Hey there, wellness entrepreneur. Welcome back!
I’m getting ahead creating a few blogs because I have a busy spring coming up. We’ve got a family spring break trip and then I’m traveling twice for April, which is big for me, one for one of my coach’s business retreat in Florida. I can’t wait for it. We’re going to do a lot of B-roll footage in a bougie type house. So stepping out of my comfort zone there, you’ll get to see all the fun on Instagram in stories and then eventually in reel.
So if you don’t follow me there, make sure you do @igniteurwellnessbusiness, to follow along in that journey.
And then in late April, I’m going to my other coach’s Emancipation Retreat, Business Retreat Conference. It’s more conference style, this one. And I’m actually going to be leading yoga for the conference. I’m very excited and truthfully nervous for this because she typically gets over a hundred attendees and a lot of entrepreneurs, very skilled practitioners themselves. So it’s a bigger opportunity for me and I’m also very excited to network and in both places, network and just me, a bunch of practitioners and coaches that I’ve been speaking to for years online.
And because I’m a bit of an introvert and hermit, I’ve been doing a lot of conferences and events online. So I’m finally getting out of my safe little bubble here in San Diego and venturing across the country twice. So I’m here looking ahead to getting ahead on the blog.
And today’s topic today actually coincides with a big event coming up called Mother’s Day. Can you believe it? What in the world? Where has this year gone? But this blog is appropriate for all you moms. It’s about growing your wellness business from home, kids, or if you’re like the McLean family here, kid, one child, or if you don’t have a child or children, you could swap this circumstance for running a business while caring for your elderly parents, caring for a partner that might be sick and going through an illness. You can yourself, you might be going through an illness. So you can swap this for whatever circumstance for focus of this blog.
I will be speaking it from the position as a mom, which again, I want make sure we acknowledge all the moms out there as Mother’s Day is coming up. So that’s what we’ll be focusing on today. But make it relevant for you because here’s the truth, it’s tricky. There are a unique set of challenge when trying to balance your family and your business.
Maybe you’re a physical therapist who’s trying to transition to an online model or bring in an online wellness program or a yoga teacher trying to create digital programs all while littles are demanding your attention. So then sometimes you feel guilty about dividing your attention between your children or your business and you’re feeling like you have to pick one or the other.
And it just, sometimes it seems like a lose-lose situation. Like if you pick your business and you feel guilty about not having time with your children, or you pick your family and you feel like, oh, now you feel guilty because you’re getting behind in your to-do list for your business. Or you feel frustration when a client calls or a potential consultation call comes in and content creation then gets interrupted. Or you feel overwhelmed trying to fit it all in in limited windows of time.
Also Read: Grow Your Wellness Business to Six Figures Without Burning Out
Or sometimes you’re like me, a little prone to anxiety or stress and you feel like growing your business will take forever because you only have these pockets of time and you have big ideas and big goals and it’s just not happening fast enough with the time that you think that you need or you have a fear that you have to choose between being present for your family or creating the business of your dream.
We’re going to get into how do you overcome a lot of these uncomfortable emotions and situations that you might be experiencing in your day to day. And if you’re feeling any of these, just know that you’re not alone. I’ve been there myself and I, many of my clients have been there too.
For example, my client, Justine, she came to me when we first started business coaching and she was even considering shutting down her business because she felt like she was putting a lot of time and energy into her brick and mortar, but wasn’t seeing the profit. And more importantly, she felt like she was missing out on times with in her daughters’ lives. And fortunately for us, for both of us, she did hire me and we were able to turn that around. And now she loves her brick and mortar. She actually has her dream team staff and she is able to go to her daughters’ track meets when she wants. And actually one of her daughters worked for her for a period of time in her business and they had great bonding over that as well.
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The Key Mindset in Balancing Family and Business Growth
Now here is the key mindset. You don’t have to choose between family time and business growth. The solution isn’t working more hours, it’s working in a strategic way, or sometimes as the saying goes, it’s working smarter with a holistic marketing approach that consistently breeds in new leads and new clients. And that leverages both online and in-person strategies so that signing new clients doesn’t take weeks and months because for sure it doesn’t have to.
And it can be done in small pockets of time, 10, 20 minutes here or there, especially some online strategies. They can be done while you’re in the pajamas on the couch and you have a little one home sick from school. And this enables you to consistently show up for your business no matter what’s happening in life circumstances.
And when you show up consistently and have a business foundation, then that allows you to create a wellness program that clients will be excited to say yes to immediately because your marketing will prep and seed them. You implement a strategic balance of online and in-person marketing activities, which we’ll get to. You’re going to develop a consultation generation system that is repeatable and reliable and works even in your limited hours. And you create systems that allow you to market your business efficiently, even with a family first schedule. That is key: family first.
