Hey there, wellness entrepreneur! Welcome back.
Today, I’m honored to have on my client and special guest, Katy Cassady, who’s going to share her entrepreneurship journey and what she’s really accomplished in a short amount of time, just under three months, how she’s really increased her Instagram views, how she’s increased her inquiries about asking about her wellness and food coaching program, how she’s doubled the amount of clients that she’s worked with, more than doubled her revenue and has really set herself up for potential for so much more, and how she’s done that by decreasing the number of hours that she’s working in her business.
So if you feel like you’re putting in a lot of time and energy, but you’re not quite seeing the return on that investment, then be sure to read about Katy’s story all the way through. I’m sure you’ll find it so inspirational!
Alison: Hello there wellness entrepreneurs! Welcome back. Today I have on special guest my client, Katy Cassady. She is a food and wellness coach. Hi there, Katy!
Katy: Hey, thank you for having me on.
Alison: Yeah! Thank you for coming on.
Question to Katy: So, tell us a little bit about what you’re doing, the work you do with clients and how you got into it.
Katy: Yeah, absolutely. So right now, I offer a few different programs. I offer a four-week culinary program where I teach someone how to learn kitchen skills that they wanted to learn in a kitchen for a long time, but haven’t been able to or haven’t been able to learn. So it’s just empowerment that way.
And then I offer a four and an eight-week wellness program where I develop a bunch of recipes, beverages, supplementation for somebody who is really looking to amplify their health in a very specific way using Ayurvedic and chakra healing as a big part of that. Those are my three main programs.
Alison: I love it. And just so I don’t forget, so tell everyone right now, how can they find you on Instagram and what’s your website?
Katy: Ah, yeah. So my Instagram is @explore_healing_food. That’s my main one. And then my website is explorehealingfoodandmovement.com.
Alison: Love it. Love it. Okay.
Question to Katy: My readers here, they love to read about before and after stories. So tell us where were you when you first started working with me in your wellness business.
Katy: Oh my gosh! I was like at my wit’s end. I don’t even think I told you this. I was like really close to just saying no to my business completely and just going back to being a contractor for a food catering or a private chef company just because I wasn’t seeing success. I wasn’t getting clients. Income was so low. It was between anywhere from $500 to a $1,000 a month if I got lucky. And I was working two-three other jobs just to make ends meet, but didn’t know where my systems were. Didn’t know how to organize myself. I was lost. I had no idea what to do.
Alison: Well, I’m so glad you said yes. So glad! Because you have so much knowledge and so much expertise.
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Question to Katy: Tell everyone a little bit about your certs because you have so much like Ayurveda, food. Tell a little bit the audience of all that you can do with people.
Katy: Yeah. I’ve had a very diverse background with food and with movement, which is kind of what inspired my company. I’ve done private chef work in a few different countries. I started off as getting my bachelor’s degree in food anthropology and archaeology. So very niche, very specific. I got that from the Culinary Institute of America under their Applied Food Studies program.
And from there, I mean, I was developing standard operating procedures for big businesses to help with sustainability and help with like wellness practices, especially for the people working for big companies, because a lot of them have self-care practices, which in turn leads to a lot of sickness, which in turn leads to like a very poor work environment. So I was dealing with a lot of that for a while.
I’ve done agricultural work, which led me to where I am now. Actually, I started an apothecary in Minnesota where I’m based and I’ll be growing mushrooms or medicinal mushrooms, various herbs and plants to heal my clients. So that agriculture led me to creating medicine.
And then I got an Ayurvedic certification and was trained under a fantastic Ayurvedic doctor. I had the privilege of working under him for a while and not even working. We were friends. I really got to see what he was doing.
And then I got my yoga certification on top of that, brain longevity specialist. So I deal with a lot of anti-inflammatory things for the brain and cardiovascular health, a lot of different things.
Alison: So, so good. And the reason why I mentioned this, because there are a lot of experienced and wellness entrepreneurs with a lot of certifications listening and a common stuck point, because when you first came to me, you didn’t really have a signature offer, so to speak. And so we really developed that together. And a lot of times people feel stuck with, “Okay, how do I make it work with all these certifications and experience?” And now you do have an offer and it has some tiered levels or ways to really customize it depending upon the client’s needs.
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Question to Katy: But tell us a little bit about what your offer is like these days and how we worked together to put it together.
