#241: Meet me in San Diego this June! (Here’s how…)

Michelle:
Well, hello there health coaches. I am very, very excited today. I have not had the chance to meet up with you all in person in, I had to think about it. I think it has been 10 years, which is crazy. But listen, I'm going to be in San Diego this June for a very cool event and I want to make it easy for you to join me because I want to meet you.

Before I forget. This episode is brought to you by my favorite client management tool. Practice better. You can save 30% for your first three months at healthcoachpower.com/pb and use code HCP30.
Now if you're here live or if you're watching the replay later, please tell me in the comments, do you love San Diego or what? I was there for the first time two years ago and I was like, this is the best place on earth.

Do you live there? Would you be willing to travel there? In those early years after I first got certified as a health coach, I did go to a couple of conferences and those were hosted by I n, right? I graduated from I n and they were doing a lot of conferences back then. I don't even know what they do these days, but I was in Miami, I was in New York. It was so much fun. Get to meet up with classmates, meet new people. I got to meet, I met Andrew Beman for the first time at a conference. We're sitting next to each other and it's just such a great way to connect with the community and the industry. But then I suppose with having babies and maybe just everybody changing the way that they did conferences, I haven't been to anything like this in a long time.

So as soon as I heard about the Health and Wellbeing coaching conference happening in San Diego this June, I was like, yes, I want to be a part of this for sure. And I'm thinking this is a great way for all of us in my community, for us to come together in a really cool place as well. So we can have social time, we can talk business building. I think it's just going to be great. So, I want to help you get all the details and make plans if this is something you can fit into your calendar and that you want to do, not only about the conference itself, but about special events that we're planning and some opportunities to meet up with me. And I have a discount for all of you. So you want to go to healthcoachpower.com/sandiego and it's all there for you.

Now, who is behind this conference if it's not being run by one of the schools? That was my biggest question. You are about to meet her. Dr. Jess serves as vice chair of the NBHWC and was among one of the very first national board certified health and wellness coaches in the country. She created the master of science in kinesiology integrative wellness program at Point Loma Nazarene University, one of the very first graduate programs to blend lifestyle medicine and health and wellbeing coaching. And she served as director of Integrative health and Wellness Coaching at uc, San Diego Health. But most notably for today, Jess and her husband Jay are the hosts of this June's Health and Wellbeing coaching conference in San Diego. Welcome to the show Jess.

Jess:
Thank you so much Michelle for having me. I'm so stoked to be here because I know you are amazing. And so I'm excited to get to know your community because I know amazing people only are surrounded by other amazing people. So thank you for the invite.

Michelle:
Oh yeah, I was like, you have to be on the show. We have to talk about this. I mean this is a very special opportunity. It's really the first of its kind, which it's so cool to see this industry grow and change. What made you decide to host a conference for health coaches?

Jess:
Yeah, absolutely. Well you, I mean you shared a little bit about my background. Nowhere did I actually think at some point in my future as you know someone, a professor, as someone who's directing clinical services and a large academic health system, would I be hosting a conference with the best person in the world, which is my husband? But it's because of exactly what you shared. What was so interesting to me because I am so integrally involved in the field of health and wellness coaching and as you noted excitingly have seen the rapid growth, which is solem me. I mean everyone who's tuning in live or catches this later, you guys are part of something big. You're part of an amazing community and you're part of an even greater community. And that's the spirit is I really recognize there is no, to your point, there is no conference like this and I go to many, I speak at many conferences, I attend many conferences and I recognize why don't we as health and wellbeing coaches, why don't we have a home base where we come together and the intention is this will be the place that we all come together.

Whatever school or training program we completed, we all get to come together. As you mentioned, it's not a hard sell in beautiful, sunny San Diego, California.

