
Wish you could break free from convention and travel the world while working for yourself?
With the help of her podcast, Nutrition and Life, Lisa Franz left her career as a police officer and built a thriving online nutrition coaching business.
Lisa shares her journey from Germany to 53 countries around the world, exploring how she built her online business, Nutrition Coaching and Life. She explains her insights on creating a sustainable coaching model, her podcasting experiences, and the balancing act of a digital nomad lifestyle.
Today’s episode includes:
- Why Lisa’s passion for nutrition and travel inspired her career shift.
- How her podcast, Nutrition and Life, educates clients and builds industry connections.
- How the podcast evolved into a networking tool for personal and professional growth.
- Why authenticity and consistency are crucial for successful social media engagement.
- Lisa’s most successful methods for lead generation.
- How Lisa balances the digital nomad lifestyle with her health and wellness business responsibilities.
- Why her podcast serves multiple purposes, including client education and storytelling improvement.
Are you pouring your heart into your podcast but still not seeing the growth you deserve? Download our free guide to unlock your podcast’s full potential and expand your impact: https://eastcoaststudio.com/5mistakes
Nutrition Coaching & Life: https://www.nutritioncoachingandlife.com/
Nutrition and Life on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nutrition-life/id1649806306
Nutrition and Life on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Hw1ReeHCWsM03eBGplBvJ?si=fa781c4c17124ba6
Nutrition Coaching & Life on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nutritioncoachingandlife/
Lisa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nutritioncoachingandlife/
Lisa on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisafranz-ncl
Our LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eastcoaststudio
Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecpodcaststudio
View unedited episode transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to profits through podcasting, where we help health focused entrepreneurs generate leads and revenue for their business and grow their impact on the world through podcasting.
I’m your host, Joel Oliver, CEO of east coast studio.
And our guest today has helped over 300 clients succeed since becoming a full-time nutrition coach over five years ago. Lisa Franz is the owner and head coach at nutrition at coaching and life. She also hosts the nutrition and life podcast, which is coming up on 200 episodes. This business has given Lisa the freedom to enjoy life as a digital nomad, having visited 53 countries and counting.
In this value packed episode, you’re going to learn how Lisa started and grew her business, including the types of mentors she’s worked with and how she found trustworthy people to join the team. As well, the ups and downs of living as a digital nomad. And why it is okay to go by what feels good to you rather than what people tell you you should [00:01:00] do when it comes to work-life balance and creating content.
Finally, despite podcasting social media and an email newsletter, none of those three things are the biggest driver for leads when it comes to Lisa’s business. So you’re definitely going to want to hear what she has to say about that as well.
Hello, Lisa. Welcome in.
Thank you for having me. I’m excited to speak to you today.
Let’s start first with a brief background on your business itself. It’s nutrition, coaching, and life. So when did you start that and why did you start that?
So I studied exercise science, health promotion, and nutrition right out of college or right out of high school. And I really loved the concept or the notion of being able to help people, but I had no idea in which way, shape or form. So actually after my studies, I, Completely reoriented and became a police officer for a few years working frontline in New Zealand.
Actually, I [00:02:00] was always thinking about Training I was always thinking about oh, how can I help people nutritionally even when I was in the police? So at some point I just recognized this is this is not for me. I learned a lot about you know Humanity and about myself, but it’s not my true passion.
And so eventually, for me, just the desire came that I wanted to be able to to work from anywhere.
What can I do? So I actually, at first I did, uh, an online course on, I think it was web design or something. And halfway through the course, I was like, what the hell am I doing?
So I then look more into other things like, okay, is there such a thing as online personal training? I don’t know. That was like 2017 or so. So it wasn’t as popular as it is now.
And, um, yeah, I found, uh, several online personal trainers and even some that were like trying to quote unquote teach how to be an online personal trainer. So I thought this sounds interesting, even though I’ve always been more interested in the nutritional aspect. So at some point, I then found out, Oh, there’s also such a thing [00:03:00] as online nutrition coaching.
