How to earn more money as a wellness coach

You love working one-on-one with your clients. You get to empower people to live better lives, and there’s nothing more rewarding than that.

Well, maybe nothing more rewarding -- the income that comes from a steady barrage of wellness clients is pretty nice, too.

It’d be all the better if you could increase your earnings without taking away time from your current clients.

Take heart: you absolutely can do that. You don’t have to double your hours or abandon the clients you’ve come to know and care for to earn more money as a wellness coach.

As a wellness coach, there are endless ways you could grow your income, but this guide will introduce you to six easy ways to earn more money without filling your schedule to capacity.

The first method -- group coaching -- is the perfect marriage between earning more per hour while keeping the personalization of a one-on-one session. Let’s take a look at what that entails in our next section.

6 ways to earn more as a wellness coach

#1. Offer group coaching or a membership community plan

Getting consulting clients one-on-one as a wellness coach is a lot of hustle -- maybe too much for you, especially if you don't want to give up your existing coaching slots.

That's where group coaching and membership communities come into play.

Group coaching allows you to scale your business by working with more clients and earning more per hour without working more hours since multiple people are paying for the same time slot.

Although you won’t be able to give each member as much attention as before, it still lets you answer your clients’ questions in real-time and offer personalized advice.

Plus, group coaching is a hit with participants.

One research study found that 54% of a cohort who completed group health coaching ranked their satisfaction with it as nine out of 10.

Another study found that both individual and group coaching could help participants reduce procrastination and facilitate goal achievement .

To enhance the value of your group coaching, you could add additional features such as access to mini-courses or digital downloads like meal plans and journals.

Awakened Life Academy's group coaching membership is a great example of how extra bells and whistles can create something beautiful (and profitable) around group coaching.

Their program offers members a one-on-one strategy kick-off call, monthly group coaching and training, access to financial planning software, and a monthly growth challenge, among many other perks.

If you’re looking to add similar interactivity to your group coaching or membership, you could adopt a mastermind group model as well.

A mastermind group is a kind of group coaching/think tank hybrid.

In a mastermind, coaches can offer regular group coaching while your clients work together in small groups to keep each other accountable and work towards a goal or solve a problem.

Yet another way to increase your earnings from group calls is to expand your coaching from helping individual clients to helping others in your field.

Because you’re helping others to grow their businesses and earnings, you can often charge more for your offerings for other health and wellness coaches than you would for private clients.

Coach Andrew Moss , as an example, offered a mastermind group for life and wellness coaches who were looking for support as they grow their businesses.

Similarly, Amanda Jane Daley’s UPswing Mastermind offers one-on-one support, business training, and accountability for health coaches looking to attract their first clients and develop their businesses.

One final way to increase earnings from your group coaching and memberships is by creating either an affiliate or referral program to reward participants who refer new customers.

Not only can this take some of the onus off of you to constantly attract new clients, but it can also incentivize and thank your happy clients for driving new business to you.

Of course, grassroots methods can only get you so far on your profit goals. If you want something that’ll really uplift your profit margin -- and take a lot more time -- you may want to go corporate.

#2. Create corporate wellness training programs

The research doesn’t lie -- both employees and employers benefit from wellness coaching.

For example, one study found that although they increased in the short-term, current and projected healthcare costs decreased over time for employees enrolled in wellness coaching.

A separate study found medical costs fell by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on a wellness program, with absenteeism costs dropping by $2.73 for the same reason.

Similarly, high-risk employees who completed a wellness coaching program were significantly more likely to lower five out of the seven measured health risks , including stress, blood pressure, and cholesterol level.

Employers realize there are more benefits to having healthy employees than just increased output, however.

89% of employees from companies that support wellness programs are more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work.

But now you’re probably wondering how you can help businesses to improve their employees’ lives, especially if you’ve previously only worked with individuals before.

The good news is that there are quite a few options on the table.

You could offer both individual or group coaching to employees, for one.

