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Welcome to The Health & Wellness Practitioners Podcast! Dr. Danielle and other guest experts talk about everything from getting your practice started, developing your clinical skills, growing your practice YOUR way, and dealing with the real stuff life burnout and work/life balance. Whether you’ve been practicing for decades or just started your journey, you’ll find something here for you!
DR. DANIELLE: Hi, welcome everyone. I'm here with Brittany Prince. Brittany and I think actually we probably knew of each other, or at least I knew of you through finding your Facebook sometime last your Facebook group, I should say sometime last year. But we connected recently and I was like, okay, you need to share this with more people what you're doing. So we just jumped into doing that today. So let's just get started with you sharing a bit more about who you are, what you do, we'll take it from there.
MEET BRITTANY PRINCE
BRITTANY: Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Brittany Prince. I own fresh and fit nutrition. I am a holistic nutritionist. So I really focus on gut health and autoimmunity, and I run the Holistic Health and Wellness Facebook group, which is how we connected. And it is a very fast growing group. So I'm super excited to come share a little bit more about that with your audience.
DR. DANIELLE: Well, yeah, it is very fast growing. I mean my group, someone recently described as fast growing and I was like, is it fast growing? It's about, I think it's almost doubled in the last year, but we were at like 2200 members before and now we're getting close to 4,400. Your group went from 14,000 sometime earlier this year, last year?
BRITTANY: We took over the group last September and it had about 14,000 members. And now we are up to about 33,000 members. So less than a year, we've more than doubled. And that's a big, big number.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah, that's a huge number. So what is this group about? Obviously it's about holistic health and nutrition, right. But it's, I think it's more than that too, right?
BRITTANY: Yeah. So it's a very unique group. So we have about a 50-50 mix of different types of practitioners. We have energy, healers, Reiki, biofeedback, health coaches, naturopaths, functional medicine doctors, all sorts of different practitioners. And then we also have a ton of people joining the group, looking for holistic health and wellness remedies, really trying to get away from Western medicine. People have kind of woken up and I think that's part of the growth of our group.
People are looking for alternatives. They're kind of done with Western medicine and doctors just giving them pills and not really focusing on the whole person, not really focusing on the root cause of their issues. So people come to the group to seek answers which is why I love the community because we have so many helpful people in there. Which at times can be a little overwhelming because someone will ask a question about whatever health issue they have and then there's like 200 comments of all different responses, which I'm sure can be overwhelming, which is why we kind of started this partners program that we have going on.
PEOPLE WANT ALTERNATIVES
DR. DANIELLE: I want to reiterate the point that you made about more people are looking for alternatives. I think you and I talked about this last week, I've been in healthcare for over 20 years. I guess it's been 21, 22 years now. There's never been a time that more people have asked for recommendations to non allopathic, healthcare practitioners and then over the last year. And I'm a chiropractor - for a very long time I've heard my colleagues complain, I'm sure I've complained myself about people don't want to get to the root cause I just want a bandaid, but I want to just like make sure that we all really hear that people really are looking for better options and what we would consider better options.
They're more awake now than they have been in our entire lifetime to, oh wait, maybe I actually need to fix the root of this problem instead of just doing the usual mainstream things that we're told to do. So I reiterated that because I think we can easily get stuck, especially when you have a busy practice and you're just moving from one patient to the next and you're hearing all their complaints or one client to the next, right? It's like you forget that people do actually get so much better under our care and our guidance and our direction, our coaching, and that what we do really does help people.
BRITTANY: It actually does. And we have a duty with the education that we have with all the things that we've invested in ourselves and in learning all of these things, we have a duty to show up for these people. People are begging for help right now. They don't want to be stuck on taking 10 different meds. They don't want to be told by their doctor that this is like, here's your medication. This is what you're going to be on forever. Like they want health, they want to feel good and people deserve to feel healthy and good. And so it's our job as different practitioners to share our knowledge, to help these people because they really, really need it, especially right now.
DR. DANIELLE: They do really need it. And I mean, you can just go to Brittany and Chris's group and see there are consistently people asking for help.
BRITTANY: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean every day, I mean we get dozens and dozens of posts per day. People asking about different things and some are silly, like what's this rash on my arm and then others, people are like, Hey, you know, I've gone to all these doctors they've this is what they've told me. I don't feel like this is my solution. What can I do?