Michelle:
Not a hard sell at all,

Jess:
But that happens to be where I live. So it's why it's here. But to have a place where we could come together to get high quality education as an educator, I believe in this very strongly, that's how we keep elevating raising the bar, advancing the field, and have that quality time to socialize, as you mentioned, to talk with one another. What's working in our businesses? Where are we struggling? What can we be doing different? Who could we connect with? Could we collaborate? These are all the ideas that literally starting in 2018. So context 2018, my husband and I have been planning this event. So even though you are all just hearing about it right now, it's been in the works for years. Covid threw a little wrench in things to be honest, it was supposed to be August, 2020, didn't go so good. But we're here now and the exciting part is June 17th and 18th as you mentioned, we will be together in San Diego and an event where we'll have great educational session catered, plant forward meals, guided physical activities, mindfulness practices, time to genuinely socialize some special events I know we're going to talk more about, but just to say we are pulling out all the stops because us coaches, we deserve this.

We don't just deserve a home, but we deserve the best home conference possible. So we are sparing no expense, self-funding, the entire thing. It's amazing cause we believe this deeply in creating an event that's this special for us as coaches.

Michelle:
And lemme just underline that because when you say self-funded, I mean first of all, amazing to put yourself on the line like that, but also that means you're not accepting funding from this school, that school, this product, that product service tool, online, whatever because you don't want it to be one of these biased type scenarios.

Jess:
Exactly. And that was really important to us and that is something we share kind of the backstory. We share first who on our website, who we are because you're like, wait a minute, who's put, who's behind the scenes on this? Who we are, why we're as passionate as you can hear in my voice and see in my face, I'm like this all the time. Why we're this passionate? My husband's the same. And why we intentionally chose not to because a normal course of practice if people don't know for conferences is to accept sponsors and vendors and other people who basically foot the bill for an event. We said we want this to be objective, unbiased. It's not any, I mean I have a program that is an NBHWC approved program I teach in my program is not also involved in this either.

It is a purely objective event to focus on the key things that I mentioned, high quality education tying to connect and socialize in a meaningful way. And so what we've done instead is when we have had many great people reach out to say, but how could I be involved? Schools, companies, et cetera, who are all fantastic, we decided to say you can kind of lovingly put your money where your mouth is and you can support directly coaches. So we have scholarships for coaches. Those are coaches who maybe have not completed a coach training program yet and financially would be unable to do so. That's an option. Some schools have supported options to support. We have established a nonprofit organization. So in addition to starting a conference, we said we want to establish a nonprofit, which we've always wanted to do to provide high quality health and wellbeing coaching services and wellness programming to individuals here in San Diego because we're based here to get access to the services they otherwise would not be able to access underserved communities and to have coaches make a livable wage while doing so.

This is the stuff we believe in. And so we are also saying we're putting our money where our mouth is and hosting the event, paying for it all. And we could have said, no meals, no conferences, don't do that Michelle, this lovingly, I don't know how many conferences you've been to where you're talking full catered. I mean we, it's like a wedding meets a conference, meets a wow, something magical. But we said this is what our community deserves. And so we're going to go, we're going to invest fully and we believe that it's the right thing to do. And when you do the right thing, guess what happens? Great things emerge from it.

Michelle:
And I know our community, I, I'm just going to hammer that point a little bit more because I know we've heard from our community how much everyone is tired of being just marketed to sold to every time you turn around, every time you open up your Instagram account and someone's trying to sell you something. And I love that we could kind of, even in our Facebook group, I try so hard to keep the spammers out. We work so diligently on that and I felt like this is going to be a similar place. We're not going to just get there and be bombarded by advertisements. So with that said, what can we expect to do and learn during this weekend experience?

Jess:
Yes. So the great news is exactly as you said we have, I mean we put up the gates, we said no one is coming in selling you anything because it is a time for you to learn and grow and connect and be in community with like-minded professionals. So rest assured that's exactly what you're going to get. No hidden agendas promised. What you will get though is really high quality education and I keep using that phraseology only because we have been really intentional about the topics we're covering and who is presenting them. And so I would encourage, if you want to get a sense, you can check out the website, which is the health and wellbeing coaching conference.com. Only go to the site though just to see the speakers and the sessions because he won't want to miss out on where Michelle pointed you because we have something special for you.

