My 11-Year-Old Son Explains Health Coaching! (Kale, Zoom, and ‘Yapping’?)

Michelle Leotta: Welcome to the Health Coach Power Community Podcast. I'm Michelle Leotta, ex-corporate girl turned certified health coach with over 15 years of experience growing a successful online practice. I started out with no idea what I was getting into and learned a lot of lessons along the way that have given me the freedom to do the work I love and raised two boys as a single mom.

I created a health coach power community over a decade ago to make it easier for health coaches to build a career they love and make the world a better place.

Hello there. Health coaches, do the people in your life understand what the heck you do for a living? And how about your kids? Well, today, my 11-year-old is going to explain the health coaching industry to us because while I'm usually here teaching grown-ups how to get more clients and build income streams and change the world for the better. My son's been listening and watching it happen since the day he was born, actually before that, because I became a health coach about five years before he was born, and he's never known anything else. So if you've ever wondered what your family sees when you're in the zone of building your business or if they even get what you do, this episode will give a little bit of perspective to us all and probably a few good laughs come behind the scenes with me and let's hear what the business of health coaching looks like through a sixth grader's lens. All right. Thank you for doing this with me.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You are welcome.

Michelle Leotta: If you weren't doing this right now, what would you be doing, considering that it's summer break

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: reading?

Michelle Leotta: Good answer.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Not even for summer reading. Just reading.

Michelle Leotta: What are you reading right now?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: A book

Michelle Leotta: About?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: the Louisiana fortress.

[00:01:39] Michelle Leotta: Oh, so that's pretty good. I don't really know much about that myself, or I forget everything about it.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I do.

Michelle Leotta: Okay, good. We'll do another podcast episode about that later.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Okay.

Michelle Leotta: Okay, good. Now, have you ever been on a podcast before?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Mm-hmm. No, never.

Michelle Leotta: Have you ever listened to a podcast before?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yes, I have.

Michelle Leotta: Have you listened to my podcast before?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: If you count the thin walls, then yes,

Michelle Leotta: But never on purpose?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: No

Michelle Leotta: Online. Okay. So what podcast type or what types of podcasts do you listen to?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Well, one time listened to this, it's like this author and then he tells like stories on a podcast. It's called like Grimm, Grimmer, and Grimmest. And he tells like stories. That was the only during school, 'cause he like came to our school.

Michelle Leotta: The podcaster came to your school? Mm-hmm. Cool. And

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I got the handshake him.

Michelle Leotta: You got the handshake him. You got to shake his hand?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yeah.

Michelle Leotta: Okay. All right. So your first podcast episode ever, the big debut, you're gonna try to speak up so that the mic can catch your voice, right?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yeah.

Michelle Leotta: Okay, good. So this is an episode about explaining the business of health coaching. Uh, I became a health coach long before you were born. So ever since you were in my belly, you've heard me talk about health coaching. Do health coaching, talk to other people about health coaching. So you've heard a lot.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yep. Yep.

Michelle Leotta: If someone asked you, what does your mom do for work? What would you tell them? What do you tell them?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I would say that mi maja, she used to be like a health coach, that's just like a normal health coach.

Michelle Leotta: Just like a normal health coach. Mm-hmm.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: But now she's like leveled up to like a lieutenant, and now she teaches health coaches health coach, 'cause you're just that good.

Michelle Leotta: Kind of teach them to health coach also. I really teach them about

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: marketing.

Michelle Leotta: And what is marketing?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Marketing is like. Selling your stuff to people. That's marketing. So good. Marketing would be like doing something good and then people like, Ooh, that looks cool. And then they like, sign up for your thing. That's good marketing. Bad marketing is posting video and putting a bunch of hashtags on it so that everyone sees it, but that's just a waste because most people see it won't want it. So it's like a waste.

Michelle Leotta: Oh wow. That's actually a pretty advanced thought about marketing. You know a lot about this because of, um, watching YouTube quite a bit.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Alright, because I actually taught myself about hashtags 'cause I learned that like if hashtags are like if hashtag blah blah, and I watched videos on blo de blah uhhuh and it'll give me other videos that say hashtag blo de blah.

Michelle Leotta: Can you think of any kinds of marketing, or basically what you said, people trying to sell something in life. Anything that has nothing to do with YouTube.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: People will be like on bridges and have like a carpet and they'll have like little Eiffel Tower thingies. Okay. They try to market it to you, and they give you sales when you try to walk away so that you come back and buy one.

