To be taken seriously as a health coach, you want to appear polished. You want to say all the right things. And yet, here we are with the help of AI. We have the technology in our pocket that can make anybody appear polished and say all the right things. So, in this episode, we'll lean into the human side of health coaching and make our humanness our greatest edge. In a world that's more and more skeptical of what we see and what we read online, this is more important than ever before.

This episode is for Michelle, by the way, not me. Michelle. Michelle is a health coach that I spoke with recently, and she said that she was earning $5,000 a month working part-time as a health coach for a weight loss app. She had all her clients just funneled to her. She didn't have to do any of the marketing. Sounds like a dream, right? Part-time hours, pretty good money, and they had an entire team of health coaches for this app. She said that she had done this kind of work before for several other apps and then all at once AI came along and replaced her entire team. So Michelle and her peers, they all lost their jobs and now she's starting from scratch trying to build her business and find clients all on her own and do the marketing for the first time. She said in tears, "I'm too far along to be in this position. I've drained my savings. I can't find another job. They all want me to have advanced degrees and only offer pay of like $17 an hour.

So, that story really hit home for me because in recent weeks and months, I've been paying attention to all the ways that the health coaching industry is rapidly changing. More and more, I'm seeing apps and platforms out there offering coaching in a really accessible way. And I put uh little air quotes around coaching right there because it could be AI. It could be a person who's acting in a really limited uh capability within the app. It's certainly not the health coaching that I ever did with a client, but there's some semblance of health coaching available through these things.

And then we got chat GPT that's being used for what should I eat? Give me a meal plan for this condition. Give me a meal plan for this health goal. Right? It's giving people health advice of all kinds. And while you and I can continue beating the drum of it's not the same, it's not the same. And people still need people, which is true. We got to remember from the average client's perspective, like why why would they need to hire a health coach? We know the difference, but do they do they care? if the value that they think they need comes from AI and it's more or less free, they're like, I'm good.

Now, I've also along these same lines, I've also heard rumors that at least one major health coaching school will soon change its entire model. So instead of certifying health coaches and then like setting them free in the wild to find their clients, the school's actually going to become its own direct to consumer app, at least as I understand it. And they'll have their coaches then work through the app. So kind of similar to what Michelle is doing in the story that I just told you. But I'm like, all right, what are these coaches going to get paid? And what if they want to coach around something slightly different than what the app can provide? And eventually, wouldn't they also be replaced by AI?

So, here's where I've landed. There's a little bit of panic. There's a little bit of, "Oh my god, things are really changing. I know I'm feeling it, but here's kind of where I'm at." And see what you think. I'm thinking that providing information and teaching about health is a losing game right now. Providing meal plans, losing game. So, if your coaching business is built around that sort of thing, now is the time to pivot. Because why would anybody hire a health coach for like $2,000, let's just say, and then spend hours in that coaching process, which sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? if they could have a five minute chat with chat GPT and get the answers that they think they need.

So more than ever, you as a human is what someone's going to hire. Your energy, your vibe, like that's what makes you not artificial intelligence, but actual human intelligence. And this has always been true. People hire whoever they like, they know, they trust. But now it's like number one because no matter what our apps are providing and no matter how interesting our phones are as we stare at them all day, we still have a hankering, I think, as a human species to be around people that we like. We still absorb energy from the people that we surround ourselves with. And that, my friends, that is our human edge in this world of increasing AI, increasing every minute. Now, before I sound like an AI hater, I do think AI has its place for health coaches, specifically when it can save us time that allows us like space and we're able to breathe and we're able to connect more and genuinely with our clients and maybe meet people face to face, that sort of thing.

So, if you can save time on admin stuff as an example, I'm all for it. So, in fact, I have a free guide. It's my 10 favorite ways to save time with AI in your practice so that you can be more present as a human helping humans. And it's available at healthcoachpower.com/savetimeai.

