Ajay: Hello, how are you?

Emmy: Good, Ajay. How are you? Thank you for this opportunity.

Ajay: You’re welcome. And I’m so glad that you are here for our podcast. So, there’s something for my audience – you know, all my audience are typically in the healthcare business, so for my audience, do you mind just explaining a little bit about your business, what you’re doing and the challenges that you are facing and also your background, and that way, they will be able to relate to the next discussion in terms of your questions.

Emmy: Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for that question. My name is Emmy Loumeau. I am a holistic wellness coach, and I empower women who suffer from various conditions or autoimmune disease to find relief, hope, and clarity in order to fly. My main idea for this business is to – I’m actually just starting out. From personal experience dealing with an autoimmune disease for about eight years now, I have decided to and help others.

So, this is basically me starting out, taking a pivot from my graphic design career and 100 percent full mom and housewife, and well, just looking to find – I guess my biggest challenge right now is how to open myself to a new market and just be able to have people find me and know what I have to offer to help them out.

Ajay: So, could you explain a little bit more about you, the training you have, and exactly what kind of people you are able to help with what problems?

Emmy: Yes, thank you. Well, eight years ago, I was diagnosed with syndrome and, and it’s an autoimmune disease. And basically, an autoimmune disease is when your autoimmune system is not fighting for you but against you. So, my autoimmune system started just fighting against me, and this took me in a road that I had to get diagnosed, and there was a lot of trial and error to find out what I was actually having and what I was going through.

So, going through this journey, I decided to enroll into the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, also known as IIN. And I really like their approach, because they teach you how to see the person holistically and integratively, not just as someone that has just a disease or just from nutrition standpoint of diets or fitness, but actually as a holistic and complete wellness. So, this approach really attracted me into getting certified in being able to help others.

The other thing I really liked about the certification was that most of the pages that I follow in functional medicine or any other type of more homeopathic options to your health, most of their health coaches are from IIN. So, that’s why I chose this school, and my personal experience just drove me into getting certified because I guess like everyone else, when someone gets sick, we all start googling and trying to find out what’s wrong with us, and so there’s a lot of things we can learn and webinars we can get into, but that’s not the same as getting certified and being able to help others.

So, I’m really hopeful and happy to be able to help more people that suffer from any autoimmune disease that is keeping them from finding that life that they really wanna live. I don’t want them to –

Ajay: So –

Emmy: Mm-hmm?

Ajay: I totally understand. So, my question was if someone is right now going through autoimmune disease, if they want to use, say, your therapy – I’m just trying to find the right word. So, if they go through your process, do you suggest that they stop taking their medication? How does it work when someone is already taking medication for autoimmune disease, and also, how does that work? Give us some idea.

Emmy: Sure, thank you. Well, actually, as a health and wellness coach, we don’t diagnose and we don’t touch any kind of medication. We accompany the person in order to be able to manage their symptoms, so they can set goals with us in order to go into a wellness path. My experience was that once I was diagnosed a lot of pain and a lot of – the life of a person with an autoimmune disease changes a lot. Sometimes the physical activity changes, the sleeping activity changes, the social environment changes.

So, these people, and I guess many people who suffer from any other chronic illnesses, go through changes in their life that this is where I come into. I want them to find out that there is hope, that we can work together. And even if they have that diagnosed, that doesn’t define them. There’s always a way to be able to work on their mindset and being able to just let them feel that there is hope. And the way I like to work with them is going through a holistic approach. I go into their physical, their mental, their emotional, and their spiritual state. I like to dive deep into these areas and make sure that they can balance them out in the best way to help them have a better quality of life.

Ajay: Okay, perfect. So, tell us about your experience. So, are you off medication now? Tell me how it has changed, the process that you went through when you started. How has it changed? Are you off medication? You don’t have to tell us what exactly was the problem, but as a result of this, where are you in terms of your treatment?

Emmy: Well, I like to say that I don’t have any – I’m not against medications. I’m not against medical science. I think they help, and they’re there for the prices. In my experience, I use medication, and I still have medication, but I’ve been able to wind down from those with the lifestyle changes that I’ve made, with the diet that I eat. And by balancing all these things out, I have been able to lower those doses.

