Nicole: Hi, and welcome back to Lead Better. I'm Nicole Harlow, and today I'm talking with Dr. Kela Smith. Kela is a naturopathic doctor with a PhD, running two businesses side by side. She's got the Hormone Puzzle Society on the clinical side, where she works with women on fertility and hormones, and she also has Grow Your Wellness Business, where she coaches practitioners. She's also the author of Solving Your Infertility Puzzle. I wanted to have Dr. Kela on the show because she's made the jump from six figures to seven figures. And so today we're going to dig into how to do that. She's going to talk us through her framework for getting — what are the money beliefs that stall a sales call and kind of keeps you stuck in that, like, you know, you know what it is, where you're just like, I really can't get past this like threshold. And we're going to talk about things like qualifying people before sales calls and what a half a million dollars of investing in her own business actually taught her. Let's get into it. I'm here with Kela and I'm super excited to have this conversation today. Awesome. Okay, so I was looking at your Instagram. So one of the things I love to do to prep for these interviews is just like check out some content that you're putting out there. And that's where I get a lot of my questions. And really, I'm in the podcasting world because I'm just really curious. So I like digging. Yeah, I like digging in and asking questions. And so we're gonna kind of dig behind the scenes of your business. And one thing that makes you a little bit unique in some of the guests that I've had on is that you're a seven-figure business owner. Yeah. A lot of us listening, and myself included, we're still in that six-figure realm, right? We might be just, you know, hitting that like multiple six figures. Maybe we're starting to climb a little bit. But I love you to talk us through as somebody who's done it. Like, what are some things that we need to kind of think about? Maybe it's a mindset shift, maybe it's technique or ways of running our business that will help us get from that six to the seven figures. Cause I know most of us listening would love to be at that space.
Dr. Kela: Yeah, it's a couple of things. So I created — I love frameworks and methodology. So I created a little framework on how I went from six to seven, and I call it — I mean you have a framework for it? I do. I call it — we love frameworks over here. Yeah, me too. I mean, I do it in my clinical practice and in my, you know, my business practice, and it's so helpful. But so this is called the Thriving Business Puzzle. And I created it as a puzzle because my main philosophy is my Hormone Puzzle. That's my client side of my business. And so I feel like if one piece is out of alignment, it throws everything off. So this puzzle, it starts first with vision. You have to know where you're going, you have to build the life first that you want, and then you build your business around that life. So you have to get clear, crystal clear on that vision and what you want. And if you want to go to seven figures, then that needs to be one of your goals. If some people don't, they just want to be at six figures and that's fine, but get really clear on that vision first. Then I like to talk about offer. What are you actually creating and selling? You have to know. I talk to so many business owners that don't really understand what the offer is that they're selling and what is the signature offer that your person, your ideal client actually wants to buy. So that's another big piece of this. Don't just create something because you think it's gonna be good for your ideal client. Figure out what they want. You know, survey, look on Instagram, what are people saying? What are they talking about? What are they saying they want? Not just what their pain points are, but what do they actually want? Look on Reddit forums, really get crystal clear on what your ideal person wants and create that offer around that for them, and then create the messaging that goes with that so that you can sell that. Then we have to get visible. I know a lot of people, not maybe so much six-figure business owners, but if you're still at that five-figure mark or even four figures, a lot of us are scared of visibility at that point. We have to get visible. You have to get out of your own way, get out of that critter brain saying, like, I'm not enough. Who am I to say this? I don't know what I'm gonna say, I don't know what my messaging is gonna be. And you just have to jump in that pool and get visible. And I always have this mindset of it's not about me, it's about who I'm trying to help. And the person that needs me is sitting on their phone right now, waiting for me to say the thing that I need to say. So get visible. That's a big piece of this Thriving Business Puzzle. And then sales, get good at sales. I find so many of us are scared of sales, and now some of us might have teams. I've gone back and forth, I've had a huge sales team. I've now brought it all back in-house where I'm doing some of the sales because I find I sell the best. Yeah, maybe I haven't found the right team, but it's the one thing I've not been able to replace in my business as well, right? But so if you're doing the selling, get really good at sales. Don't be scared to say what you offer, how you can help people and get really good at the — when people are pushing back or the objections. Oh, the objections. Yeah, get really good at handling objections because that's another piece of it. I find so many of us will be on a sales call and we'll get that objection and then it kind of stops us, and then we're like, okay, well, we'll follow up with you next week, and then we get ghosted. So get good at handling those objections, get good at closing that sale on the call because we want the clients, we want to help people, but this is also a business. We also need these sales to come in so we can continue growing and get to that seven-figure mark. And then in the middle of the Thriving Business Puzzle is us as the CEO. We have to start thinking of ourselves as the CEO and not the practitioner. You need to be working on your business, not as much in your business. And if you're still growing and grinding and hustling, I was there, I get it, but you have to take some time, even if that means just blocking your schedule one afternoon a week where you're the CEO and you're thinking, How am I growing? How am I scaling? And what is my capacity for holding that? Your nervous system has to be able to hold your growth. And the more that you are stuck in that growth mindset or that, you know, your nervous system is in that fight or flight, it's going to block you and keep you stuck. So maybe that CEO day is you're working on your money beliefs, you're working on your identity. We have to shift into that — I'm the CEO, I'm not just the practitioner in the business, because then if you're not the CEO, you're just working a business. You're not the business owner, you're the worker. So, and so that's the Thriving Business Puzzle. You know, we start with impact, we lead into the freedom. What does our life want to look like? We build the business around that, and then that creates the income, and we can go to that seven figures, eight figures, and beyond.