My Own Story
And I can tell you, I’ve gone through this having both a little at home who was in the toddler years, so constantly bringing home sicknesses from preschool. And I was going through a health challenge myself with needing back-to-back surgeries. And I’ll be transparent during that time, my revenue did plateau a little bit during that years.
However, I don’t think it needed to. Part of the reason why my revenue plateaued is because I wasn’t aware of my own mindset issue going through that. And I made a lot of mistakes in my business by making too many changes in my business all at the same time.
But here’s the thing, even though my revenue did plateau during a couple of years, the thing is I was still profitable. I was still bringing in money, I was still paying the family and the business expenses, things were still going along even though I needed time to recover from surgeries, even though I had days where I was home with my daughter while she was sick on the couch.
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So sometimes there are phases in your business as an entrepreneur, as a partner, as a mom, as an individual that deals with their own health, where your business might not grow as quickly as maybe a friend who isn’t going through the same circumstance right there at that time, it might seem like their business is exploding. And here you are just trying to keep your head above water. But it’s remembering like who knows what’s going to happen in two years from now. The situation might be completely flip flopped where they’re going through their own life challenges and you are steaming along.
So it’s keeping your head in your lane and focusing on what you can do in the moment. And you know, here I am several years later, my business is really exploding and I’m getting to enjoy all the fruits of the labor and sticking with it and being consistent even through hard and challenging times. And this also creates such sufficiency for me because I now know, “Hey, I’m not invincible.”
In fact, just a couple years ago, or maybe it was a year and a half ago, it was pretty recent, I did one of my normal cancer screens, a colonoscopy, and they did, they found cancer that was almost stage one. My oncologist told me, had I not gotten my cancer screen and just had it sat there just a couple more months, it would’ve been full-blown cancer. So, I am not invincible. At any moment I might have to go through another surgery or go through something again.
Just a couple years ago my brother unexpectedly passed away, life happens. But I know I can handle it, my business can handle it. I have systems, I have processes, I have ways to care for myself, to care for my family and care for my business to keep things going. I don’t have to shut it all down, I don’t have to press stop. I can keep it going. And that takes so much pressure off that gives me so much confidence like, “Hey, I’m a real CEO, this business is here to stay.” In fact, I’m almost going on 10 years as an entrepreneur. That’s amazing.
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4 Proven Marketing Systems That Help Wellness Entrepreneurs Work Smarter, Not Harder
So the benefits of the strategies we’re going to talk about today, and I’ve got 1, 2, 3, 4 strategies. The benefits of these strategies are, you’re going to create more predictable income without sacrificing your family time. You’ll have the ability to help more people with your wellness expertise. You’ll create freedom from the constant hustle of feeling like you’re trading time for money. You’ll find more confidence in your marketing process knowing exactly which tactics light you up, what to focus on, what’s reliable. So you always know where to prioritize your time and you’ll find joy of building a business that works around your family’s schedule, your health needs and not the other way around trying to squeeze in your needs and your family needs with this business or what I see a lot of entrepreneurs doing as well.
And again, no shame, no judgment because I’ve been there, im completely stopping your business. I’m putting a pause and say, “I’ll come back to this later,” because that whiplash of start, stop can be really confusing for your audience and you want to create trust for your audience.
Right now, there is a lot of hesitancy to work with some practitioners if they don’t feel that they’re going to be there for them when they need it or that they’re going to purchase a program and then that practitioner might ghost or disappear. It is a real fear because truthfully, consumers have been burned by some practitioners. So you want to show up as a trustworthy, reliable practitioner. That does not mean that you have to overwork or burn yourself out or put your business above your family’s needs or your needs. It’s figuring out how to balance it, right?
And the strategies we’re going to go over is from the lens of helping you grow your audience, bring in consistent new leads or new clients, and most importantly, be able to convert these potential leads, potential new followers, new audience members, to paying wellness clients sooner rather than later.
So sometimes this process, it can happen for me where someone new follows me and they become a paying client within 24 hours, 48 hours. So it really can happen fast. It doesn’t have to take weeks and weeks and weeks and months and months and months. Now in the beginning, if it is taking you weeks or months, again, nothing has gone wrong. Sometimes you have to set the process up and go through trial and error and failure to figure out what works and find your flow. That does become repeatable and reliable. So stick with it process will speed up.
