Congratulations, you’ve earned your health coaching certificate!
Now, welcome to the new coach identity crisis. This is where you may feel timid about your new credential, finding yourself at a crossroads between your former identity (the one everyone knows you by), and a new identity that consists of being a health coach.
It’s far too common for new coaches to wait too long to announce their new vocation, or, even worse, they never announce it. Avoid that common mistake by following the steps in this post, and you will be rewarded with waves of intrigue, interest, congrats, and confidence.
I remember when I first became certified as a Primal Health Coach. I didn’t tell anyone except for my closest friends and family. I didn’t email anyone about it or announce it on my accounts. I hardly spoke about it, either. An entire year had passed before I announced it online (even though I was hosting nutrition workshops at the time).
I was shy about making my career change so official. It seemed to me like I would be bragging, or like I was undeserving of such an official announcement.
Soon enough, frustrated with the idea of “finding” my own clients, I stumbled across a marketing coach for health coaches named Amy Lippman. She launched a free challenge for new health coaches where she shared with us her effective formula for booking new clients/discovery calls. And guess what one of the first steps was in her formula? To announce to the world that I’m a health coach and ready to serve in my niche.
(Note: The original post said “I have 5 spots open for a free “Resolve Your Confusing Tummy Troubles Strategy Session,” but after an overwhelming response I added the section that says “Update…”.)
That post was shared 54 times, and I booked 12 consultations in two weeks. I was absolutely blown away by the outpouring of support and enthusiasm! I seriously did not know what to do with that kind of attention. Even if I booked 3 consultations from that post and received 2 shares, I’d be so friggin’ excited.
Maybe you read the caption of my Facebook post and thought, “There’s no way I would do that.” Well, you should’ve seen the flood of excuses everyone used when Amy told us about this step. “I can’t announce that yet because I have another job,” or “I can’t announce that yet because I don’t have a website.”
What we learned is that your fear is holding you back from a message that needs to get out there. That sense of fear is trying to protect you from embarrassment or failure. But what are the real risks? There aren’t any, really. You became a health coach to coach people, right? It’s time to get started.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at 10 steps to help you announce to the world that you’re a health coach and book your first discovery calls. No website? No problem. Step 2 is all you’ll need to get started.
What if you have another job? Using my Facebook post as an example, try one of these two options:
- Remove the phrase about making a big career change, and add this at the end: “Thank you all so much—your support means the world to me! Although I love being a real estate agent, and I will continue to do so, I have a passion for health and I’m ready to share it with others.”
- “I have an exciting announcement! Many of you may know that I’m a real estate agent, and I love what I do, but what you may not know is that I also have a passion for health. I now have a side hustle working as a certified health coach specializing in foods that help resolve digestive distress and embarrassing tummy troubles….”
10 Steps to Publicly Announce That You’re a Health Coach:
- Tell people you’re closest to first if you haven’t already, because they’d rather find out from you directly than to learn about your career change on social media.
- Start a free account with an online scheduler like Calendly or Acuity. Be sure to integrate it with your personal calendar (such as Google Cal, iCal, or Outlook).
- Decide on your [first] niche. Thankfully, the curriculum at the Primal Health Coach Institute taught me how to develop my niche. About a year into my first niche, I transitioned to another that felt more natural to me. This is common among coaches—to shift niches as we gain experience.
- If you absolutely cannot or will not commit to a niche yet, I suggest you make that your mission and set a 30-day deadline to commit to one. Meanwhile, you don’t get off that easy—craft a Facebook announcement to share an image of your health coaching certificate with a caption that exudes the same enthusiasm and trumpet-blaring acknowledgment you deserve for graduating.
- Learn how to describe your niche using the language of your ideal client avatar (ICA). This helps to remove the intimidation factor and simplify your message. Do some research inside similarly-niched Facebook groups, and scour the comments to discover your ICA’s choice of words, or hop on the phone with friends/family who are similar to your ideal client and ask about their challenges and experiences as it relates to your niche. I named my discovery call Resolve Your Confusing Tummy Troubles, instead of using words like Digestive Dysfunction or IBS, for that very reason—to communicate in a way that meets my ideal client where they’re at.
- Using the online scheduler, create a new appointment type named after your niche. You’ll share a link to this appointment type in your post. Tip: ask a friend to test the link out first, making sure everything goes as planned (the appointment should appear on your mobile calendar, and both of you should receive email notifications).
- Draft your own version of the Facebook announcement shared above. Post this on your personal page, not your business page. No Facebook? Use any social media platform where you’re most engaged in at this time.
- Always include a photo in your post, making sure the dimensions are correct for the platform. You don’t need a professional photo, selfies work great here! Use a photo of yourself, not a stock image.
- Update all of your social media bios to include your new title. Ideally, you’d be specific like, “Certified Health Coach helping you resolve confusing tummy troubles.” While you’re at it, add this to your email signature, and email your contacts to announce it there as well.
- Publish your announcement on social media (Need a boost? Immediately after posting, message your closest friends/family with a link to your post and ask them to comment and share).
- Draft two more posts for the same week to help continue this momentum.
- Example 1: Bust a common misconception or myth in relation to your niche, and end the post with an invite to schedule a discovery call (always ask them to share at the end, too).
- Example 2: Tell a story about you, a peer, a family member, or practice client overcoming the struggle that your niche addresses. Explain the place they started and the transformation they experienced. Then invite viewers to schedule a call with you (ask to share this message with someone who needs it).
Even if you don’t receive a big response, trust that you’re building the “know, like, and trust” factor with your followers. People will start paying attention, and eventually, they will take action. There are people who followed me for years before scheduling a call.
Final Tips:
- Treat your new business like the big deal that it is. Imagine you’re launching a new product, and go all in!
- Remember: If you’re not making offers or inviting people for discovery calls, you’re not booking clients.
- Craft your elevator pitch. Get used to talking about being a health coach and describing your niche.
Go get ’em! The rest of your life starts now.
