February 19, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode, Michelle sits down with her longtime friend and fellow health coach, Dillan DiGiovanni, to discuss the top reasons coaches struggle to get clients. You'll get a peek into personal experiences navigating the business side of health coaching over the past 16 years – so you can avoid common pitfalls and grow with confidence. Looking to add more clients to your practice? Join the Spring 2025 LIVE Fast Track waitlist at https://healthcoachpower.com/
Mentioned in this episode:
Add your name to the Spring 2025 Fast Track waitlist: https://
Spring 2025 Equity Scholarship: https://healthcoachpower.com/
Learn more about Dillan: https://www.dillandigiovanni.
Connect with Dillan on Instagram: https://www.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello there, health coaches, thankyou so much for joining me today.
I am thrilled to have a very specialguest with us for this episode that is
being prerecorded. By theway, time you hear this,
I will be in sunny Iceland.
I thought that would be a good ideain February. So we'll see how it goes,
but take a look, not like an oxymoron,
(00:24):
and I will be releasing thisepisode while I'm away featuring
my friend Dylan.
Today we're going to talk about threethings that are keeping you from getting
health coaching clients.
And we only know because we'vebeen doing this work since 2009
and Dylan and I met on a bus goingto the Institute for Integrative
(00:46):
Nutrition many, many, many years ago,
and we were just students and we'veboth been in the industry ever since.
So before we get into all thosethings that are getting in your way of
connecting with theclients you need, Dylan,
will you introduce yourself to everybody?
Sure. Awesome. Yes, we did meet on a bus.
We were commuting down to golive from Boston to New York.
I started getting clients,
I started doing one-on-one coachingand then actually pivoted out to do a
(01:10):
lot of work with companies. SoI've done all kinds of things,
like I've done TEDx talks,
I've worked with companies from a localbusiness all the way up to Microsoft and
WeWork and places likethat, and still doing that,
actually still doing individual clientsand also trying to work with either
school districts, companies,
just trying to reach more peopleto improve workplace environments.
(01:33):
And we still both always kept a hand in
helping other health coaches. I knowyou've been doing that for many,
many years as well.
Yes, yes. Also, and also working with IIN.
So a lot of you who are joining mightrecognize me from the IN coaching circles.
I've been doing their calls since 2010.
I did them in 2010 too, but thatwas the only year I ever did.
(01:55):
And you've done them all this time?
All this time.
Wow. So I bet a lot of our listenersare familiar with you. So this is great.
Dylan's going to be starting to helpus out inside our healthcoachpower
Community Facebook group.
So you'll be seeing him there and ifthe more familiar faces, the better.
Of course,
we have health coaches from all differenthealth coaching schools these days,
but back in 2009, I thinkthere were only two.
(02:19):
Do you remember looking intoany other schools besides IN?
I didn't even know there were any others.
The only reason I went there was becauseI had worked with a health coach who
went to IN, so I had a direct referral.
Yeah, yeah. I think the other one wason the west coast. So for us in Boston,
and we still had to go in person,there was no other option,
and so we were trekking down toNew York back in the day. Anyway,
(02:41):
all this to say, youguys, we have been there.
We have struggled through putting togetherour email list for the first time.
Do you remember gettingtogether and trying to work on our business when it was?
I do. I remember we satoutside Whole Foods in Boston.
Yes. We'd be
so hard. So hard in the beginning,
(03:02):
but we both hung in there and diddifferent things along the way.
So let's start here. You've beentalking to health coaches for now 15,
16 years just like I have.
What do you hear come out oftheir mouths the most often?
That's keeping them from evenhaving the right mindset to working
with clients.
(03:23):
It is something I hearso many times a day.
I was sharing with you if I had a dollarfor every time I heard this, I'd be
a billionaire probably.
But I hear this term imposter syndromefollowed up by why should anyone listen
to me?
And it's baffling to me because I neverhad that thought when we were sitting
(03:43):
in INI never felt this way.
So I've really been trying to getcurious about where did this come from?
Where is this? And also did peoplefeel like this when we were at IN?
Are we just, what's that term?
We were just way ahead of the curve orwe have something special or unique that
we were able to do it,but I'm really curious,
but that's absolutelywhat I hear is a lack of
(04:10):
belief in self and areal fear and this thing.
Why should anyone listen to me?
Do you think that you were a littleahead of the curve there coming from a
teaching background like, Hey,
I'm used to being at the front of theroom and I'm used to having people
listening to me.
I think so, yeah. I mean, I think thathelped me do more group presentations,
but like you were saying, I didn'tknow how to build a newsletter.
(04:32):
I didn't know how to build awebsite. As you were talking,
I remember you helping me learning coding.
You were helping me back when we had tobuild our own sales pages before they
had websites that did it for you.
You and I were doing the coding to builda sales page for our product offerings
in 2011, and I didn't knowhow to do any of that stuff,
(04:52):
but the thought never occurred to me. Idon't have any right to do this or that.
No one should listen to me. Idon't know, but a lot of people do.
Yeah, I hear it all the time. I mean,
I felt that way a little bit becauseof my career change and that sort
of identity shift that came with thatbecause one minute I was an art director
and I had built a careeras an art director.
(05:13):
I was very proud of the factthat I was an art director,
and then when I leftadvertising, I was like,
I'm a health coach, I guessnow. And I did. I'm like,
how could I be a health coach? Idon't have years of experience.
I did not go to a four yearcollege to become a health coach.
And so I think I did have some of that,
(05:34):
but it wasn't as deeplyingrained as what I'm
often hearing from coaches.
Now I know you have a theoryabout why this may be the case.
I do. I do have a theory. I thinkit's the onset, not of social media,
but of influencer culture.I think it has completely,
this didn't exist when we started.
(05:55):
Facebook was in its infancy and it wasa fun place to hang out and it worked.
It actually worked forbuilding a business.
This was before they started with allthe algorithm nonsense. But absolutely,
I think coaches forget that thejob of a coach is so completely
different than being an influenceror being a content creator.
They're two completely different jobs.
And I think the way that thishas really people's minds and
(06:19):
they think to be able to run abusiness or to be able to get clients,
I have to sing and danceand do recipe videos,
and they have to do these trendsand these fads that they see.
And I think we benefit from knowingyou absolutely don't need to do that,
and you can actually run abusiness without necessarily relying on social media
in general at all. I'm not saying don'tdo it at all, but we didn't have it.
(06:43):
And look what we did.
Talk about this. All the time.
I'm glad we were soahead of the curve. Yeah.
Yeah. Social media is justone tool in the toolbox,
and I really don't even think it'sthat effective of a tool compared to
doing that workshop at the natural foodstore. In fact, I remember attending,
maybe it was one of your first oryour very first or I don't know,
(07:05):
workshops at the co-op in Cambridge.
Right.
Yes. I wanted to see you do it.Okay, so this is, to your point,
we were not constantly lookingat her phone going like, oh,
this health person looks likethis and I don't look like that,
and this health person's talkinglike this. I should talk like that.
I think these days it'sthe only connection that health coaches have to other
(07:29):
people in the wellness industry throughthe phone, including going to school,
even the going to school process.It's all happening on a screen.
When we were all together inLincoln Center for those weekends,
I don't remember it being a bunchof blonde haired, supermodel,
healthy looking influencer types. Do you?
(07:51):
Not at all. Not at all.
We were all shapes and sizes andidentities and the thought leaders and the
influencers were right in frontof us sharing their struggles.
The question is though,
how can people avoid it when itis the water that we swim in?
