Bonus Episodes: Interview with health coach Danna Levy Hoffmann
In this series of short bonus episodes of Becoming a Health Coach, Megan McCrory talks with fellow health coach and IIN Alum, Danna Levy Hoffmann, about her journey of becoming a health coach and building her business.
Watch the episodes on YouTube
Transcripts of each bonus episode
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[00:00:00] Megan J. McCrory: Hello and welcome to a series of short bonus episodes of Becoming a Health Coach. I'm your host, Megan McCrory, and in these bonus episodes I'm talking with my fellow health coach and friend, Danna Levy Hoffmann.
[00:00:13] I started out by asking Danna to introduce herself and to explain why she became a health coach.
[00:00:19] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Sure. Hi everyone, I'm Danna Levy Hoffman. I am a functional medicine health coach. I got into health coaching because of a few different reasons. One was health and food was always connected in my brain and was kind of given to me by my grandmother, who was a big inspiration to be a health coach. grandma was ill, uh, for many years and to me it just did my head in like, how is this person who's always just, everything is revolving around health? How's she the one to fall ill, uh, of us? And, um, that kind of started the juices going and I also had another business, uh, which was healthy cooking for kids, uh, ages one and up where they would come and cook with their parents, but in a rented kitchen so they can make all the mess that they want. And I could meanwhile kind of, you know, yell out to the parents, like, try to maybe replace this with that. That's a healthier choice. Maybe this is an easier way to cut open a pepper. I don't know. Things like that. And these parents actually came up to me and go like, yeah, why can we leave the kids out of this?
[00:01:29] Megan J. McCrory: Can you coach me in my own home? Can you do classes for adults? And that kind of slowly led me to health coaching because I realized I have a lot of knowledge already. I just need to fill in the gaps with extra education and, and just kind of continue on that journey. but I was always into yeah, just getting my nutrition through food, understanding, you know, how I can support my health through food. So that was always kind of in the shadows when I was growing up and became stronger and stronger as my grandma got sick and as I found out that my mom was then ill, uh, with similar illness. So you had already started your healthy cooking courses before you started your health coaching.
[00:02:13] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah.
[00:02:14] Challenges and Motivations in Health Coaching
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[00:02:14] Danna Levy Hoffmann: So the thing was this, I mean, in Switzerland, um, and, and you know, those who know Switzerland well enough will kind of nod in agreement it's very difficult to be a mom and working at the same time. I did not know that before. I had kids in Switzerland, so I'm, I'm not Swiss obviously.
[00:02:30] So we moved to Switzerland, we had our kids 'cause I was really just itchy to get, to have, you know, to start my own family. So slowly I realized that the only way that I can actually contribute financially and also not be just a mom like I wanted to be myself is to start your own business and run it at hours where the kids are sleeping at hours when, you know, on weekends, when the husband's around and stuff like that. So. I wanted to start the business. My mom was back then running, uh, cooking classes for kids at her home and she's like, dude, you're gonna love this. You love kids, you love cooking, like, this is for you. But she would make things from pure sugar and flour, and pretty much that's it all the time with the kids.
[00:03:10] And I was like, I cannot bring myself to cook things with other kids that I don't cook with my own. So it took a little bit of stewing, but then I was like, why not just, you know, bring them closer to health. Why not teach them what a carrot looks like before it's cut up
[00:03:23] and, and steamed or cooked or, or, you know?
[00:03:26] So that was really important for me, especially then having young kids of my own. I was already involved with healthy eating and cooking with my own kids. That was a very, uh, uh, important part of parenthood for me. And the parents basically pushed me to, to get my education funny enough.
[00:03:43] Megan J. McCrory: Excellent. Oh cool. You had a really, really, nice name for your cooking course.
[00:03:49] Danna Levy Hoffmann: It was called Miso Cute cooking. So it was actually a shirt that my mom got my kids it said miso, like it had a little bowl of miso soup, and it said, miso, cute. And I was like, that is so adorkable.
[00:04:03] And it just grew on me, so I kept it. So it was Miso Cute cooking. Yeah.
[00:04:07] Megan J. McCrory: If you want to hear more about Danna's journey as a health coach, how she found her niche and some advice for new health coaches, check out the other bonus episodes featuring Danna. And by the way, Danna and I co-host the So Frickin' Healthy podcast where we give you an apple a day food for thought to those who want to have their cake and eat it too. And in my opinion, it is the best health podcast out there.
[00:04:33] See you later.
