#317: Should You Use Done For You Programs?

Michelle:
Hello there, health coaches. It is a super busy week over here. I am recording the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Yikes. But when is it not a busy time of year, if I'm perfectly honest. I think that's true for most of us and that's why done for you health coaching programs have become more and more popular, I would say. In fact, it seems like over the past 10 years, it's become one of the biggest trends in the health coaching industry. Now, it wasn't always like that you guys, when I started health coaching, we had to come up with our own programs from scratch and we had to walk uphill to school both ways. But why not? Of course, if it's available, why not use something that's templated and at least use it as a starting point for creating a program. Now, there's lots of this stuff on the market inside FastTrack.
I actually have a five day jumpstart, which has been incredibly popular with our coaches, but not every done for you program is so worthwhile, I will say. So before you buy anything today, I want to talk through the pros and the cons, what to look for, what to avoid. So if you're here with me live and I see that a few of you are, if you're watching the replay in our Facebook group, go ahead and tell me in the comments. Now, yes or no, have you ever used a done for you program of any kind? And how'd it go? Now this episode is brought to you by Practice Better. The practice management software that I've used, I recommend it all the time. In fact, I give our Fast trackers that Five Day Jumpstart. There's a template to use Inside Practice Better if they wish, because it's such a perfect platform for it. But Practice Better does a lot more than that. Does all your billing, all your scheduling, your client notes, do your private sessions, everything in the same place. It is a complete practice management tool. And you can sign up for a free trial and save 30% off your first three months at healthcoachpower.com/pb. That stands for Practice Better. And today I am joined by Jen de Young from Practice Better. As a matter of fact, Jen, thank you for joining us.
Jen:
Thank you so much, Michelle, for having me. So excited to be here.
Michelle:
I figure with what you guys do over there at Practice Better, you must see so many different programs being built, being used by health coaches, and you probably get a bird's eye view on what's out there, what's working, what's not working. Why do you think done for you programs have become so popular?
Jen:
Yeah, I mean, I've been thinking a lot about this lately and I think your community can probably resonate is this idea of practitioners feeling burnt out. They're doing so much so with a Done for You program, this can just save much time. It's a low lift to get this up and running and that can just be such a great way to kickstart their practice and just help again, mitigate some of that burnout or overworking and still get them amazing results with their clients and help 'em grow their practice. So I think, yeah, just the aspect of saving time is huge with done for you content.
Michelle:
I mean, I guess this is the real benefit to health coaching having been around longer. It's not such a new industry as it was when I started in 2009. Now we have coaches who have been doing things for many, many years. There are programs that can be built based on that. So you guys not, you don't have to start with the blank page. I think that's pretty cool. But like I said, not all these programs are necessarily something that are going to work for you. Some are better than others in different ways. What do you think makes for a better done for you product versus something that a coach might spend money on and then go, eh?
Jen:
Yeah, totally. I wanted to start by just giving kind of a quick overview of what they are for anyone who might not be familiar. I think most people are, and then we can kind of go into some of the pros and cons. But I think really with a done for you program, it's just kind of as it sounds, it's a fully built program or course that you can start using right away. So it might have components of nutrition or fitness plans, it might have stress management or mindset techniques. It might have assessment forms and things like that. So when we're looking at what makes for a good done for you program, you'll want something that has multiple components like that you're looking for something that has a media amount of content because you don't want to buy something and then have that be kind of a piddly little thing that you don't feel like is going to offer that value to your clients.
So something that has a good amount of content. And when you're looking at the types of content too, I think it's nice to have something that has different mediums. So maybe some video content, text content, it could be a handout, even graphics. So just some different ways to engage clients that might have different learning styles. I think that's really helpful too. So those are some of the things. I think another piece that comes to mind is customizability of that done for you content. So of course with it being done for you, you want to be able to hit the ground running with it, but you also want to be able to add certain tweaks if you want to make it more in your own voice or even add little aspects that are more relevant for your niche. So I think the ability to still customize certain pieces of it is helpful. Not always required if the exact fit for your business, but that's something that could be helpful to have.