How can they realize? AndI will agree with you,
I don't even think it's that helpfulas a tool anymore because the tools are
(08:14):
designed for the house to win the casino.
They're designed to keep us on the apps,
not to actually help you do thething that you're trying to do.
And I could probably count on one handhow many clients I got from social media
in 15 years less than 1:00 AM.
And you've been there. It's not thatyou haven't been on social media.
Oh, totally. And all these opportunities,
all these speaking opportunities that Igot all these opportunities to work with
(08:38):
companies was me being in a room,
me getting dressed and walking up andknocking on a door and putting myself up
for that rejection. There's this fear,intense fear of rejection or failure,
as people call it. And I keep tellingthem, the only failure is not trying.
The only failure is not trying.
You give yourself a 50 50 shot if youjust show up and try. And in fact,
(09:03):
you increase your odds a lot.
People will probably say yes because theymeet you as opposed to seeing you on a
screen like you said.
Right, exactly.
Especially these days because mostthings are just coming on the screen,
so you show up in person.Whoa. Wow, wow, wow.
And you said failure.
I like the term redirection.This isn't for me right now.
(09:23):
It's showing me a path over here. I knowit's hard, you guys. I know. I mean,
a lot of starting a business or runninga business I've always felt is similar
to dating where you do justhave to show up and it is
vulnerable and you aregoing to hear no a lot.
And you should be saying no a lot too,
because opportunities are going to comeby where you should and how to learn
(09:45):
this the hard way go, that's not for me,
but that is going to get you further thanposting every day with the perfect set
of hashtags or whatever thekids are doing these days.
Yeah,
I think that the game has really changedbecause we are so much less in person.
But I'll back you up. When we were inthe room together at Lincoln Center,
(10:08):
all shapes, all sizes,all ethnicities. I mean,
it was a real mixed bag.And even our presenters,
they weren't all perfectInstagram influencer types.
No, no. Yeah, because itdidn't exist. It's just,
I guess that's what I try to sayto people too. It's a construct.
The influencer thing is a constructof the marketing industry.
(10:30):
And that's another thing is a lot ofpeople feel like they believe what they
see. They see these people, but thenI know that I have them on the calls.
Sometimes I'll have these people in thecoaching circles and these calls that I
have, and they'll have like 80,000followers. I barely have 5,000 followers.
And they're sitting there talking abouthow they feel like imposters because
(10:51):
they worked the system, whatever.
They got all these followers and theyactually don't even know what they're
talking about. So talk aboutthe ultimate imposter syndrome.
But I think a lot of people watchthese people and they think, oh,
they're the real thing, andthey're not the real thing.
They're just posturing tobe. They're just posturing.
They're not authentic. So there's that.
(11:12):
That's a great insight. Did youguys hear that? Because it's true,
but we don't want to believe it.
We don't always know the people you'rehearing straight from someone who's
meeting them. The person with 80,000followers probably has no clients.
They have no confidence, they don'tknow what they're talking about,
and they have the same question hangingover their head as everybody else,
and who am I to do thiswork? Isn't that crazy?
(11:36):
And the difference of themsaying that they have a,
I'll hear people say too like, oh,
I see all these people that have thesesuccessful coaching businesses. I said,
do you know that? Do yousee their tax returns?
You don't actually know you'rebelieving what they're saying.
So maybe just stop listening somuch and just focus on your own lane
and do your own.
(11:56):
Good advice. Really good advice.
And since we're talking kindof about social media here,
it's a good time to just remind everyonethat inside any of the courses that we
have inside Healthy Profit Universityinside the Springs Fast Track,
for example, social mediais optional, right? It is.
I have never found thepath to clients to include,
(12:17):
we're going to send people messages,strangers messages, all day on Instagram.
No, we're not doing that.
We're going to throw thousands andthousands of dollars into Facebook ads in
order to find clients.No, that's not it either.
So if you want to learn about all theother tools that have been working since
the dark ages,
like when Dylan and I started doing thiswork and still work today and even work
(12:40):
when the algorithm changesor Facebook goes down or God
knows what's going on these days,
you might want to put your name on thewait list for Fast Track because you're
going to walk away with thatwhole tool belt full of tools.
So you're not every day just lookingat your Instagram feed going like, oh,
I'm spending an hour scrolling to findinspirations for what I should post and
(13:01):
why do I not have any clients? No, no,no, no. So the wait list is open now.
It's at healthcoachpower.com/waitlist.
And to the point about everyonein the room being different,
which PS we need, maybe we could talka little bit more about that too.
We could probably talk for hours andhours about this, and we often do.
Yeah a three part podcast.
(13:22):
This would be a three parter. We needdifferent faces, different bodies,
different people in the room.
We need health coaching to becomemore than a white woman's game.
I'm just going to say it. So since 2020,
we've had an equity scholarship availablefor the spring fast track program,
and it is open now for anyone toapply who identifies as person
(13:44):
of a black indigenousperson of color, L-G-B-T-Q,
someone living with a disability. Ifyou can get into communities that,
for example, I can't have thoseconnections, I don't resonate with,
I don't have the trust and youdo, I want to help you succeed.
So we have a scholarshipavailable you can apply at
healthcoachpower.com/equity.
(14:06):
Okay. Enough of that.
Let's get back into the reasons thatour coaches are not getting the clients
that they want.
So one might be this sort of universalimposter syndrome. So if we all
have it, I guess we can justthat levels of playing field,
that means we can all just get rid ofit. We're all feeling the same imposter.
That means actually we're all thesame. We're all ready to do this work.
(14:29):
What about things that come up in lifethat have kept you, I'm sure your career.
I know your career has not justbeen a perfect path up, up,
up every year. So tell usabout the down moments,
because I think a lot of our coaches,when life gets a little hard,
there's a challenge,there's a turn of events.
Health coaching seems to just aback seat. Do you see that too?
(14:54):
You mean the building of the business?
Yeah.
Yeah. Well,
I mean I think that's an important thingto think about when it is time to just
maybe just make time foryourself and restore yourself.
And I think that I can definitely speakto one of the most difficult periods
when it was accumulation of differentthings that happened in my life,
(15:15):
but it was also burnout andpushing hard really through
things where I really felt like I maybecould have taken time out or something,
but just I did hit this periodin 2016 where I moved from
Boston to Vermont and Ilived in a renovated barn,
and I truly questioned my abilityto continue in every aspect of
(15:37):
my life. Honestly, I feltlike I didn't really,
it was an existentialcrisis time. And what I did,
what I did is first Iprioritize myself and I said,
I'm going to just nurture myself andreally take care of my health right now,
my physical, mental, spiritual,emotional health. And when I did that,
it was a series of months,
then the energy came back and I justjumped right back into my business again.
(16:00):
So that's one of the thingsI want to say to people too.
Sometimes being unstoppablemeans stopping temporarily,
but not forever, but also howto try to keep things going.
Even during that period, Istill sent my newsletter out.
I kind of figured out whatis the minimum that I can do
(16:20):
and want to do to maintainmomentum, to maintain,
because honestly, doing thiswork inspires me. I love it.
It's amazing to have found my purpose.
And t hen when I have more energy, whenI feel better than I do more things.
That's exactly how Iapproached my maternity leave,
which for those of you justlistening, you can't see me.
(16:41):
I have air quotes around maternity leavebecause when you try to take time off
from a business that you're running,
you don't really get that threemonths straight up maternity leave.
But it was the same thing.
What's the minimum that I couldcommit to even while having my first
baby, my second baby, et cetera.And that was for me, the same thing.
Same thing. I'm going tokeep getting my emails out.
