Websites have been around for at least 30 years, and blogs for at least 20. How can they still be relevant? Well, the answer is that they’re still incredibly relevant, but not if you’re treating your website like an expensive electronic business card.

What I mean by “electronic business card” is that if you don’t have an active blog where you share new, valuable content on a regular basis, your website is just a sitting duck, not really doing anything … kind of like when you hand your business cards out at networking events. 99.9% of the time, they just get thrown in the trash!

How do you make sure that your website doesn’t end up in the proverbial trash, too? By having an active blog where you share epic content. And I mean EPIC content that people can’t help but want because it’s so incredibly valuable to them and their problems that you want to help them solve.

But isn’t writing blog posts a huge waste of time and energy? I mean, who really reads blog posts anymore? Let me share some examples from my own business of how it’s grown on autopilot through my blog, even when I wasn’t actively blogging for months at a time.

Example #1: I have one particular blog post that I wrote in Summer 2016 that has been seen by over 31,000 people since it was shared on a certain social media platform, with 434 people clicking through to that particular blog post, resulting in 219 people opting into my email list. Which platform? Keep reading!

Example #2: Over this past summer, when I didn’t publish one single blog post for 4 months because I was overhauling my online course, I still grew my email list by 221 people (a 17% increase, which is NOT a small amount!). During that same 4 month stretch time, there was one entire month where I only posted 4 times on Instagram, and I wasn’t active on any other social media platforms, and my list grew by 75 new subscribers.

So, how would YOU like for your email list, number of paying clients, and business to grow on autopilot, just like I’ve experienced? If you’re nodding your head yes, then …

This post should really be called “How to find your first paying client within 30 days”, because honestly? It’s not just about launching a business, it’s about finding paying clients … otherwise you don't even have a business! The idea for this post came from a Facebook group discussion over the summer that stemmed from this question:

…

For someone who’s been in the industry for 10 years, and who launched her business before social media was so integrated into our daily lives (I know, I can’t remember what that was like, either 😂), this question really made me think long and hard about how I would do this myself if I had to.

I put up a super long answer to this sweet lady and her question, but I wanted to expand on it and share it with you all, because I know that so many are in the same situation.

P.S. I would use this system to launch any business, not just a wellness business. The marketing principles are the same, no matter what niche or industry you’re in.

Without any more preamble or wasting time, let’s hop right into your 30 day “Finally Launch your Business” plan:

A few weeks ago, I shared about how I use stock photos on my Instagram feed, and my followers went bananas. So I asked them in a poll on Insta Stories if they'd be interested in me sharing my fave stock photo for your health & wellness business on my next blog post ... and overwhelmingly the answer was YES! One person answered no, but I have no idea why they follow me 😂.

While I'm a recovering perfectionist and try not to have everything perfect, there's no doubt that beautiful pictures on your website and social media DOES encourage people to follow you and stick around to read your content.

It's one thing to chase followers and clicks to your website, but to make money you have to turn those people into email subscribers and leads to develop a relationship with you first!

And since you own a business and not an expensive hobby, you don't just chase simple numbers like followers, you actually want to make a profit, right?

That's what beautiful pictures do: they entice people to stay around a little longer, read another post or two, and start to like and trust you. Hopefully they opt into your email list so that you own their information forever and aren't at the mercy of perpetual algorithm changes on social media.

Marie Forleo has shared that "after 3 seconds on your website, a prospect has already formed an impression of you". You could say the same for social media or anything public facing. You only have 3 seconds to communicate something of value, and think about how much information someone can absorb by reading for 3 seconds versus looking at some pictures.

It's true when they say "a picture is worth a thousand words".

It seems superficial to focus on pretty pictures, but studies show that babies look at the faces of attractive people longer than unattractive ones. It's literally built into our brains and DNA to want to see pretty things.

Last week I did not get a blog post to you or a video blog post because I was busy holding a retreat for my high level leader business partners on my doTERRA team. I attempted to bring six women together, four got there, but I was asking them to travel from really far away. I brought them to my hometown, put them up at our local boutique hotel, and we had the most amazing day and a half together. I'm here to share my tips from this from organizing my first retreat. 

