Tech tools for your group coaching program

Group programs and memberships are increasingly popular, and it’s no surprise why. When working one on one, you’ll find that you hit an income and impact ceiling. There are only so many hours in the day, and we’re guessing you didn’t work for yourself to be putting in 60+ hour weeks, right? Group programs and memberships help solve this problem, so you can work less, earn more, and impact more people.

You have the skills, knowledge, and expertise to help your ideal clients reach their goals, but how do you get started with the technical side of group programs?

We’ve broken it down based on the four types of health & wellness pros we see: the blogger, the health coach, the influencer, and the fitness trainer. You’ll know how each type of health and wellness pro puts group programs to work for them and get inspired to start your successful group!

#1: The blogger: Victoria, a Meal Planning Pro

Victoria has grown a niche blog and community around meal planning, prepping, and staying organized in the kitchen. She makes money from ad revenue on the blog as well as eBook sales. Search engine and social media algorithms are constantly changing, which makes consistent traffic and income challenging. She wanted to take control of her income, and her community was asking for more support.

Solution: She created a membership that delivers premium recipe content and meal plans on a weekly basis.

Tech stack

Website: WordPress, a self-hosted website building platform, which happens to be the most popular website platform in the world.

Payments/subscriptions: MemberPress, a plugin for WordPress that allows courses and payments to stay right on your website, instead of using a separate learning management system.

Email: Sends weekly updates with recipes and a new meal plan linked to the Member Kitchens.

Community: She has a free Facebook group for her wider community and a private group for the group members to share premium content from the Member Kitchens.

Premium recipes and meal planning: Member Kitchens with MemberPress integration enabled to automatically invite new members to the app so they can log in, access, and begin customizing their meal plans.

#2: The Nutritionist and Health Coach: Rachel, a Holistic Nutritionist

Rachel trained as a nutritionist and started her business by providing specialized one-on-one coaching. The business was going well, but eventually, she hit the ceiling. She spent a lot of time just serving existing clients, creating and updating plans, and keeping her head above water. Feeling burned out and unhappy with where her business was heading, she went to work on a new model that would help her better serve her clients and be more fulfilling.

Solution: Rachel started a 12-week group program, which runs three times a year. This program helps create another, more scalable revenue stream and complements her work with private clients. Clients now have multiple ways to work with her and can transition from the program to one-on-one coaching or participate in the group program after coaching to continue their journey on a different level.

Tech Stack

Website: WordPress.

Course website: The Group program lives on a learning management system. Rachel uses Thinkific but a few other great options are Teachable and Kajabi. Her group program contains 12 weekly “lessons” with practical steps for members to take. Customizable recipes and meal plans support the lessons.

Payments/subscriptions: Payments are included in the learning management system.

Emails: Program emails are set up within the learning management system to deliver new course content at the right time automatically.

Community: Rachel interacts with her community in a private Facebook group. Paying customers can access weekly live Q&As on Zoom during the 12-week course.

Recipes and meal planning: She uses the Member Kitchens with a Zapier integration. This integration allows new members to automatically access the Member Kitchens, create their log-in and customize their plans. Links in the course website connect to meal plans and recipes for the member.

Plus...

Practice Management (for private clients): Practice Better is a client management system to help manage clients, schedules, payments, and more.

#3: The influencer: Emily, an Instagram Influencer

Emily successfully built an online following on Instagram by featuring health and wellness rituals and advice but wasn’t monetizing it in a reliable way. She tried selling ebooks and physical products, but it was a lot of work for little reward, and she wasn’t sure her customers were getting the most out of them.

Solution: Emily developed an evergreen course available year-round and a membership program to package and share her content in a systematic and reliable way. Reliable income followed closely behind as her followers now have a way to get premium content and support.

Tech stack

Website: A custom-built website.

Informational content: Emily delivers her instructional videos via Uscreen (Vimeo is another option).

Payments/subscriptions: Included in Uscreen.

Community: Tribe. Emily prefers a customizable platform over Facebook. A separate platform allows her to have control over the branding and not be limited to Facebook’s terms. Mighty Networks is another alternative.

Email: Delivers community and content updates directly from Tribe.

Recipes and meal planning: Branding is an essential part of your business. White label apps like Member Kitchens allow custom domains to deliver premium recipe and meal planning content.

#4: The fitness trainer: Luke, a Fitness Trainer

Luke’s niche is similar to the nutritionist/health coach but with a greater focus on fitness and workouts and the nutrition to fuel them. He started working with clients as a personal trainer one on one and loved it. But quickly became frustrated, creating and tweaking meal plans for each client over and over. This model was hard to scale and not why he went into the business of fitness. He had to find a way to lighten the load and still get his clients amazing results.

Solution: Luke developed a 12-week group transformation program to complement his private client work. His program starts with an initial assessment, followed by weekly workouts, recipes, and meal plans along with instructions on tailoring the content to each fitness level and dietary need. His program supports members to help themselves through the 12-week program instead of doing all the work for them.

Tech stack

Website: WordPress

Workout content: PT Distinction for workouts and habit tracking. Clients have access to work out content via a a user-friendly website and app.

Payments/subscriptions: PayPal to handle payments and recurring subscriptions.

Email: Sends weekly updates with new workout content, recipes, and a customizable meal plan.

Community: Hosts live workouts on Instagram for free and has a private Facebook group for members. He also hosts live Q&As on Facebook Live.

Recipes and meal planning: He uses a specialized recipe and meal planning tool such as Evolution Nutrition or Member Kitchens to best serve his program members.

How will you use group programs to boost your business?

There are infinite ways to run a successful group program. Hopefully, seeing how these five health and fitness pro’s boosted their income and impact using group programs has inspired you to take action in your own business.

The tech side of a group program can seem overwhelming at first, but Member Kitchens can help you quickly make customizable meal plans an exciting part of your group program. Get in touch if you'd like to learn more, or try Member Kitchens today.