Many business owners work long hours on end, and yet they continue to struggle to increase productivity. What is the common denominator that hinders them from achieving success? Kendra Perry discusses how business owners typically hold themselves back from thriving and what they can do to reach the growth they truly desire. She enumerates some distractions most people deal with and how to turn them around. Kendra also explains how getting the right mentor can help lessen your struggle and make the pursuit of progress much easier to handle. Tune in to this episode and learn valuable insights on increasing productivity with Kendra Perry!
Learn more about working with Kendra inside HCA: https://kendraperry.net/training
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How to Distract Yourself into Oblivion and Avoid Productivity
I want to talk about how to completely distract yourself so that you are never productive, and all you do is sit on the couch and watch Netflix. Obviously, I’m joking. The title of this episode is a joke. We do not want you to distract yourself into oblivion and avoid productivity, but that is what so many new business owners are doing. I see this all the time. A few weeks ago, I did my annual market research interviews. Market research interviews are incredibly important to any business’s success. This is something I make my Health Coach Accelerator students do right away because we should never assume someone’s experience, what they want, and what they need.
Marketing is about communication, being able to speak someone’s language, using the words that they use, speaking to their deep desires and struggles, and leading them to transformation. This is something I make all my HCA students do, and I take my own advice. Every year, I do my best to do about ten or so market research interviews where I sit down on a Zoom call with my ideal audience, and ask them questions just to make sure that my messaging is still on point. I did this a couple of weeks ago and spoke with all kinds of different health coaches and practitioners.
The most common theme that came up was that they were getting in their own way. For those who were not seeing the success that they wanted, it had nothing to do with strategy. None of it. All of it had to do with not taking action and feeling paralyzed. The common denominator was them, and they knew it. They admitted it. I didn’t have to point it out to anyone. It was super obvious to me. All of them were like, “It’s me.” I said, “What’s the thing that’s getting in your way of seeing success?” They all just said, “Me.”
This is common. This is where so many people get tripped up because they go into business thinking, “I’m just going to execute this marketing strategy or this content plan,” and they are totally unaware of all the mindset, triggers, and ways that we self-sabotage and prevent our own success. Businesses that are successful are just a matter of taking consistent action and being willing to try things. I have tried probably hundreds of strategies at this point and all kinds of things.
A lot of them have failed and haven’t generated the results that I wanted. I have learned every time I’ve tried something, and that is why I’ve been able to be successful. I am an action-taker. I have always been that way. My parents raised me to be that way, and that has served me in business. The more you take action, the more you move towards having the business that you want. The more you don’t take action, that’s the only place that you fail, just not doing it.
I wanted to use this episode to talk about the most common things that coaches use to distract themselves and not take action. Sometimes, they are totally unaware of it. That’s why I wanted to bring this to your attention. Sometimes, they’re doing something that they think is an action-based strategy or they think they’re taking action, but what they’re focusing on is just a distraction. We are going to go through that.
Working On A Website
The first distraction that I want to talk about, and this is one that got me at the beginning of my business too, is working on a website. You may have read about websites on this show before. Maybe if you follow me on Instagram, you might know that I’m a website hater. The big reason for this is that websites don’t serve you early on in your business. Sure, they are a tool and may become important at some point in your business, but that depends. Later, I’m going to share with you situations where maybe you would want a website.
The reason that we think having a website is important is because it seems that all these businesses online have websites. When we’re searching for something, we want to be able to see the website. Another part of this is the feeling of being professional. I’ve talked to all kinds of coaches who were waiting to launch their business until their website was ready. I always ask them, “What do you think this website is going to do for you?” It was always this thing, “It’s going to make me seen as professional.” That’s great, but I believe there are other ways to be professional beyond having a website.
