Marc’s Strength is Building A Private Practice & Helping His Client’s Scale Up!

Libby Rothschild: [00:00:01] Hello and welcome, Dr. Marc Morris is a nutrition coach and educator living in Saskatchewan, Canada. With a decade of experience in online coaching, Marc has been obsessed with health and fitness since a teenager and taking him in many places from athletic pursuits like competing in coaching at powerlifting world championships to academic endeavors like teaching macronutrients and metabolism to dietetics students. Marc’s current focus has shifted from his one-on-one nutrition coaching business to the Dr Marc Method, a 12-week nutrition coaching course. Welcome to today’s episode Marc.

 

Marc Morris: [00:00:55] Thanks for having me. So I’m looking forward to chatting about all things nutrition and education.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:01:02] I’m happy to have you here, and what a great bio, where you live is very hard to pronounce.

 

Marc Morris: [00:01:08] Totally. That actually has been the butt of many jokes, both in Canadian and American pop culture. I forget what video, ah, what movie it is. But yes, it’s Saskatoon. Sometimes the names blend together and stuff. But yeah, it’s Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:01:23] Is there a nickname or an abbreviation for that or are people forced to say the whole thing?

 

Marc Morris: [00:01:29] Well Saskatoon is easier to say than Saskatchewan. I think a lot of locals actually will, you’ll realize that people that aren’t from here because they say Saskatchewan and I grew up in Windsor, Ontario, which is really close to Detroit. So my dialect is different than everyone here anyway. So my a’s are different. But, yeah, there’s no nickname, but I think you should keep it in exactly the way it was.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:01:56] I believe that’s over seven syllables. That’s a lot for me to handle in an intro for a location. I’ve just put that out there by not removing that. All right. So happy to have you on the show and talk about all kinds of really important things, especially about your growth, what you’re up to, the contributions you’re making to the field of dietetics, and your unique background. So can you first kick us off and talk about your two businesses and how you’ve learned how to focus your message?

 

Marc Morris: [00:02:23] Yeah, that’s definitely been something that I’ve really worked at and struggled with in the past. So historically, like when I was finishing my Ph.D. in 2015, I had started doing some online coaching with, you know, body composition clients, powerlifters, those type of individuals for probably since 2012. The main focus of my business was one on one coaching. When we’re doing that type of stuff, we’re talking to individuals that want to get stronger and get leaner. So that was the main focus of my business. In the last little bit, and it was kind of in the vein of I was trying to build a team around me and I was teaching dietitians and training nutrition professionals to come on board and work within my business. And for the longest time, it wouldn’t work out for a bunch of different reasons, just differences in philosophy or timing and that kind of stuff. So I’d be left off. I’d be left with like investing three to six months in people and not having anything to show for it. So having an education background, I wanted to create like a certification program and just kind of flip the script. So at least at the end, you know, I’ve been paid for it. Right. Initially, I wasn’t being smart about going about my business, trying to build out a team and not have some of those safety nets in place. But I flipped the script and started working on my own certification program, and that’s been the focus of my work in, I would say, the last six months to last year is more of a business-to-business nutrition certification program stream. There’s overlap between those two things, be it people, individuals that want to change their nutrition, to transform their bodies and athletic pursuits with passionate people and nutrition professionals that want to build out a coaching business. There’s some overlap, but they’re also completely distinct things. So for the longest time, I was kind of mashing these messages together with subpar results and my business was growing but just because of referrals and people having a good experience, not because of what my social media was doing and I was kind of caught in the trap of probably just posting for the sake of posting and trying to highlight what I was doing. And not really landing. For the last little bit I’ve really focused on the majority of my energy on the Dr. Marc method, which is the certification coaching program and messaging around that and focusing really on who are those people I’m trying to help, what are their pain points? What do they need to get going? And the results have been much, much better. So the biggest thing would be just being distinct and saying, like, these are two different things. Let’s focus on one of them. That I think is a hurdle in itself that most people don’t even know exists or get to right there, like, why can’t I just post about all these, all the different things that I do and stuff? And it just gets really confusing. Right.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:05:23] So in order to break that down, that’s really well said. What helped you focus your message? Can you give a couple examples of what specifically you did to focus that, whether it be from focusing on one of your businesses or even more tactical, some of what you’ve done with your one business that’s helped you?

