Instagram Cold Outreach Lessons for Your Health and Wellness Podcast with Coach Diana Leigh

If you’ve wanted to do some cold outreach on Instagram for your health or wellness business and hire someone to do it, but you were afraid to just hand over control of your Instagram inbox, today’s episode is for you. Now, as we know, podcasting is a great tool for lead generation, but most of us are using multiple methods of reaching new potential customers and growing our businesses, or at the very least, nurturing the relationships.

That we form. So when today’s guest mentioned her experience with Instagram called Outreach, it was definitely a subject that I wanted to learn more about. Coach Diana Leigh has been in business for about five years, starting as a nutrition coach, using her anti macro method, and eventually gaining the qualification to provide hormone and gut health coaching as well.

Diana helps women build strength, resilience, and lasting health without the extremes of diet culture. She launched the Anti Macro podcast to help generate leads and serve as a resource for her clients. And today we talk about some of the lessons Diana learned from her early days of trying Instagram cold outreach, the importance of developing relationships and giving value, why she mostly likes one-on-one coaching, and her low pressure way of getting great testimonials from clients that really help with getting new clients.

I’m Joel Oliver, and this is Profits through Podcasting. Diana, welcome in.

Yeah. Thank you for having me.

 Let’s begin with your actual business, you know, coach Diana Leigh. When and why did you start that business?

Sure. So I started my business in. 2019, late 2019, right. So on the cusp of the covid epidemic. But I had gotten into it because I really had found a passion for nutrition and nutrition coaching. I had essentially taken myself on as my first client. Once I got certified, I healed my whole relationship with food and my body, and I relearned what I needed to, to take.

To take myself away from dieting and diet culture and move more towards a very nourishment approach to my nutrition. And I felt really, really passionate about helping other people ’cause I knew there were so many other people who are making mistakes with dieting and things really took off for me once.

Covid hit because a lot of people were home. They had expendable income and they decided to invest in their health. So that’s when things really pushed off. Um, and I’ve now been in business, so that’s about five or so years. But things have really shifted for me, I would say. I definitely started a lot more as an intuitive eating coach.

I took on this anti macro approach in, you know, within the first few years of my business, kind of branded myself as the quote unquote anti macro coach because a lot of my messaging was around macro tracking is not great for everybody, and so I worked specifically with people that it didn’t want a macro track.

I primarily used either the hand portion method or food journaling. And provided people an alternative for not having to weigh, measure and track their food. And I primarily took that approach because that’s what worked for me. I tracked macros for years. It was very toxic for me. It’s usually what led to restrict and binge tendencies.

So I knew that it wasn’t the right fit for everybody. And then slowly over time, things started to morph a little bit more into the hormone and gut health space as I started to get. More and more clients, or even just people applying for my coaching saying, oh, I have like gut health issues. I have Hashimoto’s, I have this and I have that.

And I was like, okay, I’m not. Qualified to help these people, so let’s go ahead and get qualified. So eventually I got a functional nutrition and metabolism specialization and really transformed my business more into that hormone and gut health space. But I still take that anti-me approach. So my clients still to this day do not track every little food that they eat, and I’ve definitely adopted it to help them with mastering their hormone and gut health.

Nice. Okay. So that you found that, uh, anti macro concept helped you stand out. and differentiate yourself in, in the, the space.

I would say definitely, especially in the early days, you know, before hormone and gut health got really popular, I think it’s, it was really hard to differentiate yourself in the space on Instagram as a health and nutrition coach, and I was always told, you need a niche down. You need to be specific about who you help.

And taking that anti-me approach and really speaking. Very verbally on my Instagram about, Hey, I don’t always agree with this method. I think that, you know, there can be better ways for other people, especially when that calories in, calories out approach was being pushed very, very hard. I think that really helped me stand out and a lot of people were very attracted to that.

