Case Study: Nadine Kelly, Health Integration Coach

Hey everyone, it's Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach and Chief Difference Maker at Creative On Purpose. I'm here with one of my favorite people and clients, Nadine Kelly. Nadine, how are you?

I'm well, Scott Perry. Thank you for having me.

I am so thrilled that you are here to talk about our working together. You know that you all— your presence always lights me up. In fact, I didn't get much sleep last night and I was feeling a little low energy, but as soon as you appeared on my screen, I was like, yes, I'm here, I'm ready to do this. So I would like to start with just share with people that are tuning in a little bit about yourself, like, what is you? Who are you? What's your business? And what do you do?

Okay, so I'm Nadine Pierre-Kelly, otherwise known as NPK. My company is NPK Health Integration. I am a women's health advocate for mature women. I call them wise women. I am a yoga instructor for them, and a health integration coach. And I also have a podcast called Health Razors.

Yeah, and so Health Razors is, uh, a real— I've shared this with other clients that have podcasts. The average number of downloads on any podcast episode is 10, and you, your podcast gets way better than that. So if you're, if you're a wise woman, I would strongly encourage you tune in to Nadine's broadcast and go to her site and check out her work. She's doing fantastic work making change happen with wise women, uh, as opposed to wise-ass women. So, so you and I have known each other for a while in digital years. It's been a very long time. Uh, we met through Akimbo Workshops. You and I have worked on the same coaching team as Akimbo Coaches. You actually took over for, uh, my role as head coach of Creatives Workshop and have been doing that for the last two sessions. Um, and Now we're working together. And I would love to just hear what was, what was the biggest challenge that you were experiencing when, just before we started working together?

It's really funny, because I decided to take the leap. And I got on the phone with you for that introduction. Well, a Zoom call for that introductory call. And I'll never forget it. Because I am a person who just prides herself on getting things So I remember coming with a list, a long list. I shared my screen. I was so proud of myself, Scott. I'm like, these are the things I want to accomplish for NPK Health Integration. And I just remember kind of glancing at you while we were looking at the list together and I could see you inside going, oh, really? Okay. You didn't interrupt me to your credit. And at the end it was kind of like, oh, all right, we're, so we're just here for a lot of busyness, which is not the way I saw it. So that was my biggest challenge. I'm very good at productivity. I'm not a procrastinator. So it was all about, well, if I get all these projects done, then I'll be more successful. I was on this marketing hamster wheel thinking I had to keep producing more content, better content, and no understanding of why my beautiful content, my babies, were not resonating with my Yeah, I remember that.

And, you know, the thing is, that was me, and it is so many of the people that come to me is they're, they're doing all the things that the gurus and the influencers and the experts are telling us to do and not really getting results and creating a full-time job out of just keeping their social media content up and managing their website and creating blog posts, creating broadcasts. And so a lot of times people like you that are capable of being really productive, it's more an aspect of what are the things that we need to stop doing so that we can start investing, reinvesting that time, energy, and money into the things that are actually giving you a significant return on investment. And I appreciated your patience with me as I was delivering that little bit of empathetic antagonism. So you decided after that discovery call to go ahead and jump in. What made you decide to work with me as your coach?

As you mentioned at the top of the call, we had already worked together for a long time. So I had been able to, in a digital space, really only— we still haven't met in person yet, Scott Perry. We've got to rectify that. But, you know, over that time, I just got to know you. I got to trust you. I what I began to appreciate, and I still do, is your candor and being, and being able to get right to the heart of things. There's no cruft with you. So I needed that. I needed to hear, we need to— less is more. I always look at that sign behind you. Less is more. Less is more. And I try to remind myself it's quality over quantity. So I knew that we would be a good match. It would be very complimentary. To kind of rein me in and have me become more focused on what was important to get to the people I really want to help.

Yeah, well, I was so thrilled when you reached out and then decided to pull the trigger and start working together. I think I shared with you that I've had so much respect for you and your work for so long, and I had always secretly said, oh, I really hope I get to work with Nadine someday. She's making such a profound difference, and I would love to accelerate that. And One of the things that made you such a fantastic— makes you such a fantastic client is your willingness to keep open loops and explore the edges of understanding of your ability and to receive insight and feedback. It's one of the things that is— I think about a lot in terms of my coaching approaches. I've worked with lots of coaches, some of them good, some of them not so good, who talk about, well, I don't coach for agreement, I coach for insight. And I've always thought that Insight's interesting and it's important, but insight that doesn't lead to intentional action is actually kind of useless, which is how I've developed this approach of empathetic antagonism to not only help you see what you don't see, but to get under your skin just enough to step into your potential and a better possibility. And your willingness to allow me and to embrace that has really been so, just so fulfilling for me. So just thank you for being you.

Thank you.

So was there anything so far particular about working together that you felt was really helpful? Or why do you think that the work we've done has been so effective so far?