 

Marc Morris: [00:05:42] The biggest thing would definitely be only posting about the one business that I want to grow, and that’s not to say that the other one isn’t important, but just finding other ways to highlight that outside of my platform and have members of my team do that separate of myself. So just so it doesn’t get confusing is the biggest thing. And then strategically, tactically taking a step back and thinking, OK, who are the people that are going to benefit and who do I serve within the main program that I’m trying to highlight now and making content just for them?

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:06:17] Yeah, and what helped you get there to that point, specific exercise, specific kind of planning strategy, what would you say would be the biggest takeaway?

 

Marc Morris: [00:06:25] With our work together, we did a lot of ideal client types, framework stuff. So that would be one of the biggest ones, and even sometimes just thinking about, you know, the archetype of who is the person you’re trying to help, even literally someone you’ve helped in the past and using them as sort of an example in building off that sometimes it can be a pretty elusive exercise. You’re like, well, who are these people? It’s all over the place. But just like starting at that point or working backwards and thinking or creating this person would be good. But yeah, the ideal client structure is really good. That is a good exercise, but just the iterative process of trying different things, subtle changes, just like the scientific method and then just measuring what’s working, right. There’s optimal things that you can be doing and some strategy around this, but a lot of times people get so stuck in theory that they don’t do anything at all. So carrying out some action-based pieces, actually posting stuff and then measuring if it’s getting you the results that you’re looking for would be just as important as the other exercises. Right.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:07:34] So what results specifically are you discussing?

 

Marc Morris: [00:07:38] Well, at the end of the day, outcome of signing people up is the most important thing that matters. But there’s other proxies of generating interest, right? So be it website clicks or pushing people to that something specifically they you want them to do. So it’s like either pushing them towards signing up and if they’re clicking on it or going to check something out, I’ve learned through time the more specific you can be with it and the more clear cut, the better your results will be. You may not get more website clicks or anything like that, but at least people will be doing what you are asking them to be doing, which is not just generating interest. It’s probably checking things out and be more likely to sign up.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:08:22] You’re talking about a call to action, like telling somebody to do something and then measuring your social media insights to see that they took that action. You’re free to do that when you’re A – specific B – creating content for an identifying, C- using a call to action and then D – posting on one business, right?

 

Marc Morris: [00:08:40] Totally. Yeah.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:08:43] It’s hard if you’re not focused on one.

 

Marc Morris: [00:08:45] Yeah. I think with the call-to-action piece, too, like the more specific you can be about it, the better results you’ll get with that really important outcome, which is getting people to sign up and actually pay you. Right. I think a lot of people can say, go check out this for more details and you might get more clicks. But that’s not what you want, really. Right. You want them to sign up. You want them to hire you. You want to ultimately be paid in a client-coach relationship so that you can actually help them because that’s the best way for us to actually help people is, we all like to talk about sales and making money. But that’s just a proxy of your ability to help people in a lot of cases, right?

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:09:26] Absolutely. And so what you’re saying and I’m understanding is that a clear call to action that doesn’t just say check this out, but it tells people that you can help serve them and specifically, how it’s going to get them to take that action and be more likely to become clients so that you can help more people? Is that correct?

 

Marc Morris: [00:09:44] Yep, absolutely. Especially if you can mention things that you’re going to need to register. You’re going to need to buy something. But this is ultimately what’s best for you.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:09:53] Speaking of calls to action, I mean, you speak like this is so fluid and I love that. Marc, has this ever been difficult for you calls to action or stories or anything like that? Has there ever been a time when this has been a challenge or have you always just woken up feeling like you’re just owning the Dr. Marc Method every day?

 

Marc Morris: [00:10:10] Libby, that sounds mildly rhetorical. I think I always knew the importance of calls to action and using them, but I was using them intermittently, not on every post, just when it felt like the appropriate time. I think I learned that there probably isn’t an appropriate time, it’s one of those things where it gets easier with time doing calls to action more repetitively, finding different ways to work it in. Right. Because like, sometimes you gotta get a little bit creative in terms of or does this feel off, it doesn’t fit like that type of thing, but it’s ultimately just signaling to people that you’re a coach for hire and you can help them and this is the best way for you to help them.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:10:56] Absolutely. And so what you’re saying is you’ve got more creative. It’s gotten easier with time. Would you say that calls to action are more difficult on the stories versus a still post on your feed? Or is it just in general, that of calls to action is just the whole project?