Nicole: I love — I mean, I feel like we could spend the whole episode just unpacking that framework because there's so much good stuff in there. Yeah. And for me personally as well, because I've been, you know, I'm almost at the 20-year mark as a business owner. Wow, congrats. Thank you. Yeah, it's been a long time, several different businesses because I'm a manifesting generator, so I like lots of different things, right? And so I've, you know, started a lot of projects, not completed a lot of projects. But I would say, you know, sales is something that even I could still learn lessons in there too. And I think that some part of it is for a lot of the clients that I work with is like, you know, I work with clients and they're like, they're afraid to sell, right? They're like, you know, that's one of their like stickiest parts. And so they're afraid to talk about money. And so I wonder, like, do you have any advice for those of us who are like uncomfortable talking about money on the call, uncomfortable asking to close the sale on the call? Like, yeah, that's honestly — and you like the audience knows that I'm always like, keep it real here. Like, that's something that I still struggle with as well. It's just like dropping the price on the call, you know, trying to ask for the sale on the call. Like, I'm always just like very like, oh, think about it, and then come back. Like, yeah, what's some kind of mindset or even maybe practical advice that we can do to just start to get better at that part? Because that's a huge part of being a business owner, is being able to be a good salesperson. Yeah.
Dr. Kela: Because if you're not closing sales, you know, you're not growing that six and seven, eight figure. So one of the things I like to look at, if you're scared of sales, I want you to think about what the identity around that is. What is your money belief around that? Is it that I'm not good enough? Is it that you were trained as a child that money doesn't grow on trees and things are expensive? And you know, what is that language and that identity and that belief that you've created around the money piece? Because if we're scared to talk about money, it's usually that our belief system around money has been set and it's kind of become our identity. So let's start to think about that. And I want you to catch yourself if you're constantly saying things like, that's too expensive. Oh, I could never pay that. Oh, I don't think I could invest in that. Oh, I just don't have the money right now. I want you to stop yourself. Stop saying that because you're telling the universe that you don't have the money, even if it's true, we don't want to keep perpetuating that belief. So anytime you catch yourself saying that, I want you to switch your verbiage and I want you to say something like, that does not fit our goals for our investments right now, or that is not in — switching it around to the positive instead of saying always negative things about money. And I want you to start to practice that. So when you are on sales calls and somebody brings up the money piece, you're not putting your beliefs and your identity into that sales call and you're handling that objection, you know. And I always like to dig and dig a little bit more because it's usually not about the money. That's usually an excuse that that person is saying because of their money beliefs and their identity. So dig into that a little further. And I always like to ask questions. Well, what makes you say that? You know, talk to me about that. Is it actually the money? Like you don't have the investment, or do you not believe in the value of this program? And then I want you to be quiet. Be quiet. Silence — the person that talks first usually is the one that's not gonna win. And so I'm just then quiet. And so sometimes they'll say, Well, I just don't really think this is gonna work for me. Okay, that's a value problem. We need to dig into that. What have you not explained the value well enough for this person? Because what I do on my sales calls is I make sure the person on the call is overqualified. Like these are my ideal people, so I know that I need to sell the value because this is exactly what this person needs. And so it — but or they might say, Well, I just don't have the money, you know, that's — you know, that's five figures. That's a lot of money. We just don't have it. Well, then you can dig into okay, well, if the money wasn't an issue, would you do this program? If they say yes, then you can say, Okay, well, we have payment plans, we can do this, we can do that. Maybe you do a deposit up front, and then you can pay over so many months. And so sometimes making it easier for the person to pay, they want the program. It's not actually the money, it's that big chunk up front. Yeah.
Nicole: So I could talk all day about sales because — I know, I want to ask you a couple more questions here because it's like we don't really have a lot of people come on the podcast talking about sales, and so I love it. It's just an alleyway that I want to just stay down here a little bit more. Yeah, you had mentioned that people getting on your sales calls are qualified. Yes. Any tips for how we can — because I see some people were just like get everybody on the phone, right? That's not me. Like, I want to know that people are a good fit. And so, what are some things for us to think about around qualifying? Like, are you having people kind of jump through hoops, fill out forms, watch videos, watch a webinar? I've seen people do this, like all of it, all of it.