And it's good because people are realizing that there is alternatives, that there is other ways of healing. But it's also really sad because so many people are stuck just going to these regular doctors. Unfortunately, many of our services in the holistic alternative space aren't covered by insurance. Yeah. That tests I run for my clients they're not covered.
So this is a huge expense, which some people consider it an expense, but really it's an investment in their health that needs to be like a mindset shift. Because if we don't have our health, we have nothing. Right. And people are like, well, it's expensive. I can't afford to do this. Well, you know what's expensive? Doctor's visits, copays, missing time with your family, not living the life that you desire, not being able to feel good, not having energy to play with your kids. Like that's way more expensive than a few thousand dollars to get some tests, work with someone who knows what they're doing and find your solution, get to your root cause and heal.
DR. DANIELLE: I love that. You're able to say that so easily because it really helps I think other practitioners to be able to do the same thing. So many of us feel like we don't want to be salesy. And I don't think what you just said was salesy at all, but it is just reality check.
BRITTANY: Yeah and it is. And so many people do need that mindset shift. I asked a question in the group last week of like, what's stopping you from becoming your healthiest self. I had over 150 responses. I'm still playing catch up, like reply to everybody, but a huge portion of them was time and money. And those two things should never be obstacles in becoming a healthy person.
Unfortunately yes, organic food, grass fed meat, like that stuff is more expensive, but really what people should be asking is why is all this other food so cheap? And that's because it's not food, it's chemical and processed ingredients that is given to us that is contributing to being unhealthy, all these chronic diseases and everything.
So really like switching - one of the things that I'm working on now is like creating content to really challenge those people on those beliefs. Because they think that that's really important. They need to understand that you can either invest in your health with your time and your finances now, or you're going to be forced to later in life and that's truly the option for people and that I don't ever mean to sound harsh. I hope that doesn't come off harsh, but that's the reality, you know? People really have to take their health back and take back control if they want to live happy healthy lives or they're going to end up old and sick, multiple medications, not being able to go enjoy life or do things that they like doing. And to me, that's way more expensive, you know?
A GROUP OF HELPERS YOU CAN TRUST
DR. DANIELLE: So as this group has grown and it's a mix of people looking for help, as well as practitioners who are interested in holistic health and nutrition, as well as providing services and care for people, it seems to me like the idea unfolded it wasn't like you and Chris took over this group and then like had this plan tto do what you're going to do now. But it kind of unfolded itself. So what's next for this Facebook group?
BRITTANY: Yeah. So because we have so many amazing practitioners in the group and so many people that want to provide help, we were thinking of a way, because we never wanted to be salesy or spammy, you know? And I think that's an issue with a lot of us like holistic practitioners, a lot of us don't want to sell. We just want to serve. And like it does, it comes off like salesy. I grew up with my dad was a used car salesman growing up. So like the thought of sales, like always, really like just grossed me out.
I'm like, I don't want to sell people anything if they want my services, they'll just magnetize to me, but we do have a duty to point out these objections that they give us. And we need to overcome those objections because they need this help. There's a reason they sought out our services. There's a reason they're asking these questions. So that's like something a lot of us practitioners really have to shift in our own minds.
But as the group kept growing and people are asking these questions and then they'd get these 200 different responses. And like, can you imagine asking a question? You want an answer to like something that's going on with your body and then just getting flooded with like a ton of different answers. And you're even more confused than before you ask the question. We really wanted to create something where people could come. We wanted to become the group where you can come find the practitioner that you're looking for. Whether you're looking for help with sciatic pain, whether you need help with blood sugar balance. Whether you are interested in Reiki, anything like that, we want to be known as the community that you come to to find the practitioner, the type of practitioner that you're looking for.
But because there are so many coaches and all these people out there that may not have real quality certifications or educational background, we wanted a way to vet these people. So we created our partners program this month was like the first month we're heading into our second month of this. And so it's still growing. But we have an application process for different practitioners and we hired a health copywriter. So they get four copy written posts per month that kind of like their hand raising posts, right?
Those little like Facebook background posts of, Hey who needs help with sciatic pain or who's struggling with sciatic pain - and she has like different ways of where, so they get these hands raised like, oh my gosh, like that's me, like, I'm struggling with that. So then they get these leads. And then they also get to post call to action posts every week. You know, Hey, I got this lead magnet or, you know, book a call with me, things like that. But we really wanted to make sure that we vetted these people. We didn't want Becky who's a beach body coach to come in literally with no education and we didn't want to promote that.