 

Marc Morris: [00:11:11] And yeah, no, I think I would say stories. I think any time you’re selling via video; it can be a little bit tougher in written because you hit publish and it’s done with, type of thing. I think what kind of becomes problematic, especially with stories, personally me, selling person to person, even via video, isn’t as hard as just putting it out there, my face talking to the World Wide Web, saying, come buy this. To me that makes me feel just slightly uncomfortable as opposed to me saying, hey, Libby, this is the best option for you. I want you to sign up, I have no problem saying that it’s when I’m just like putting it out there. I’m not sure who is going to receive that message, that part can be tough, but it gets much easier with time.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:11:58] So your tip breaks through the discomfort, do it because it gets easier and would you say there’s high value in doing the video calls to action? Is it worth it for people to breakthrough? Because a lot of the listeners are saying, oh, my goodness, I couldn’t do calls to action consistently on video that would feel uncomfortable. But what I want to reinforce is how important it is for you to speak to many people on video and connect with them so that they know you exist and you can solve the problem that they’re struggling with.

 

Marc Morris: [00:12:29] Yeah, no, it’s worth breaking through the discomfort for sure, and it does get easier. I think there are other ways around it, too, right. You could be speaking via video and then just try like a still image at the end of the video with the call to action. If that feels uncomfortable to you, that could be a good Segway into just literally saying now you got to sign up, right? That could be a good first step. But I think the more comfortable option is if you can just break through that right away and do it and realize that most people don’t care, they’re not going to be offended by it, the ones that are slightly offended by it aren’t going to buy it from you anyway. So we’re not going to care about them then. That’s the best way to see, you know, just break through it.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:13:11] Yeah. And I appreciate you sharing your story and inspiring the listeners. So before we talk a little bit about your team, because I want to get into the Dr. Marc Method and what you’re doing and how you’re serving people. Can we talk a little bit about your revenue growth and what led to that and how focusing on social media has helped you serve more people?

 

Marc Morris: [00:13:33] Yeah, no, absolutely. If we want to get specific with the numbers in my one-on-one coaching for the longest time, which would have been my predominant business two to three years ago, I was doing anywhere between 10 and maybe a best of 14 to 15 thousand dollar months, that would be. So that’s a great little business, like making six figure income, very happy with it. But as someone that wants to help more people, is motivated by results, and wants to grow things, I knew there were some logical next steps and a big piece of that was not just further running myself into the ground for the sake of because that wouldn’t be any more fun. I could take on more clients at the same price points and work myself to the bone, work 100 hours a week, and just continue to live out this Superman complex. We started a coaching relationship, I knew that you were going to force me to do some things in focus, which I think a lot of times people, A, if you’re not sure what that change needs to be, just be coachable, but additionally, when you’re ready and you know that you’ve got to embrace change like it makes things a lot easier. So focusing on my one-on-one business and letting that take the back seat, not marketing or messaging to it anymore, letting my team take that on and focus on the Dr. Marc method was the biggest thing for my growth. We’ve essentially flipped what is now the predominant income earner and my priorities and everything is almost doubled. Right. So what we used to be a 15-thousand-dollar month. It was almost like a linear growth from 16 to 19 to 23. And then my most recent best month ever was just under 29 thousand, which is amazing. Right.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:15:29] Incredible. Yes. But how do you feel about that growth?

 

Marc Morris: [00:15:34] It’s amazing. I’m thrilled. I’m really, really happy. Obviously, any time you put effort into something and see results, it’s contagious and exciting like that part is really, really good. I think that’s probably one of the reasons why I fell in love with weight training and nutrition right at the beginning. Right. As someone that maybe was a little lost early in life and was able to put effort into something and see results like it’s contagious. I’ve been able to apply that kind of stuff to my business, and it’s really empowering. Right? It’s like, oh, man, this is actually working. And it doesn’t matter if it’s your first sale, like the first time you get an E transfer or a PayPal notification, you’re like this is actually working to, you know, doubling your growth or revenue or anything like that, it’s contagious. So it feels amazing, but at the same time, I would say I’ve been very focused over the last four months, but I’m not sure the total amount of work I’ve done has been more than a previous couple of years. It’s been more focused. But I don’t think I’ve been, like, killing myself to get here. I’ve definitely been more focused and there’s been some long nights and stuff, but I wouldn’t say to the same extent that I had been in the past, just saying like take on more clients, take on more clients, scarcity mindset type thing.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:16:55] That’s a good observation, so if I’m understanding this correctly, plus or minus the same amount of inputs into the business, but exceptionally higher, double more than double output, meaning you went from 10K months to 29K months. The same amount of work. That’s exceptional. Why do you think that’s the case?