Michelle Leotta: That's a very specific example .What about when we go to the grocery store

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Those sales. They'll be like, if something's like, uh, if they want people to buy something mm-hmm. Then it'll be like, cost, like $3. It'll be like buy two for three and a half dollars and then it'll be like, oh my God, that's such a good deal. And you might get it even if you weren't even gonna get it in the first place.

Michelle Leotta: Okay. That's another example of a kind of marketing.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Also, marketing is like visual marketing because I've heard that red like attracts people's eyes. That's why all and like red and yellow, because they're like bright colors. That's why, uh. Like sale.

Michelle Leotta: Sale signs.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yeah, sale signs, nice. Sale signs are always like red in yellow because it like catches people's eyes like, whoa. Wow.

Michelle Leotta: So colors come into play, the offer comes into play. Mm-hmm. Where you put that offer matters. Mm-hmm. Pretty good. Right? All right, so let's bring it back to health coaching. What is health coaching? Okay. In the first place.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: So your type of health coaching or like normal health coaching?

Michelle Leotta: I don't know, normal health coaching.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Okay. Normal health coaching is selling things and uh, like telling people how to be healthy. That's normal health coaching.

Michelle Leotta: And why would somebody need a health coach?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Because. People wanna feel good because when you don't eat like good, then you feel bad. And people wanna feel good because I would like to feel good. I do feel good 'cause I have a health coach. As a mom.

Michelle Leotta: Do you remember a couple of years ago your brother had a project for health class around like different ways to be healthy and you actually helped him with that?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: He was like, oh, there's some benefits of sleep. And I'm like, sleep. Ugh. It so that you can think better. Studies have proved that you perform better in school and with like puzzles, sleep helps it so you can like digest better and so you don't get sick because your immune system can like upgrade. And then he said full it and I was like, for the fourth one, sleep gets you energy for the next day. And I, he like aced that 'cause I helped him.

Michelle Leotta: All right, so you're like halfway to being a health coach now. Why do you think health coaching is important? Who, like, what kind of people out there need health coaching?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: 90% of America,

Michelle Leotta: 90% of America. How come?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Because 90% of America doesn't eat healthy, and then they feel bad all the time.

Michelle Leotta: Like what kind of bad?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Like. Stomach aches bad.

Michelle Leotta: That's true.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Fever, bad, um, sleepy, bad. And then you don't perform as well and then you end up like not having a good job because you don't perform as well.

Michelle Leotta: All of those things could be true.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And then you fail to school also.

Michelle Leotta: Alright, well since you have a health coach for a mom, what kind of things are different about your life and, uh, compared to your friends?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Well, for lunch, my friends bring like peanut butter and jelly and like cringles, which are like disgusting. They like 40, only, like 40% real potato.

Michelle Leotta: Is it that much? Okay.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: But they bring like that and I ring blueberries, I bring lettuce. I bring carrots, and sometimes I bring nectarines.

Michelle Leotta: Why are you speaking like that?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And then I also bring like meat, 'cause I love meat and I bring like beef patties, which I learned how to make really early on, which is a good skill.

Michelle Leotta: Yes. You cook those up instead of bringing lunch meat. Okay. So you eat some things that are a little bit different than your friends. And so health coaches help people live a little bit. Differently and live a little bit more healthy. All right. I like that. Now, the other big part of um, you know, living in my house is that not only do we eat real food and he has a help coach for a mom, uh, our lifestyle is a little bit different than other families because I work from home. What's the best part about mommy working from home?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You can cook a dinners.

Michelle Leotta: I can cook dinner. That's right. Anything else?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You can be my frontal lobe.

Michelle Leotta: Yes. Explain to everyone what you mean by that.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: So a frontal lobe is like a part in your brain where it like helps you keep track of stuff and everything. So because mom stays at home, she can be my frontal lobe for me.

Michelle Leotta: Just for you

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And for my brother.

Michelle Leotta Yeah. Okay. And, but like I can help keep track of your stuff and remember to get places on time, and appointments

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And also you can drive.

Michelle Leotta: Yes.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You could be my show full.

Michelle Leotta: Yes. Wow. Amazing. What an amazing job this is. Now when you're home, but I'm upstairs working, you probably hear me talking like I'm yapping, yapping on Zoom calls or maybe recording podcasts or, uh, different times. You're listening to my voice from downstairs. What kind of things do you hear me say?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Normally, like stuff because you always like, you're like posting the stuff and like, what is it? like Health Coach Scott Powell?