So we're very careful with who we approved. We had about 30 applicants, of those first 30 we only approved eight. And we also want to make sure too that we don't have too many in the same type of niche. Right. because we want it to be fair for the people that are in there. So like we have a girl that does, she focuses on sciatica, right? So like we're not going to let anybody else come in to the program until she decides to leave that sciatica is their, their main focus.
And we've allowed some people that sell some products and I'm not a huge fan of MLM, but I use some of them and I like some of them and some of them are very good quality, some not so much. So that's the other thing we're vetting those like anyone who applies to be a partner and sell their products, really like looking into that company and making sure that they're science based, making sure that they're not just almost like Plexus and Thrive and all these like things that promise these, oh, lose 20 pounds in 10 days and all this stuff.
So that's kind of what we're working on now is really gearing it towards I'm creating a directory so people can look at the directory and be like, okay, here's my issue. Who can help me with this issue or who has this product? Things like that. And we just really hope that that provides a lot of value. Not only to the people coming there to look for health, but also to the practitioners that are looking to grow their business, get more exposure. Because let's face it, it's hard, right? Like I went to school for nutrition. I didn't go to school for marketing. I know we talked about that. You did right? You have this marketing background, but that's something I've invested over $10,000 on in the last two years since starting my business in learning how to copyright and market and do these things.
And so that can be a really difficult thing for a lot of practitioners they just want to serve, but they have no idea how to show up on social media or like how to curate posts that are going to get people's attention, you know? And it's like they have so much value to provide yet they don't have the vehicle to be able to show up and actually get in front of people. So that's really what we wanted to do as well. So we can help both audiences in our group.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. I mean the vast majority of people, adult people, especially in the US are on Facebook. And that's just the US alone. Because it's a Facebook group and it's international, you obviously have people from all over the world. So the practitioners who are working virtual, this is a fit for them. But despite the number of people who are on Facebook and the number of health and wellness businesses that are on Facebook, there's a disconnect between the two things, right?
There's the people, and there are the businesses that can help the people, but the businesses don't actually understand how to work with the algorithm and the platform and all the things, the copywriting and the marketing messaging, to be able to find those people and then turn them into new patients or clients. And that's why, when you told me about what you're doing in the group now, I was like, oh, people need to know about this because what, what you're doing is actually a very relevant method right now for online businesses to get new patients and clients through Facebook.
BRITTANY: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s our goal. We want to see - I focus on gut health, right? There's a lot of things that I don't focus on that I can't help people with, you know? And Chris he's my partner, the other admin in the group he's a certified nutrition coach through IIN, but there's only so many people that are looking for that help when, when we know right with holistic health, like there's trauma healing that needs to be done with these people, people are in chronic pain, they need services like chiropractic, they need services like stretching classes, anything like that there's such a wide variety of help that people need.
And so really just providing that space for people, for the practitioners to grow their business and for people to find the services that they need. I mean, that's really what we're trying to create. And so far it's going great. I can't wait to see even just like six months from now, like where we are.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. Is there a specific number of practitioners that you want to have in this partnership?
BRITTANY: We were thinking that we would probably max it out around 40 or 50. We don't have an exact number. We just don't want it to ever be spammy where everybody's just like promoting. But yeah, we don't have an exact number yet of how many we want.
DR. DANIELLE: I think that could be hard to measure now that you've talked about like the ratio of posts, essentially from the people looking for help versus the practitioners looking to help people because you want it to still feel like a community of everyone who's interested in holistic health and nutrition. You might have to just kind of like know when you get there.
BRITTANY: Yeah. And I think that's kind of like where we're at. We'll kind of just know and be like, okay, like that's good. That's enough. We kind of have so many bases covered right? Where you can find anything that you're looking for basically. And kind of once we get to that point, we'll be like, okay, we're good.
YOUR ANSWER TO FACEBOOK ADS NOT WORKING
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. So for people that are interested in becoming a partner in your Facebook group, how can they go about learning more?
BRITTANY: So you can message me directly. I'm Britney Prince on Facebook, Fresh N Fit Nutrition on Instagram. And I can send you over, I have a picture that I created on Canva with like all the information, everything that you get with the program it's $97 a month. And that's just more so to cover the costs of everything that we're doing, the copywriter and just the time spent on creating everything. But you can't spend $97 a month on Facebook ads and get in front of a targeted audience
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. Or even get your ads to work at all.
BRITTANY: Right.
