Meet Dr. Ola Kolawole, aka “Dr. Ola”, a family medicine physician who has pivoted to help coaches boost their visibility and sales through innovative live studio events. Dr. Ola shares her journey from struggling wellness coach to founding the VIP Speaker Studio Experience, a unique platform that allows coaches to present in a professional studio setting with a virtual audience. She discusses the challenges many coaches face in marketing themselves and acquiring clients, revealing how her two-day event provides a complete package of services to enhance a coach’s credibility and reach.
Dr. Ola delves into the details of her program, which includes speaker coaching, sales training, and a full media package with professional recordings and photography. She explains how the studio experience mimics high-end speaker setups used by industry leaders, giving coaches a powerful tool to stand out in a crowded market. With insights on the importance of visibility and the impact of professional presentations, this episode offers valuable strategies for physician entrepreneurs looking to elevate their coaching businesses and make a lasting impression on potential clients.
The ViP Speaker Studio Experience
https://vipstudiospeaker.com/
Transcript:
Dr. Mike: [00:00:00] Hey guys, this is Dr. Mike Woo- Ming, welcome to another edition of Bootstrap MD, the podcast for healthcare and physician entrepreneurs. So excited to having actually, one of my students who attended one of my conferences way back when on coaching and running an Internet business. I’m so excited to share her success story.
She is a board certified family medicine doctor with over 15 years of experience. She helps coaches increase their visibility, attract clients and boost sales through her live studio events. The name of her company is the VIP Speaker Studio Experience. She’s recent sponsors at the National Speakers Association Influence Conference, as well as the upcoming ICF Midwest Coaches Conference.
In personal life, she’s a proud mother to her 10 year old son and has been happily married to her husband for 21 years. She’s an expert at helping other coaches, other consultants, really increase their [00:01:00] visibility. And we all know it’s all about marketing, which is fortunately as doctors, we don’t really get a lot of, so I’m so excited to bring to the program.
Dr. Ola Kolawole. Dr. Ola, how are you?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: I am good. Thank you so much, Dr. Mike, for having me here today. I’m excited to be here on your podcast.
Dr. Mike: Yes. And I was so excited that you reached out to me. And the service that you have, your presence that you have, and you’re helping other coaches, not necessarily just physician coaches, but coaches overall we could all, improve our marketing and you have a very unique way of doing so.
So first off, I want you to maybe just a little bit about your background. I know that you’re in family medicine, but you’re currently not doing that right now. You’ve switched to a non clinical career. Would you like to share your story?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: Absolutely. So yes, I’m a family practice physician by training. I’ve been practicing now for over 15 years, [00:02:00] but over the pandemic I switched gears into Telemedicine briefly for about a year, and then I went into utilization management working for a major insurance company.
And but with that I’ve had more flexibility in actually building my own business where I, help coaches gain more visibility track more clients and sell with ease by speaking in our live studio events. Speaking is is really crucial for any coach and with my coaching, so what I did actually before I started the VIP Speaker Studio Experience I was also in the coaching arena in the wellness coaching arena.
And what I found was I struggled with trying to be out there, trying to promote my business. I didn’t really have all the tools and I realized speaking was crucial at that point. And I’ll get online, get on Facebook, get on social media record videos, but [00:03:00] that still wasn’t sufficient.
And so that’s VIP speaker studio experience came about.
Dr. Mike: Yeah, so like you said, you’re a wellness coach. You’ve been struggling. Why do you think coaches have a hard time maybe marketing their services, marketing their practice?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: So coaches are great at their craft. We get certified.
We hone in on whatever skills and whatever our coaching business is all about. And we’re great at being coaches, but we’re not so great at selling. And a coaching business without clients is not a business. And so the struggle a lot of coaches have is not having the right tools or being on the right platforms to really promote themselves.
And so that was a struggle that I had as well like I mentioned. I did everything that I thought I knew to do. I was out there, multiple [00:04:00] social media platforms posting creating videos. I had a couple of live stages that I went on podcasts summits, but then I realized that there is power in studio rooms.