Michelle Leotta: HealthCoachPower.com.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yes. You post the stuff on there so you're like talking about that. So whatever, whatever like you're talking about in that episode, you'll be like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, ha ha ha ha ha. And then you'll be like blah, blah, blah. And then you'll be talking and then sometimes I'll see you like kind of saying like the same things. ‘Cause you have to like redo it because. You like stuttle, and then, and then you have to like reshoot 'em. So, yeah.

Michelle Leotta: Okay. So it doesn't sound like you hear too many specifics from downstairs.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: bad memory.

Michelle Leotta: You just hear my voice going, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: That's how it like filters into my head.

Michelle Leotta: Got it. All right, well, with all that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, mommy has a YouTube channel, right? And what do you think about my YouTube channel?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I think that your YouTube channel isn't very successful yet because you only have like 1,500 subscribers, and that's not a lot because That's not a lot. You, you didn't even get like a play button, which is like, you get like a certain amount of subscribers, so yeah. So you're really not that famous.

Michelle Leotta: Not that famous on YouTube. All right. I don't really set out to be a YouTuber.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Maybe you should

Michelle Leotta: Maybe. Who are some of your favorite YouTubers?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I usually watch like gaming, YouTubers, uhhuh, and I normally watch, uh, Yeah, gaming YouTubers.

Michelle Leotta: You wanna shout anybody out in particular?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Sunday and Caylus, and SypherPK.

Michelle Leotta: And apparently, I do not have the same audience size as SypherPK.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You do not.

Michelle Leotta: How many YouTube subscribers does SypherPK have?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Oh, and Mr. Beast.

Michelle Leotta: And Mr. Beast. How many YouTube subscribers do they have about

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Mr. Beast has like 200 million.

Michelle Leotta: 200 million. Do you think I could have 200 million YouTube subscribers?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: No.

Michelle Leotta: Why not?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Maybe, but like not in your lifespan.

Michelle Leotta: Oh. Well, I better just close up shop now then.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Wait, you won't get 200 million.

Michelle Leotta: I don't think there are 200 million health coaches in the world.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: But you still might get like more than 1,500.

Michelle Leotta: All right, well, we'll we will work on that. So if you are the boss and, um, you own this business, so you were helping health coaches find clients, what would you change about this business?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I would change this area.

Michelle Leotta: What does that mean?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: This doesn't look good. We need to have like LED lights.

Michelle Leotta: I need LED lights. What else?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: More LED lights.

Michelle Leotta: More LED lights. Okay.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And you also need like a really good camera that has like good quality.

Michelle Leotta: This is pretty good quality?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Not really.

Michelle Leotta: You think I need a fancier camera?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: No. Like a better one.

Michelle Leotta: A better one, okay. Doesn't have to be fancy. So you would upgrade the video area.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And then has to like, look good in the background.

Michelle Leotta: Oh, does it not look good?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Looks like bland.

Michelle Leotta: It just looks bland. Well, this is the best that we can do right now. What, what should be back there besides LED lights? Um, we also got plants.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Oh, yes, that's good. But what we should have is pictures of me.

Michelle Leotta: Yeah. Pictures of my son coming up.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: But something that I would change also, I would be like, uh, like I use chat GPT. And then I'd be like, I am a health coaching dude, and I, uh, want to give my clients a good marketing business thing to help them be health coaches. Mm-hmm. What should I do? And then ChatGPT will give an answer.

Michelle Leotta: So mommy helps health coaches get more clients and help those clients, you know, get healthy, fix their health issues. Why do you think that's. Important. Why do you think my job is important?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Because in the future, like a lot of people are gonna be unhealthy, and we want people to be healthy because

Michelle Leotta: In the future, people are gonna be unhealthy. What about right now?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: No, because people are being healthy, uh, unhealthy are going up. Okay. And people are being healthy or going down. Okay. But people like you are making it go like instead of going like up, like

Michelle Leotta: You're flattening the curve. Yeah.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You're like going like this instead of like.

Michelle Leotta: Well, that's true. Things like diabetes are on the rise

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And if there's enough of you, if you join forces, then instead of going like this or like this, it'll be like this.

Michelle Leotta: If we all work together, we can,

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: and we want it to go like this because this is like the number of unhealthy people.

Michelle Leotta: Okay, so if all health coaches work together, we can impact more lives, and overall health and happiness in the world will improve, is what I think you're saying.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yeah. Happiness is good, 'cause there's a lot of depression too.

Michelle Leotta: Mental health. What do you know about that?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I know that like a lot of people have mental health issues.