(17:04):
I'm going to maintain thatconnection to my list. I mean,
I straight up brought the laptopto the hospital so I could, yeah.
So anyway.
I'm smiling because I'm rememberingyou did a lot more than that,
and the two of us is very clear.
We're way overachievers amidstthe most profound adversity.
You were running programs when he waslike toddlers, you know what I mean?
(17:25):
You were doing a lot.
Well, yes, and I did take sometime where it was just like,
I'm going to do these 1,2, 3 things and that's it.
Which is different from what I seehappening a lot with a lot of our coaches.
Well, such and such happened.So I stopped coaching.
I haven't done anything for three years.
(17:46):
I haven't done anything for three years.
And so if you're running real hotand real cold in your business,
it's incredibly difficult to maintainany kind of momentum that you've
built or certainly to grow.
And I think we've both gone through somereally significant life challenges in
the past 16 years as most people have.
(18:08):
And to say, at no point didwe just say, you know what?
And it would've been very easy to say,
I'm just going to go back andget a nine to five kind of job.
Did you ever think about that?
I did think about it, absolutely. AndI actually did. So this is a both,
and so maybe this is goingto be helpful for listeners.
After supporting myselfthrough tremendous adversity,
(18:30):
I still did supportmyself pay my own rent.
I stayed in the black between2009 and 2020 and it's
incredible. And then when Covidhit, I was like, you know what?
Maybe it's a good time to getoff the entrepreneurship train.
I've proven to myself, but thiswas like an existential crisis.
I'm saying that term again,
this was a difficult decision for mebecause it battled a lot of have I failed?
(18:54):
Is this a failure if I go backand get a job? And for me,
I sat with that questionand I said, no, Dylan,
this is you taking care of yourselfbecause you don't know what's going to
happen in the world right now.
It was already hard and challenging tobe an entrepreneur and maybe just go take
care of yourself.
So I actually went back toclassroom teaching for two years and
did my business too.
(19:15):
And by doing your business, you mean.
My coaching?
Yeah.
Sending you.
Were seeing clients, et cetera.
I was seeing clients. I wassending my newsletter out.
I was doing virtual eventson weekends. I had actually,
it was one of my highest earning years.
Wow.
Because my business wasthriving because I was thriving,
and so I absolutely considered that I'vehad to make different decisions and I
(19:38):
think this is important.
Everyone has to make different decisionsbased on what their circumstances in
life are to be able totake care of yourself.
And sometimes it means doinghealth coaching full time.
Sometimes it means doingtwo clients a month,
but you're still a health coach evenif you're sending a newsletter out,
even if you're like anything you're doingis being a health coach and you got to
find what's sustainable for you andwhat you need in your life to supplement
(20:03):
what I would alwayscall funding the dream.
Sometimes it meant working at WholeFoods part-time for me because then
it relaxed me so that I could havethe mental energy and didn't have that
desperation to find clients. Weall know that that drives them off.
It doesn't attract peoplewhen you're in that place.
Much like dating, thedesperation does not help.
(20:26):
The analogy is very legit, very much .
So.
I guess the takeaway here is if you'regoing to pause from your business for a
while, what is that one thing?
What are that small amount of work thatyou can maintain so that you're not
starting over from scratchagain and again and again?
(20:47):
That's a pattern that I'd like tosee health coaches getting away from.
You're right, you are stillacting as a health coach.
Even if you're just sending thatone email a month to your list,
you're doing yourself a service too.
Then you don't need tocome back from nothing.
You would've maintained what you had,
and that's really important ifyou're trying to build a business.
(21:08):
I think you mentioned this,
but I wanted to share part of mystory when I went through my divorce,
for example,
I think the hardest time of my life beingresponsible for two little kids and we
were living in my uncle's basement.
I was sleeping on acouch and I kept working.
And I had to do less.
(21:29):
Of course my life was blown up like this,
but I mean if you guys goback in the podcast archives,
you will see podcast episodesthat I did in my uncle's backyard.
I did one in his unfinished part ofhis basement where all his tools were.
There were spiders running around,
but I still got this show outevery week because it was very
(21:52):
grounding and this work can be,
it's like even when mylife was a hot mess,
I was still providing value.
I was still having purpose in the world,
and I found that healing andgrounding and exactly what I actually
needed to get through those challengingtimes. If I had walked away fully,
(22:13):
I think I would've been walkingaway from part of myself too.
So just something to consider thatsometimes the business is what's going to
keep you,
make you the best you could possibly beduring those hard parts of life. Again,
it's going to be different for everyone.
I completely agree with you.
What I think we've done is we reallyinternalized the identity of health coach.
(22:36):
We are like I identify as ahealth coach and I agree with you,
I've always said this,
when so many other aspects of myidentity and my life were in flux,
my relationship to my identity ashealth coach never has changed.
That is who I am. That iswhat I do. And you're right,
it totally grounds me wheneverything else feels off.
(22:58):
Yes. That's so wonderful to be able tohelp someone when you yourself are like,
oh, and sometimes you can getimposter syndrome over it.
How can I help anyoneelse if my life is a mess?
But there's parts of you thatyou're figuring out today,
someone else is figuring outsomething totally different.
You can still be of service to them.
(23:19):
We are never solved. We are never perfect.
We are never 100% healthy and 100% happy,
and now we can help coach.
Every single one of us struggles withour help and our happiness and everything
else in between.
And that goes back to what we weretalking about earlier is that when you see
these people, whoever thesepeople are influencers or experts,
(23:44):
don't make the assumptionthat their lives are perfect.
They're just not telling youthe messiness of their lives,
but they have very messy lives justlike you. They're not all put together,
but they just don't say it.
That's one of the cool things abouthealth coaches is we can say that we can,
you still showed up amidst the mess,
and that's what makes us so relatableand so inspiring. I wish I saw those.
(24:06):
I want to go see the spider episodes.
Oh my gosh. You'll be able to find them.
And a lot of peopleactually were emailing me,
and you may have been one of them,
but also people I didn't know at allcommenting on how much weight I had lost
when you're going througha very stressful time.
I was still showing up on camera everyweek and thank you all for noticing,
but I did lose 20 poundsin that process. So
(24:29):
it's all documented all the way back,
but that's what makes us real,
showing up when you'vegot a cold showing up,
when something's going on in your life,you can keep helping other people.
That's what I wanteveryone listening to know.
Absolutely.
One thing you mentionedsomewhere over the past 20,
(24:50):
30 minutes or so is how you sometimeshad to take the job at Whole
Foods Fund the dream.
You had to make the money sothat you could stay in the black,
you could support yourself.
And that's something else that at leastthese days now that I'm not married and
that you've been dealing with thiswhole time is what happens when you are
responsible for payingyour own bills versus
(25:15):
someone running a business who doesn'thave any of that kind of pressure.
Would you say it puts too muchstress on you or could it be
a good thing?
I think it's the good kind ofstress because if nothing's hurting,
there's no urgency.
And I think this happens with a lot ofpeople who want to be health coaches.
(25:36):
If they have a life circumstance wherethey don't have that urgency that you and
I had for different reasons, wehad it for different reasons,
but it's the same driving motivator.It's easy to just get lazy.
It's easy when that paycheck just dropsitself into if you have a full-time job
or if you have a partneror a living circumstance,
it's very hard to, but when you'remotivated, how am I going to pay my rent?
(25:59):
I think it helps you override thefear when you don't have that,
it's easier to just let the fearconsume you. And I definitely saw that.
That's what I love about the yearsthat I took full-time employment.
I saw how lazy I got and I waslike, is it going on a great year?
