OK you want to become a health coach! First step, yell hooray and jump up in the air a few times. Or, put on your favorite song and dance it out in celebration. Becoming a health coach is the most rewarding career, in my opinion. It has changed my life since the day I started coaching full-time. And maybe you only want a side-hustle coaching practice. That’s cool, too.

Whether you are side-hustling, or want a full-time practice, looking to enroll in school, are enrolled in school, or just graduated - you will need to create a website. SO WHERE DO YOU EVEN START? I am walking you through how to build a health coaching business website in 10 simple steps.

Health Coach Website Checklist - LET’S DIVE IN!

1.     Make an inspiration board for your website Go through Pinterest for ideas and start a board. Include other health coach websites, nutrition coach websites, and nutrition/food blogs that you love in an inspiration board for design ideas.

2.     Take photos! You don’t have to hire a professional photographer, have your friends take photos of you with an iphone or find a friend with a dslr camera. Take a few flat lay photos of food. I still use my iphone food photos on my current website. Taking photos will also give you inspiration for the design of your website.

3.     Write your navigation bar What will your links be? Check out my website and other health coach websites from your inspiration board. Write them down and start with at least these three below and add more if needed:
About Me
Services
Contact

4.     Pick a URL I used GoDaddy.com to check to see if the URL for my business name was available. You can purchase your URL through GoDaddy.com.

5.     Pick a host Check out SquareSpace, Wix, WordPress or any other host for your website. I chose SquareSpace because I love the layouts with a built-in blog. I also like how I didn’t have to hire a developer on the back end, and instead I make my own edits (with the help of a few YouTube tutorial videos at the beginning).

6.     Choose a template (Wix or Squarespace). Start with five favorite templates, and play around with these templates. Drop in a few of your photos from Step 2 to see which one looks best to you!

7.     Write out content! Start with writing content for what’s in your navigation bar.
About Me: this is where you tell your story and why you became a health coach
Services: more on how to choose the services you will offer in Module 5
Contact: Add a contact form or simply add your email and a photo of you!

8.     Add photos and written content to your website template. If you are working with a website developer this will be done by them! Again, I loved SquareSpace because of the drag and drop template but have never tried out Wix!

9.     Start your blog. If you are using SquareSpace, all templates have a build in blog page for you to use. Or have one built for you in Wordpress. Start blogging once a week to engage your audience!

10.  Add as you go. Now that you have the basics in place for your health coaching website by following the steps above, you can add as you go!

Maybe you add a link for Group Coaching or Corporate Wellness or your Ebooks. Remember your website doesn’t need to be PERFECT and include EVERYTHING at the beginning.

My website is still a work in progress and I am constantly making updates, which is why I chose SquareSpace and taught myself how to use it so I can add as I go! Do what works best for you and gives you space for creative freedom whether that is hiring a developer or learning the ropes as you go!

LOOKING FOR MORE DIRECTION ON SETTING UP YOUR WEBSITE AND BUSINESS?

My Online Course for Health Coaches on How to Build a Profitable Practice will set you up for success by laying the foundation and dishing all my secrets to growing a multi-stream income practice.

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This is a question I get asked a lot, and so I wanted to take the time to write out exactly how I got my first paying Health Coaching clients.

I have launched my Health Coach Masterclass on How to Build a Profitable Practice, which breaks down the exact steps you need to take to get your own first paying clients, and also consistent clients after this to build a successful practice. Although I feel that everyone’s journey to getting their first paying clients is different, there is a crucial step that you need to take before you start this journey, and that is to SHARE YOUR STORY.

 Yup, in order to get clients, you need to be comfortable sharing your story. People want to work with you because they relate to your story. If you aren’t currently sharing your story – on your blog, on Instagram, on Facebook, on your website, with friends, with new friends, with friends of friends, at events, at conferences – then you aren’t connecting with potential clients.  I share my story almost every day on Instagram, in my blog posts, and on my website.

HOW I GOT MY FIRST CLIENTS
My first five health coaching clients came to me through Instagram (when I had under 5,000 followers) and a partnership with a Pilates studio here in San Francisco. I had paying clients before I graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a certified Health Coach. In doing so I was able to pay off my tuition before I graduated.

But let’s go back in time.

I quit my banking job back in April of 2017. At this time, I was 5 months into my 12-month Health Coaching Certification program. That same month I got introduced by a friend of mine, who was a Pilates instructor, to the owner of MNT Studio who was looking for a Health Coach to offer nutrition services to their members. You know how that happened? Because I shared my story with her of how I was about to quit my job in Corporate Banking to become a Health Coach. Once she heard my story, she immediately said she needed to introduce me to the owner of the Pilates studio.

The introductions happened, then a formal interview and I got offered a partnership with MNT Studio. I would be offering my health coaching services to their clients and I could keep autonomy with my pricing and scheduling. I would do the client intake and would pay the studio a % every month.

I went on a month-long solo trip to Colombia in May 2017. I would explore during the day and work at night on my website and marketing materials. What was important for my website was to have my story on there. I wanted people at the studio who picked up my business card at the front desk, to go to my website and read my story. I was also on the Pilates studio’s website with my photo and my story as well. It wasn’t just about what I offered, but WHO I AM and my health journey. And this paid off. Because in June 2017 I came back and officially launched Balance by Molly. I dropped off my business cards at the studio and I started to come by weekly to work out and talk to members.

 Within a month I had two people reach out who wanted to work with me. And if I am being totally honest I was SO SURPRISED that they want to work with me. But I knew I was ready; despite my fear and self-doubt, I found my confidence from my knowledge and ability to do it and kick some health coaching ass.

