Nicole Aucoin (00:02):

Welcome back to the Grow Your Nutrition Business Podcast. At Healthy Steps Nutrition, we believe something as fundamental as nutrition shouldn’t be complicated. We help gym owners and coaches build successful nutrition programs without reinventing the wheel. I’m your host, Nicole Aucoin, registered dietitian and founder of Healthy Steps Nutrition, CrossFit HSN, and HSN Mentoring. I’m the author of The Basics of Nutrition Coaching CrossFit Preferred Course. I’m going to teach you how to take one step at a time to build a successful nutrition program, where you finally feel confident about nutrition when talking to your members and your communities.

Nicole Aucoin (00:43):

Today, Ashley and I are discussing how to increase buy-in from existing members of your gym. At least once a day, I am asked on a free call by a CrossFit gym owner, “How do I get my existing members bought into my nutrition program?” I say nutrition’s important, but how do I get them to actually start buying nutrition? Here’s the deal. It doesn’t happen overnight, but if you do these five things that we talk about in this episode, it will happen. It’s so easy to bring up nutrition in classes and in conversations with your members, so I’m excited for you to listen to this episode and start implementing these steps. One step at a time we’ll get started on this episode on increasing buy-in with existing members just after this message.

Nicole Aucoin (01:34):

HSN Mentoring has partnered with PushPress, a gym management software to create a brand new nutrition reporting app that can be found in your PushPress dashboard. This is going to make it easy for gym owners to track their nutrition metrics and see where they need to improve. Here’s how to get it. Head over to your PushPress dashboard, login, go to the app store, click nutrition reporting by HSN, click configure, then book a free call with me so I can help guide you on how to improve these numbers. Enjoy this episode on increasing buy-in with your existing members.

Nicole Aucoin (02:15):

Ashley Osterman, welcome back to the podcast.

Ashley Osterman (02:18):

Thank you for having me, Nicole. Always a pleasure.

Nicole Aucoin (02:20):

Today, we are talking about something that gets asked during every single free call and welcome call from gym owners who’ve been around for 10 plus years. They ask me, “How do I increase the buy-in of my existing members at my gym?” I’ve sold them on fitness, and now I’m trying to resell them on nutrition. How do I get them to do that?

Ashley Osterman (02:45):

Yes. So frequently asked. We have so many affiliates who have been around for so long, history, five, 10 years of members.

Nicole Aucoin (02:55):

And now, you got them signed up and that you told that fitness was going to be the solution to their weight loss problem, or their ability to want to lose weight. And now, you’re going back to say, “Actually, I think that we need to be talking about nutrition.” So, we’re going to talk about how to do this.

Ashley Osterman (03:13):

Yeah. Yeah. It’s not as scary as it seems, I promise.

Nicole Aucoin (03:17):

I think the biggest thing is just like building your business, just because you open the doors to a new program, does not mean it’s going to fill up overnight. Has that happened before? Absolutely. But that’s not the majority. Understand and set realistic expectations to how your program is going to grow, but you have to do these five things.

Ashley Osterman (03:37):

You absolutely have to, and keep in mind, too, that as businesses age, and as they are around for longer and longer, they can still evolve. You don’t have to be the same thing that you were when you first opened your doors.

Nicole Aucoin (03:48):

You can’t be. You have to have a growth mindset as an owner. It’s funny, I talk to gym owners all the time, and they say, “Nicole, I should have done this a long time ago.” We actually had a gym not far from us sign up last week, and one of our members was at the gym, he’s friends with the owner, and the owner had told him, “I should have done this a year ago. I don’t know why we waited.” And [inaudible 00:04:12] signing up with HSN. So, the cool thing is we’re teaching all of them how to do these five things, and it’s so important for gym owners now than ever to diversify revenue streams and understand how to support your clients with a holistic approach, which does not just mean fitness.

Ashley Osterman (04:28):

No, it does not. It means fitness and nutrition.

Nicole Aucoin (04:31):

So, let’s talk about it. Number one, tip number one for increasing buy-in is changing your message so that it starts at the top that nutrition’s a priority.