You could also follow in Diana Murphy ’s path and help executives to lose weight, or assist businesses who want to create more energetic and healthy work environments, like coach Cindy Carbone .  

Because businesses can typically afford to pay more than individual clients, you could also create a more expansive or customized program than your individual clients could (or reasonably would) pay for.

However, these are just a handful of the many niches you could pursue as a corporate wellness coach.

Whatever your specialty as a coach, your corporate wellness services could have a wide-ranging impact, from helping employees to become healthier and helping businesses become more productive and profitable.

In contrast to the broad impact of corporate wellness programs, the third way to earn more as a wellness coach takes a more targeted approach.

#3. Create more personalized coaching experiences

You don’t want to abandon one-on-one coaching, but you’re looking to charge more for your time and increase the value your clients get from your sessions -- so how can you do that without increasing your workload?

Easy -- offer more highly-customized services that still fit within your regular session time.

You could, for instance, meet your clients in-person and accompany them to activities that could benefit their health.

Nutrition coaches can offer coaching sessions where they will accompany their clients to a grocery store and give them advice on shopping for healthy items.

Similarly, health and nutrition coach, Molly Alliman , offers meal preparation tutorials and fridge and pantry makeovers in addition to her regular health coaching sessions.

But what if you aren’t able to offer in-person services? Fortunately, technology enables us to have experiences nearly-identical to those in person.

If you can’t offer in-person grocery shopping or pantry assistance, you could just as easily chat via video calls to offer the same advice.

Or, perhaps you could create gated video content to accompany your sessions explaining the nutritional benefits of certain foods. After all, as much as 38% of people can’t name the foods used to target specific health issues, such as iron-deficiency anemia.

Alternatively, you could also offer retainers where people could contact you whenever they have a question (provided you’re not with another client, of course).

Sleep and wellness coach Allison Egidi , for example, offers 30-minute calls for when parents have a quick issue about their children’s sleeping habits.

Perhaps you could offer clients the ability to contact you during off-hours for an advanced rate, or simply have packages -- as Allison did -- for those unexpected moments when clients need some advice.

Let’s dial back a little bit, though. What if you don’t have an audience that would take up those extra slots in the first place?

In that case, our fourth method for earning more as a wellness coach may be your ticket.

#4. Speak at conferences or workshops

True, part of making more money involves giving your current client base ever-more valuable products and services to purchase from you.

But the second part of making more money is attracting more clients -- and speaking at conferences and workshops can help you do just that.

The most obvious way to earn more as a speaker is by accepting payment to speak at a given event, although that’s far from the only way.

You could also make connections with potential clients, or even people who could recommend you to a friend or family member who may later become a paying client.

Though less measurable than something like social media or email conversions, word-of-mouth marketing can be great for your business.

Just consider the fact that 31% of consumers have said they found out about new brands from friends and family members.

If you’re speaking at an event geared more towards professionals in your field, there are still plenty of ways you could benefit.

There are few opportunities better for partnerships than in-person meetups at industry conferences.

Perhaps you’ll meet a physician who is looking for a coach to offer wellness coaching in addition to their usual medical services, thus expanding both of your client bases and earnings.

You could also join up with another wellness coach to collaborate on an online or in-person wellness course together, or agree to refer clients to one another’s practices if you offer supplementary services.

Lastly, even if you don’t leave a speaking event with thousands in speaker’s fees or a Rolodex of new clients, don’t discount the benefits that networking can bring you.

There’s a reason 80% of professionals think networking is important for career success -- it gives you access to people you may not otherwise have had the chance to speak to and can encourage valuable word-of-mouth marketing from people you meet with.

Of course, if you’re the more introverted type and looking for a method to uplift your earnings without burning out your social battery, there’s a better way to go: online courses.

#5. Condense your coaching sessions into online courses

66% of Americans want help figuring out the best ways they can improve their health, and 63% feel there is too much conflicting information about how to do so.

So why not create an online course to help others figure out how to improve their health and wellbeing?

The e-learning industry is projected to be worth 325 billion by 2025, and it’s not hard to see why -- online courses can teach any topic imaginable and be accessed by anyone, anywhere.