And I started doing some courses and after completing more certifications in that area, I just decided the best way for me to learn more about how to be an online nutrition coach would be to get one myself, even though I didn’t necessarily, quote unquote, need one. I was at a rather healthy body weight and happy with my body.
I just thought I want to see how they operate, how they function. And so I got a coach for about eight months two different ones for four months each. And I learned how they operate, how they function and was like, that’s what I want to do. That’s what I want to do. So I already, put up like a little bit of a website and I was like, you know, when you first start off and you have a couple of hundred followers on Instagram, it’s like, well, this is not really going to go anywhere.
I don’t really want to spend a lot of time or money on. I don’t feel like I have the expertise yet. What could I do? So I decided at that time I wanted to work for [00:04:00] someone else first and just started looking around and speaking to people and somehow got connected with, amazing company. They’re called Tailored Coaching Method and they, The owner actually became one of my first mentors.
so by the time I, I stopped working as a police officer, I had already built up, , sort of a part time job with tailored coaching method for the next two and a half years until I just came to a point where I was like, okay, I feel ready to go out on my own. I’m incredibly grateful but I just don’t feel like I can grow within the company anymore. That was 2021. I then went out and started my own business, nutrition, coaching, and life and, , have now three other ladies that work with me.
We, started a training app, and, um, yeah, just continue to love the journey. Started my own podcast a couple of years ago, 2022, to also be able to provide more knowledge to our, clients, really, that was the primary aim. And that’s kind of also been a big [00:05:00] focus of mine over the course of this year.
Great. It’s very interesting that had that desire to go work while you traveled. So that was like the main motivator at the beginning there it is to figure out how do I actually do this? And then you figured it out. You know, some people actually with me as well, like I just kind of discovered, Oh, I’m, I’m working online.
Why am I even sitting here in Canada in the cold? Whereas you had that intention from the beginning to let’s go figure out how to do
So, on that note for a moment, since that is a very appealing lifestyle to many people, and because it was such a big part of what you’re doing, let’s hear a bit about the digital nomad life, because a lot of people would want to do that, and go travel, be anywhere they want, and still be making an income.
So, tell us a little summary of your travels so far. How many places have you been? Do you enjoy this? Is it as good as you hoped when you started out on this journey
So I have been to 53 countries, uh, by now, not all of them during my digital nomad [00:06:00] years. I’ve been digital nomading now for coming up six years. But yes, many of them in the last six years and all in all, I will always say that this lifestyle is definitely not for everybody, even though it often looks like.
all that I do is like, put my feet up by, by the pool and work out and eat some delicious food. And you know, it’s all butterflies and unicorns all the time. It’s definitely not. and you get to a point where you do want to have a little bit of a base. So in my, in my first year, I really, just stayed in places for two weeks, four weeks,
and then the next year was more like three months, four months. And by now it’s come to a place where I’m trying to set up a base. It’s like seven, eight months. Somewhere and it’s been columbia for the last couple of years And then the rest of the time traveling around a little bit more so it does get fatiguing also very much.
So from a Relationship perspective, you know [00:07:00] making friends anywhere. It takes time people are often even not that open to engaging with you if you’re like, uh, I want to be your friend, but You know, I’m leaving in in a month’s time. They’re like, well, why should I even introduce you to my friend circle or not?
So I I absolutely get that. , I don’t need a lot of people. I need a small or I like a small circle of people that , I really feel close to and of course, thanks to social media to the internet we can still connect in online Certain ways. , although of course nothing goes over personal contact for sure.
but yeah, generally speaking, I do very much enjoy and like being by myself. I, I’m, I can, I can be very content on my own. So I think that is a prerequisite for being a digital nomad. If you’re someone who constantly likes to have people around them,
this lifestyle is problematic because especially in my first few months of nomad ing I was like, oh my god, this is freedom This is amazing [00:08:00] 11 like whatever I want I can I can do that.
So But I did realize that if I put too much play before work, the work doesn’t get done, or the quality of work diminishes a lot. And so, therefore, a lot of the nomads that I met in Bali or Thailand initially, which is where I was the majority of the time then, They had to go back home because they didn’t get into a good routine and, , just ran out of money at some point.