All right, so back to this whole like be more human thing, which is the point of today's episode. I'm going to give some specific examples of how you can do that. Like what does that actually mean? How do you lean into your humanness? But first, a real life example happening in real time in my own business. Oh yes, very very timely today because this episode as I stand here, this very episode that you're listening to or you're watching right now is the first episode that I've prepared entirely from my own brain. I know. Throw the ticker tape parade for me right now. No help from AI. It's the first time I've done that in a very, very long time. I wanted to see if I could still do it. I wanted to see how it felt for me and for you.

So, does it feel any different? I would love your feedback. If you've been listening to the show for a while, any different with this episode, yes, no, maybe not sure. You can send me a message on Instagram. I'm health coach Power Community. And I'm doing something else a little bit differently today. I don't know if you can tell, but this very episode also coincides with getting back to basics here in my studio. So, I've had a lot of upgrades through the years, and now I'm trying to put some effort at being perhaps a little less polished and certainly less edited. I'm doing away with the fancy graphics and the fancy recording software and I couldn't even get my good microphone to work. So, I'm using my less favorite microphone right now because oh well. And I might not be getting every word exactly right as I should exactly say it in this episode. But again, oh well. Because I think in the end when we just do the thing, we don't worry about like every little detail being perfect. It ends up so much more authentic. you know, even the fact that this episode might have a little bit of an echo, which I apologize for, it's more real.

And that's how this show began, like eight or nine years ago when I started this show. Back then, of course, sometimes I had a toddler in the background. And for a while, I even recorded episodes from my uncle's basement. That's while I was going through my divorce. But that's the kind of stuff that makes a human a human. So, hit me up on Instagram and let me know what you think of this less polished episode. Love it, hate it. I'm going to go with it for a while and see how it feels. It's refreshing in a way. It really already feels better like in my gut.

Anyway, enough about me. How does this idea translate to you and your health coaching business? So during a recent speaking engagement with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, we talked about what makes each coach unique and interesting. I posed this question to them. I'm going to pose it to you, too. What's unique and interesting about your life right now or your lived experience? I mean, I know you have your certifications, blah, blah, blah. You're a yoga teacher, your personal trainer. Let's think outside the health coaching box, outside the health and wellness box. What's unique and interesting about you? Grab a piece of paper, jot a few things down. We don't think about this enough. I've been having this conversation again and again and again lately so we can tap into what makes us us and real and human.

One of the coaches um at this speaking event that I was at or that I was giving uh he said he was a scuba diver. So cool. And another woman said that she always wears a flower in her hair, which I would like to pick up that trend, but I haven't done it yet. Another was an R&B singer, but that one might have been from when I did a similar presentation cuz I did the exact same, well, very similar presentation for practice better like a week later. I can't remember which day it was. But the point is, I remember these personal details right off the top of my head. We don't always remember names, right? We sure as heck don't always remember dates, but we remember stories. So, let's put storytelling at the very, very top of your list because our stories are what make us human. And I'll give you an example of where storytelling helps you stand out. There's so many ways, but over the last month or so, I was running a small group cohort inside empowered called Face Forward. You may have heard of it.

Anyway, the whole point was let's get health coaches comfortable on camera because it's not always comfortable, especially in the beginning. They did amazing, amazing work, by the way. But initially the instinct when we get on camera is to get like very very formal and introduce ourselves and spit out all of our credentials, which to the viewer is boring. The most fascinating video scripts in this group really emerged when my coaches took their most interesting story, like the most interesting part of the action that they were going to eventually get to in the video and we put it at the front. It was like the first thing they said instead. Teresa talked about flying down the ski slopes for the very first time as a person who's legally blind. Whoa. Right. Like I remember it almost word for word because it really stuck with me. That tells us more about Teresa than like her certifications or the name of her business, any of that ever could. Or then we had Amy and Amy shared a story about getting into a really bad car crash in college and she was driving and how it led to a lifetime of overeating and drinking as coping mechanisms. Again, sticks with you.