Dr. Kela: Yeah, so first you have to get really clear on your messaging. Again, going back to talking to your ideal client, talking about what they want, not so much about their pain point. But then I do host monthly — we call them live trainings, and which is essentially a masterclass. And so usually the people that come on our masterclasses are people that have been on our email list, they've heard our messaging, they're like ready to hear what we have to say. I have usually like 200 to 500 people will come onto my masterclass. I mean, people are dying to get on that class. Wow. Then on that class, I'm selling them on something that we call a deep dive call where I dig into their full health history. I have them fill out a huge health history form. And so I'm looking, and there's questions in there about their ability to pay, their health history. And so on the call, I'm saying, based on your health history, this is exactly the program that you need. This is the investment. So I've already pre-qualified them. I already know exactly what they need. I'm telling them I can give them exactly what they need. And then nine times out of ten, they're buying it because that's exactly what they need. And they've been looking for this, and so they're not as sticker-shocked because they know that the value is there. Yeah. So I would highly pre-qualify. I don't recommend, and we don't do free calls anymore. Like I stopped doing free calls, discovery calls, which I know is hard in the beginning. But I found the first couple of years I was in business, I was doing so many free calls, and then people would get on the call and they weren't invested in me. They didn't actually have the funds. There is, you know, that is a real thing. You know, maybe it's not about the value, but some people just don't have the funds. But that's why we do the pre-qualifying questions on our deep dive because we want them to know that this is an investment. And, you know, hopefully somebody wouldn't come to the call without knowing the investment. And most people that pay, they're gonna pay attention and they're invested. Even if they're just paying a little bit to get on a call with me, they're invested. Yeah. Ballpark price, but so if it's $50, $100. So on our website, our calls are $127. And for that, they get a full deep dive into their case. I look at all their previous lab work plus the health history, and I come to the call and I say, This is what I see is happening here. This is what I think is the best, this is what will help fix this. And so they — I kind of already know what program I'm gonna put them in based on that. And then I give them a little recap of the call. These are some quick wins with nutrition and lifestyle that you can do. And then if you want to work with us further with lab testing and, you know, a full program, this is what it would cost. Yeah. So, and then if they — so that's the main price, and then if they come to the master class or like they hear our podcast or they do some kind of promo, then we usually will do a $59 call. So there's — they get a discount on the sales call for the people that are like really in our world. Yeah.
Nicole: I love that. Yeah. And are you doing like — for health coaches, do you recommend doing live webinars or having the pre-recorded webinars? Do you find that there's a big difference between the two?
Dr. Kela: I like the live webinars, and I still — I mean, I've been doing probably three to four years live webinars every single month. We've tried pre-recorded, it never lands as well as live. Yeah. I don't know why. I think because people want to know that you're a real person and they want to know, like, and trust you, and they can ask me questions on that live. And so I like to do live, even though as a new practitioner, it's scary as anything. But it's a muscle. I talk about this a lot within my practice. Like you have to build that muscle of visibility. Yeah. And it's not about you, it's about them. And so the first time you do it, you're gonna be nervous, you're gonna be scared, you're gonna be like, oh my God, why — what am I doing? But then you do it again and again and again, and then before you know it, like now I can bust out a live, and I'm like, it doesn't even phase me. And I'm an introvert, so — I was just gonna ask you. I always ask that on this show. Right, being visible, but it's a muscle. You — I've taught myself how to do this. Yeah, so funny side note, when I first started my business in 2016, I had never done — Facebook was like the big thing. I had never done a live, and so I would go live on Facebook, and it was awful. If you go back and look at my old Facebook Lives, I would have — printed, I would print what I had to say. It would be typed to my computer, and I'd be like, I hope nobody can see me reading, like, I don't know what I'm doing. This is so awkward. But now — I mean, you just get better and better, so you just have to do it.
Nicole: Yeah, and I love that you shared that too, like listeners know that I am a massive introvert myself, too. Like you dig in, you can find it from somewhere, right? Like, and I just — I think I would totally mirror what you're saying. I think the more that you can get like clear on like, I just want to help people, like I'm here to help somebody. I'm here for someone to show up, get some good information, and also don't overteach. Yeah, like I think when you get started, you just want to throw everything at the wall and just tell them everything that you know as a clinician, as a coach, and just like have them walk away with the full blueprint because we feel like we're not giving enough value unless we give them everything.
Dr. Kela: Right. And that's too why I say you have to get clear on your messaging because you have to talk in their language, not in practitioner language or clinical, where they're like, What the heck is she even saying? I don't even know those words, and then they just scroll — and then you have to speak in their language, and so that's why I get really clear on who you're helping, your avatar, and what are they saying? Like, go to social media and find out like what are people saying, what are the comments, what are the pain points, what are the wants? Like, I'm always focused on what do people want, not what their pain is. No, it's like — yeah, you can dive into their pain, but that's again, people are gonna be like and scroll, shut the phone. I don't want to hear that. But if you're like, I can help you get this, then they're like, Oh yeah, I do want that.