Um, I also had a history or background in CrossFit. I was coaching CrossFit in person at the time, and my approach was definitely very different because CrossFitters are very attracted to. Macro tracking, and I feel like those go very hand in hand. So to have that CrossFit approach and to then also offer like we don’t have to be so extreme about everything, it was definitely a very different approach at the time.

I can totally relate to that. Anytime I’ve tried to track that stuff over the years, it doesn’t last very long.

Yeah.

and I’m of that mindset, well I’m eating pretty well. Like let’s start there. You know, I don’t need to have all these numbers. Let’s just focus on being healthy. Right. So get that. So, okay.

That’s nice. It was going well for you. Clearly you’ve been doing this since 2019. You brought the podcast in 2022.

Yes. Uh, so I actually had a look back. I was like, when did I start this? It was November of 2022. I was working with a business coach at the time. She had started her own podcast and she was definitely pushing a lot of her mentees to get into podcasting, and I was really, really confident in posting.

Content on Instagram. Uh, I was on TikTok at the, at the time I believe, and I played around with YouTube with long form content, but it didn’t really stick for me. Uh, and podcasting ended up being my avenue for that long form content. ’cause even same with, I tried Instagram live a few times. I wasn’t a fan.

I really liked that podcasting. Gave me an avenue to do long form content where I could be a lot more intentional about it. I could kind of map out what I really wanted to say. And make sure that I said it in the way that I wanted to say it.

Makes a lot of sense. I think that’s an important thing to highlight because. You can succeed at virtually anything if you put in that effort. Like whether it is Instagram Live or YouTube long form content or podcasting. But we just don’t all really resonate with the format, like the people who are drawn to podcasting, like some of the reasons you gave, it just, it makes sense for those reasons.

It’s like this just feels like the thing to do. So, uh, I’m glad you brought that up. Now let’s understand the business a bit more. Who would you say is your ideal client these days? What specifically are you offering, and then how do you deliver that?

Sure. My ideal client is at this point, I primarily work with women. I have worked with men in the past, but I would say my, you know, primary. Target these days has become women, typically women in their thirties to fifties who have had a history of chronic dieting in some capacity. They’ve likely done macro tracking in their past, so they have experienced it and realized that it’s not for them.

If not macro tracking, calorie tracking. I work with a lot of women who have experienced with things like Noom, keto. Weight Watchers is a big one now. So they have a history of doing various diets and usually they might be successful in weight loss, but then they find that they usually gain the weight back.

And then of course they’re noticing that they just, I. Don’t feel great. So usually they’re dealing with bloating, food sensitivities, uh, pretty miserable periods. And a lot of women who are, you know, they’re seeing doctors and they don’t feel like they’re being listened to, so they’re like, I have low energy. I’m very moody, especially during my cycle.

I don’t feel well when I eat. And doctors are kind of like. That’s normal. You know? That’s fine. And they’re looking for a better answer. They’re looking for someone who can get to that root cause.

and that’s one thing I love about this space because so many people grew frustrated with that typical traditional healthcare system where it’s just, that’s the way it is. The doctor is there to do their specific role, and you kind of just have to live with it unless you go and find all this other information, which has been brought to light so much. In recent years thanks to this, this online space and podcasting and YouTube and there is just such a, a better lifestyle available for people. So that’s really been something I’m happy to be involved with. Not that I’m the one giving that knowledge out, but most of our clients are doing that and that’s what got me so interested in like, wow, this is actually changing people’s lives.

So, I’m so happy that this exists. Now in terms of what you offer. Is it one-on-one coaching only? Do you have group programs? What is something that people can actually purchase from you to work with you?

So I primarily do one-on-one coaching. Um, that has been my go-to offer basically since I started my pro, uh, my coaching in general. And then I do have an offer where I do an intensive, so now somebody can come to me and we do a full intake and you know, I can look at their labs as well and I can look at their full.

You know, nutrition history, diet history, things like that, and give them a little bit more guidance on what direction to go. So this one is really, really great for an individual who doesn’t necessarily wanna commit to long-term coaching, but they need answers, right? Again, somebody who’s probably been poo-pooed as far as their symptoms go, and they’re usually in the mindset of, it must be my hormones, right?