But go there to see the full list of speakers, their bios, the types of topics we're covering. I mean these are the types of things that, I mean again, I have been in education teaching coaches for quite some time. I work in a clinical setting. I've had my own coaching business for well over a decade. I know the things that coaches and I've run and facilitated many coaching groups, purely volunteer base. But to say how do we get people together? And you mentioned I serve on the board of directors for the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching. I hear what coaches are saying and what they're needing. And I know you have such an ear to kind of the street too, Michelle, what is it that coaches need to be successful to empower other people to transform lives? That's not an overstatement. That's the thing we have the privilege of doing as coaches.

But you know what we need? We have to always continue learning and growing. That's the mark of a great professional. So we are covering mean everything from goodness, evidence-based coaching, really getting an understanding of what does the literature say about the ways in which we coach, what is most effective, what might be we doing that may be not as effective, and what are things that actually the research says, you know what, if we did this, you might have a greater impact as a coach. Everything from that. We have sessions that are geared towards, I know many in your community entrepreneurs just like you and I, about how to really kind of guiding principles related to building or expanding and evolving your coaching business. We're covering everything from different coaching sort of models and methods. So group-based coaching for those who want a dive, I mean we've got the top of the top people presenting on these things and it's going to be amazing. So that would be my encouragement. If you want a flavor and flair for what's being offered, do check out the website because you'll see when we say high quality education, that is not an overstatement. We've worked diligently to make a really balanced and really exciting schedule of the topics coaches want to know more about.

Michelle:
That's awesome. And just get a little more specific you guys. So the conference runs on the Saturday and Sunday, it's June 17th and 18th, the Friday prior. Everyone will be registering flying in if you're flying in like I am. And so I'm going to actually be hosting a little get together for my community, working out some of the details right now. But I'm going to be putting on a little happy hour for us. So again, I want you to go to health coach power.com/san Diego because then I'll be able to follow up with you and let you know exactly where we're going to be and and anything else that you need to know about the weekend so that we can hang out. I mean that's why I am going, that is my main thing I want. Well now I got to meet you Jess in person, but I want to see everybody. I want to be able to give you a hug. The actual in real life people that we are, sometimes we think we are just like people on zoom screens like this. So I think it's going to be really healthy in that regard. So that'll be happening Friday night. We'll be together at the conference on Saturday, having a gorgeous lunch with everybody catered in the meantime. And then on Sunday, do you want to tell everyone what's happening Sunday afternoon?

Jess:
Absolutely. And so a couple of things. So again, I highlight because again, unique things of our conference, we're going to have multiple meals together. We're having catered lunch both days of the event on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we're actually, as part of the event having a jazz social hour, there'll be some great appetizers past hors deu. Again, when we say we're going to do a conference, we're going to do a conference and we're also going to do a full catered dinner that night in an award ceremony. So again, just all this community building like you're mentioning, you see the theme and we're living. We're not just saying the words, we're living it out. We'll do lunch again like I mentioned on Sunday. And then on Sunday that final day as we wrap up the event, we have again more great food because again, healthful, nutritious, delicious food.

Who's not behind that? I know everyone in this community's like, hi, yes, me, I am. We're doing that and we're going to excitingly again in the spirit of fostering more community and creating more opportunities, you guys to connect with Michelle, I'm in the same feeling, Michelle. I'm like, I cannot wait to meet you and have you here live. Like it's just something different. Yeah, there's something different about being together. So for the chance for your community to be with you, to be a part of, again, a broader community, we will have breakout sessions that'll happen at the end of the event. So that final part really is an opportunity to get into some smaller groups. And Michelle lovingly excitingly is going to be facilitating one of those groups. So again, you guys won't want to Friday, you've got time, Sunday you've got time and you'll be again amongst your community that you already have connections with one another and you get to be part of a bigger community.