Nicole: Do you find that it like attracts a different type of person if you're focusing more on pain point versus want? Because I do too. Like, yes, I find if I just focus on like even in my industry, which is more like automations and systems, like if I focus on a lot of the things that aren't working or that are stressing them out, like I get a totally different type of person than if I'm like leading with like the freedom that they want, the growth that they want in their business, the things that you can have when you have a great system, when you can step away and like go hiking and go, you know, to Europe for a month because you've got everything working in the background. So you find that in the health industry as well, too?
Dr. Kela: I do. I find that the people that are focusing on the pain — and when people come to me and they're like riddled with all of these different problems — one, they're not as invested to fix it, they just want to complain about the pain. Yeah. Two, a lot of times they don't want to pay to fix it, they just want to complain on Instagram to you and send you like long, long DMs. And I'm like, ugh. But the people that are like, I want that, they're listening to the positive, like the what can I get? This is how that person can help. I find they will pay more. They're invested, they do the work. Once they're your client, they're like actually the ones that are like doing everything you tell them to do and are getting amazing results, and they love you so much, and so yeah.
Nicole: They're connected to the vision, right? You just like you have that vision for them.
Dr. Kela: Yeah, and they'll do the work, you know. That's what we want.
Nicole: That's what we want. Yeah, that will pay and that will do the work. It's kind of as simple as that, right? Just like they can pay, they do the work, and then I'd throw in like a third, it's just like we get along with them, right? We actually enjoy — there's a personality fit where you know you feel like you're doing good work with them and you actually — you're not like hating your time with them, right? This is why like I think really spending that time, especially for people listening who are just getting started, or maybe pivoting, like really spending time around like personality fit too. Like, what — not just I think people get really like thinking about their niche and the issue, right? Infertility or perimenopause — don't spend a lot of time thinking about kind of the personality traits of the person that they want to work with, right? Like, are they a little bit more woo-woo? Are they into like — you know, because we could offer the same kind of thing in lots of different ways, right? You could do infertility in a way that also brings in meditation or it — I don't know, like crystals. There's so many things you can do, right? Or you can be like, that's really not my type of person. I want somebody who's like super, you know, science oriented, would never talk about the intention or energy or anything like that. So I think making sure that people you're spending the time really thinking about the type of personality traits that you'd like to work with, too.
Dr. Kela: Yeah. And I think too, it's okay if you don't mesh with every single person. I've had to — I've had to fire clients before. It's only happened twice, but we just were not a fit. And like I was being questioned on everything, and I'm like, I have 25 years of clinical experience. Like, if you're questioning me and asking me for research on everything I recommend you do, then we're — we're not gonna work it out. We're not really getting any good.
Nicole: I love you, but goodbye. Talk to me about your programs. Are they a hybrid of like kind of one-on-one support with like video trainings, things like this? Are they group programs? Or you sell a mixture of — yeah.
Dr. Kela: Now, are you talking about my clinical practice or my — yeah?
Nicole: Let's talk clinical.
Dr. Kela: Yeah, clinical, because that'll be helpful to people listening. So my clinical practice, I'm still practicing as a naturopathic doctor, and so I still see patients and I also have a team of coaches. I know we talked about teams. I have a team of coaches that work under me. So there's — I have three coaches right now. I still do the high-level, a lot of the functional lab testing and do the sales calls, but then I — they go and work with our coaches and do the one-on-one. So we have a one-on-one 12-week program, and then we have a monthly — we call it after they do the 12 weeks, they go into clinical care, which is our one-on-one monthly program where they're meeting with me a couple of times a month to just handle clinical. And that's usually reserved for people that either haven't gotten results and want to keep going or that have harder cases where we're like three months is just not enough. We need to keep on. Yeah. So, but those are really our only packages, the one-on-one. And then if somebody is like they've already done a lot of work, they've done a lot of the one-on-one stuff, then we will do like some labs. Sometimes people just come in wanting to do functional lab testing — until we have a smaller package for functional labs. Or we're just doing lab testing.
Nicole: But I like to recommend one-on-one for pretty much everybody with the functional labs because I just see you get such better results when you go through the whole thing and work than just sending people to a program of videos and worksheets and say, okay, go off — and I think of that as like I'm glad that you're saying this too, because a lot of the clients that I work with feel like the only way to get to, you know, multiple six figures or and above is to have just like the passive income product that people, you know, just like a mill of just like I send them to my fertility program, and then I never have to work with patients ever again, right? Right. It's good to see like you can build a sustainable business with a one-on-one model as well.
