On Starting A Career As A Holistic Wellness Coach
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Cassandra Hill is a Holistic Wellness Coach, Life Coach, Author, and Speaker. Beyond the titles at the core of her heart, Cassandra is a woman who genuinely wants to help people.
Her business Holistic Living Consulting serves the professional woman who is busy building her business or career and has neglected herself. Holistic Living Consulting offers the following services:
- Virtual Holistic Wellness Coaching
- Virtual Life Coaching
- Healthy Living products
Holistic Living Consulting has the vision to create a movement where the career/professional woman is experiencing radical self-care while building or maintaining a relationship with God.
Cassandra has made great strides in growing Holistic Living Consulting and establishing brand awareness on a nationwide basis. She is a frequent contributor to Authority & Thrive Global magazines. She has been seen on CBS, FOX, and NBC.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
When I worked myself almost to death in the corporate world my body attacked itself. Years of self-neglect caused systemic lupus to develop within my body. I went through traditional treatment utilizing chemo drugs and other medications, but my health continued to decline. Once I received healing utilizing holistic modalities I wanted to help as many people as possible.
Since initially, I went through a traumatic experience with lupus, I thought I should focus on serving people with lupus. One of the positives with Covid-19 was being able to have quiet time that is when I had an AHA moment and realized that my calling was to serve women who were once in my footsteps. Women who are going full throttle in a career/business and neglecting themselves; I am the solution to their problem.
From being in this circle of professional women I knew there was a huge need in addressing their self-control. The challenge was getting the business going since I did not have much money saved due to the health challenges, I had experienced, and my holistic treatments were not covered by insurance.
Holistic Living Consulting is primarily a service-based business. I choose this model because it allows flexibility to operate the company anywhere in the world and not be tied to a particular location.
Describe the process of launching the business.
Launching Holistic Living Consulting was like birthing a baby. Initially, my thought was I just wanted to help people improve their health. It went from that thought to be able to help more people if I started a business.
If sales and marketing are not your strong assets, I recommend investing in courses to develop this skill or hiring out for this service.
Once I decided that entrepreneurship was the best path for me it took a few months from it starting as an idea to manifesting in the world. Initially when I started business was slow. For this reason, I strongly encourage a person to pursue your passion. It takes time to see the impact you are making in the world.
Since funds were limited, I created my own website. I did not think it was the best-looking site however many people liked it and were impressed. The business was financed through my personal funds. I did not get approved for a business loan nor received any other outside funding. Relying solely on my income impacted the growth of my business I highly encourage anyone looking to start a business to apply for grants and establish business credit as soon as possible.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Utilizing social media to attract customers is good however I feel focusing on your website should be a higher priority. Your website is premium realty because you own it.
There have been times when social media has been completely shut down and if that is your main way of getting customers you are in trouble. Additionally, attracting people to your website consistently will aid in organic search engine optimization. Having a blog on your site where you post regularly gives a person a reason to come back to your site again and again.
As holistic wellness and life coach, I am in a field that is saturated. However, I think it is important for business owners to realize that you are the secret sauce to your business. You are unique and bring skills and talents that no one else in the world will bring and your ideal target audience will be drawn to you. It is your responsibility to help them find you by consistently putting yourself in front of them.
One of the biggest impacts that have grown my audience has been media whether television or magazine. These opportunities allow you to reach a larger audience creating more awareness of your brand.
Focus on solving a problem and offer great service this method will take time, but you will retain customers once they come to you. If you offer products utilize platforms like Amazon to sell your products. This platform has provided opportunities for me to reach people across the world.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Holistic Living Consulting is a virtual business. Our primary services are holistic wellness and life coaching. Since they are digital products there are no associated costs with producing them.
Most business owners struggle because they are under the impression that if they build it people will come and that is simply not true. People do business with individuals they know, like, and trust. Get your name out there and establish relationships.
At this time, we run ads on Facebook and Instagram. Our monthly budget is about $400. Right now, I am looking to utilize Instagram more to attract more of my ideal target audience. Our presence on social media is fairly well on Instagram there is an audience of 6k, Facebook 2k, and Pinterest 700k of monthly visitors.
