking you for help with? Example, I'm really good at meal planning, like super meal planning nerd. I actually enjoy sitting down with the pen and paper and figuring out my family's meal plan for the week. Let's face it, most people are not like that. And I found myself teaching this skill and habit to my clients over and over and over. Maybe you have a set of breathing exercises that you always teach your clients how to do. Maybe you're a superstar, I don't know, gluten free baker, and everybody's always asking you questions like, Well, what kind of flours do you use and what can I substitute for this? And how do you get it to rise? I'm thinking of Catherine, who is one of our HPU fast track members last year.

Now, Catherine does monthly fermentation classes. How fun is that? It's a perfect example of a skill that can be taught online and sold as a course. So if you're always answering the same questions over and over, if you're always teaching the same thing, if you have this skill set that can be passed along, that is my third and final sign for you to know that an online course is right for you. I want you to imagine this. Imagine that every time somebody wanted the secrets to your gluten free baking, you already have this resource for them. Imagine not having to repeat yourself over and over again and imagine having this asset. It could add an entirely new income stream to your business, or it could be a bonus for your private client, Something that you can sell separately, something that you bundle. Again, your course is this super smart asset that you can use and reuse in your business over and over again.

So just like you went to school to learn how to be a health coach, maybe it's time to go to school and learn how to create an online course, which is a different thing, right? Coaching privately. You just show up. All you need is yourself. I've said this a million times, you don't need anything like a pen and a piece of paper to take notes and you just show up and be present for your client. That's it. Online courses, they take some forethought. You have to prepare some materials ahead of time, for sure. So maybe it's time to learn how to do that. What are the pieces? How do they all work together? Most of all, and this is a big one, how to create something that people actually want to buy. Hmm, except you don't have to go back to school. Just join us for bootcamp. It's entirely free and it starts October 16th. You can go sign up right now at healthcoachpower.com/bootcamp and I will see you next week. Everyone have a good one.