Michelle:
Yeah, I think that they're definitely the most valuable when you can really edit every part of it. If it could be written in a different voice. If you have a strong brand voice, you want that to come through. If you have a very specific niche, of course you're going to need to customize it to your specific niche, so way more valuable when everything's customizable. So that's something to definitely look for. And gosh, I always just remember the very first time I ever looked at a done for you product, years and years and years ago, I had never even conceived of it before and I had something to review and I was like, oh my God, this thing is full of typos.
Such a basic thing that you wouldn't even think to yourself, God, could I be buying a product that's full of typos? But actually it was full of typos and grammatical errors and I was like, this is not good. So I think really nice if you can just get a peek at it or just get a glimpse, maybe a sample or something about what you're getting into before you start using it because then you're going to be fixing Anyway. That was kind of a one-off. I'm sure that was just an outlier situation, but it kind of early on made me go, I don't know if this is such a good idea, but I think everyone has upleveled their game. I think there are some good products on the market for sure, but that is something to keep in mind. And one thing that I've noticed also is that when you're putting together a program, a program could be that could mean anything, like you said, it could mean that there's text lessons, it could means that there's video.
It could mean lots of different things. So what are you using? Is it a little bit of information? Are you giving your clients just like, here, here's two paragraphs to read every day, or are there other resources included? Does it really feel like a well-rounded program? So that's just all stuff to think about and we know that using any kind of done for you materials is going to make life easier. Like you said, with burnout being such a big issue, it's going to make life easier for us, the practitioner. What do you think about the client side? I always used to worry, is this going to come off as too generic? I mean, on one hand, hopefully these are, the good thing is that they can be proven programs that are known to work, so that's awesome. But do we think clients are getting a better experience because of that or potentially a worse experience? It feels generic.
Jen:
Yeah, I think that's such a good question and a common maybe concern or hesitation that coaches would have. But I think the first thing coming to mind for me goes back to that customization piece because I think when you can add different ways to speak in your own voice and maybe add additional resources or things like that, then that really helps to make it not feel generic. And the other thing too is they probably wouldn't know the difference either because they're not going to have seen it in another place as well. So I think just taking it and making it your own I think is the biggest piece because that can really make that comfortability factor with your clients because it will feel like you, it sound like you, but then also, like you said, Michelle, these programs can be proven to give these amazing results. And so if the clients are receiving those results, then that's kind of the most important part.
Michelle:
That is the most important part. And I was just reminded at bu one of our coaches who was new to our jumpstart, she did a really smart thing and I want to encourage you all to do this. If you're going to use any done for you product, do it yourself. Pretend you are the client and put yourself through that program. If you didn't write it from scratch, you might not know about everything in it. You might not be familiar with some of the things that are being talked about or might just be in a slightly different terminology than you would normally use. You want to make sure that when your clients go, Hey, why are we doing it this way? You have an answer. You want to be able to kind of say like, oh, it worked for me because, or I really like doing it this way because this is what I've seen. I think it's very tempting to just be like, oh, cool, I got the program good, sell it, run it. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh gosh, wait, what do you even mean by that thing on page three? Right?
Jen:
Yeah, I think that's essential and so smart. It's being able to have that experience that they would have going through it and like you said, be able to catch even just little terminology I think, and maybe switch it out or something like that because your clients may be used to you speaking in a certain way, and again, you want to match it to sort of your voice and your brand. But yeah, I love that suggestion.
Michelle:
Like little things, you know what I mean? If you're in the UK and you say Rocket and this says arugula and you don't change that, you didn't go through every little bit and then someone's going to say, why does it say arugula? And then you're going to be like, oh, I bought this stone for you thing and I didn't make all the fixes. So really get in there and become the author of it, even if you initially were not the author of it, you are now. So really use it in that manner. I think it's going to work for you best and maybe even insert some things that you do in your practice or with your clients or in your life that's not part of the program the way it arrives that way it really does feel like it's coming from you. Now, the other thing I noticed with our coaches who've used our jumpstart is that the first question that comes to mind for everybody is what platform do I use to run this?