Ajay: So, what you’re saying, taking medication still, but you are feeling much better than you were before you went through the process, correct?

Emmy: Correct, yes, yes.

Ajay: So, then that sounds good. Now, how long have you been coaching or have you started coaching? What’s the status?

Emmy: Well, actually, I am just literally starting out. I will be graduating this March(2022).

Ajay: Oh, okay.

Emmy: Yes. So, that’s why I was so intrigued and happy about this opportunity because I really wanna find out what are your best advices that you can give me to be able to reach more people and doing it the right way and with more accuracy. So, I’m actually just starting out. My experience has been personal, and some people have come to me asking, “What have you done? I know that you’ve had an autoimmune disease.” So, I basically guided them, but I haven’t started the coaching services with them because it just happened in the meantime that I was getting certified.

Ajay: Okay, so understand perfectly. Okay, good. So, I think that my audience has now a very good idea of where you are, where you started, and what you are trying to do, so I think that we are ready to dive into your questions. So, tell us your first question.

Emmy: Oh, thank you. Well, I wanted to ask you what is your best marketing strategy to be found? When someone searches Google or searches any search engines, what is your best strategy for us as coaches to be found?

Ajay: Sure. So, first thing’s first is obviously if someone is searching you on Google, you want to make sure that you have a website, right, to start with. So, you have a website that, No. 1, talks about your business and also explains why you are different, right? In your case, for example, what you’re doing is from your own experience, so you can relate to the problem that, for example, someone that you’re coaching, you can really relate to what’s going on better than just you have some theoretical information. So, you want to have a website that explains exactly what your service is and why you are different. So, that is the starting point.

And once you have the website, then you are now – I guess before I tell you the next thing, so how do you do the coaching? Is it online? I mean, how do you do it? In other words, is there a geography? You want local people or anywhere in the county? I mean, how does it work?

Emmy: wanna target doing it virtually, to be able to meet people. And besides that, I am located in Guatemala City in Central America, so my main focus is to try to do it virtually and on the side have people here from my country.

Ajay: Good, good. So, given that, I would make sure that you clearly state on the website that this is virtual, okay? And so, once you have the website, no offense, you are starting, I would say target in area. So, when you are doing the website, so you should consult some digital agency. Like, what they will be able to do is they will identify the keywords that people are using to search for your services, okay? And you did the searches already, so you know, but there’s a very methodical way. Google just gives you every information, right?

So, billions of searches that happens I think literally every week on Google, it keeps track of every darn keyword that was used to search for the information, so this marketing agency will be able to tell you exactly what keywords were used on Google to look for your services. So, first thing’s first is make sure that your website is optimized for those services, and for that, you may need to add more pages and all, but your agency will guide you through their process.

So, this is your infrastructure that you want to first create since you are starting, and your main infrastructure is the website where you talk about the service, you talk about how you are going to be providing the service, and also why you are different, right, so why they should talk to you and not someone else, and then optimize it for the right keywords. So, that’s my starting point, and that is the beginning.

Once you have done that, and your agency should be able to submit that to Google so that Google – there’s a word called Google Indexing it. So, essentially, Google will look at your website and say, “Okay, for this keyword, based on the importance,” and they have their own algorithm for deciding how important your site is versus others for certain keywords, but it will index you. So, it could be that you’re showing up on Page 10, but that’s still a starting point. You have to have that. And then your agency will give you a strategy about how to keep on moving up right on.

So, no one goes to Page 10 when they’re searching, so how to bring it up to Page 1 and high on Page 1 for those important keyword, and there’s a whole strategy around it. There are keywords that no one has found yet. In other words, it’s easier to get on Page 1. Some are very difficult. So, again, your agency will do that strategy.

But once you have a website, I would say that you want to test daily by advertising on Google with paid advertising. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on that, but you can either focus on one keyword and do that, or you focus – I would suggest that you focus on one keyword, and even then, you focus on a certain area, a geography. All you are trying to do in the first go-around is try to understand what is the cost of getting someone – one person to come and visit your site, right, or the landing page that you will create.