I treated those first two clients of mine like they were gold. I showed up at their work, their home, or wherever was most convenient for them for our sessions. I bent over backwards for them and within another few weeks I had my third client. All in the month of June. They all said they connected with my story on my website and my blog of my gut health journey as they also were struggling with digestive issues.

In July, I changed I added my website link to my Instagram profile and started to post more personal stories about my journey and my relationship with food. By early August I had gained more followers and I had two people reach out to me via Instagram DM. I conducted phone consultations with both of them and immediately took them on as my fourth and fifth clients. One of these clients was Ali Bonar of @avokween who said I was relatable and connected with my story that I shared on Instagram.

HOW I KEEP GETTING CLIENTS
I continued to treat my first 5, then my first 10 clients like gold. I was taking Lyft across the city to new client’s homes and offices. I was working weekends, early mornings, whatever I had to do to make them happy. I knew that my first clients would become my sales force, and if I treated them well, then they would tell their friends, their family, their spouses, partners, co-workers and followers about me.

To this day, about 30-40% of my clients come from past client referrals, 50% come from Instagram and 10-20% come from corporate talks, my 10-Day Balanced Gut Reset, by finding my blog or website in search, Yelp, etc.  

And even though I have an office now where I see clients, and since have passed the torch on my Pilates studio partnership, I still treat all my clients like the rare and beautiful gems that they truly are. I learn so much from their stories that they share with me. It reminds me every day how important our stories are, and how we should never hold back from sharing or connecting.

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This is a post that I have been wanting to write forever, but first, I actually had to leave my career in banking.  To be honest, this wasn’t an overnight decision. Instead it lingered in the back of my mind for many years.  It started as a “wouldn’t it be cool” idea if I could actually build a business doing what I love – helping people eat nourishing food to improve their health.  I never thought it would be possible to turn my passion into a business.

I worked in corporate banking for 13 years underwriting and structuring debt for technology companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. It was the longest “relationship” I had ever been in, and breaking up was hard to do. Because for a long period of time I loved banking. While other young girls dreamed of being veterinarians and ballerinas, at a young age I dreamed of being a business woman wearing a black suit and carrying a briefcase down Wall Street (just ask my mother about this). I didn’t make it to NYC, but climbed my way up the ladder in Los Angeles and San Francisco as a woman determined to break the glass ceiling. I loved the pay checks, I loved the bonuses, I loved the perks and I especially loved the creativity of structuring debt and proving myself to rooms full of white-haired men over and over again.   

Overtime, as with anything painted in glittery gold, the appeal of banking lost its shimmer and I began to see the cracks in the pavement as I continued down the road of my corporate career.  Three years ago I landed at a large institution, one of the biggest banks in America (by assets), and this is where my long term relationship with banking began to reach its imminent end. Compounded by my marriage that ended during my tenure here, I started to re-evaluate what it was that I truly loved about my career.  I noticed that things that were once important to me – money, status, nice clothes, expensive trips – were no longer my priority. They were no longer ME. Or maybe, I thought, just maybe this lifestyle never really was me.  It was time for a change.  It was time to become me again.

I have always been a hippie at heart. I actually hate using a hairbrush, I never really enjoyed wearing a lot of makeup, I could eat crunchy granola, beets and kale every day, and horoscopes and moon phases are pretty much my favorite things to talk about.  But my absolute favorite topic, that lights me up and will get me talking for hours, is about the power that eating whole foods has to change our health. I won’t crowd this post with my own story about my health and wellness journey, but I have seen firsthand the effects that food can have on your body and your mind. I have suffered through the negative effects of a diet based off of processed foods and have since discovered the health benefits of eating a diet of real food.

I have always “coached” family and friends on their own diets and how to make healthier choices, and people started to encourage me to make this into a career. After many years, I started to listen and then used the power of Google to find the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York.  They offer an online certification for health and wellness coaching and I knew this was the next step that I needed to take. I also started to spend most of my time on weekends writing my business plan and materials for my own practice. It took me one year to finally enroll in IIN, thanks to a huge push from a friend of mine, and then it took another six months to convince myself that I could actually do this.  I starting practicing on coworkers and friends, using my own health forms I had created and my personal knowledge I had built over 10 years of how to formulate a diet of whole foods without restrictions, calorie counting or portion control.

I started an Instagram account for fun to document the food I was eating and to share with friends. This is when things started to change. I met an amazing group of like-minded individuals who cared about the real food movement as much as I did, and for the first time in a while I felt understood by my peers.  In banking, I never felt wholly accepted or comfortable in a world dominated by men, long hours and unhealthy habits.  Whenever I brought a green smoothie into work with me in the mornings, or ate a kale salad at a group luncheon, I always received strange looks and back-handed comments disguised as jokes. Another huge reason to move on from your current career, is when you start to struggle with how to relate to your peers.

Me in my office on my last day of work, can you see the joy radiating on my face?!

One of the most important things, and what I always tell others who are trying to leave their career and start a new one, is to immerse yourself in a community of others who are currently in your dream career. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, for advice and for lunch dates to pick someone’s brain.  People who are equally passionate about what they do, will open up and share their stories and offer you amazing advice and help. I am truly thankful for everyone who has been my supporter on this journey.

Having support is one thing, but believing in yourself and that you have the ability to create something out of your passion is what is most important and key for making the leap. At first, I was so fearful of not being able to be successful in another career. I was questioned by those close to me how would I make money and support myself? I second-guessed myself for leaving what others thought was a great career. I began to question myself and self-doubt reared its ugly head for the first few months.

The I remembered what an older female colleague and mentor told me once, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” So step one, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. If you are good at what you do in your current job, imagine the possibilities in a job you love.

Step two, here is a worksheet and video with my top tips before you make the leap.

And with that I will leave you with a quote from Mr. Steve Jobs: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it.”