With coaching my goal is to provide the tools a woman needs to be successful in her personal and professional life so coaching sessions are designed to be short-term. However, if a client decides to purchase our healthy living products their tenure can last for many years since our online store houses many essentials.
Building an email list can add real return on investment. Unfortunately, I did not start an email list until 2020. Presently I have a little over one hundred people on my email list.
Short-term goals include increasing product availability for books and more speaking engagements, particularly where our target audience is located. In the future, I plan to host retreats and have my own platform whether it is through a podcast or television show.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Before starting a business, I worked in the corporate world for almost a decade. Some of the skills that I gained there were transferable such as time management skills, teaching skills, and crisis management.
Early on in my business, I did not possess a strong skillset in sales. This really affected business revenue. If sales and marketing are not your strong assets, I recommend investing in courses to develop this skill or hiring out for this service.
In reaching your business goals collaborations can play a pivotal role. Find someone who shares common interests with a similar goal. When you are working with someone else you can grow together and likely reach goals in less time than if you pursued the goals alone. One of the best decisions I made was saying yes to the book anthology project Higher Level Method. This collaboration allowed me to work with Darlene Williams owner of D. Aiken Associates Worldwide who serves celebrities through PR.
There are priceless lessons I have learned from being in business. One of the most valuable lessons is to make your vision clear. If you cannot clearly see the vision it will be impossible to do the work to reach the vision.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
As a business owner the more you can automate the easier your life will be in terms of time management. In automating social media, I use Later which allows scheduling for Instagram. Facebook has its own scheduler. Right now, I use Twittimer for scheduling tweets.
These schedulers are user-friendly and the cost-effective app has a free plan and Twittimer is less than 10 dollars a month. Regarding, shipping most of my products are on other sites that handle fulfillment and shipping. For me, this made sense so I could sell throughout the world and not be bogged down shipping orders all day.
Typically, when I am looking for a freelance Fiverr is my top choice. Since my website is WordPress site, I have the capability to have a plug-in that manages my email list. I highly recommend WordPress because it is the only site I know of where you can host a website and blog together.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Growing up as an only child I developed a love for reading at an early age. One book that served as a business motivator is Destiny: Step into Your Purpose by T.D. Jakes. I strongly believe that each of us has a unique gift that is given to us by God. Based on this premise I am recommending the book Destiny because it offers practical solutions to reach your vision with God.
Another book that greatly influenced me is Sweet Expectations by Michele Hoskins. In this book, Michele openly discusses the challenges she faced while building her business. As a black woman, she was counted out many times but learned how to overcome the hurdles.
If you could see my library on Spotify, you would find many good podcasts that I listen to on a fairly regular basis. Two of my favorites are Women who Launch & Lead hosted by Dr. Cherita Weatherspoon and Get Out There and Get Known by Pam Perry. Women who Launch & Lead is a great podcast for inspiration. For the entrepreneur who is looking to increase their global impact Get Out There and Get Known is for you.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting?
There are a few foundational pieces needed to start a business.
- Know your why
- Business capital
- Sales/Marketing skills
Your business mission needs to resonate with you wholeheartedly. Starting a business isn’t easy and there will be days you are ready to give up. When you recognize why you started it will push you forward to continue your vision.
Access to capital will allow you to have key things in place that will make running your business easier. Investing in the following things is helpful given the digital age the world is in now a good website, social media manager, and sales funnel.
Be willing to invest in yourself. Take courses to increase your business knowledge. Udemy offers a variety of courses on various topics that are helpful to business owners.
Most business owners struggle because they are under the impression that if they build it people will come and that is simply not true. People do business with individuals they know, like, and trust. Get your name out there and establish relationships. After doing this with consistency you will see results.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Holistic Living Consulting will be adding a social media manager and business coach to its team.
The social media manager will create content for our Facebook and Instagram pages. The manager will also engage with our audience.
A business coach will serve as a guide as the company grows and helps to ensure our success.
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
