Resources mentioned in this episode:

👉 Start The Profitable Practice Free Course Here

👉 Learn About The Profitable Nutritionist Program

👉 Apply for The Mastermind

Episode Summary:

Welcome to the first installment of our, “What I Wish I Would Have Known When I Started My Business” series!

Today I’m welcoming my student Alyssa Chavez to share her best insights around the shift that occurred for her recently when she finally stopped undercharging and confidently started selling her premium offer.

She has great nuggets of wisdom to give her past self, when she was just starting her business, that will be helpful for all of us.

Connect with Alyssa:

Website

Instagram - @whole.woman.wellness

Transcript:

Note: The transcription below was provided for your convenience. Please excuse any typos or mistakes the automated service made in translation.

Andrea Nordling 0:00
So Alyssa, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and sharing a little bit of your story with us and inspiring the listeners with all sorts of things, I kind of have an idea about what we're going to be talking about, but I really have no idea where this conversation will go. That's the best kind to have, in my opinion. So let everybody know who are you? Why are you here? And let's start with that. Right? Well,

Alyssa Chavez 0:23
thank you, Andrea, for having me on today. I am super excited to be here also. So my name is Alyssa. And I have a business called Whole woman wellness that I have been working on building this past six months. And I am here to share a little bit with you guys today about some things that I have learned some lessons I've learned that I wish I had known from the beginning, that would have just saved me a lot of headache, and stress and things that I hope other people can avoid as they start out their businesses.

Andrea Nordling 0:59
So good. Yeah, the theme of this episode is going to be what I wish I had known when I started my business. So first, before we dive into that, do you want to give us kind of the evolution of when you did start your business, and kind of like a little bit of background and context about what it looked like in the beginning. And when that was?

Alyssa Chavez 1:14
Yeah, so I first started my business at the beginning of this year. So I believe it was January or February of this year. And I started out just I felt like I was kind of completely guessing on everything that I was doing. And the thing in particular that I found myself just completely making up and changing every other week was my pricing, where to the point where I even I had a discovery call. And then before I even sent that person, my you know pricing and package information, I actually went on my website and changed it again. And second guessing everything and just almost feeling like I was I don't know, hiding from actually signing clients because I was so stressed and worried about, you know, all of the setup that was happening behind the scenes. And it kind of held me back from really growing my business. So fast forward six months, I still have a very small but mighty business. But I did just have a recent discovery call where I, you know, have now decided my premium pricing, I'm sticking to it. And I just told it to her right there over the phone, just confidence in my voice. And lo and behold, right there on the spot. She says, Okay, let's do it. I'm excited. So it was it was very, very cool. Very interesting for me to watch that evolution of just my own mindset and just confidence decision making and how that ended up making it so much easier for potential clients. So they're not sitting there going, Oh, what, wait, what's happening? Where am I? What's happening next? What do I do? How do I work with you? So I feel like it really gave clarity from both ends, which was happy for me.

Andrea Nordling 3:06
Yeah, absolutely. So in the beginning, when you were doing your first discovery calls, which is always so messy, and imperfect, and cringy later on, as we look back at them, but the only way to get through it, it's just to do them imperfectly and cringy. But when you think about those first discovery calls that you did, what do you think the difference was between the one you just talked about now?

Alyssa Chavez 3:27
Oh, gosh, I feel like the difference really was everything.

Andrea Nordling 3:33
Just merely everything, no big deal.

Alyssa Chavez 3:36
We're gonna get specific about things. I mean, I think the biggest difference was my confidence going into it my mindset going into it, because that very first one that I did, gosh, it was this woman who had reached out from a post I had shared on like a local Facebook group kind of thing, and reached out and said, Oh, hey, I have I work with women who have hormone things going on. And she was said, Oh, I have PCOS. I'm really interested, you know, let's chat, got on the phone with her. And just, I felt like I was a little all over the place. I didn't really know what I was, what I was trying to achieve with the call. I was just kind of asking questions. And she was talking and then I asked if she had any questions for me and that's when it really started to go sideways. I'm just over here sweating and

Andrea Nordling 4:25
your internal thoughts are please don't have any questions. Let me just get

Alyssa Chavez 4:28
100% Yeah, I love

Andrea Nordling 4:31
it. Well, we have to go through those really imperfect and just painful learning experiences to learn we have there's there's no shortcutting it there's no way to have your first like first discovery call or first 20 discovery calls, or first any thing that you do in your business without being a sweaty mess. There's just no way to get around it.

