Social media is this weird place where we all try to sell ourselves. We forget that everything on social media is just a snippet of life/business, etc. In fact, even the most viral accounts are just that. They don’t show the full picture and are tightly managed by a person or a team to keep any negativity off their pages.
In this episode Danielle teaches you how to know if the health accounts you’re following online really is the one you should choose to work with you.
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Transcription
Welcome to season three of the Crying in My Cheesecake podcast. I am so grateful that you’re here and that you continue to show up listening to my voice, even though I take breaks to catch up on life.
This past few months, if I can be completely honest, have been the hardest few months in business for me in a very long time. I had to face some of the hardest things I’ve ever had to face in business. And that one, thing or things, is confrontation. I’ve learned a lot from that confrontation and struggle. I’ve learned that even with the best of intentions, the best of hearts, that people will fail you and you or me, we will fail others.
We are imperfect people working on doing life together, right? All that to say that this season, this third season of the Crying in My Cheesecake podcast, we’ll be back and we are going to be back diving into deeper topics of things that might have come up in life. And walk you like in my life and walk you through my thoughts and so forth bond the subjects.
This first episode, we’ll be diving into a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately. And that is a viral social media accounts. You see, I’m in the holistic nutrition and functional fitness realm. And I follow a lot of accounts just to keep me knowledgeable of new trends going around the latest in products, the latest in research and the latest takes on these topics. Right? We just kind of do.
I have a lot of friends and I call them friends that we graduated from my same schooling. The nutritional therapy association is a seriously, this tight-knit community where you have family, no matter where, or whether you’ve met each other in person or not. I’ve seen so many of my friends get viral accounts and see that overwhelm that comes with it. And I’ve seen the money flow into their pockets because of it. So there’s this overwhelm and the money flow in their pockets because of it.
You know, social media is this weird place where we exist and we try to sell ourselves. Even if we’re not selling a product or running an online business, we are selling how great our life is or we’re selling that need for attention. We’re selling that we need something from our followers.
What I’ve noticed though, and I knew to be true, but it became very apparent recently in my own life, that viral accounts do not mean that the person behind that account is a professional and able to truly help you with your specific needs. Usually many people that go viral overnight have literal overnight success and do not have systems set up in place to support their clients or even run their business well.
They get overwhelmed and shut down. I mean, honestly who wouldn’t? It’s a crazy responsibility to be an online practitioner. It is just this weird realm. The reason I’ve been so overwhelmed these last few months is simply because I’ve been part of the fallout of a viral account, not meeting the needs of its clients.
These clients are coming to me, asking for that kind of personalized help that they thought they were getting elsewhere, and they’re actually dissatisfied. I think that’s something to keep in mind when we’re online. It’s so easy to get sold on something. Shoot, I get sold on so many things online, I remember when I was nursing my second child. I would stay up late and it was like when Instagram was brand new. I was literally buying things I didn’t need, because it was people were selling me on these products. But anyway, I actually had to start putting up a boundary. And it would have a boundary. Because in that boundary is that I’m not allowed to buy anything after 10:00 PM.
I know this sounds stupid. If it is still something I want in the morning that I allow myself to buy it, but if it isn’t then I really don’t need it. But let’s think about this. Those are products like things. I was like, baby things chew toys, you know, like all those kinds of things for our babies.
That’s not our health, something that affects our health should be done with access to a practitioner. That professional, right? You should never buy a course that is an in depth course and include supplements in diagnosing yourself and not have access to a practitioner to help you. There’s no ethics in that.
Think about it this way. In school, we’re given textbooks. I homeschool my kids and I have textbooks with me. I have my teacher’s manuals, all of this, these textbooks have everything in them to teach us about the subjects. We don’t just get handed a textbook and say, okay, you’re educated now.
No. We have teachers who have gone to school for at least four years and many, six to eight years. And at least in most states in the United States, you have to continue your education so that we can ensure that our teachers are continually providing the best support they can with one to a group and one to one with our students cause the teachers in the front of the room or walking around the room and teaching, you know, 20, 30, 40 kids in one classroom.
And then they also have to learn how to work one-to-one and understand the relationships with their students, correct? Why do we think that we can do health care with standalone courses? We can’t, and we shouldn’t.
You know, I created the gut repair course as a jumpstart to your foundational wellness. This course is a place for you to start the improvement of your gut health and all that the gut is in charge of. I’m an approved and approved practitioner was sell core bio-sciences. And with the use of four therapeutic nutrients from them.