And so what I do, again, like. Full client intake and then we do a one-on-one one hour call where I identify, hey, here are some actions that we can actually take to help get things started. You know, answer the question, is it really your hormones or is it something else? Usually the answer is it’s both, right?

Our hormones are very much impacted by our lifestyle habits and behaviors, and usually there’s a lot of low hanging fruit that we can tackle together and say, okay, like if we do X, Y, Z, here’s some quick wins. You can get. And so usually that intensive can help open them up to, alright, now I know where to start.

Or, okay, I do think I need one-on-one coaching. I’ll now commit to that long term. So that’s where I’m sitting at right now.

Got it. And it’s not the case for everyone that’s in the health coaching space, but many often aspire to do more of a group thing, or they kind of do it through necessity once they get so busy. Is that something that’s on your mind, or do you personally prefer to do just the one-on-one for certain reasons?

I always go back and forth on group coaching. I have actually done. Group coaching in the past. I will say that when I did group coaching in my coaching business, I still had my one-on-one offer, and I don’t think I did it well in a sense where my group coaching offer ended up cannibalizing my one-on-one.

So this was back when I was doing a little bit more of that intuitive eating anti macro space. And so what I taught in my group coaching. Was basically what I taught in one-on-one. So there, you know, it was great to be able to offer that to people in that group space, but it wasn’t beneficial from a business perspective.

So then that led me to always think, okay, if I’m going to launch group coaching, it needs to be. It needs to be different from my one-on-one, right? So it needs to offer something else and it can’t just be the same thing. And the more and more I developed my business, the harder I found that to be. Because the more I think about it, it’s like a lot of the times I love the one-on-one aspect.

’cause I can get really nitty gritty with, you know, what’s going on in an individual person’s life. What exactly do you have that is your obstacle? And how can we overcome that? I feel a lot of people are always in. You know, they’re kind of in a different space. Like some, I have some clients who come into me.

I’m like, yeah, you truly are doing all the right things. You’ve got the foundations, you’re doing the basics. Now we need a more high level gut protocol, and I have other people who come into me and I’m like, all right, we’re not even sleeping eight hours a night, so we need to start there. And I’ve always found it a little bit more difficult to identify what group coaching would look like for me while still maintaining, you know, a really great service to my clients.

Something I will say, I’ve added a group element to my coaching as of late, so when I have clients who do a GR gut protocol with me, oftentimes I have them on the low FODMAP approach. So what I’ve done is I’ve taken any of those clients and I’ve put them into a one-on-one group chat. Within the app that I use.

I use trainer eyes, so. They’re able to talk to each other and basically any clients who are on that low FODMAP approach can, you know, connect, ask each other questions, share recipes, share advice. And especially whenever I get a new client who is just starting that protocol, I add them to that group and they can see the history of conversation.

They can ask new questions from people who’ve already gone through it. And so it does build that community element. So it’s not particularly. Group coaching, but I have added that group element to my one-on-one.

Okay. Clearly you are enjoying what you’re doing. You’re passionate about helping people. I’m curious, when you, as we all have to, do, you bring that business element in here, like you have no choice. You have to face the, the business stuff. How has that been for you? Is that something you enjoy or is it brought frustrations?

Oh, I mean, of course it’s brought frustrations. I.

I guess that’s a given.

I think anyone would be lying if it doesn’t, because that’s just part of the process. It’s been, you know, it’s a constant learning environment that I need to be in. I have invested in business coaches for years over time, and while I think that was incredibly helpful, I don’t think I would be where I am today if I had not invested in some level of business coaching.

I think that really helped me build a solid foundation and whatnot. But it did get to a point where the constant business coaching and being told what to do, it burned me out a little bit. Some of the business coaches I worked with, I was not always happy with the direction that they recommended. I take my coaching in and things would not feel fully aligned for me.