Alyssa Chavez 4:51
You have to do it 100 percents

Andrea Nordling 4:55
away. Okay, so I didn't ask this before but I should because I know people will be interested. What do you especially Lesson What do you do?

Alyssa Chavez 5:00
So I work with women's hormone type issues. So my direct specialty, I would say it's endometriosis and fertility kind of things. But I also work with women who have PCOS. I've worked with women in perimenopausal postmenopausal phases as well, just bringing hormones into balance.

Andrea Nordling 5:21
And so in the beginning of your business, you said you started earlier this year? I didn't know it was that recent? I think this is so cool. Were you already focusing specifically on that? Or has that evolved as your business has kind of refined over the last year was something

Alyssa Chavez 5:33
that I had actually decided before I even joined the NTA program, I knew what I wanted to do, just based on my own personal history. My The reason I was joining the program in the first place myself, and so that was something I had decided very early on.

Andrea Nordling 5:52
I love it. Okay, I didn't ask this either. And now I'm taking notes and wondering this question is when exactly was it that you joined the profitable nutritionist program? I just joined in May, in May. Okay. So recently, because we're recording this in July, just for future reference, everybody knows. Okay, so it's been a few months. And you have seriously turned things around by implementing the I think, probably just and tell me if I'm wrong on this, but I'm kind of paraphrasing what you said before, like leveraging the mindset skills in the program and really getting confident in your delivery of your price and of your services. Is that fair? salutely? Yeah. Okay, cool. So here's what I'm wondering, I don't mean to put you on the spot. But I'm curious, had you intended to join for a long time? Or was it a new offer that you saw and joined the program right away?

Alyssa Chavez 6:40
You know, what's funny is actually I had first started listening to your podcast back in end of last year, I want to say maybe November, December, because it was somewhere right around when I had had graduated and TA, I started listening to your podcast. And the funny thing is, when I first started listening to your podcast, I enjoyed it. But I also thought to myself, I don't think this is the program for me.

Andrea Nordling 7:06
I love the honesty, it's so good.

Alyssa Chavez 7:08
And then, you know, I just kept listening to it and started finding that each episode I was listening to was going, Oh, that's an interesting little nugget. Oh, you know what that is resonating with me. And slowly but surely, I just started becoming very much. I just turned around, I guess in my mindset, and I guess, understanding of what you were saying and the message that you were delivering. And so when you had I think you had started talking about you are going to be opening the door soon, in May. By that point in time, I had already decided, You know what, the next time she opens the doors, I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna make it happen.

Andrea Nordling 7:42
So glad that you did. Alright, so what would you say to someone? And the reason I asked this question is because I do hear from podcast listeners quite often that say, I'm going to join the program I wanted to the program, but not until next year, or not until six months from now or not until blank time. And I would be curious, I know what I say to that. But I would be curious what you would say to that? Well,

Alyssa Chavez 8:05
I would start by saying I thought the same thing. I had this whole plan of I was going to do a couple of you know, training programs this year to kind of further my education on just being able to help clients and things like that. And I said next year, I'm going to join some sort of a business program. This is before I decided I was going to do the profitable nutritionist program. But I was going to do something, you know, for a business program next year. But then I got to thinking, Well, why am I waiting till next year when I'm trying to grow my business now, you know, because I can, I can always join other programs to learn more things. Because just because I enjoy the learning process, not because I feel like I have to to work with clients. But I just had this feeling of well, the more that I grow my business, the more that it's going to allow me to do the things that I want to do, like, you know, join these trainings or, you know, be able to invest more in my business to be able to grow it the way that I want to. And I just said, You know what, if there's one thing I'm going to invest in this year and spend money on why not have it be this program? So I would say give it a similar thought to anyone who's considering it. That is

Andrea Nordling 9:22
so good. The more that I make it my business the more I can invest in the other trainings, that's so good. I hear this from a lot of people. It's kind of similar, similar sentiment to what you just said is like no, I want to take all of the trainings because I love it. I love to learn more. I'm so interested in what I teach my people and I want to go deeper on my knowledge there. What I mean hey, there's nothing wrong with that. There's probably if I'm guilty of the same thing business wise, I keep taking, like more online courses about things I'm interested in that I probably will never ever teach, but it's just fascinating

Alyssa Chavez 9:56
about what we do, right? We just love learning more Learn more and more. There's there's always more. It's one of those the more you know, the more you find out you need to know. And it's just it's fun. It's I enjoy learning so.

