Do you have to be a cardiologist to be a heart health expert? Do you need an MD or extensive clinical training?
I wanted to write this article not just as a guide to develop my own heart health expertise but for any physician who wants to become an expert in any niche topic.
People can choose for themselves who they want to follow. Find a person who dealt with severe cardiovascular disease and reversed it through a particular lifestyle intervention, and he becomes your guru.
I follow diet experts who aren’t clinicians, but I enjoy the way they break down health-related topics.
My goal is to become a heart health expert. Remember, I have a Heart Health Coaching brand, and nobody more than me feels like a fraud with this “brand.”
What is Heart Health Coaching?
Heart health coaching is advising a client with cardiovascular risk or cardiovascular disease on how to improve their outcome.
Coaching signifies supporting the client. Meeting them where they are and offering them a unique approach to their health.
A heart health coach has many tools to educate and empower their client. As a coach, I aim to fill the gap between the cardiologist and the patient.
Piecing Together the Heart Health Expertise
I want to highlight that I am a physician to my prospective clients. But I don’t want to be their treating clinician.
Yes, I have clinical expertise, but I don’t want to be your doctor. However, I have a passion for researching the hell out of the heart health topic. So they can trust me.
What Will I be Known For?
I want to be known for helping the client find the correct information for their particular health condition.
I want them to feel supported and empowered without feeling like I am trying to profit off of them by performing surgery or prescribing medication.
Hopefully, my podcasts and random internet videos will show me to be humble, attentive, and caring.
How I Became a Heart Health Expert
Let me work backward; it’s 2035, and I am all over the web. People write about me and reference me; I have a book or two out there.
People find me because they have exhausted their intervention options. They are coming up on their 5th bypass or their angina is unbearable and uncontrollable with medications.
Clients are lining up to pay me $1,000 per hour to discuss their cardiovascular health. They want my opinion on what they should do next – do the surgery, take the medications, get on that diet.
1. Creating Content
I got there by writing about these topics and meeting with clients virtually to discuss their cases.
I have 10 different online courses that customers can enroll in. Everything from starting a diet/lifestyle regimen to home management of congestive heart failure.
Publishing content is like having several wins under your belt in your sport on your way to the majors. It’s a pedigree that’s hard to recreate otherwise.
2. Collecting Data
My customers want to know why they should follow me. The data I have collected over the years should be the proof.
It’s also what I will use to write my books in the future. Sample cases and success stories are necessary to prove that your methods achieve results.
3. Collaborating with Experts
The preventative cardiologists are already out there. And by 2035, several competing heart health telemedicine companies will compete for heart health dollars.
Getting to know a few key players in this space will be necessary. I will need to ask them for guidance and collaborate on writing or creating online content.
4. Seeing Clients
You can learn heart health coaching if you don’t practice it. Heart health is a very touchy topic. People are freaked out when it comes to their health.
They have fears of taking statins, and they are obsessed with their HDL numbers. They want to know what the HSCRP signifies and whether they can have the occasional cheese or not.
I started out by seeing clients for $200 per hour and slowly increased my prices to draw in the right client and make my work more sustainable.
5. Stand out from the Competition
I have no interest in being a clinician in the heart health space. A coach gets to advise and educate. Read more about the difference between a coach and a clinician here.
I have stood out over the years because I have insisted that my clients have their own cardiologists. I would be happy to chat with their cardiologists but I wouldn’t take over their care.
My website is very customer friendly. I have a price point for every kind of client. And you can reference any research study on my site with my own analysis and that of other experts.