The other reason why we might think a website is important is because maybe in the certification or education that we did for health and wellness, they told us to make a website. I was told this in my nutrition diploma. This is the thing about a website. Just building a website doesn’t mean people will see it. There is this thing called search engine optimization. This is something that you do on your website so that it can be found. Search engine optimization is not a simple thing. I couldn’t even tell you all the details about it. It’s technical. It’s outside of my wheelhouse, but I know it involves submitting your website to various sites. It involves tags, keywords, metadata, and all these things that help your website be found in a search. Just because you made a website does not mean Google will find it.
Search engine optimization is something that takes time to happen. It is not a quick game. It’s a long game. From all the SEO experts that I’ve talked to, it’s at least a year when you’re just starting out, but it could take longer. I have an SEO guy who works on my website every single week for the past three years. The reason why I might show up on page one of Google is not by accident. It’s because I have someone who works on SEO and lets me know certain things I should be doing with my blog in order to be found.
The other thing about websites is we are in an age where the internet is no longer a novel thing. This means that the bar for websites is very high. That means they need to be responsive, meaning they need to look good across multiple devices, iPad, iPhone, smartphone, desktop, all of those things. It needs to be very functional and it needs to flow. You can’t just haphazardly put up a website and expect it to flow. There’s a whole science that goes into this because this is the thing, and you’ve probably done this as well. When people land on a website, and if it is at all confusing, if they can’t find things, something doesn’t show up, or they get stuck somewhere, they’re gone.
I know you’ve done this too. I remember this one website. I was trying to get into it. Their popup came up, and for some reason, I couldn’t click out of the popup. I was gone. I’ll probably never go back to that website again. The other thing is messaging. Your messaging needs to be incredibly on point. This means you need to do a ton of market research and you need to know how to do copywriting. This is not a skill that you are going to have in the beginning. This is not something you are going to know before you work with clients. You can only understand messaging by doing a ton of market research, talking with clients, and also knowing how to copyright.
Copywriting is an incredibly valuable skill. It’s not something that we are just naturally good at. It’s something that needs to be studied. Ultimately, what ends up happening is people will spend all this time on their website, and wait to launch their business until they have this website because they think it’s going to make them look professional. In the end, they usually have an ineffective website either because it’s not responsive or it’s not functional. It can’t be found and the messaging is off because they haven’t spoken with enough people yet. This ultimately results in sometimes losing clients.
When your website is not beautiful, functional, responsive, well-written, and well-messaged, it will make you lose clients rather than attract them. There is no point in having this broad info page, which is what I believe a website is. It’s just this broad informational thing that doesn’t make people do the thing you want them to do, which is to stick around, follow you, book a sales call, go to your sales page, and buy your program or course. I believe in the first few years of your business, all you need are just two single web pages, a program sales page, something that basically shows people what you do, how you can help them, and how to book a call or learn more about working with you. You then need an opt-in page to deliver your free resource. That’s it.
The biggest mistake I see with websites is that it’s all about the coach. People don’t care about you. They want to know your story, but they only want to know your story in how it relates to them and how it can help them. When it comes to any webpage, it needs to be focused on the ideal client. When you have a website and you have multiple tabs, there are lots of distractions, people are easily distracted, and so it may never lead to people doing the thing that they want to do. You might be thinking, “Kendra, I’ve been on your website.” Yes, I have a website, and I’m redoing my website. I’m going to make it simple, a whole lot less distraction, and set up for conversion.
I believe the point at which you need a website is the point at which you can pay someone to make you a good, functional, and responsive website, and someone who will do the copywriting for you or at least guide you through the process. Messaging is everything. If you do your own messaging when you don’t even know how to do it at the beginning of your business, then your website is not going to serve you. The thing about websites is they’re incredibly technical. They take forever to do. All I did in the first two years of my business was work on my website.
I would have this whole website made. I did have someone make it for me. Two months later, I would realize that the messaging was off, and I would redo it. I kept doing that every couple of months. In the end, no client ever found me through my website. They found me through social media. Social media is way more important than the website. The way social media is set up these days is it almost functions as a website. A website doesn’t build trust and connection. People need to see a lot of different pieces of content, that’s called the touchpoint, and that will build trust over time.