Ashley Osterman (04:41):

Yeah. It starts with the owner.

Nicole Aucoin (04:43):

It starts with the owner, and then it goes to the coach, and then it goes to the members. But if you skip that, if it goes owner to members and you don’t get the buy-in from the coach, it’s going to be really tough to reinforce that message. Or if you think that the coach is at the top-

Ashley Osterman (04:59):

Right. And the owner gets skipped.

Nicole Aucoin (05:01):

And the owner’s not involved, then it’s going to be really tough to get the buy-in at all the different levels. So, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and for coaches especially, if they don’t know about your nutrition program, they’re not going to talk about it because they don’t want people to sign up for nutrition, they’re not going to talk about it because they don’t feel comfortable talking about it and they’re scared they’re going to get a question they don’t know the answer to.

Ashley Osterman (05:24):

That’s exactly it. You know, it’s not that they don’t want to talk about it. They just need to be educated about it and understand what it is and how to speak about it, and I think one of the best strategies when doing this is have your coaches go through the program.

Nicole Aucoin (05:39):

Have them be test clients, I think is a great option. If you don’t do that, then at least have regular staff meetings where you’re bringing up the why behind the nutrition program. As coaches, we all got in this business to help people, and some coaches might feel like you’re just trying to sell people on something. You’re just trying to get them to spend more money at your business.

Ashley Osterman (06:00):

It’s just another add-on service that we have to sell the members on.

Nicole Aucoin (06:04):

But in reality or not, it’s not an add-on service. It’s really the foundation. You’re getting them to set a solid foundation so you can help them with long-term success.

Ashley Osterman (06:12):

Absolutely. And when we’re not talking about both fitness and nutrition, we’re really doing both our business and our clients a disservice.

Nicole Aucoin (06:21):

So, the message starts at the top with the owner, but it really goes right to the rest of the staff to ensure a consistent message. Where’s nutrition on your priority list? What is your nutrition philosophy? How do people get started? And what does the client experience look like? If your staff cannot answer those questions, it’s going to be really tough for you to grow the program because, as an owner, you’re not at the gym, hopefully, all day every day, or you will get burnt out. Guaranteed.

Ashley Osterman (06:49):

Guaranteed.

Nicole Aucoin (06:50):

And your nutrition coach isn’t there all day every day. So, everyone has to be speaking that same language. Ashley, one of the things we did recently was we created a video, coming from you and I, answering all those questions. What is HSN? What does it look like? Why is it important? How will it help clients? And basically, that video is given to every single staff member at every single gym for running our program, because we want a consistent message really coming from us, too.

Ashley Osterman (07:17):

Yeah. Absolutely. It’s just a high level explanation of HSN, but I still really encourage all of our owners and coaches to make sure that nutrition is talked about consistently. To the staff members in the meetings, it has to still be talked about consistently.

Nicole Aucoin (07:33):

Absolutely. Getting nutrition coaches involved with staff meetings is so, so important. And the second thing that you can do to increase buy-in for your existing members is start incorporating nutrition into classes, meaning the conversation about nutrition. I talk about this often, but your nutrition questions of the day is something that we do on a regular basis. Once to twice a week, we’re asking our members, “What’s your favorite breakfast? What’s your favorite lunch? What’s your favorite post-workout?” We go around the room, everyone answers, and then at the end, the coach will have tips that they can read coming from us about that question. So, if we’re talking about breakfast, they want to say, “Want to make sure to incorporate protein, carbs, and fats so you stay full longer. Be mindful about how much sugar having in your breakfast options, because a lot of them are loaded with sugar.”

Ashley Osterman (08:22):

Especially those convenience options, as we know.

Nicole Aucoin (08:25):

Sure. So, that’s a really good, easy thing. Jason does a really great job talking to members like, “Hey, we just released a new recipe. We’re so excited about X recipe. It’s so good. We’re making it every single week.” If you have not tried cheesy beef and broccoli bake-

Ashley Osterman (08:40):

Give it a try.