 

Marc Morris: [00:17:14] Focusing on what’s the best way to help people and make money, so what’s the most profitable activity and then making sure the marketing messaging aligns with that and not anything else, and that doesn’t mean that you can’t highlight other things or anything like that. It’s just like the majority of your work. People need to know what you do and you have to make it very clear what you do. And then just from there, finding ways to continue to spread that message, right?

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:17:44] Yeah, yeah. And it sounds simple, but it’s a hard lesson for many of us to learn.

 

Marc Morris: [00:17:50] Totally. Yes. Yes, it really is. It’s almost like the process of simplifying can be really uncomfortable at times, too. Right. Especially when you’re thinking like, well, how do I spread this message? How do I talk to these people? A lot of times it feels uncomfortable because it’s not at the level that we’re at, you know? I mean, and you don’t want to feel like you’re speaking down to someone, but you need to make it much more relatable to them. And that process can be uncomfortable. I found a lot of times even recently I feel like I’m speaking two levels up from where my ideal client is. I always got to remind myself, no, take this a step back. Right.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:18:27] I love that example. I think that’s really relatable for the listeners. So I hope everyone listening takes a minute to process this conversation. So just a follow-up to that. If you were to explain what it was like posting on social media before you had an ideal client versus now, what would you say is the difference with the process, meaning how you went about it, aside from maybe not being organized? Is it just that now there’s so much clarity and there’s higher results, calls to action, etc? Or do you just feel more confident or a combination of all of the above? I’m trying to paint a picture of somebody who doesn’t have an ideal client or has a loose one versus somebody who does and how that creates such a more clear process for you to market yourself.

 

Marc Morris: [00:19:14] Yeah, I think someone, speaking from my own experience when I didn’t have an ideal client, I felt aimless for sure. I didn’t know who I was posting to and I didn’t know exactly how they’re going to receive that message or what they really needed help with was the biggest thing. I wouldn’t say I have a checklist, but I have some main things, I have a guide for what I should be talking about, how that should look. And I think once you kind of can work that, I don’t know, system or whatever you want to call it, that’s where you gain confidence about speaking about it. Right. It might not feel super confident and painless at first, but once you know exactly what they need to hear, what exactly they want to hear so that you can put them in a position to evoke some sort of change, which is essentially what marketing is. Right. Then that process becomes easier. But I think the biggest thing with not having an ideal client structure or an avatar or whatever you want to call that, is that you just don’t know who they are, you don’t know what to talk about. So you’re constantly spinning your wheels saying, what do they want to hear? Right. Whereas those things that you’re speaking about, those pain points, those solutions, that kind of stuff, it can change over time, but at least you have them to focus on and measure it if that’s actually what these people need to hear.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:20:33] So helpful. So just to recap what you’re saying there, for those of you listening who are not one hundred percent sure on drawing a line in the sand and making a decision, even if it’s big, is going to be better than nothing, because, as Marc said, your pain points, et cetera, how you’re helping serve people in marketing can evolve over time. But it’s harder to have a default if you don’t have a baseline. Basically, you just have to start and put yourself out there and build. As we said, it’s an iterative process to get better at marketing, to get more clear with connecting with your ideal client, to make sure you’re not talking down to them, then to let go of the fears you have with talking down to them. Those are all just part of the process.

 

Marc Morris: [00:21:09] It is. It absolutely is. I think sometimes thinking about what would you say to one of your own clients. Right. That was a little bit aimless and trying a bunch of different things. The first thing you would say is like, no, we’ve got to try one specific thing out, find out what’s going to work for you, and then measure it through time. Right. All of us know what that is going to counseling practice. Right? We do it all the time. We wouldn’t say just try this or that. If someone has a specific result that they’re after, they have a goal, they have to focus on certain things and do that and only that. And then we measure if it works, we would all be able to say that to a client. But when it comes to our own stuff and using social media in that way, we struggle with it.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:21:54] Yeah, we do. And it’s possible to overcome it. So I appreciate your acknowledging that that’s real. That’s how you felt. That’s how a lot of us feel. And I love your story saying, you don’t have to stay in that zone, you move past it and find a way to make it work. Beautiful. All right. So I was hoping you could talk a little bit about your team and how you help dietitians make money and figure out their purpose, if you could talk a little bit about that end of it.