So what we do is we’ve created a platform where speakers can come to an a state of the art, a life sized Zoom room, similar to what you’ll see speakers like Tony Robbins, Lisa Nichols, Charlene Johnsons of the world. You see them in these massive Zoom rooms and you see them speaking and you see the audience, the virtual audience listening to them and excited.
That is what we’ve put together. It’s a similar type of a set up. So the audience is virtual and the studio is live for the speaker. And what we found is a lot of coaches are typically not on platforms like this. In fact, I’ve not released found a coach that I know [00:05:00] of that’s really been on a platform like ours, except, the, again, the big wigs.
And so we found that, the studio set in really helps coaches gain a lot more visibility because it’s unique, it’s different, it’s fresh, and people are just gradually getting to learn about it.
AI: As a doctor, I wasn’t used to asking for help, especially when it came to subjects outside of medicine. But then I found physician coaches.com In an instant I found hundreds of experts to help me in all aspects of life, on areas I was afraid to ask. Dealing with burnout, starting a side gig, money management, even help with my marriage.
And the best part, nearly all experts are physicians themselves. After reading their profile and a quick chat, I knew I found the right mentor for me. At physiciancoaches. com, help from [00:06:00] professional colleagues is just a click away.
Dr. Mike: So let’s say, we’ve got, we have a number of members or a number of audience members who listen to the program, they’re the coaches, or maybe they’re getting started in their coaching career. So as I understand it this is an event, a live event that they have to physically fly to you, right?
This isn’t AI or anything like that. Just want to make sure.
Dr. Ola Kolawole: Yes. And I’m glad you clarified because a lot of people asked me that question. They’re like, really, is everyone in there? Because as you can see, my background is actually the studio, right? And people are like, Oh, is that AI behind you?
Are those real people? And they’re real people. That’s number one. It’s not AI. The coach is there in person in the studio and we have a virtual audience. So we bring in the audience, but we also encourage coaches to also promote it to their own following as well. So the audience is all virtual.
It’s a live [00:07:00] studio event. It’s two days. And I can go into just a few of what our coaches will get here in a second. But I wanted to just mention a couple of things about why this is a great platform, over 50 percent of coaches a study actually that I saw a couple of days ago by coach training alliance stated over 50 percent of coaches actually leave their coaching practice within 2 years of starting their coaching business, again for the lack of the visibility, over 46 percent of coaches struggle with client acquisition.
So the biggest problem is in getting clients. The biggest, another problem, of course, is, if you can’t get clients, you can’t make sales. And with the Studio Atmosphere, it’s one that allows you to come in for two days. And you have an opportunity to actually promote what you do from the studio setting, you come in with a message of [00:08:00] empowerment about whatever your craft is, and then it’s a 20 minute duration to speak on stage and afterwards, there’s a Q and A session where the audience gets to ask you questions.
Dr. Mike: Now what do you do for someone who let’s say, Hey, I’m not used to speaking on stage. Maybe I’m a little shy. I think you mentioned that you actually have some coaches to help the coach. Is that correct?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: Yes, I do. So with our VIP speaker studio experience, it’s a package that we’ve carefully curated because what we did was we looked at, every possible limitation coaches could possibly have and granted a lot of a number of coaches.
I won’t say a lot. A number of coaches may not be comfortable speaking. So what we’ve put together is we actually have a speaker coach who helps our coaches. She sits down with our coaches before they actually get on stage. We have a sales [00:09:00] coach who spends time as well with our coaches to make, to help them craft their message in such a way that it becomes irresistible.
So we have those services as well to help coaches feel more comfortable coming on our stage.
Dr. Mike: And you also help them with their, not only with their presentation, but their offer as well. Can you speak to that?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: Yes. I can speak about that. I can speak to this because, I’m also a coach.
Coaches are not all that great at selling. And so what we did was my business partner actually happens to be a sales coach. He’s sold over 30 million worth of products and services. And he has a coaching program of to help coaches with selling. So what he does is, part of the package we’ve put together, he sits down with you, he looks at your offer and he helps you craft it in such a way that you’re able to to sell it with ease.