So you have to be a very self disciplined and regimented person, in my opinion, if you want to make that work long term. Because it’s basically like you constantly have a cake in front of your nose. The cake being like, The beach, other people going surfing, other people doing nothing, and that’s always in front of you and you have to be the person who says no, I’m going to do some client work and at 3 or 4 p.
m. or 5 p. m. I’m going to go to the beach and that’s when I can enjoy the time, but you have to [00:09:00] have the strength to do so. And in terms of countries that I have loved. So Bali has been one of my favorites. For sure. You don’t actually get a feel for the true Indonesian culture.
It’s just like a little place That’s separate from the rest of the world, but yeah, wonderful place. Nonetheless, Thailand also wonderful place. Um, Mexico. I’ve also really, really enjoyed being there. , many, many countries, actually Guatemala as well.
And currently I’m in Bolivia, so I’ve only been here for a few days and I’ve been here once before, but it’s too early to say how it rates amongst my list. I would say.
it is great how both the internet has opened up these opportunities for people like us to work remotely and then things like Airbnb and different apps that you can just makes traveling a whole lot easier. But you brought up some very good points there. Like the friends one is something I relate to that a lot as well, because I’m sure you at this point have a lot of great friends in many, many different places that you can’t always [00:10:00] see.
You know, and now I miss people that I, I can’t see anymore most of the time. So that’s great. You know, that adds to your life. But the discipline is very, important, like you said, because it can be a lot of fun. There’s a lot of temptations to just be out and enjoying and going to the beach or whatever it is.
But yes, you actually do still have to work contrary to popular belief,
Yeah, well, and I mean, uh, on, on the others, like on another downside, I would say is, , I haven’t actually had like a vacation vacation in six years. So I have not taken any time off. I will say that so far. I haven’t. Had the desire to do so. Um, I will also say that at this stage my business is just not set up the way that I, I could or would want to say, Hey, you’re not going to hear from me at all for the next three weeks, four weeks.
I mean for a few days that would be fine, but one of the rules that I have for myself and for my clients is just, I’m going to get 24 hours, even if it’s just, Hey, [00:11:00] I read your message. I’ll respond in detail on Monday. Um, But I want to be available. So I haven’t like properly gone off the grid and a lot of people can’t grasp that For example in germany, it’s very common.
Um, so germany is where i’m from get 35 days of vacation days per year.
And so whenever I speak with people at home, or for example, my mom, very traditional work thinking, she’s like, ah, Lisa, you need to do this. Disconnect completely for a few weeks and it’s not good for you long term for your mental health and blah blah blah And I’m like, well, I don’t actually mind that because first of all, I love my jobs another concept that she or my dad They can’t grasp and and second of all, I’d rather work a couple of hours most days rather than having like 12 hour days Five day a week five days a week and then nothing for a while That’s just the type of person that I am.
I prefer moderation and a bit of balance than those kind of extremes But I mean that’s something that you [00:12:00] have to be willing to do as well I would say if you’re a digital nomad, that is just a bit more flexible or that you’re, you’re just aware of the fact that it, you don’t have like proper vacation vacation.
It is still, as you say, you still need to work. You still get up and go to the gym. You still do your basic things. The majority of the time.
Yeah, there’s a lot of schools of thought around things like that too. And it depends on the person, their business, the stage of life. but I’m totally with you because to me, I don’t really want to take a break. I understand the benefits of having a business that can run without you. But if you get this opportunity where you can travel and let’s say I could go to the beach for two hours.
I’m not taking a week off vacation, but I can kind of do what I want. I’m fine with that. Now, if you have a family, that could be a different story because you’re going to want to take some time to go be with them. But if it’s just you, that kind of thing, don’t see a problem working like that.
Whatever works for you.
Yeah. I I’m 100 percent with you on that one. And I do think that that’s quite [00:13:00] the old school thinking. So one thing I had to get used to when speaking with people like my parents is just to say, I get to work now. Like if my dad, if it’s like Sunday afternoon and my dad’s like, Oh, Lisa, what are you doing for the rest of the day?
