EP 343 - From Wall Street to Health Coach: Jenny Pena's Coaching Business Story

MarketingCoaching Lifestyle
Written By Debbie Shadid
 

If you're a coach who's wondering whether you can really build a thriving coaching business while working full-time, raising a family, and starting from scratch - this conversation is for you. Jenny Pena did it, and she's sharing exactly how.

If you're new to my channel, my name is Debbie Shadid. I'm a Business Growth and Life Coach and the founder of the Business Building Boutique. For over two decades, I've helped women learn how to become coaches, get clients, grow their businesses, and create meaningful income doing work they love.

Jenny is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach who helps busy professionals lower their A1C, balance blood sugar, and ditch the cravings and brain fog, without extreme diets or hours at the gym. She joined the Business Building Boutique with a passion for coaching but no real structure, and within months she had a website, a podcast, monthly workshops, paying clients, and corporate lunch-and-learn partnerships. Her story is proof that when you treat your coaching like a business, and follow a roadmap, momentum follows.

In this episode, we'll walk through:

  • How Jenny went from finance professional to founding Gen P Coaching after her own health journey with PCOS and pre-diabetes

  • Why "I have a coaching company" became the mindset shift that opened new doors (including a neighbor who became a corporate client)

  • How she built her business in just 6 hours a week while working full-time and raising her son

  • Why workshops became her #1 client conversion tool, and how she uses them

  • The "fearless" word-of-the-year that pushed her to launch a podcast, host monthly workshops, and partner with doctors

  • How she powered through the program in one week of focused work and built a 12-month plan from there

  • Why niching down into pre-diabetes (instead of trying to help everyone) actually attracted MORE of the right clients

If you've been holding back because you don't have a "perfect" website, a giant audience, or unlimited time - Jenny's story will show you what's possible when you commit to the right structure and stop waiting for everything to be ready. You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need a roadmap and the willingness to take action.