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[00:00:00] **Megan J. McCrory:** Hello, and welcome to a series of short bonus episodes of Becoming a Health Coach. I'm your host, Megan McCrory and in these bonus episodes, I'm talking with fellow health coach and my friend, Danna Levy Hoffman. In the first bonus episode, I started out by asking Danna to introduce herself and to explain why she became a health coach. In this episode, I asked Danna to think way back. Back back back. To when she was looking into certification programs and how she chose the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
[00:00:36] **Danna Levy Hoffmann:** It has been a long time ago yeah, I think my thought around it was, you know, starting a small business that wasn't really, it was, I getting a lot of clients, but I wasn't actually making a lot of money because I'm not very good at numbers, uh, in general. But, uh, I really wanted something that was available to me kind of whenever. So again, I'm a mom to two young boys. I need to be able to study probably when they're asleep you know, just kind of like spread my time properly so that I can actually work on stuff without me having to leave home or, or, you know, spend too many, too much time in actual, uh, schooling. Luckily for me, I already came to the schooling with a lot of knowledge. So for me it was like, for the first time ever I was good at school, which was really exciting. Definitely the cost and the availability to study wherever. So that was kind of the two things for me in that at that time. I don't remember honestly who introduced me to IIN or, or how that whole procedure happened. But I was lucky enough that it was kind of like probably Black Friday or something, and it was a good, like 35% off. And I was like, dude, I'm waiting another year for this. I'm just gonna go for it
[00:01:52] So that was, that was basically the reason
[00:01:54] **Megan J. McCrory:** No,
[00:01:54] you're like, I'm sure who introduced me. I can tell Google. SEO introduced you
[00:02:01] **Danna Levy Hoffmann:** probably. Probably, right? Because back then it wasn't even, I think back then when we kind of started, or definitely when I started like the, the, the cooking classes and stuff, I think the word coach was like a swear word. Everyone who heard the word coach was like, like, you're just fooling us into thinking that you know shit, but you're just gonna tell
[00:02:22] us what you think and that's about it.
[00:02:23] And I, I think that was the, the notion back then. So yeah, I don't think that there were a lot of people walking around going like, oh, you should become an IIN coach. It was probably
[00:02:32] Google, most likely first or second one to land on. And then I was like, oh, this is actually affordable and seems to be great.
[00:02:40] I was a huge follower of still am I love Mark Hyman saw his face on their website and I was like, Okay.
[00:02:47] cool. So that was kind of the procedure back then. It wasn't very, um, educated or
[00:02:52] calculated to, to be fully honest with you.
[00:02:54] **Megan J. McCrory:** Do you remember what you were searching for? Like what were the search terms that you were typing in?
[00:02:59] I, I was typing in nutrition and health. 'cause I didn't know health coaching existed in 2017
[00:03:07] So what were you searching for? Were you actually searching the term coaching or were you searching something else?
[00:03:13] **Danna Levy Hoffmann:** I honestly don't know. All I can tell you is that I'm a very bad Googler, so so I probably wrote something really random. I'm so bad. Like it, it's so simple to Google things and I always make it really complicated. So it, it would've been something completely not rational. I that, my honest answer,
[00:03:36] **Megan J. McCrory:** Okay. And besides IIN do you happen to remember any of the other programs that you were looking at at the same time?
[00:03:44] **Danna Levy Hoffmann:** No, back then, no. I do know that I looked into, so I continued my education afterwards with the FMCA, uh, Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, uh, which is connected to the IFM, which is the biggest functional medicine kind of connection. And there I did a little bit more research 'cause I knew what I was looking for and I already had a network of health coaches and a, a network of functional medicine doctors. So I had a little bit more, you know, my foot was through the door. I already had a lot of network that I could reach out to and ask. Uh, before that I had no bloody clue. I think I might've seen, no, I, I honestly don't know. I think it was just really probably the first thing that popped on, on
[00:04:22] **Megan J. McCrory:** mm-Hmm.
[00:04:23] **Danna Levy Hoffmann:** I'm, I'm also not a rational shopper so it was probably the Google is making a lot of money off of me. So, um, so it was probably the first thing that I saw back then.
[00:04:34] **Megan J. McCrory:** I know I, I listened back to the intro episode for this podcast.
[00:04:39] I listened to the other day while I was at the gym. Like, let me go back and listen to what I was saying seven years ago. And honestly I was like, oh, yeah, I found IIN and I waited like three days, and that was a long time for me to wait before making a decision, like thousands of dollars and a year long commitment.
[00:04:59] I'm like, sure, that sounds good. Let's do it. And.
[00:05:02] **Danna Levy Hoffmann:** Yeah, let's do it.
[00:05:04] **Megan J. McCrory:** If you want to hear more about Danna's journey as a health coach, how she found her niche and some advice for new health coaches, check out the other bonus episodes featuring Danna. And by the way, Danna and I co-host the So Frickin' Healthy podcast where we give you an apple a day food for thought to those who want to have their cake and eat it too. And in my opinion, it is the best health podcast out there.
[00:05:32] See you later.