Dr. Kela: Sure. And what I'll say too is so within our one-on-one, we do have courses and handouts, and all of that comes with the one-on-one because I want our one-on-one time to be reserved for actually clinical care and teaching like basics around food and nutrition and lifestyle pieces. And so, and two, once you're trying to grow and scale and going to that seven figures, that's when you do want to think about hiring. I don't know that I could get to seven figures with me as the only practitioner, and I'm only doing one-on-one. So you have to think about that as you scale, start to hire people. And I — I was scared to hire people because I was like, this is my baby, I don't want to pass it off to anybody else. Yeah. But there's some wonderful practitioners and coaches out there. And, you know, we just really vetted our team and we got lucky. And so I would say if you're at that spot where you're trying to scale and you want to hire, start putting that out there. Ask for what you want, look for the person that's gonna mesh with you and your business and be knowledgeable and trained and have their credentials, and then start putting that out there and hiring. And we hired three. I was only gonna hire one person to start, but then I was like, I had — I had three, I had like 50 amazing applicants, and so I could only — I was like, I can't choose between these three, so we have to — grip them. And that was two years ago, and so they're still with us.
Nicole: So don't be — basically hire, yeah. Don't be scared. Because then I — it probably motivated you to like grow now. You have three amazing coaches, and so like why not get some more clients to be able to send to them too. It's like it almost motivates you to like grow the business because now you have an awesome team that you can send people to as well. Exactly. I think it's good like in listening to that, you know, just reminding people who are listening who are like maybe who haven't hired, like a health coach, for example. There are a lot of practitioners out there who just like do not want to be business owners. Yeah. It's not part of their personality, it's not part of their vibe. You know, a lot of the clients I work with who are business owners, we're drawn in a different — we're there, there's something in us that wants to create something, wants to create the business. And that's not true for everybody because some practitioners hate the business side of things and would rather not have to deal with that. But like there's so many qualified, awesome people out there who are like — we'll free up some time for you to do the things that you're saying, like actually working on the business too.
Dr. Kela: Yeah, well, that's why I say you have to really be the CEO if you especially want to grow and scale. You either — or you have to hire a CEO and be the business owner. So that's an option too. Yeah, you know, that's where as we continue to grow, and if we get to eight — when we get to eight figures, then I will look at maybe bringing in a CEO to help manage things. Yeah, yeah. And this is a place where — oh go ahead. So I was just gonna say too, I wanted to talk about — but I'll let you go first. But I wanted to talk more about the other team members that we have.
Nicole: Oh, yeah, yeah. I know — I know. So I wanted to just say one thing while it was on my mind that this is a place where, because the work that I do in the systems and automations is like — this is a place where I see a lot of business owners and practitioners kind of fall a little bit flat because they want to bring somebody on, but they have — we're not taught how to train people, we're not taught how to build the system. And so, like, even from a VA upwards, this is where I see people bring somebody on, they think it's gonna solve every problem. And then three weeks later, that person's fired, they're like back to doing everything themselves. So, do you have any tips for us for like, you know, bringing somebody on to the team? Like, you know, SOPs, having a system in place, like — yes, because it gets messy real quick when you bring on people, yeah.
Dr. Kela: It shows you all the cracks, exactly. All of that that you just said, I would create SOPs from the beginning. That is a standard operating procedure. So anything that you do in your business, create — I just pull up a Google document and I'll be like, write it down, write it down. Because if you bring somebody on, you have to be able to train them and you have to be able to say, This is how we do this thing, and so there's no confusion. And when you hire more and more people, then you have that one standard operating procedure for all of these tasks, and you can just pass it on to the next person and then the next person, and then the whole company's running on that standard procedure. So that is so important. Don't — I see this so often with business owners and people that I mentor. It'll be in their head or it'll be in like their notes app on their phone. I'm like, no, you need an actual like official standard operating procedure book. So we have that for all of our processes in the business, plus hiring. We have a hiring manual, we have like a company — our mission statement, our philosophies, like all of this is documented. And so we have an actual business. And then that also comes down to eventually if you do decide to sell your business, you can't really sell it with notes on your phone. You have to have official documents and a standard operating procedure setup. So set that up from the beginning at one when you're small or smaller, and then as you grow in scale, you'll have that documentation. So that's the first thing. And then as we're thinking about hiring, you can start small. I hired one person — I was one year into business and I hired a VA who is now my online marketing manager who's been with me for almost ten years full-time now. But when I hired her, I hired her for $300 a month and she worked five hours a week. And I was just like, I just need you to do these few simple tasks. And then as I grew in scale, she grew with me. And when I hired that person — or I hired her, I did not have $300 a month. I was brand new, I had no money. And I was like, oh my God, another $300 a month to repaying for all this other stuff. But it was one of the best decisions that I ever did because it helped me — that $300, I was able to grow and grow a little bit more. And then I — she grew with me. And so my point in all of that is do not be afraid to hire, even if it's a very small amount for very few hours, then you'll start to grow. The more you put that money in, then it comes back to you, and then you can scale this thing.
