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Nutrition Coaching. Not a Fast Lane Idea (Yet) but It's a Start.

Idea threads

Dave E RDN

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Hey Fast Laners!

I want to start a online nutrition coaching business for men. I know fitness and nutrition is a crowded space. I know coaching is not a fast lane idea because I would be trading time for time to start. But I am really passionate about nutrition and want to create something in this space.

Some background: I am a registered dietitian nutritionist. I have experience coaching clients who wanted to lose weight, manage their diabetes, and get healthy from past jobs I've had as a dietitian. I also have management and writing experience. Currently I am a manager in a hospital.

I have ran test ads on google to see how many people might be interested in this sort of service and got a good response.

I want to market to men because most nutrition and weight loss products and services seem to be marketed towards women, most nutrition advice seems to only address women, and I can relate to men. There also seems to be interest from men based on my ad test.

The challenge will be differentiating from the other products and services in the industry. I have some ideas:
- From my experience men don't want to here the same old nutrition advice from another women telling them what to do. (Not trying to be sexist. It's just been my experience. I actually had guys request me because I was a guy dietitian.)
- Guys have unique needs, wants, goals related to health and nutrition. I have expertise experience here that other coaches might not.
- I believe nutrition is not just what you eat or drink, but also, other things we take in such as books, music, media, etc. that help us get to not just our health goals but professional, relationship, etc.
- I also am into Jungian psychology. I think concepts like the hero's journey and the magician, lover, warrior, and king archetypes are great metaphors for health transformations and how men eat. I could use these ideas to package my coaching in a unique way.

In the future I could scale by creating informational products like books, courses, etc.

Anyway, I was just hoping to hear opinions from this group because there are a lot of great minds and successful people here. Is this worth pursuing or will my idea just be white noise? Is this a concept that is intriguing? Are things I am going to need to consider before I jump in head first?

Reply to let me know your honest opinion or anything that might be helpful. Thanks
 
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Supercar

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There is no shortage or men giving nutritional advice to men. There are way too many of them, I even wish there were fewer, then it would have been easier to pick the one best for me. Too much noise. How are you doing to stand out from that noise?

People give nutritional advice for a minimum pay, if they can find a job, and for free on YouTube, on websites, and on user forums. Again, how are you going to stand out to get noticed?

And if you do get noticed, how will you monetize your status when nobody is really making any money in this industry, unless they preach something ourtageous, like keto or 4-hour body.

I do listen to one nutrition and fitness coach because he trains athletes in the sport that I fancy. He has free podcasts, a website, a supplement store. I once bought a bottle of pills from him. He also coaches a small grop of paying pro and semi-pro athletes, but he does not seem to have a program for amateurs like me.

Feeling and looking good, and an improving sport performance are my progress indicators. I wouldn't follow an advice of someone who may have a different idea of fitness and performance than my own. Most people are like that. It is a tough market to crack.
 
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Lord Business

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Hey Fast Laners!

I want to start a online nutrition coaching business for men. I know fitness and nutrition is a crowded space. I know coaching is not a fast lane idea because I would be trading time for time to start. But I am really passionate about nutrition and want to create something in this space.

Some background: I am a registered dietitian nutritionist. I have experience coaching clients who wanted to lose weight, manage their diabetes, and get healthy from past jobs I've had as a dietitian. I also have management and writing experience. Currently I am a manager in a hospital.

I have ran test ads on google to see how many people might be interested in this sort of service and got a good response.

I want to market to men because most nutrition and weight loss products and services seem to be marketed towards women, most nutrition advice seems to only address women, and I can relate to men. There also seems to be interest from men based on my ad test.

The challenge will be differentiating from the other products and services in the industry. I have some ideas:
- From my experience men don't want to here the same old nutrition advice from another women telling them what to do. (Not trying to be sexist. It's just been my experience. I actually had guys request me because I was a guy dietitian.)
- Guys have unique needs, wants, goals related to health and nutrition. I have expertise experience here that other coaches might not.
- I believe nutrition is not just what you eat or drink, but also, other things we take in such as books, music, media, etc. that help us get to not just our health goals but professional, relationship, etc.
- I also am into Jungian psychology. I think concepts like the hero's journey and the magician, lover, warrior, and king archetypes are great metaphors for health transformations and how men eat. I could use these ideas to package my coaching in a unique way.

