Nobody Wants Health Coaching

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.

Nobody is lying awake at night thinking, man, I really want a health coach. When or when? Well, I finally have a health coach, right? That's not what's running through people's minds at 3:00 AM. What is running through their minds is why am I so exhausted all the time? Why does the scale keep going up? What am I gonna do about these symptoms?

I can't believe my doctor told me I have pre-diabetes. See the difference? Nobody wants coaching. What they want is a solution to the problem that is keeping them up at night. I remember starting out as a health coach, so this is going back 16 or 17 years now. It was so hard to explain what I did. What's a health coach?

People would ask all the time. They probably ask you too, and then I'd answer them, and their eyes would kind of glaze over when I said, you know, I help people with nutrition and lifestyle changes, if you know what I mean. This episode is for you because the truth is, clients are not out there looking for health coaching.

Like that's not what's on their minds. It's not on their wishlist. They're looking for relief, and they do want solutions to their problems. And we know people have big health problems, right? Left anywhere you look. When you shift the way that you talk about your work, from the process to the results, you're gonna notice a big, big difference and how people respond to you.

So I want you to think about it this way. Have you ever gotten work done on your house? I think about two years ago, I replaced the siding and all the windows, my whole house. Did I want contractors in my home for four weeks? Maybe it was six weeks. Did I wanna go through that whole installation process?

Oh my God. Especially working from home. I assure you I did not, but I wanted my house to look nicer. I wanted lower energy bills. How about when you go to the grocery store? Do you just really love pushing a cart with a broken wheel and walking past aisles and aisles of processed foods so that you can get to the other side, where the produce is?

Is that the grocery store experience that you're really after? I doubt it. Nobody wants to go grocery shopping. Okay. I kind of like grocery shopping, but most people don't really want to go grocery shopping. They want dinner on the table. Everybody wants dinner on the table. They want to feed themselves, they want to feed their families.

And just like that, nobody, like not one single person out there, is wishing and praying and hoping that they find some health coaching today. You know, what they want is what coaching gives them. Well, coaching has the potential to give them, and they don't even realize that is possible yet, perhaps, but we know it's possible.

Coaching can help solve their problems. They want more energy to get through the day. They are feeling so bloated, and they just want it to stop. They wanna get rid of whatever their most troubling symptoms are so that they can live their life, so that they can do that thing that they wanna do with their family or at work, or fill in the blank.

Like that's the thing that they want. So when I would introduce myself as a health coach. I'd get polite smiles or somebody going, Oh, good for you. And that was about it. The conversation would move on. In fact, I remember the very first time that I ever introduced myself as a health coach. Okay? This is going back so many years ago.

I had been invited to a local health coalition meeting. It felt very official, but I was a very, very new coach. I had just left my job in big advertising, and when we went around introducing ourselves, I stood up and I said, I literally said it like this. I'm Michelle, I'm a health coach. Like it was a question.

Oh my God, for real. That is how it came out of my mouth. It still felt questionable at that point if I was a health coach or not. Anyway, that's how I introduced myself. The whole room gave me a blank stare, and then I said I brought grain-free cookies, and everyone smiled because they understood cookies.

They saw the cookies on the table. They had been wondering about the cookies. To the average person, to anyone in that room, and to anyone in most rooms. Health coaching is super abstract, like it doesn't connect to like what they care about or the problem that's bothering somebody right now. They don't know how much it can help them with that, so it doesn't sound exciting at all.

Cookies sound way more exciting. Just like, you know, grocery shopping doesn't sound all that good to most people, or getting, you know, contractors running around your house for a bunch of weeks. That doesn't sound good. And health coaching, it also sounds vague, like no one understands it, and therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that nobody wants it.

They just really don't know what refer to. So if you wanna succeed as a health coach, and I eventually did in my own private practice, if you wanna create the freedom that comes with that and change the lives of people who are like absolutely jumping to work with you, not because you're a health coach, but because you can give them that thing that they want.

You can get them to that thing they want. You have to remember, you're solving a problem. You are not selling a process. Write that down, you're solving a problem, not selling a process. Most coaches are out there trying to sell the process, the method, but what clients actually want to buy is the result. So, here's a few examples just to like help you work this into the way that you speak, what you do, and think about what you do.

Even I want you to see what I mean. If you say I'm a health coach. Even if you say it without the question mark at the end, I'm a health coach who helps with nutrition and lifestyle changes. How does that land people think? Boring. But if you say instead, for example, I help women who crash every afternoon get their energy back without living on caffeine.

People would go, Oh, I need that. Oh my gosh, I need that so badly. Or, my sister needs that. I'm gonna tell her. Here's another one. I hear this kind of thing a lot. You say, I'm a plant-based health coach. Crickets. Just crickets. But if you said, instead, I help women over 40, drop 10 pounds so they can zip up their jeans.

Suddenly, women are paying attention 'cause that's what they care about. You see how it speaks directly to what someone is actually thinking of worrying about, like in the same words that they would use to describe their problems or their desires. Like that specific outcome that somebody wants, it makes them go, that's exactly what I need.

Okay, we'll do one more. You say. I help people live healthier, more vibrant lives. What do you think of that one? You might be going, aha, that's good. That's a result, right, Michelle? A healthier, vibrant life. That's not a process, that's a result right there. Well, that's true. It's better than maybe, arguably better than just saying you're a health coach because you did speak to something that everyone.

More or less wants, right? Health vibrancy. Who doesn't want that? However, because it's still extremely vague. It's like nobody can really get excited about it. They can't really resonate or, um, it doesn't like their brain is not gonna hook onto healthier and more vibrant because again, no one lies in bed.

Thinking the end of the day, gosh, I just wish I had a more vibrant, healthy life. Those aren't the words they use. That's not what they say to themselves. So if instead you said something real specific, like, I help smokers stop for good. Oh, I know exactly what that means. I know exactly who that's for. And that's something that, for the right person, they really want it.

And if it's not me who wants it, I will immediately think of somebody in my life that needs that kind of help. So you always wanna speak to a specific outcome. If you've been struggling to sell health coaching, take heart. Here's my take-home message for you. It's not you, and it's not that you know people aren't willing or able to hire health coaches.

It's not that your prices are too high; please climb down off that ledge. Your prices are fine. In fact, they could be higher. It's simply that no one wants health coaching. Got it. What they do want is a solution to a big and worrisome problem that they're facing right now. So when you reframe what you do around solving a problem and not selling a process, you'll notice that people lean in.

Instead of getting that glaze look in their eyes, they're just gonna lean in and they're gonna say, Oh, I need that. Or, tell me more about that. And if you've been looking for ways to sign more clients, I have more for you at HealthCoachPower.com/Clients. Head on over there, you'll get my free three-part formula, and you will be well on your way to the clients and the income that you've been looking for.

Again, it's all free when you go to HealthCoachPower.com/Clients.

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.