Ep27: The Business of Nurse Coaching- Catie Harris, PhD, MBA, RN

[MUSIC] Welcome to Integrative Nurse Coaches in Action. The podcast where nurses, healthcare professionals, and consumers come to hear from inspirational nurse leaders in health and wellness coaching. We cover the latest innovations, ideas, and breakthroughs from nurses who are shifting the paradigm of disease care to healthcare through the art and science of Integrative Nurse Coaching. [MUSIC] Starting a nurse coaching business sounds so exciting, right? Yes, but it also might feel a little overwhelming. I mean, business classes aren't taught in nursing school. In fact, most of us nurses are used to punching in and punching out and working for someone else. The leap to entrepreneurship can seem so scary. And that's where today's guest, Katie Harris, steps in to take us by the hand, teaching, guiding, and inspiring us to understand and then apply business concepts like audience, competition, positioning, packaging, pricing, strategies, social media, marketing, funnels, and on and on and on. I can't wait to hear what you think about what you're taking away from today's podcast and then see how you apply the wise tips Katie shares. And hope that you'll even consider diving into the business of nurse coaching course. Before we get to today's podcast, let's take three deep breaths in and out together. One, two, three. Now we're ready. Katie Harris, PhD, MBA, RN, is the nursepreneurs mentor, owner, and CEO of nursepreneurs. She has empowered thousands of nurses to monetize their knowledge and skills in business while inspiring them to change the way health care is perceived and delivered. She strives to undo the perception that nursing care is limited to the hospital setting. Through her passionate leadership, Katie shows nurses how their nursing knowledge can transcend the hospital system into a profitable business. Welcome everyone to Integrative Nurse Coaches in Action. My name is Nicole Villano. I am a board certified integrative nurse coach. And I'm also the post of Integrative Nurse Coaches in Action. And today it is exciting because we are interviewing Katie Harris, who is the CEO and owner of nursepreneurs. She's worked with thousands of nurses helping them figure out how to run a business. What's important to them, all the things you need to know to run a business. So we are so thrilled to have Katie here, who is knowledgeable and passionate about the work she does. So welcome, Katie. Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here. We're so happy that you are here. Can't wait to dive into all the fun discussions we're going to have. But before we get into what you're doing today, we'd all love to know a little bit about your history. What brought you into nursing? Oh my goodness. So I've been in nursing for like, oh my god, I want to say 25 years. Somewhere around there. So I came into nursing right out of high school. It was something that, you know, not too many people know this, but I just, when I was 16, I just had this dream. And I was kind of told to go into nursing and it sounds kind of wacky to say that, but that's exactly what happened. And the next day I went downstairs and I told my mom I'm going to nursing school. And my parents are both like, no, no, you're not. So my dad had these visions of me being kind of like an actual burial scientist, which I still don't even know what that is. I know it's something to do with numbers. And it sounds incredibly boring. No offense to anybody out there. That's an actual burial scientist. But I ended up going to the University of Penn. And you know, everything about nursing has always been very exciting to me. There's always no matter where you are or what you're doing. There's always something else that you can do. And for someone like me, that's like the most amazing thing. And I really took that to the end degree because I went back to school so many times it's kind of a family joke. So, you know, I went back to my MBA and then I went back to my master's and then I went for my PhD and then I got another master's and then I had to get another master's. So it was, yeah, it was a little ridiculous. But yeah, and then on top of that, all the certifications, like, I can do this and I can do that. And so, yeah, nursing for me has been just very, very exciting because there's so much potential and so many possibilities of what you can do. I love that. I love how so many of our guests say the same thing. Like in nursing, there is so much that we can do. And your background is fascinating. I mean, having a dream that you should become a nurse and then waking up and just feeling that in your body enough to go down and say, Hey, Mom, Dad, I'm going to be a nurse. I love it. And then, man, your background in education, you said you had three masters and your PhD and your three masters in nursing masters in business and then my PhD. Wow. Wow. Well, maybe you could be an actuarial scientist. I feel like I've single handedly supported like the nursing schools like for one year. Well, that's so awesome. So how did you come about nurse nurse preneurs? Like what's the story behind that? Yeah. So I, you know, I will say that as a nurse practitioner, I was really kind of, you know, I felt like I'd hit a ceiling or a hit where there was nowhere else to go because I had worked neurosurgery for years and I worked neurosurgery as a nurse practitioner. And, you know, I'm the type of person that I'm kind of in a fog when I get into something new, but once I get to the through the fog and I understand everything, I just, I need to know what's next and what's next and what's next. And the problem was in that situation, there was nothing that was next. And no matter, you know, if I, how many masters I had or PhD, my role was still to kind of report in and out with the intern and it, you know, was something I tried to internalize, but it got harder and harder. And then I ended up having like a