And I’d be like, I have to work now. Oh no, I get to work now. He’s like, what? On a Sunday? You can’t work on a Sunday afternoon. Or, or he would say, Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. I’m like, no, no, no. I get to, I want to work now. And that’s just for somebody who has. Hated the job that they’ve been doing for the last 40 years.
That’s a hard concept to grasp. I think it’s very different if you’re in an employment situation or if you’re your own boss, you know, who you’re doing it for, what business you’re doing it for. And also if you’re passionate about what you’re doing,
Exactly. We have to work some extra hours or work seven days a week at some point, but we don’t have to answer to anybody and we can travel and kind of do what we want. I think that’s a trade off that I’m willing to
same, same.
Let’s talk about your podcast a bit more.
You mentioned it a little, but [00:14:00] what were some real motivations behind starting that? And I mean, you’ve got it up to almost 200 episodes at this point, which is great. What were you thinking when you started it? And has it kind of started to serve your, your goals?
So actually there were several motivations and they have changed a little bit over time. And so the first motivation was really just to provide more value for our existing clients, because so often, you get the same questions over and over again. So it’s like, Oh, how can I hit my protein target?
Or, what’s the best rest time when I’m training or whatever. And you feel like yourself saying that over and over and over again. Of course, you can create like a blog post or you can create something on YouTube, , or an Instagram post, but Instagram posts are not very durable. If you record, if you posted that once, no one’s going to go back and look for that for six months from now.
but if you have a podcast, you can just be like, Hey, I recommend you listen to this, , you know, And here’s another free resource or so. So that was the main driver for the podcast. The [00:15:00] second driver was another thing that we touched on, which is kind of like feeling a little bit isolated, right? So even though I have three ladies that work with us, It still is a very lonely profession sometimes because you’re just working from home or maybe from a cafe, but you’re not necessarily connecting with that many people and so one way that I thought I could network more and could connect more with people in the industry and also learn from other people in the industry would be through the podcast and that has Absolutely 100, 000 percent served that purpose.
It’s really been one of the most fulfilling things just to be able to connect and speak with people that were more experienced in the space and just learning from them that way as well. Also in the sense of like growing my network , and then the third purpose was more of a, even more of a personal one, I would say.
And that’s just simply. Improving as a public speaker. I have always had a huge admiration for people that are very eloquent, that [00:16:00] can express themselves well, that are good storytellers. I think storytelling is such a rare art, where there’s If you meet somebody who is just captivating the audience with, with a story from their childhood or even just from last weekend or whatever, I found that so cool. I think as a coach for me personally It also makes me more relatable if i’m able to tell better stories if i’m able to explain things in a better manner and I have found that podcasting is one such way to do so.
Of course you can also improve your storytelling skills or your relatability through other social media platforms. But I think more long form content is more helpful for that if you have a bit more room, a bit more time and people give you more patience, , that’s one way to improve. So yes, I feel like all. For all three of these purposes, podcasting has certainly, um, served me and this has helped me grow a lot, with the 200 episodes. So it’s been, yeah, over two, two years that I started the [00:17:00] podcast , and I have always brought out at least one episode per week for a little while, even two, and we’ve gone back for two now as well, just because I’ve been able to connect with so many great people, but yeah, I absolutely love it.
we’ve got to get picture here of why everything started a bit about the podcast. Let’s dive into the business a little more. the type of services that you offer, who is your ideal client? Uh, what are you offering to them? How do you deliver it? Those sorts of
hmm. So yes, um nutrition coaching in life kind of like the name is what we do in nutrition coaching mostly I would say that 80 90 percent of the clients Just for nutrition or are doing nutrition and training and then maybe 10 20 percent are just doing the training so training Being either a personalized training program delivered Through an app or a standardized program.
