Dear fellow practitioners,

This isn’t a sales page because I have nothing to sell you here. :)

I may license some of my programs in the future for you to use with your clients, but that wasn’t the impetus for creating this practitioners-only resource.

[Click here for my practitioners-only blog.]

This page reads more like a blog post – please read it in its entirety so that you get a feel for my approach, and then decide if you’d like to sign up for my practitioners-only newsletter (look to the left).

Hi, I’m Jill McLaughlin (Grunewald).

Firstly, I don’t have a “6-figure formula” for you because – I’ve never used formulas.

I’m not going to show you how to make money while you sleep or travel the world. 

I’m not going to give you my take on the best coaching skills. Or show you how to find your niche. Or how to have a high conversion rate.

I chose to create this resource for practitioners for two reasons:

  1. I’ve been a holistic nutrition and hormone coach for some time (IIN: 2006, Functional Medicine Coaching Academy: 2018) and I’d like to write about some of my learnings, both from a coaching perspective as well as a wellpreneur perspective (thanks for that term, Amanda Cook) on my semi-regular practitioners-only blog. It really will be semi-regular – I’m not going to bombard your inbox.

  2. I’d like to share about how I built a successful coaching practice by mostly discounting the dizzying amount of advice that’s being thrown around about how to make it as a health coach. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I have a profitable, sustainable business that I thoroughly enjoy as a result of following my instincts and largely ignoring the “experts.” (In the meantime, if you’d like to hear me talk about my approach to a successful health coaching practice, please check out my Wellpreneur interview with host, Amanda Cook.)

    I’m an introvert who’s played the long game and I wouldn’t have done anything differently, which includes growing a team, then paring it all back down to just me, then growing a team again, then paring it back down to me. (For those of you considering building a team, or even adding one person to your team, I’m thinking of leading a short teleclass on that journey and all that I learned.)

    And even later, for those interested in writing and publishing a book, I’ll share my 5-year journey in writing and publishing my bestselling cookbook. I’ll offer insights into doing things the right way – in other words, not slapping together a poorly-designed .pdf and putting it up for sale. (Sorry, it’s just what I frequently see and it does a disservice to the author and the reader.)

    My co-author, Lisa, and I established our own publishing company and have gone to painstaking lengths to make this book as professional as possible. We’ve left no stone unturned in our publishing process, which includes a few months’ worth of research into the ever-pervasive question for authors of whether to self-publish or seek out an agent and publisher. All in all, getting published (and published the right way) was a lengthy journey and I feel that I have a lot to share that would help other authors, or really anyone wanting to write and publish a book. 

Authenticity
Have I made mistakes? Of course. I’ll share many of my missteps, including the rabbit holes I’ve gone down.

But after a lot of hard work (yes, this is work, despite what many of the “gurus” will tell you), my business is in a pleasant, profitable groove and only getting better and better. And I’m not even close to burnout – I get up every day, yes, every day, with excitement about getting to work.

I don’t say this to boast, but – I’m making good money, without a big social media following. Social media is not where I’ve put much of my time and energy because I feel there are better returns on my investments. I’ve seriously considered saying “forget it” to social media.

Sure, I publish a semi-regular newsletter, but if you’ve been with me a while, you may have noticed that I rarely sell stuff. I write about things that I’m passionate and excited about – and think that you may want to know about, too.

“Experts”
If you listen to many of the “experts” selling you programs on how to “make it,” it’s mostly for extroverts. (By the way, I don’t consider myself an expert.)

There are golden nuggets to be gleaned from these folks, for sure. And I’ve harvested several of those nuggets. But I’ve put my own twist on things and made it all work.

There’s nothing wrong with being an extrovert! The world needs them. But if, like me, you’re more interested in growth without unabashed self-promotion and relentless marketing, I can show you how things go down here at Healthful Elements. (I know, not all extroverts are unabashed and relentless…)

According to Paul Jarvis, “Everyone is buying up digital land and staking a claim on some expertise they’ve got that will quadruple your audience and monetize your passions. The problem with this situation is much like the real Gold Rush: it’s mostly hype and bullshit.”

In his piece, The Creative World’s Bullshit Industrial Complex, Sean Blanda states, “Being quiet and slowly building mastery and expertise doesn’t pay off much at first. So many creatives* must make a calculation: Do I want the short term, could-go-viral-at-any-second thrill of being a vocal expert in my field? Or am I more content playing the long game? More people are incentivized to choose the former – and it’s getting crowded in here.

“If someone cares more about what their industry peers think of them than the problems they are solving, they’re a bullshitter. If the idea of being ‘known’ is barometer of their success above user (or reader) success stories, they’re a bullshitter.”

* My asterisks: If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a creative.

Intrinsic Motivation
In his piece, Success Without Self-Promotion, David Zweig says:

“Does this sound like someone at the top of her field?

  • Doesn’t seek attention
  • Prefers collaboration to competition
  • Is quick to give credit to others on her team
  • More interested in the end result and in the challenge of the work than in promoting herself

You may be surprised to learn that all these traits, indeed, correlate with success.”

He continues, “Research from top business schools, such as Wharton, Stanford, and Cornell, supports what I observed firsthand. Studies show that when people are intrinsically motivated (by the work itself), they tend to outperform those motivated by extrinsic factors (external rewards such as attention).”

Question Everything
Paul Jarvis continues, “I question everything, even when I don’t need to. If I can’t come to my own conclusions and my own learning by doing it myself, advice holds no weight for me.

“Being your own teacher doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t listen to other teachers. They can be useful in bringing up new points of view, ideas, and guidance. But ultimately, you’re the one steering your ship.

No one else knows you as well as you know yourself.
No one else holds exactly the same values, morals or points of view.
No one else is able to act for you.
No one else knows every part of your goals or dreams.
You are your best teacher.

“Listen, sure, but decide things for yourself.”

Yes, I question everything. I’ve been my own teacher. And will continue to be.

I think that the final words of David Zweig’s piece sum things up nicely:

“Dial down the marketing, and focus on your work.” 

Again, you can go here for my practitioners-only blog. And if you like what you’ve read on this page, you can sign up to hear from me on a semi-regular basis. Look to the upper left of this page and enter your name and email. I’d love to support you, even in a small way.