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[00:00:00] Megan J. McCrory:
[00:00:00] Introduction and Background
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[00:00:00] Megan J. McCrory: Hello, and welcome to a series of short bonus episodes of Becoming a Health Coach. I'm your host, Megan McCrory and in these bonus episodes, I'm talking with fellow health coach and my friend, Danna Levy Hoffmann.
[00:00:14] Megan J. McCrory: Oh,
[00:00:15] Megan J. McCrory: this is why along so well. Okay, so before we move on, uh, the last thing I wanna talk about in the certification program is more specifically, *what were kind of the standout features for you or the aspects of the program you took from IIN, um, that you found particularly beneficial?* Now, looking back.
[00:00:38] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah,
[00:00:39] Standout features you found beneficial
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[00:00:39] Danna Levy Hoffmann: so look, so I did the IIN and, and you did something similar. So I did the, um, the basic
[00:00:45] Danna Levy Hoffmann: IIN
[00:00:46] Megan J. McCrory: called the Health Training Program is what they call it.
[00:00:49] Danna Levy Hoffmann: There you go. That's the one. And then I continued on
[00:00:52] Danna Levy Hoffmann: to gut health. So that was to me a lot more, educational, I could say. I mean, again, because I came with a lot of knowledge and I've already, you know, I used to, for fun research, I have a huge book, huge, huge, huge book that I probably know by heart where I would just look through like, you know, natural remedies and acupuncture and acupressure and like, everything kind of more holistic health. So coming into the, IIN coaching program I came with a lot of knowledge. I didn't have to even put too much time or effort into it. I felt, I was like, okay, cool. This is, this is more for me to learn the art of coaching
[00:01:32] Danna Levy Hoffmann: rather than like the education and, and delivery is rather like, okay, how do I, how do I pass this down to people?
[00:01:40] Danna Levy Hoffmann: How do I make sure that I have a business running and stuff like that? Um, I then had the option, the opportunity to continue my education with IIN and, uh, chose the gut health. And the reason I chose gut health was because my own gut health, and my
[00:01:55] Danna Levy Hoffmann: family's gut health was shite. So that was really, again, uh, not a very educated, uh, reason, but that was a big reason for me. I'm still very much in that world. It's still very, very important
[00:02:08] Danna Levy Hoffmann: to me. And so I think that was the, the reason why I went In that direction.
[00:02:14] Reflections on the Coaching Journey and Future Directions
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[00:02:14] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Um, during the first initial year of IIN did realize, which, which I had a love-hate relationship with, to be honest. I realized that their courses, It was like one week we're talking about a vegan diet and the next week we're talking about the ketogenic diet. Right? And the next week we're talking about, I don't know, another, something, right? And I felt like, ugh, if, if someone hasn't gone through the this process before, I. Trying out different diets, educating a little bit more about the diets, like having a little bit more knowledge. I felt like these people could, are probably like every single week that we're covering a different topic, they're doing a different diet, you know, so I felt like it might be a little bit overwhelming for others who are not really still in that realm. They're just like, oh, health, that sounds good, you know, it's affordable.
[00:03:01] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Let's, let's just do this. but I don't know if that's true.
[00:03:04] Megan J. McCrory: Well.
[00:03:05] Danna Levy Hoffmann: that was just my, my initial feeling.
[00:03:07] Megan J. McCrory: interesting that you say that because since we've left, uh, shortly after our 2018 course, they actually introduced a, a a half year course. So they shoved the whole year content into a half year. And so people could do this accelerated, like the very first person who was uh, that took a course based off my referral link 'cause we chatted.
[00:03:28] Megan J. McCrory: 'cause I like to chat to people 'cause they often, they
[00:03:31] Megan J. McCrory: email me and ask me like, really? Is it really good? And I, you know, and give them an opportunity to talk about it. But this guy
[00:03:37] Megan J. McCrory: took the course and he's like, yeah, I'm gonna take the accelerated course. I'm just like, holy yeah, holy crap. Because I'm with you.
[00:03:44] Megan J. McCrory: I felt like I did learn a lot. I think I probably wasn't as into a lot of the natural remedies as much as you had already been.
[00:03:52] Megan J. McCrory: Um, but I feel like that's
[00:03:54] Megan J. McCrory: an important point because a lot of the pushback that I see about IIN online is that it doesn't really provide you with a solid. Um, health background and
[00:04:05] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah.
[00:04:06] Megan J. McCrory: and I feel like it depends, it always depends on the person's background that's coming into it.
[00:04:12] Megan J. McCrory: Right? So for me,
[00:04:14] Megan J. McCrory: and like for you, I felt the biggest part that I got out of that was the aspect of how to coach someone. And
[00:04:21] Megan J. McCrory: even that is very nuanced. And when they do it in the
[00:04:25] Megan J. McCrory: program, it is like, Hey, these are the questions. This is how you should
[00:04:30] Megan J. McCrory: let people have space and listen. And you know, I think, I think the basics of coaching are there.
