As a gym owner, it is impossible to wear all the hats. Having a solid nutrition program and the right person to run it will provide an additional source of revenue for your facility, as well as for the nutrition coach running it.
Two years ago, I hired the first dietitian to join the HSN team. I wasn’t looking for someone who had the most “dietitian experience.” If fact, I wanted someone right out of school. Someone who I could groom to implement our program and had the motivation to make it their own.
The first RD who joined our team was great, she was right out of school and excited to learn more. She worked on all aspects of the business from creating meal plans, recipes, social media posts, videos and blogs. She saw clients but also established her authority within our community through the content she put out. About six months ago, she moved out of state and I needed to find a replacement.
Finding the right fit is probably one of the most difficul jobs when starting a nutrition program.
We were back at the drawing board of finding the right fit. I can teach anyone what they need to know to be a good nutrition coach–the tough part is finding the personality of a rockstar nutrition coach. This is where gyms struggle.
Here’s how we found and groomed our rockstar nutrition coach and the newest member of the HSN Mentoring Team!
I needed someone who was passionate about nutrition. Someone who walked the walk and believed in the nutrition philosophy that we preach at HSN.
Imagine this scenario, which we have seen in the past: your nutrition coach is following macros but you are giving clients a more comprehensive plan. There is mixed information being sent to your clients. You need someone who follows the plans you provide to your clients.
I put an advertisement out, interviewed some people but I didn’t find anyone that was a really great fit. Then, I started looking within our gym. We had one member who was interested in taking on more roles at the gym. She had been following our nutrition program for a year and had seen really GREAT results. She was already talking to members about her success and was a resource to our clients, but she didn’t have any formal nutrition education. She was writing our newsletters and some of the content that was pushed out.
We discussed having her take on a bigger role as a nutrition coach and she was ecstatic. I ran her through the online course, she shadowed me for a few months, then started helping by checking in with clients throughout the month in our nutrition ongoing coaching group. She also helped run the challenge and was our main point person for the challenge. Soon, she became a go-to girl for nutrition coaching.
Behind the scenes, she started taking on another role. She has worked tirelessly to manage the operations of HSN Consulting, which grew by over 400% in 2017. She has dialed in the systems for the Mentoring Reboot Program and will be managing that program, which is designed for gyms and RDs with an active HSN subscription looking to relaunch their nutrition programs. There have been so many updates over the past two years, some gyms haven’t had the opportunity to get up to speed on the best practices yet. We have developed the gold standards for building and growing a nutrition program. The Reboot Program is designed to dial in all of those best practices. The program includes additional content and mentoring calls to help you get on track.
Needless to say, Ivi has been an asset to the HSN team. She is a resource for our local clients, as well as the gyms and RDs implementing our program. She started as a member and if we didn’t discuss with her the opportunity of having a bigger role at HSN, she wouldn’t have left her full time job to join TEAM HSN!
Finding the right is so important that we created an Advanced Theory Course for Nutrition Coaches to help you find the best candidate to run your nutrition program. When we look at the programs that are grossing $5,000+ per month on nutrition alone, it is because they have a ROCKSTAR nutrition coach. Do you?
Nicole