So we’ve got like 20 25 different programs. So depending on what someone’s after, I just assign that person a certain program and they again work with the app. So that’s, that’s a small aspect of what we do. And the [00:18:00] other aspect really is the nutrition coaching. So meaning, for those of you listening that might not know the difference between a nutrition coach and a nutritionist.
So nutritionist is a lot more clinical, is a lot more like, You’ve got diabetes. You should work with a nutritionist. You have any kind of illnesses. You should work with a nutritionist. Nutrition coaching is a lot more habit focused and longterm focused.
So we don’t do such a thing as Here’s a one off consultation. We have a one hour phone call. Good luck. See you later. I don’t believe that that works for most people and my experience has certainly taught me so that we need a lot more continuous guidance. So meaning, , nutrition, like almost everything in life is habit based and just because you know, something Is good for you or is bad for you doesn’t mean that you’re gonna do it So with the coaching we’re gonna work on long term implementation making nutrition work around your life and your lifestyle and because of that, we work with people for a minimum of three months and every week we have at least [00:19:00] one point of contact actually were available to the client like 24 seven via text or email just because I do want.
people to send me a food picture. If they’re like, Oh, Lisa, I don’t know how much protein that was, or Lisa, I’m going to this restaurant tomorrow with my husband for date night. Do you have any recommendations? Or so I’d rather people over communicate than under communicate. That’s just the way that I can help serve them in the best way.
And so essentially, We just do one on one nutrition coaching, meaning there’s different quote unquote packages where you either, , also jump on a phone call, , once a month or every two weeks or whether it’s all just email and voice message based. And I work with people also like in Dubai and the Philippines and all over the world.
So actually many people feel like just voice message and email. text message or WhatsApp is enough for them. And there are a few people that say, no, I do want to, you know, see your face on zoom or so [00:20:00] at least once a month. So I’d rather go for that kind of package. And there have been several times where several people also suggested, Hey, why don’t you offer group coaching just to have a, lower price point entry for people as well.
And I’ve thought about it several times and it’s just something, first of all, it doesn’t bode well with my own personal nature. I love the one on one contact. And second of all, I think specifically the aspect that I try to give people like working nutrition around their life often gets lost in group coaching.
So to answer the question in terms of like target and audience or the people that we mostly work with, I would say it’s generally speaking, more women than men, maybe like 80 percent women and 20 percent men, , somewhere between 30 and 55 years of age.
So a rather broad, , spectrum. But most of them are already reasonably active. They usually don’t even have a lot of body fat to lose just the frustration of like hey i’m putting in the work But it’s not [00:21:00] showing or, when I come back from travels, I don’t feel so, so great and I have to travel for work on a regular basis.
, so how can we work around that?
The accountability that’s built into what you’re providing people is huge. Like, I think that’s an undervalued thing that many people don’t realize how important accountability is. And people will pay for that because otherwise they’re just, yeah, they’re going to eat that thing that they shouldn’t have where they have you.
They know you’re there. Uh, they won’t. Something that ties back to what we talked about, say the work schedule and working at least every day and checking in with your clients. I’m with you on that side of things too, where some people just want you.
They see your face on social media. They want to work with you. So although we might consider, we can scale this and outsource everything. And you know, there’s an automated thing and I never have to work. That’s not really how I want to run my business. And it sounds like you’re kind of the same where you’re responding to these people, right?
When they send you a message, it’s you that’s getting back to them. And there’s a need for that type of business. And I’m happy to do that. And [00:22:00] You are as well.
Yeah, I really hope, , that , the need for this is going to continue even with AI and whatnot as well, and that people truly see the value in it. And even though again, like, Advisors or business coaches have said, Hey, that’s kind of dumb you want to scale your business, if you want to grow, you’re making yourself indispensable.
And, it’s not the best thing to do financially. , If I enjoy doing it and if people appreciate the value for it, I don’t see how there’s anything wrong with that. I would, rather have a business run that way than making a bit more money. And, in the end then having maybe a little bit more time or being less reliant on myself, but then what do I do with that time if I don’t enjoy the time that I spend in the business?
So, I think we just have to make conscious decisions about all of it.
