Blog Posts For Our Practitioner Community

I graduated from IIN in 2006. (Yes, the live program!) I started teaching classes and doing private coaching right after. Granted, it was slow-going at first and I kept my day job, hustling my newfound business on the side. 

Things grew organically and after a move to another state two years later, where I essentially started over, taught classes in new venues, wrote for local blogs and magazines, and continued to work with clients, I left my full time job in 2010. 

All the while, I’ve taken part in several online programs associated with my scope of practice (hormones and autoimmunity) and got another certification through the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA). (If you’re looking for another certification, by the way, DO FMCA.) 

But you want to know where I’ve by far learned the most and developed a deep understanding of my craft?  

Coaching. Working with clients 1:1.  

If you take away all of the group courses I’ve run, my affiliate income, and sales from my online store, I can, as of the last few years, easily support myself with my 1:1 work. That hasn’t always been the case, of course. 

Individual coaching is how many of us started out “back in the day.”

And I’ve seen two things happen over the years: 

1. Many who started with individual coaching have now moved exclusively to group classes/online courses. There’s nothing wrong with that.

2. Many who are new (or new-ish) graduates are being told that they’ll never make it doing 1:1 coaching. There’s something wrong with that.

Who’s doing the “telling” here? I’ll tell you mostly who—the internet marketing “gurus” who want to sell you a program on how to run courses. 

We have to be careful who we get advice from. 

Yes, there are some legit teachers and fantastic courses out there—I’ve taken some of them. But the teachers/coaches I support—and listen to—still work with individuals, whether it’s health coaching or coaching other business owners on running a successful business.

This is part of what gets me—from where I sit, they’re not “coaches” if all they’re doing is groups.  

COACH
[kōCH]
NOUN
coaches (plural noun)
A tutor who gives private or specialized teaching.

Look, I don’t know every coach and every course, of course, but the ones turning their backs on private coaching tend to be people who’ve reached a certain status. I’ve also seen comments from many who are starting out that they plan to “jump right to courses.”

I’m not saying that these recent grads have nothing to offer, certainly, but you simply cannot stay competitive if you haven’t mastered your topic/niche. You cannot—as many do—simply regurgitate information you’ve learned from books or other courses. (And yes, I’ve seen a fair bit of plagiarism and I’ve had a few colleagues get their course material lifted and sold off as someone else’s. Talk about a quick way to lose ALL legitimacy and make yourself obsolete.)

If you want to play the long game and be seen as an expert in your field, you NEED to work with individual clients. The learnings there are so deep, so expansive, so fulfilling. I guarantee you it will set you apart.

I’m not here to bash courses—again, I’ve run them myself, just wrapped up my most successful course ever, and have plans for courses in 2019. (I’ve made an intentional choice to only work part time the rest of this year (October-December).)

Courses are a great way for people to get information at a lower price point and yes, they can offer a significant infusion of income. 

But the reason that my recent course was so successful is because I made it clear that I’d mastered my topic because I’d worked with so many 1:1 alopecia clients and had glowing testimonials. It’s also why my Fire Your Thyroid online group course in years past was so successful.

It’s also how I was able to provide in-depth yet succinct educational content in my best selling Essential Thyroid Cookbook. There’s no way I could’ve organized, outlined, and written “a book within a cookbook” had I not worked with hundreds of Hashimoto’s clients.

I talk about my coaching practice—and how it’s a myth that coaching won’t pay the bills—in this Wellpreneur interview, which some of you may remember.

Here’s the deal. Working with clients will never work if you’re convinced it won’t.

Self-defeating thoughts never got anyone anywhere.

I’ve noticed two other things in the last year or so:

1. We’ve swung the other way and many are complaining that online courses are dead. I don’t think they are, but I believe we’ve started to reach saturation. I’m not saying don’t run an online course! I’m saying that the gold rush of recent years is getting watered down because:

a. There are a lot of coaches (and some seemingly unqualified, frankly) running courses—both health as well as business subjects.

b. Often times, if the course is, let’s say, on the “fluffy” side, it leaves participants with more questions than answers and they go seek…you guessed it, 1:1 coaching. I work with a lot of these people.

2. Some of my friends and colleagues agree with me on the critical importance of coaching. Let me tell you, I was starting to feel alone. But again, I’ve seen the pendulum start to swing the other way.  

And my friend Maria Pence Claps doesn’t mince words when she says: 

“There is NOTHING that substitutes for working with clients 1:1.  

“Interestingly, I’ve observed through the years that when some practitioners hit a ‘certain stardom,’ they stop working with clients 1:1 and start focusing on their image, or their ‘empire.’ Okay, so this is definitely not every rock star practitioner, but when you see a practitioner with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram (but are following nary anyone back), or a practitioner who seems more concerned about marketing and being funny, or are all about their social media status, well, I suspect that they’ve probably lost their way. It’s less a judgment and more an observation. In the end, we all have to decide who the right practitioner is for us.”

As an aside, I’ve made friends all over the world doing long-term private coaching. I certainly keep that professional boundary tight and right during our program, but I’ve been genuinely and enthusiastically invited to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, and Iceland. 

There’s nothing wrong with building an empire. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make online courses and groups a part of your business plan. But in today’s market, I feel that any coach who relies exclusively on courses is missing out—and hurting their business in the long-term.