We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dianna Carr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dianna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

Yes! I think time away with family, friends, and even by yourself is super important! Life is busy and it’s easy to fall into routine or feel overwhelmed by day-to-day responsibilities. I think it’s critical to our mental health to unplug, explore, and just have fun. That being said, it can get tricky as a small business of one to spend time out of the office. I usually plan 1-2 big trips a year and communicate with all clients well in advance when I’ll not be able to take meetings. I make myself available to a certain extent for email or text check-ins, but generally don’t schedule formal client sessions while away. Part of that is for me, to have time away with my family without work taking up my focus, but part of it is also modeling for my clients. I like to “practice what I preach,” so when I’m working with clients about achieving better balance in their lives, I like to take some of my own advice to help me feel balanced and recharged.

Included here are pictures of my recent family road trip to Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park!

Dianna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As a health coach and personal trainer my mission is to empower women, specifically busy moms, to prioritize their health and well-being so that they feel their best!

I started my business, Be Well Health Coaching, in June 2021. I’m actually a career changer, and my journey into health coaching stemmed from my own personal health journey. Long story short, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune GI condition in 2015, prescribed medication, and sent on my way. Fast forward to 2018 and I just didn’t feel well. I had migraines, random fevers, bouts of nausea- but I just chalked it up to having 2 kids in daycare. After a while I finally had enough and went for a physical with my primary care doctor. It turned out my kidney levels were really elevated and after a number of tests they determined the medication I was on to treat my GI issues was damaging my kidneys. I was pulled off that medication immediately and left to figure out how to navigate my GI issues and now impaired kidneys. As a first step, I turned to nutrition and was amazed by how much better I felt so quickly. This experience prompted me to go all in and learn as much as I could about nutrition and overall wellness. I went back to grad school for nutrition and decided about halfway through that I wanted to get into health coaching, so I got certified as a health coach and then as a personal trainer – which brought me to where I am today.

My passion is to empower busy moms to invest in their well-being through long-term diet and lifestyle changes. As a mom of two kids, who has also been very career driven, I get it and learned the hard way by ignoring the warning signs and burning myself out. So my mission now if to empower individuals, specifically busy moms, to invest in themselves everyday.

I offer a variety of services including holistic health coaching, which primarily takes place virtually, and covers behavior change around nutrition, exercise, and other lifestyle habits. This program ranges from 3-6 months. I also offer a nutrition assessment, which is a shorter, more targeted program, strictly focused on nutrition that takes place over about 1 month (also virtual). Finally, I offer personal training services, which primarily take place in-person in my private home gym in Northern VA and have some virtual options depending on what clients are looking for.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The main thing that has helped me build my reputation within my market is focusing on bringing wellness to my community. From the beginning I’ve invested my time and resources to support wellness efforts and spread the word about the importance of prioritizing your physical and mental health at every stage in life. I serve as the wellness chair for the PTA at my children’s elementary school (I position that I created for myself). In this role I work with the faculty wellness chairs to engrain wellness into the culture of the school. I organize an annual Fun Run in the Fall, help co-organize an annual wellness fair in the Spring (supporting several nutrition education tables focused on fruit and vegetable consumption, reducing sugar intake, and reading nutrition labels), and this year helped facilitate field day. Outside of my efforts at the school, I offer workout classes during the summer at our local pool to facilitate community while getting in a great workout. Finally, I’ve sponsored my daughter’s baseball team for a few seasons and played my part to support the team with nutritious snack options.

I’ve worked really hard to establish myself as the “go-to” for wellness in my local community. It gives me the opportunity to give back, raise awareness, and help those around me.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Referrals, hands down. As a business of one, I don’t have a big marketing budget, so what has worked best for me in securing new clients is having former/current clients refer me to family, friends, and neighbors or provide testimonials that can be shared on Facebook groups, my website, and on my Google profile. I work really hard to establish a relationship with each of my clients. Their success and well-being is important to me, and when we wrap up working together, I’m still invested in them and will routinely check-in to see how they are doing. My philosophy is to meet clients where they are and customize my approach by letting the client lead so that we can stay focused on their goals. I think this level of relationship development, combined with the successes my client’s have realized during our time together, has led to them being willing to refer me to the people they care about. Knowing that I will work my hardest to support their friend/family member the best I can.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bewell-healthcoach.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bewellhealthcoaching
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bewellwithdianna
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianna-carr/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bewellhealthcoaching/videos
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/be-well-health-coaching-west-springfield