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Transcript

If you are ready to start your coaching business and you want to be inspired, I am so thrilled today to introduce you to another client, Jenny. she's gone through our program so fast, has incredible results and is doing amazing work. Her clients. Jenny, will you introduce yourself? Tell us who you help and what your business is all about. Okay, so my name is Jenny Pena. I am a national board certified health and wellness coach, and I help busy professionals, men and women, help lower their A1C balance, their blood sugar ditch a lot of the cravings and the brain fog that comes with that. Maybe lose a few pounds and all of that without having to get into extreme diets and without having to spend hours at the gym in a daily, but with sustainable habits. That is the key and that's what I feel that is special about the program that I offer. But that is what I do. And I founded Gen P coaching about two years ago, and I have been coaching almost four years. I first started, and I'm still doing different things, but I started and you helped me so much in terms of the structure and, now I'm doing a lot of different things that I'm, very excited to share about. So you look super healthy yourself. Let me just give you a compliment. You do look healthy, so I think that, you're involved yourself in what it is you're doing because this is your story. Absolutely. to even give a background, I live in New York and I worked in the finance and I worked in the Wall Street area, so I had a thriving career. It was not even about, oh, you need to get more money or you need to, this did not came up as, oh, this is a strategy. I'm gonna open a health coaching business and I'm gonna start coaching. But it was more about my own struggles, I was diagnosed with PCOS. Diabetes runs in my family, and then I was already seeing the A1C levels climbing up. I was already feeling the cravings. I couldn't lose the weight, and I just saw a lot of different things piling up in terms of my health and I tried different things and a lot of it didn't work. So I hit that point that I needed to explore, okay, there has to be a better way. There has to be a way that is not just, let's take some medication to try to control it. Because even with the medications, I had to be put on medications and the side effects were horrible. I could not manage the side effects. So that gave me like that wake up call and all of this is happening when I'm in my late twenties. So a lot of people have the misconception about, especially with type two diabetes, that is like an older people's. And it isn't. And now you're seeing a lot more women also struggling with PCOS in their fertility years. And a lot of it is connected with blood sugar. So I had to experience that myself. I had to go through fertility issues myself. Thankfully I had a 7-year-old son. and, I was blessed to be a mom, but it was not easy. And going through that and then finding what worked for me was what triggered, wait a minute. I want to help other people do the same thing. And I want them to know that they don't have to go in an extreme diet or go into intermittent fasting or go into keto or never eat bread or never eat rice, right? Like things that are very intrinsic of our culture, of our family traditions. It's like, okay, it doesn't have to be an all or nothing, but more about balance. And when I applied that to myself, I was able to. Lower my A1C. To this day it's in natural levels. I work out, I exercise. I don't go to the gym my workouts are not super long because I just don't have the time to fit it like that. But I found different strategies to incorporate all of that and build my own health, and that has helped me help others because I can relate to the struggles that they have. Many are trying to invest in their careers. They have families. Depending on where you are in your life, you may be taking care of your parents. Now you're having grandchildren. The task and responsibilities, they're always there. They just shift a little bit as you grow and it becomes challenging. So how do you adapt that and still invest in yourself and be healthy so you can be there for the people you love Ultimately. So I'm gonna share all of Jenny's links so that you can follow her and engage with her. And I mean, honestly, probably work with her because there's a lot of people listening in my demographic that are your ideal clients. when we worked together, I did some research to see what the numbers were of how many people were impacted by this. And Lord, You know, if we were to say like. Five outta 10 or something. It's probably something like that. you might know like percentage wise, how many people are we talking about over 50 that might have A1C problems. You don't have to answer that now, but it's just a lot of people. Mm-hmm. So I wanna make sure that I include the way for people to connect with you. But I also wanna mention about your Instagram, because I follow you on Instagram and I see your stuff and, I look at what you put out. And honestly, it is such great content, jenny. I mean you really share, like today I was going through a carousel about rice. You mentioned rice. You know, my husband is, Lebanese, so it's Middle Eastern. Hispanics eat rice. Asian community eats rice. There's not any community practically that doesn't use rice as a staple. And you were talking about like not cutting it out, but how to utilize rice a small portion and the way how you should eat it anyway. What you're providing knowledge wise is so useful and so simple because it didn't say you can't eat rice. It said, here's how you do eat rice. Exactly. And that is a lot of the content I have to say that the clients are the ones that actually determine what I share. Why I decided to do that carousel and put it out there, because many people, without me even saying as a coach, you need to let go of this or that. My coaching principle is really not under the restriction because that makes you almost obsess over the restriction. Yes. I focus on like, well, let's not even talk about that. I'm not even going to, let's think about what you should have on your plate or what you should be doing. How can we add some of those things? So in terms of mindset. You're not restricting something, you're like, wait a minute, I'm adding things into my plate. But when you do that, you're crowding out other things. But a lot of these ideas is just because many people will come and say, please don't tell me I cannot eat rice because I grew up. This is part of my culture. Please do not tell me that. So in my mind I'm thinking, okay, it's not like you cannot, you may need to shift a few things, how you eat it, what you pair it with, but you can still have it and assess like, does it fit for me? I know how I have to include it. Maybe the frequency in the week, maybe changing, but. At least I can still include it. I can still have it as part of my life. And that's the beauty of balance. and