Episode 34: A business pivot - helping the Aspiring Health Coach

In this episode, as I watch my first snowfall in Chattanooga, I share about my fruitful experience leading a beta group coaching session for aspiring health coaches. I had the joy of mentoring a vibrant group of women, equipping them with the tools to launch and develop their health coaching businesses. From the ins and outs of email marketing to the finer points of client management, the conversation blossomed into much more than just business advice. It became a candid exchange of stories and strategies. 

I realized I wanted to follow this path and see where it leads. So, you'll hear more topics on the podcast about starting and growing your coaching business. In order to give me time and space in my schedule to build out my new business ideas,  I'll also just drop one episode per month (for now!). For anyone poised on the brink of health coaching or entrepreneurship, these episodes will offer a blend of inspiration, practical guidance, and a glimpse into the genuine satisfaction of helping others forge their path.

Follow me on IG: @kathy_mead_fronheiser

Check out my website: www.kathymeadfronheiser.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:13

Hey guys, it's Kathy. Welcome to the fun over 40 podcast. Happy to have you today. Just a little update here.

Speaker 1: 1:22

I'm staring out the window here in Chattanooga, tennessee, and it is snowing, which is very exciting to see. Since we moved to Chattanooga from Nashville about two and a half years ago, we have really not gotten a lot of snow here. Actually, I think we only got snow one time and I was actually out of town that weekend. Luckily, the place where I went out of town also got snow and it was Oxford Mississippi, which is highly unusual. So it was. It was one of those crazy southern snowstorm kind of weekends. So my first snow in Chattanooga took us two and a half years to get here. It's funny I joke that there must be some sort of invisible line between Chattanooga and Nashville, because Nashville gets a lot of snow and we're only about two hours from them, but there's something that goes on in between us that stops the snow from getting to us. It might be Mon Eagle, which is a little mountain in between us, I don't know, but anyway staring out at fluffy flakes of snow coming down. So that's nice to see.

Speaker 1: 2:30

I just wanted to hop on the podcast this week and give you a little update. So you might have noticed, in some of my previous episodes I've sort of been ping ponging between health coaching tips and nutrition and fitness tips for women over 40 and business tips for women who have a health coaching business. And maybe they went through some sort of certification or they just got some real world, real life experience and now they're kind of ready to share that with the world and start helping people. But there can be really a big jump between having the knowledge and wanting to share it and creating a business. There's a big jump there and a big gap and sometimes a big knowledge gap. And also when you're trying to do something like that on your own, you might feel like you're just on an island and you have no idea what to do and you have no idea who to talk to. So I actually had a small beta group of women that I coached last November. We had four sessions and they're all health coaches who have the same certification and we worked on very basic beginner tips to start, grow, build a business, a health coaching business. So you maybe have heard me talk about this before. I think I've written about it in some of my newsletters, so just, you know, email marketing, social media stuff, using just a basic spreadsheet to keep up with your clients, that sort of thing, financial stuff, so really just the basics to help folks get started. And then also we just had a great Q&A every week to answer questions and that sort of thing. So it was actually a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 4:20

It was fun for me because I really struggle in the health coaching space that there's so much focus, especially for women, on weight and there's such a connection for us women on our weight and how we feel about ourselves. And that's just hard for me because I really want women to focus on health goals, whether that's blood work numbers, maybe strength goals, how they feel their energy, but also like how do you feel walking up a hill? You know, is it really hard right now and you'd like for it to be really easy? And so over the years that's become increasingly challenging for me because I do feel like there's such a focus on weight and it's so like it's emotional for us women and I'm not a therapist and a lot of times that's what's needed to be totally honest in those situations and it's a struggle. It really is an uphill struggle. Health coaching is because I know all of us want to improve our health, but we're really fighting A lot of you know. We're fighting the fact that food is super tasty and it's unhealthy and it's inexpensive and that exercise for most of us is something we really have to make time to do, and a lot of us don't feel like we have the time. It's just, it's tough, it's an uphill battle. I'm still fighting the good fight.

Speaker 1: 5:51

But I will say that when I have this group of health coaches that I worked with in November and we worked specifically on their business stuff, it was such a breath of fresh air for me because it was more like black and white. Right. It was like this is how you do email marketing. This is how you write an email. This is how you create a lead magnet. You know it's more black and white than health coaching, which can be a lot of gray too. Right, because all of us every person listening to this podcast has a different body, has a different, has different stuff going on inside of our bodies, has different. You know medical histories and you know different things. We got from our parents and didn't get from our parents and all the things, and so it makes health coaching challenging because it's not a one size fits all.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Anyway, all that to say making a little pivot in my business and you'll notice that pivot coming up on the podcast where I will focus more on working with health coaches to help them build, grow, build and grow their business, find clients, maintain those clients, build programs, all kind of cool stuff like that and it's just exciting for me. You know, sometimes when you've been in a field for a while, it's nice to have a little bit of a change and help a new group of people. I would say this is very adjacent to what I've done in the past and, honestly, over the years of working as a health coach and then growing my own health coaching business and working with my own coaches, I have seen such a need for something like this because I've seen so many health coaches, like I said, want to share and want to help people. But there's a there's a disconnect there between having the knowledge and then the business stuff. So you'll notice a shift in my podcast coming up. I might change the name and all that good stuff We'll get there. This is not I'm not stressing over this, but I'll also be doing fewer podcasts because something else that's been going on in my life and I think some of you may know this because I think I've discussed this on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 8:05