And then, what is the rate of conversion? So, you will know that, for example, that I spend $100.00, I got 100 visits through my website, and 10 people contacted me. I’m just simplifying the math. So, that way you know that for each contact, your cost was $10.00, right? And now you know how many of those contacts became your client and what’s the revenue so that you can start to see, okay, is it profitable or not, this marketing? But also, doing that test on Google, it really helps you understand what is happening.

So, you are just starting your business, you don’t know how people will react, what will happen, so this is spending a few hundred dollars with Google, maybe a thousand-dollar budget. You’ll start to get a good feel for, okay, where do I stand? What are the keywords that I should be focused on? What are the keywords that are bringing me some clients? So, what I’m telling you are all foundational steps when you start a business, and you will need to do all this. So, I think that’s the starting point.

I would say don’t worry about – you know, you can try Facebook for sure when it comes to advertising once your website is up, because Facebook could be a good platform, but I would test with Google, because the goodness of Google is that you have all the analytics that you need. Even if you want to do Facebook, if you think Facebook is a good platform, which it probably would be, by the way, in this particular case, instance, but do it after you have learned from Google what works, what doesn’t work. So, that I would say is the starting point to start attracting your clients.

Emmy: Wow, great. That is excellent advice. Thank you so much. I will look into that.

Ajay: Sure.

Emmy: Yes. And I have another question. In your opinion, what is the best lead magnet to offer health and wellness clients?

Ajay: So, you know, because you are starting – by the way, you know some of the lead magnets are obviously the white paper, because people are really thirsty for knowledge. You already went through that process, so you know that when you are facing this problem, you really want to have the information, as much as quickly as possible. So, of course, you want to have some white papers and information that people can download. But the initial, since you are starting out, I would say some of the best lead magnets for you would be the first consultation is free kind of lead magnet so that they get a feel for what you are doing.

You have to prepare, obviously, what you’ll be doing during the first session. But you want someone to come and get a feel for what you’re doing, why, what’s your approach, so I would say have some downloadable white paper, and the good news is that you can set it up in such a way that when someone downloads, you will also know who has downloaded it. Like, you can make it that when you’re downloading, I’m just going to email it to you, so now you have captured the email address.

And then, I would say offer at least your first session free, and that should get the whole thing started. But in this particular thing, I would say the best lead magnet is more information and then followed up by the free first session.

Emmy: Great. Thank you so much. And once I have created or I have gained this email list, what’s your best advice to increase the visibility and to increase the reach with my email list?

Ajay: By the way, the lead, as you already know, would also help you build that email list, right? And once you have the email list, plan out from the get-go what will be your content. How often do you want to send content to your email list, right? And then what will be it? If anything, my position is to have the content ready up front, so if you are going to have – again, simplifying the math – once a month, you may want to have at least six months of content ready. If you are going to do once a week, then still have 3-4 months of content ready so that you don’t run into any issue there. So, that to me is, again, the starting point.

And then the best way to increase your list is to ask your reader to forward, so that’s the first thing that I would say. Make sure that your readers are forwarding it. And then, obviously, you can use the page advertising, like Facebook, for example, or even Google where you are advertising not just your services but essentially, you are advertising your product, right, the lead magnet, like you were saying. So, for that, they will come in. When they download, you get their number. So, the referral is the best, the lead when you are list-building if you can start with the referral, and then you can obviously use your marketing on the website and also some very proactive, like I said, paid advertising to build the list.

And I just want you to have the right expectations. These things build slowly. So, I know that you mentioned that when you go and check Google, probably there are people screaming that there were one million – list of one million in one day, but these things generally happen over long periods of time. You want to start to offer your product, and then it will gradually build it, right? Once someone likes it, they are happy to share. Every time you get a chance for anyone to download who looks at your content, you have to almost them.