Katy: Yeah, absolutely. I think when I first met you, I wasn’t even considering calling myself a coach, but I think, especially when you have so many certifications or a diverse background, kind of like what I have, you really help me figure out that my niches are something each person could utilize. The standard operating procedures that I dealt so much with, enacting that in people’s everyday lives through food rituals and through movement rituals, help their health every day and help them reach that goal.
So I think that’s really where my wellness coaching program’s at right now. For four weeks or for eight weeks, we develop standard operating procedures or these rituals that people can place in their everyday life. And then we track their progress. So like, “How are you doing with these three recipes?” “How are they impacting you?” “Okay, let’s switch to these if they’re not working,” or, “Let’s amplify this so that you really start to head up on that goal.” So that’s really how I was able to start to take my program full circle and make it what it is now.
Alison: Just like the offerings, taking them and putting them in a wellness program versus 10 different services.
Katy: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly.
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Question to Katy: And so now what’s the difference in your revenue with all that and your client load?
Katy: It’s so drastic. I went from trying to get five clients a month who would maybe pay me $200 for one individual service to like maybe I get unlucky and I only have like two clients a month. I’m still making $1,800 to almost $3,000 just from those two clients. I think my revenue when I first met you, like I said, between $500 and $1,000 a month. And now I think I hit like $3,500 last month, a huge deal. And we started working together September, October. So it hasn’t even been that long and it’s already a drastic increase.
Alison: Yeah. And 6K months is not far for you either. Which I’m so excited about.
Katy: Yeah.
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Question to Katy: And so tell us because you’re doing a lot out in the community, but before we worked together, clients weren’t coming from the community quite yet. They were like, you were saying like a trickle in and fork, like a one service here or there. But now when you teach out in the community, if it’s for a culinary class or any type of class, you are getting more inquiries. So tell us, we worked on that process together. Tell us a little bit about how you’re doing that now.
Katy: Yeah, absolutely.
So we discussed putting together a sheet of paper and telling people, or so the sheet of paper has like opt in for newsletter. And then also it has an option for schedule a consult or a free consult. So I think that was really the missing piece. I didn’t do consult before I met you. So having that piece of paper and then watching people sign up for my newsletter, seeing if they check in for the consult on the piece of paper.
And then after they finish up, if they did opt in for that or choose a day, going up to them and being like, “Hey, do you want to schedule this now? I have a second, let’s get you taken care of. We can talk about it.” That was huge. And then other people would see that and then they would get excited and also opted for the consult.
Alison: Wonderful.
Katy: That was really big.
Alison: And I tell this to a lot of people, it’s like scheduling them right there. And then they have the rest of the people have social proof, like, “Oh, Katy’s doing this. I’m missing out.” They get FOMO.
Katy: Yeah, exactly. It was great.
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Question to Katy: And then you’ve been practicing consults, like what to say and what to do. How are you feeling on those?
Katy: I’m feeling really good. I’m finding that when people book a consult with me, they’re pretty sure that they need help with something. So just getting it right out in the open, like at the beginning of the consult, just being, so why did you want to meet? What’s going on with your health? And then having them describe it.
And then typically I get so excited because there’s usually five different spices or a movement that they can do to help them automatically. I’ll just start listing all these things and then they get excited. It’s like there’s naturally something you can do. You don’t have to get surgery yet. You don’t have to take a pill. You can use home remedies. You can use herbal medicine to bring you back to health before like adding anything extra into your body. They just get excited.
Alison: I love that!
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Question to Katy: And your program, it’s a little bit of a hybrid. Sometimes you go to people’s house and you show them how to use their kitchen essentially more efficiently. And sometimes you work with people online. How do you like doing that?
Katy: I think it’s great. I think it’s great to have the option, especially like with the people that do book after my in-person cooking classes or my in-person yoga workshops or movement workshops. They tend to maybe not be a fan of virtual, whether they’ve never done it before or something like that. So I think it’s really helpful for those people to kind of start their health journey.
And then like I teach them typically like how to use their phone or how to connect to Zoom or download the Zoom app. So that they’re learning an additional skill, which is great. And then it’s also nice because if somebody doesn’t know how to do a knife cut, if someone doesn’t know how to use a sauce pan, I can be there coaching them how to do it. So that’s the perks to being in-person.