I truly believe that at the beginning of your business, all you need is that one well-written sales page. At Inside Health Coach Accelerator, we give people a sales page template that is written by a professional copywriter. I give you the template, and then we teach you how to host it for free, so you don’t even need a domain or a website. If you already have a website, you can just use that template to create a one-page website. That is all you need.
Are there certain situations where you may need a website? I know many multiple seven-figure entrepreneurs who do not have personal websites. It goes to show that you don’t always need one. There are certain situations where you might want a website sooner rather than later. The first one is blogging. If you love to write and you want to use SEO to get traction for your business, then you’re going to need a website.
I want to stress the importance of SEO. Even if you’re blogging, if you are not optimizing your blog post for search engine optimization and being found, then that’s going to be a waste of your time. If you’re going to do blogging, sure you need a website but then again, all you need is a one-page website. You need a blog and a contact. That’s it. I promise. You do want to either take a course on search engine optimization or have someone work on that on your site.
The other situation where you’ll want a website is if you are doing a podcast. Podcasts can also be a great thing to optimize for SEO and get people in front of your business. I do a podcast. My podcast producer will transcribe my episode and turn it into an SEO-friendly blog post. Every week, a blog post goes onto my site but I’m not writing it. I love that because it’s a great way to repurpose. That is something you would need a webpage for. Again, it just needs to be simple.
Taking More Health Certifications
That’s the first way people are distracting themselves into oblivion and avoiding taking action on things that matter in their business. Number two is taking more health certifications. I see a lot of people fearful to invest in HCA, but without any thought, they’ll spend the same amount of money on a blood chemistry course, an advanced hormone course, a gut course, a gluten course, or whatever. I see this all the time, and I get it because I did this too. When I first started out, I took probably three different certifications that were quite expensive, and then I kept taking more certifications.
The story I was telling myself is that this is what I needed for people to trust me, and for people to see me as legit. There’s this thing that happens when you are unlicensed. This may be less of a thing for my licensed professionals out there, but for my unlicensed health practitioners. You are constantly getting compared to doctors. People are like, “Could I do this for my doctor? Could I do this for my naturopath?” We get this feeling where we think we need to prove ourselves because we don’t have a medical degree. We’re not naturopathic doctors. We don’t have a professional license. We get to this point where we feel like we need to prove ourselves.
We think by getting more letters behind our name, it’ll make us more trustworthy and more credible. I had so many letters behind my name before I even had a successful business. The thing that we are missing and that we do this for is because we’re missing confidence, but we’re looking for it in all the wrong places. It’s very common. I see this all the time. People who come into Health Coach Accelerator or who are connecting with me on social media have ten different credentials. They have all these letters behind their name, but they don’t have clients.
I’m all about continuing education and I also know you enjoy it. You’re a nerd. You love to learn about blood chemistry. I think these things can be helpful in us learning how to help our clients. The problem is until you have clients, what’s the point? The truth is we’re seeking confidence, but the problem is confidence can only come from action and doing the thing.
I learned how to mountain bike in my late twenties. Mountain biking is a crazy sport. I don’t know if I have any mountain bikers out there in the crowd. If there are, shoot me a message on Instagram, and tell me about what it was like to learn how to mountain bike. It’s a scary sport. I wanted to do it. Before I did it, I was looking at YouTube videos. That was great. It taught me, “Make sure to put your weight back. You stand up on the pedals. You don’t sit down on the seat.” I got some basic things, but until I got out and tried mountain biking, there was no way I would ever be good at it.
When I did finally get out there and do mountain biking, I fell and cried a lot. It was scary. I live in a place where up until fairly recently, all the trails were built by professional mountain bikers. They were very steep, rocky, and technical. There weren’t a lot of beginner-friendly trails in this area. Our one beginner-friendly trail was completely terrifying. During the first even two years of learning to mountain bike, I used to fall all the time. I was slow, I would cry, and I kept asking myself, “When does the fun start?” Right now, the fear is outweighing the fun.
