How Do You Respond When People Ask, "What Do You Do?"
For health coaches, the answer to that question matters more than you think!
I’ve been noticing an uptick in the conversation around the challenges national board-certified health and wellness coaches are facing across the career and business landscape. While the numbers of board-certified coaches are growing, the opportunities for a sustainable, well-compensated career path are still under construction.
This week’s post addresses ways we can lean in to the language we use to introduce ourselves as a starting point.
Recently, I spent a life-affirming week at Rancho La Puerta, a destination wellness spa in Baja, Mexico, where I enjoyed a much-needed wellness reboot and met many new wellness friends.
Fun fact: it’s where my career in health, fitness, and wellbeing started over 30 years ago, and the impact of my Ranch years has continued to anchor both my work and life.
Maybe it’s the wellness coach in me, but what I love most about this kind of travel is listening to others’ wellness stories, sometimes sharing my own, and feeling a connection with people who are intentional about inviting more health and wellbeing into their busy, complicated lives.
At mealtimes, we always had the option to enjoy dining solo, sit with friends we were traveling with, or join a large round table with people we were meeting for the first time. It felt a little like freshman year in college where meeting new people at parties or in class often started with the question, “What’s your major?” At this stage of our lives, it sounds more like, “So, what do you do?”
As the week went on, I decided to have a little fun answering that question in a variety of ways to see how people responded to learning I am a health and wellness coach.
The Struggle is Real
We all know the on-going struggle we face as NBC-HWCs (or those in pursuit of this hard-earned designation) to legitimize our role in the eyes of potential clients and gatekeepers. The market (and social media landscape) is flooded with variations on the theme and validating the impact and outcomes of health coaching to create sustainable career paths and adequate compensation structures is still a work in progress.
Here are the titles I played around with:
“I’m a health coach.”
“I’m a certified health coach.”
“I’m a board-certified health coach.”
“I’m a national board-certified health coach.”
“I’m a national board-certified health and wellness coach.”
The results were illuminating and led to an emerging understanding of the work we need to do as a profession to elevate our standing and help people not only understand, but experience the impact of our unique scope and skillset.
As you might guess, “I’m a health coach,” landed on the dinner table like a limp piece of tofu on a bed of soggy, gluten-free pasta. (To be clear, this is not the dining experience at Rancho La Puerta!)
“Oh, how nice. I guess I shouldn’t have ordered the extra basket of bread.”
I am not sure why people go right to the “wellness police” image, but that is definitely a hurdle we face on a regular basis.
“I am a certified health coach,” made ME feel a bit more important and capable, but had little additional impact on the listener. Most health and wellness coaches invest in the minimum amount of training to obtain “certified” as a moniker, but most potential clients don’t inquire about certification or know how to evaluate the differences in training programs or levels of post-training competency.
I am happy to report that “board-certified” and “national-board certified” changed the energy of the interaction (albeit—nominally), leading to increased curiosity about what I did, where I worked, and in the case of one skeptic . . .
“Okay, so what does that actually mean to be national board-certified?”
These responses taught me that it is important to have your “elevator” or “I help” statement cued up, and it better be good!
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Including language like “partnership,” “collaborate,” “guide,” “you are the expert in your life,” seemed to put people at ease, inspire hopefulness, and increase engagement, where terminology like “goals,” “program,” “hold you accountable,” much less so.
If we look at the science, it makes complete sense—partnership statements and autonomy support (like the examples above) move people toward change, while diving into to action-oriented language prematurely can do the opposite.
My Favorite . . .
My personal favorite turned out to be, “I am a national board-certified health and wellness coach,” which was a mouthful for sure, but adding “wellness” or more recently for some coaches, “well-being coach” seemed to broaden the energy to whole-person wellbeing and invite more engaged and lively dinner conversation outside the narrower and somewhat charged focus of “health.”
Still, I would say helping people connect the dots in a meaningful way to really understand what we do as a national board-certified health and wellness coaches (and more importantly nudge them to sign on the dotted line) is not as easy compared to other professions like my niece, a bank analyst, who was with me, or the woman across the table who was a museum director—I had never met a museum director! So, the conversation around coaching as a profession often fizzled before dessert was served.
Until . . .
Sitting in the lounge one early morning before a hike sipping herbal tea, I happened into a short conversation with a woman from the east coast who offered her story (unsolicited) of transition after being a caregiver to her mother.
She was kind of gently rambling about what to do next, where to live? should she stay? should she go? She had a home, family members, friendships in the east, but she was feeling more and more like “herself” as she walked about the property reconnecting with movement, rest, and a fresh sense of possibility. California seemed to be calling . . . should she listen, she asked herself out loud.
I felt curious about her experience as transition is a lane I am very familiar with having moved house, home, and job over 21 times. So, I listened genuinely, reflected, affirmed, smiled, nodded, stayed present. I did not coach, I did not sell, I simply showed up and created space.
As the room filled with other hikers and we stood up to join them . . . she laughed and blurted, “Wow! I have lots to think about. Send me the bill!”