In the future I could scale by creating informational products like books, courses, etc.

Anyway, I was just hoping to hear opinions from this group because there are a lot of great minds and successful people here. Is this worth pursuing or will my idea just be white noise? Is this a concept that is intriguing? Are things I am going to need to consider before I jump in head first?

Reply to let me know your honest opinion or anything that might be helpful. Thanks
Hi, I'm also in a nutrition industry - our specialization is type 2 diabetes and clinical wholesome lifestyle coaching.
As for your idea, I think it's very raw and you need something much more specific to differentiate you from the crowd (if you want to be megasuccessful and not just getting by) . What i'd do, is to take a submarket in "men category" and focus on that. For example age from x to y; chronic disease; certain lifestyle; poor-wealthy, certain goal ect. Also, you'd want your service to have a very strong USP. You don't want to be selling the same sht that thousand other providers are. Hard to be heard over the noise.
In other words - don't do it because you feel you like the nutrition science, but focus on finding specific need in the subset of a market and providing a unique and strong solution. That's were the money is.
 

Dave E RDN

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Hi, I'm also in a nutrition industry - our specialization is type 2 diabetes and clinical wholesome lifestyle coaching.
As for your idea, I think it's very raw and you need something much more specific to differentiate you from the crowd (if you want to be megasuccessful and not just getting by) . What i'd do, is to take a submarket in "men category" and focus on that. For example age from x to y; chronic disease; certain lifestyle; poor-wealthy, certain goal ect. Also, you'd want your service to have a very strong USP. You don't want to be selling the same sht that thousand other providers are. Hard to be heard over the noise.
In other words - don't do it because you feel you like the nutrition science, but focus on finding specific need in the subset of a market and providing a unique and strong solution. That's were the money is.

Good advice.

I don't think I have a anything unique enough to start something yet. But I would love to get it there.

I also don't want to pursue an idea just because I love it. I want to do something that is going to be helpful and that people actually want.
 
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The Patriot Way

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It's interesting, for the most part I've thought that the market for health/fitness coaching, books, apps, calculators, etc. etc. is just so saturated and crowded that there can't possibly be room for another one. And I see new ones sprouting up every day. They stay up, too, so they have to be turning at least some profit. I think this space is unique due to people's own insecurities and failings with their training and diet. When something doesn't work after a while, they just go to the next thing. "Oh, THIS is the exercise that will finally build my <body part>!" "Finally, a diet plan I can follow and will get me shredded!" And then when whatever it is doesn't live up to the hype, people look for something else - the next coach, the next trainer, whatever. Also everybody has a different taste - some people respond well to the hardcore, no-nonsense Navy Seal type coaching, while others want a nurturing experience and someone who's going to hold their hand through every workout and every meal. So there's still plenty of opportunity, there.

It's the same thing as Instagram model influencers. How many people are making a decent or even fantastic living just posting pictures of themselves scantily clad with some garbage "detox" tea? But somehow, more and more just keep coming, and people cannot get enough.

I think if your presentation is solid, you have some testimonials and a reasonable amount of believability and credibility, there's no reason why you couldn't start a profitable nutrition coaching business. If you're a RD, that's huge, and you can shout about that from the rooftops. Although you're right, in the beginning you'll probably have to do a lot of personalized coaching on the cheap. But if you enjoy it, and you bring value to people, actually help them to get where they want to go, everybody wins. I think if you're going to be violating CENTS commandments with a business, you should be doing it because you truly enjoy it and not because you're looking to make a ton of money or establish a passive income stream. Just my opinions, feel free to discard haha.
 

rogue synthetic

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I don't mean to pile on the dead horse with a Louisville slugger, but it's worth boosting the advice here: unless you've got a really compelling niche of a niche to target AND a really compelling USP to lure people in, I would strongly advise you to apply your talents elsewhere.