Great. Yeah. So we understand the business a bit. Now you mentioned, I’d like to learn more about how this runs. You mentioned you have three other women that work with you. So could you tell us a bit about what their roles are and how that all looks?[00:23:00]
Yeah, so essentially they’re also, , nutrition coaches doing exactly the same thing that I do. They are, , working with me on a casual basis, and actually the fact is that they were all clients of mine. before they started working with me. I was actually looking for other coaches to help support me because the business grew and grew. And I was like, Oh, it turns into me working more than before. And that wasn’t really the point of me going out and starting my own business. I did want to, you know, scale back a little bit.
And so in the end I thought, what’s the best way to find. Employees and find someone to start working with me and I thought there’s a lot of things that you can teach about nutrition coaching in the end. It’s actually, you know, very basic. Most people can Google like how to lose fat or where should my calories be set?
And so that’s, that’s something that’s very teachable. What’s not teachable is, Common sense. What’s not teachable is being reliable. What’s not teachable is, being consistent, like consistency is [00:24:00] such a big thing. And then I thought, well, I already know some people that are all these things. And I also know that they have nutrition certification.
So for example, Tammy, the first one that I brought on board while we were working together for like a year and a half, she was already working as a nutrition coach. herself just on the side of her main business. And she asked me a few questions a few times. She was like, Lisa, do you mind if I ask you if I’m doing this correctly with my client?
And so I kind of already got a feel about her style of working. But yeah, for me, the most important thing was really. Are her values, is her vision aligned with mine? And I knew that after working with her for a year and a half. And so I literally just said to her, Hey, Tammy, I know you’re a great nutrition coach on your own, but would you be interested to come on board with me?
And thankfully she was, and actually the same, it worked the same way with Laura and Alison now as well. And, , I haven’t regretted, Working or bringing any of them on board because we truly [00:25:00] are like very, very much aligned.
And so do they, do they work one on one with clients as well? Are they helping you develop programs?
you know, so they’re they just work one on one with with clients. And essentially, when someone inquires about the coaching, depends on who has spots open in their in their client roster, or if I currently want to take on clients or not. , and my price point is just a little bit higher than that of The coaches.
And so then depending on where the person comes in, some people say, Hey, Lisa, I’ve been following you in particular for like three years, but I’m ready to coach. Now I want to coach with you. I’m like, okay, cool. That’s absolutely fine. So that initially has been a little bit of a hurdle when, when people just knew me and I didn’t portray some of the work that my coaches do either.
But now I’m like, Hey, everyone’s doing the same thing. Any of my coaches are just as qualified as me you can get to know them better here, too but I understand if people sometimes have a personal bias because [00:26:00] Yeah, you want to know who you’re working with and you want to trust that person But if they’re newer to the platform or to to nutrition coaching in life Then usually they don’t have any issues working with any of the other ladies as well.
Great. I would have asked some questions about that, but I think you covered it. The fact that you charge a little more for yourself directly, but you’ve also been showcasing your other coaches. So people are learning to trust them and get to know them and they know that they’re going to get the results.
It doesn’t have to be you, which, okay. So you’ve done that. You’ve done that bit of scaling and you’re making it work. So that’s great.
Yeah, it definitely it does take some learning for me as a business owner or leader as well. I did like very consciously not name my business Lisa France coaching or whatever, like because I knew I wanted to have a little bit of anonymity as well if I wanted to step back at some point or whatever. but yeah, even just the showcasing and you know, speaking as we do as opposed to I do and or my coaching, but our [00:27:00] coaching, it takes some getting used to for sure.
right. Okay. So we’re, we’re getting towards the end of this here. The thing I’d like to touch on next is your, your marketing funnel as a whole, your lead generation. You’re, you’re quite active on Instagram. You’ve got about 6, 000 followers. You’ve got the podcast, you’ve got a newsletter. Tell us how all these things tie into your lead generation.
Where are most of your people coming from? What’s the next step that they take with you once they find you?