What's that?
You said you made the most you'veever made that year that you were...
I know all in comparison, but I was lazy.
(26:21):
It was just easier because nowI had also built a reputation's,
so I was kind of on that and Ialso was charging more for my
time. So it was like theaccumulation of all of those years,
but I still wasn't taking as muchinitiative as I had in earlier years.
You did that after you hadbeen in business for a long time. But early on, yeah,
(26:43):
when I was still married and the billswere going to get paid regardless,
and I was going to have my car regardless,
and I was going to have a roof overmy head and food in the refrigerator
regardless. I wouldn't say I was lazy,
but it was a whole differentlevel of hustle when I
realized I'm funding thisnow and you get so much
(27:03):
more creative because you don'tgo, oh, that didn't work. Oh,
I give up. Bye. You go, that didn't work.
I have a different idea. I'm goingto try that now. And that whole,
the mother of invention,right? It's the necessity.
Totally. I mean, I have a questionfor if you feel comfortable. I mean,
what made you keep persisting with thisas opposed to going back and getting a
(27:27):
full-time job with those circumstances?
Honestly, I have found it morereliable. Thank you, by the way,
for on my own podcast,
asking me a question that I may not becomfortable answering. Sorry, sorry.
But I'm open book. Open book.
I think it'd be inspiring.
I mean because really incrediblethat you never gave up.
(27:49):
I guess working nine to five, and alsoa lot of my friends in advertising,
there were a lot of layoffs. I mean,
that's ultimately how I leftadvertising was getting laid off.
Nothing's a sure thing. Even when youthink you're married for a long time,
nothing's a sure thing.
So I've always felt thatI am more nimble and
(28:09):
more able to earn and I haveunlimited earning potential
working for myself,
plus the ultimate and flexibility tobe there with my kids and not have to
pay for full-time daycare for two kidswas very important for a number of years.
Now they're older, but I always feltlike this actually was a better bet,
(28:30):
whereas if I had goneback to get another job,
I see this a lot with entrepreneurs.
They hit a point and theyforget it. I got to go back.
I got to get the nine to five.I need the paycheck, I need the W2.
Six months later, they quit. Theyjust can't stand it. But anyway,
even if the job was fine,there's going to be a ceiling.
There's an HR department telling youhow much that position is ever going to
(28:54):
earn. You're just going to getthat 2% raise if you're lucky.
And I have always been ableto do much better on my own.
And if it's not working for whateverreason, pivot, try this, pivot,
try that.
I remember in 2020 wheneverything was crazy thinking, oh,
this is it. This is the end for me.
(29:15):
And similar experience for you is myhighest grossing year ever because we got
really creative.
And I think one thing you'redemonstrating is, and I can relate,
is when you shown yourself you can do it,
you almost get like,
I'm never really going to be ableto listen to anybody else anymore.
(29:36):
And I think that's what a lotof people who are starting,
they don't give themselves thechance to see that can do it.
And once you see that you cando it, then you almost get a,
I really want to keep showing myselfin the world that I can do this.
And I just think it's incrediblymotivating and really exciting,
and it's hard to go back to takingdirection from somebody else or doing
(29:57):
something that you don't love asmuch when you realize you can do it.
Oh, I think I'm completelyunemployable at this point.
I'm sure you are too, right?
You just get used to being able to makethe decisions and there's no red tape.
When you work in a larger organization,there's a lot of red tapes,
very hard to make change. But whenyou work for yourself, like I said,
(30:18):
very nimble, very able to pivot.Can you remember one of those times,
maybe in the early years,back in 2009, 2010,
something like that where you were like,oh, I did this thing as a health coach,
I have the confidence now orat least 1% more confidence.
Totally. Absolutely. I mean, I thinkthe getting up, you make a good point.
(30:38):
The getting up and giving the talksand the workshops wasn't that much of a
stretch for me,
although I know it is one of thenumber top five biggest fears for
most people, so they don'tfeel comfortable doing that.
But for me it's super easy.
But the biggest thing for me wasmore of the tech stuff, the building.
I'll never forget that feeling of thefirst time I built my own website landing
(31:00):
page for one of my programs and people,
I got the buttons to work and themoney actually went to my bank account.
I was like, there's no goingback after this. This is,
or I'm trying to think of something else,
but that really stood out where I reallydid something that I had never done
before. I never thought Iwould ever do in my life.
Sorry for my cat freaking out.
(31:22):
And then just feeling like I would'venever had this experience if I hadn't been
in this situation.
That's the thing is the thingsthat you learn that you can do,
it's unbelievable theconfidence that it gives you.
It's a kind of confidencethat I had gotten,
hadn't gotten from anythingI'd done in my life.
That's a great examplebecause for other people,
(31:44):
the tech stuff's going to be easy, butpresenting is going to be very hard.
Last year we started giving alldone for you materials to our fast
track group so that more of themcould have that experience, right?
So many hurdles. Let's sayyou're going to hold a webinar,
you got to set up the opt-in page,you have to create the presentation,
(32:04):
you need slides, you need tolearn how to present on Zoom,
we do it like 90% of thatis done inside fast track.
And so more and more of our coachesare like, oh my God, I did it.
I pulled it off. And they get thatfeeling that tells your brain,
and I'm sure there's ascientific mechanism happening here goes, I can do it.
(32:25):
I actually just did it so thatproves I can do the hard things.
And that's where we see this hugeleap forward as opposed to the
coaches that just getstuck in the like, well,
I can't figure out the buttonon the page, so I guess I won't.
Totally. Yeah, A lot of people needmore help, and when they get that help,
(32:46):
they can see that they cando it. Yeah, you're right.
There is a lot of gates to pass throughthat a lot of people just can't make it
through for whatever reason.And also the lack of support.
So you offer that supporttoo, that encouragement.
People will just sitthere and get discouraged.
So then you create the communityof the support for people to.
Help. Well,
and also the help because back when wewere just schlepping through the early
(33:07):
stages, how'd you do it? Well, what'dyou make? Where should we do a workshop?
I don't know.
So you just need people totalk to people who have done it
before. So we'll get, like today,
we got a question inside the Facebookgroup and it was just so easy to answer
because I've done that thingbefore. It was a little tech thing,
but I only know the answer becauseI've literally done it like 30 times.
(33:30):
This is someone's first time doing it.We all need that big sister, big brother,
someone showing us the way becausethey've done it already. And so anyway,
I'm psyched that you're going to bejoining us inside of our Facebook
communities because you havedone this sort of thing before,
if not the exact situation you've beenin that situation of I have to figure
this out. And I know you have so muchto share with all of our coaches,
(33:53):
so I just want to formally say Welcome.
Thank you.
We're going to be really happyto have you. And once again,
I want to remind all of our listenersthat if you like this idea of passing
through some of those gatesmore quickly and easily,
that's what our Live FastTrackprogram is going to help you do.
It starts this spring.
You can get on the wait list now athealthcoachpower.com/waitlist and
(34:17):
ps. By doing so,
you will get best possible pricing andbonuses. So even if you're not sure,
you might as well just put your nameon the list anyway. And remember,
we do offer an equity
scholarship athealthcoachpower.com/equity. And please,
if it doesn't apply to you,
pass that along to someone who it doesapply to or share it with your health
coach networks. This isfor the greater good.
(34:39):
This is so that health and wellness canget into the hands of the people who
need it most around the world. Dylan,thank you so much for joining today.
You want to tell everybody your Instagramor what's the best place for people to
contact you?
