Staying Relevant for 17+ Years in the Online Health Coaching Space With Tina Haupert

If you’ve been wondering how to break through the noise and really become a big voice in the health and wellness space with your business, as well as scale it up beyond just what you can do on your own, you are gonna want to pay close attention to this episode. Today’s guest has a whopping 73,000 Instagram followers, 6,000 subscribers on YouTube is rounding out 300 podcast episodes.

And on top of all that, she has been in this space online for 17 years.

Tina Haupert is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, certified nutrition coach, and the founder of Carrots and Cake, a popular healthy living brand and virtual functional nutrition practice. Her podcast is fit and fueled life, and some big lessons from this episode are how Tina kept her business relevant over the years, what she attributes to her success on Instagram and what she feels is the next big consideration for online coaches moving forward.

I’m Joel Oliver, and this is Profits Through Podcasting. Hello Tina. Welcome in.

Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

think we should get started with, uh, background specifically of your business. So we know when this started and why you started it. So it’s called Carrots and Cake. Tell us a bit about that. Where did it come from and how long you’ve been doing it?

Yeah, so I’ve been on the internet for 17 years, so I’ve been doing various things in the internet space since 2008. So I started a free blog and I was engaged to be married, and I just wanted to shape up, you know, look good, feel good for my wedding day. And I had been reading some other blogs. I mean, it was definitely the early days of the blogs, but I started sharing.

My meals, recipes, workouts, and then the wedding planning, which I think people were probably more interested in as far as like the personal side of things. But yeah, did the blogging thing for over a decade and during that time, you know, did the influencer thing, the sponsorships, wrote books, all of that.

And got to 2019 and I was just feeling really burned out just from blogging so much, sharing so much of my life. I was married at that point. I had a son, so my child, so I was sharing some of his life too. But I kind of just got to that point where I was like, I don’t wanna share everything. And also at the same time, I had had a number of readers and followers reach out and ask for nutrition advice and opinions on workouts and things like that.

So the transition to one-on-one coaching just made a lot of sense. So we did macro coaching in the early days, and I had a small team. I had a couple coaches helping me out with the macro coaching, and then in 2011, so they were kind of jumping around a little bit here. But in 2011 is when I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and at the time I was a healthy living blogger.

So being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease really threw my world upside down as far as what I was doing health wise. I was, oh, so healthy on the internet, but then. Dealing with a serious chronic illness. So at that point, um, I went through the whole conventional system. And not to say that I don’t love doctors and medications and all that, we need that, um, but I just feel like I got the runaround as far as trying to find solutions for the disease and managing it every single day.

So, like I said. 2019 was a big year for me. I was getting burnt out on the blog. I was getting burnt out on the medical system and just getting more medications and dead ends as far as just trying to feel better and manage the symptoms of an autoimmune disease that I decided to become an FDN practitioner.

And FDN stands for Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. Practitioner. So now I am trained to interpret a number of functional labs. So initially it was really for me as far as getting healthy, but it made perfect sense to incorporate it into our business. So now that’s what we do as far as offering that functional testing to our clients.

And that’s pretty much what we’ve been doing since 2019. So left the blogging in the past and now we are more of a. Service based business as far as the coaching and the testing and helping ladies feel their best.

Okay. Got it. So there’s a big shift around

Yes.

I’m curious, just leading up to that though, that period where you were blogging and whatnot, uh, was there any, like, were you monetizing that in any way? Or was it just a hobby until that point?

Yeah, it was a hobby for a little bit, for sure. It was just kind of a fun thing that I did, you know, just a little hobby. Um, but yeah. Ads. Uh, ads were big back in the day, and it was based on page views and, you know, there were some months I was getting a million page views, so I mean, it was a pretty decent income.

And then, yeah, sh things started to shift. I think the ad companies kind of caught on to this and they, they started having different, um, metrics and data as far as how they, you know, paid out for ads. Um, but that’s when the influencing started as far as working with all sorts of brands. So I made, um.

Money that way as far as brand deals and sponsorships, and I was a spokesperson for a few brands and all of that, so I did that for a really, really long time. But yeah, it just got to a point where, it was just feeling the burnout. Like a lot of things changed from 2008 to 2019. So,

I wanna, add in the podcast to the conversation here a bit now that we know the backstory of the business fit and fueled life. If I’m correct, it was around 2020 that started. So if you could give us a brief background, why did you start that?

Uh, any specific motivation?

Yeah, you know what? It was kind of. Like just jumping on the trend maybe. I mean, that’s really when the podcasting world really picked up. So I had stopped blogging and I felt like I needed an outlet, you know, to share with my community and kind of have a voice. So it just made sense. It was like, all right, everyone’s doing podcasts now.

