You have probably noticed that the new buzzword in business these days is disruption.  It’s all about shaking up the paradigm of thoughts surrounding the way things are done.  Think start-up companies like Uber and Airbnb that came from nowhere and just literally became the new normal overnight.  I am fascinated with that phenomenon.  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the epitome of dinosaur thinking and is a great example of what NOT to do if you are trying to start a new business venture.  The question is, how do you take this thinking into building a health coach practice?  Glad you asked!  I have a few thoughts on the subject.

Before I sat down to write this, I put “Disruption” in the title space.  The word has been front of mind for me a lot here lately.  Because of that, I figured I should indulge the nudging and see where the thought process takes me.  That’s pretty much always been my stock move.  
 
 You may not know this about me, but I went to school to study Pharmacy.  It was my dream to go into the field of research.  My classmates thought that I might actually be pretty good because of my “crazy, what-if tangents”.  These usually involved looking at a piece of accepted dogma and me saying, “that’s just stupid….what if we did this?”  At first, I was met with eye rolls.  Those eye rolls more often than not turned into an a-ha moment and the conversation would suddenly be re-energized in a whole new direction and the delicious idea riffing would be in full effect.  One of my favorite activities in life is to be a part of a bona fide idea fest.  It’s an invigorating thrill to be fully engaged with sparking like minds.  Do you crave that, too?

 

Disruption is not the only concept on my radar.  I have also been vibing with the idea of finding and working with my tribe.  The plain and simple fact is that like minds get each other.  When you are collaborating with someone who tends to see the world like you do, there’s a whole lot less friction in the creative process.  Again, back to disruption…you don’t get that phenomenon without IDEAS.  Big ones!  Diverse ones.  So how does this all tie into disruption and health coaching?  Let’s look at what I see right now:
 

I see invitations to join a group detox-in-a-box, sign up for a discovery call to see if we are a fit, grocery store tours, pantry make-overs, the 6 figure signature program, and my favorite useless idea….handouts!!!

 

I have to ask a question.  Where in this do you see the building blocks for a sustainable career?  How is any of this providing any value beyond what a potential client can find with a simple google search?  I have asked this question before and was promptly attacked by an angry mob.  Ok, we can pretend that these aren’t valid points, but how is that helping a coach who genuinely wants to help people?  With that thought, I am inviting you to take a step out of the usual health coaching forums where people are forever recycling these same tired ideas.   What am I proposing instead?  I want you to have a look at the direct sales company I have chosen to align with!  That’s some punch line, right?

I’m totally serious.

 

Stay with me for a minute.  I am not talking about hawking  products and making ridiculous claims about “my essential oil stopping a heart attack dead in it’s tracks” (btw, yes, I really read that claim in a forum).  I am talking about NOT sending your clients to Amazon for the rock bottom prices on your supplement recommendation,  and instead protect your reputation by suggesting a supplement you know is made and quality tested  to the very highest standards.  I get it!  Some people who pitch their products don’t always have their client’s interests front and center.  That’s the polite way of saying that it’s an ethics problem on the part of the person doing the pitch and shouldn’t necessarily reflect on the company or the opportunity.

 

Opportunity.   I might have felt a bristle at that trigger word.   Not to be confused with opportunistic, but rather the OPPORTUNITY to not reinvent the wheel.  At this point, you’re either nit-picking my words waiting for the gotcha (ha, opportunistic) or you want to know more.  If you are the former, we are definitely not a fit and don’t need a discovery call to make the determination.  

 

If you want to know more about how I have built my practice with the products and programs of Nature’s Sunshine, have a look into IN.FORM, sign up for an informative email series below or fill out a contact form to get the conversation started.