My website is my name dylandigiovanni.com,
and that'll show some of the companiesI've worked with and also what I do with
individuals. And then myInstagram is the same. Well,
(35:03):
it's Dylan.DiGiovanni.
Fantastic. We'll put allthat in the show notes.
So if you don't already know Dylan, yousoon. Well, thanks for being here again,
and we'll see you all soon, I guesswhen I'm back from Iceland. Take care,
everyone.
Hello there, health coaches, thankyou so much for joining me today.
I am thrilled to have a very specialguest with us for this episode that is
being prerecorded. By theway, time you hear this,
I will be in sunny Iceland.
I thought that would be a good ideain February. So we'll see how it goes,
but take a look, not like an oxymoron,
(00:24):
and I will be releasing thisepisode while I'm away featuring
my friend Dylan.
Today we're going to talk about threethings that are keeping you from getting
health coaching clients.
And we only know because we'vebeen doing this work since 2009
and Dylan and I met on a bus goingto the Institute for Integrative
(00:46):
Nutrition many, many, many years ago,
and we were just students and we'veboth been in the industry ever since.
So before we get into all thosethings that are getting in your way of
connecting with theclients you need, Dylan,
will you introduce yourself to everybody?
Sure. Awesome. Yes, we did meet on a bus.
We were commuting down to golive from Boston to New York.
I started getting clients,
I started doing one-on-one coachingand then actually pivoted out to do a
(01:10):
lot of work with companies. SoI've done all kinds of things,
like I've done TEDx talks,
I've worked with companies from a localbusiness all the way up to Microsoft and
WeWork and places likethat, and still doing that,
actually still doing individual clientsand also trying to work with either
school districts, companies,
just trying to reach more peopleto improve workplace environments.
(01:33):
And we still both always kept a hand in
helping other health coaches. I knowyou've been doing that for many,
many years as well.
Yes, yes. Also, and also working with IIN.
So a lot of you who are joining mightrecognize me from the IN coaching circles.
I've been doing their calls since 2010.
I did them in 2010 too, but thatwas the only year I ever did.
(01:55):
And you've done them all this time?
All this time.
Wow. So I bet a lot of our listenersare familiar with you. So this is great.
Dylan's going to be starting to helpus out inside our healthcoachpower
Community Facebook group.
So you'll be seeing him there and ifthe more familiar faces, the better.
Of course,
we have health coaches from all differenthealth coaching schools these days,
but back in 2009, I thinkthere were only two.
(02:19):
Do you remember looking intoany other schools besides IN?
I didn't even know there were any others.
The only reason I went there was becauseI had worked with a health coach who
went to IN, so I had a direct referral.
Yeah, yeah. I think the other one wason the west coast. So for us in Boston,
and we still had to go in person,there was no other option,
and so we were trekking down toNew York back in the day. Anyway,
(02:41):
all this to say, youguys, we have been there.
We have struggled through putting togetherour email list for the first time.
Do you remember gettingtogether and trying to work on our business when it was?
I do. I remember we satoutside Whole Foods in Boston.
Yes. We'd be
so hard. So hard in the beginning,
(03:02):
but we both hung in there and diddifferent things along the way.
So let's start here. You've beentalking to health coaches for now 15,
16 years just like I have.
What do you hear come out oftheir mouths the most often?
That's keeping them from evenhaving the right mindset to working
with clients.
(03:23):
It is something I hearso many times a day.
I was sharing with you if I had a dollarfor every time I heard this, I'd be
a billionaire probably.
But I hear this term imposter syndromefollowed up by why should anyone listen
to me?
And it's baffling to me because I neverhad that thought when we were sitting
(03:43):
in INI never felt this way.
So I've really been trying to getcurious about where did this come from?
Where is this? And also did peoplefeel like this when we were at IN?
Are we just, what's that term?
We were just way ahead of the curve orwe have something special or unique that
we were able to do it,but I'm really curious,
but that's absolutelywhat I hear is a lack of
(04:10):
belief in self and areal fear and this thing.
Why should anyone listen to me?
Do you think that you were a littleahead of the curve there coming from a
teaching background like, Hey,
I'm used to being at the front of theroom and I'm used to having people
listening to me.
I think so, yeah. I mean, I think thathelped me do more group presentations,
but like you were saying, I didn'tknow how to build a newsletter.
(04:32):
I didn't know how to build awebsite. As you were talking,
I remember you helping me learning coding.
You were helping me back when we had tobuild our own sales pages before they
had websites that did it for you.
You and I were doing the coding to builda sales page for our product offerings
in 2011, and I didn't knowhow to do any of that stuff,
(04:52):
but the thought never occurred to me. Idon't have any right to do this or that.
No one should listen to me. Idon't know, but a lot of people do.
Yeah, I hear it all the time. I mean,
I felt that way a little bit becauseof my career change and that sort
of identity shift that came with thatbecause one minute I was an art director
and I had built a careeras an art director.
(05:13):
I was very proud of the factthat I was an art director,
and then when I leftadvertising, I was like,
I'm a health coach, I guessnow. And I did. I'm like,
how could I be a health coach? Idon't have years of experience.
I did not go to a four yearcollege to become a health coach.
And so I think I did have some of that,
(05:34):
but it wasn't as deeplyingrained as what I'm
often hearing from coaches.
Now I know you have a theoryabout why this may be the case.
I do. I do have a theory. I thinkit's the onset, not of social media,
but of influencer culture.I think it has completely,
this didn't exist when we started.
(05:55):
Facebook was in its infancy and it wasa fun place to hang out and it worked.
It actually worked forbuilding a business.
This was before they started with allthe algorithm nonsense. But absolutely,
I think coaches forget that thejob of a coach is so completely
different than being an influenceror being a content creator.
They're two completely different jobs.
And I think the way that thishas really people's minds and
(06:19):
they think to be able to run abusiness or to be able to get clients,
I have to sing and danceand do recipe videos,
and they have to do these trendsand these fads that they see.
And I think we benefit from knowingyou absolutely don't need to do that,
and you can actually run abusiness without necessarily relying on social media
in general at all. I'm not saying don'tdo it at all, but we didn't have it.
(06:43):
And look what we did.
Talk about this. All the time.
I'm glad we were soahead of the curve. Yeah.
Yeah. Social media is justone tool in the toolbox,
and I really don't even think it'sthat effective of a tool compared to
doing that workshop at the natural foodstore. In fact, I remember attending,
maybe it was one of your first oryour very first or I don't know,
(07:05):
workshops at the co-op in Cambridge.
Right.
Yes. I wanted to see you do it.Okay, so this is, to your point,
we were not constantly lookingat her phone going like, oh,
this health person looks likethis and I don't look like that,
and this health person's talkinglike this. I should talk like that.
I think these days it'sthe only connection that health coaches have to other
(07:29):
people in the wellness industry throughthe phone, including going to school,
even the going to school process.It's all happening on a screen.
When we were all together inLincoln Center for those weekends,
I don't remember it being a bunchof blonde haired, supermodel,
healthy looking influencer types. Do you?
(07:51):
Not at all. Not at all.
We were all shapes and sizes andidentities and the thought leaders and the
influencers were right in frontof us sharing their struggles.
The question is though,
how can people avoid it when itis the water that we swim in?
How can they realize? AndI will agree with you,
I don't even think it's that helpfulas a tool anymore because the tools are
(08:14):
designed for the house to win the casino.
They're designed to keep us on the apps,
not to actually help you do thething that you're trying to do.
And I could probably count on one handhow many clients I got from social media
in 15 years less than 1:00 AM.
And you've been there. It's not thatyou haven't been on social media.