Nobody’s really, I mean, people were still blogging, but Podcasting was becoming really popular. So that was a good way to just share my message, help educate, and then of course, you know, starting to promote some of our programs. and then over time I started adding in guests and that has been really fun as far as just getting different perspectives in the health space and women’s health space.

So, yeah, it’s, it’s really grown over the years.

Okay. And yeah, you’re, you’re approaching 300 episodes at this point,

Yeah.

very committed. Been doing it a while. Love to see that. So, okay. We’re, we’re really approaching 20 years here. Were there any notable milestones that come to mind on the journey for you in terms of how. business grew and changed and scaled. I know you gave us that 2019, date there, but beyond that, like in terms of the way the team looked and big shifts that you had to make business wise?

Yeah, so I would say 2020 with the pandemic, and I think everybody coming online, that’s really where businesses online blew up, and that’s exactly what happened to carrots and cake. So we were set up as a business, but we were very small and there was just two coaches helping me out. I had an admin person who was also a coach, and then I added on another coach.

But it was just the three of us for a long time. But yeah, in that 20 22 time, that’s where we really started to explode as far as just the number of clients and requests and lab testing and everything. So I slowly grew my team. So now we have five practitioners on my team that interpret the test and coach clients.

Um, and then I also hired an online business manager in. 2023, so the end of 2023. So she has been amazing as far as just helping us coordinate the madness, becoming like a real business, you know, setting up systems and whatnot. So yeah, we have slowly taken it from, you know, blogger, like on a free website, to actually more of an actual business.

Now you’re obviously, we’re getting into how you’ve built a great team around you, but for your own business background, did you have any say formal business training or was this just something you’re trying to figure out as you go? And who to who to bring in to help?

No, I’m just winging it every day. Um, no. In 2019 I found my business coach. So Jill Coleman, I owe everything to her. She is Jill Fit on Instagram. Um, she is the real deal. Check her out. If you need help with health and fitness, online businesses. But yeah, in 2019 is where I stopped the blogging and really started to transition into this real business.

And then over the years, we have just taken steps to become, you know, like a. Full service, functional nutrition practice. So she has been amazing. Um, I’ve been working with her since then. I think I took a year off in there at some point, but, you know, went back to her and she has been amazing for the strategy, the scaling, the team, building, all of that.

So, I couldn’t have done it without her because yeah, I do not have a business background, don’t have a marketing background. She’s been amazing.

Well it’s interesting ’cause it’s a common thing you hear, not only in the health and wellness space, but these online entrepreneurs, like we’re all out here trying to do what we enjoy. You’re trying to share your knowledge and wisdom, but then. you wanna make it a sustainable business, you’ve got to do some business things.

And most of us just didn’t really have that background. But luckily, yeah, like you’re saying, you can get a business coach. You don’t have to go to university or something for that. certainly time will play a role in business growth if it’s making the right moves. Like simply being around for 17 years, you’re probably gonna have a bigger business than one, which has only been around for

Okay.

if we’re comparing apples to apples.

But of course, in that same period of time, a business could have just disappeared. So I’m curious, after this long, and you, you mentioned some things already that have helped you, uh, figure out what steps to take, but how would you say you’ve been able to keep the business relevant and growing?

Oh, that is a great question and I feel like it’s something we, uh, talk about a lot over here is that. I think trying things and being okay with them not working and accepting that feedback in the sense that it’s not necessarily failure, it’s just this thing didn’t work, but now we can move forward with the next thing.

So I think it’s also okay to try things, take what works and run with that. And then the stuff that doesn’t work, leave it behind. But I think a lot of people are. You know, afraid to change things or afraid to fail. And I mean, I always joke, I’m like, I’m just over here failing every single day.

And we just keep trying new things. We’re just like, let’s see if this will work. Let’s see if this will work. And I like that. I like experimenting. I like the data behind it. But I just. I never wanna stay stagnant. And I think that’s probably the big thing where, you know, blogging kind of died, like the sponsorship stuff or I kind of get sick of doing the sponsorship stuff.

But you know, like keeping up with the trends and keeping up with the online space because it has changed so much over the years. Even from the pandemic to now, things have changed. I mean, we’re almost in this weird like trust recession. I heard this term the other day and I was like, yes, I hear this with.

From clients or prospective clients, like they’ve been burned in the past, they’ve worked with other coaches. It hasn’t worked out. They’ve invested big bucks. So like now I think people are a lot more careful as far as like spending money online. So it’s just interesting like how much things have changed because back in like 20, 21, 20 22 people are like throwing money at us and now there’s a lot more questions and there’s a lot more touch points as far as like getting clients in the door.