So when I finally took a step back from business coaching, it took a while for me to really rebuild trust within myself because for a long time I relied on somebody else to tell me what was the right move in my business. So all of a sudden I was by myself. I was, you know, I’m a solopreneur. I don’t have anybody working with me, and I had to make those decisions alone, and I had to realize that my intuition is good enough.

That it’s okay. Also, if I don’t do things the way that people say like is optimal, right? I think everyone’s like, oh, I have the best strategy, and sometimes the best strategy for one person is not the best strategy. I. For everybody. We know this with coaching even, right? Like you, you know that you have to make it a little bit more individualized.

And I had to realize what was actually best for me. And I found that I could come out of burnout and fall back in love with my business and feel really confident in my business when I truly trusted my own intuition, my own gut. And by all means, I’m happy to listen to experts who are more successful than me and see what tidbits I can take from them.

But I do think for me, going forward. I wanna be in a place and if I ever decide to work with somebody again, I really would rather work with somebody who challenges me to figure out what’s best for me, rather than provides me a game plan and just kind of expects me to execute it.

I am glad you brought that up because that is such a delicate balance because as entrepreneurs we can have all these questions and wonder what the right thing to do is. So you go pay an expert to tell you, but then you’re trying to think, well. I don’t know about that particular direction, like you said, but am I, should I just do it anyway?

Like, are they correct or, you know, is, is my business gonna fail if I don’t do that? So yeah, you said it was mainly just instinct and, and feeling that you went by in terms of determining what was best for you.

For the most part. I mean, you know, of course I had, I had some data that could drive my decisions. I, I am a, you know, impulsive and spontaneous kind of person. So at times, yes, I’m going by instinct, but I do try to be. Article about the decisions that I’m making and through kind of realizing what I wanted to do, how I wanted to treat my clients, how I wanted to serve my clients, getting really in tune with what felt good for me and what was making me more energized rather than drained, was a really important part of the process.

That’s great insight. ’cause I’ve definitely had those moments as well, and I doubt, well, they’re telling me to do it. I guess I should, but yeah, you can step in yourself and say, wait, this just doesn’t feel right, you know? Or I don’t enjoy it. So I think that’s really, really good advice. Now, you mentioned, obviously being a solopreneur. Is there anything in your business these days that you delegate or are you doing everything on your own?

I did recently just hire a virtual assistant to help me, mainly with, lead outreach. That was like the one task on my plate. That just kept getting pushed off. I’ve done it in the past myself. I’ve done a really great job of it. But that was one of the things that ultimately burned me out was just sitting on Instagram trying to find leads and trying to create conversations.

And I really like connecting with people. Once a conversation is started, I can carry it. It’s more of the starting the task. So I did just bring somebody on to help me with that. But. Everything else I do myself. I do kind of joke that one of my favorite hires has been investing in chat, GPT, the like $20 a month version.

Um, I found it was really, really helpful for bouncing ideas off of. So if I’m in a place where, you know, especially when I was learning to trust my own intuition again. I would kind of bounce ideas through chat, GPT, and you know it, it’s very conversational. It kind of talks you through some things and it gives you pros and cons and it asks you questions to weigh.

And I found that really helpful, helpful, and cathartic in making decisions for myself. And then of course, there’s a lot of efficiencies that I have found with chat GPT, so I can take a lot of my content and repurpose it in. Multiple ways. Like I am very active on Instagram, so I’m usually posting about five to six days a week, which is a lot of content to be creating.

I make videos from scratch. I don’t just do trends, but I do a lot of long form content as well. I. Then I’ve got the podcast and whatnot, and I can take a lot of the content that I’ve created and spread it out over either more posts or emails or whatnot, and I have found that to be really helpful with chat GPT to help me kind of expand my reach with that, with little to no effort.