And then the virtual is nice because I don’t have to drive an hour to somebody’s house. We can do it virtually. We can set up cameras and then we can either cook together in the kitchen if they really need help with that and I can be doing it with them or we’re just talking one on one. And typically like 80% of the time it’s just a conversation. So that’s really nice too. Takes a lot off my brain and a lot of like I can breathe. I don’t have to sacrifice two hours of my day driving.
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Alison: Yes, exactly. So your schedule is more optimized and it’s good for them too because weather can be a challenge in your area and that way they stay consistent. They don’t have to reschedule if you can’t drive to meet them. And so many benefits of having that hybrid flexibility.
Question to Katy: And speaking of knives and another area where you’re getting inquiries, we’ve been working on your Instagram so you can get some more online people. And that’s really exploded for you too. Your views have totally changed. Tell us a little bit about that story. They totally changed.
Katy: Yeah, I think we’ve been talking about that for a while now on how to optimize my Instagram reels and I really struggled with getting it under 10 seconds. And I think one evening I’m like, “This is a really good video of me cutting something” or like, I think someone also mentioned that they didn’t know how to cut an onion or something like that. So I’m like, “Maybe I should do a tutorial. I can do that in like seven, eight seconds.”
And so I cut an onion and optimizing the hashtags properly and having explore or follow explore healing foods at the bottom of the post. Like having everything match, integrate the wellness into the caption.
There’s so many little things about Instagram you’ve taught me to do. And then I was just missing the kind of ticket that held my audience’s attention. So as soon as we figured that out, along with all the little things you taught me how to do, I just kept that consistent, made my grid actually look pretty and not look like somebody vomited on it. Started getting follows, started getting views. It was amazing.
Alison: Yeah! You have a reel that’s got like over 20,000 views.
Katy: Yeah. Yeah, I think my monthly is 107K now.
Alison: That’s like skyrocketed from where you were before.
Katy: Like 4,000 maybe.
Alison: Yeah 14,000 to 107,000. Love that. Love that.
Katy: Very happy.
Alison: Now most are over a thousand. A bunch that have gone 3,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000. The knives do seem to be popular though. We are checking that out. So if you want some cutting skills, make sure you head over there and check it out. Like she’s very fancy with the knives.
Katy: I love my knives.
Alison: Yes. I love it!
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Question to Katy: And tell us, during this whole process of like clarifying your offer, putting that program out, getting consults, closing consults, building your Instagram, getting more followers, more views, have there been any like mindset blocks that have kind of come up along the way that we’ve also worked on or that you feel a lot of people, I don’t think it’s a common area because we’re talking a lot about strategy, but sometimes we don’t often talk about like, okay, I had a little bit of doubt about this or insecurities about this, and how you got through that.
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Katy: I think two big ones come to mind immediately. The first one is life is really hard. Like you have a family, you might have a house. I was in the time and like several other things going on while we were working together. Well, I just finished up two of those things and it’s gotten incrementally better.
But I mean, how do you run a business that’s successful? How do you meet with clients and offer the services you’re really passionate about while also dealing with all the life things? Like how do you make time for that in your day to day? And I think you really helped me optimize my schedule and figure out like sometimes you’re going to have off days. Sometimes life’s going to take priority and that’s why having a schedule is so important so that you can plan a little bit more so for it and really and it gave me a little bit of peace of mind. Like having everything laid out in front of me that I needed to do and not have like a scrambled egg brain. Like while I was dealing with life stuff and dealing with work stuff, like business owning.
Alison: Yeah. And how do you feel now?
Katy: So much better. I really probably would have had to stop if it wasn’t for the tools you gave me to utilize. Even the – introduced me to look into Squarespace, how to work the back system a little bit more like and the support with Instagram so that I didn’t have to create two posts every single day and spend three hours doing three posts or whatever it was. Like just like really how to optimize my time. I feel so much better. Like I can go for walks now with my dog midday and not feel guilty because I’m not working. Like my days went probably like 14 hours to like 9, maybe.
Alison: Oh, I love that. And we still have room to grow.
Katy: Yeah, definitely.
Alison: We’ll get them under eight. But we’re working on that. We were just talking about today, working with just you know, making sure our clients get results and then also managing and having our own boundaries in the amount of client work that we’re doing outside of as well because there is an art and a balance.