True, online courses will involve work upfront in terms of planning, scripting, recording, and editing your course, though they require very little upkeep after they’ve been released. This, in turn, can help you scale up your profits while scaling back your schedule.  

But just what should you teach in your online course?

Answers to common questions from your customers are a start.

You can also use online courses to test your customers’ reactions to new niches that you want to branch into.

Whatever you choose, never worry about your topic being too specific for an online course. On the contrary, online courses are excellent for teaching one neatly contained topic.

For example, Tom Gilette’s “ This Next Breath ” course teaches students about breathing practice, and Jo Emerson teaches students how to develop their confidence in her “ 5 Steps to Lasting Confidence ” course.

As for how long your online course should be , that’s entirely up to how long of a course you’re willing to create and what your students are looking for.

Generally speaking, online courses are best for content that can be covered within one month, although some courses, like Sara Cammo's eight-week "Ditch the Diet - A Guide to Healthy Eating", can be longer than that.

Whichever length you choose, just stay practical. While it may be wonderful to have a comprehensive 50-hour course, most students probably wouldn’t be willing to pay for or be able to complete that.

Consider breaking the course down into many smaller courses instead.

Many smaller courses mean more potential sales and also a higher chance that students will be able to retain all of your excellent advice.

Sign up for a free Podia account to see just how easy it is to start selling online courses.

If you want to dig in deeper to online courses, check out this guide on how to create and sell a profitable course . Otherwise, we have one more tactic for earning more as a wellness coach today, and it’s even lower commitment than online courses.

#6. Create wellness digital downloads and products

Americans spend an average of $155 per month on their health and wellness.

But while coaching, gym memberships, and courses are the most obvious expenses, don’t overlook digital downloads as a viable source of wellness education and income.

Digital downloads can take on many forms, from ebooks and audiobooks to planners, journals, and more.

Tony Samara , as an example, sells multiple short audio recordings of his positive mindset meditations, while Dr. Jennifer Weinberg sells downloadable MP3s for breathing meditations.

You could also publish ebook, worksheets, guides, case studies, and other non-audio content as countless other wellness coaches have done.

But with how varied digital downloads can be, pricing digital products can get a little hairy.

Generally speaking, digital downloads are priced lower than online courses and memberships -- often between $10 to $20 -- because they’re more limited in scope and typically cost less to produce than other digital products.

However, the value your customers perceive your digital download to have, plus the time, effort, and competition can affect the price as well.

One of the great things about selling digital downloads is that they’re a very versatile passive income stream that can take on whatever form your customers want -- MP3s, journals, and ebooks, to name a few.

Combined with other passive income streams like online courses and memberships sites and active income from coaching sessions, you’ll be on your way to earning more as a wellness coach without having to sacrifice more time or having too many clients to handle.

And who knows, maybe hiring your first employee for your wellness consultancy will be just around the corner, too.

Grow your impact while growing your profits

Wellness coaching is a rewarding career, but a schedule packed with one-on-one sessions won’t always earn you the profits you need to live the life you want.

Even if your wellness business is just starting out, there are six methods you could consider to grow your profits, including:

• Offering group coaching sessions or memberships so you can reach more clients while also earning more per hour

• Coaching corporate clients who realize that healthier employees can make for a more productive and profitable workplace

• Providing more customized work experiences so you can charge for higher-value sessions without adding more work to your plate

• Speaking at conferences so you can improve awareness of your business, attract more clients to your business, and possibly earn speaking payments, too

• Offering online courses that wrap up information from your coaching sessions into compact, information-rich modules

• Digital downloads like audiobooks, ebooks, planners, and journals that you can use to complement your other products and services

With all of the revenue opportunities available to you as a wellness coach, you’ll need to use tools that can make it as seamless as possible to run your business so you can focus a majority of your time on your clients.

And as luck would have it, you can try out one of the best tools for that (we may be biased) by creating your free Podia account today.

Good luck, and stay well.