I lost my job back in June of twenty twenty three I'm like what year is it anyway? And I just started a new job about a month ago, in December of twenty twenty three. We're now into January of twenty twenty four and, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm just having trouble keeping up with everything and I love doing this podcast. So I'm not going to stop it and I just need to cut back on the number that I do per month. So, instead of doing one per week, I'll probably cut back, at least initially, to one per month so that I can work on sort of this pivot in my business and building out like a new Instagram not a new handle, but I'm going to just update my Instagram, make sure I have the offers that I want. Work on turning some of these podcasts into blogs, which is fun, and we can talk about that in a future episode like, why would I do that? Work on SEO what is that? Why would I do that? That's something else we can talk about in the future.

Speaker 1: 9:09

But just pivoting and basically creating a new business and that takes time and it takes work and it takes effort. And I am doing that in addition to, you know, working a forty hour a week job and trying to have a life and trying to be social. To be completely transparent, something that we've struggled with since moving is making social connections, and that's really important for me because I'm an extrovert and what I realized my husband and I were talking about it I was like we have to. We have to make an effort. You know, I can't just sit at home working on my business and also make friends, because I mean I can, but I need to. I need to create time and space for friendships to happen, in person friendships to happen, and I'm just trying to figure out the right balance.

Speaker 1: 10:02

So you know, I've got work, I've got time with my husband, I've got social time and just because I'm not health coaching anymore, talking about those topics doesn't mean I'm also not meal prepping myself and exercising, like I'm still doing all that stuff for sure, because that's just who I am, but I just won't be talking about it as much on here, or maybe I will. You know, maybe we'll have a business section and then like a health tip at the end or something like that. I don't know. That's also. What I do want to take a little time is to figure out, like what I want this podcast to be. Maybe it maybe I create like a structure of some kind where there's a business component, there's a health component and then maybe there's a, you know, book recommendation component and I listen to some podcasts where they do that and I actually love that because I love to read and I don't really ever talk about that on this podcast and maybe that's something you would enjoy and if not, that's okay, no big deal. So just trying to figure it all out, and isn't that pretty? Yeah, I just wanted to let you guys know about pivoting in my business, but also that the podcast won't be coming out as frequently, and I'm doing that on purpose. Nothing has happened.

Speaker 1: 11:15

I am well, all is good, just a lot of work kind of in the background trying to figure things out, and it's exciting. It's a little nerve wracking, I'll be totally honest, because I probably started working for myself about 10 years ago and this might be like pivot number four. I started in network marketing, then I opened up my own fitness studio and I would also include opening up my own fitness studio. I did personal training at a university recreation center. During that time I taught an outdoor boot camp. You know, like that's kind of all like just my own business Personal training and teaching group exercise and that sort of thing. And then I did virtual health coaching, which I still do. You know, if you have questions about that or if that's something you want help with, just reach out. You know, I've been a health coach for over 15 years, so it's hard for me to just turn that off. So I mean, I'm happy to talk with people about that.

Speaker 1: 12:15

But I was trying to also create groups, group health coaching and I just really struggled to get that off the ground and I think, honestly, my heart just wasn't in it. And that was when I really kind of had this aha moment, woke up one morning Like I'd really love to help other coaches with all of this business stuff that I'm learning, because I find it fun and interesting and, like I said, just something different and still adjacent to the work I'm doing. So stay tuned for more on that and the products that will be offered as part of that service. But all that to say, I'm around still on Instagram. Feel free to DM me. I'll still be sending out my newsletters and if you're on my newsletter list, you're always welcome, by the way to reply to that newsletter and it just comes right back to me and it's just me. I don't have people answering my emails for me or anything like that.

Speaker 1: 13:13

So just wanted to let you know a little bit of change here in 2024 and we'll just see where it takes us. Because, guess what, at any age but definitely over 40, you are allowed to pivot and change your mind and try a new direction. So it's all good and hopefully this is an example for you. If you're thinking of making any kind of change or pivoting or whatever you want to call it, it's okay, just try it. And you know what? If it doesn't work, it's fine, it doesn't matter, it's okay. But you never know until you try. And who is it? Wayne Gretzky. I'm going to butcher this quotation. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Actually, I think that was exactly correct. So try the shot and just see. And you never know, maybe it's not this, but maybe it's the next pivot, like, maybe this leads you to the next pivot. So, anyway, just wanted to update you guys, my loyal listeners and friends and family who listen to this podcast regularly. I love you guys and stay tuned for what's next.