So yeah. Things have just really changed. So now we’re super focused on the messaging, our ideal client and like really trying to speak to the woman we wanna work with.

mm-hmm. Yeah. Trust recession. I like that term ’cause we, there’s a lot of talk about that now and, and especially with ai. This is

Yep.

is like a lot of fake writing and we don’t know what’s real, so. Okay. That’s interesting because yeah, I noticed that as you started to share your story earlier. You’ve got those big shifts in there, as we would expect from a business that’s been around for so long. So you’ve, yeah, you’ve experienced that. And that does come from what you said is that trying different things, curious. How do you declare or determine that something hasn’t worked?

Because the way I think about a lot of this is like if I try YouTube and it doesn’t work well, I kind of take that on myself. Like it’s not, I don’t think that YouTube can’t work, but maybe I did it wrong. So how do you make that distinction between we didn’t do it right, or we didn’t try it well enough, or Yeah, it’s just not working.

We don’t need it.

Yeah, I think we’re just always thinking about our ideal client and just trying to figure out where she hangs out online. So like for us, Instagram is big, but TikTok not so much, you know what I mean? So we just try to like figure that out and. Speaking to that ideal person, and especially with like the messaging and the offers, like if we put something out there and like nobody really buys it or nobody really engages with a post or an email or something like that, we’re like, all right, maybe that wasn’t the right messaging.

So that for sure really trying to. Speak to the person that we wanna work with. And then also looking at metrics like we’re really big on like tracking KPIs, you know, doing debriefs after launches and things like that. And like actually looking at the numbers. Like, did this work? Did we get enough leads?

Did they convert our sales pages? Converting our optin pages, converting. ’cause as Jill, my business coach said, she always says it’s just math. So a lot of times like trying to be like clinical about what we are doing and like actually looking at the numbers, I think that that can help for sure.

Okay, so now we’ve brought up some numbers. Let’s talk a bit about this a little more here. Like your, your business, who is your ideal client? What specifically are you offering and how are you delivering it?

Yeah, so our ideal client is 35 plus. Woman who is healthy, not somebody that’s a beginner, somebody that’s doing a lot of the right things. They’re eating whole foods, they’re getting their protein in, they’re doing some strength training, getting movement and walks and prioritizing some of those foundational things.

But she’s a woman that might be really busy. We work with a lot of moms, um, women who work full-time, who just have like a lot on their plate. They might be a little type a. A little bit of perfectionism in there, overachiever or high achiever, and yeah, they just need help as far as more of a direction because they are somebody that has tried a lot of things.

Maybe they’ve bought the supplements or random meal plans, or they’ve hired coaches in the past and maybe not got the best results, but they are somebody that are looking for a personalized approach to health and wellness and potentially weight loss. We definitely do weight loss over here, but at the end of the day, it really is about being fit.

Fueled, which is our signature program because we want ladies to have energy, like to feel good in their bodies and to be strong and physically fit. So when they finish our program, they really have a game plan for moving forward, you know, into their fifties and sixties and seventies, eighties and beyond.

So we don’t wanna be the quick fix for people. We really want to be that forever solution that you come to us, you learn some amazing strategies. We run the testing, so we figure out. What exactly is going on in your body, and you have that very personalized protocol targeted approach that you’re not wasting your time anymore.

I mean, I think so many ladies have come to us and they’re like, I’ve done this, I’ve done that. I’ve run the blood work with my doctor. Everything’s normal, but I don’t feel great. My hair’s falling out. I’m, I’m miserable human. Things like that. So yeah, we’re really just helping the woman who’s already healthy.

She just needs a little something more.

Right. Okay. And is that all one-on-one coaching or do you have group programs as well? How does that look?

Yeah, so we have both options. So we have the one-on-one coaching where we run the functional testing and you work with one of the coaches on my team. So that is really more for the person that wants that individual attention. Like obviously they’re very results driven because you’re getting that personalized attention.

And then we have a group coaching program for the ladies that like the community and like the group. And that’s me. Um. As far as like who they’re working with, sometimes my coaches hop in. Sometimes we have guest speakers. But it’s, it’s more of a group program and you know, it’s focused on the nutrition, a little bit of testing in there and the fitness part of it.