You will start to improve your symptoms of constipation, anxiety, depression, bloat, gas, belching, diarrhea, constipation. I said that again, skin issues, allergies, indigestion, chronic inflammation, bladder, and kidney issues, and so much more. This course takes you through. Or it takes place on my private membership platform where you get access to me, your practitioner, my team.
A community health discussions and so much more. To find out more about this gut repair course, where I walk you, walk alongside you and walk you through what is actually going on with your nutrients, with your food, with your lifestyle, all of that head to cryinginmycheesecake.com/gutrepaircourse.
As a listener to this podcast, you will get 10% off the course material fees by using the code podcast 10. Again, the website is cryinginmycheesecake.com/gutrepaircourse. Use code podcast10, no spaces, for 10% off your course materials.
So you might be asking me, how do you know if a practitioner or a health coach or whatever you’re following online is right for you. Right? Like, okay. So I’m following these people now. I’m kind of skeptical. What do I do now? Well, let’s walk through some steps to help you find out. Number one. You interview them.
Interview them as if you would like you’re hiring somebody to work for you because, that’s what’s actually happening. You are hiring someone to work for you, not you for them. Yes. You may pay them and yes, you may put money in their pocket, but you’re actually hiring them and you are the one in charge.
So some things to ask them, ask them about their education. What kind of education and background do they have? Are they embellishing things? Can they prove to you their certifications? Is it is it like everywhere on their website? You know, is it on their social media? What is it that helps them?
Prove that they are educated. And is that education that they tell you they have, is that enough? Ask them their response time. In this interview, you can say, Hey, you know, if I have a problem, What is your response time? Should I email you? Should I call you? Should I text you? Should I Voxer you? Should I use your tele-health platform? Well, what is your response time?
Ask them their plan of how they work with you. Because that’s something too, you need to make sure that this practitioner works well with your lifestyle. I may not be the best practitioner to work with because I have my system set up my way and that may not work with you and that’s totally fine and acceptable. That’s why you interview and that’s why most reputable practitioners will have a discovery call. So that that practitioner can either refer you out to someone else, a colleague that you would be better suited with, or that you can understand and like ask all these questions. Right. So make sure that you also know what their expectations of you are.
What do they expect of you? For me, I expect you to show up for yourself. Be honest with yourself and honest with me, that’s it. Ask them, if this course the product that they’re selling, the service that they’re offering you is going to allow access to that practitioner, and what does that look like?
What does access to the practitioner look like? Is it an email three months from now? Is it a message and a portal that I don’t know when I’m going to get a response? Ask them. You are building a relationship with these practitioners. Do it it’s, okay. And, you know, as I’m saying this, this, these are things that you can ask your doctors when you go to your medical doctor.
Holistic doctor, whatever it is. You can interview them just like this as well. Ask what happens in the case that you can not get a hold of that practitioner when you need them. Many doctor’s offices have after hours on call doctors, or they like take turns and things where there’s a nurse line, that kind of thing.
Some practitioners actually have an after hours, you know, what do we do? And most practitioners should have some system in place for you. You know, what’s interesting, and I always thought it was off color, I don’t know, it wasn’t a loud off the table. But you can even ask them their religion, political beliefs, lifestyle, priorities. Why would you ask that? Because it matters to how you and that person are going to relate and the confidence you’re going to feel in relating to them.
And when you’re interviewing your potential person that you’re going to buy from. Ask them, how many clients they already have? Ask them for testimonials. Ask them, you know, because if they have too many clients and you’re like, whoa, that’s a lot of people. Ask them, how do they manage that? Am I still gonna have that same contact with you? How does this work?
Ask all the questions you want. So the first thing to do, to know if a practitioner is right for you is to interview them. The second thing to do is to watch their content online. Is the content all or nothing. Or is there no gray area? Is there no. You know, like when social media accounts, have the question bubble or the question box up there and like, Hey, ask me anything. And, and people will, well, I have bloating and diarrhea or I can’t lose weight. And then they give it
They give an answer like a very specific answer. That is an all or nothing. There is not an all or nothing. When it comes to health and wellness, you cannot be all or nothing because it’s either going to be all or it’s going to be nothing. And I just, I just gave you an all or nothing thing. But what I’m trying to get at is that all or nothing is someone that is very close minded and only their way works.
And does not hear, or is not open to letting you be the expert of your body. So the, all of that saying, do these people use absolutes often, always, never. These words are, are red flags to me that you should always do this or always do that. Some cases you should always take care of your liver. You should always take care of, be hydrated. You should always do that. However, when you like start making prescriptions. When, practitioners start making prescriptions, things like stay away from all sugar, all sugar is bad. Well, what about potatoes and greens and, natural sugars that are in plants. Right. Fruit’s all of those things. When we start saying absolute, always and never, those are probably big red flags to stay away from.
