If You Feel Lost In The Saturated Health Coaching Market...
Here's how to stand out and be unforgettable
I arrived at Malpensa airport in the evening. I had just enough time to grab a taxi to the restaurant in Milan where the team was having dinner.
When I got to the table, they were just finishing up the antipasti course. The middle of the table was filled with empty plates … the remains of the amazing delights they had shared without me.
There was just one plate left with a few mushroom slices on it. Marco, our host, handed it to me before anyone else could grab it.
I wasn’t a mushroom fan at the time. So I wasn’t exactly thrilled. But I was starving. So I spooned the mushroom slices onto my plate and took a bite.
For a moment, everything around me stopped. It seemed like all my other senses shut off so I could fully experience the magic of what was happening inside my mouth.
I turned to Marco.
“Marco. What is this?”
“Porcini,” he said in his gorgeous, Italian accent.
“I’ve never tasted anything so amazing in my entire life!” I said.
He smiled and said, “Welcome to Milan, Nicole.” I swooned (because of the porcini, of course. 😉)
The dish had just 3 ingredients:
Thinly sliced fresh porcini
Extra virgin olive oil
Shaved parmesan
Then it was topped with a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper.
From that point on, I was on a mission
That was the most memorable dish I’d ever had. And I desperately wanted to recreate that experience.
I figured the hardest part would be to find fresh porcini, which is almost impossible in the U.S. So when I was in Paris one October (porcini season), I figured I’d have my chance.
The first Saturday morning I was there, I headed to Le Marché Biologique des Batignolles (the organic market) in the 17th arrondissement.
That’s where I found him:
A real mushroom monger!
When I asked about his selection, he described each mushroom’s taste, texture, and where he foraged them.
He got to one of the crates and said, “Et voilà les cèpes.” (Cèpes are porcini in French.)
I had an immediate flashback to the restaurant in Milan. I was so excited I felt dizzy!
I bought a handful. I also picked up some milk caps to make a risotto with. (I wrote about it in The Secret to Making Unforgettable Risotto.)
Then I headed back to my AirBnb on the Rue de Rivoli. There was a fabulous fine foods shop in my neighborhood, so I stopped in to buy some high-quality olive oil, parmesan, and salt.
As I walked back to my apartment, I fantasized about being transported back to that table in Milan…
That evening, I did my best to slice the cèpes as thinly as I could. (Not so easy with the quality of the knives in my AirBnb.)
I laid them out on a plate. Then I drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled on the salt, and added the shaved parmesan and some freshly ground pepper.
I took a bite and…
Whomp whomp whomp.
It wasn’t even close to the magic I experienced in Milan.
Honestly, it was naive of me to think I could replicate it. I would have to use the exact kind of olive oil … the exact type of parmesan … and even the exact kind of salt and pepper.
And of course, I would need to buy fresh porcini from the same person the restaurant did, and at the same time.
So unfortunately, the most memorable dish for me will forever be just that … a memory. I still think of it every October, when porcini are in season.
Since we’re on the topic of being memorable, when it comes to building a health coaching business, a good deal of your success comes down to how memorable you are.
It’s no secret that there are a lot of health coaches out there. If you blend in, you’ll get lost in the pack. And you’ll have a hard time getting clients.
So you need a way to stand out and be memorable.