That’s what it feels like at the beginning of your business. The fear outweighs the fun. You’re scared, but it’s through that process that you gain confidence. The only way that you will ever feel confident is to work with clients. Some people might be interested in your credentials, and maybe that’s important to you. If you have not worked with a client and got that client’s result, then those credentials are futile. They don’t have as much meaning.
If I was choosing between a practitioner, there was practitioner 1, and they had 10 different credentials, but they had not worked with a client versus another practitioner who maybe had 1 credential, but they had 100 different testimonials of them getting amazing results for their clients. You better bet I would work with the person who had the client experience. Experience is what makes you valuable and what makes you a highly sought-after clinician or practitioner. It’s not the letters behind your name.
Unfortunately, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are going to have to go through a period where you’re working with clients and you are questioning yourself. It’s scary and you’re not having fun. The fear outweighs the fun. It’s just the way it goes. It’s like when I started mountain biking, the fear outweighed the fun. In about my third year, I remember this one run. It normally would scare the living shit out of me. I would cry all the time on it. I remember I went down it and I didn’t fall, and I had a little bit of fun.
I remember getting to the bottom. I had my adrenaline pumping, and I was like, “That was so much fun.” It occurred to me I just had fun. That’s where the fun started out weighing the fear. Is there always a little bit of fear when I mountain bike? Sometimes. It depends on what trail I’m on. Mountain biking is a crazy sport. There’s always a low level of fear, depending on the trail I’m on. Sometimes, it’s a higher level of fear if I’m on a scarier trail, but now I have fun when I mountain bike. You can get there too.
Continuing education is always important. As clinicians, practitioners, and coaches, you want to be updating your education, but don’t use it to distract yourself. I believe you just need one certification that you got. That is all you need because the amount of experience and confidence that you get from working with clients is invaluable. Start with one certification and get clients. Join me in HCA where I will teach you how to get clients and set up your business. Once you get that set up and you’re starting to bring in clients, use that profit that you are making from getting real clients to invest further in your education.
Comparing Themselves To Other Coaches
The third way that coaches and practitioners are distracting themselves into oblivion and avoiding productivity is by comparing themselves to other coaches. This is an incredibly toxic behavior. The best way to make yourself feel like absolute garbage is to compare yourself to someone else. I also want to tell you and I don’t want to shame you for this, this is not a shame fest, it’s totally normal. I do it too. I discussed this on the show in episode 58. It’s the comparison trap, where I spent so much of my energy comparing myself to someone else’s business, and then I eventually found out they had a business that I would never want to have.
Remember, when you are comparing yourself to another practitioner or coach, you’re comparing yourself to the superficial aspect of their practice or the highlight reel of someone else’s business. You never know what’s going on in someone else’s business or what’s behind the scenes. I’m going to share something a little bit vulnerable with you right now. In December 2022, I had a hard time in my business. I got in my head. I was doubting my sales strategy and everything I was doing. I felt like my business was just going to tank. It was completely irrational because the previous month, I had the biggest month I ever had in my business, but I was just totally beside myself. I couldn’t sleep, I was unmotivated, I didn’t want to work in my business, and I was struggling.
It’s interesting that part of what was happening here is I’m in a coaching program. I’ve talked about this before on the show. I’m in a mastermind. The coach who runs the mastermind took a break over Christmas. He took a few weeks off, and then he got sick right before the weeks off. There was about a month when I didn’t have access to the coaching that I normally would have access to. I spun out because I had no one to bounce ideas off. I had no one to talk me off the ledge. I walked right off the ledge.
It was so funny because I was going off the deep end, but then when the program was back happening again and I went to my first group session in the mastermind, I felt normal again and balanced. It was interesting because I wasn’t going to renew my membership in the program. I was thinking I got what I needed out of the program. I think I’m good. After that, I was like, “Nope. I’m renewing.”
