The short answer to this question is that, typically, health coaching training programs prepare you to work one-on-one with clients to support them on their personal health journeys, while the WellGrounded Life Women’s Wellness Certification and Training program prepares you to teach and lead classes, courses, workshops, retreats, and talks to groups of women on the breadth of wellness materials covered in the program.

As the creator and director of this training program, I was formally trained as a health coach in addition to my years of university studies in science and public health , and while I loved the idea of health coaching as a business, my life as a mother to three young children didn’t work as well with the one-on-one model of health coaching.

Furthermore, I knew that beyond being a gifted guide and supporter of women on their health journeys, I wanted to be able to teach, educate, inspire, and equip women with tools and knowledge that would help them change their lives and their families’ lives … and in order to do that I needed to have a cohesive body of knowledge about the most critical areas of support women needed to learn as they sought to bring in more calm, connection, and vitality to their lives.

This was the impetus for my early work shifting as a wellness educator rather than a health coach. It is a model that allows you to work with groups of women versus the one-on-one client based model. Wellness educating allows you to expand your reach \ and impact by reaching larger audiences and capitalizing on the synergistic power of group dynamics. There is something incredibly healing when groups of women come together to learn and grow!

While many women are starting new careers as wellness educators through the WGL Certification Program, others are combining their health coaching backgrounds (or other service oriented healing backgrounds – like massage therapists, cognitive therapists, physical therapists, Reiki masters, yoga teachers, etc.) with wellness education to expand their offerings and reach new and larger groups of women to serve.

Traditionally when we enter a new career path, we are expected to invest years of time in education which costs tens of thousands of dollars, only to start job searching with very little practical, “on-the-job” skills or training.

The WellGrounded Institute’s Certification and Training Program is streamlined to give you a solid education paired with practical skills and business support that equips you to get up and running, doing meaningful work, and making a great income quickly.

Let’s look at the math.

Here are some simple price points and potential income scenarios (for a beginning wellness educator) that can be generated when you begin to offer classes and workshops after certification. Please remember this is not a guarantee of income earned as every business grows and develops earning potential based on a multitude of different variables.

~ If you taught a one-hour class, priced at $20 per student and had 10 students sign up, that class would bring in $400 for one hour of teaching.

~ If you taught one class per month for 6 months at $20 a class with 20 students, you would make $2400 for one hour of teaching a month over six months.

Here are other potential offerings and earnings you could begin to make early on:

One individual workshop (2 hours long) $50 x 10 students= $500
One workshop per month for 6 months, $50 x 10 students = $3000
One short course (3 class series) $100 x 20 students = $2,000
Two short courses within 6 months time $100 x 20 students = $4000
One longer course (6 class series) $200 x 20 students = $4000
One longer course (12 class series) $400 x 10 students = $4000

These are just a handful of examples to help you begin to see the income potential of this work. You will be fully equipped to teach a myriad of classes, workshops, courses, and program offerings as a key part of your certification.

If you can’t make a profit early on, plus have a solid plan for growing and increasing your profits as you go, you simply won’t be able to sustain this much needed, life-giving work. The work must support you and your family as much as it helps and inspires those you serve. That kind of profitability and scalability is built into the business model of being a wellness educator from the get-go.

I was able to make a profit in my first year of business (working anywhere from 5 – 20 hrs/wk) and have watched my revenue steadily increase every year since.

You will be able to decide how often you want to work. If you prefer very part-time work, you will be fully equipped to lead a class or two every month. Or you could grow your business into a part-time job that pays full-time wages. You get to choose.

Traditionally, when you become licensed to use material through a training program you are required to retain that brand when you promote any services using those materials. For example, if you got trained as a Zumba instructor and began teaching Zumba classes, you would have to explicitly call your classes Zumba.

This is not the case with the WellGrounded Institute training program. You are licensed to use all the materials as part of this program under your own unique brand, class name, and business title. The only requirement is that direct use of the materials in full or in part must be properly cited back to this program. This means you must retain a footer citation (or in-text citation) that credits the teaching material as authored by Lisa Grace Byrne, MPH as part of the WellGrounded Institute Training Program For Women’s Wellness Educators. This is simply a gold-standard way to properly credit information and material from its source. As a wellness educator you should be doing this with any material you share or source your information from as part of your course teachings.

You are not only welcome but encouraged to make this career path your own. The material is ready to be used fully on its own … and also, can be merged with your own personally sourced information, past education, or interests. For example, women who have been part of this training program have blended this materials with their own interests and backgrounds in art therapy, mom and teen-daughter connections, photography, yoga, body-work, and natural cooking demonstrations to name a few.

In order to access all the materials you will need access to a computer that can stream videos from a webpage, play an audio file from a webpage, download pdf materials, and open a Word document. To participate in the group support options you will need to have a Facebook account (if you would like to join and participate in the private FB group) and access to a phone line or Skype account (if you would like to participate in the group mentorship Q+A calls with Lisa).

Finally, upon filling out the enrollment form and your payment processing, you will be sent a Program Agreement. You must sign and return this program agreement (which is done through Echosign via the computer) before you will have any access to the program materials, program emails, or program support options. If you’d like to review the agreement, you can click HERE to see a copy of it.

Additionally there is a final project requirement which asks you to teach or lead a class, workshop or program (either paid or free) before the graduation date and provide documentation and feedback on that experience.

This program is not for everyone and I understand that.

The truth is, you likely already have your answer. But if you’re having a hard time hearing it clearly, here’s a simple exercise that helps me when I need to tap into my own wise, inner place of discernment.

First, quiet your mind, let your breathing become calm, and imagine any anxiety, tension, or urgency you might be feeling to flow out and away from you.

Now in your mind’s eye, imagine saying YES to this program.

After you’ve fully felt the sense of saying YES . . . of already enrolling and securing a seat in the class, notice how that feels.

In your mind: where do your thoughts go? In your body: is there more openness, relief, or peace?

Imagine how your future self will feel a year from now after completing the program and having this work a regular part of your life.

Next, imagine your answer as a NO.

What happens then? How does that feel – both in your mind and in your body?

Imagine how your future self may feel if your answer is NO right now.

Allow yourself to get honestly curious with these two scenarios.

After gathering all the important information our mind needs, our hearts can tell us exactly what we need to do when we slow down and listen.