Nicole Aucoin (08:41):

… give it a try. Who’s tried it? People raise their hands. What do you think about it? They all start chiming in. During the pandemic, we had a class, and I don’t know, there was like 15 or 20 people on the Zoom class and we started talking about [Eggo 00:08:55] on a bowl.

Ashley Osterman (08:55):

Oh yeah. And everybody just-

Nicole Aucoin (08:57):

Every single person, except one person said, “I have had Eggo on a bowl and I love it,” and that one person was like, “Well, now I have to try it. Everyone else has tried it.” It’s like fear of missing out. So, it’s so easy to organically talk about nutrition during classes. Another thing Jay does during classes is he’ll, if someone’s really struggling, let’s say they’re really struggling to work out, and he’s like, “They shouldn’t be struggling this bad.” He’ll ask them like, “What’d you have for dinner last night? What’d you have for breakfast this morning before you came in?” And almost every time it’s like, “I didn’t eat anything before, and last time, my dinner wasn’t that good.” And he’s like, “All right, try to do this before you come in so that at least you have some fuel to get you through this workout.

Ashley Osterman (09:38):

To power through the workout. And that’s so important to talk about that.

Nicole Aucoin (09:42):

The thing is most people don’t even connect the dots that what they ate before they worked out or what they ate the night before is going to affect them during the workout. And truthfully, Jason didn’t connect the dots for a long time. I remember when we first met at a CrossFit, he would go to Dunkin Donuts and get an extra large, extra light, extra sweet coffee. I don’t even want to know how much sugar is in that thing, but that’s what he would have before his workout.

Ashley Osterman (10:09):

Just that, just the coffee, with lots of sugar and cream.

Nicole Aucoin (10:12):

Yeah. And then he would wonder why he didn’t feel good. And then I started [inaudible 00:00:10:14], “Hey, why don’t you try this? Why don’t you do an experiment and cut down on that coffee and do this before your workout?” Guess what? He does not go into the gym to work out now without a shake, without something, oatmeal, something. He has something before every single workout. And he can talk from experience because he knows what it feels like to not connect the dots and not feel great during a workout and how it feels to fuel yourself before a workout.

Ashley Osterman (10:41):

Absolutely. I was actually in a class a couple of weeks ago, and Coach Fred was talking about quick and easy options to have if you’re coming from work going straight to the gym. And you sell a lot of people just like, “Oh, that’s a great idea. Apple sauce pouch, never thought about that.” I just think I get off work, I have to come and get my workout done. I don’t connect the dots that, “Hey, maybe I should fuel myself since I haven’t had dinner yet.” So-

Nicole Aucoin (11:04):

Or it’s an hour since my lunch.

Ashley Osterman (11:05):

… it’s so important to have those conversations. And as coaches and owners, as the nutrition experts, you should be helping those coaches with that information. We give them the speaking notes, they drum up the conversation, and then they have the tips from us.

Nicole Aucoin (11:20):

But it all comes down to they’re also practicing what we preach, too. Every single one of our coaches understands the value of nutrition because they’re following it. When we hire, that’s a core value of ours. If people don’t think that they need to focus on nutrition, I don’t know that we would hire them as a coach.

Ashley Osterman (11:41):

Yeah, I don’t think so.

Nicole Aucoin (11:43):

But we also really do have nutrition as a foundation. That is just an easy way, some different ideas of starting to incorporate the conversation about nutrition into classes. And the more you keep it coming with the conversation, the more people will start associating nutrition help with you and your brand, and it has to be consistent across all the coaches.

Ashley Osterman (12:02):

Yeah. Yeah. The coaches are the ones that are seeing your clients, your clients already have a relationship with them, they’re such a great poster child for starting to get your existing members interested in you nutrition program.

Nicole Aucoin (12:14):

People need to see things seven to 10 times before taking action, so think about that for a second. If they’re not seeing nutrition help coming from you consistently, they’re never going to associate nutrition with you or your brand. So, we have to incorporate nutrition into classes, and the cool thing is you can do it so organically in a gym setting.

Ashley Osterman (12:36):

You really can.

Nicole Aucoin (12:36):

It’s so easy. All right. Number three, goal setting sessions.