many people have that misconception. They're like, well, if I have diabetes or prediabetes, nothing sweet, they even wanna take out fruits. That's another misconception. And I have to put that on the content. So pretty much that's what drives it when I see a lot of people asking. or concern about the same things, and I'm like, okay, this may be something that many people need to know that okay, you can still have the rice. You may need to shift some things, but you can still have it and still support your A1C. Oh, it's so good. And I'm giggling to myself because it's so true about the restriction. If you tell somebody they can't have something, it's all they're obsessed about, right? They're like, yeah, I have to have the thing and it makes me think about business 'cause you're thinking about A1C and I'm always thinking about business and how when I tell people like, you need to do this in the opposite, they're like, I don't wanna do that. So I'm kinda like you when it comes to business building, I'm like, look, marketing is necessary, like food is necessary, but we have to do it in a way that works with you or you won't do it right. We have to find the way that works for you. So that's what I was laughing over. Jenny, what got you and I together tell me about that What brought you to me? How did we get connected? I went to a school for health coaching, became a health coach For me, I was not even thinking about I'm gonna open up a business. It was more for my own health. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna figure this thing out myself. I'm gonna figure out how naturally I can do this. And after that, in, in the school, they don't teach you anything about business. You just have a passion for coaching. You want to coach people and help people. A lot of the coaches, I believe, like we are empaths, we care for other people. Yeah. We want people to thrive and be transformed and change the world, right? Like in one way or another. That's what you want. You want to see that transformation and I'm like a funnel. Lead magnet. What is that? Nobody. When you go through these coaching programs, I think now a lot of things have changed, but when I took it, there was not much mention of that. And then you go and you open up your account on Instagram and you're thinking that the clients are just going to find you. You're gonna put health coach next to your name and they're just gonna come flooding. And that's sadly not the reality. Then you start looking and then sad to say there are many great coaches and business coaches, but there are others that. You know, they give you those promises that it's almost like that shiny object that is not real. I cannot even remember how I bumped into you, but you had one of those workshops and I attended a couple of them and I'm like, I just like her approach. Because you were very direct. You were not promising that miracle thing that, oh, you're just gonna do this and then you're gonna make six figures in a month. Like it was not an empty, but you were very practical and very direct, and you were knowledgeable about anything. I just saw people asking questions and I sometimes will have my camera off and just listen, and I'm like, okay. I like her. I think that she can help me and I knew what I needed to do, but I didn't have the structure to do it. I needed to understand, okay, what is important, what is not? Versus spending two months trying to work on my webpage or doing this. Sometimes you waste time on a lot of solutions that you see online, and they're not that important. But your approach was so like, oh no, this is what you need to do and you're gonna get clients. And also the fact that you never focus on, well, it's like keep posting on Instagram, but you focus a lot on talk to people and I have a story about that, like how even the mindset, I had to change how I spoke about myself. Like I am a health coach. Yes I am. But now I'm not just a health coach, I have a coaching company. Yeah. Now the way that I speak is very different. Mm-hmm. And when I started, I didn't have that mindset. So it was not just about knowing what to do. I knew I needed to do certain things, but I needed the structure. I needed to have somebody with the expertise that you had to guide me when I was stuck or unsure. And. I just needed to, okay. if I find the roadmap that I can follow, I know I can execute because I manage many, projects. I knew I could execute. I just needed that roadmap because you can spend hours looking online and all the different coaches, they will sell things that sometimes you don't need. Especially at the beginning that's the key to know exactly what you need. You don't know what you even need in the beginning, honestly. And one piece of software that's a client management system looks like, I need that. And then it's like, no, you don't even have any clients. You don't need that piece of software. I don't wanna say like, you know, you get preyed on, like, people like, oh, I'll get that new coach. She'll need this software. That's not really the intent, but that's what happens. You watch these videos and you're just desperately looking for an answer, you don't even know. So anyway. Mm-hmm. I do have the path. I do have the process. And for anybody listening, I do tell everyone, you're not just a coach, you have a coaching company. Mm-hmm. You're a coach with a company, so you're right. It is just that mindset shift of like, wait a minute. I have a company. You know a lot of times it's like, wait a minute, I don't actually want to have a company. It's like, well, here's the deal. If you want to help anyone, you have to have a company and treat it like a business, or you won't get to do the thing That ultimately is the thrill of it all right? Helping the clients is the part where you're like, mm-hmm. I love this. Right? When you make a difference. Yeah, and that was another I'm not gonna say the misconception, but I think in my head I was just thinking so much about coaching and how much time that would take. But sadly, there are other things that you need to do in order for you to get to coaching people and finding that balance and understanding, okay, like this is important. I need to do it. You have, an episode that you shared how you can work on your business in six hours. And technically that's how I have my time and my days scheduled. I may put a little bit more than the six hours, but that's how I actually have things organized. I'm like, okay, this is B2C time, this is my admin time, this is my training time or coaching time, and I was able to organize myself because another thing that is hard when you're having a full-time job or you're having family, is to create boundaries. Because you could either get to the point that you're always working and you never stop, and in the end you want balance. Just like with food and your A1C, you need balance also with your life and your business. I'm so glad you brought that up because one of the many things I admire you