It’s so great for that and yeah, just the, one of the first points you made about chat, GBT, it’s almost like a business mastermind. Not that it can replace that sort of thing, but I know. what I used to love about those was going to a group of people, say in your space or like-minded entrepreneurs and say, Hey, I got this thing. What did, what do you all think? And you get different opinions on it and some insights that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself, whereas you put that in chat, GPT, it can give you all those. I never really thought of that point, or that’s a good, you know, concern to bring up. So it’s great for that. But I have a couple other questions.

There was a lot of stuff there. Uh, first of all, the VA that you hired. A lot of people want to have a va, but they may have had experiences where they couldn’t find one that was a good fit or was a challenge. Where did you find your va? How did you screen.

Yeah, so I can also relate to, I have actually hired people in the past and not had great hires with it. So I’ve , hired people to help me with DM outreach before, and the two other times I did it. Were big mistakes, big, big mistakes. So the biggest regret that I had was, you know, I, I didn’t learn how to do it myself before I outsourced it.

I kind of just said, oh, this is hard, and immediately tried to outsource. It had the mindset of, well, if somebody else is an expert and they can do it. Then they’ll do just fine. So as a result, I didn’t know what I was looking for and ended up with two not great hires that I ultimately wasn’t happy with.

 I also had a VA at one point, and I think at that point in my business I don’t think I was a great leader at that time. I think in a lot of ways I had somebody who was helping me, which was great, but I think I probably could have been better at guiding and directing what I wanted. And I think that that was where things kind of fell apart a little bit.

And so fast forward to now, I mean, I’ve been solopreneur it probably for a good two years, since my last, you know, VA hire. And so when I was going into this recent hire, I was nervous. I was like, I’ve already hired two people to be into my in my dms before, and it has gone terribly. So what’s gonna make this time different?

So this VA had actually found me. She did DM outreach. To me, she started up wonderful natural conversation, which I found very relatable. I felt like it, you know, she wasn’t salesy. She wasn’t out of the gate cold open, like, Hey, I can do work for you. And I appreciated that. And then when I spoke to her a little bit more, and I asked her about her process of how she or orchestrates her outreach, I mean, she did say that it was something she specialized in.

I was like, all right, tell me what you do. Everything that she said was what I had learned. So again, because I had done it before, I knew what to look for. I knew that what she was telling me does work, and so that helped me feel a lot more confident in the hire. Again, it was more like, Hey, you’ve been in my dms, clearly.

You did something right there. Enough for me to think about you a few months later and go, let me see if she’s a good fit. And then I brought her on board and so I mean, she’s been working with me now we’re in our second month. And I also understand with DM outreach, what’s really hard about investing in something like that is you do not get return in your first month, and you have to be okay with that.

It is something that takes time to build up, and I’m also fully aware of that, so I know what to look for. I know. You know, I know what I wanna see in my dms. So far I haven’t opened anything up and been like, oh my God, which is good because that’s happened in the past. Um, and I’ve done some like damage control, but I, I know that it’ll take time to build up and see results from it.

So we’ll see how it goes.

Okay. Interesting that, that the, the VA actually reached out to you in the same method, you know, that, that you wanted help with. Uh, and yeah, it’s a big thing opening up your Instagram inbox to just, you know, someone you don’t really know that well and say, have at it. Um, and I love the point you made as well about doing it yourself first. It’s kind of something we’re forced into as entrepreneurs. Like I, yeah, you don’t want to have someone just do something you don’t understand. I wanna at least know how it works and what’s gonna be going on. You don’t need to be an expert at it, but, uh, okay. That’s, that’s really cool. And could you just briefly tell us a bit about how this actual outreach stuff works?

Like what’s the process you find leads, how, and then start a conversation.

Yeah, so usually you find leads through looking at other Instagram accounts. Usually it’s accounts that you think your ideal client is hanging out in. So it could be other health and fitness professionals, um, other health and fitness brands even. Or if you get really hyper specific about your ideal client, you know, what are some of the things that they like?

What are some of the things that they wear? Are they tagging their favorite brands, or usually hashtags and whatnot. And I would say. The strategy has really evolved over time. Over the few years that I’ve been doing this, it’s changed a lot, but that’s relatively where you find people and then it’s about reaching out to them and just starting natural conversations.