 

Marc Morris: [00:22:22] Yeah, absolutely. So we have a wide variety of nutritional professionals working within our practice. And one of the focuses of the Dr. Marc Method is using flexible dieting and tracking based dieting strategies to help people reach their body composition goals. So we have a bunch of different nutrition professionals working within that to be able to live that out, both dietitians and fitness types doing those sorts of things. And yeah, it’s been really great. I have always viewed, through my education, like through my Ph.D., I was teaching full courses to the dietetic students and just really within that process came to realize and know that dietitians are the nutrition professionals. In terms of this hierarchy, they should always be at the top. I’ve always tried to promote them as such and give them a platform to be able to educate others. So that’s one of the main things we’re doing at the Dr. Marc method, slash poly-health, the other one on one business is giving them an opportunity to speak their message of evidence-based practice and how that translates into counseling and coaching and really fulfill that purpose. Because I don’t know, in my experience in the dietetics college, just going into private practice seems to be the most daunting thing. It’s what a lot of people want to do, but there aren’t a lot of methods and ways for them to be able to put themselves out there. If anything, at times it almost feels like some of the structures are handcuffing them to do quite the opposite. Right. So I’ve always been an advocate of giving them, dietitian specifically, a platform and getting them involved.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:24:09] And so how so do you think they’re handcuffed? And then a follow-up to that would be how do you help get them involved?

 

Marc Morris: [00:24:16] Totally. Well, everyone’s like province and state seems to be a little bit different. Right. So I don’t want to generalize too much. The province that I’m currently living in, dietitians can’t even promote their client success, like actual testimonial content is in their governmental framework. They’re not allowed to speak about it. That makes it really tough to market anything in private practice. There’s ways around that, but it’s really difficult.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:24:44] So I just want to step in there and say something about that. For people who are feeling scared or alone with what Marc is saying, I don’t know any territory that allows testimonials. It’s also true in Australia, there are different regions that don’t allow it for many purposes, including how reimbursement works in those territories and countries and etc. I just want to represent and say you can still market effectively and make money and hit your goals with respecting these laws and restrictions. So there still are ways to do it. Of course, it kind of stinks and it’s frustrating, but there are ways around that. I have successful clients in these countries and territories who’s been able to breakthrough. So we know for sure.

 

Marc Morris: [00:25:27] I think we’re trying to highlight that there are ways that you can build a successful private practice within these rules. And I don’t know if the idea is to maybe push the rules in terms of changing them at a certain extent, then maybe it is because I don’t think it’s actually what’s right for the client or the dietitian. I don’t think that the dietetics colleges are doing a good job of highlighting how you could do that within the rules. Correct me if I’m wrong. I know that this is changing, but just generally. Right. So I don’t know. I guess making sure that we’re trying to push the boundaries in terms of what you can do to build a successful private practice, and that’s where I feel like I’ve been trying to empower dietitians to be able to do that specifically on my team, but elsewhere too.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:26:17] That’s beautiful, so how do you empower them on your team and how do you represent and empower outside your team? Is it just that you’re trying to advocate and let them know that they are the nutrition professionals and try to incentivize them and encourage them to go down the trajectory of private practices? That kind of the leadership role you’re assuming publicly meaning outside of your team?

 

Marc Morris: [00:26:36] Yeah, yeah, I would say outside of my team for sure. I say within my team some of the dietitian professionals that are on it, I’m just saying that, like, hey, these are the things that you need to do in terms of marketing yourself. Sometimes it means asking for clients and putting yourself out there. I think that’s one of the biggest things as simple as it is. Right.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:26:55] All right. So what are the three things you empower your team? Number one, you tell them to ask for clients. That sounds obvious, but many people don’t want to do that. We’ve already talked about that call to action, how we all have our own excuses and limitations.

 

Marc Morris: [00:27:07] Yeah, I really feel strongly that dietitians are the nutrition experts and I try to give them every platform that they can to spread the message of evidence based practice and just give them a platform, because there’s just so much quackery out there outside of evidence based practice that I feel like the best way of approaching this isn’t so much enforcing that those people shouldn’t be doing that, as opposed to highlighting what is actually true and an evidence based practice and trying to spread that message. Right, like don’t say, hey, you know, weight loss clinic here that actually isn’t true. You shouldn’t be doing this. Let’s come down with an iron fist and shut this place down. It’s like, no, let’s get those types of people sitting in front of an educated dietetics professional and learning what is actually true so that they can see that, you know, that we do actually know a lot about this stuff and it does work and kind of putting them in that sense. So that’s one of the biggest things in terms of giving dietitians a platform. I try to do at every opportunity.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:28:20] Ok, love that. So you’re saying number one about your team, you empower them to ask for clients. Number two, give them a platform to spread their message. Anything else that you do or would you say those sum it up?