So, here's something to try. The next time you're posting to social media or you're writing an email or even when you're talking to clients, like it doesn't have to be and probably shouldn't be like an hourlong story about you. It doesn't be long- winded, but share a personal story or an anecdote that relates to their experience. We do this all the time in our personal lives. It's just part of how we converse. But for some reason, when we want to be professional, we get really generic and we want to I don't know, be professional, be by the book. I say scrap all of that. You want people to resonate with you and choose you over an AI coach. Got to let them know who you really are. Because I know enough health coaches personally, I can say this with complete and utter confidence. you are amazing and you're far far more interesting than you probably give yourself credit for. I see this all the time. I get in conversations and a coach is like, I don't know, there's nothing special about me. And then it turns out that they're like a, you know, world champion figure skater or something like that. Talk about this stuff.

Now, another way that we can differentiate ourselves from an AI coach is this idea of not trying to be perfect all the damn time. So, for example, recording videos in one take. Whoa. What about that? No editing. I'm doing that today, by the way. So, if I mess up, it's like, oh well, I'm just going to kind of keep going. That's how I started this podcast way back when. I didn't have anyone to do the editing, so we just hit record and rolled. If like a lamp fell in my head, oh well, a lamp fell on my head. If someone rings the doorbell or the dog barks, oh well, because I'm a real person living in a real house. How about this? If you are a person who uses slang or curses or speaks like half English, half Spanish, do that. Don't let AI clean you up. I want you to speak the way you speak on camera, in an audio recording, to your clients. That's so super standout in today's chat GPT world because you know when something's been written by chat GPT, right? It just sounds like it. Be you don't even I'm saying more and more don't even run your stuff through chat GPT because it's so like desirable. Oh, they wrote it better. Oh, it came out better, but it's not better because it's not you. And then here's an idea. What if you showed up on camera without wearing makeup, right? or wearing sweats. The other week I had a meeting with my empowered members and I was wearing my Boston Red Sox hat which has got to be I don't know 25 years old [laughter] and I had my hair in pigtails cuz it was Friday and that's what I looked like that day.

And I'm not saying you know show up looking like a hot mess, but it's really okay to not be perfectly polished all the time. It's what makes you memorable and approachable and it's what makes you you. And finally, if you want to be more human in your practice, think about how you're relating to your clients. Like, are you reciting those motivational interviewing questions off a cheat sheet that's in front of you? Are you outputting PDFs and different materials with information that clients can get themselves with chat GPT? I mean, be honest with yourself. I'm not saying like never do that. I'm not saying that you shouldn't ask like motivational interviewing questions or provide any kind of resources for your clients. Like fine, but that's not the good part.

My challenge to you is to put much greater emphasis on your relationship with your clients. Like, do you know when their birthday is? You know, do you know the names of their children, for example? And same with your potential clients. Like whenever possible, do the voice calls, do the Zoom calls, respond to emails yourself when, again, whenever possible. It's not always possible, but share about your life here and there. Make jokes. Do the things that AI can't do because we're in this world of like artificial everything where no one trusts what they see and no one trusts what they hear. And this is the good stuff, you guys. This is what people are really craving, like an actual relationship. Now, I know you're going to say, "I don't have time [clears throat] for that." I think you do. Like, I really think you do. Even for those of you who have bigger bustling practices, I think if we shift how we spend time, it is possible and it's really important. Right now, I have an audience of many, many thousands and I managed to reply to most of my emails myself. So, we can do that when AI is helping us maybe in the background. Can we be saving time in other ways? That's where we can get creative with this technology. So, remember to get that free guide for exactly how I do it if you're curious. It's at healthcoachpower.com/savetimeai.

And listen, I sure as heck do not know the future of coaching. I do know that if you're worried AI might come along and take your job, yeah, you might be right. Which means now is the time to change your job description. Change how you do your job and what that job actually is. Because health coaches aren't here to yes people to death. We're going to let chat GPT do that. And we're not here to provide answers and information. That's always been true. But somehow I see coaches always ending up like creating these educational products. It's over. We are here to guide. We are here to relate and to help someone have an elevated human experience. What if that was your only job? I'll see you next time.