Nicole: And you can test out your delegation skills as well, too. Like, better to have it with somebody who's a couple hours a week to be like, okay, you know, how do you organize, like telling them what to do? And how do you know if they're doing a good job, right? Like, how do you even know like what you need help with, right? So, like, I think people get overwhelmed because they bring on somebody like 20 hours a week or full time, and it's like, oh my god, how do I fill this person's time? They haven't even really like built any systems or SOPs. And so I like what you're saying, where we can kind of start small too and bring people in for like a couple hours a week and just like take the training wheels off. And don't be afraid to fire people.
Dr. Kela: I — yeah, hire slow or hire slow, fire fast. Like, do not be afraid to hire and fire. I've had to — hire fire people that were good people, but they just weren't working. I had one — my assistant's from the Philippines, and her friend was also from the Philippines, but she didn't speak hardly any English, and so that was really hard. So we just had to say, like, this just — the language barrier is too extreme. And so I just had to let her go as friends, like — no, nothing personal, but we just — this isn't working. So do not be afraid to fire and you know, obviously hire.
Nicole: I totally agree. Two thumbs up for that too. Nowadays, I make everybody do a test project, like I do interviews, we do a lot, but just in a different business, a different industry, but a lot of like, you know, building things, and so like I have everybody do the test project, and then I'm just gonna run it through to be like, do I feel like they did a good job or not? Before they even touch anything that's client-facing. Sorry, not a good fit, you know. But yeah, I mean that that part's not easy too, especially as an introvert, like having to interview a bunch of people, and like it's — you know, it is labor-intensive, so we always like hope that we find a good person that can be with us for a while. What does the rest of your team look like now? You have — you have like — yeah, that's it right now.
Dr. Kela: I just have my three coaches. We have a small team, so it's just my online marketing manager, and then I have another assistant online marketing manager that helps her, and then my three coaches, and that's it. But we actually need to hire somebody for social media because that's another thing where I'm working as a CEO on the social media, but that's by design because I want my face out there. I'm the face of this brand, and so I want to be facing — but I feel like it also takes a lot of my time to do social media.
Nicole: So it does, yeah. And it's a place where, like nowadays, you know, like with a lot of the AI created content, like it's a place where you can really stand out too. Like if you're on there being real with your face, making reels and you know, showing up in stories, like it's a place where we can get a lot more of that visibility, like you're saying, where because people are looking for the human-to-human connection there. That's like — like, oh, this is like slap, slap, slap, slap, slap. Oh, there's Kela, right? You're actually there. Like they can feel that you're there, that you put the time and attention into creating that content. And so people — I don't think people need to be on every single platform, but I think with the amount of AI content that's out there right now, it's important to pick one or two platforms where we can show up and we can — people can trust and know that it's us there for real. That's why I like podcasting. We can't make this up, right? At least not yet. At least not yet. Like, I mean, I think we're probably only like two months away from that, but like we're sitting here live having a real conversation, right? Going in, weaving in and out of directions. And so I think for my perspective for practitioners who are kind of time poor but still need to be the face of their business, is like pick one or two places where you can show up and be really you. Yep, exactly, right? Rather than having everything written by ChatGPT or Claude. I love Claude, like, yes, everybody knows that. I'm like, I love Claude, but like we do need to show up human to human in the content that we create too. Sure, sure.
Dr. Kela: And you made a good point too about podcasting. So talking about visibility, podcasting is one of the best ways that I built my business, like going on other people's shows and getting in front of their audience. And then I don't recommend starting your own podcast in the beginning, but if you're a couple years in and you have a lot to say and you're on social media talking a lot, start a podcast. It is one of the best things I ever did for my business. Yeah, that in 2020 and it's still running strong. So yeah.
Nicole: I love that. I love hearing that. Yeah. Yeah. And we produce podcasts for our clients as well, too. So it's always good to hear another practitioner that's using the medium because obviously I love it, and I'm, you know, I always, you know, recommend to our practitioners, especially the introverts. I'm like, start a podcast. Let's start a podcast. You sit down by yourself, talk about something that you love on camera, off camera. We can turn that into blog posts and emails and social media posts, and it's a fun — it's a lot less. I love podcasts, like — me too. I — you know, I don't want to run into somebody at the grocery store, but I love these conversations. Like, I'm actually — I'm like always excited to sit down for a podcast interview. It — like it's a different part of my brain.
Nicole: Well, I want to — I know we're kind of coming up against time, but there's another question that I wanted to ask you too, because this is something a lot of people who come into the podcast haven't had this experience. Like, you've invested over half a million dollars in your training, in your business. That's a lot of denario. A lot of us have not invested that much in our business. And so, can you walk us through like maybe one or two of the more impactful things that you've done with that investment? Like things that really push the needle forward for your business. If it was a specific training or something that you learned, right? Just like some of those big moments.