huge fight with my attending over something ridiculous and stupid. You know, they ended up sending me to like anger management classes and I was suspended and, you know, I, I guess at some level was good because I sat home for three days and I was like, what the hell is going on? This is not me. Like, you know, I'm so, it's so hard to get me angry. Like, but so that was like years of just like anger, I guess, building up to that moment over something it was so stupid and ridiculous. I can't even remember what it was. It wasn't like, you know, saving somebody's life. It was about the Heppern Protocol or something like that. It was anyway, you know, it just gave me that, that chance to kind of reflect, you know, here I am with a PhD in four masters reporting to the intern and in anger management classes. And this is not where I want my career to go or end. So I needed to do something else. And, you know, I'd love to say that I went out and did something amazing, but, you know, I kept, you know, I'm trudging away at what I was doing in the one day. I, as an academic, because I did that as well. It had two jobs, the nurse practitioner and I was working academics. Walmart called me completely random and they said we need a nurse practitioner to lead up our, they had clinics down south. So they opened up nurse practitioner run clinics in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas. And they needed a head of talent acquisition. And at the time, I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was like, true, I love to. I'll do it. You know, I'd been more than happy to do it. So they hired me and I figured out what talent acquisition was was just recruiting basically, but I'm not sure everybody else knew that, but I didn't. But yeah, so one of my functions was to go around and meet with nursing groups. And I went over to what was it called, GNLA, which was the nurse leaders institute in Geneva with the ICN and just met the most amazing nurses. And I kept thinking like, why am I still working in the unit? And all these other nurses are working as consultants to like major, you know, fit places and they were inventing things and they were creating past for themselves and they just had these really exciting kind of lives. And you know, it's some, it's unbelievable. I was jealous, but at more of a level of just really inspired by them and just kind of like, I need to look at what I'm doing again. And so I wanted to start out because I had spent so much time kind of being invisible in the hospital system. I'm like, oh, I'll just write a blog because I could hide behind a blog and, you know, just write stuff and not bother anybody. So I started out as a blog. And that just wasn't enough. I needed to talk to people. So that's when I started the podcast and my focus was really on nurses who had started businesses. And just starting talking to them and it built up from there. So I'm, I've learned about so many amazing business business that I'd never heard of before, just like the craziest things that nurses they're doing. And I love it. I absolutely love it. So then I'd start going to these mastermind meetings and during the mastermind meetings, there'd be, I don't know, and I don't mean to dismiss of the 20-year-olds, but they'd come in and they're like, oh, I'm a life coach or I'm a coach for cancer patients and they were making tons of money and I was just kind of like this is not, I mean this is a nursing space. This is where nurses belong. Nurses should be teaching people you know how to live healthy and do well and because this is our strength and you know they don't know just one person with that condition that they've had, they've literally tens of thousands of hours working with these people and tens of thousands of stories that they could kind of wrap up and share with people and really leverage that in a business and that was kind of my realization of how important the nursing expertise is and you know I just wanted to show nurses how it could be leveraged and turned into a business model. Woo! That is an incredible story. I mean I know many nurses are feeling like at the beginning when you were saying you know working under an internist and having that cracking point where you just ended up in anger management class right and but so many nurses are at that point of feeling like so fed up and so discouraged and so you know such a loss of joy further work but then you said yes you said yes to Walmart and you're like I don't know what I'm doing but I'm going. That then opened up so many opportunities inspiring opportunities meaning fellow nurses who were doing inspirational work and then that leads you to where you are today. Nursepreneurs. Yeah I mean your work is incredible and another step in your journey is working with the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy. Yes and I'm very very excited about that because you know our program we put together courses and stuff and I've always stayed away from the Nurse Coach one because I felt like that space was very well organized and you know there's so much that goes into it with the pre-stuffing and you know the structure of it. When I talked to Ronnie and Karen it was you know I'm just like oh my god this is exactly the perfect kind of match where I can bring in the business because not all nurse coaches want to go into their own business just like not all nurses want to go into into business not all nurse coaches and they can be hired in different ways but for the nurses that are interested in going into business helping them to put that business together and really kind of think through the elements that will set their business apart because there's I mean there's times of business out there that don't do well and don't go anywhere and I think a lot of it has to do with not setting themselves up and differentiating themselves from what already exists out there. So I mean just to open another coaching practice and go out and