First off, I want to stress the importance of mentorship and coaching. Having someone to bounce ideas off of and talk about your struggles is so important. I’m going into the 8th or 9th year of my business, and I still need someone to talk me off the ledge. The other thing I want to talk about is you have to remember that everyone starts somewhere. Where a lot of people are getting stuck is they’re thinking, “Why would someone come to me when they can go to these other more established experts?”
Everyone starts somewhere, and that established expert started out exactly where you are right now. They started out and they didn’t know what they were doing. They questioned themselves, but the thing was they just kept going. You do not want to compare your day 100 to someone else’s day 1,000, 2,000, or 3,000. I did an episode with a previous client of mine, Angela Brown. She’s an FDN. I started working with her in early 2020. When Angela came to me, she said she was making probably $25,000 a year in her business. It’s not much. She’s really struggling, doubting herself, and wondering, “Can I make this work?”
I’m doing a series with some of my clients about a year or two after they worked with me because I want to show you what the journey looks like. I’m calling it the Real Journey Series. The one with Angela is the first episode in that series. When I interviewed Angela in January, in just under three years, she got from $25,000 to $250,000 a year in her business. She said she took four vacations that year. She was working less, making $250,000 a year than she was when she was making $25,000 a year.
Three years in the grand scheme of things can feel like a long time, especially when you’re in the thick of it. When you look at this in a real-world context, that is no time at all. People work in their professions for ten years just to get a 5% raise. How often does someone have a job where they’re making $25,000 a year, and they move up to getting $250,000 a year? That can take a decade. That is a long thing in the corporate world, job world, and employee world. $25,000 to $250,000 is crazy. It’s nothing.
It was similar for me because I remember I started my business about halfway through 2015. That was when I officially started it. I’ve been taking some plans under the table before that. I remember in 2016 and 2017, I probably did about $15,000 in the first full year of my business, maybe about $30,000 in the second full year of my business, and then I almost did $100,000. It took me probably just under 4 years to get to 6 figures in my business. That’s nothing. I worked in forestry for six years, and never even came close to making that amount. I always made less than $30,000 a year. Maybe sometimes, I would get close to $40,000. It’s 7 or 6 years. I don’t even remember how long I was in forestry.
I’m getting a little bit off on a tangent here, but I just want to show you that it does not serve you to compare yourself to someone else. The first couple of years in your business are going to be hard. You are going to struggle. There is no way to avoid that even with mentorship. You have to struggle. It’s a part of it. You are doing something hard and you are building something out of nothing, from scratch. You need to stay focused on your own journey. All those people who you are following and you find yourself comparing yourself to, unfollow them or mute them. If you’re on Instagram, you can mute their stories and posts. Keep it focused on what you are doing.
If you want to do this, you can do it, but you have to take action. You cannot be distracting yourself by building a silly website, taking more health certifications, or getting into the comparison trap. Just stay in your own lane. You can do this. Building a business is about action. It’s about consistent action. In the eight years or whatever that I’ve been running my business, I have always been taking action. I have just kept going. Have I had times where I doubted myself? Yes. Have I cried in the fetal position on my office floor? Yes. Have I felt like it was never going to work? Yes.
I have felt all the things that you feel, but every day, I got up and I took action. It’s what it’s all about. You got this. You’d want to get mentorship so that you can make the journey not only faster but a whole lot less painful. As I said, you’re still going to struggle, but you will struggle a whole lot less with mentorship, especially from someone who has built the business that you want to build. Health and wellness are different than other industries. Even if you choose not to work with me, it is critical that you work with someone who has worked in the health and wellness space.
If you want to get started with Health Coach Accelerator and work with me in my six-month group mentorship program, my masterclass is the best place to start so that you can see if my method aligns with what you want for your business. I’ll give you all the details in that masterclass. I love you, my friend. You can do this. Take action. I will see you on the next episode, same time and place, where I help you become wealthy AF.
 Important Links
- https://KendraPerry.net/training
- Angela Brown – past episode
- episode 58