[00:04:35] Megan J. McCrory: And when you get out, then I feel then you, you have the knowledge of what you don't know and all the other coaching styles. And like co-active coaching was really interesting for me afterwards,
[00:04:48] Megan J. McCrory: and I bought a book on this and met people who have done just co-active coaching. So I think when someone is thinking about becoming any kind of coach, it's really like, okay.
[00:04:59] Megan J. McCrory: Do you, are you a subject matter expert already and you just need to know how to coach? Then maybe you just need a platform that's just teaching you how to coach and the content that
[00:05:10] Megan J. McCrory: which your background, you don't need to know. But I feel like IIN tried to do both, you know? And for some people,
[00:05:17] Megan J. McCrory: for some people they didn't do it well enough for what they expected.
[00:05:21] Megan J. McCrory: So I feel like it's
[00:05:23] Megan J. McCrory: you wanna be a nutritionist then you, maybe you should go to university and be a nutritionist if that's what you really want to do,
[00:05:30] Track 1: right?
[00:05:31] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yes.
[00:05:31] Megan J. McCrory: And or a
[00:05:32] Megan J. McCrory: dietician. And if you wanna be a coach and you know, but I feel like IIN is somewhere in between there, giving you a big overall view of, of alternative and natural health and also other, you know, everything.
[00:05:47] Megan J. McCrory: And also
[00:05:48] Megan J. McCrory: helping you learn how to coach. And also this is how you start coaching, like the business side, you know, forms
[00:05:54] Megan J. McCrory: things that you need.
[00:05:55] Danna Levy Hoffmann: right. And they're also relatively affordable. I mean, like of course no one wants to spend a good 3000 bucks on anything in one chunk, but most of the coaching programs out there are much more expensive. So I think, you know, and, and just like you, a lot of people come up to me and they're like, you know, we're interested in this and we're interested in that.
[00:06:14] Danna Levy Hoffmann: We saw that you did this program and that program. And they, and, and I always insist also on going on a call with them because I think that I do need to clarify this. Yes, IIN is a great jumping board, but you know, you want to make sure that that's not At the beginning and the end, but rather like, this is my introduction and now I need to really focus down on
[00:06:35] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Right
[00:06:36] Danna Levy Hoffmann: what, what did I collect from this program and how do I wanna proceed?
[00:06:40] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Because I don't think that from just doing IIN um, just the initial program, let's say. I don't think that I, I, I I really, truly, honestly believe that it might confuse you more than than, you know, like ground you. So it's, it's just something that is a great beginning kind of, and I think that's probably their, their, um, hope and their you know, way of selling is also like, okay, great.
[00:07:06] Danna Levy Hoffmann: We gave you all the basics. Now what was, what, what, you know, tickled you, what did you want to hear more about? We have these
[00:07:14] Danna Levy Hoffmann: programs. Did you wanna know about more about hormones? Here's a whole six months. And those programs are a lot more. Full on
[00:07:23] Danna Levy Hoffmann: than the initial program. So you have to understand also that if you go through the IIN, um, initial program and then you jump into another kind of more, you know, full on one, you're gonna spend a lot more time, you're gonna, you know, learn a lot more. So I think those have a lot more
[00:07:41] Danna Levy Hoffmann: value to them. And in terms of the coaching, and I, I agree. They give, they give you like a, I don't know if they still do it, they even give, give you a chance to like use their platform to have a free website for
[00:07:53] Danna Levy Hoffmann: the first
[00:07:53] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I don't know if they still do that
[00:07:54] Track 1: or
[00:07:54] Danna Levy Hoffmann: months or a year. Yeah,
[00:07:57] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I wonder. But uh, but that was really not, I mean, I didn't need it, but that was, I thought was really nice to give people this chance of like, look, you don't have to invest in a website
[00:08:06] Danna Levy Hoffmann: at the beginning, just here. Here's what we can provide for you. Give it a try, see how you're doing, and then move forward if you feel that this was the right step for you. So I did appreciate that as well. I think that is a very, um, So it's a really nice, kind of a, a bonus to get through
[00:08:25] Danna Levy Hoffmann: the school.
[00:08:26] Danna Levy Hoffmann: So Yeah.
[00:08:27] Danna Levy Hoffmann: with the IIN think it was very kind of specific for me it was more finances.
[00:08:32] Danna Levy Hoffmann: It was more like, let's just get, um, you know, a plaque on my wall that says I, I finish this program and, and then I, I do have certain knowledge that I anyways had and then, you know, let me just get more education with the, with the gut health course, which I really enjoyed.