about Jenny Pena, is the fact that you do appear to have balance. and I say appear, 'cause I'm not living in your day to day, but I know the way that you treated our education. We have, you know, materials for you to learn from. So then when you come to a coaching call, you can ask me. I always say, come with a knowledge and understanding so you can ask me a quality question. So you can have done something. And then once you do something, that's when you actually have really good questions. Like, okay, I tried this thing or, can you look at this thing? And so I love the approach that you took, knowing that you work full time and knowing that you know, you have your son and Like you said, you're walking, you're like, you have family, you have other things going on, just like we all do, and you wanted to compartmentalize your business really in the amount of time. So that is, for anyone who works full-time. We do have coaching on Monday evenings now every Monday evening, and I really help people who work full-time, like, let's be honest about how much time there is and then what Jenny said was, once you set the time, you have to follow your own schedule.'cause you could work on this business every single night after your son goes to bed every single weekend. And you could say, just one more thing. And I mean, I was guilty of that for years. Just one more thing, you know, you don't need to do one more thing. and sometimes I am a perfectionist in a way. And that was another thing I remember in one of the coaching, sessions that you said, okay. B minus work. Yeah, like put your time and like get it done. And get it out because if you keep revising and revis, like you'll never get it done. And in the end, sometimes the most, I'm gonna say imperfect post or imperfect things. W based on our perfectionism are actually the ones that have most impact. Sometimes those reels that I was like, okay, like my hair doesn't look so great or something, and that's the one that actually generates more people to send me dms. And I'm like, okay, that's interesting. And then the one that maybe you're prepping so much. And you're like, oh, what happened? So just be genuine. Bring yourself obviously, but prioritize, because that was another thing that I had to be mindful of. The same way that you think about your nine to five, right? Like you wouldn't just decide not to show up. If you need to be there at nine, you're not gonna just show up at 10 because you didn't feel like it. So for my job and the time that I had allocated for the business, I'm like, okay. Like I have to think that I have a boss. The only thing is the boss is me. Yep. Like if I don't do this, I'm gonna be in trouble with my boss and I cannot be calling out sick every night because I don't feel like it. And having that commitment to yourself, why not you're doing it to somebody else's? You're working for somebody else, why not having that commitment for your own business? So if you treat it like that and do anything that needs to happen, I had to look for, okay, who's gonna watch my son certain times? Or I have a project, or I'm launching a new or workshop. I'm gonna need time to research and do new slides. When am I gonna do that? Sometimes it's Saturday nights, sometimes it's Sunday nights. But you make that conscious decision that, okay, this is what I need to run the business, and there may be times that I'm gonna do extra. Same way that you're doing your 9 to 5. when you have to do overtime, just treat it similarly. Just that now you're the boss. I think that sometimes when you have less time and you have a structured schedule, I think you actually get more done because sometimes when there's no schedule and like no boundaries, it's like you are working on things that aren't productive. Like you said, I know you are hosting a new kind of webinar workshop, and you're right to get prepared for that. You know now the list of things you have to do, it's I have this much time to do it. And in a way can create B minus work during that time.'cause that's all the time you have. And it's like, if I want to help more people, I have to do this workshop. It can't be perfect. These are the things that have to be done. This is the time I have and that's the way I'm gonna do it 'cause that's the best that I can do. and That works. It really does work. Absolutely. And then the good thing is that at times you're learning something new, so it may take a little bit longer. You may need to put a little bit extra effort. Like anything new, right? It takes time for you to learn. But then after you do it, I remember the first, and again, you, ignited so much passion in me. For me, like coaching was just coaching, but I remember that you had a workshop about picking the word of the year. I had never picked the word of the year and my word was fearless last year. And I decided to just not have fear and maybe it was a bit like intense because every idea that I had, I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna have fear. I'm just gonna try it. The worst that it could happen is that, oh, it doesn't work. I don't like it. Then fine. I pulled that out and that's how I ended up launching a podcast. Yes. I ended up, now, I started Oh wow. Like, can I actually have a workshop? Now I have workshops every month. Yeah. Just to see it. At the beginning it was nervous. Like I was so nervous at that point. It's something new. But in my mind, what I convinced myself of quieting that fear was, well, it's gonna get better, and if it doesn't work, I can always delete the episode. If it's not a good one. like, I will find ways of, okay, I'm not gonna be paralyzed by fear, but I'm gonna face the challenge. And that's what drove last year, and that's what drove me to do so many different things beyond just. I'm gonna coach, like now. I do so many different things with the business and it's exciting. It's so funny the word of the year. I just finished recording. I'll be sharing the details to this, the AI summit, that's happening in May. I'll share the details for everybody to join, but I talked about my word of the year this year is wealthy. So there's a word for you, wealthy, like what does a wealthy person, and I'm talking, you know, for me it's like wealthy in all areas, wealthy in your health, wealthy in your relationships, not in your, bank account's good too. Mm-hmm. But it's like wealthy in your coaching relationships. wealthy is, my word of the year. So it's funny that you mention that because that is something I obviously do myself as well. I love the fearless one, so. that was what ignited like, okay, I have this idea and I tried it, and I'm like, well, and then you assess, you're like, okay, is this what really brings me passion? Then I discovered that I love teaching and connecting with people. I love like that group setting. I love to see transformation, so workshops. Now I'm just confident, right? Like I just have an idea and I'm like, okay, this is something that people are really