 

Marc Morris: [00:28:33] I would say that that would sum it up. But even within the team, giving them every opportunity for us to be educated. Right. Because a formal four-to-five-year dietitian degree with the practicum is a very valuable thing, especially when it’s positioned in the right way.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:28:51] Yeah, well, the emphasis is you have to position that in the right way, because if you don’t, you’re not really doing any service for yourself and for consumers. Everything is about the marketing. Having the degree is not enough. You have to be able to use it. And if you don’t, then we’re creating a bottleneck for ourselves. So there’s nothing more important than learning how to market ourselves to make money, represents evidence-based nutrition and help consumers get the health outcomes that they want. Anything else you want to share about your team, lessons you’ve learned assuming a leadership position, anything that would be insightful for the listeners who are just totally thinking and dreaming of the idea of being an entrepreneur that can manage a team someday.

 

Marc Morris: [00:29:37] Yeah, well, I do feel like I’m in the thick of things in terms of team building. I would be completely lying and dishonest if I said I had it all figured out.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:29:45] But we’re all a work in progress. So you’re doing great. You’re doing amazing work with your team.

 

Marc Morris: [00:29:53] No, totally. But I just want to put that out there, pulling from lessons from that kind of stuff. I think all of us are just trying to do a better job of listening is the biggest thing, not assuming things. I think that’s been a big theme about what people want and what drives them and motivates them. That’s been a big lesson for me.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:30:16] Can you give an example, because, you know, I like specificity. How you use listening skills to improve team camaraderie and outcomes, something of that extent and reasons for sure.

 

Marc Morris: [00:30:28] Well, I think the biggest thing with me, obviously, I’m pretty results focused and objective about things, but that doesn’t mean everyone on your team is going to be the exact same way, and I don’t think it’s necessary because you want people with different skill sets and things that matter differently to them. It doesn’t mean that everyone needs to fall in the same path and doesn’t mean you can’t be on a team because, you know, you want diverse skill sets and people that can serve other people. But listening specifically. So having a conversation around with my coaches about what they truly want out of their careers and their lives is something that’s been, I would say, a specific example. So I assume everyone else wants to make money because it’s the best way to help people where other people just genuinely they are fulfilled and feel purpose through helping others, not making money. Where I wouldn’t say I’m completely money focused, but it’s a predominant thing just because I know it’s a kind of a proxy for growth and the ability to help people. But other people just want to have that one-on-one interaction where they help people, and that might mean that they don’t care as much as getting more clients or making more money. But where they really feel fulfilled is that service piece, then just acting on that and putting them in positions where that is going to be best utilized, as opposed to just assuming that they want to make money and pushing them to get more clients and stuff.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:31:57] Yeah, that’s great. So I’m hearing some parallels between asking and listening to team members in what they want is the same as asking and listening to your ideal client, learning what they want so you can deliver it to them, because when you’re able to deliver that through your marketing and give that to your audience, you can make money and get results and then be happy and fulfilled as well as you can produce more results if your team also feels fulfilled. So having those listening skills across the board is really important. I love that you said, oh, well, I just, you know, I want results. But that doesn’t mean that everybody else wants the same thing.

 

Marc Morris: [00:32:33] Yeah. Or their definition of results is going to be completely different from you. You’re not going to know that unless you ask and not just assume. I think it’s very typical in a leadership position to assume what you think people want because that’s what you want. Yeah, right.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:32:51] That’s really powerful, and I love hearing you reflect on that, because I think those are really important lessons for the listeners to hear about and then just for you to share. It’s really nice and vulnerable for you to be able to share your experiences and your growth. So if you could just talk a little bit about, talking about your company and your method, talk a little bit about the evolution of the Dr. Marc Method, kind of how it got to where it is today, even just the name of Dr. Marc.