Nutrition advice for men is far too vague. In the unlikely event you aren't eaten alive in that red ocean, you will struggle more than you realize just to get clients, let alone keep them. It's a buyer's market and you are a commodity, so forget about any serious loyalty.

Now this is not to say you can't still carve out a space here. But you've got to think in terms of setting yourself apart. And to do that you would ideally already be hanging around a sub-niche or two and figuring out who has an itch that isn't getting scratched.

Men's nutrition is too broad, but nutritional advice that can do _____ for men who are _____, like ______, and compete in _______ just might be workable.

Even then I would caution you against doing too much coaching and turn your eye more towards productized offerings to the extent possible. Coaching for this audience can be soul-destroying work even when it's going well on the business end.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Some things to take note of...

Relative value... are you providing it? What makes you different? Surely your advice is probably valuable, but is it relatively valuable when submerged in the global marketplace?
Ease of entry... how do you overcome being 1 of 3,405,021 people doing this?
Passion... does the market care about your passion?

IMO, you can succeed at doing this provided you EXECUTE EXCELLENTLY. 2 E's defeat 1 E.

That said, I'm a big proponent of doing SOMETHING, even if it doesn't meet all the Fastlane requirements or commandments.

Getting your feet wet opens other ideas and opportunities.

Which problem is better to have?

I made $5K last month doing nutritional counseling in a non-Fastlane business and I'm working like a dog.

I made $0K last month and have done nothing because I can't find anything FASTLANE!
 
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Dave E RDN

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Some things to take note of...

Relative value... are you providing it? What makes you different? Surely your advice is probably valuable, but is it relatively valuable when submerged in the global marketplace?
Ease of entry... how do you overcome being 1 of 3,405,021 people doing this?
Passion... does the market care about your passion?

IMO, you can succeed at doing this provided you EXECUTE EXCELLENTLY. 2 E's defeat 1 E.

That said, I'm a big proponent of doing SOMETHING, even if it doesn't meet all the Fastlane requirements or commandments.

Getting your feet wet opens other ideas and opportunities.

Which problem is better to have?

I made $5K last month doing nutritional counseling in a non-Fastlane business and I'm working like a dog.

I made $0K last month and have done nothing because I can't find anything FASTLANE!

Thanks for your perspective, @MJ DeMarco! It means a lot.

This makes sense.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Andy Black

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Yeah. Just start. Find forums or Facebook groups of people with special dietary requirements. See if you can help them.

@Scot has a progress thread doing just that.
 

Andy Black

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Dave E RDN

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Thanks for everyone’s advice and perspective.

I think I’m going to spend some time learning more about the coaching/ nutrition industry to try to find gaps and ways I can stand out.

In the mean time I’m going to start offering my service any way I can just to do something.

If I decide it’s not worth my time at least I did something and I’ll be better equipped for my next fastlane venture.

Thanks guys


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The Patriot Way

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Thanks for everyone’s advice and perspective.

I think I’m going to spend some time learning more about the coaching/ nutrition industry to try to find gaps and ways I can stand out.

In the mean time I’m going to start offering my service any way I can just to do something.

If I decide it’s not worth my time at least I did something and I’ll be better equipped for my next fastlane venture.

Thanks guys


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Good luck, man! Let us know how it goes. As others have said it's always better to do something than nothing, even if it's not necessarily the "best" or "perfect" thing. Poke that finicky cat and see if it meows, or maybe you'll even get a roar. I'd really play up your RDN background, though. So many of these coaches are just everyday fitness enthusiasts who are imparting information that's worked for them. Not only would you have that, but you have the education and credentials to back it up. If I was looking for nutrition coaching, I'd view that as a major asset and could easily sway my final decision towards your program.

I don't think there's any doubt Kamal Patel wouldn't have been nearly as successful with examine.com without his extensive background in science and nutrition. That layer of credibility is just invaluable with so many choices out there.
 
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