curious about, whether you're sending me emails about, then I create the content. I, do the slides. It's a project. But then after you have it, all you need to do is okay, let's just go and tweak it and improve it. But the big lift, you already did it. And, the biggest takeaway that I love to hear. It's like, wow, this was not a fluffy workshop. Mm-hmm. Like a lot of people would be like, this was not fluffy, don't it? Flu? Like I have flu. Right. So it's like, okay. they will still, and a lot of them, most of my conversions are actually from the workshops. Yeah. That's where I have gotten my clients. but they already have a strategy that they can start with and then that's when they realize, okay, I do have, and I see the momentum, but I need support. I need more help. And it has really worked. Yes. Has really worked. first of all, I would love for you to share with everyone how you went through the content, because I don't use the word course and I encourage other people to not use the Word course anymore because like, AI is our course. Like we don't need a course. But you know, I didn't wanna, diminish or devalue the education that we provide. But again, it is like the understanding of what it takes to have a business. And there's videos and there's documents that can help you in shortcuts. And then of course we offer the coaching. But I would love for you to share how you went through my content and how that worked 'cause I thought that was genius. Well, what I ended up doing, I remember it was in November. Yeah. I joined early in November and I had that week of Thanksgiving off. So it was probably like one or two weeks after that and I joined the program. I looked, and you have like the pillars. You have a beautiful framework. Yeah, and I'm like, okay, like, let me see what awaits me. For me, it was more a matter of like, how can I look at what do I need to do, how can I get repaired and how much time do I have? Instead of just going one by one, I decided to just power through everything. Mm-hmm. That's all you could hear in my house. I was listening to that the entire day for that entire week of Thanksgiving. We didn't have any crazy, plans. We were not traveling that year, and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna do this and then I'm gonna create my project plan. And then I had clear deadlines. I'm like, okay, by December, mind you, this is Thanksgiving. By December, I am going to have my webpage already set up. I'm gonna have my scheduler already set up. Like I had all these things and every month or so, I just had a deadline and I had something very clear and I committed to myself that if I needed to go to bed at midnight just to hit that, I was going to do it because it was just a one and done. Yeah, and that's what I did. I went through the entire thing and that's why I ended up towards the end. You're talking about workshops, you're talking about mindset. Take five. Like you have so many tools, that give you that CEO mindset. And there was a section about podcast and I remember that was the first fearless decision that I made that year. I'm like, okay, like what do I need to do? The podcast? I remember I was recording on Zoom. I'm like, okay, like how much do I have to pay? Oh, I can do this for free. Fine. Yeah. And I ended up just doing it and I'm like, I'm gonna start talking about what I love, which is, okay, let's talk about diabetes and blood sugar and questions that people may have. Questions that I had when I was diagnosed. So, thinking about all of that and just doing it and creating a plan that, yes, sometimes I'll be like, oops, something happened, or My son got sick. But being very committed to that plan versus, I'm just gonna work on something today because then how do you know that you're really gaining traction? So for me being somebody that has worked and managed projects before, I'm like, Nope. I'm gonna look at everything. Oh, there are four main pillars, there are four areas, then I'm gonna have X amount of weeks for this. And I just set up everything based on the weeks and the time block, my calendar. I'm like, this needs to be done. Even if I need to work a little extra, if I need to hire a babysitter, this is what's going to happen. and my first workshop was back after, lemme see, I joined November. By March I had my first workshop. Yeah. And then April I had my first signup from the workshop. Yeah. It's so cool. the thing that I remember is that I was looking in the portal for some reason, and I never ever look to see who's completed anything. Never. I always say like, look, you should watch the trainings because you paid for 'em. But in reality, I'm available on all of our coaching calls every single week to tell you what to do. I'll tell you what to do. So some people do it that way. They don't watch anything. But I looked in and you'd done a hundred percent, and I was like, she did a hundred percent. Like she just started, it was like. Within a month of you starting with how that, I thought there was something wrong with my system. I thought there's no way. I literally ask our girls how could that be that this lady got a hundred percent. But then when I asked you about it, you said. You know, it was good to have like the full picture of the whole, and I was like, that is genius. I mean, if I could get everybody to do that, because every step does build on mm-hmm the other, and then you really understand like, okay, I understand about getting these things about my niche identified, because that's gonna help me write the marketing message and understand once I have the pain points from the marketing message. Then I can do this. And I like it all fits together. But you don't know that until, it's almost like you get to the end and then you look back and people come to coaching calls and they're like, oh, I see now. But you did it ahead of time. Yep. Yep. and for me, it was important to understand, okay, because there are some pillars. Okay, what is it that I need? what are the tasks associated with that? Right? Because there's a lot of learning. You need to understand the concept, but then there is a doing part, right? Yeah. Like if you're working on your niche, well, you need to do some market research because you may have an idea of what your ideal client wants. Maybe that's not what they want and you need to use their words, right? Like you need to, yeah adjust your messaging. I didn't know exactly how to structure my webpage. What are some things, right? But you had that and you had that structure like, okay, this is how you create your marketing message. So I needed that, but I'm like, ah. So I need to go my not so good website that I created. I don't even know how I created that. I know the congratulations. I mean, honestly, Jenny, You had already done things that most people only talk about doing. and I realized it took me 10 times more time. I'm like, I wish I would have found Debbie earlier. I would have been so much more far along just because I wasted a