And I am just going to let you all know that back when we walked uphill to school both ways and we made our own programs from scratch, we also did not have any fancy platforms. So it is totally possible to run a program just by sending an email to your participants on whatever days attaching A PDF to that email. Having a Facebook group where you do something, you can kind of piecemeal different technologies and just different free tools that are available. And you can totally run a program that way. And I know because I've done it umpteen thousand times, but of course these days there are kind of sexier ways to do it. So you're the perfect person to tell us, Jen, about the specific features inside Practice better, for example, that make it easier and more effective to deliver a program.
Jen:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, we have in Practice Better a full programs feature that allows you to run a program in many different ways. So you can do it as a fixed date program. So for something like a challenge or just something happening in real time, you can do it as an evergreen program. So something that lives on and someone can sign up for it at any point and go through that or a self-paced program. So the modules will release to the client based on their completion of the previous module so they can kind of go at their own pace. So that's the first thing I'll say is you can really use the program's feature and Practice Better in many different ways with different program types. And then I would say within the program to some really awesome features is the ability to add tasks and forms right to your module.
Now this is really cool for that accountability and engagement piece with the program. As you can create those tasks, let's say it's a task tasking the client to do their meal prep for the week or asking them to engage in the group chat or the community chat that you have going. So just little prompts like that to help keep them engaged. And then something like forms that you can attach to those modules as well. They could be assessment forms, they could be check-in forms, allowing you to measure even progress within the program. So you could attach a check-in form at the beginning and then one at the end and be able to see the progress that they made in the program, which is pretty cool. So those are some of the features that I really love. I'll also mention the group chat, I kind of alluded to that. So with the programs, you can add basically a community chat allowing you to have that sort of sense of community right inside your program and Practice Better so your participants aren't needing to go to another platform to have that. And it allows you to share different posts and respond to comments and them and similar to how you might do in a Facebook group, but it's all right in Practice Better, which is really handy.
Michelle:
It's pretty nice because like I was saying, if you're just sending an email and you're like, here's a PDF or whatever, you don't know what happens on the other side, but when you have your client checking off that they completed this task and maybe completing a form, you're getting that feedback along the way. So you have a much better sense, first of all, is this program working? Are they doing the things, is it too overwhelming? Was it too confusing? As opposed to just no feedback unless they tell you you're not going to have a clue what was going on on the other side. So to me that's like a huge benefit to using a little extra technology. It's going to be way more effective when you have that kind of feedback. Not to mention it's just easier. The worst thing in the world was always for me running a program and maybe I'm on day five of the program, and then I got someone who is like, oh, hey, I missed days one through four, can you send those to me? And then you're going back in your system and duplicating emails and sending it to just that one person and then they're like, I can't find it. It's in my spam folder. And this way everything's just like log in, it's there.
Done.
Jen:
I know. And the other thing that's really cool too is with the programs, we also have a mobile app for Practice Better, so both the practitioner and the client can access the program right through the app as well as the group chat. So just speaking of ease of use for both the practitioner and the client, the app is really great. They have that at their fingertips. So obviously we're all on our phones too much these days, but it is nice to have something where you have this supportive community, you have this program of resources and you can just access it so easily.
Michelle:
Now we've kind of been talking in general programs. I mentioned a five day jumpstart because I imagine our health coaches listening might be like, what kind of program could I run? So I imagine that, gosh, there are just so many different types. Like you said, there's different types of programs. So it could be anything from a one-on-one program that you're running with an individual client at a time. It could be a very super high-end program all the way to something like very low ticket. You can have unlimited number of people enrolled in it at low cost, something very short. Maybe if you just give us, I don't know, rattle off a couple examples of programs that you see doing well for the practitioners inside Practice Better.
Jen:
Absolutely. Yeah. And what a lot of practitioners do, especially if you're someone who's a little bit maybe newer to your business and you're looking to build up your clientele to bring more people into your world, we see a lot of our practitioners doing a shorter free challenge or just lower cost free challenge. So you could do it in a couple of ways, but what we see as quite successful is doing it with a fixed date program. So running that in real time. So let's say a two or three week challenge or even shorter could be a five day challenge. I would say probably three weeks is usually the most for something free for sure. But then that really helps to bring people to you because they're able to access your support and your resources at $0 or a low cost and you just are able to build up your community that way.