Okay. Now there’s different mindsets around one-on-one coaching. A lot of people, let’s say even earlier on, they have more time to just do it on their own. Like they’re a, a solo coach but how have you handled this? Or has there been any issue at all with say, as you grow. You have to start having other coaches assist you. Because you’re kind of the face of the brand, right? Have you had people come in and say, well, I wanna work with you specifically and you know, you can’t, that’s not really scalable, so how has that worked out?

Yeah, that that was an issue at one point because it was me for a very, very long time, and then slowly added more and more coaches. So, yeah, I, again, I think it goes back to like the messaging and just saying we, and then. You know how you present it. Like we overhear a carrots and cake and then I try to get the coaches involved as much as possible.

So, um, we do monthly Facebook lives in our Facebook community. Um, I often share their content on Instagram like we’re trying to get, I. Prospective clients to really know, like trust the coaches so they understand, you know, that they’re in good hands when they come to carrots and cake. And then, um, our coaches are amazing and they really do have specialties too.

So we do our best to match up coaches or match up clients with coaches based on their needs. So yeah, I really think it is about like how you. Deliver the information and then of course, getting people used to seeing other faces. Like I’ve had all the coaches on the podcast multiple times at this point.

You know, talking about clients or their own approach or you know, their opinions on things and whatnot. So yeah, it was quite a transition though, because yeah, a lot of people were disappointed. I wasn’t really doing one-on-one coaching anymore.

Well, I like those, those strategies that you mentioned. I mean, they, they seem very reasonable and yeah, you don’t want to be coming across like you’re pulling the bait and switch like they don’t know anyone who is this coach. They think they’re getting you, and then here you go. Never talking to you again.

So, absolutely, and I love that you mentioned having them on the podcast too, which brings me to something else, uh, a great use of your podcast that I wanna, uh, talk about, as we get into more of your marketing funnel here. But you have some great freebies on your website and I took a look at one of them, specifically the mineral guidebook, and I was so impressed. After I got that download, one of the emails that I got from you was actually a podcast episode on that same topic, which is just such a good idea. It’s like one of those things, it’s so obvious once you see it, but you don’t always come up with it, you know, to see someone else do it. But that was a great way to introduce someone to your podcast. . Do you have any idea of where most of your clients are kind of coming into your ecosystem these days? Is it through the podcast? Is it through Instagram?

Yeah, I would say those are probably our two top referrals. And yeah, we’ll get clients in the door and they’ll be like, oh, I listened to X, Y, Z podcast episode, and it really resonated. Or on Instagram where I. You know, I have these friends on Instagram who have followed for a long time and there’s a lot of DM messages and things like that.

And again, back to the messaging, is that really trying to speak to clients, and really, you know, identify their struggles and challenges and ultimately, what they would pay money for. Um, but so many people say, oh, I saw this reel, or I saw this post and it really spoke to me. But yeah, those are the two places where I think we get the most referrals because I just think about.

Where I would hang out on the internet and sometimes I think I’m kind of the target market too. And yeah, I spend time on podcasts and on Instagram and I don’t really go to the other places very often.

right? Yeah. You don’t need to be everywhere. Only where

Yes, yes. And I learned that it was, it was too much as far as the content goes.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, so let’s talk about Instagram a little more here. That we we’re on this now because. social media growth can be a great mystery to people who are not at the level that you are.

And so entrepreneurs in the health and wellness space that are maybe even at 500 followers or a thousand or a few thousand, what insights would you have or thoughts on, on what they have to do to reach your level? I’m not saying that you have to get to your level, but obviously a lot of people aspire to, you’re at about 73,000 Instagram followers right now, which. It’s pretty big. So what one thing or few things would you attribute that to?

Yeah, I think it’s consistency, which I know is like annoying to hear, but like I show up on Instagram pretty much like six outta seven days. I mean, I might take Saturday or Sunday off, but I’m on my stories. Constantly, and I’m probably posting content five or six days a week, like in my feed. So just consistently doing it.

And then of course, looking at your metrics, like going into the insights and being like, okay, what posts have done well? I mean, you could take a reel that did well and literally turn it into a carousel post and then talk about it on stories. ’cause clearly that resonated with somebody. So like you don’t have to.

Create the wheel every single time. But yeah, every, you know, 30 days go into your insights and be like, all right, what resonated with my audience? And create similar content like that. I think it just works so well because I think a lot of times people sit down and they’re like, I don’t know what to post.

Like, I don’t know, like, you know, you, you have nothing in your brain to go off of, but you know, just going back to what has done well because clearly it spoke to your audience. So it’s like keep doing more of that to like start those conversations and you know, getting people to DM you and have those conversations.