lot of time, sometimes DIYing things. Yeah, and that's also what I have even with my own potential clients. A lot of them have one particular client and I asked him, I'm like, can I share your story? He's like, sure. he came, he had a clarity call with me and he was at pre-diabetes range, very close to type two diabetes. And it was already showing other markers in his labs. And I'm like, okay. He's like, well, the doctor said that I just need to eat more vegetables and start walking. I think I can do it on myself. I'm like, okay, that's perfectly fine. Right? Like he made that decision. Little did you know that months after he ended up developing type two diabetes. And then he realized, okay, I realized that I have the information, but I need a strategy. I need somebody that's going to help me with the strategy. So I ended up working with him. He lowered his A1C, now he's at pre-diabetes range, and now he's working through that and working through other things. But then he saw the difference between, okay, sometimes knowing the information is not enough. Yeah. Well, and look, honestly, we need, I mean, accountability is a piece of it. Accountability doesn't mean that you're weak. And I'm always talking about AI now because how can we not talk about ai? Mm-hmm. But I always say, you know, I'd like coaches to almost incorporate it into their business. Like utilize it. It's there as a tool. And I don't mean for marketing. I'm talking about like, how could you use AI with your clients? To help them with something to do with their A1C. I'm sure there's something you could do. Why not use it as a tool? But in reality, AI will never be the accountability. It'll never be the subtleties of the conversations of you seeing somebody get on a call and you seeing them. let's say camera off for two weeks and you're like, Hey, what's happening? Like, turn on your camera and let me see your face. Lemme see what's going on. Mm-hmm. From a loving way, right? Mm-hmm. AI's never gonna do that. It is so true that we really need that support. And I say this often too, since 2019 COVID, or 2020 since that year of COVID, whatever year that was, that the COVID came to visit us, since that year, you know, life just changed for everybody And accountability and connection is important. And that is really, I'm sure for this gentleman, you're right, that's the difference. that's why you went to Health Coach training. The doctor didn't have the time. It wasn't that they didn't care, they didn't have the time and couldn't, they're controlled by, a timer clock. They couldn't help you. Pretty much. Pretty much. I mean, a lot of the doctors, it's like, okay, like you spend maybe 10 minutes, there's no way that you can troubleshoot certain things in 10 minutes it's like it doesn't work and believe it or not, because of what you shared about, okay. Like think outside of the box. Like now I am partnering with doctors, so sometimes they send me their clients, right? Like now, I was very keen on focusing on my community because I'm in New York and my Hispanic community and a lot of them, sorry, like they cannot afford the coaching. Yeah. But now I'm partnering with community companies that are actually providing the education. follow your joy, follow your passion, and think of ways of, okay, like this is what I want to do and I still have a business, so I still need to generate income. How can I make it work? So it's a win-win for the individual and that you can actually provide that service and not necessarily need to do it for free, but. To just provide it for those that maybe cannot afford it. I had another story. I had a lady, her husband and her daughter, they all had blood sugar issues. Wow. And I ended up having a group coaching session because I ended up having them together. And that's how I accommodated the prize for them. It's like, okay, like this is the time that I have, how can I work things out? And we worked on it and they're doing amazingly well. And they actually embraced a lot of the change as a family. Wow. That would be, which the better. So think outside of the box. Think about what is it? What is your calling? what do you wanna coach on? Fill in the blank. How can you make it work so that you can still help people? Still support your business. You still need to support, it's a business, but do it and keep that joy. Find the those activities that really fill your cup and people are going to see that. They're gonna sense that and that's what is gonna make a difference between them paying me versus somebody else. Yeah. For sure. Okay, two more things I wanna talk about that were such a surprise. One was the day that I was scrolling on social media. I remember it was in the morning, like I was having my morning coffee. I was looking and your profile came up a post, and it was my podcast cover. Which, first of all, to be clear, it's not mine, it's our clients, but it happened to be the exact podcast cover that I use. It was my podcast cover with Jenny's picture on it, which first of all, I didn't know that she was gonna do a podcast. So I'm like, whoa, because I shared the graphics with you guys and say, why would you not use what I've already, I've had a designer create that stuff, use my stuff. But it was so fun because so many other people are just constantly trying to, and I'm not saying my stuff is the best. What I said was, just use my stuff because it's the easiest. Like this is a time saver. and people don't use my stuff like the podcast cover, they might think, you know, they use some of it, but the podcast cover, they'd be like, oh, I don't wanna have the same as Debbie's for goodness sakes. We don't have the same podcast, so it doesn't matter. Mm-hmm. But yeah, that was a fun surprise. Yeah. I decided, I'm like, okay, if I wanna do this, because I remember I was fearless. So I'm like, okay, fearless be minus. So I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna do this. Okay. Like, do I wanna go on Canva and try to create this thing? And again, even Canva as great as a tool as it is, it can take time for you to get used to it. Oh yeah. And to modify and to do this. I'm like, no. And then in the end I'm like, okay, what are my colors? I'm like, okay, blue. and mind you, I had like different colors and yeah, just because diabetes awareness is a color blue, my son is on the autism spectrum, so then blue, there's an emotional tie to that color for me. Yeah. So there were always gonna be shades of blue in my branding, but I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do blue. That's it. I'll put my picture. Even the name now I'm thinking, okay, path to better A1C. I'm like, oh, maybe it's not that great in terms of SEO, but that's what I keep. It doesn't matter. You did it and it worked and I did it. And I'm like, okay, yeah, it's there. And a lot of people really, you know, they don't try to over-engineer these things. A lot of us, we want this designs that are like so, and. Most times people don't even pay attention too much on the design. No, they don't. They just want to connect with you. They wanna assess, okay, can you help me or not? And then can I afford you or not? And those are the decisions pretty much. But yeah, even the name, that's funny that you said Path hat A1C isn't all that. SEO friendly, although it says A1C, which is what your thing is. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But I remember, Having my podcast for a long time. My podcast was called The Business Building Boutique originally, and then I had this moment of after, you know, 250 episodes. It doesn't say coach in my title, so I changed it to the life Coach business building, you know? So I changed it, but I was like. Wow. I literally have had thousands of downloads, I mean, thousands and thousands. I've gotten all kinds of clients from that, and it doesn't even say coach in my title, in my thing. Mm-hmm. Yep. So you know, those things, they do matter, but they don't. Yeah. and then I found out, I'm like, oh, okay. Like do I wanna rename the podcast? Right. I thought about that, but then I'm like, no, because you can still put in the tagline and Yeah, and the SEO, they're gonna do it. So I ended up adding diabetes, obviously, because if somebody is a diabetic or pre-diabetic, I want them to find me. So I just had to adjust it. And that is another thing that has been growing and I get a lot of people on my email list. Through the podcast. A lot of people end up in Instagram through the podcast and, you will get like these random, not so random emails saying like, that episode spoke to me so much. Yeah, thank you. And that brings me joy. Yeah. So sometimes I'm like, okay, it's 11 o'clock at night and I'm recording this podcast. This podcast? Yes. What. It brings me so much joy because I'm like, that's the way of bringing that awareness and bringing the strategies for those that maybe cannot afford, or they're not ready for coaching, but they need a bit of guidance and that's what I love about it. I was talking earlier about you don't know what you don't know, and it's the same way with. You know, the pre-diabetic condition. Like there's a lot that people don't even know mm-hmm. That they should know, and that podcast gives people an opportunity. To see like, wow, I don't really know or understand what is really happening here. Again, like you started out saying like, you think you shouldn't eat sugar ever. Well, I mean, that's probably not realistic in your life, But let me empower, you with what you really need to know.'cause boy, it's so much easier to make decisions if you understand something right, you make an impact. And not only that, another thing that a lot of people, right, like I talk a lot about the blood sugar spikes or the blood sugar rollercoaster. And a lot of people are like, what? What do you mean by that? And I'm like, well, you know that feeling that you have after you have lunch, that you feel like you need a nap. That means that you had a blood sugar spike, your body produced insulin and you crashed. That's pretty much what it means or why you're having cravings at three o'clock or why you're having a lot of it. Everybody should be balancing their blood sugars, so it's not just, oh, I need to be pre-diabetic in order for me to be concerned. It's like you should practice that balanced blood sugar regardless. That's why you have people with brain fog. Or lack of energy or feeling lethargic. you do need carbs. The brain needs carbs, right? Like that feeling of dopamine and there are a lot of hormones that need carbs. Now, how do you incorporate them and how do you balance your plate? that's the secret sauce that I believe I have. But yeah, I know you do. I know that. That's pretty much the key. And a lot of people are not aware and they think that, oh yeah, like, like I always feel like I'm gonna pass out after lunch. And they think that is normal. That it's like, oh, that's how it is. I'm like, well, that's not how it should be, by the way, but I know what you could do to try to change that. and that's what I love about what I do. So it's like a lot of the strategy behind it. Because they have this knowledge about, oh, carbs are bad, or I need to do this, or I need to starve myself. And that is also not good for your metabolism. So there are different things and there's a lot of also groups and people out there that sometimes are pushing a certain agenda and, it's not all science based. Sometimes there is a monetary, benefit with that when they're pushing some supplements again, like yeah, things that you have to be mindful and careful of, but that's why I break up my podcasts are I break science. and sometimes I bring even myths like, okay, can you really lower your A1C doing this? Let's talk about what the science is. And let's talk about what you can actually do. That does work. That there is science behind. Yeah, let's clear it up. And that's what I love doing. And many people come back and I'm like, whoa, I didn't know that. and that's a good feeling. it is. Well, Jenny, tell us what you have ahead, of you or what you're working on, what people can look forward to, what's next for you. Now I'm reaching capacity because thankfully, like I'm getting referrals, I'm getting things. So one-on-one is becoming a bit hard to sustain for the demand. A great thing, which is great problem to have. And now I'm just thinking about, okay, can I do this coaching container, like my framework? I created a 12 week program. Do it in a group setting. And it's funny that you mentioned, don't call it course, because at one point I was thinking about creating a course that was my next. Step, even if I were to create a course, I was gonna do it still with the support. Yeah. But more about having the resources. Yeah. But that's like another project that I have probably further down the line. But for now I feel like I have enough of the resources. It's more like translating that into a group. And then also the other thing that I have been doing that it was a bit surprising is, lunch and learns for different companies. So I have been able to actually have workshops with a company. So I started connecting with people that are like HR managers and benefits coordinators, and that's another side of my business that I'm enjoying and it's amazing. Wow. I love that. Hey, Jenny, don't forget we have that you have access to that coaching brochure. Or the podcast guide, either one of those you could modify, which maybe you've already done. I already did. I already have a changed some of those I already created page and a brochure and, it is a different thing, right? Like, it's like you're marketing your business for clients. Yes. But now I'm working my business for. Other businesses. Yes. Yes. So the tone and everything is different. Yeah. But it was something that was surprising. And I would say one thing that I'm thankful to you, the change of my mindset. I casually shared with a neighbor, what do you do for work? And what came out of my mouth, I