Call for Publication
What's this call for publication for? Something new just for you and we know you are going to like it.
Have you read the book Tribes by Seth Godin?
It has been on my “to read” list for many years. This weekend I finally read it and loved it. There were so many golden nuggets in the book. I have got to think that is why it is recommended so often.
In the book, he talked a lot about people wanting something new and doing something that has never been done before. In the last few chapters, he said it many times.
Easy vs Hard
(no wait - this isn't harder - it is more effective and fun)
It is easy to do what you have been told to do, what is expected of you. What would it feel like to try something new? To chuck tradition and lean into something different?
Are you interested in being part of a community of coaches that share ideas and combine effort so everyone benefits?
If so, I invite you to join Healthstyle Coaches at Balanced Healthstyles
A place where you as a coach can help build momentum as the conversation shifts toward Deep Health, inclusivity, and what "healthy" looks like in the context of real people, living their real lives.
To become part of the community, sign up to contribute an article or "healthier" recipe.
You'll receive an email with a link to register at the Collaboration Hub. There you can access your "Get Visible Now" and "Recipe For Growth" Kits. It would be great to have you as part of our community.
A connected community
Covid definitely got me thinking about new ways to do things.
For the past 5 years, I pick a theme word to express my intention for the upcoming year. In 2020 the word was connections and in 2021 my word is collaboration. I have always believed we are greater than the sum of our parts. So I have been thinking about the power of teamwork and collaboration. Being an independent coach can be lonely and there are so many, many duties that pull us away from coaching.
I've been wondering how the power of teamwork could be a model that would benefit both me AND other coaches. Honestly, I have been more than just thinking about it.
My business partner, Heather Lynn Darby, and I have been creating a platform rooted in collaboration. One that helps us all share a bit of the load regarding all the tasks we have, especially marketing tasks.
Don't be shy
I took the Nutrition Coaching Business Kickstarter, a course by Precision Nutrition. In it, we discussed how to talk about our services. One quote really stood out to me…
If you believe you are adding value, then don’t be shy – you have a duty to share what you know.
So, coach, I won't be shy because I know this is adding value to you,
Are you interested in collaborating with us?
Let me be upfront - I am not a business coach, and the collaboration will not cost you anything. We're thinking outside the box with this call for publication, doing something that has not been done before. So we’re wondering, are you interested?
The African Proverb says, "It takes a village."
I wholeheartedly believe that to be true. It's why Heather and I have invested our time in developing a platform that bridges the gap between our education, business strategy, coaching tools, and client systems.
Never getting off the spinning wheel
It's hard work trying to do everything and be everything that solopreneurship requires. Marketing can be very time-consuming when you're doing it alone, and oftentimes leaves you feeling like you're spinning your wheels. We're creating a village that works together to lighten each other's load, one which fills in needed marketing pieces.
Balanced Healthstyles intention is to harness collaboration power so we all win by gaining more visibility. We are just starting this new movement. With time and group effort, plus the optimization systems in place behind the scenes, we won't stay there for long.
Who are "we" anyway?
My first passion has always been behavior change. This is why I have a degree in Marketing and another in Advertising. (And not to end my college career with only 2 degrees, I minored in communications.)
My talent for marketing, along with my coaching skills, kept nagging at me to find a way to marry these abilities for good. I think Covid helped me figure it out.
Heather's motivations are straightforward... she's an actively practicing coach, like all of us. She was tired of wearing all the hats, doing all the marketing tasks all by herself, and not really gaining traction. Some things came naturally, like web design, tech integrations, and video editing, but other things were well outside her unique abilities, like writing copy (especially email nurture sequences).
Heather envisioned creating a multi-media platform that would shine a spotlight on a group of well-qualified coaches and trainers, and then stand next to them in that spotlight. This would indulge her techy interests and also highlight her own coaching specialization, so she could finally start becoming visible to a larger audience of potential clients along with everyone else.
What is our business name?
You may have noticed my referencing the name several times in the article, but let me formally introduce it, it is called Balanced Healthstyles, LLC. We believe in this concept of collaboration to gain a wider audience so much that we’re trademarking the name. YES!
Balanced Healthstyles is like an informal marketing and PR firm for coaches. We request original content in the form of blog posts or recipes. (If you have never written either, we have guides to give you pointers). We also have guides to help you write a bio, profile and take a great DIY headshot with your phone. The bio, profile, and headshot are important because Balanced Healthstyles is going to market and promote you and your content.
So this call for publication is a simple plan - coaches submit content, deep health articles, and healthier recipes. Then our platform optimizes each submission, and builds a robust marketing campaign around the content… and YOU, the contributing coach. We are in the business of promoting you, so that you can grow your audience.
Everything you have read about so far, the basic services, are at no charge. While there are optional paid membership levels, it is important to both of us to always have an accessible and free offering that includes the basics of everything you need to get visible on the Balanced Healthstyles platform.
Keeping it fun with funshops
As we develop this model for community collaboration every day is do filled with fun, we actually call our meetings Funshops. Yet what has been even more valuable is knowing that there’s someone else to talk things over with, get suggestions, and assist in the implementation of our ideas. We hold teamwork funshops at several times a week over Zoom so that we can collaborate our efforts most effectively.
You are well-loved, Coach!
With a collaboration of well-loved coaches all in one place, we end up all helping each other gain more visibility. (This is the new thing that hasn't been tried before.) We work together to gain traction on social media and in organic search results, to grow a wider audience for the good of us all.
Balanced Healthstyles is the central hub - a directory of sorts that the public can easily access to find you, along with all the collaborating coaches.
- Your expertise will shine
- Your content will hold space on a permanent platform
- Potential clients will be able to talk to you directly
Balanced Healthstyles promotes coaches and their content with a robust promotional campaign, one that doesn’t stop with just one post. It will be a campaign on all major social media channels, one that runs several times around each piece of content you submit.
It is important to be real
I am not saying we are experts or that you will see huge wins right away, but you will benefit from working together. And, because of how we optimize your content, it will be more likely to rank when people do a Google search trying to solve whatever problem they may have.
The concept is easy and it is also complicated - but as coaches you don’t have to worry about a lot of the complicated stuff, we do it behind the scenes.
Really cool features within our recipes
I should mention - we have worked out an agreement with MyFitnessPal to be able to associate a barcode with each recipe so your clients can journal their nutritional intake for any recipes on the site.
Plus - I am so excited about this - we are able to take mixed recipes and interpret them into hand size portions, with a proprietary methodology based on the Precision Nutrition model for hand portion calculations. It is so coooooool!
Finally, there is a somewhere you can refer your clients for healthy recipes that tell them the estimated tracking values for the hand size portions model of food journaling as well as the conventional macros nutritional label. This is a huge value to coaches and your clients.
It matters.
We are passionate about this project.
- Inclusiveness
- Community
- Collaboration
- Teamwork
These are at the core of our values.
This is something that can change how coaches market themselves.
Time to get excited
If you feel this is a good fit, sign up to submit an article or healthy recipe, and become part of this supportive community
You will receive an email invitation to register on the Collaboration Hub and join the private Facebook group Healthstyle Coaches for FREE and get everything you need to start raising your visibility through collaborative publication.