A reminder from my writing and speaking experience—SHOW, DON’T TELL, when you want to make an impact!
A Starting Point for Standing Out
If it’s any consolation—we aren’t alone in our struggle to legitimize what we do. Consider how registered dietitians must feel, who are now required to complete a graduate level degree AND an internship they often pay for themselves, only to be thrown into a sea of “nutritionists” and “certified nutritionists” sailing full speed (and out of control) into their professional territory with very little resistance.
Maybe we should count ourselves lucky our entry point is more accessible and affordable in comparison.
In the end, this light-hearted experiment solidified my resolve to do my part in strengthening the identity and impact of our emerging field in support of higher quality opportunities, improved compensation structures, and satisfying, sustainable career paths.
Here are 5 thoughts on how we might do this collectively:
Consider national board-certification as part of your career path. It may be our biggest collective asset to establishing a stronger, more viable field. Added bonus: you will be a more impactful and successful coach! I truly believe this having onboarded and trained over 150 wellness coaches with varying levels of certification, training, and experience.
When you introduce yourself, write about yourself, promote your services, be sure to include your board-certified designation front and center. Let’s help people recognize what the letters NBC-HWC behind our names mean and raise awareness that they make a difference in client and patient outcomes.
When you post about your work on LinkedIn, in particular, take the time to write out the words . . . each one of them. I know it’s a mouthful, but it identifies you as unique in your training and skillset. When I reviewed resumes in preparation for an onboarding experience in my corporate T&D job, seeing “NBC-HWC” always indicated the process would be streamlined (translation: save time and money).
Have clear language to share with people, like my skeptical friend (especially when engaging gatekeepers), about how the board-certification makes you and the outcomes you deliver different. Phrases like . . . “evidence-informed standards” “rigorous training and testing process” “completed an approved training program and required coaching sessions,” are a few examples.
Review the NBHWC Code of Ethics and NBHWC Scope of Practice Guidelines found on nbhwc.org and be committed to practicing within them. It may make identifying multiple income streams a little trickier, but it also separates us from those who are selling wellness that doesn’t work!
Lean In To Coaching Prompt
If you are up for it, try my little experiment and lean in to your coach introduction this week:
Find 5 people and introduce yourself to them as a health and wellness coach using the various titles. Notice how they respond to each and use that “market feedback” to shape your delivery moving forward.
As an alternative, you can ask them to try a couple of the options on and then have a conversation about how the titles and language you used landed. Again, their responses provide valuable feedback for the language that resonates with prospective clients.
Note** If you’re seeking to work in a clinical or corporate setting, be sure to find and talk with people in those roles or settings. When crafting your intro, it’s always important to keep your audience in mind.
Let’s discuss!
Share in the comments below your thoughts on this experiment and what has worked for you in situations where there is an opportunity to introduce yourself as a health coach. Let’s brainstorm effective approaches!
Movers, Shakers, and Resources!
Here are some things I did this week to further my growth and learning. Each experience energized me and provided a hopeful dose of optimism for the future of our field!
Added the NBC-HWC Digital Badge to my e-mail signature line: Have you set up and added your NBC-HWC digital badge to your signature line and other places where you are creating credible visibility for yourself? Especially when reaching out to corporate or healthcare gatekeepers, having a professional signature line is important. You can access the badge and directions for downloading on the nbhwc.org website under “Resources.”
Listened to “Insurance Coverage and Health Coaching Webinar,” featuring Dr. Angela Cudger, Ph.D., MMSc., CHC, hosted by the Vibly platform. This is the second experience I’ve had listening to Dr. Cudger and I have learned a lot! She seems to me to be the emerging expert on this important topic. Visit Vibly on LinkedIn to access the recording, and if this is a timely topic for you, Dr. Cudger has a course, “Health Insurance Billing for Health Coaches,” approved by the national board for 3.0 CEU’s.
Loved Laura Timbrook’s most recent The Shift Health Coach Podcast, Coaching and Motivational Interviewing: A Powerful Blend for Client Success, with guests Cecilia Lanier and Patty Bean. Need I say more? I reviewed their new book, “Motivational Interviewing for Life and Health Coaching,” in a previous post you can read here. Any way you cut it, this book is a necessity for your coaching library.
It was a good week on the learning front for sure! How about you? What’s new for you this week?
The “Never Apologize for Promoting Your Coaching Work” Section
As always, thank you for visiting and reading this week. My aim is to share ideas that provide value in a way that nudges your coaching and the field of health coaching forward.
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Onward!
Meg
Excited to have discovered you — thank you!
Hi Meg, I really liked what you said here and how we need to be clear on what the board certification gives us and how it sets us apart from other health coaches.
Knowing how to listen is one of the most difficult skills to be able to do and so it is in this form of connection that we are able to create a space for others to really understand what we do.
Thank you for the time you took to make the comparison of all “titles” and share with us what you learned.
As always, it is a pleasure to walk this journey with you!