So maybe it’s replying to a story and genuinely asking them. A question or leaving, just like a nice encouraging comment and not really asking for anything back right away. Not always expecting something from these people. Sometimes it’s seeing something that’s on their feed and then sending it to them and making a comment, right?

So anything that you can spark, I. Genuine conversation about it does not immediately have to be about health and fitness and sometimes it shouldn’t be. ’cause a lot of people are already aware that coaches are doing this. Like this has been a strategy in play now for a few years.

And I have seen that some people are tired of it. People don’t want to be reached out to by coaches and they’re like, I know you’re trying to sell me on something. So as soon as you try to like hook them right into talking about. You know, coaching, like they’re gonna be out. So what I have found has worked, and again, like this is why it, it doesn’t provide an instant gratification is building these relationships over months and just having genuine conversations with people, uh, eventually yes.

Asking about health and fitness where you can, because obviously you want to direct it towards something that you can help them with. And then it’s about giving people quick wins in the dms, right? I was recently talking to somebody in my Instagram messages. I have been talking to her for a few years now.

I know a lot about her history background. I know she just had two kids and she’s telling me, um, you know, about getting back into exercise and working out and her goals and whatnot. And I happened to ask her, you know, have you been assessed by a pelvic floor pt? She mentioned a few symptoms that she does have postpartum.

Told her, her doctor kind of said, eh, it’s normal. I was like. No, it’s common, but it’s not normal. You can get help through a pelvic floor pt. I actually connected her to an online pelvic floor PT that I know who I also know has free resources. So again, I’m not even selling my services, but I’m trying to, I.

Help her in her process and she’s been like incredibly grateful for that genuine interaction, for that genuine help. And if it’s like down the line, she decides that she wants to get into one-on-one coaching, hopefully I’m that first person that she thinks about. And I think that’s where a lot of people do it wrong, is they’re not genuine.

They’re not actually trying to help people. They’re trying to get the sale as quickly as possible. And I have found that some of my best clients have come from, genuine connection, and really actually, you know, building some friendships. Even I’ve, I have made friends with people on Instagram that ultimately they come out to San Diego where I am and they hit me up and they’re like, Hey, do you wanna meet up for lunch?

And I’m like, yeah, let’s do it.

Great. And you’re right. You know, these days people are onto the sales stuff. You’ve just, it’s all about relationships. There’s no shortcut. Uh, my final question regarding the Instagram, so how does that work where you have this VA say, reaching out to people? Do you then take over the conversation or how does that play?

Because I’m always curious if I do something like this. who’s involved in the chat? Like, are they having conversations on my behalf and then I don’t even know the person? Or how, how does that work?

It is up to you on how you want that to be done. I personally do wanna be involved because again, I do feel like I’m good at creating connection with people. I wanna make sure that any advice that is actually health and fitness related is coming from me. It’s something that I would actually say.

I’m the one who holds the expertise, my VA does not. So I wanna make sure that, you know, I’m the one who’s helping people in my dms, and I have no problem hopping in my dms, answering messages, talking to people. That’s fine. So what she’s primarily doing is the initial outreach, getting conversations.

Flowing and ultimately getting that person to talk to me about health and fitness. And then when they start talking to me about health and fitness, they turn around and hand them off hand those conversations off to me. Even so right now, my VA and I have a process where I am active in my conversation.

So if she’s currently talking to somebody, I don’t mind hopping in. And answering that, you know, I’ll answer a message. I’ve got a few people, you know, one of, one of my connection pieces is books I really love. Books. I love reading. And so I’ve got a few people that I’m talking to about books. So I’ll hop in and be like, oh, what are you reading?

You know, here’s what I’m reading, and I’ll talk about it. And then she’ll take over in that conversation and we’ll just read back what. We have said in the previous conversations to catch ourselves up. So I do think, you know, my personal opinion is I wanna be involved. I want to be the one who’s building that connection with the person, and I wanna be the one that’s ultimately helping them in the end.