, I will be completely transparent and say that most of the leads are actually word of mouth or are referrals. So I have, I’ve never run any ads or anything before, not because I don’t believe that they work or, um, because I have anything against them. It’s just referrals have worked so well for us.
And the great thing about referrals in my opinion is, you would probably know, also people have already bought in so much because they, you know, that trust that person that told them or They saw the person after a few months and like, Whoa, what did you do? And they’re like, well, I’ve been working with [00:28:00] this company and coaching coaching in life.
And have their trust. And with a lot of the things with nutrition, people have their preconceived notions, and if they don’t trust you, like if someone comes to me with a fear of carbs, or with the belief that they have to be vegan, otherwise, it’s not gonna work, or so, if they don’t trust me, and what I potentially say, it’s so much easier to work with someone. So I’ve actually loved working through referrals.
, otherwise, I would say that most people, follow us and , Get to know the company better through instagram. It’s certainly my my favorite platform I would say also just for for showing up or for talking to people on a more regular basis, I Just hired a linkedin coach because I thought that should be a new platform for me to explore I wanted to just explore it and i’m always someone like If I, if I do it, I want to do it properly.
And I want to learn about the platform. And I know LinkedIn is quite different to Instagram or [00:29:00] Facebook. So that’s why I actually hired somebody to help me with that. But yeah Instagram or LinkedIn are kind of the two and on top of YouTube and the podcast That we try to reach most people YouTube is still reasonably new as well. I think in April I started , posting on there on a regular basis.
, but yeah, certainly more, not, not so much through the website. I think the website, it’s more like, okay, here’s my business card. But if people actually want to get to know you, then they go on Instagram or so just for your stories. And I also share it like some of my travel stories or my own training on Instagram and people like seeing that.
Seeing that because you want to show that you do what you preach as well.
Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely have a couple of follow up questions there. So, first of all, the referrals are great. Everybody loves referrals. Like you said, they’re quite easy to work with, which is fantastic. Have you implemented any sort of a program, like an affiliate program, or anything structured where people can refer others, [00:30:00] or it’s just kind of word of mouth and they just come and find you?
Is that it?
Yeah, it’s literally just that. I don’t think we’ve ever done, I think we’ve done a, like a couple of years ago, maybe where, okay, If you get a friend to sign up for three months or so, you get one month for free. Like that’s the only thing we ever did. But apart from that, it’s really just referrals.
And I mean, that’s one of the beauties of my industry. Like it’s pretty quickly visible if someone makes progress in something or someone has struggled with something in the past and then they don’t anymore. It’s like, Whoa, what, you know, what have, what have you done? So it’s a nice proof for us really testimonial.
Yeah, you have those, they have the evidence there, people can see that you are able to do it, they have the trust by being referred, and then it’s just, yeah, there’s so much noise out there, so many people doing it, they just want to know who is the one that can get me the results and is trustworthy. And here you are.
, so another thing to just what you’re mentioning there, I was curious about your Instagram specifically. . Have you had to deal with like with any [00:31:00] strategies that got you to the 6, 000 followers you’re at now, or are you just kind of posting stuff and it took off? Like, how did you get to this number of followers, would you say?
, I think the same thing that’s made me quote unquote, successful with my own physique or just anything. And that is consistency. I’m like brutally consistent. Since I started that in 2019. I have been brutally consistent in the sense of how often I show up there. I was on there with, you know, A few hundred followers for probably a year and then it became a thousand and then so it’s just slowly Trickled up there and I think the networking aspect as well like just collaborating with people on stuff that has certainly helped um, but yeah, In any area, when I give someone something to walk away with, I think it is consistency.
It’s not, I don’t think that for the majority of people, yes, of course, there are outliers that, um, you know, overnight they have a, a, a [00:32:00] viral reel or so, and then their numbers go up. But oftentimes I would say those followers then are not really engaged followers either. And I really have the blessing that most people that follow me, they, They do it out of genuine interest, and they also engage when I ask a question, or when, you know, they comment on stuff, and I would much rather have true followers like that than a bunch of numbers and nobody really watching the stuff or really taking anything away from that.