And then, oh, do they always have answers in there or do they have answers in their content? So let’s just say they post about a topic. Or do they circle and like spin. And not provide actual actionable steps that are helpful, or do they just bring up these things and say, I have your solution.
And that’s it. Watch the people’s content, the practitioner’s content online. The third thing to do is to look at their website. Does it look legit? Or is it just thrown together? I’ll be the first one to say that my first website was really just thrown together. I had to just get it thrown together to figure out what I was doing. And that is okay.
But, over time, you have to take yourself seriously as a practitioner and actually putting the time that our businesses are looking like, you know, when you go online and Google, I need a nutritional therapy practitioner. If you go online and look, you want a website. You want to learn more about this person? You want to see, you want to be drawn into this person.
So, is there a website legit or is it just thrown together? The next thing I ask is what platforms do they do they use to support you? You probably want something that is healthcare, you know, HIPAA, if you’re in the United States PIPEDA, I think it’s called in Canada. If you’re in Europe, it’s the GDPR.
Make sure that they have those platforms because then you can’t just get a an account with these tele-health places without. Having proper credentials. So they would understand what the, what that. Means. And then the last thing I would do is I’d ask for testimonials of their prior clients. What did the people like, what did they not like?
Do they not have any testimonials acceptable? Those are just five questions you can ask yourself and walk through the steps to find out if this practitioner is for you. And this is just one way to help you buffer that this person may be an awesome personality and provide fun content online, but they may not be the person to work with you. And in my business, I can’t answer all of these questions. My education includes a bachelor of science from Butler university and secondary education, a master’s of education from St. Mary, the woods college. I then hold a macro millionaire or macro missionary level one certification in nutrition. Girls gone strong level one in nutrition and exercise. Girls gone strong, certified prenatal postpartum coach level one for nutrition and exercise, and I’m a certified nutritional therapy practitioner that is a vetted member of the national association of nutritional professionals.
I respond within 24 to 48 hours. Or of my business hours, but it’s actually usually within the same day or within a few hours of your message. When I work with my one-to-one clients, I meet with them and discuss their goals. Their needs and provide them options of support. We come to an agreement of a plan of action and then get the client signed up on the right tele-health platform and things start moving from there at each person’s own pace.
My expectations of the clients, like I said, are to be honest with themselves and honest with me. And that’s the most important piece of working with me. I don’t allow excuses to run rampant and I hold you accountable for always digging deeper and finding the why. So that you can move on and actually put to work your habits and for your needs on your health and your wellness. I asked you to show up, to participate, and to communicate.
All courses that I have. Well, they may be self paced and you can join any time. They all have access to me, the practitioner and at least one assistant, if not more. If you cannot get ahold of me when you need me.
I have assistance available that take care of that and help you, and you’ll have access to contacting them as well. I’m always open to working with people who don’t have the same belief systems or the same political alignment, as much as myself, a religiously as myself. And I’ve worked with people who are complete opposites of me. It’s actually quite fun.
I currently, as of this recording have about 56 clients. It should be easy for your potential practitioner, whether online. Or whatever it is to actually answer these questions and be honest. I look at certain accounts, I follow online as an inspiration of what customer service should look like. You know, we complain about customer service. Like, I will pay more for customer service or customer services loss, and that’s true. But, I look at an example of Lori Christine King, and I’ll link her Instagram below. She never complains about how many emails, DMs, messages, whatever it is, she never complains about what kind of work or how much work she has.
She knows it’s a part of running business, and how her business works. She responds to every single DM in sometimes in audio files, and sometimes in texts. I have reached out to her. She’s got a hundred, I think hundreds of thousands of followers. Right. Maybe even close to a million, I don’t even know right now. But she always responds, and she responds usually the same day. It’s insane when people. Have less followers or less crazy businesses, but a similar life, right? Like no kids, no no husband, or even if they do have a husband or whatever. It’s insane to me. That someone like her can respond to these DMS as if you are genuinely a friend to her. She’s an inspiration to me, her company, Paragon training methods. I believe it is. The people on her team do the exact same thing. There is no excuse for delayed responses when you’re running a business online. And if you’re a potential client,
Be paying attention to how they treat you online. Because that’s how they’ll treat you once they work with you.
With the increase of businesses being online, make sure you’re treated as you would be in person. You’re worth it.