And then from there, what we see a lot of practitioners do is then offer those participants of that free challenge into their paid offering. So whether that be maybe a membership, you can also run those on Practice Better, or if they have just maybe a higher or mid price point fixed state program that's coming up or an evergreen program that they have that someone could sign up for at any point. So they use that free challenge as the way to draw people in and then invite them to sign up for that higher priced program. So that's one thing that we see is quite successful.
Michelle:
You guys get your wheels turning at all. Is this making you think, oh, I could do this. Oh, I could do it that way. I'd love to hear about it in the chat. Have you bought any done for you programs in the past or is there something that you would like to run in this manner? Let us know. And if you have any questions, say that's why we're here. So I got my eye over here on the chat and I was thinking that when you're going to use a done for you program, you have some options. So I would say the first option, the option that's been around longest is that you buy something, you acquire a program from wherever, and then it's going to come in a certain format. Then you would have the option to kind of translate it and build it inside.
Practice better yourself. So you could build any program you want. You can get content from wherever in your life, and then you can put it into the Practice Better platform, create the modules, pull all the text from your done for you product and place it into Practice Better. That's one way to do it. The other way to do it, and this is what we provide with the five Day Jumpstart, is that you get the Jumpstart kit and it includes a code, and you put that code into Practice Better and poof, it appears it's already built, the modules are already there, the emails are already set up to go, it's magic. And then the third would be using a that is already built in Practice Better. You don't have to import anything. You don't have to do a code. It's just already there. And I understand you guys have several of these floating around, but I know you have one for any of our listeners that are using Practice Better right now, can you tell us about that?
Jen:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So our newest Done for You program is our 21 day meal prep challenge. So we'll put the link for that in the show notes. So if you're on practice, better on our professional plan and up, you have access to the program's feature. So you can use this Done for You program, but this is our newest program and a really great way to just kind of kickstart your new year with bringing more people into your world. So the Done For You program, again, is focused on that meal prep side of things. So we've got three weeks of amazing nutrition plans included. There's also modules, which are more kind of the habit and mindset side of things. There's tasks, there's forms. So it's really comprehensive. So again, it's just a click of a button to sort of get that added to your account, and then you can come in and you can totally customize it like we've been talking about, but it's a really great program.
Michelle:
Yeah. Awesome. So we'll link to that in the show notes for you guys. So you need to be on a Practice Better pro plan or hire to use that. Remember, if you're not already on Practice Better, I'll give you the link. Again, it's healthcoachpower.com/pb to get our community discount. Let's see what some of you guys are saying over here. Daisy says, I have a done for you seasonal detox program, but scaling it is the issue. So scaling, getting more people enrolled in it, I'm guessing that's what Daisy means. What do you think about that question, Jen?
Jen:
Yeah, yeah. So if she's talking about marketing IT and trying to get more people seeing it, I think that's one thing. So that's sort of a whole other conversation of marketing. You can use social media, you can use the word of mouth and referrals piece. There's so much you can do with that. But I think if we're talking about she's run it a few times, but what can she do from there with it? How can she kind of scale her business using this STEM for You program She already has. There's a couple ways that I think about that. She could take it and kind of repurpose it as an evergreen piece of content. So if you're using Practice better, you could easily duplicate it as an evergreen program. So that could be something that's just always available for people to purchase and run through on their own time.
So that could be a nice option if there are people that may not be wanting to do something in real time. So there's that also the option of, again, kind of duplicating but building it out a little further. So if we want to make it more of a higher price point offering to just not have to start from scratch, but just duplicate it and make it even better and bigger kind of thing. So maybe that's adding more modules, maybe that's adding some live sessions as part of that program some time with you if you didn't have the community chat piece as part of it originally, adding that on. So there's some different ways to grow it and expand it from where it is.
Michelle:
Yeah. One of the things I like about having Practice Better host your programs, because you're also managing one-on-one sessions is you can do a hybrid. So you could have three private sessions in addition to the program, and the platform handles that really beautifully. If you try to do that on Thinkific or a different course site, they're not going to do anything with the private sessions and scheduling all of those, et cetera. So that's a way to turn it into a higher end program that maybe you're running one-to-one, or you're offering it like a VIP level. So that's all scaling stuff. Hope that helps Daisy. And Michelle says, I bought a Done for You program, currently refining it to my niche. Love the idea of building it on Practice Better. I would love to have it built out in pb, so less work for me to do.