have a health coaching business that focuses on diabetes prevention. It's like, oh, but. I manage all the benefits of the company. Like, can you give me your information so you can come and that's as simple as that. That's how that opportunity opened up. And then I realized, wait a minute, huh? There's a business opportunity here that maybe I was not thinking about it too much, and now I'm having other connections. So now this one person connected me to other fellow HR managers, so now my gosh, Jenny. If there's one thing that I would say to any woman out there that is trying to embrace that mindset. You're not just a coach. You're not just a life coach. You own a business. Own it. Mm-hmm. Practice it. Look at it yourself in the mirror and say it just because, just sharing that I could have answered very differently. But it just saying that catapulted into several engagements. It produced just that one act of just speaking. Oh my gosh, this makes me so happy. You know, Jenny, you probably remember the presentation, that I do where I'm like, there's circles on the screen. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, it's like you throw a rock into the pond and it ripples and I always use, the reference of the plumber. Like, we don't look, there's, there are no yellow pages, but we're not looking up a plumber. We're going to. Who was that plumber that came to my neighbor's house or you're at the office telling 'em? They're like, oh, a friend of a friend. That's exactly what happened because you told the lady what you did, like the doorway opened. Now, while it doesn't open every time, you just never know. That's so fantastic. So, so right now most are coming from my workshops. A lot of people then they end up scheduling a call. Others, they come, okay, I work with you, I work with this lady. And then all of a sudden her son had some health issues that were not even diabetic related and she ended up like, can you please like just create a plan and this and that. He needs help. So just doing an amazing job, right? Like that. They're going to remember you, and then they're gonna talk to their friends about it. And before you know it, not that everything has to be fully relying on referrals, but there is power to it.' cause I have had a lot of clients that they're coming like that. They're like, well, you coach this person. And, now I'm having, and I'm seeing how great he's doing or she's doing. Yeah. And then like, okay. Like they ask them and then they have to say, oh, I've been working with Coach Jenny. So then. It's so much easier. It's like free marketing, right? There's just by you doing an amazing job's, so Yeah. Yeah. It just ready. It's been very transportive, Jenny, thank you so much. not only for just being a delight for me, selfishly. I love it. I love action takers, and I love what you're doing. And, all those things. But the work that you're doing, I remember when you told me, you know, my husband's type two diabetic, and I'm sure that you probably recall that. I was like, oh my word, this is like a needed thing. Right. it's not that long ago that you started this, but I hadn't seen anyone online. You know, for those of you who think your niche is like. You're not sure about your niche I hadn't seen anyone that said pre-diabetic, helping people with that condition coaching. You know, I hadn't seen that, and that obviously is a, again, the percentage of people that are pre-diabetic is wildly huge number of people. I can tell you one in three, that's why I was like, I'm not gonna have a problem of finding clients because I know one in three Americans. Wow. that's the CDC one in three Americans have pre-diabetes. Now there is a side note to that is even more alarming. Out of those 80% have no clue. yes. that's what I was gonna say. How many people don't know it? And then a lot of my content, sometimes it's like, okay, like understanding your labs, maybe you're not pre-diabetic yet, but what are the markers? Does it runs in your family? Are you seeing a trend? Again, are you having that feeling of you need a siesta, you need a nap at two o'clock in the afternoon? Those are telltales that are telling you your blood sugar is a bit imbalanced and it's just a matter of time for that insulin resistance to develop. But creating that awareness and then it's like, oh, wait a minute. Like what is happening? Or, I had a client that she had gestational diabetes to the point that she had to use insulin. And she's like, Jenny, I am scared. I don't ever wanna have to experience that again. I wanna make sure that I develop the strategies that is, that are going to help me. And to this day, We'll still stay connected. We'll still have, like maintenance meetings. Like every two, three months we meet, she shares where she's at. If she's struggling with anything and we work through that, but. Know, just to see that it's like, okay, like, and I was hesitant, you know, it between like, okay, should I focus on type two or should I focus on pre-diabetes? But I'm like, okay, like pre-diabetes is my story. Yeah. Like I was diagnosed before I was 30 and I was not overweight. Yeah. and the thing is, just to wrap this up for good, Jenny, You focus on pre-diabetes and somebody with gestational diabetes came to you anyway. Mm-hmm. So I always say that too, like, don't worry that you're leaving people out, because when people see you and they connect with you mm-hmm. They come anyway. Yep. Yeah. I had people with acid reflux and gut issues and they're like, well, but I really wanna work with you. Would you be able to work with me? And. You know, like it in the end, when you coach, at least for health coaching, you coach the person, not the illness, because obviously I'm not a doctor. But yeah, you're able to create the behavioral change and focus on, okay, like how can you incorporate this habits that fit your life? And that's the part that no AI can tell you. AI is going to tell you the standard, the very boxed response to things, but then when you add complexity to it, yes, that's where it fails. So. Yeah, that's the beauty of coaching. Oh my goodness, thank you. Thank you a million times over for what you do, for being, fun friend to have. And, I appreciate the work that you do. Again, we'll leave all of your links here, everybody follow Jenny, connect with her on Instagram 'cause there's things I wanted to tell you about Instagram. We're out of time. That is super fun. So make sure you go over there and follow, listen to her podcast and please share her information with anyone you know. One in three people she just said, share your information with the people that you know that are already diagnosed with that so they can learn from Jenny as well. So anyway, okay. Thank you so much for having me. Always a pleasure. All right, you guys have a beautiful day. Thank you.

Debbie Shadid https://www.DebbieShadid.com
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EP 342 - What Nobody Tells You About Building a Coaching Business