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1. You Need To Have an Instagram Bio that Converts Even While You Sleep
Okay, number one, this is super simple and you’ve read about me saying this in the blog, but it bears repeating. You need to have a bio that converts while you sleep. So an easy simple one is your Instagram bio needs to be updated where it’s communicating who you help, how you help them, your unique approach, the transformation you provide, and a clear call to action that generates either new followers to your email list or consultations while you sleep or while you’re picking up your children at school.
It’s just a very simple place that can be SEO search because Instagram has its own SEO where someone could type in physical therapist, Portland, Oregon, and you could pop up and someone could be like, “Oh, I resonate with her.” Especially when your bio and your Instagram profile is up to date and optimized.
Now my tendency is to go to Instagram because I’ve been growing there, but swap whatever social media platform you are on and just take a look at it from the lens of a new follower. Is it enticing? Is it clear? Is it speaking to your specific niche of who you help? Is your face there so they connect with you? What is the next step? Clear is your link tree if you use link tree, not overwhelming with maximum five links, for example, is what you do and who you help clear.
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So for example, if you’re a yoga therapist specializing in back pain, don’t just say yoga for everyone. Instead, maybe you say, “I help busy professionals eliminate chronic back pain without medication through targeted yoga therapy.” And then you can say, “Book a free consultation to discover your personalized pain-free plan,” with the down arrow finger. Our client testimonials and wins. Easy to find are maybe program highlights.
Take a look at your profile from a new set of eyes, a new perspective, wherever you most show up. And just make sure it’s optimized so that when people are searching and they randomly land upon you when you’re busy doing other things, they can click follow, they can subscribe, they can even book a consult. I can’t tell you the number of consults that are booked while I’m sleeping or doing other things. Okay? And these strategies are both online business marketing strategies and in person because again, I find it so powerful to do this combination.
And whether it’s you’re doing an even ratio split of online and in-person marketing tactics, or you’re leaning more heavily to online tactics and less in-person or vice versa, you get to do you, which with what lights you up, where you feel most comfortable showing up, what works for your schedule, you get to choose. But here are some ideas.
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2. Implementing a Strategic Network Community Building Events
So number two is more in-person and that’s implementing a strategic network community building events. So instead of spending hours at random networking events, choose one to two targeted in-person opportunities each month that align with your family schedule. For example, you can offer a free workshop at a local business or a community center or library where your ideals ideal clients already gather.
So my client Joe, has offered events at his local library and also does vendor table events at some vegan papa festivals, gatherings around town. Many of my clients do many workshops for yoga studios and fitness centers. You could head back to previous episodes.
So for example, Christina Zang and episode 245 speaks about filling your physical therapy practice to using wellness workshops around town. In episode 242, Lynn Viant talks about growing of physical therapy practice with running form clinics. In episode 241, Julie Gele talks about lead generation through full moon meetup. So around that time, episode 238, Justine talks about leveraging online classes to boost revenue without burnout. There are many client examples. Kelli, another client a little further on in the two fifties talks about growing her neuro somatic practice. So there’s many different examples you can hop in there and head to those past episodes to be inspired. Another idea are online events. So my client, Stephanie hosts monthly online group Reiki, a free group reiki transformation session.
You could host a monthly wellness Wednesday event from Zoom online at home. Or find a place that you can rent out where either your partner can watch the children or hire a sitter for just two hours each month to build your community and audience. It’s well worth it.
It’s just finding a system that can be repeatable that you enjoy doing. And sometimes in the beginning you have to try some events or like vendor tables. For a while I did vendor tables and it took a bit to figure out the events that I really, where my ideal client was and it was a match where they converted and became followers, or I would actually book consultations at the that event. So sometimes you have to do a little trial and error to figure out the ones that you do want to repeat and then it’s getting it into your calendar consistently.
Like my client, Dana, she hosts 1 to 2 workshops a month in her community in yoga studios on varying different topics. And that works really well for her.
I remember when my client, Emily, when she first came to me, she was doing random coffee meetings all around town because she had just moved and she was building her practice, but they were taking a lot of time trying to network with referral partners and potential clients one by one, versus if you can do it in a group setting, you can even have a, an event for providers, potential referral and networking partners, then it really maximizes your time.
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3. Content Creation and Batching
Okay, strategy number three is all about content creation and batching and being efficient with content creation. It’s not a nice thing to have.
Sending e-mails is not a willy-nilly thing to do. Posting on social media shouldn’t be a posting and praying. These should be real strategies and done consistently. For example, my bare minimums in my business, you again, you can see a past episode that speaks to that. I teach my clients the bare minimum strategy of content connection points that you make sure you do weekly in your business, even when, for example, those systems still flowed even when I took several weeks off to grieve the passing of my brother. And that is keeping the podcast episode going. I can batch and get ahead on episodes just like I’m doing right now.