But we'll have breakout sessions around different topics, things like business I bring up because I know this is a hot topic and we all want to know how can we either be starting, growing, continuing to evolve our own businesses as coaches. That'll be one of several different topics to choose from. But it'll create, again, the whole intention too is to ensure the event is intimate. And so that's the part that some people again think we're crazy that we're, and think we're crazy, that we want to actually limit the number of people who come because all of this to you, business minded folks, including me as an entrepreneur says, whoa, why would you do this and why would you try to make a event really cost effective too with all these extra bells and whistles? The reason is we want there to be this time for deep connection and if it's thousands and thousands of people you, it's different. You can't do it. So it is intentionally intimate, but those breakout kind of smaller sessions in addition to the other places to socialize will provide the deeper dives, the deeper connections. So we're really excited about that piece of the event too.

Michelle:
Yeah, me too. And thank you for having me as one of facilitators for those breakout rooms. Cause that is a huge aspect of health coaching is building your business, marketing yourself effectively. If we can't do that, then we don't have clients and then we aren't doing any work. So important. I can't wait to bring it to the conference for everybody. And with everything that we've talked about now I just saw, I think on Instagram, Jess, I saw that you've got this conference approved for CE credits. Is that right?

Jess:
Oh yes, we do Michelle. Because again, if we're going to put on a great event, it's full of great education and we want to make sure people who hold various credentials, you can utilize this event towards your renewal of whatever the credential is that you hold. So I'll tell you excitingly, we are officially approved already. You saw the announcement from NBHWC. The event is approved for 13.5 ce's. So those of you who are board certified 36 ce's, you need every three years. So just imagine if you come to this and maybe it happens again next year and the year you're already exceeding.

Michelle:
You're done.

Jess:
You're done. You've got more than you need, but you've got something extra beyond the great education. So we are approved for NBHWC CECs. We also, I will share have in the works, I feel confident saying it because again, we have a very high caliber event and we're just waiting official approvals. But also those who might hold credentials through the American Council on Exercise or ace, that's another group as well as we received a request and we said we hear you and we've got you. We also are seeking approval through N Check. So anyone who is a certified health educator or master certified health educator, those CECs are also something that we're working to make available. But yeah, we're approved for NBHWC CECs and I know so many members of your community are board certified. So you guys take advantage of this. And again, the part I think we're going to get there, Michelle, we want to make your trip to San Diego as accessible as possible. That was a key guiding principle in creating the event. We want it to be epic. We want it to be top notch. It blows any other conference out of the water and we recognize we want it to be accessible for people. Cause gosh, with all I told you, the cost should be a lot higher than it is to be frank.

Michelle:
Yeah, no, you guys have priced us incredibly, fairly. So just let, let's talk about that. Yeah, because if you live in the San Diego area, like please come, I want to see you. If you don't live in the area and you're going to be traveling like I am, oh obviously there's a cost involved there. Happy hour Friday night is on me. So we don't have to worry about that at all and then tell everyone about the conference and we do have a special discount for my community.

Jess:
Absolutely. And like I mentioned, I won't harp on it, but except did you hear the part about food, Michelle? Usually people hear that's why we're providing meals too, to live into that aspect. We know nourishing food is so important for health and wellbeing and it's also something that mitigates additional costs when you travel to a conference, right? Paying for meal, that all adds up. And we're also at a venue literally two miles from the San Diego airport. Again, all intentionally designed and it's right along the water by the way, did I mention that? So you're just going to be gorgeous, beautiful waterview, but so close to the airport again, mitigate the cost for needing to rent a car or do everything's walking distance and a two minute Uber ride from the airport. But the other piece that we're doing special because we do are so gracious to have Michelle as a part of our event.

We are doing a special rate, a hundred dollars off registration and I shared and Michelle echoed it. You guys, we have priced the thing, the law... Like my colleagues have asked, I don't even understand how this financially cause they know I'm an entrepreneur. How does this make any business sense? We say we want first and foremost this to be something everyone can be a part of. We need our community to get together. But we have created a very special rate specifically for Michelle's community. All of you because you guys are special and I know the passion that you bring to your work, the care you have for others and we want to reward that. That's the spirit of our event. So we do have that special rate and as Michelle said, you need to get signed up through the website to make sure you get that special rate so that you can attend and again, make it more accessible to come be with us in San Diego.