Andrea Nordling 10:10
Yeah, exactly. And I think that that's a good, like a good complement to a business is having it be somewhat of a hobby as well. I don't think that's a prerequisite. I don't think that you have to be obsessed with your business and think about it all the time and, and work on it as a hobby, but it certainly makes it a lot more enjoyable, in my opinion, if it is kind of a hobby. And if learning more about it is something you enjoy, even when you're not working, really don't see the downside of okay, cool. So do you still have more training programs on your plan? Or has that changed? I'm just I

Alyssa Chavez 10:45
do I do I. So I kind of also did a flip on that, because I thought that okay, well, I'm doing this, so I'm going to focus on this. And then the next year, I'm going to do another training. But then, then now I've decided to do another one this year anyway. So I'm going to be joining the restorative wellness program in September, which I'm actually really excited about that one because that gives some more insight into some gut health and things that I'm I'm really, really interested in. So and I have a couple of friends who are actually going to be doing the program at the same time. So that was kind of my, well, let's just do it. And we can have together or something.

Andrea Nordling 11:24
So good. Okay, let's get back to the question that I had seated at the beginning, which was what do you wish that you had known when you started your business? I know you've given like some context around this. But is there anything in particular that you wish you had known when you started? You know,

Alyssa Chavez 11:38
one of the big things that you say that I repeat to myself on a daily basis is the idea that you can't do it wrong. And that's something I wish I would have been more aware of, because I have this. I don't know just this idea in my mind that comes from I don't know, childhood or something who knows that just if you're going to do something that has to be done a certain way, there's a right way, and there's a wrong way to do things. And I think that's where a lot of my stress was coming from in trying to build a business was this idea of, you know, am I doing this, right? And I would spend hours researching and asking around and seeing what other people are doing, and just trying to figure out if I was doing it, right, when there's so many things that why can't I just do it my own way? Why can't I just, you know, forge a new pathway. And so that's my new mantra, Alyssa, you can't do it wrong.

Andrea Nordling 12:37
So good. I fully endorse paving your own new path. I love it so much. So what is what what does that look like for you, for anyone that's listening to this, I can imagine might be wondering, what are any examples you might have of that are things that you thought you were doing wrong, that you're not now nope, I'm just gonna figure this out and do it my way.

Alyssa Chavez 12:54
Gosh, there's a lot of things. But let me think of a couple of examples here. One thing, I guess, would be just even, I have a weekly blog post that I write, and then I tie that into my weekly email that I send out to my people. And I found myself doing a lot of sitting there, and especially when it came to writing the email, because I feel like that's the part that was more kind of personal writing to people, and not that the blog isn't writing to people, but it was always about, you know, that particular topic of the week that I was talking about. And I would find myself, you know, I was digging back through my inbox trying to look at how other people structured their emails, and, you know, the the way that they were flow, and even the formatting and things like that, and just feeling like it had to be done a certain way. And I would spend so much time on that. And then started to learn, you know what I can just write, like, like, I'm just writing to friends, and what I would want to tell them about this topic and just let it flow. And I feel like it's come up so much more naturally, when I think that way, rather than trying to make it look a certain way or feel a certain way that maybe doesn't really resonate with me personally. And it's Yeah, I feel like it's made a big difference in the responses that I've gotten. And just the time that I spend on them has reduced dramatically because I just I just sit down and write it. And even things like I do use Instagram. I think it's fun for me, you know, making these little goofy reels and things like that. And same thing I used to spend so much time scrolling through other people's stuff, what are they doing? What does this look like? Am I talking about the right topics is interesting to people and now I kind of just do whatever I want to do. And, you know, I don't put any pressure behind having to post a certain amount of times a week or, you know, at a certain time of day or use a certain amount of hashtags. I just you know what, I'm just gonna do it the way I want to do it and we'll see what happens

Andrea Nordling 15:00
Exactly. So I don't want this to be too much of a leading question. But I'm assuming that that change in perspective for yourself, if just imperfectly, not worried about doing things the right way, just like up, that's how I'm gonna do it. I would imagine that that translates to your work with your clients, too, and how they approach things. Like I said, this is kind of a leading question. But is there anything that you can think of that bubbles up where you can see how that has also changed over the last few months?