Dr. Kela: Yeah. Well, the first thing is don't be afraid to invest. Every time I invest in something, I really sit down and I sit with it, I meditate on it, I manifest what I want out of it, and I say, is this a good business decision? And nine times out of ten — well, I've said no to some, obviously, but nine times out of ten when I decide to go full in, I say yes, I'm not afraid to invest. Even if a couple of those investments, I didn't have the cash, but I knew it would come back to me. And so I figured out a way with leveraging credit or whatever it is, you know, figure out a way to invest. Don't be scared to do that. But some of those business, you know, investments didn't turn out the way I wanted and weren't what I wanted them to be. And that's okay too. I feel like you learn something from every investment that you make. And I always go into the investment with what do I want to get? If I can get one thing out of this investment, then that's going to be worth this investment in gold. And so that's kind of the mindset I went into. And so a couple that were really beneficial. One was my PhD program. I mean, I — I started as a health coach, as many people on this show. And but I knew I wanted to keep training and I was gonna actually go to medical school. And I was like, I can't really go to medical school. I'm in my 40s, I don't have the time, two babies at home. And so, what's the next best thing? Okay, let's get a PhD. And so that's what I did. And that training was just — opened my eyes to so many things clinically that I had never really thought about. And so that was a really big investment that I was so proud that I did. And it was hard as hell. Yeah. And all of these things that stretched my ability intellectually, but I did it and I got the degree, and so I was so proud of that. And it was — it was not a cheap investment, but it was worth every penny. And so that was one thing. And then another thing that I did, I invested — I thought, okay, what social media platform do I want to grow on the most? And so I invested in a social media and Instagram coach. And that was in the very beginning of my business when people weren't really using social media like they are today. So it was like 2016, 2017, and it was a year-long mentorship with an Instagram coach that helped me to grow my account. And my account's still not huge. I mean, my Dr. Kela account's a little over 10,000 followers, but those are such invested followers. We constantly get sales off of our Instagram account, even if it's not huge, and they're all real people, they're not like bots, and you know, some of these huge accounts I feel like are kind of — paid. They've paid for those followers where we've all got real people. So that was a great investment. It taught me how to use Instagram and how to post and how to do my messaging and all the things. And so that was a really big one that I'm proud of.
Nicole: Yeah. It's super cool. And you made me think of something that just kind of bringing it full circle back to something you said in the earlier in the interview around like our money story that we hear ourselves tell ourselves around like, I don't have money to invest in that, et cetera, et cetera. One thing that I find with clients that I've worked with over the years is like not a lot of people have invested in either their health or their business or the thing that they're trying to sell. And so one thing that I've found in my own process is like the more comfortable I am in investing in my business, dropping those like, you know, like a four-figure, $5,000 or $10,000 to a mentorship — not like throwing money around willy-nilly, but I think what helped me in the sales process is like seeing my own — what comes up when I'm about to invest.
Dr. Kela: Yeah.
Nicole: How do I think about it? What metrics and feeling and intuition and gut, like writing it down, logic, right? Like what senses am I using to like when you're sitting down and you're going, okay, is this a good investment for my business? What do I want to get out of this? I find that a lot of business owners aren't doing that work on their own business. And so they're kind of disconnected. And I know I'm blending health and business, but people also maybe are not even investing in like — so you want to ask somebody to pay $5,000 for your program, but you've never invested like that in your health, right? This is somebody who like — and I'm — this is not anyone specific, I'm just making up a fictional person, but like they're like not even sure about their gym membership, right? They're like, they're kind of going, oh, I can't afford that, or I don't want to pay for that. And now we're asking people to pay us. And so I think there's something, a kind of magic that happens, not only when you invest in yourself, but also when you go through the process to be able to empathetically understand the people you're trying to sell to on the other side. You may not have their issue, but you know, oh, I've been on the other side. I can remember the first time like making it. One of the biggest first investments in my business was like a $6,000 — I was doing a summit when summits were like really popular. Uh huh. And I did one myself the first time around. I was like, I'll never do that all by myself again. And so the second time around, I actually hired somebody to reach out for sponsorship opportunities. And that was $6,000. And I remember feeling like, oh my God, this is like — you just deliberating, like, uh. But then I would turn around and like — I used to before I was doing the automations, branding agency was my main business. And so our packages were like $16,000. So I would sit down and I'd be asking for $16,000 and people would pay it, but like I never invested at that level in my business, right?
