Module 34 COACH SECRETS REVEALED WORKSHOPS 2011, Integrative 2016 Nutrition, Integrative Inc. Nutrition, Inc.
2 Q&A WITH AMBER ROBERTSON FROM NASHVILLE, TN Q How did you create your first workshop? How do you market your workshops? How much do you charge for your workshops? A The very first workshop I ever did, I reached out to a friend of mine who owns a dance and creative movement studio, and we collaborated on a workshop together that involved some of her people, other holistic practitioners in the area, and myself. We created this event that was a survey of all the holistic and health and wellness practitioners offered in our area. Each of us gave a 20- to 30-minute presentation about the kinds of services that we offer. We gave out little freebies to the people who were there. Once I had done several workshops around town, the marketing began taking care of itself. I was getting word-of-mouth referrals, and people were becoming more aware of what I was doing. I was getting contacts and invitations from strangers who wanted to either work with me or book me for a speaking engagement.
3 Any time I did a workshop, I would market it to different community calendars, including a link to my website, so that now, two or three years later, if I were to go to Google and do a search for Amber Robertson in Nashville, Tennessee, I come up with all these links that started circulating two or three years ago. It s pushed me up there higher in the search engine rankings. My very first workshop was free. But I have done workshops in the past where I ve collaborated with other practitioners and charged maybe twenty dollars. Twenty dollars is a really good number because that s what comes out of the ATM. People don t really think much about twenty dollars, so I feel like twenty dollars for an hour or hour and a half workshop is a price that people don t mind paying.
4 Q&A WITH SHANNON HODGE FROM OVERLAND PARK, KS Q How did you find your first audience? How do you find audiences now? A For the most part, I m still doing classes and workshops that have a built-in audience. I am partnering with organizations that do most of the marketing. I ll do marketing with my newsletter and on Facebook, but it s much easier for me to tap into a group that s already there. There s this program called Communiversity here in Kansas City it s a community education initiative that has classes regularly, and they put out a huge list of all their classes and then people sign up. So they re doing the marketing for me. I m a member of the Junior League, which is a women s volunteer organization, and they do trainings as part of the organization, so I found a training committee and said, Hey, I would love to do a class or workshop. Then I gave them a few options of the different classes that I teach and a little description. Usually when dealing with an organization, they re going to have their own questions for you. How long is it going be? How long do you want it to be? I figured those logistics out.
5 I started with the Junior League, the church that I was going to, and the Community ED. Then I asked friends and family, Hey, are you a part of any organizations that might be interested in hosting a health and wellness speaker?
6 Q&A WITH TAMMI HOERNER FROM KEENESBURG, CO Q How did you initially build your teaching schedule? A I picked up the phone and started calling places that were in the local community. One of the places was a rec center. I didn t have a prepared speech or anything I just showed up authentically. I shared with her what I was learning, my passion for health, and how much becoming healthy had changed my life. Then I just asked her, How can I help you in the programs that you have here? I d love to be able to teach a class a cooking class or information education class on health and whole foods. I was just throwing it out there. That s where I started to realize that if I just showed up as me, often people were really receptive to that alone. I gained confidence over time, and I became a lot more organized in my approach. Within a few months, I had a list of classes that I wanted to teach and felt comfortable with the content. I would look up companies on the Internet because I live really far out in the country, so driving around town isn t necessarily feasible. I would either send an email or make a phone call and let them know what I had to share and
7 ask if they would be open to me coming in and teaching their group, whether it was their clients or their networkers or whomever. I would do that for free in exchange for being able to share what I do with them, and I never had anybody say no. I reached out to networking groups, mom support groups, the rec center, the library it just really fell into place. Within my first three months of reaching out, I had the entire year as full as I could get it with workshops, only leaving space for meetings with individuals.
8 Q&A WITH ALEXANDRA DIFILIPPO FROM PHILADELPHIA, PA Q How did you set up your first workshop? How do you calm your nerves? How do you handle the audience and keep the workshop on track? A I was good friends with someone who ran a small health food store. He was thinking, Oh, it would be great to do talks here. Part of what made it successful for me was that I picked this topic that I could speak from my heart about. I chose having healthy options for children and getting the family around the table. I knew that if I kept it family-oriented, it would speak to my everyday life. I wouldn t have trouble talking about facts and figures; I could just rely on things that I already knew inside and out. That made it really easy for me to feel comfortable in front of people. It was a very small group, but it was still nerve-racking for me. A few things helped me to relieve the pressure one was to include the crowd. I asked the audience questions, which alleviated pressure because then the focus was off me for a moment. Also, it helped to create connection.
9 I keep people aware of the time constraints without interrupting them I found that to be helpful. Also, I have them do activities together, such as paired shares. Then once everybody has had a chance to talk, I do a more educational piece. I ll talk for a little while and shift that energy back to the crowd for goal setting. Every now and then, you get someone who has a lot of questions or really overtakes. At that point, I ll simply say, Let s be mindful of all the participants here. I appreciate your questions, but maybe you can email me if you have further questions. Here is my contact info. I would love to hear questions from various participants in the crowd.