Michelle Leotta: Like what?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Uh, like depression and. Some mental health issues.

Michelle Leotta: Anxiety.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Anxiety.

Michelle Leotta: Can health coaches you think help with that a little bit?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yeah, because when you like unhealthy, then that like can lead to like mental health diseases, right? And then, but then if you eat healthy, you'll feel better and then you won't have mental health diseases and also then you'll be healthy.So it's like double things going like that instead of going like that.

Michelle Leotta: Okay. Thank you for that in-depth analysis. Mm-hmm. I appreciate that.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Always here.

Michelle Leotta: Do you think you'd like to be a coach when you grow up?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: No.

Michelle Leotta: No? Just like that you said? No, not even. Didn't think about it for a no? What do you wanna be instead?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Well, actually like, I dunno, I kind of wanna be like a teacher because like they get to talk a lot. And also I'm like, good with kids.

Michelle Leotta: Well, health coaching is a little bit like teaching, like Yeah. Teaching about health. Yeah.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: So that's like, I might be, but like I'm not a hundred percent continuing the family business.

Michelle Leotta: Okay.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Even though nothing before you did. No one before

Michelle Leotta: No. But you could maybe take over mommy's business.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Maybe for like a little bit.

Michelle Leotta: Oh, well you could, you know, make a lot of upgrades to the YouTube channel. Well, we'll see how it goes. Mm-hmm. Alright, so if you were a health coach, let's just say, who would be your client or clients?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Everyone.

Michelle Leotta: Everyone? Hhow would you get them to hire you? How would you get them to hire you?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I would like make a really delicious meal. That like you make, and then I'll be like, this is healthy food that you can eat and it'll make you feel better. And then it's like 30 days. It's like those 30 days, like, like with tone policy.

Michelle Leotta: Okay.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: And it'd be like, if you don't notice any differences, then you can like withone my thing and then if they do feel good, then they can, like, they wanna buy my thing. So it's like a 30 day refund policy because all like the recipes that I'm giving them will make them feel better. And then they'll be like, whoa, this is making me feel so good. And then they'll be like, I love this guy. And then they'll like subscribe or whatever.

Michelle Leotta: All right, wel,l there's a program idea for all of you listening a 30-day program with a 30-day refund policy,

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You are welcome.

Michelle Leotta: And if they don't feel better after 30 days, they get their money back. How about that? You know, I've never actually run anything like that.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: You should.

Michelle Leotta: Good thinking. Why do you think that anybody should listen to what Mommy has to say about business or marketing?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Because you say a lot of the right things.

Michelle Leotta: How do you know?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: I don't, but I trust that you do.

Michelle Leotta: Thank you.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: But that means if people like listen to you, then they'll be like, wow. And then, um, it'll be like they, since they listen to you, they get inspired and then they become a health coach and it's like multiplying. 'cause it's like you, and then it's like a health coach that you inspire and other ones, and then they also inspire other people. And it's like continuing web until everyone's healthy.

Michelle Leotta: Are you feeling inspired?

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Yeah

Michelle Leotta: Maybe not so much. Maybe it's time for lunch. Yeah. Well, that was a little enlightening. And here's what I love about today. Spending time with you. Of course. Mm-hmm. And it reminds us that we are not building our businesses in a vacuum, whether it's your kids or your partner or your community, you know, people are watching you as you show up.

Even when it feels messy, even when it feels uncertain, you don't feel like you know what you're doing. I don't really know if what I was doing today either, because I've never had a guest sit right next to me before and share the same microphone. So even if it's feeling messy like that, if you've ever questioned whether your work is making a difference, it is.

People are seeing what you're doing, and they're getting an impression about you and your impact on the world. And if you're a health coach looking for more structure and support in growing your business without the overwhelm, I have got something just for you. This is what you would do if you were boss for a day. You would say, head over to HealthCoachPower.com/blueprint and grab my free 90-day Blueprint.

Michelle's 11-year-old Son: Free.

Michelle Leotta: For free. That's right. It's the exact plan that I teach inside my Fast Track program to help. Health coaches, find more clients and build a consistent income. Thank you for being here, and big thanks to my co-host, and we'll see you next time. Take care, everybody.

Thank you so much for listening to the Health Coach Power Community podcast. Please take a moment, leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. It helps us reach more coaches and allows me to bring you this free content every week to join us live. Ask your questions and have a direct line to me. Join our free Facebook group at HealthCoachPowerCommunity.com.