I would say yeah, your willingness to try different things and experiment too has helped with that because you’re getting more data of what types of posts and content work. When you say getting people to DM you, how does that look exactly? You’re doing any outreach or you just having them do like a ManyChat thing from a post?

I was gonna say ManyChat has been great. So we actually have a couple automations where it almost like starts the conversation, but then I’ll jump in and actually like leave a voice memo and get more personal with that person. But that has been working in the sense that, yeah, you’re talking to like a robot or a bot, but at the same time I’ll jump in with a voice memo so it is more personalized.

And then obviously getting to know the prospective client, them getting to know. Our company and like what we offer. I think that can be super duper helpful. And then in my stories, I’m doing a lot of polls. I’m doing a lot of like ask me anything type things. I’m asking for recommendations. So doing as much as I can to interact with my audience because you know, I think a lot of people like just to follow along and look at what you’re doing, but there are people that really do like to engage with you.

So, um, trying to create a community there on Instagram, the best I can.

I really like that, uh, that idea of say using ManyChat or an automation to start something, but then you jumping in. To continue it, especially with a voice memo. That’s really cool. ’cause well, I guess you could fake that, but let’s assume for now no one’s doing that yet on Instagram. But, uh, that’s really neat.

You know, when we talked about the truth recession, I’ve had some of these before, reach out to me on Instagram like that, and I just think, you know, if, if I follow someone with a million followers. And they’re talk, they’re DMing me like, Hey Joel, how’s it going? Like, that’s not you. Don’t come on let’s, you know. But this is, I like that balance. It’s okay. I know that’s an automated thing, but now wow. I’m actually, you know, we’re actually talking here. So that’s a great, uh, way to use best of both worlds and combine it, I think. So, social media, we’ve talked about, I wanna move on to something a little different here. You’ve been featured in some pretty big publications like Women’s Health Fitness, Forbes. So I want to ask a question like the chicken and the egg here. Would you say you started getting these types of bigger, uh, appearances once you reached a certain level without them? Or did these play a role in actually helping you grow to where you are now?

Like what came first?

Oh, that is a good, maybe a little bit of both. Because yeah, back in the blog days, you know, I, I was constantly being highlighted, but you know, I was one of the bigger blogs back in the days and I got book deals and cookbook deals and all of that. So I think the coverage just kind of happened naturally.

But I still get featured here and there depending on, you know, what I am. Doing on the internet. But yeah, I think it, like you said, it’s like a little chicken and the egg. Like I don’t really know where it started. But yeah, I mean, I’m always happy to be featured.

Yeah. Yeah. So maybe also like maybe some smaller ones started and that got the ball rolling and then you just work your way up. It wasn’t like a overnight,

Right, right, right.

Was that just the blog kind of propelled you into there? Did you use a PR agency or anything to help get those appearances for you?

Yeah,

Totally the blog and then the influencing, because I worked with every brand under the Sun, you name it. I’ve probably worked with them, but like big names. So I think maybe they were using PR firms at that point. And it just kind of made sense. Like I was like a spokesperson for Eggland’s Best. And then I did a lot of stuff for Reebok.

So I’ve worked with like a million brands. I’m assuming they probably had something to do with like the features and things like that.

Interesting. Okay. Well this has been great insight and one thing I always like to ask is. Especially we, we look at your business and think you’ve been so successful, you’ve got this perfect system running. You know, you’ve got a coach, you’ve got everything, people working for you, but behind the scenes, it’s never perfect.

There’s always either a struggle or at least a challenge or a priority, like where are we going next? ’cause as you mentioned, you don’t wanna be stagnant. So what is that for you? Like what are you looking at that needs to be done next or is a challenge for you right now?

Well, like I said, this trust recession, so trying to figure out how to get the right woman in the door I think is really important for us and really dialing in that message as far as like what we are selling and who we can best help. I think that’s really important. Like in the early days when we just did macro coaching and nutrition coaching.

We would just work with anybody. But I think now with this trust recession, it really needs to be a good fit for both parties. Um, so yeah, really trying to nail the messaging and the offers the best we can. ’cause yeah, it’s been just different this year. So, yeah, just, just growing and changing.

Changing. that’s a good lesson because yeah, it, it, it never stops changing. You’ve been doing this for 17 years and a lot of people might think I start my business, I’m gonna figure out my messaging, my ideal client, and we’re good, but. You have to evolve and you constantly be watching and staying relevant.

So I think you’re a great example of that based on the fact that you’re still doing it after all this time. So thanks so much, Tina, for your, your insight. Carrots and Cake is the Business and the Fit and Fuel Life podcast. We’ll put all your links in the show notes, but really appreciate you sharing those insights with us.

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.