, so yeah, I think my quote unquote growth strategy, which is not a strategy, is just consistency, and even though, know that there is a value in analyzing algorithms or analyzing what works at the moment. I don’t pay too much attention to that. I’m just not As much of an analytical person, and much more of like an intuitive person.
So at first, when I started the business, I actually hired a business coach. I still have a business coach, but a different one. But my, my initial business coach, they always promised. No cookie cutter , methods, you don’t [00:33:00] have to do any cold outreach, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, that sounds good.
And then it was like, oh, you have to message 10 people a day and this is what you should post on Mondays. This is what you should post on Tuesdays, and I tried that just because I invested a lot of money in that. I tried that for like, And I hated it. I hate like with it felt so inauthentic to me.
And again, this is not to say that there’s anything wrong with having a content calendar or with having strategies for those sorts of things. But for me, it sometimes I wake up and I’m like, I really feel like I should talk about. Hormone balance today because I got five questions about this yesterday from clients and then I want to be able to talk about that on that day and it feels much more relatable to me than if I just post something just because it was my content calendar five weeks ago.
, so I think. Everybody has to figure out what works for them in that sense. Like how analytical do we want to be? But for me also [00:34:00] the few times where I’ve tried to become more analytical with stuff, it actually, I will say it gave me imposter syndrome because then I felt like, Oh, I’m not good enough here.
That person is doing better there. Oh, I should be doing more of this. And so by putting on a little bit of the blinders and just think, what do I enjoy doing? What has worked well so far? What do I feel is received well by my clients? That’s just what, what, what’s kind of been successful for me, so to speak.
That’s great insight. Yeah, we all maybe want to get the best results and try to optimize, but if you’re not enjoying it, that’s not good. And yeah, so the thing to remember is like the algorithm, cool, it’s, you can easily get obsessed with that and try to tweak everything to make it perfect, but the algorithm is there to match quality content with people who would enjoy it.
So if you just kind of focus on making valuable content in a way that resonates with you, things should happen. Over time with consistency, so you don’t need to necessarily dive into all those specifics [00:35:00] and looking at stats and analytics and and lay it out like you said, which made it not fun.
Yes.
We’ve got a lot of good lessons from you here today. Now we’ve seen you. You’re living this great digital nomad life. You’ve got a great business. You’ve got the followers, but as entrepreneurs, we’re always working on something or perhaps struggling with something. You know, you mentioned you’ve got a LinkedIn coach, you have a business coach as well.
So for you, what are your upcoming priorities or like what’s a challenge? What’s the big thing that you’re working on right now to take the next steps in your business?
Yeah, the, the podcasting continues to be one of the main focus points. In terms of. The coaching that I have received over the last few months. So this year I really invested in, in the LinkedIn coach. And another thing is I actually hired a storytelling coach. So I was working with someone for six months and that was really cool.
But I think now I’m at a point where for the next few months I want to just work on implementation because I think also sometimes as entrepreneurs, we get so caught up in the, learning, learning, [00:36:00] learning and strategy. But then when it comes to just making sure we’re like ingraining what we have learned or what we’ve heard on podcasts that’s kind of where a lot of people fall short and myself included in the past.
But now I just want to focus on the implementation of the, of the storytelling of the, LinkedIn things and just being consistent with that. So that, that’s a big thing growing the YouTube channel with that through the podcast as well. And more on in the sense of like personal stuff. I do want to get a more permanent visa for Columbia so that I can make that my base.
And, just through the nomading and stuff relationship has been a bit more on the back burner. And I am getting kind of to a point where I’m saying like, no, I’m, I want to, make that one of my priorities as well. And just meeting another person that either can travel with me or wants to travel with me or, , wants to create a base with me.
So yeah, those are some of the focus points.
Well, Lisa, it’s a nutrition coaching and life. com and the nutrition and life podcast. We’re going to put [00:37:00] your links to your social media and everything else in the show notes, but this has been so cool. So thank you for your time.
thank you for having me. It’s been a true pleasure speaking with you and you ask wonderful questions. So thank you.