try to get clients is going to be way harder than to then if you kind of specialize in something specific and go out and speak the message and talk to people about what their problems are because once people believe that you understand their problem they'll believe that you have the solution to it. This is so perfect because as faculty with the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy there are nurses who do want to start their business. They have no idea how to begin it is a very overwhelming process and at the beginning you feel like oh I can coach everybody because you want to get experience because you love what you're doing because you feel like you can really affect everybody but what you're saying is that it is better to have a more of a streamlined approach and know who it is that you would like to coach. Yeah and especially like we had one nurse in particular who was interested in polycystic ovarian syndrome to choose that as a niche and I said you can even take this another level right like so people women that have picos in their teens have way different issues than women who are paramedic pausal right like the teens are worried about the prom like you don't have a 50 year old woman worried about going to the prom she's got way different issues so I mean and there's enough of them in each of those categories that you don't just have to do picos you do paramedic pausal women with picos and then your messaging becomes so tight that you know you become the only obvious choice and I think that's the most powerful thing that you can do in marketing. So what other things can our nurses expect when they sign up with you to take the business of nurse coaching. So when they sign up for that so the first three weeks the first three modules I spend a lot of time talking about problem audience and competition and I get a little bit of pushback and I'm not oh be honest because everybody wants to like set up the business and build their website and to me those things are completely irrelevant or they you can't even do them until you understand the problem audience and competition. So it's a waste of time and money and I've had nurses come to me and they're like I have this you know website I spent thousands of dollars on it and I'm like but you don't even have a business yet like you know what could your website possibly say and not only that but your your website can be designed properly the right way if you know exactly who you're going after and you have to understand that problem. So the first thing is really truly understanding the problem that your audience has and really pinpointing the audience. So if you're going after Pico's clients right and you want to show them how to have a healthy life and live Pico's free if you will you know we can really focus the message on that audience but you have to know which audience you're working with and what their main problem is and you know I've had this experience as well because I've taught doctoral students I've been a dissertation chair for many many years and the the doctoral students will come in and they do the same thing they'll say oh you know I want to I don't know I'll just give a bogus like N Hunger or something and I'm like okay that's great and we can spend the rest of your career you know ending hunger but we have to take one sliver at a time and we have to start let's say we start in Camden New Jersey here and let's start with one piece of section of Camden and find out why these people are you know have hunger issues like there's a lot of stuff that goes in there and then we take one sliver of that and that's how you start your business because I mean you can't be Amazon today you can be Amazon tomorrow or you know someday in the future just not today so we need to take that sliver and get some traction and build up some credibility in what you're doing and then you can expand your empire and and then you can be Tony Robbins and Chris Carr and whoever else you want to be yeah so starting small like really small when you say sliver I'm thinking like little itty bitty and and it's so good to focus like that because it does create the tunnel vision in a way at the beginning which you really I think you really need to start knowing exactly who it is you're working with and what what their problems are yeah so when you mention competition what does that look like what what can people expect with that yeah and I'll tell you when I first started I used to get really mad with by this all anybody that was doing anything remotely like me I'm like God you know they stole my idea you know that they could have been around like 10 years before me and I'm like they stole my idea and you had to really kind of look at that so there's competition will bring out a lot of things in you that you're just kind of like I need to address this and I'm sure that you know the your students in particular with coaching have been through these exercises of you know why am I being triggered right now why is this going on the business will absolutely bring that out new and you have to be able to deal with it and if you're not willing to deal with it you're not going to last a long and now a word from our sponsor the integrative nurse coach academy offers nurses innovative approaches to reenergize and expand your nursing practice with new skills and tools that focus on lifestyle health and well-being as an integrative nurse coach you will confidently promote wellness and resiliency by guiding your clients patients and communities to deepen their connections to inner healing resources and expand their capacities to make meaningful choices for healthy lifestyle change plus you'll learn critical self-care tools to actively take care of your own health and well-being on the journey join the global integrative nurse coach academy community and rediscover your passion for nursing in the online integrative nurse coach certificate program learn more about our