Ashley Osterman (12:42):

Goal-setting sessions are such a great way to get buy-in from your existing members. You have to start the conversation somewhere, and I think having goal setting sessions and sitting down and talking to your members and finding out what their goals are, what they are struggling with, and what they want to work on can really help you incorporate nutrition into the plan.

Nicole Aucoin (13:02):

When you’re talking about goal setting sessions, you really have to get down to the why. You have to understand the emotion behind the goal, because the going gets tough, life happens, people easily get off track. We all do. And if you don’t have the why front and center, it is so easy for that one weekend to turn into a month, to turn into six months to a year. Right? So, we have to talk about the why. We love testing biometrics during goal setting sessions. I think it’s a really good way to either positively reinforce, “This is all of your hard work paying off,” or, “Hey, you’ve hit a plateau. Are you ready to get into nutrition?” One of the questions we get asked often, “What if we have a new member sign up and they don’t want to sign up for nutrition?” Okay. Why don’t you set a goal setting session up for a month or two later, a 60 day check in to see how are they doing compared to the initial meeting that you had with them?”

Nicole Aucoin (13:55):

And it’s another opportunity for you to get them to buy-in on nutrition. When you’re doing goal setting sessions, you have to, before you have the goal setting sessions, you have to lay out your options. Right? What are your good options? What are your better options? What are your best options? What do I mean by that? Your good option should be some free help. Maybe it’s a downloadable PDF. Maybe it’s a recording of a nutrition talk, talking about nutrition in your family, or navigating the holidays, whatever that might be, then your better option is going to be, “Hey, sign up for this accountability challenge that we’re going to be launching,” or your best option, “Hey, I really want us to dial in our nutrition. I highly recommend that you upgrade your membership to include nutrition coaching and fitness.”

Ashley Osterman (14:42):

Yeah. It’s really important that you have all those options laid out, that way you can appropriately guide your client, your member, to the option that would best help them. And remember, it’s not always a paid option. Go in with the help first mentality that, “Yeah, it might be a free option, your good option, but that’s great because you’re already starting to integrate nutrition into their plan.”

Nicole Aucoin (15:03):

Absolutely. Whoever’s doing those goal setting sessions has to be comfortable with the nutrition program. I honestly would recommend to the nutrition coach does those goal setting sessions, or the owner, or someone has been through your nutrition training so that they’re really comfortable with the program, they can talk about it. You want to make it easy for people to upgrade their membership to nutrition and fitness. And again, you’re not selling them on it. You’re truly guiding them to help them achieve the results they want to achieve, because what happens if they don’t achieve those results? Let’s talk about it. They’re going to cancel because your program does not work for them.

Ashley Osterman (15:40):

Yeah. They’re going to say, “I have not seen what I’m trying to achieve. Obviously something’s wrong here.” And if we haven’t had the conversation about nutrition, they’re just going to leave. They’re going to say, “I’m going to go elsewhere.” But if we have that conversation about how important nutrition is, even though it’s new to the culture and to the environment of your business, at least we talked about it. So, when we have that conversation with the client who’s not seeing the results, that’s our chance to talk about the importance of nutrition. Like, “Yes, I see that we’re not reaching the goal. Let’s talk about how we can dial in a plan for you to reach your goals, utilizing nutrition and fitness.”

Nicole Aucoin (16:17):

You have to be confident that your nutrition program is going to work. I mean, you have to have the systems to be able to scale your program because when you start having these goal setting sessions, and you don’t have the systems, it’s going to be really tough for you to keep track of all these clients. We had a gym owner, and she was like, “I put my program on pause because I don’t have the systems, and now I’m going through your training to get the system so that I can start guiding more people to my nutrition program.” And the truth is, is if you aren’t talking about nutrition, you’re losing money in your business.

Ashley Osterman (16:52):

Yeah, you are are.

Nicole Aucoin (16:54):

I think we’ve all learned as business owners in the fitness space over the past eight months, is you have to diversify your revenue streams just in case you are forced to shut down, just in case a pandemic happens. I think it opened up so many eyes that our business can not only revolve around in-person group classes. It can’t’

Ashley Osterman (17:14):

No, it cannot.