I know that there are some people who I. Kind of pass it off entirely. And they don’t hand off those conversations until they book a sales call and at which point they hand over information be like, Hey, here’s what I’ve gathered on the person. So it really depends on what kind of structure you want.

Okay. Good to know. ’cause that, yeah, that’s something I’ve been concerned about is if I do this, I want to build a relationship. I don’t want to have some fake relationship where someone thinks they know me and they haven’t even been speaking to me, so,

Exactly.

that’s great. So as we’re getting. Towards the end here.

A couple more things I wanna touch on. Uh, I noticed you mentioned free resources already, and I noticed you’ve got a great free resources section on your website. Now, not everybody frames it in that way, and I really like the idea of doing it this way because people who are just kind of, you know, getting their feet wet, they can just see what is on your website, what’s available.

So you’ve got like a 30 minute consult, you’ve got a newsletter, a meal planning guide, some free courses. Out of all those, is there any specific one that you find is performing better than another?

I would say my meal planning and prepping guide has been my most popular one. I mean, I’ve had that one around for years and it’s, you know, it’s never gone out of style. I. And

Mm.

there are so many people who need help with mastering their meal planning and prepping. So it has stayed relevant throughout, which I think has been extremely helpful.

So I think that one has performed the best and now, you know, combined with once you get on my newsletter. Everyone gets access to my Meal Prep Monday newsletter. So every single Monday what I do is I take the exact meals that I make for myself every week and I pop ’em in a newsletter. I share recipes. I share any adjustments that I may have made to the recipe.

’cause sometimes I, I go off, off track. Sometimes I, you know, if the recipe is for a protein, let’s say, I will talk about what I paired that protein with. And also for my gut health clients, I provide low fodmap. A low FODMAP version. So the adjustments that I would make to the recipe to be gut friendly, and that has been the most popular, it’s getting the most opens on my emails because it’s something that people use.

I even have people, there was one time I, I missed an email and I had emails coming to me being like, where is it? Did I miss it?

eat?

Like people actually look for it because it’s that resource that has actually been helpful to people.

Okay, great. Now you’re obviously collecting emails when you give out those resources, but something I I saw on your website I found interesting I have not seen before is on one of the popups you asked for their Instagram handle as well. Now, is that so you can match it to a conversation you might have had with them before?

Or what do you do with that?

Usually the goal is, is if they do provide me their Instagram handle, then I reach out and I DM them and I say, Hey, I saw that you downloaded my resource. I’d love to know what you thought about it or what did you actually take away from it? Was it helpful? Right. And it’s a really, uh, again, it’s just a really great way to start conversations with people.

You know, sometimes people are getting these. Free resources through my dms, through my Instagram, so I already know. And then I can follow up with them and be like, Hey, what’d you think? But if they’re coming through my website, I have no idea. Right? Like they’re coming through that. And so that’s my way to be able to create another connection piece beyond email.

I like that. And, uh, you’re not automating it, you just do it manually.

Right now everything’s manual. I did ManyChat for a while, um, but I couldn’t justify the expense of it just because I do have a smaller following. I don’t have. Crazy high engagement, you know, where I have like hundreds of people using like the trigger word. And something that bothered me personally is, so you’ve got these trigger words that create these automations, and then if somebody happens to write a really genuine comment on your post and happens to use a trigger word, then it.

Directs that automation and I, I was like, ah, this is kind of giving me the ick, because you can kind of tell that there is an automation behind this, that it’s not always a real person. And I like that authenticity. So I eventually got rid of ManyChat. I still use the trigger words in my captions. I’ll be like, oh, comment meal prep if you want my meal prep guide.

Just because it makes things easy for people to opt in. I’m not sure if people are really always listening to like. Lincoln Bio. I feel like that feels so old. So I use it, but now if somebody comments it, like I’m, I’m the one who’s actually going there to your comment, I’m like, Hey, sent it to your dms.