Oh, totally. And all these opportunities,
all these speaking opportunities that Igot all these opportunities to work with
(08:38):
companies was me being in a room,
me getting dressed and walking up andknocking on a door and putting myself up
for that rejection. There's this fear,intense fear of rejection or failure,
as people call it. And I keep tellingthem, the only failure is not trying.
The only failure is not trying.
You give yourself a 50 50 shot if youjust show up and try. And in fact,
(09:03):
you increase your odds a lot.
People will probably say yes because theymeet you as opposed to seeing you on a
screen like you said.
Right, exactly.
Especially these days because mostthings are just coming on the screen,
so you show up in person.Whoa. Wow, wow, wow.
And you said failure.
I like the term redirection.This isn't for me right now.
(09:23):
It's showing me a path over here. I knowit's hard, you guys. I know. I mean,
a lot of starting a business or runninga business I've always felt is similar
to dating where you do justhave to show up and it is
vulnerable and you aregoing to hear no a lot.
And you should be saying no a lot too,
because opportunities are going to comeby where you should and how to learn
(09:45):
this the hard way go, that's not for me,
but that is going to get you further thanposting every day with the perfect set
of hashtags or whatever thekids are doing these days.
Yeah,
I think that the game has really changedbecause we are so much less in person.
But I'll back you up. When we were inthe room together at Lincoln Center,
(10:08):
all shapes, all sizes,all ethnicities. I mean,
it was a real mixed bag.And even our presenters,
they weren't all perfectInstagram influencer types.
No, no. Yeah, because itdidn't exist. It's just,
I guess that's what I try to sayto people too. It's a construct.
The influencer thing is a constructof the marketing industry.
(10:30):
And that's another thing is a lot ofpeople feel like they believe what they
see. They see these people, but thenI know that I have them on the calls.
Sometimes I'll have these people in thecoaching circles and these calls that I
have, and they'll have like 80,000followers. I barely have 5,000 followers.
And they're sitting there talking abouthow they feel like imposters because
(10:51):
they worked the system, whatever.
They got all these followers and theyactually don't even know what they're
talking about. So talk aboutthe ultimate imposter syndrome.
But I think a lot of people watchthese people and they think, oh,
they're the real thing, andthey're not the real thing.
They're just posturing tobe. They're just posturing.
They're not authentic. So there's that.
(11:12):
That's a great insight. Did youguys hear that? Because it's true,
but we don't want to believe it.
We don't always know the people you'rehearing straight from someone who's
meeting them. The person with 80,000followers probably has no clients.
They have no confidence, they don'tknow what they're talking about,
and they have the same question hangingover their head as everybody else,
and who am I to do thiswork? Isn't that crazy?
(11:36):
And the difference of themsaying that they have a,
I'll hear people say too like, oh,
I see all these people that have thesesuccessful coaching businesses. I said,
do you know that? Do yousee their tax returns?
You don't actually know you'rebelieving what they're saying.
So maybe just stop listening somuch and just focus on your own lane
and do your own.
(11:56):
Good advice. Really good advice.
And since we're talking kindof about social media here,
it's a good time to just remind everyonethat inside any of the courses that we
have inside Healthy Profit Universityinside the Springs Fast Track,
for example, social mediais optional, right? It is.
I have never found thepath to clients to include,
(12:17):
we're going to send people messages,strangers messages, all day on Instagram.
No, we're not doing that.
We're going to throw thousands andthousands of dollars into Facebook ads in
order to find clients.No, that's not it either.
So if you want to learn about all theother tools that have been working since
the dark ages,
like when Dylan and I started doing thiswork and still work today and even work
(12:40):
when the algorithm changesor Facebook goes down or God
knows what's going on these days,
you might want to put your name on thewait list for Fast Track because you're
going to walk away with thatwhole tool belt full of tools.
So you're not every day just lookingat your Instagram feed going like, oh,
I'm spending an hour scrolling to findinspirations for what I should post and
(13:01):
why do I not have any clients? No, no,no, no. So the wait list is open now.
It's at healthcoachpower.com/waitlist.
And to the point about everyonein the room being different,
which PS we need, maybe we could talka little bit more about that too.
We could probably talk for hours andhours about this, and we often do.
Yeah a three part podcast.
(13:22):
This would be a three parter. We needdifferent faces, different bodies,
different people in the room.
We need health coaching to becomemore than a white woman's game.
I'm just going to say it. So since 2020,
we've had an equity scholarship availablefor the spring fast track program,
and it is open now for anyone toapply who identifies as person
(13:44):
of a black indigenousperson of color, L-G-B-T-Q,
someone living with a disability. Ifyou can get into communities that,
for example, I can't have thoseconnections, I don't resonate with,
I don't have the trust and youdo, I want to help you succeed.
So we have a scholarshipavailable you can apply at
healthcoachpower.com/equity.
(14:06):
Okay. Enough of that.
Let's get back into the reasons thatour coaches are not getting the clients
that they want.
So one might be this sort of universalimposter syndrome. So if we all
have it, I guess we can justthat levels of playing field,
that means we can all just get rid ofit. We're all feeling the same imposter.
That means actually we're all thesame. We're all ready to do this work.
(14:29):
What about things that come up in lifethat have kept you, I'm sure your career.
I know your career has not justbeen a perfect path up, up,
up every year. So tell usabout the down moments,
because I think a lot of our coaches,when life gets a little hard,
there's a challenge,there's a turn of events.
Health coaching seems to just aback seat. Do you see that too?
(14:54):
You mean the building of the business?
Yeah.
Yeah. Well,
I mean I think that's an important thingto think about when it is time to just
maybe just make time foryourself and restore yourself.
And I think that I can definitely speakto one of the most difficult periods
when it was accumulation of differentthings that happened in my life,
(15:15):
but it was also burnout andpushing hard really through
things where I really felt like I maybecould have taken time out or something,
but just I did hit this periodin 2016 where I moved from
Boston to Vermont and Ilived in a renovated barn,
and I truly questioned my abilityto continue in every aspect of
(15:37):
my life. Honestly, I feltlike I didn't really,
it was an existentialcrisis time. And what I did,
what I did is first Iprioritize myself and I said,
I'm going to just nurture myself andreally take care of my health right now,
my physical, mental, spiritual,emotional health. And when I did that,
it was a series of months,
then the energy came back and I justjumped right back into my business again.
(16:00):
So that's one of the thingsI want to say to people too.
Sometimes being unstoppablemeans stopping temporarily,
but not forever, but also howto try to keep things going.
Even during that period, Istill sent my newsletter out.
I kind of figured out whatis the minimum that I can do
(16:20):
and want to do to maintainmomentum, to maintain,
because honestly, doing thiswork inspires me. I love it.
It's amazing to have found my purpose.
And t hen when I have more energy, whenI feel better than I do more things.
That's exactly how Iapproached my maternity leave,
which for those of you justlistening, you can't see me.
(16:41):
I have air quotes around maternity leavebecause when you try to take time off
from a business that you're running,
you don't really get that threemonths straight up maternity leave.
But it was the same thing.
What's the minimum that I couldcommit to even while having my first
baby, my second baby, et cetera.And that was for me, the same thing.
Same thing. I'm going tokeep getting my emails out.
(17:04):
I'm going to maintain thatconnection to my list. I mean,
I straight up brought the laptopto the hospital so I could, yeah.
So anyway.
I'm smiling because I'm rememberingyou did a lot more than that,
and the two of us is very clear.
We're way overachievers amidstthe most profound adversity.
You were running programs when he waslike toddlers, you know what I mean?