 

Marc Morris: [00:33:18] I love strategy, and I feel like when I finally realized what that thing is, I have no problem running with it. So as I mentioned before, it started off as I was having these almost like mentorship opportunities where I would be training people. It wouldn’t work out, and then I’d be left sinking three to six months into working with someone and trying to get them as part of my team. And it just wouldn’t work out. So the coaching program was kind of my way of flipping the script and saying, like, hey, you can pay me for this up front. If it works out great, if not at least I’ve been paid. You have some skin in the game, which is important, right. Just like our clients. I would help everyone for free if they would take it seriously and do it like I would. I love this stuff, but we all know that that just isn’t the case. Right? We’ve got to place value on things. That’s how people become invested and actually do the things that we want them to do. So that was the intent behind that is like I’m tired of this. I also wanted to get back to teaching was one of the biggest things that’s really important to me. You do that a lot of times within your clients, but it’s not the same way with your clients, but it’s not the same structured relationship as like a formal education experience. So I wanted to get back to that. For the longest time I was calling it the Poly Health Nutrition Coaching Masterclass, which we realized that it wasn’t actually a master class, but I was just using a buzzword to like, I don’t know, promote it or an image or a lot of times, personally and I don’t know if you disagree with this, I would get so caught up in the name before creating something as opposed to creating something valuable and then and then figuring out the details later. But at the same time, words are important. So the evolution became it was, you know, it had started as a way to build my team out, educate them and make some money, be it a small piece of my business, to the main piece of my business, focusing all of my energy in that really getting back to geeking out on teaching and doing some of that high level stuff that I probably wanted to be talking about, but just wouldn’t have landed with my ideal client at the time, which was truly a consumer, as opposed to a professional. So getting back to that and just being able to impact more people and one of the cool features about my course is in the last module, they work with a test client, and I supervise them. So it comes full circle and they actually try these things out and their clients see results in progress, and we talk about it. So it’s like I’m having impact on clients without ever having to do it. That to me is like the coolest thing. It’s so fulfilling to be able to do that and not have to be in the process and doing it. So I’m helping people gain those skills and the confidence to be able to do that, and it’s been really, really, really cool. So I guess where that all led to is, I have a university teaching background. I’m really interested in adult education. We had done some like branding type tests to try to figure out, you know, who am I, what does this program do, what does it serve? And it was very much aligning with that sage archetype or kind of the professor type thing. So using terms that were analytical and scientific really speaks to who I am. I’m just this person on a journey of trying to understand the world and teach people what I know. It just aligned with that. That’s what I’m trying to do, that professor type mentality. So the name came out, I have my Ph.D. I might as well call it the Dr. Marc something and method, I don’t know if it’s alliteration, but it falls in line with a strategy and testing things and scientific type testing, so that’s where we’re at, I don’t know.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:37:16] So two follow up questions to that. What are the benefits of having a method and then how long did that process take you if you were to just get a little bit of a high-level overview to get it done? Now, of course, it’s still a work in progress, just the kind of the framework of having it progress. and be more clear, how long did it take for you to get it to where it is now? Is that a yearlong? Is that a couple of years?

 

Marc Morris: [00:37:46] Yeah, I would say, from conception to where it is right now. It took almost two years. It was iterative at every step. Yeah, I think there’s probably things that I did right off the hop that I were positive and some that were negatives and stuff, but like learning lots, I think using Kajabi right off the hop as a tactical thing was like a huge investment from my current viewpoint. Right. I was like, oh, man, this is three grand a year. Am I going to use that, especially for a course that was pretty much unknown at that time. So that was a huge leap of faith. I was like, you know, a certain level you got to be able to scale things up and stuff, but making those type of decisions and a bunch of mistakes along the way. But yeah, it’s been a two year process.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:38:34] Ok, so two-year process and I’m less interested in tactical and more interested in what is the benefit of you creating your idea into a method like you had mentioned, you’re able to now enjoy it because you’re able to walk people through it and be a part of helping their clients. Would you say that what you’ve created and how it’s evolved over the last two years is something that is efficient, repeatable, something that you feel clear about something it’s more profitable. What are the benefits of spending the time, a couple of years, as you said, making some investments in something like the portal where your housing information, what’s the benefit of making this into a method and having it be more clear and more tight?