Nicole Aucoin (17:15):

So, we want to do those goal setting sessions. One of the cool things that we made is an SOP module, standard operating procedures, of exactly what your goal setting session looks like, a form to fill out, and all of the tools to help coaches, and even role playing those goal setting sessions would be helpful, too

Ashley Osterman (17:35):

Yeah, absolutely. We always say practice, practice, practice. You have to be comfortable with the conversation to be confident. So, if you haven’t role played or haven’t had these conversations before, make sure that you practice before you have them with your clients or your members.

Nicole Aucoin (17:50):

Exactly. Exactly. All right. So, tip number four, launching with a nutrition challenge to get existing members bought in is a really good strategy. I don’t recommend running a ton of challenges. We run one to two a year, that’s it. This year, during the pandemic, it was a little bit different because we we’re forced to shut down, we ran close to each other. But the goal of a challenge is to get people excited about your nutrition program and more importantly excited what happens after the challenge. And if you don’t set your challenge up and position it correctly, you are going to not get the buy-in for your program after the challenge is over. But getting your members bought into your nutrition program with a challenge is a really great strategy. I mean, gyms using our platform will convert 50 plus percent of the challenge participants to ongoing nutrition coaching. So, let’s do the math real quick. You have 40 people sign up for a nutrition challenge. Now, all of a sudden, you have 20 ongoing nutrition clients. That’s a really great start for launching a nutrition program.

Ashley Osterman (18:55):

It sure is.

Nicole Aucoin (18:56):

That’s an amazing start. Now you’re making over $2,000 a month on reoccurring revenue after a challenge for ongoing nutrition coach.

Ashley Osterman (19:03):

Yeah. And the great thing, too, about a challenge, if you are first launching the HSN program is we find that all of our clients will rejuvenate that money that they invested.

Nicole Aucoin (19:13):

Yep. It’s a really great way to get an instant return on investment because you’re going to launch with a challenge. And your challenge should be for members, but also for non-members. So, think about how many people are on your email list that are maybe past members or people that have paused for some reason, or maybe someone that never signed up, they might be interested in just doing a nutrition only option. It’s a really great strategy for the gyms that have been around for forever because now you have another revenue [inaudible 00:19:40] from not just your membership or family members of existing members. Which we know if you have the support of the people who are doing your nutrition program, if they have someone that does it with them, they’re going to be so much more successful.

Ashley Osterman (19:53):

It’s that built-in accountability partner. It’s amazing. And right now more than ever, we’re seeing such an increase of nutrition only clients. So, that’s important to remember, too, that you’re opening yourself up to a different arena of clients who might not have come to your gym before because they weren’t necessarily looking for the fitness, but they do want the nutrition health.

Nicole Aucoin (20:13):

We find that a lot of our nutritional only clients end up converting over to gym members after they realized that CrossFit isn’t that scary, or they start building that trust with us, or maybe they want personal training and that turns into ongoing personal training. Quite a few of our personal training clients that we’ve had for five plus years started all as nutrition only clients. So, launching with a challenge is a really great strategy. If you’re unsure of how to build a nutrition program beyond the challenge, how to position your challenge, we created an ultimate challenge starter guide, and I’ll put the link in the show notes so that you can grab that. But there’s a lot of checklists in there, different tools and resources, all of the challenge support, basically, in one place that we’ve ever given out, which is so helpful for gym owners.

Nicole Aucoin (21:01):

And gyms that have been forced to shut down a second time, doing an accountability challenge as a member benefit could be a really great strategy. So, you give it as a member benefit for your physical location is shut down, but then as a paid option for non-members so that now you have an additional revenue stream. And a lot of gyms did that with the first round of shutdowns, and now, more and more gyms using our platform that are being forced to shut down again are doing it for a second round. And again, I think it’s a really great strategy to get creative to support your clients, especially coming up on a holiday season. Right?

Ashley Osterman (21:36):

Yeah, absolutely. Another great thing in the ultimate challenge starter guide is that we have success story templates.