(17:25):
You were doing a lot.
Well, yes, and I did take sometime where it was just like,
I'm going to do these 1,2, 3 things and that's it.
Which is different from what I seehappening a lot with a lot of our coaches.
Well, such and such happened.So I stopped coaching.
I haven't done anything for three years.
(17:46):
I haven't done anything for three years.
And so if you're running real hotand real cold in your business,
it's incredibly difficult to maintainany kind of momentum that you've
built or certainly to grow.
And I think we've both gone through somereally significant life challenges in
the past 16 years as most people have.
(18:08):
And to say, at no point didwe just say, you know what?
And it would've been very easy to say,
I'm just going to go back andget a nine to five kind of job.
Did you ever think about that?
I did think about it, absolutely. AndI actually did. So this is a both,
and so maybe this is goingto be helpful for listeners.
After supporting myselfthrough tremendous adversity,
(18:30):
I still did supportmyself pay my own rent.
I stayed in the black between2009 and 2020 and it's
incredible. And then when Covidhit, I was like, you know what?
Maybe it's a good time to getoff the entrepreneurship train.
I've proven to myself, but thiswas like an existential crisis.
I'm saying that term again,
this was a difficult decision for mebecause it battled a lot of have I failed?
(18:54):
Is this a failure if I go backand get a job? And for me,
I sat with that questionand I said, no, Dylan,
this is you taking care of yourselfbecause you don't know what's going to
happen in the world right now.
It was already hard and challenging tobe an entrepreneur and maybe just go take
care of yourself.
So I actually went back toclassroom teaching for two years and
did my business too.
(19:15):
And by doing your business, you mean.
My coaching?
Yeah.
Sending you.
Were seeing clients, et cetera.
I was seeing clients. I wassending my newsletter out.
I was doing virtual eventson weekends. I had actually,
it was one of my highest earning years.
Wow.
Because my business wasthriving because I was thriving,
and so I absolutely considered that I'vehad to make different decisions and I
(19:38):
think this is important.
Everyone has to make different decisionsbased on what their circumstances in
life are to be able totake care of yourself.
And sometimes it means doinghealth coaching full time.
Sometimes it means doingtwo clients a month,
but you're still a health coach evenif you're sending a newsletter out,
even if you're like anything you're doingis being a health coach and you got to
find what's sustainable for you andwhat you need in your life to supplement
(20:03):
what I would alwayscall funding the dream.
Sometimes it meant working at WholeFoods part-time for me because then
it relaxed me so that I could havethe mental energy and didn't have that
desperation to find clients. Weall know that that drives them off.
It doesn't attract peoplewhen you're in that place.
Much like dating, thedesperation does not help.
(20:26):
The analogy is very legit, very much .
So.
I guess the takeaway here is if you'regoing to pause from your business for a
while, what is that one thing?
What are that small amount of work thatyou can maintain so that you're not
starting over from scratchagain and again and again?
(20:47):
That's a pattern that I'd like tosee health coaches getting away from.
You're right, you are stillacting as a health coach.
Even if you're just sending thatone email a month to your list,
you're doing yourself a service too.
Then you don't need tocome back from nothing.
You would've maintained what you had,
and that's really important ifyou're trying to build a business.
(21:08):
I think you mentioned this,
but I wanted to share part of mystory when I went through my divorce,
for example,
I think the hardest time of my life beingresponsible for two little kids and we
were living in my uncle's basement.
I was sleeping on acouch and I kept working.
And I had to do less.
(21:29):
Of course my life was blown up like this,
but I mean if you guys goback in the podcast archives,
you will see podcast episodesthat I did in my uncle's backyard.
I did one in his unfinished part ofhis basement where all his tools were.
There were spiders running around,
but I still got this show outevery week because it was very
(21:52):
grounding and this work can be,
it's like even when mylife was a hot mess,
I was still providing value.
I was still having purpose in the world,
and I found that healing andgrounding and exactly what I actually
needed to get through those challengingtimes. If I had walked away fully,
(22:13):
I think I would've been walkingaway from part of myself too.
So just something to consider thatsometimes the business is what's going to
keep you,
make you the best you could possibly beduring those hard parts of life. Again,
it's going to be different for everyone.
I completely agree with you.
What I think we've done is we reallyinternalized the identity of health coach.
(22:36):
We are like I identify as ahealth coach and I agree with you,
I've always said this,
when so many other aspects of myidentity and my life were in flux,
my relationship to my identity ashealth coach never has changed.
That is who I am. That iswhat I do. And you're right,
it totally grounds me wheneverything else feels off.
(22:58):
Yes. That's so wonderful to be able tohelp someone when you yourself are like,
oh, and sometimes you can getimposter syndrome over it.
How can I help anyoneelse if my life is a mess?
But there's parts of you thatyou're figuring out today,
someone else is figuring outsomething totally different.
You can still be of service to them.
(23:19):
We are never solved. We are never perfect.
We are never 100% healthy and 100% happy,
and now we can help coach.
Every single one of us struggles withour help and our happiness and everything
else in between.
And that goes back to what we weretalking about earlier is that when you see
these people, whoever thesepeople are influencers or experts,
(23:44):
don't make the assumptionthat their lives are perfect.
They're just not telling youthe messiness of their lives,
but they have very messy lives justlike you. They're not all put together,
but they just don't say it.
That's one of the cool things abouthealth coaches is we can say that we can,
you still showed up amidst the mess,
and that's what makes us so relatableand so inspiring. I wish I saw those.
(24:06):
I want to go see the spider episodes.
Oh my gosh. You'll be able to find them.
And a lot of peopleactually were emailing me,
and you may have been one of them,
but also people I didn't know at allcommenting on how much weight I had lost
when you're going througha very stressful time.
I was still showing up on camera everyweek and thank you all for noticing,
but I did lose 20 poundsin that process. So
(24:29):
it's all documented all the way back,
but that's what makes us real,
showing up when you'vegot a cold showing up,
when something's going on in your life,you can keep helping other people.
That's what I wanteveryone listening to know.
Absolutely.
One thing you mentionedsomewhere over the past 20,
(24:50):
30 minutes or so is how you sometimeshad to take the job at Whole
Foods Fund the dream.
You had to make the money sothat you could stay in the black,
you could support yourself.
And that's something else that at leastthese days now that I'm not married and
that you've been dealing with thiswhole time is what happens when you are
responsible for payingyour own bills versus
(25:15):
someone running a business who doesn'thave any of that kind of pressure.
Would you say it puts too muchstress on you or could it be
a good thing?
I think it's the good kind ofstress because if nothing's hurting,
there's no urgency.
And I think this happens with a lot ofpeople who want to be health coaches.
(25:36):
If they have a life circumstance wherethey don't have that urgency that you and
I had for different reasons, wehad it for different reasons,
but it's the same driving motivator.It's easy to just get lazy.
It's easy when that paycheck just dropsitself into if you have a full-time job
or if you have a partneror a living circumstance,
it's very hard to, but when you'remotivated, how am I going to pay my rent?
(25:59):
I think it helps you override thefear when you don't have that,
it's easier to just let the fearconsume you. And I definitely saw that.
That's what I love about the yearsthat I took full-time employment.
I saw how lazy I got and I waslike, is it going on a great year?
What's that?
You said you made the most you'veever made that year that you were...
I know all in comparison, but I was lazy.
(26:21):
It was just easier because nowI had also built a reputation's,
so I was kind of on that and Ialso was charging more for my
time. So it was like theaccumulation of all of those years,
but I still wasn't taking as muchinitiative as I had in earlier years.