 

Marc Morris: [00:39:15] Well, it’s marketable now, right, I can actually talk about it in a way that people can understand what it is and a lot of times, one of the examples I like to give is in 2015, I gave a talk to a pilates studio about nutrition. So I went out like it was just a general, my general bread and butter body composition talk, I have been in contact with the individual who runs his studio since that time, 2015. We follow each other on Instagram, not so much back and forth, but we’re seeing each other’s content and what we’re putting out. So once we started working together, I shifted my focus to the Dr. Marc method and marketing that, and I literally was posting every day about it for about three months and this person from the palates studio reached out to me and said, oh, it sounds like a coaching program. That sounds interesting, like let’s talk about it. So we set up like a sales call and we got on the call and she literally had no idea what it was about, like not even a shred of it. I had literally been posting about it, like what I felt was like so repetitively for months. We’re at the point where now I’m posting like two times a day, right. About the exact same thing, like not really any deviation aspects of it, but the exact same thing. So this person had no idea what it was, and that’s how hard it is sometimes to get your message across. We think, oh, I’m being really clear with what is I do, what it looks like, how you’re going to feel about it. But you have like, you have no idea. Right? It needs to be so much clearer. So is the process of tightening that up. So being able to market something is ideally kind of skipping that step of having to explain something to a person.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:41:12] Yeah, I mean, in addition to the marketing piece, which is everything. The ease of the more clear your method is, the more clear you walk someone through it with success, the more they can predict and the more you can predict and then better you can run your business. So having a method and then improving on that and focusing on that is going to be beneficial. So I think that’s the gold standard in nutrition is when you can develop a method and however you want to use it. I’ve got clients that have a method in their membership, got a method for private coaching programs, courses, etc. I’ve got my method by the Dietitian Boss method. It’s extremely beneficial to take what you’re doing seriously, to turn it into a method for marketing purposes and also for client results, purposes, consistency, continuity, scaling just a myriad of benefits as to why you want to really take your program onto the next level. So thank you for sharing your problem, your process. Is there anything that you want to leave us with or kind of share as we wrap up? I think you’ve done a great job of talking about your journey, what’s missing.

 

Marc Morris: [00:42:19] What’s missing? I think any time we look back at stuff and talk about success and growth, I think we tend to overlook how hard things are at times. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do something because it’s difficult. It just means that that’s going to come along with the journey and stuff. And that’s OK. A lot of times when we feel uncomfortable about stuff or fearful, that means we’re doing exactly what we need to be doing. As hard as that is to push through, like, that’s exactly what we need to be doing. So I think just getting started, knowing it’s not all going to work at once, but doing it anyway and seeing, you know, fulfilling your potential is something that I’m all about. I’d love to see others do it.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:43:04] So absolutely. Then if we’re wrapping up, I just want to ask you one more question. Who or what is your motivation for your business? Gets you out of bed every day?

 

Marc Morris: [00:43:15] Oh, I have a beautiful family, my wife Amy and our little guy Max. I think that’s something that I’ve been so lucky over the last four years. We’ve had a crazy four years. I’m not even sure you know the full extent of it. I think you have pieces of it, right. In 2016, things are in the height of my business, like flying all over the place with power lifting and coaching and late nights and stuff, and the I lost my dad suddenly to a heart attack, which is really difficult. Amy and I were planning on getting married in September, so that was coming up, we bought a house and we’re planning for a wedding, and so that was kind of like, I don’t know, a cloud over everything, over a really exciting time. But bought a first house, got married, and then six weeks after our wedding, Amy started developing symptoms. And that’s where she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Almost like, I wouldn’t even say it was like during our honeymoon, she was starting to get like some like GI upset and stuff, but we didn’t really think too much of it because we were just like crushing pizza and drinking wine. So I don’t know, that made sense. But yeah, we got back and that happened. After four rounds of chemo and seeing her go through that and now she’s in remission and just crushing it. I have a lot to be thankful for and live for and that type of stuff, and now we have like Maxo, who, I mean, I don’t know who knows if we were even supposed to have him or anything like that, essentially that’s a miracle baby. Right. So there’s a lot to live for, for sure.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:44:57] Thank you for that. I love your vulnerability, and it is definitely great motivation.

 

Marc Morris: [00:45:04] Absolutely. I think for a lot of people, I don’t know, I would say before that time I had pretty much a pretty cushy, easy life. So not to say that those aren’t challenging times and stuff, too. But everything changes, right? There’s going to be different meanings and stuff, but having a North Star is always really important, right?

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:45:23] Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. It was a pleasure having you share your story on air and remind everybody where to follow you on Instagram.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:45:32] Yeah, if you could check me out @marcwmorris or on Facebook at the same name. You can search me out and or email me at marc@polyhealth.ca, any of the ways to get in contact with me. I’m always happy to chat with anyone about anything and growing this kind of stuff. I love it. It really gets me up in the morning. So, yeah, I’m really thankful for having me on. So thank you.

 

Libby Rothschild: [00:46:03] It’s been a pleasure.