And I actually send a message to them in their dms.

I share that concern as well ’cause I’ve seen examples of this where say someone will leave a negative comment. just happened to have that trigger word in there. And then the, you know, the account holder responds, oh, cool, man, check your dms.

Yeah.

I think, well, that guy has 30,000 followers and he has a, a good business, so maybe I’m wrong and you should just like, let your morals go and use it.

But I just can’t, I don’t want to, and I, I’m with you. I’m not at that size where I need to, so we’ll just handle it for now and I’ll sleep well at night knowing that I don’t look like a moron, you know, in my comments.

Yeah.

So. Okay. Well as we wrap up here, this has been so insightful, but I just wanna get a quick insight to your podcast.

’cause I saw you’re doing a, a mix, I think, of solo and interview episodes, but some of the interviews are actually with clients of yours, which is a really cool idea. Uh, how do you approach the clients with this invite to come on and share their story?

So something that business coaches in the past always said was, Hey, instead of a written testimonial, you should get your clients to record a video of themselves. I was like, no one’s gonna do that. Like, if you’re not already comfortable with. Talking on video, you know, usually the, the follow through is just so low on asking a client for that.

And so I had this podcast platform and I was like, all right, let me see if I can get a client on a podcast and if they wanna talk about their experience and I can actually promote more of that conversation. They already have that relationship with me and really it is very conversational. And so I started doing that, and then recently I just redid my testimonial form.

So I’m still collecting written text because I just feel like people actually do written testimonials. But right at the end I ask, would you be okay with sharing your story on my podcast? And it says, you know, you can check a box. Yes. Or I’m podcast shy. And that has now kickstarted a few others where I’m getting them on my podcast.

And I mean. I, yeah. I’ve had clients who are like, no, I, you know, that’s not something I wanna do. And I’m like, cool, I respect that. That’s fine. But I’ve, I’ve had clients who are just, they’re so enthusiastic about the results that they’ve gotten, and they’re really excited to talk about them and doing it in podcast format.

It has just. It really takes away a lot of the, the pressure from them on executing that. And it’s the best kind of testimonial that you can get from your clients, right? Like usually my interviews are like an hour long. And they can talk about different experiences in my coaching and share what has been helpful to them, what ultimately got them off the fence to eventually hire me.

’cause I think there’s a lot of fear with financial investment and you know, connecting with a coach and is the process actually going to work? And especially now that I’ve got gut health clients who are doing elimination diets, which I’m gonna be straightforward, like elimination diets are tough, they’re mentally challenging.

But when you hear somebody say. I went through this process and it was so worth it because I feel so much better, and here’s what helped me get through it. It sounds so much more real than just me saying it, right? Like of course if I say it as the expert, it comes off sometimes a little bit more, you know?

Of course I’m gonna say it, of course, I’m gonna say it worse, but if you hear it from my client, that’s a whole different ball game.

Yeah, those testimonials are very powerful. I like the way you’re asking on that form. ’cause it kind of takes the pressure off of you asking as well. And then at the end of the day, you get, you record the video, you get a video testimonial anyway that you can use. So that’s great. You’ve got a great business, you’ve got things are going well for you. What is, uh, current, either a challenge or just a big priority of yours now moving forward for the rest of 2025?

Current challenge would be managing. Entrepreneurial burnout. So I definitely go through phases of like really, really high productivity, especially being that solopreneur, like a lot of things are weighing on me to get done, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to get it all done. I have a lot of expectations for myself that can definitely lead to me overworking a little bit and burning out.

So that is something that I’m trying to master is how can I better manage my energy on a more long-term basis, so that way I feel like I am performing at this high level, that I am growing my business, but I’m also respecting myself and my own energy. And what does that really look like?

 Well, it’s Coach Diana Leigh, coach diana leigh.com, the anti macro podcast. This has been so insightful. I, I really appreciate your, your take especially on the Instagram thing. That was great. So thank you for your time.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me.