Alyssa Chavez 15:28
Yeah, and I think, I mean, I'm sure it does really come back to the way that I'm talking to clients and working with them where, you know, I tried to do a lot of, you know, guiding my clients and coaching them, but not necessarily telling them exactly how to do things. And I think that that has allowed people a lot of really empowerment in taking charge of their life and of their health. And it just, I feel like it leaves them feeling more, more empowered. That's really the best word I can think of for that just to kind of make their own decisions on things. And they might come back to me and say, you know, oh, I took that little suggestion that you had, and, you know, now I've decided to do this, this and this, and I started finding some recipes. And I, you know, decided to go go on walks every morning, or whatever it is, instead of me telling them exactly, you know, I think you should do this, and this and this and this. And I mean, I feel like that is going to be much more helpful for the long run, right to be able to kind of think for themselves and make those decisions for their bodies, which I think is really cool.

Andrea Nordling 16:41
Yeah, definitely. And it takes the pressure off of you to have all of the answers all the time and to be uber prepared for any thing that they might ever ask or anything that might ever come up because you are giving them full agency and, and giving the information and the power back to make their own decisions, which makes you a facilitator instead of an what's the what would be the opposite of that. I can't think of what the opposite of that would be would be like the All Knowing encyclopedia, right? Totally. Yeah. i Oh, I think that that is so good. I'm assuming that people will be thinking, Hmm, like this, I can't do it wrong, they can't do it wrong. Which means that I really can't do it wrong if I'm just teaching people how to make better decisions. Totally. Okay, so this is started beginning of this year, you got a little messy and a little scrappy on your first discovery calls. chips like really vacillated on your price. Look, give me actually any more clarity on that, like, what was that like when you and how did you initially set your price? And then why do you think you were second guessing? Oh, my gosh,

Alyssa Chavez 17:49
that was a hot mess at that time. That was the one big thing. Honestly, that was the big thing that was holding me back from starting my business in the first place. So because I had graduated a few months before I actually officially decided to, you know, tell people that I was starting this business, and did my official launch. And my initial pricing was just I was spending so many hours just researching what other people were doing and kind of like trying to find other people who are even kind of doing my general geographic area. And then I was also looking at people who were kind of doing similar things that I was doing, which isn't really a thing, right? Because

Andrea Nordling 18:33
we're all not even a thing now.

Alyssa Chavez 18:37
And yeah, my pricing was very much based on that, which even that is a challenge because that was all over the place. I mean, I'm looking at people's pricing on their websites. And I was it was just seemed like the whole spectrum was out there. And I felt just super confused. Though, the funny thing is, the price that I have set now is actually the price that I had originally wanted to set when I first was going to start my business, but I did all this second guessing and I actually ended up cutting it in half, because I just felt thought that it was too much and people weren't gonna pay it. And I'm, you know, I'm new at this. So I shouldn't be charging that much. And there was just a lot of internal back and forth and conflict off paths. So that's kind of what that looks like. It was always very messy.

Andrea Nordling 19:29
I love I just like I love this so much. So you had the initial price in mind. Then you went to work researching, which seems like a prudent thing to do. But it's a terrible, terrible idea to go research what other people are charging and find out the going rate. I have a podcast all about this. I just looked up while you were talking. I looked up the episode if anyone wants to get my full rant about this and what I suggested you instead go to Episode 34 called figuring out the going right. So you did the thing which was like I'm going to be prudent I'm going to be professional and medical Hear out what other people are charging. And really what you did is you took whatever you found, even though like you said, there was all options were accounted for there was high, there was low, there was everything in between. But what your brain did, which is what our natural thought process is, is to only focus on the low end, I'm assuming this is what happened, only focus on the low end, and then you talked yourself down and ended up having your halvin like H al V ing your rate, because of what you saw when you did that, instead of what you could have also done but our brains don't do this, which is why looking up the going rate is a terrible idea. You could have looked at the high end, and like probably even raised your rate.