Or when I have these traveling, busy traveling season. I will also be getting ahead through my emails and my social media posts and those are my three bare minimums to keep my business going, keep my touch points with my audience so I just don’t disappear and flake on them. And it keeps new consultations coming into my business. I find it really hard to create content daily, especially with my daughter needing things or my partner needing things or trying to create that reel on the fly in between sessions where my brain, it’s such a different brain power to go from truly being focused and present in a session for that individual in front of me. Or if it’s my group program for those individuals in front of me to then trying to go into creation mode.
I was saying this to one of my clients on a call when I am creating content, I create the best content when I am relaxed and when I am relaxed, I am most creative and productive. So for me, content creation squeezed in between session, it feels very forced and it’s truthfully just not that great because typically it’s too fatiguing for my brain to try to switch quickly in that hour where I’m trying to eat, create the content, post the content and force my brain to move and pivot from how it works in sessions to creative.
So instead I batch my content or batch e-mail writing where I am comfortable. So for example, on a Monday I create the best reels when I am comfy, cozy on my couch with a blanket, feeling relaxed like I would be there on a Saturday reading a book like my nervous system feels calm, my brain feels open, I feel connected and in service to my audience. And that is when I create the best content. So it could be you’re still putting it into your calendar consistently, but how can you set yourself up for success?
For me, success does not mean putting it into my calendar, but then being kind of rigid, in upright, in my ergonomic chair, in my shed with my computer in front of me. That is how I am awake and alert and present for my clients. But that’s not how I best create content. So it’s understanding this difference for yourself and setting yourself up for success.
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E-mail writing’s the same way for me. I need to be comfy and connected to my audience. Sometimes I do it well ergonomically in my chair, but I need to have music on. I need to have it be a little fun and inspiring. And sometimes I can write really great e-mails when I’m on the couch up in my house and my daughter is playing independently right next to me. I love that. I love having her pop over and be like, mommy, what are you saying? What are you writing? And then she gets inspired and actually she goes on notability, which is on her iPad and she begins to write a story as well. So figuring out a schedule that works for you, for me, doing it weekly or working ahead like I am doing it now, bimonthly works really well for me.
If I don’t go through periods of travel or needing to take a lot of time off, I typically do it weekly because I’m always gathering feedback from my audience through DMs, through consultations, through client sessions on where, where they’re really struggling and bringing those struggles into my content. That’s why I tend to really like doing it weekly, but doing it twice a month also keeps me current to those daily struggles. Maybe for you though, with your schedule, it’s doing it once a month, you and you have one large content batching time, so you get to decide what works for you. Okay?
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4. Developing a Community-based Lead Generation System
And then number four is developing a community-based lead generation system. And this strategy combines both online and offline marketing. And that is creating a free or low ticket under $45 value packed resource that addresses a specific pain point or daily struggle for your ideal client. And then you can distribute it through local wellness centers, doctors’ offices on your Instagram. It can be in your link tree community bull bulletin boards. You can drop this off while doing a family outing. Maybe if there are moms and they are your ideal client, you can distribute it.
Ask permission if you can distribute it at your children’s schools or activities or where other parents may be if they’re your ideal client in your digital channels that require minimal maintenance.
So for example, it’s just getting it up and then the welcome e-mail set so they can receive that product or service or guide, workshop, whatever it may be for you. And this funnel doesn’t have to be long. I think sometimes a, a lot of practitioners really get frozen here.
Your registration page for them to opt in can be very simple. A few key sentences to describe what it does, who it’s for, what’s the transformation they’ll receive.
And then maybe speak to a few objections as to why they think maybe they don’t need it now or they don’t have time for it. And then all you need is one, maybe two welcome e-mails just because if you’re consistent in your nurture, your weekly e-mails or your monthly e-mails, they’re going to be dumped onto that list anyways. So they’ll be nurtured through those e-mails. So you don’t need a huge, long welcome sequence. One or two e-mails is fine. So you can really set this all up within two hours.
So maybe it’s a five-minute desk stretch guide, maybe it’s five Yoga poses to reduce anxiety or three tips to optimize your hormones as you navigate perimenopause. What could give your audience a quick win? It doesn’t again, have to take a lot of time for you to create either if you’re thinking you don’t have consistent childcare to implement this, or your children are too young and active for you to focus on marketing or thinking that building a business, implementing these foundational systems will take months or years with limited time.
