In today’s episode, I am trying something totally different. Rather than giving you an interview or training, I am doing an actual live coaching call. Hannah is very involved in my membership and in the launch group so we chat on a regular basis. We are running this exactly the way we would if I wasn’t recording it so I hope you enjoy it!
IE 71: On-Air Coaching Call with Hannah Stoffel
Hannah is a health coach who teaches women how to eat in order to look and feel their best. Over the past few years, Hannah experienced several tragic life events that had her body railing against her. Systemic acne, chronic stomach pain, and high stress levels left her trying to figure out what to do to heal her body.
While she had always been interested in fitness as a way to keep her waistline a certain size, she was happy eating whatever she wanted as long as the fitness worked. What she would come to grips with as she dealt with these major life changes was the truth that food can heal us from the inside out and that stress can kill us.
One of the things I love about Hannah is the way she approaches her business. While she considers herself a beginner, she has a desire to set her business up in such a way that it will thrive in the future. She looks toward tomorrow instead of just worrying about what she needs to do today.
I always begin a coaching call by asking the client what we will be focusing on in that call, so let’s jump right in!
Attracting the Ideal Client
Because Hannah’s business is teaching women how to eat in order to look and feel their best, she is often asked if she creates meal plans. She wants to be sure that when women see her or hear about her, they understand exactly what it is that she does and it’s not creating meal plans.
The first and best way to ensure that people know what you do is through your email welcome series. Hannah has several lead magnets, including one that is acne specific (this is one of the physical struggles she had), and the Your Most Beautiful Self Guidebook, a 6-page booklet that walks them through the first 3 steps she takes with her clients.
Since I know Hannah, I know some of the things she has said that have left an impression on me. One of those things is feeling beautiful enough in your skin to go to the grocery store without makeup. I think of it whenever I think of her. I associate that with her in my mind. I want her email welcome series to do that for her new subscribers.
It’s important to use the welcome series to let her readers know what they can expect from her, whether that’s in follow-up emails, as a coaching client, or from her products.
So, the first email will truly be a welcome email and will give the subscriber the lead magnet. The second email in the series will be telling them what they can expect from her. Third up, Hannah is going to share her story. This allows people to make a personal connection with her and to build a level of trust with her.
Being Authentic Online
Hannah has a definite desire to be posting on Instagram more but a couple of things are holding her back. One is photo quality but the other is authenticity. Let’s jump on the photos first.
Hannah’s house isn’t great for lighting for photos so even if she takes a photo, she doesn’t want to share it because of the way it looks. I can completely identify with this because I am the furthest thing from a photographer, but as a lifestyle blogger, I have to do food pictures.
My best tip for this is to do all your photos outside. I don’t care if that means you’re doing shots on your driveway. I use my back porch for 100% of my recipe shots. I lock the dog inside, grab my big honking DSLR camera, and I set up outside. This gives you the lighting that you want and the brightness you need for great photos.
Now, let’s address the authenticity piece. Hannah is bothered by the false front put out by many in the health and fitness niche that they eat 100% healthy food all the time. She wants to be authentic with how she lives and what she eats. Again, telling her story is going to be crucial for Hannah.
Instagram is a visual platform so if we don’t tell our stories, we are putting forth an image that is likely far from what our lives truly look like. I recently shared an image on Instagram and told the story of a difficult time in our life. I know it’s easy to look at us and think that everything is so great. After all, my husband was able to quit his job and come home to work for my business.
The fact is, though, that we only made that a reality for our family because of some really difficult times. Sharing your story will always increase engagement as people make that personal connection with you.
Using Facebook to Grow Your Email List
Hannah has created a private Facebook group and wants to not only grow it but also use it to grow her email list. This is smart thinking. Figuring out ways to use social media to grow your email list should be a priority for all business owners. I wanted to give Hannah a couple of different ways to do this.
First, she needs to share her lead magnet in her Facebook group rules. As you set up your pinned post for the group rules of “be nice, play fair, no spamming, etc.”, near the bottom of that post, you can offer the freebie to the members. Secondly, I make a video for my group members so that when they join the group, they immediately start to learn more about me and my story. In that video, after I tell them what I want to tell them, I mention the link in the description of the group rules post and tell them that after they finish watching the video, to go grab it.
It’s also important to give your audience some sort of call to action. When you make your Facebook video, after you say the things you’ve planned to say, tell them what you want them to do. For Hannah, it could be as simple as, “Tag me on Instagram when you have something you think is unhealthy.” Giving your followers tasks to do increases engagement.
Using keywords is another way to increase engagement on Facebook by helping new people find your group. You can insert tags for your group by finding the most-used keyword searches. I like to use SEMRush for searching Google hashtags. Honestly, Pinterest is a fantastic place to find keywords since when you type a word in the search bar, you get all kinds of suggestions for related keywords.
How Much Time Should I Give to Facebook?
Hannah is not only a business owner but she is also a mom and she homeschools her children. For this reason, spending hours on Facebook, or any other social media platform, daily is just not in the cards for her. So what’s the best way to get the most bang for your buck when you only have limited time to pour into it?
My first suggestion here is figuring out which social media platforms are the ones where your ideal audience is hanging out and then throwing the majority of your effort at those. You simply can’t be everywhere all the time or even some of the time.
What I recommend to Hannah is what I would recommend to any one of you listening: build a page on Facebook that you would want to find if you were looking for that business. Create current information on that page. Continue to tell pieces of your story. Share pertinent articles or recipes or whatever matches your business.
Because Hannah has been feeling overwhelmed and kind of ignoring her Facebook group, I want her to start by posting once per day on there. Once she gets comfortable posting once per day, she can go to twice. Live video is also a great way to engage on there. People love video so having several posted gives them something to go through and learn about you.
Whew. That was a ton of information! I hope this gave you some great insight into how I run my coaching calls. If you need coaching or have been looking for a mastermind to be a part of, I’d love for you to come over to Jenny Melrose and become a member of my group! And be sure to join the free Facebook group.
Action Steps:
- If you liked this episode of Influencer Entrepreneurs, please subscribe and leave a fabulous review!
- Mark your calendar for the weekly free trainings every Tuesday at 11am EST over on Jenny’s Facebook page.
- Join the conversation on Instagram by using the hashtag #WWJMD and tagging Jenny when you’re listening to the podcast. She’ll send you a personal message whenever you tag her.