Alyssa Chavez 20:40
Yeah, I could have

Andrea Nordling 20:44
so predictable that our human minds do not go that direction. Like we

Alyssa Chavez 20:48
definitely don't.

Andrea Nordling 20:52
Oh, my gosh, it's so good. Yeah, looking at the going rate and trying to figure out what other people are charging is a losing battle, for many reasons. But also, because we cannot assume that any of those businesses are even successful, or even have one single client, right? Yes. Oh, my God. And then of course, you realize that when you raised your prices, it got easier to sell. Yes. So tell us a little bit about that. That was and I'm sure that I said this in the intro. But that was what you initially reached out about and said, Oh, my gosh, I had such a good discovery call where for the first time I wasn't nervous to give the price. It went really well. She was a Yes, right away. And I want to talk about it. So what like tell us more about that about? Was that like an on off switch? Or did they get progressively easier? Did you just cut off your old price and started a new? Or did you like, increase over time? What did that look like? Well,

Alyssa Chavez 21:43
so at the time that I joined the program, I had just finished with a client. So I actually didn't have anybody active at the time. So I just did a one increase. I didn't do a gradual or anything. I just okay, this is my new price as of today. And the funny thing is that this particular client that you're talking about who I had done, that recent discovery call with, she had actually been, I believe, one of if not the first person to reach out to me when I first announced my business and said, Hey, this is really cool, what you're doing, I'd really love to work with you and note, you know, find out more. And, you know, I was a hot mess at the time, and we kind of had a little back and forth, but she never really committed to anything. And then I ended up just not hearing from her for a while. And then all of a sudden I you know, kind of flipped my mindset on that. And then next thing, you know, I get an email from her actually not even email, she just had already booked a discovery call online. You know, chit chatted with her. And it was cool. Because my previous mindset, I feel like going into these discovery calls was very, it had that that, okay, I have to sell this. The point of this is to, you know, get a client, which it is at the end of the day, but what I really focused on was just having a conversation, almost like I was talking to a friend about what's going on and Okay, well, this is what I do. And this is how this can help. And then she's just said, Oh, that sounds really cool. And I think that's exactly what I mean. I said, Okay, great, you know, this is my price. And this is what the package looks like and kind of talk through it a little bit through what the what the package entails and what we would do. And it just felt easy, which was so lovely. Because I felt like I just dreaded these things. And now I feel like I'm actually kind of excited. When I see someone's discovery call. It's like, well, yeah, I get to talk to somebody about what I do, because I'm very passionate about this. And now it's it's more fun and less. Ah

Andrea Nordling 24:05
I love that I think it's so important to remember that you and a discovery call or even just a casual exchange with someone that isn't a formal concept. But it's, you know, it's you explaining what you do. And they're they're asking questions and any of that, whether it's like, I guess what I'm saying is whether it's formal conversation that you set up, and it's actually a consult or if it's just an informal exchange, remembering that the person that you're talking to is going to get value from that conversation either way, and that that's your job is just to leave them better for that conversation that is going to bring in the sales when it's like no, I'm just helping you. And if it's right for you, you're going to want to work with me. Of course you are and then of course they do, right. Yep. And I love that she was kind of a no when your energy was off and when you were scattered. She was a no and then she came back around when you refocused and she could I'm sure was reading your emails or seeing pull was on social media or something and then could feel your confidence and your energy shift. And then she reapproved, of course. So good. Okay, no, this is going to be so helpful for people that are having all of the same pricing drama and really second guessing exactly what it is that they're offering or if they should be charging what they're charging when they're feeling nervous about getting on calls with people, but here's what I would say and I think you would agree you're always going to be nervous, so that's okay. Nothing has gone wrong. Anything else that you want to tell people or that we didn't cover that you wanted to share today?

Alyssa Chavez 25:36
Oh, no, I feel like we covered it pretty well.

Andrea Nordling 25:40
Perfect. Okay, well, where can people find you if they do need help with any fertility, endometriosis, anything that you specialize in?

Alyssa Chavez 25:48
Yeah, so my website is whole woman wellness.net And you can also find me on Instagram at whole dark woman dot wellness.

Andrea Nordling 25:58
Perfect. Alright, Alyssa, thank you for coming today and for sharing with that. I will. Thank you so much, Andrea.