I've been wanting to do something like this for over two years and I finally just said I'm doing it. I'm doing it in a way that feels really good to me, and so I'm going to share what I learned about this. 

While I'm an introvert and I don't love big, large scale events, I love connecting with people in a more intimate environment. So why would you even want to hold an in person retreat? Again, whether it's for some customers or clients of yours, let's say you're a nutritionist and you want to hold a weight loss retreat or a stress free retreat, or you're just being called to hold an in person retreat for your customers or clients. Or, if you're like me and you have a network marketing team, and there are several people that are helping you build this business, then you might want to bring them together for more of a business retreat. Even if you don't have a network marketing team, let's say you have a team of people who help you, like assistants or copywriters or whatever, wouldn't it be lovely to bring them together to envision the next six months or a year of your business so that everyone is on the same page together.

That is why you might hold an in person retreat, because there is nothing better than true connection.

You know when you come across a new Instagram feed or Facebook page and you're drooling over their pictures? It instantly makes you want to know more, right? Maybe you stalk that person on social media for months before you even click to their website to see if you want what they're selling. I've done this SO many times, and I have businesses like this on secret Pinterest boards so that I can easily go back and find them when I'm ready to redecorate my house or buy gifts for my doTERRA team. And when I love something or think I want it, I'm also sharing it on my social media feeds and spreading the word for them! That's when you know you've hit the holy grail of marketing.

The way that most of us find out about new businesses now is generally through social media, and if those social media accounts are a hot mess, chances are that I'm not clicking through to purchase anything. Granted, I'm a very visually driven person, so if their feed or product isn't pretty, I'm not following them and I'm definitely not buying anything. Maybe you're not exactly like me, but I think we can all agree that beautiful branding pulls you in quickly, but a quality product that you actually need is what will make you purchase after you've already established trust with that company.

Because that's all that those beautiful social media feeds are: effective branding

They know what they want to share, they know how they want it to look, and they're attracting people who feel the same.

That's all that branding is! It's just a feeling that someone gets when they interact with your business, which might be looking through your social media feeds, reading your website, or watching a webinar with slides that you've created.

Ahhh, social media, what a love/hate relationship I have with you! I was talking a few weeks ago with a colleague whose goal in her business is to never have to use social media, and I could totally get on board with that. Can you grow a business without social media? Of course! However, there are so many examples of business owners growing quickly by effectively using social media that you can't ignore their results. But when it starts taking over your life, like it can sometimes do, some boundaries need to be put in place.

Even though Instagram isn't the biggest referrer for me, I do get lots of questions from my followers about how I use it for my business. Questions like: if you're with doTERRA, why do I see you using the #youngliving hashtag? While I'm definitely not an expert in social media marketing (some people specialize in just this!), consider this Instagram 101 for your holistic health business.

Truth be told, I've invested in a course (two, actually) to teach me how to use Instagram in my business. One I implemented about 2 years ago, which pretty much solely focused on growing your following, and the other much more focused on generating business from Instagram, I purchased in a course bundle and haven't started yet. Excuse me while I add this to my calendar for the summer ;).

So even though I don't have it all figured out (spoiler alert: no one does), here are my secrets for how to use Instagram for your holistic health business:

You're probably reading this because you're either really interested in essential oils as a healing modality and want to start using them with your health coaching clients, but have no idea how the business side might work OR you're already sold on the business side but you have no idea how to bring essential oils into your client work without looking like you're jumping on a trend. That or you see all the health coaches around you starting to use them and you're like "what is up with these essential oils? They're like the green smoothie of 15 years ago!". Amiright?! No worries, because I'm here to help with 4 easy ways to naturally incorporate essential oils into your health business without looking like a sell out.

If you're reading this, chances are good that you're either in school to become a nutritionist of some sort (dietician, holistic nutritionist, holistic health coach, etc) OR you've already graduated and are ready to start working with clients ... but you have no idea how to start a nutrition business!

Our schools teach us how to be amazing stewards of health for our potential clients, they just don't teach us how to actually organize our appointments, programs, websites, marketing, and everything else that goes into running a successful nutrition business.

Learning how to start a nutrition business that's successful is well beyond the scope of a single blog post, but we can definitely cover the easiest and quickest way for you to start making money as a nutritionist: one-on-one clients.