Nicole Aucoin (21:44):

Yeah. So, you want to be posting success stories in there, for sure. In the challenge guide, you’ll have… We use Canva. We love Canva

Ashley Osterman (21:51):

We love Canva. Shameless Canva plug.

Nicole Aucoin (21:54):

Canva’s the best. We give so many Canva templates to gyms using HSN to save time and not reinvent the wheel, but that’ll be a great-

Ashley Osterman (22:05):

Place to start.

Nicole Aucoin (22:06):

Yeah. Canva template for you to start.

Ashley Osterman (22:09):

And that brings us to our tip number five, is you really need to highlight the heck out of people who are doing a phenomenal job, not just with nutrition, but also fitness.

Nicole Aucoin (22:21):

If you want behavior to be modeled more, you need to talk about the behavior you want to be modeled more.

Ashley Osterman (22:27):

Yes. You need to showcase it.

Nicole Aucoin (22:28):

So, if you’re saying, “Good gosh, my nutrition program’s not growing,” or, “I’m not seeing what I want with my nutrition program,” I want to go back to let’s look at how you’re talking about the nutrition program. Let’s talk about how are you talking about the people that are doing your nutrition program? It does take a little bit longer typically for our existing members to get bought into a nutrition program, but if you’re highlighting the heck out of the people that are doing amazing with nutrition and fitness, people have a fear of missing out and they’ll want to sign up.

Ashley Osterman (22:56):

Yeah. And that’s not only on social media, it’s also in your classes and in person.

Nicole Aucoin (23:01):

Absolutely. Just talking about, “Man, Bob, you’re doing such an amazing job. I see a difference in your clothes. I see a difference in the way you’re working out. I can tell that you’re really making your health and wellness a priority right now. You’re really investing in your nutrition and your fitness. What’s been the best thing for you?”

Ashley Osterman (23:20):

Yes. And then Bob’s going to answer, and then high five Bob, and then use that quote on your social media.

Nicole Aucoin (23:26):

There you go. I think highlighting during classes, if you want your members to be bought into your nutrition program, it has to be a part of the conversation, so talking about it in classes and then talking about the people that are doing awesome in classes is really going to help you.

Ashley Osterman (23:42):

Yeah, absolutely. Because your existing members are going to hear it, they’re going to see it, and then they’re going to get interested and excited about it, too.

Nicole Aucoin (23:49):

As a gym owner, you have so many different hats that you are wearing, and I think we all got in this business to help people. And the best way to help them is through nutrition and fitness to help them achieve their health and wellness goals. So, you just have to start building this program. And we have so much support out there. There’s so much free help out there to help you, but I think the biggest thing is not to get overwhelmed by all the information, all the noise out there. Start with what’s working. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You can’t reinvent the wheel because you don’t have time.

Ashley Osterman (24:27):

No, there’s not enough time.

Nicole Aucoin (24:28):

So, use the free help that we’ve provided. We have a ultimate nutrition program starter guide. We also have the challenge starter guide. So, those are two really great places of free help that we are providing gym owners because our mission is to empower gym owners to feel confident when talking about nutrition, which is one of the reasons why we do this podcast, to give different tips and support every single week to help gym owners. Also why we write blogs, why we have emails that go out every single week helping gym owners feel more confident. So, yes, you can use our turnkey solution, or you can reinvent the wheel. That’s fine, too, but don’t reinvent it from scratch. At least use the framework that we’ve created to save you time.

Ashley Osterman (25:15):

Yeah. And like you said, don’t get overwhelmed. Don’t try to focus on too many things at once. Just one thing at a time.

Nicole Aucoin (25:21):

Well, I think the goal of any nutrition program is to keep it simple so that our clients feel confident that they can do it and keep your clients accountable.

Ashley Osterman (25:30):

Yeah. And just be there to provide that accountability and support and really ensure that the client experience is consistent.

Nicole Aucoin (25:37):

That’s such an important piece of the puzzle when we’re looking at implementing a program within a gym. So, let’s recap, Ashley, those five tips. The first thing we have to have the message coming from the top that nutrition is a priority.