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Conclusion
These concerns are valid, but here’s what I want you to know. These systems, these strategies are designed for an inconsistent schedule. It allows you to be inconsistent by, in some ways staying consistent, if that’s very meta, I don’t know what else is, or paradoxical. When you build consistency within your systems, then you can be inconsistent because of life, if that makes sense. All of these don’t take full days. They can be quickly implemented in Windows. Most of them are one or two hour longs.
If you do have a vent, you might need to block off three to four hours depending, but that is doable. A partner can watch children for three to four hours and maybe you need to have an uncomfortable conversation with them if they feel like they can’t. But it depends on your family dynamic. But you get to fight for your dream too.
Or maybe it is using right now some of your business revenue to pay for childcare. I did that for a period of time, but also when my daughter was young, I worked part-time only three days a week and grew my business. I think when I first started back to work, it was even two days a week. Start somewhere with one thing. Actually, I’d be really curious for you to tell me. I would love your feedback. So just send me a DM via Instagram or reply to one of my emails. If you’re on my email list. I would love to know, do you love these longer episodes with a bunch of strategies all in one, are they, or would you prefer one strategy at a time to implement? Let me know because I can really cater the blogs more towards you. But it’s really just picking one of these strategies and starting, then pick the strategy that resonates most for you.
Block off time, figure out the child care and then go for it. Get it layered in, create success, figure it out. So it’s working for you. And then after you figure out one, then add in another could be just starting with optimizing your bio and then when that gets set up, implementing one marketing in-person strategy a month. And then when you’re going to a networking event or a workshop you are having people follow you there to stay connected or maybe they’re opting into your email so you can stay connected. What is the second touchpoint? This isn’t a someday strategy or I’ll get clients someday. This can all happen when you have it set up. You can start signing clients within a few days, but if you’re feeling too scattered and being like, oh, okay, I’ll get to this later. The cost is either you’re not going to be working on your business, fulfilling your dream and passion of helping more people, or your business might actually hijack and try to take over your life.
I for sure don’t want that to happen to you. I just remember one time when my business was taking over my life, I allowed that to happen, let’s say, or I created that situation to happen unconsciously. I didn’t realize I was just, you know, trying to succeed. And I came home from leading a yoga teacher training one weekend. My daughter was three or four, and I just remember she said, mommy, I missed you ’cause I was gone all weekend. So I don’t want you to miss out on precious moments with your family. So for example, now I have an acute awareness that my parents are getting older and their time here on Earth is limited. In fact, all our time here on earth is limited, but it’s become, I’ve become very acutely aware now and this year Kaylee and I are going to Florida for a longer period of time than what I normally do.
And we’re trying something out. I am going to rent a work coworking space while I’m there. My brother, my mom, and my dad, even though they’re separated, have agreed to watch Kaylee independently, not together. While I work with my clients, because my business is online, I do have the flex, I should say primarily online. I do have the flexibility to do this. So I am going to, we we’re staying pretty much two weeks, I believe it is. And I will take two to three days out of that two weeks to work and see some clients. And I will also take the rest of time for vacation and get to spend with them. And it’s a win-win situation because my parents, they are not local so they don’t get a lot of time with Kaylee. So having that, that alone day to go to the pool or just be at the house, whatever they’re feeling up to doing energetically, that’s great bonding time for her and them.
I can get some work done and then we can all hang out together as well. So I’m very happy about this situation and I am so grateful that my business is set up for me to do this so I can spend time with them. And I, I won’t look back regretting, oh goodness, I knew that my parents were getting older and I miss those moments. I will forever be grateful for these moments.
So in conclusion, working from home with children doesn’t mean that you have to grow your business at a snail’s pace. You’re going to grow it at your pace. And right now that is exactly the right pace. Just develop that holistic marketing strategy that balances online efficiency with strategic in-person connection points. And with that powerful combination, you can create a thriving wellness business that generates consistent clients’ revenue without sacrificing family or your own health self-care time. Remember, it’s not about doing more, it’s doing what works. It’s not trying to be about everywhere. It’s being strategic and it’s certainly not choosing between your business and your family. It’s creating a model that really enhances both.
All right? Go out there, have some fun with your business, have some fun with your family, take that downtime for yourself and I’ll see you next week. Bye for now!
Important Links to Visit:
Kelli Russell’s Guide to Overcoming Fear and Finding Success in Business
How to Process Triggers to Avoid Storing Tension in Your Body
How to Use the 7S Framework to Grow Your Wellness Business
Take Your Wellness Business to New Heights with Personalized Mentorship