So you know what I would recommend Michelle, because the first time you do anything on any platform, you're like, how do I do this? So I would totally recommend checking out the meal prep program that Jen already has built out for you, because even if you just look at it and you're like, oh, look how they did that. They did the task there and they did the email like that. And then even if you build a totally different program, at least you get to see the inside the guts of how a program is built and then you have would a better sense of much faster for you to do it your own, don't you think, Jim?
Jen:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And I think just being able to get a glimpse inside a framework of a program and like you're saying, oh, the tasks, they did it like that or the forms, it helps you learn what you want to include in a program because we don't know what we don't know. And so if we don't have a framework or something to look at, it can be a little tough to start from scratch. I love that idea of almost just using it as a way to get expanded on what you could do inside a program.
Michelle:
Yeah, exactly. Just an example. Just an example of how the setup is lots of different ways to set things up. When we were doing the jumpstart, we were like, hmm, if we want to do it like this, do we want to do it like that? So I love that that's available. Again, we'll put a link to that bonus meal prep program for practice Better in the show notes for today's episode along with the link to get onto the Practice Better platform. Could you just say something real quick about the free plan, because I know some of our coaches are not ready to dive in all the way, but a lot of people don't know that there is a way to get started with Practice Better for free.
Jen:
Yeah, so we do have our Sprout plan, which is a free plan. Now, with that, I'll just say you don't have access to the programs piece, so that would be something you would need to upgrade for. But it is a really nice way to just get started and along the similar line of what we're talking about too, to just see what's possible and get inside the platform. So you can start using it and just have your first couple clients and then see how it goes. And then if you like it, you can upgrade. But like Michelle said, it's just a nice way to kind of get started and get your toes wet.
Michelle:
Alright, you heard it here first guys. We don't always talk about that one. So I wanted to make sure that we got that in there. And I know we're running a little over on time, but I just wanted to say something real quick about the idea of including recipes, meal planning, things like that within a program. How is that all working now that Practice Better has acquired That Clean Life?
Jen:
Yeah, yeah. I love this point, Michelle. So yes, so we have That Clean Life. So for those who are members of That Clean Life as well as practice Better, you can attach and import nutrition plans, your recipes and all of that right into your programs as well as protocols and Practice Better. But we're on sort of the topic of programs. So you can put those right into the modules, which is really amazing for the client because they have it all right at their fingertips. So you can include if you have say a weekly meal plan that you want to share with them as part of that program, you just attach it to that module with one click. And then on the client side, they have that whole meal plan with the shopping list and all of the details. They need to be successful with that. So it just creates a really streamlined experience having it integrated like that.
Michelle:
I am thinking about Daisy over here with her seasonal detoxes. I would bet you dollars to Donuts that Daisy has some sort of seasonal recipe book that goes along with that. So instead of that being something that she has to find the recipes for, or I used to develop the recipes for one by one in my own kitchen and take pictures and do that whole thing, you could just use That Clean Life to pull together that seasonal recipe book to include inside your program. And like Jen said, that it's really seamless part of the experience. So I just wanted to call that out as a last little point before we end for today. But Jen, thank you so much for talking Done for You programs with us. Again, I feel like you guys are the experts because I hear about what a lot of y'all are doing, but you actually get to see it. You can probably see on your backend how many are selling over here and what this coach is doing over there. So you have some unique insights. I appreciate it.
Jen:
Thanks so much for having me, Michelle.
Michelle:
And to that last point, you guys about That Clean Life, I mean, I had to say that anyway because it's so much a part of what we do, but it's a great segue to letting you know that this episode is also sponsored by that life. I've always loved using it when I was a practicing health coach. Whether you're creating a program or a lead magnet or you're running a cooking class or whatever, you can find recipes for every dietary style or restriction. You can use it to teach clients in your programs, how to meal plan for themselves, super valuable skill right there. And there are just so many recipes in their database. So for all you guys listening, you can save 20% off your first four months when you join at healthcoachpower.com/tcl. That stands for That Clean Life. Speaking of recipes, I got to get back to my Thanksgiving prep. You guys, thanks for listening. We'll be back next week. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States, and we'll see you soon. Take care.