DR. DANIELLE: And that, that was another reason why I wanted to share this with my Facebook group, because there are so many people over the last few weeks and months who have said, I'm spending so much thousands of dollars on Facebook ads every month. And I hear one of three things. One is they used to work really well, but they're not working anymore. And the ads manager can't figure out what to do, or we set up the ads, we got them running, but they're not really bringing anybody in. And I don't know why.
Or three, which is probably the most common. So they have the ads running and they're bringing in a ton of new leads. They're bringing in a ton of new patients or clients, but very few of them actually stay after the first, like the initial consult. Yeah. So, and that's how they're designed to work, by the way. That's the whole intention, like the whole intention of running ads like that is to just get a high number of people through the funnel. And you trickle down to just the handful or so who are actually good patients.
So I don't think that people really understand that before they go into this adventure, or maybe they do, and then they just need to learn the lessons from it because it's not what it seems to be. It sounds great to be able to set up ads and get new patients and they're running for you and you don't have to go to screenings and health fairs and all this stuff. But the reality of it is different now. I had someone, I think last week who said, well, Facebook ads actually, were really helpful for us to grow our practice and, and really get it going. And I said, great. When was that? And she said like 2018, I'm like, yeah. It's 2022. And a lot has changed since 2018.
BRITTANY: And they’re very expensive now, too. And funny story. So when I first started my business, I took a work from home job, actually working for Facebook as a marketing expert so that I could learn how to do ads for my business.
DR. DANIELLE: Knowing what I know about you, that's very interesting.
BRITTANY: I lasted about five months. It was horrible job. I hated it. I had lots of people yelling at me all the time. But I did learn how to set up ads, kind of what works and, and what doesn't, how to test different things. But even just since then, because that was like the end of 2020, even since then, it's so much different now.
My sister-in-law actually still works for Facebook. She doesn't do the marketing expert part. She does the quality assurance part. But we still talk about it and share stories and she's like, and she's worked with them, she's actually quitting now. But she's worked for them for like four or five years and, and she's like, it's evolved so much and it's so different and it's so much harder for people to actually get leads unless you're selling something like some product like that's because people will buy crap all the time.
But when it comes to investing in their health or anything like that, then they're skeptical. You really have to have good copy, really have to have something eye-catching. So one of the things that they taught us was that, people on average scroll the length of the Statue of Liberty per day and you have less than two seconds to catch their attention.
DR. DANIELLE: Wow. I had to really process the length of, cause I'm thinking the length of my phone. Right. Yeah. The length of a statue of Liberty. That's how far there's broken out.
BRITTANY: Yeah. That's a lot.
DR. DANIELLE: It's a lot to process actually.
BRITTANY: So you have a very short amount of time to really get someone's attention, to be able to like even click on your ad.
DR. DANIELLE: Well, as I mentioned, the way that you have the partnerships set up is, is genius because organic marketing on Facebook, especially in groups is working already. Like we're seeing it work this way in other types of groups. And it's not like you made up the idea per se, right? To help people get clients this way. It's already working for tons of people. So I'm super excited to see this continue to grow. And I think also it's a really - the partnership and the way that you have it set up, it's an opportunity for health and wellness practitioners to become better marketers. And for them to understand how are people actually doing this? How are people actually getting new patients and new clients through Facebook without paying for ads that fall into those three categories that I was just describing?
BRITTANY: Right. Yeah, exactly. And we're really just trying to spread health and provide value for our partners. Like yesterday I brought a business coach on yesterday just for a private little zoom session just for our current partners, just to kind of help them set up their social profiles. What should be linked on your Facebook page? What should be featured on your personal profile? How do you link things to your website? What should be featured on the front page of your website? So we're continuing to develop other partnerships as well. Maybe not people participating in the program, but bringing in people that we know that we've met, that we trust that can help these practitioners better be able to market their business and their services.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much, Brittany.
BRITTANY: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
DR. DANIELLE: You're welcome. Okay. Tell people again where to go to connect with you and to learn more about the partnership.
BRITTANY: Perfect. So the group is called Holistic Health and Wellness. It's like the first one that pops up, we have about 33,000 members. You can also find me on Facebook at Britney Prince, or my Facebook business page and Instagram is Fresh ‘n’ Fit Nutrition. So fresh, the letter N, nutrition. And you can find me there. You can message me and I would be happy to share more information about the program with you.
DR. DANIELLE: Awesome. Thank you again.
BRITTANY: Thank you. Have a great one.