Michelle:
Yeah, we want to make this so that it's as easy as possible. So again, you can get the special discount code and all the details. It's at health coach power.com/san Diego and I'm sure I will be updating that page in the coming weeks as more and more details become available. But you'll get exactly what we know right now and then I'll keep in touch with you right up until the event, maybe even that day saying, Hey, this is where we're going to be. So it's going to be a just I'm so my heart is so happy to be able to do something in person, especially after these years of being locked behind the zoom screen with Covid and everything. Thank you for not giving up and pressing forward with this event.

Jess:
There were some I'm going to say it on... and this is life, right? So I feel like many people who are listening, whether live now with us or later life is complex. If you didn't know welcome to being human. And yeah, we didn't give up and we had some adversities. Covid was one of them last year I actually had my own personal health challenge, which was unexplained and still to this day, very mysterious. But I was very ill. And so again, the event had to be postponed yet another year. But we said we believe so deeply and it was so important for us to do this and we're so it's happening now. It's happening. And to have such great partners in the journey like you, Michelle, your community member, I really hope that everyone is hearing what we're saying. This is special you guys.

This really is, we don't have anything else like this to come together in person. Would it be cheaper to do it online and be yes, you've been doing that for years, you guys, I mean even before Covid and even after Covid. But this is the time to come together in person. You said those hugs, they're real. And something about being with other people, learning in person, being in community, connecting, socializing. It's just, and you can't eat. I mean you can make your own food virtually, but you're not going to enjoy great catered food virtually. We want everyone to come together. And so we're so great, grateful to have great people a part of this event. And you guys, did you hear the part you haven't gotten to spend time with Michelle in that long? I was like, well you guys got to get here.

Michelle:
10 years.

Jess:
...spend some time with this amazing woman. Cause I understand why you're part of this community. She's fabulous and she's going to be with me in San Diego and I'm so grateful and I hope all of you will be there with us too. Be amazing.

Michelle:
Sure will. So before we go, I just want to make sure that we're real clear on who is invited, right? Because obviously if you are a certified health coach, especially you're board certified or even if you're not, definitely come. But what if someone's still in school? What if they are something tangential to health coach? You want to just speak to that?

Jess:
Absolutely. Because this was also important to us. We are inclusive. That was the other reason again, behind our thoughts of no sponsors, no vendors, no market. Just having it be really objective and welcoming of all individuals. So whether you're board certified coach, whether you're certified through another great organization, whether you're in the process, you're a coach in training a student, whether you are again, like you said, maybe another health professional, something that is relayed, you want to learn more about coaching, behavior change, lifestyle medicine, many other topics we're covering. It is open and welcoming of all of those individuals. And I can tell you, because again, registrations have been coming in and it is space limited. So don't wait. If you're saying this is for me, do not wait. We have all of those groups represented in the individuals already registered. And again, we want people to be there. So please don't feel it's only for this group or that group. That's why it is agnostic. It is not School A is putting on the event and it's only for the, we want everyone to come together. So you guys have such an amazing community. If you don't know you're part of something special already. But we want you to also be part of the broader community of other like-minded professionals too. And the conference is the place for just that.

Michelle:
Yeah, it sure is. And so this is obviously top of my to-do list for this week. We're booking travel, we're booking the hotels and all the rest. I'm bringing a couple members of my team. So we are going to be representing big time over there with the health coach, power community. I would love to meet you all there if you already have a ticket to the conference today. Someone in our group said, oh, I'm already going. Great. I still want you to go give me your name so I can keep you updated on all the happenings and the ways to meet up. I'll give you the url. URL one more time. It is healthcoachpower.com/sandiego. That is the hookup. Jess, thank you so much for joining me today.

Jess:
Ah, Michelle, what a pleasure. Thank you so much. So Exciting... the countdown's on June is going to be here before we know it. So I get to see you, which I'm delighted about and I can't wait to meet more members of your community too. So you guys take action now. Michelle gave you the details. Do not wait. But we can't wait to see you in San Diego.

Michelle:
I'll see you in June.

Jess:
Alright, thanks Michelle.

Michelle:
Bye-bye.