What I've really gleaned from our time together focusing— and it's just been 8 weeks, and I've seen so much progress. But for me, I've had to rein in Based on being the very human that I am, on social media, you know, we want to see big and a lot and quick, but it's about quality over quantity. It's less is more. So I've seen so much progress with that approach in your guidance and breaking things down, taking things step by step, making what seems overwhelming and unmanageable And sometimes feeling hopeless, like I'm screaming into the chasm. Step by step, bite-sized pieces.

Yeah, I love that. Well, I really appreciate that reflection. Because for me, it's all— it's, it's about exploring potential, which always has risk. And risk has an upside, which we want to exploit, but it also has a downside that we want to avoid. And that incremental step, step-by-step approach, I call it the smallest viable next step is how most of us make progress, as opposed to the big, bold, audacious leaps that sometimes work out, but more often than not, we just blow ourselves up or burn out. So we've been working together for 8 weeks. We're going to be working together a lot longer than that. What, what has happened so far for your business since we've been working together?

More engagement, because I'm all about community. I'm really, really focused on creating community, supporting community for the women I serve. And so I've seen more engagement with my posts. I have increased my energy when it comes to posting. I was starting to feel such burnout because it was just window dressing. And I'm wondering— and I was again wondering why no one was responding, but it was really just What I didn't understand was just having a one-sided conversation or not a conversation at all. So, it's been encouraging to get some engagement, more engagement than I had. And to really be more thoughtful then because taking a step back from 5 times a week to 3 times a week, making the content more concise, making— not hiding behind fluff. Because the women I serve don't have time. We feel overwhelmed. So why would I dish out material that just adds noise to her life? So just that reframe, that shift, has had me connecting with more women. As a matter of fact, someone today on LinkedIn called someone in to one of my posts and said, you know, you should really see this. This is, you know, she's doing great work. I hadn't experienced that before.

Well, and you're such a— so experienced and such a pro at what you do. And for so many of us, Nick Peterson talks about function over form. But a lot of times we get enamored with all the, the, the, the way things look and how elegant they might be or how beautiful, you know, the, the picture is, the layout is, but ultimately we just want to get a result. We want to get it as effortlessly as possible, which means we need to do what's essential and what's essential only. We can work on all the other form stuff later. And what I love about seeing you get this kind of engagement so quickly is that we're going to see soon that those that engagement leads to more conversations. Those conversations will lead to more discovery calls. Those discovery calls will then begin to be able to be closed at a higher rate, uh, with better conversion. So it's, again, you have to step into these processes, but you're, you're already knocking it out of the park on LinkedIn and Facebook and Instagram with everything that you're doing. Um, how have things changed for you in terms of your, your life and business?

Because after achieving this outcome of, of more engagement, more confidence, and more freedom because I feel lighter because I've gotten rid of— when we did our audit and looked at everything I was doing, including that ridiculous list I presented you in the beginning, I think it was like 5 or 6 things on there too, and not little things either. Um, just kind of stripping those away. So again, it's given me more freedom, more play. I feel more creative. I feel like I'm very practical, so I can appear that way. I can just talk to my audience and not have to put on a big song and dance on social media. So it, it's all of a virtuous circle and cycle where I am gaining more and more confidence and faith and trust that I will connect with my audience.

Yeah. Well, and I'm seeing that already. And I, I remember one of the things that you said to me was, you're going to give this one more go. And then if it didn't work out, perhaps it was time to consider just early retirement or something. So it's— and which would have been a great disservice to the world and to the to the people that need you to show up in their lives so your work can enhance the lives that they're leading. Where do you think you would be right now if you hadn't trusted yourself enough to invest in yourself and working together?

I'm glad you brought up what you, you just said about the retirement, because I did feel like I wanted to throw my hands up, or yeah, if I didn't accomplish all of these big projects. Um, and it really felt terrifying and a bit hopeless and sad because I left a previous career. As you know, I retired, um, as a physician. I was a pathologist in 2011. So this is my second career, and to want to give up just really felt horrible. If I hadn't started with you, I think I'd be close to giving up, and I would still be spinning my wheels in productivity.

Yeah. And that would, again, what a disservice it would have been to the wise woman that you serve. So, so grateful that we connected and have got you going in a great direction. If anybody right now is listening to this and on the fence about just booking that free discovery call to see if coaching, a coaching relationship might be a path for their greater success and fulfillment. What would you say to them?

Embrace possibility. Trust yourself so that you can trust Scott Perry. And once you have that in place, Get ready to work.

Nadine Kelly, you are such a rock star. I am so proud and pleased and privileged to be able to call you not just a client, but a friend. I, you know, I deeply appreciate the work that you do and the difference that you make. So, so grateful for our ability and to work— have worked together for the past couple of months, but that we're going to be spending another 3 months or so together. So I can't wait to get back at it with you and just keep helping you fly higher and the difference that you seek to make. And, and just, uh, thank you for your time today.

Thank you, right back at you. I so appreciate you. Um, I can't do this without you.

Thank you, Nadia.