You did that after you hadbeen in business for a long time. But early on, yeah,
(26:43):
when I was still married and the billswere going to get paid regardless,
and I was going to have my car regardless,
and I was going to have a roof overmy head and food in the refrigerator
regardless. I wouldn't say I was lazy,
but it was a whole differentlevel of hustle when I
realized I'm funding thisnow and you get so much
(27:03):
more creative because you don'tgo, oh, that didn't work. Oh,
I give up. Bye. You go, that didn't work.
I have a different idea. I'm goingto try that now. And that whole,
the mother of invention,right? It's the necessity.
Totally. I mean, I have a questionfor if you feel comfortable. I mean,
what made you keep persisting with thisas opposed to going back and getting a
(27:27):
full-time job with those circumstances?
Honestly, I have found it morereliable. Thank you, by the way,
for on my own podcast,
asking me a question that I may not becomfortable answering. Sorry, sorry.
But I'm open book. Open book.
I think it'd be inspiring.
I mean because really incrediblethat you never gave up.
(27:49):
I guess working nine to five, and alsoa lot of my friends in advertising,
there were a lot of layoffs. I mean,
that's ultimately how I leftadvertising was getting laid off.
Nothing's a sure thing. Even when youthink you're married for a long time,
nothing's a sure thing.
So I've always felt thatI am more nimble and
(28:09):
more able to earn and I haveunlimited earning potential
working for myself,
plus the ultimate and flexibility tobe there with my kids and not have to
pay for full-time daycare for two kidswas very important for a number of years.
Now they're older, but I always feltlike this actually was a better bet,
(28:30):
whereas if I had goneback to get another job,
I see this a lot with entrepreneurs.
They hit a point and theyforget it. I got to go back.
I got to get the nine to five.I need the paycheck, I need the W2.
Six months later, they quit. Theyjust can't stand it. But anyway,
even if the job was fine,there's going to be a ceiling.
There's an HR department telling youhow much that position is ever going to
(28:54):
earn. You're just going to getthat 2% raise if you're lucky.
And I have always been ableto do much better on my own.
And if it's not working for whateverreason, pivot, try this, pivot,
try that.
I remember in 2020 wheneverything was crazy thinking, oh,
this is it. This is the end for me.
(29:15):
And similar experience for you is myhighest grossing year ever because we got
really creative.
And I think one thing you'redemonstrating is, and I can relate,
is when you shown yourself you can do it,
you almost get like,
I'm never really going to be ableto listen to anybody else anymore.
(29:36):
And I think that's what a lotof people who are starting,
they don't give themselves thechance to see that can do it.
And once you see that you cando it, then you almost get a,
I really want to keep showing myselfin the world that I can do this.
And I just think it's incrediblymotivating and really exciting,
and it's hard to go back to takingdirection from somebody else or doing
(29:57):
something that you don't love asmuch when you realize you can do it.
Oh, I think I'm completelyunemployable at this point.
I'm sure you are too, right?
You just get used to being able to makethe decisions and there's no red tape.
When you work in a larger organization,there's a lot of red tapes,
very hard to make change. But whenyou work for yourself, like I said,
(30:18):
very nimble, very able to pivot.Can you remember one of those times,
maybe in the early years,back in 2009, 2010,
something like that where you were like,oh, I did this thing as a health coach,
I have the confidence now orat least 1% more confidence.
Totally. Absolutely. I mean, I thinkthe getting up, you make a good point.
(30:38):
The getting up and giving the talksand the workshops wasn't that much of a
stretch for me,
although I know it is one of thenumber top five biggest fears for
most people, so they don'tfeel comfortable doing that.
But for me it's super easy.
But the biggest thing for me wasmore of the tech stuff, the building.
I'll never forget that feeling of thefirst time I built my own website landing
(31:00):
page for one of my programs and people,
I got the buttons to work and themoney actually went to my bank account.
I was like, there's no goingback after this. This is,
or I'm trying to think of something else,
but that really stood out where I reallydid something that I had never done
before. I never thought Iwould ever do in my life.
Sorry for my cat freaking out.
(31:22):
And then just feeling like I would'venever had this experience if I hadn't been
in this situation.
That's the thing is the thingsthat you learn that you can do,
it's unbelievable theconfidence that it gives you.
It's a kind of confidencethat I had gotten,
hadn't gotten from anythingI'd done in my life.
That's a great examplebecause for other people,
(31:44):
the tech stuff's going to be easy, butpresenting is going to be very hard.
Last year we started giving alldone for you materials to our fast
track group so that more of themcould have that experience, right?
So many hurdles. Let's sayyou're going to hold a webinar,
you got to set up the opt-in page,you have to create the presentation,
(32:04):
you need slides, you need tolearn how to present on Zoom,
we do it like 90% of thatis done inside fast track.
And so more and more of our coachesare like, oh my God, I did it.
I pulled it off. And they get thatfeeling that tells your brain,
and I'm sure there's ascientific mechanism happening here goes, I can do it.
(32:25):
I actually just did it so thatproves I can do the hard things.
And that's where we see this hugeleap forward as opposed to the
coaches that just getstuck in the like, well,
I can't figure out the buttonon the page, so I guess I won't.
Totally. Yeah, A lot of people needmore help, and when they get that help,
(32:46):
they can see that they cando it. Yeah, you're right.
There is a lot of gates to pass throughthat a lot of people just can't make it
through for whatever reason.And also the lack of support.
So you offer that supporttoo, that encouragement.
People will just sitthere and get discouraged.
So then you create the communityof the support for people to.
Help. Well,
and also the help because back when wewere just schlepping through the early
(33:07):
stages, how'd you do it? Well, what'dyou make? Where should we do a workshop?
I don't know.
So you just need people totalk to people who have done it
before. So we'll get, like today,
we got a question inside the Facebookgroup and it was just so easy to answer
because I've done that thingbefore. It was a little tech thing,
but I only know the answer becauseI've literally done it like 30 times.
(33:30):
This is someone's first time doing it.We all need that big sister, big brother,
someone showing us the way becausethey've done it already. And so anyway,
I'm psyched that you're going to bejoining us inside of our Facebook
communities because you havedone this sort of thing before,
if not the exact situation you've beenin that situation of I have to figure
this out. And I know you have so muchto share with all of our coaches,
(33:53):
so I just want to formally say Welcome.
Thank you.
We're going to be really happyto have you. And once again,
I want to remind all of our listenersthat if you like this idea of passing
through some of those gatesmore quickly and easily,
that's what our Live FastTrackprogram is going to help you do.
It starts this spring.
You can get on the wait list now athealthcoachpower.com/waitlist and
(34:17):
ps. By doing so,
you will get best possible pricing andbonuses. So even if you're not sure,
you might as well just put your nameon the list anyway. And remember,
we do offer an equity
scholarship athealthcoachpower.com/equity. And please,
if it doesn't apply to you,
pass that along to someone who it doesapply to or share it with your health
coach networks. This isfor the greater good.
(34:39):
This is so that health and wellness canget into the hands of the people who
need it most around the world. Dylan,thank you so much for joining today.
You want to tell everybody your Instagramor what's the best place for people to
contact you?
My website is my name dylandigiovanni.com,
and that'll show some of the companiesI've worked with and also what I do with
individuals. And then myInstagram is the same. Well,
(35:03):
it's Dylan.DiGiovanni.
Fantastic. We'll put allthat in the show notes.
So if you don't already know Dylan, yousoon. Well, thanks for being here again,
and we'll see you all soon, I guesswhen I'm back from Iceland. Take care,
everyone.
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