Dr. Kela: And I always think about it too is I want to be in rooms with people that are doing better than me, and you have to pay to be in those rooms, and money is energy, and so the more you put it out, the more it's gonna come back to you. And if you're scared to put it out, then it's gonna feel that it's energy, it's gonna not come back to you, and so you're gonna be stuck in that scarcity mindset that never having enough money, your business is never growing, and so it's so important. And that reminded me too of — so another investment that I was really proud of is I invested five figures to go be in Cabo with eight and nine-figure business owners because I wanted to see how those people moved and I wanted to go to Cabo. I'm like, if I'm gonna spend five figures, just go to Cabo. And so that was really cool getting to just be and see how those people think and be like, I want to — because they're at that point I was at six figures still, and I was like, I want to be at seven figures, and then I want to scale to eight figures and so on. And so I want to be around people that have done it and I want to learn from them. I want to see how they move, and so yeah, I was like, here's five figures, and that — and I had already — so a year before that I had already invested another five figures in something, and so my husband's like, Oh my god, not again. But I always go into it too with that — like this is gonna come back to me. That is always — and it always does.
Nicole: And even if it doesn't, yeah, even if it doesn't work exactly how I thought it was going to, there's a piece that I learned or a thing that I'm just like, okay, cool. Like I don't need to — that's like the amount of money I've spent just learning Facebook ads over the years. I know. It's like it's — they're all teaching me the same thing, but sometimes I need to like hear it in a specific way, right? There's — I'm always looking for the one piece that unlocks something for me. So it might not be like, okay, 90 percent of this course or this mentorship I could throw away, but I learned that one thing that changed everything about how I did whatever — Instagram or ads or the way I thought about, you know, sales or being a CEO, right? And so, or that one person you meet. So it might just be like, you know, the one thing that you need that unlocks everything, just like the health is for our clients and patients, right? Like, you know, they may not need every single video in all of your modules, but there may be just this one thing that just like unlocks it for them. It's really beautiful that we get to do that. Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Kela: And that's why I say like I always recommend one-on-one because even if you come in and you know all the nutrition and lifestyle pieces, you might hear that one thing, how I say it differently, or how this is different and it unlocks that next level. And that's that identity shift that I was talking about, or you're going to that next version of yourself and we have to shift that identity.
Nicole: Yeah, I love it. I love that you — I love it. I love this conversation so much. I feel like we could just talk for hours, but I want to, you know, wrap it up and respect your time. So will you let people know where they can find you on both of your businesses? Because you get two. And then also if you have any freebies or master classes or things that they can get into. Definitely.
Dr. Kela: So for the practitioners listening, our main website is growyourwellnessbusiness.com, and there you can take our business growth assessment, which is just a little quiz that'll show you how to go to the next level of your business. Once you take that quiz, it'll give you personalized information and you'll get a little guidebook, you'll get a free training from me. So it's really cool. So go to growyourwellnessbusiness.com and you can access that. I'm also Grow Your Wellness Business on Instagram for the practitioner side of the business. And I have the Health and Wellness Business Podcast, which is everywhere podcasts are heard. So that's practitioner side or aspiring practitioners. And then on the patient side, if you have any — I work with women's health. So fertility, hormones, perimenopause, menopause, all women's health issues. I'm at hormonepuzzlessociety.com. And there I also have a free assessment where you can take a Hormone Puzzle quiz. It tells you a little bit about your health, where you're at to heal your hormones, whether that's fertility or perimenopause or whatever stage you're at. It also comes with a guidebook, a training, all the things. And then Instagram and all social media on the patient client side — I'm at Dr. Kela and Kela is K-E-L-A. And my favorite place is Instagram, although I do like TikTok, so find me on those spots. Awesome. And — oh my book. So I have a book that came out in March called Solving Your Infertility Puzzle. And it is for obviously the patient side, talking about my method, my story with infertility, and how you can solve your infertility puzzle if that is something you're struggling with. So that's at Amazon and on our website. Amazing.
Nicole: So we're gonna put all those links down below, and then I'm gonna come on your podcast. And so — you this one will come out before. So people are listening, just like check, subscribe, because then you'll hear me talking about systems and AI and all that good stuff that you guys know that I like to talk about. Kela, thank you so much. You've been brilliant to chat with. You're super smart, you're such a great light, and I'm so glad that you have so much success in your business.
Dr. Kela: Thank you, Nicole.
Nicole: I really appreciate you and all the work that you do. So thank you. I can't wait for you to come on my show. Yeah. Bye, everybody. I will see you in the next episode. Bye. Okay, that's it for this episode. If you're sitting there realizing that patients are coming in just fine, but things are slipping through the cracks behind the scenes — the follow-up, the systems, the back end that's all held together by you and some sticky notes and a prayer — I've got a few free resources that'll help you see exactly where those gaps are. They're all linked in the show notes, so just go grab whatever fits you where you're at right now. Also, come follow me on Instagram too and hang out over there. I share a lot of good resources at Nicole.leadbetterHQ. And if you're past the figure it out myself stage and you just want a team to run the operational side of your practice for you, yay! That's exactly what we do at LeadBetterHQ. We run the operations and intelligence layer behind the practice so that patients you already have don't fall through the cracks, right? We — we like to make sure that we're working with what's actually coming in. So if that's a thing that you've been looking for, book a call with us. I'd love to chat with you. The link's in the show notes, and thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'll see you in the next one. Bye now.