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.

How to make yourself memorable

If you want a surefire way to stand out from other health coaches, be memorable, AND be irresistible to your future clients, you need some Pixie Dust.

In my world, Pixie Dust shows people why they’ll get the results they want if they work with you … even if other things they tried have failed. So your Pixie Dust is what makes you unique and memorable.

Done right, your Pixie Dust creates a powerful paradigm shift for your future clients

This paradigm shift …

• Helps your future clients understand why they have the problem

• Releases them from any guilt they may have about having the problem

• Explains why they haven’t gotten results from other things they’ve tried

• Gives them hope that this time they’ll get the results they want

• Positions you as the best person to give them those results

Let’s see it in action.

One coach I worked with, Nancy, wanted to help new moms lose the weight they gained during pregnancy. Her ideal client has tried everything, like counting calories, eliminating food groups, meal replacement shakes, and intermittent fasting. She’s also tried exercise programs. But no matter what she does, she can’t get back to her pre-pregnancy weight.

In short, she’s “doing everything right” but not getting results.

I asked Nancy a bunch of questions about her ideal client and why she wasn’t getting results. I kept digging until I found something interesting…

Everyone knows new moms have a lot on their plate. They have almost no time for themselves. They barely sleep. And they’re stressed.

Nancy told me about how stress creates cortisol. And cortisol makes your body store fat.

I asked Nancy if that would be new to her ideal client. She said yes, most of the women she works with don’t know that.

So we developed that idea into Nancy’s Pixie Dust. That meant she could tell New Mom that it wasn’t her fault that she’s not back to her pre-pregnancy weight. It has nothing to do with her not trying hard enough, not having enough self-discipline, or lacking willpower.

Nancy could tell her that the reason why her efforts weren’t working was because she has a cortisol imbalance that makes her body work against her. Once it’s fixed, she’ll get her pre-pregnancy body back.

Then Nancy would tell her about the special program she created specifically for new moms. Like a magic wand, it helps her lower her cortisol level so she can lose up to 10 pounds in as little as 5 weeks!

Now if you’re a health coach, the cortisol-weight connection might not seem surprising or new to you. What’s important here is whether it is to your ideal client.

This is one of the tricky things about finding your Pixie Dust. It can be hard to see it because you have the curse of knowledge. So what will seem revolutionary to your ideal client may seem obvious to you.

Here’s a classic advertising story that illustrates the curse of knowledge beautifully…

About 100 years ago, a man named Claude Hopkins was hired to create a new ad campaign for Schlitz beer. His first stop was the brewery. He wanted to understand every step in the making and bottling of Schlitz.

Hopkins watched the beer being filtered through wood pulp …

He saw it cool in a room with purified air, where the beer dripped over special pipes …

He learned that the machinery … every pump and pipe … was cleaned twice a day. And that every bottle was sanitized 4 times before it was ready to be filled with beer …

Hopkins was so astonished by Schlitz’s intricate process that he wanted to feature it in his ad campaign.

But Mr. Bigwig at Schlitz wasn’t impressed.

He said the process isn’t anything special … that every beer company does the same thing. But Hopkins knew that what was obvious to people in the beer business would be revolutionary to people outside the business.

Luckily, he was able to convince Bigwig it was the right thing to do. And that ad campaign put Schlitz beer on the map.

In just a few months, Schlitz jumped from being the #5 beer to being neck-to-neck with the #1 beer.

This story shows how important it is to know your ideal client. You need to know what they know about their problem and the possible solutions. Then you can find something that will “wow” them.

Your turn…

Your Pixie Dust is tied to your offer. That’s why the best way to build your health coaching business is to focus on just one offer (at least to start).

Then once you have your offer, including what problem you solve and who you solve it for, follow these steps:

1. Think of the problem as a symptom. List out all the possible underlying causes of it. Leave no stone unturned here! This is where you’ll find Pixie Dust gold.

2. Now do the same in answering this question: Why haven’t the things they’ve tried help? Again, go deep.

3. At this point, you should have a lot of ideas. Now think about which ones will be new to your ideal client?

That will get you off to a good start! We’ll save the rest for another time…