programs at i nursecoach.com and when you register for the integrative nurse coach certificate program be sure to use the code action to get $100 off the part one and two bundle now back to the podcast the business will absolutely bring that out new and you have to be able to deal with it and if you're not willing to deal with it you're not going to last a very long so in terms of competition it's really about differentiating what it is that you offer because there's always a solution out there and you know if people are if they're looking for a solution still then it hasn't been solved the problem hasn't been solved and i think weight loss is a good example of this you would think that we would have solved the weight loss issue except for the fact that people are always looking for something new and we seem to be getting heavier instead of you know losing weight we seem to be gaining weight in those countries. So there's clearly still a problem. the issue hasn't been solved. So there's still room. So people are spending billions of dollars in this industry. So you don't want to shy away from weight loss, but you do have to come to the market with something different. You can't come and just replicate what weight watchers is doing or what I don't know, Casey Duke is doing in New York or whatever. You have to come up with your own solution and your own kind of philosophy as to why are people still gaining weight, why are people having issues and then pick your sliver. Maybe it's, you know, women that are 40. Like I don't want to, I don't want a personal trainer or weight loss coach that's 20 that doesn't understand what I'm doing. And you know, I'm not trying to be ages. I just, I've been with them before and they make you do burpees until I puke and I can't stand it. Like I'm not doing that anymore. You know, it's just, it's not happening. So I want somebody that understands kind of where I am in my 40s. And that's the type of coach that I would want to have for weight loss. So I think really pinpointing that audience and what the real problem is. Like, you know, for me, it's like no matter how much I don't eat, I still gain weight. You know, and it's just like, it's killing me. So there's got to be something else. So what else is happening in this perimenopausal period? As the coach, you have to come up with these ideas and you have your methodology of what it is that you think, you know, how would you take somebody like me and help me to lose weight because weight watchers isn't working and burpees aren't going to work either. You're given us some really good tips to think about already and how we can narrow things down how, you know, competition can really trigger some things negative and positive things in our lives. So tell us how the journey then continues in this program, the business of nurse coaching. Right. So I mean, as soon as you know what the problem audience and what you're up against the competition and how you can be, you know, we really need to be like 10% better than what's out there to have a solution that's viable. So once we have those in place, then yeah, now we need to get the business name and, you know, set up all of the legal stuff and set up your systems so that you're following income and expenses. And in the beginning, it's all expenses, but you will eventually get income coming in. And then you can do the website at that point as well. So once you have, and that's that's the model I think everybody likes to do because it's task oriented and you feel like you've accomplished something. So yes, like I can set up my EIN number and buy my domain and set up a website. And I completed that. It's kind of like a nursing where you wanted to learn how to put folies and IVs in because it made you feel like you could accomplish something. And, you know, so it's the same thing as opposed to like critical thinking and nursing which you just realize one day you're able to do, but you don't remember the day that you learned how to critically think. I love that. So, and then the rest of that is all about packaging pricing and positioning. So packaging, so coming up at that solution, like I just said, and creating a methodology around it. And then how do you price something like that? And, you know, people have a tendency to want to price things very low, which actually hurts them. You know, somebody came up to me and said they could help me lose weight and it was all going to cost me a hundred bucks. I think they were just either lying or there's something completely wrong with them. You know, so I don't want to spend a hundred bucks to lose weight. I want would be prepared to spend a couple thousand to work with a coach that I knew what they were doing and I believe them. So, and that's where the position comes in. Like, how do I know I can believe you? How do I know that you're capable of helping me? Have you helped other people? You know, it's not enough just to help yourself because you could be special. You know, you could be unique and those are kind of the objections that people will come up with and just like, well, I mean, you could do it, but you were mentally lose weight. I wasn't mentally lose weight, you know, so positioning that with case studies and just showing how your methodology works and how you know it works. Yeah, I love it. So, this course, this business of nurse coaching is packed jam packed with a lot of really important information for our nurse coaches to be successful in their nurse coaching practice. Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot to that you're going to have to reflect and think about. And I think that's another thing that I want to really emphasize and it's something that I've learned had to learn how to do is just take time where I have nothing going on. And it's very, very hard because the nurses always have three or four jobs and they're taking care of their family. And then they want to start a business on top of it. And then I tell you, you have to stop and just do nothing for an hour and it feels like a complete waste of time. But it is like the most important hour of your day is just to let things percolate in your brain go play tennis or something, just do something other than work. Right. Yes. And nurses are notorious for that. Doing things for other people instead of really taking time for themselves. But it is one thing I love about nurse coaching and what we learn in nurse coaching is the importance of self-reflection and self-compassion and self-love and taking time for ourselves so that we can then give back in a better, as a better version of our own self. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let me ask you, if you could give out one or two tidbits for nurses who are looking at the viability of starting a business, what would that be? Well, I mean, the business itself is is pretty straightforward. I never like to use the word easy, but it's straightforward. You know, you find a problem, you come up with a solution, you sell it. I mean, it's easy as that. Everything else are obstacles that we put in front of ourselves, such as, well, I can't price it that high. My audience won't buy it. You know, like there's a million reasons that we can't do something. And there's a million reasons not to start a business. But, you know, you only need one reason and that is because you want to do it, because you want to make an impact. And because you believe that if you invest in your solution in yourself, that it will work. And to be honest, like more than anything, persistence and consistency will get you, we'll make you successful in business. But most people will just give up as soon as they hit the first obstacle where they realize that they, I don't know, have to, people have to pay them. It was in particular, who she wanted to come up with a solution for cancer patients, but she didn't want to charge the cancer patients. And I'm like, okay, that's fine, but one, that's not a business. And two, we need to find somebody who can pay for it that you're willing to ask money from. So, you know, just kind of working through those obstacles. That wasn't a business problem that was, you know, it was an obstacle that she had in the way. So, you know, working through those. So, yeah, just being really open to personal development. And I will say that if I had known that the business was going to be all about personal development, I'm not sure I would have started one, because I was so anti-personal development for so long. And now I'm like, it was good for me. Right. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, you did mention that the obstacles and one of our biggest obstacles is our self often. Yeah, always. There's always something. Yeah. I mean, I still throw obstacles in my way. Like, I just, I had a coaching meeting the other day and I said something and the guys like, yeah, that's not true. I was like, okay, now I get to sit on this one and figure out why I think this is true and how I can get over it so I can move on. Right. Continuous development. It's personal development. It's scary. It's hard, but in order for us to thrive and grow, we have to. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in these last few moments, what is on your heart that you would like to share with us? Just that, you know, this is something, again, that you're considering. You really have to believe that you can do it. And I'll, you know, I'll be perfectly honest from my standpoint. Like, we started the business in 2016. I say, we, I started the business in 2016. And it took me a whole year to put the business together because I was like petrified of it. And then I had my first webinar and I made four sales and I was like petrified of the clients. And, you know, it was just one of those things that I was really uncomfortable with it, but I had to keep going through it. And the more you do it, the more comfortable the more it comes into your comfort zone and the easier it gets. But yeah, I mean, if you want it, you can make it happen. But you're going to have to really, it's something that you do have to work for. And it's something that you just have to believe is possible. Yeah. And I think back to becoming a nurse and how hard that was. Yeah. And yet we all did that. We all did it. We're all successful there. So we can be successful in other areas as well. Right. And to that end, I mean, you went to nursing school to learn the structure of how to do nursing. You learned a lot on your own. And there was a lot of stuff that you had to do yourself. And your experience really created you as a nurse. But you had to have that foundation. And I think that's what I want it for this course was to for that to be the foundation. And I mean, your success is always going to be your success. Like, you know, I would never claim like, oh, that's my sister. She's successful because I taught her. No, you know, you're successful because you took the knowledge that was given to you and the resources that you had and the network that you're able to work with. Because any, you could put two nurses in the same situation. And one's going to thrive. And one maybe does nothing. And it's not the coursework that's making the difference. It's the nurse who really believes that they can do it. Right. Okay. So how can we find this course? I think we can go to iNERSCOACH.com and look for the business of nurse coaching. And of course I'm going to share the links. I'm going to share all the information that our nurses, fellow nurses need to know to sign up for the course. And thank you so much, Katie, for being with us this morning. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your generous time and support of our inspiring integrative nurse coaches in action. Please share this episode with a colleague, leave us a five star review and follow us on social media. We look forward to keeping in touch with you. Remember to breathe and to rest.