Sara Miller, the mastermind behind the innovative Create Your Consciousness program, talks about how to achieve client compliance while coaching women to up-level their success through conscious, sustainable, and empowered health strategies.

Sara is the founder and CEO of Sarabelle Coaching. She’s a Certified Health Coach and Certified Life Coach whose career began when she fell asleep standing up at her bakery job.

Show Notes:

2:25 - How Sara got into her niche of health coaching with a focus in zero-waste

“I originally went to school or got my certificate in health coaching and I loved it and I was like, ‘This is exactly where I want to be.’ However, I was realizing that health foods and a lot of the whole just idea around it a lot of the stuff was wrapped in plastic or just had a lot of junk extra. And so, I have always had a passion for the planet and earth and all of that and so I was like, ‘There's got to be some way to promote health and a healthy lifestyle without adding all of this crap into our lives and all of this trash.’ "

4:26 - When do Sara’s clients begin to see fatigue?

“Usually it's the first two to three weeks that they're really gung ho and like, "Yes." And I'm layering on things like I try to be just very simple with my approach like not starting things off with like this huge overwhelming bang. It's just like, "Okay, here's one little thing that you can implement this week, test it out, see what you think." But then usually by week three to four is usually when there's those old habits that start to come up and the self-sabotaging that clients will usually face because their brain is like, ‘Wait, what is this? I'm freaking out. This isn't normal. These are new things that I'm not used to.’ "

5:32 - How Sara maintains momentum with her clients after the initial excitement wears thin

“And so, I've also tried to work into my programs that usually by that fourth week we specifically talk about self-sabotaging, and what it means when you're feeling this frustration and get these roadblocks that you're experiencing, and let's face them directly rather than just trying to have your client avoid these things and just try to get through it on their own.”

6:51 - How Sara “digs deeper” to help clients that are feeling discouraged

“But I realized that you can't always either take someone's word for it, like what they tell you. They're like, ‘Oh yeah, things are going great.’ And usually when people are very like, ‘Yeah, things are good, things are good,’ that there's actually something that's not maybe clicking or something that they're struggling with a little bit more.

So I've made it my job now or my responsibility to dig a little bit deeper. So even if they're saying like, ‘Things are great,’ or, ‘They're going well I'm doing really good.’ But to be like, ‘Okay, so what might be just some other things that you need help with? Maybe it doesn't even relate at all to what we're trying to work on in the program.’ And just try to dig a lot deeper.”

8:31 - Red flags that indicate coaching may not be going as planned

“And then another big red flag that I've noticed is if a client has started doing their own research and just in a way where like, ‘Oh, maybe can we try doing this or can we try doing this?’ And so they're trying to take control of their own process which is good, it's like, ‘Great I love that you have this willingness drive to get this done in this thing that, your goal you're trying to reach it. However, you're not trusting the process and you're also not trusting me as your coach.’ “

9:40 - How to handle a client that’s not trusting the process

“So yeah, just confronting the issue and asking like, ‘Why are you starting to question things now? Is there something that I am not doing that you're not trusting this process with me?’ Just asking like, "Where did these things go wrong?’, so that you can address them right away rather than have them every single session continuing to do their own research and try to figure things out on their own. Because the reason why a coach hires you is because they want the quickest result or they want someone's expertise, so if they are going to other resources it's just defeating the purpose of hiring the coach.”

11:48 - How Sara faces the fear of confrontation with her clients

“I just have to remind myself I am here as the leader. Obviously I want to take any of my clients questions or research into consideration, but I also want to make sure that they are seeing the best results and also that they're living up to that potential person that they want to become. And if I'm just holding my tongue or not holding them to the standard that they want for themselves, then I'm doing them a disservice.”

14:18 - Who are some thought leaders that have helped Sara in her journey as a zero-waste health coach?

• Bree Seeley
• “So, she [Bree] is absolutely someone who one has held me accountable to all of my BS when I'm like, ‘I don't want to do this thing,’ and she's like, ‘Okay Sara these are the things you have to do.’ And be really stern and be like, ‘If you don't do these things then it's not my responsibility.’ So yeah she's been definitely one to help me harness my inner lioness.”
• Marie Forleo
• “I am such a huge fan of her and just all of her work and what she does with clients.”

If you enjoyed this interview, follow Sarah Miller on Instagram (@sarabelle_coaching) and download some fun Zero-Waste freebies on her website at sarabellecoaching.com!

Further Reading

Ask the Nutritionist: 4 Practical Buying Tips for Weight Loss Supplements

Intuitive Eating and Meal Planning: Are Both Possible? - With Tanya Stricek

Behind the Research: Do Detox Diets Actually Work?

Chronic Fatigue? Meal Planning could help.

Programs, Client Engagement, inspiration

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