So, my suggestion is that you completely focus on the content, making sure that it’s really useful for your target audience, and then try to use that really as a base to get referrals, get people to download, find you, get added to your list. Since you are starting your own business now, I have always told the people that I consult with that it's all longer than you think and it always takes more money, then you work hard to succeed. So, it’s a business. Hopefully, you will love what you are doing, and the passion is very important because you are starting a new thing.

It’s not that easy. It’s never easy, otherwise everyone will be successful. So, it always takes some time, but by persisting and making sure that you are completely focused on helping your client, I don’t have any reason to see why it won’t be successful. I mean, you’ve seen what the product that you’re offering or service that you’re offering, you have already gone through it, so you are the proof of concept right there. It’s not like there’s some imaginary product that you are selling.

So, I would say, yes, start to build your, but focus on quality rather than quantity when it comes to the need list and, like I said, it will take longer. Just unfortunately, it will take long to build it, but once you have the momentum, then it really gets going. But it takes time and effort to get that momentum.

Emmy: Wow. Thank you for your advice. Yes, and I hear you when you say it takes time, but it’s great advice to focus my energy in just creating that quality content, being patient and consistent.

Ajay: Yes, yes. So long as you are focused on making sure that anyone that interacts with you either to get a free session or join the session or get your product, the lead bait, you just want to make sure that there’s a lot of value for them. And so long if you are super client-centric, I don’t know of anyone who is very customer-centric and who has failed in their business, no matter what business, and I have been around for quite some time. And I have seen some really dazzling, great products, the company just go kaput just because they were more focused on raising fund and dazzling the press rather than dazzling their customers.

So, so long as you are very customer-focused, I wouldn’t worry about it. Of course, I already told you, initially you have to be very methodical, right, getting the website, making sure what you are targeting, testing with a small amount of money, the paid advertising to see what is going on, getting some – you know, and they’ll return. I know that you will prepare everything, but until you have done 5-10 sessions, you won’t know what’s working, what’s not working, right?

So, I would say in the beginning, because you are doing the work anyway, record a session, even if it’s a free session. Record that and then listen to it again after that. And be your own critic. Just listen to it, see where it's like this is what I want to change, and again, most of the time, it's not like you will have an “aha” moment, but it’s just a small moment when you see. It’s like, “Oh, I could have done this better,” or next time.

And in the beginning, just be very critical of yourself. Always evaluate what you’re doing. If someone has downloaded your report and when you send him an email, because now he’s there in the email list, and they decide to unsubscribe, then I would say I would just go and look at my content. It’s like obviously I did not impress this person to sign up. So, again, my approach to business always has been totally focused on your customer, and everything falls in place.

Emmy: Wow, thank you.

Ajay: Okay?

Emmy: Yes, yes. Thank you so much. This has been so much help for me and great advice. Great.

Ajay: Good. Thank you for being our guest, and accept my best wishes. I love entrepreneurs, obviously, and the fact that you are getting into your own business is fantastic. So, do that. And by the way, if you get stuck on anything that is – on new answers or it’s like, god, I’m at this fork, what do I do, you can always reach out to Oliver and I’m happy to answer one or two questions. Your questions do not have to be only – it’s not like once the podcast is done, I am done.

What I was telling you, teaching you, I do the same thing. It’s like if I’m saying that I want to help the entrepreneurs, I really want to help. So, later on, if you get stuck, if you’re thinking what’s the right thing to do, feel free to reach out to us, okay?

Emmy: That’s wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for being open to helping me out and for sharing your great advice.

Ajay: Thank you very much. Great talking to you.

Emmy: Thank you very much. Have a great afternoon. Thank you, Oliver. My name is Emmy Loumeau. I am a holistic wellness coach, and you can find me in my social media as Emmy Loumeau or as my business, Wellistica. And I’m on Facebook and Instagram, and there’s a provisional website through the Milkshake app, and you can find me there as Wellistica as well. I look forward to helping women with autoimmune disease and just thinking through the journey that I took and that made me have this wellness that I found, and I am desperately happy to share it with all of you, so thank you.

Speaker: Thank you for listening to this episode of The Founder's Corner Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SoundCloud. If you are interested in being a guest, be sure to visit our main page at www.gmrwebteam.com/thefounderscorner.