Ashley Osterman (25:49):

Yes. And if you want to hear more about this, definitely take a listen to our owner involvement podcast episode. We have quite a lot of tips for you on that one.

Nicole Aucoin (26:00):

I love that episode. All right, number two, start incorporating nutrition into classes.

Ashley Osterman (26:07):

And you can easily do this by sharing questions of the day or sharing healthy recipes or tips and tricks.

Nicole Aucoin (26:13):

Number three, goal setting sessions with your existing members.

Ashley Osterman (26:19):

Just remember, though, before we do the goal setting sessions, you need to clearly lay out your good, better, and best help so you can guide your member to what will help support them in their goals.

Nicole Aucoin (26:30):

Absolutely. That person doing those goal setting sessions has to be comfortable with your nutrition program. The next thing, launching with a nutrition challenge, but you want to make sure that you have a clear path for clients to continue after the challenge is over. So many people will do nutrition challenges and then regain the weight that they worked so hard to lose, and it’s because there’s that missing piece of the puzzle after the challenge is over. So, make sure that when you launch your challenge, you are clearly guiding people to what happened after the challenge is over. You’re not upselling them on nutrition, you’re giving them the solution to solve their problem because they need that accountability and support.

Ashley Osterman (27:07):

Yes, absolutely. And if you want a little bit more help about launching a challenge, check out our ultimate challenge starter guide. It gives an overview of what to do before, during, as well as after your nutrition challenge.

Nicole Aucoin (27:19):

Awesome. Love that. The last thing, you need to highlight the people that are doing awesome. If you want more peopleto.be doing your nutrition program, talk about the people that are doing your nutrition program and highlight the heck out of them in classes, on social media, in emails, on your blogs. There are so many ways to highlight the people that are doing awesome. So, as an owner, as a manager of a gym or a nutrition coach, understand that it takes time to get the buy-in from your existing members, but by doing these five things, you are going to help start changing the tide and start getting your existing members bought into your nutrition program.

Nicole Aucoin (28:00):

The first thing that Ashley and I talked about was the message starts at the top. Owners have to be excited about their nutrition program if they want their staff to be excited, which trickles down to your members, getting your existing members bought into your nutrition program isn’t something that you just have to do for one month and then magic happens. It takes time, and it takes consistency. Just like you talk about fitness, you need to be talking about nutrition, on your social media, email, website, and in classes. If you want to build a successful nutrition program, you have to build nutrition into your culture, which means consistency.

Nicole Aucoin (28:42):

Make sure you map out your client journey and know exactly what happens when someone upgrades their membership to nutrition coaching. Make sure that you do all of this before launching a challenge or a goal setting session, because you want to be super clear with that client journey. Once you map it out, hopefully with your nutrition coach, talk to your coaches so that everyone is speaking the same language. This is something that happens with almost every single gym at some point. You don’t get your entire staff on board talking about the same message, and it’s confusing for your clients. And if you confuse, you lose. So, make sure you take the time to get it set up right so that you can build a successful nutrition program.

Nicole Aucoin (29:28):

Please don’t forget to rate our podcast and leave a comment and a review. Take a screenshot, and then send it to podcast@healthystepsnutrition.com and we will send you a starter guide and a bundle to help you save time and not reinvent the wheel when building a nutrition program.

Nicole Aucoin (29:45):

It seems crazy, but 2021 is right around the corner, and now is the time to be starting the conversation about nutrition beyond a nutrition challenge. HSN Mentoring has a turn key solution to save you time and not reinvent the wheel when it comes to building a nutrition program. HSN Mentoring starts with a training process that takes about 30 hours. It includes online modules, homework, and mentoring calls. There are six mentoring calls during our training. The training teaches you how to set up a nutrition program, how to market your nutrition program, how to coach clients using a habit-based approach, and most importantly, retain them. And lastly, we show you how to run a successful nutrition challenge and convert your clients to ongoing coaching after the challenge is over. That is the way the majority of the gyms running HSN will launch their programs so that they can recoup the cost of the initial investment right away. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Grow Your Nutrition Business Podcast. We will see you back here next week.