Katy: Yeah, that’s been a big challenge too. Like feeling bad for not constantly being there but also like knowing that there needs to be boundaries set in order for you to produce quality work for them and have good communication versus scrambled communication every single day. Concise in quality.
Alison: Yes, exactly. 100%. And I think all that you just listed, overwhelm, overworking, long schedule, not seeing the results quite yet, or wanting to people please our clients. It’s so common. Every practitioner hits up against these walls and you just have to work through them step by step and having someone to help you like, Katy was so courageous to work with me, does help the process go quicker so that you can still keep your business and help your people.
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Katy: Yeah! It’s literally been night and day. I was so blocked before the program, not knowing where to go, so tired and like burnout just every single day. The fact that I’m not reaching burnout and I’m like I can go to bed at midnight and be okay. Like that’s like a really big deal for me. I was just telling family I was getting to bed before midnight now and they couldn’t believe it. They were all so excited.
Alison: Oh good. I’m so glad. So you’re implementing your own now more wellness rituals and practices and that’ll just keep shining through, like clients will see that from you and see your shifts and be like, “Oh look at Katy! Look how she’s showing up to culinary class!”
I love that and that’ll be an inspiration to them as well. Already like more than you are now because you’re already doing that. They’re already inspired by you and obviously Instagram’s inspired by you and your knife skills, culinary skills, the food that always looks so good.
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Question to Katy: What would you tell a wellness entrepreneur that is in a similar place like to how you were when you first started with me?
Katy: Definitely number one if you’re feeling overwhelmed and it’s been overwhelmed for a month or two, it’s okay to get some help. You’re allowed to get help. That’s the first big thing. That’s probably what saved me.
And then the next thing is if you need to take a step back and focus on your system, don’t rush into every single opportunity. I really regret doing that, rushing into all of these different services and splitting my brain 10 ways instead of being more calculated and really accepting things that I genuinely wanted to do. There’s no reason to overwhelm yourself like that. Create a solid foundation and build and get help. It’s okay. It’s okay to ask for help. I’ve always struggled with that but yeah.
Alison: I love that. Well thank you so much for your wisdom today.
Question to Katy: Is there anything else you want to share with entrepreneurs that are struggling or want to grow their Instagram and get the views that you have or double their revenue like you have? What would you say to them?
Katy: Keep showing up for your clients and keep caring and really just try to then balance the virtual with the real life stuff because Instagram can take over and so can real life stuff. So creating those solid times and staying consistent with both so that you don’t fall behind on one or the other. That way, like the two halves of your business are balanced and you’re going to be okay. Even if stuff doesn’t turn out the way you want it to immediately, over time, you’ll be rewarded for your consistency. That’s the main thing.
Alison: Yeah, huge. That’s gold right there. It is. There’s a compound effect, and sometimes on Instagram the reel that you had several weeks ago for whatever reason it takes off later and then that boosts other reels. You just don’t know so there definitely is a compound effect to the work. And people will see that too, they’ll see a post, maybe an e-mail and you’re showing up to a class, that combined effect builds trust that shows your expertise, how you’re different and so then that gives them the courage to finally be like, “Oh I think I need to work with you.”
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Katy: Absolutely! Like having Instagram to reference to or my website to when people are interested and being proud of those products is like crazy crazy important. I feel so much better going to people and sharing those pieces of content with them now and being like, I know exactly who I am and what I’m offering you versus I have no idea what I’m offering you but here’s two things you can look at.
Alison: Yeah! I love that! I saw the confidence too because you have so much to offer.
Katy: Oh thank you I appreciate that.
Alison: Yeah! For sure! You deserve it because you’ve worked really hard.
Katy: I’m going to keep working hard! We’re going to get that 6k! I’m so determined.
Alison: Yeah! And working less hours still.
Katy: And working less hours! Oh my gosh.
Alison: You can go pick some more apples in your orchid and show us how to use the rotten apples, that was another popular one.
Katy: That was popular! I almost forgot about that one! That one was great.
Alison: Yeah! You come up with some really good creative content! I love it. Cool! Well anything else you want to share with everyone today?
Katy: I don’t think so. This was great! Thank you so much for having me on.
Alison: Yeah! Tell them again where to find your website and your Instagram.
Katy: Yeah! My website is explorehealingfoodandmovement.com and then my Instagram is @explore_healing_food.
Alison: Yeah! Awesome! Well thank you so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom.
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