And [00:10:00] also when you come on stage, not only are you empowering our audience with your message, you also get to have a short segment where you have a call to action. And that call to action would be a book a call with me, or here is my lead magnet that I put together that you can download, and in doing so you’re able to get the email list so you’re able to get emails of potential clients and you can also share with the audience, maybe a link or what have you of where to get your product.
So we give that opportunity to coaches when they come on our stage. And the other thing too, is we feature our coaches in our digital online magazine, which also doubles up as a workbook and every attendee or audience member gets this magazine before the event. They’re already familiar with you before you come on stage and the day of our event [00:11:00] when you come on stage, we actually have what we call our world class coach award that we give all our coaches. We present to our coaches before they actually start speaking. And why do we do this? We really want to help you boost. We want to boost your credibility before you even get on stage. As physicians we already credible. We’re already, but as a coach, if people don’t know you, or they don’t know about your services, then, it’s hard to really speak to them. So what we do is we promote you way before you actually get on stage, we promote you during the event and even afterwards.
So that you can attract more clients.
Dr. Mike: So you’re not only producing the video, you’re also helping them market. I know it’s very important, when I have video of me speaking on stage and then often I let a prospect watch that, before our discovery call or whatever you want to call it.
And many of them like, wow, I’m about to talk to this person [00:12:00] who was on stage. So I know that the credibility, it really boosts it up. So with this event and we’ll talk about some of the dates because there’s only limited dates that you have it. And guys, if you want to find more information, you can go to VIPstudiospeaker.com, VIP studio speaker dot com. Let me know you heard it about us on the podcast and Dr. Ola will treat you right? When they come in and they fly and, you’re located I believe in North Carolina. Is that correct?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: Yes. Yes
Dr. Mike: So it’s a two day event. And there’s a couple of options that you can do and we’ll speak to that. They record that, they work with the coach and they help you, Dr. Ola and her team helps you basically make sure that the speaking engagement is as well as it brings in an audience, which is amazing, now that they have the recording, that’s their recording, correct?
But you’re also marketing it as well and they can do they can decide whatever however they want to use [00:13:00] it.
Dr. Ola Kolawole: Yes, so when they fly into north carolina I’ll just walk through just a couple of things that we do. So we give you the full recordings of the entire event. So when you’re on stage, offstage, behind the scenes, in the green room, we give you all those pictures and you can use it however you want.
The whole idea is to promote yourself. We give you the award and also we feature you in the magazine. The other thing that we do, because a lot of people close to, over 90 percent of our speakers actually have to fly in because it’s located in North, the studio is located in North Carolina.
We also lodge you and this is optional. Some people, may choose to find their own lodging, but part of what we do is we lodge you in a beautiful hotel with a golf course. All meals are taken care of, transportation is taken care of. And we essentially the moment you [00:14:00] land in there, we pick you up from the airport and we take care of you for the entire time, the entire duration that you’re there.
Yes, we do this and then we give you all the pictures that is taken. So you really don’t need anyone taking screenshots or taking pictures of you because you get all that. Plus, you also get a photo shoot taking of you as part of our the package that we’ve put together.
Dr. Mike: I love that because you really have thought of everything on it. I’ve worked with coaches who try to get on speaking engagements and, like Ted talks and different things like they spent all this time and fortunately, they don’t make it to it and they spent hours upon hours preparing for it.
And we’re all busy, we’re all busy. And this one is Dr. Ola has thought of everything that you need to do other than, you got to show up, you got to get on a plane helps you preparing your, what you needed to speak, preparation, but she also has a coach to do it.
And I know again, the benefits of having that recording, you could be using it for years. I’ve used a [00:15:00] past recordings, unfortunately I’ve gotten up and down and wait, maybe lost some hair, but I still have these recordings that I’ve used that it’s still just boost your credibility.
And it really makes a difference. You can go to find out more about this at VIPstudiospeaker. com and there is, book a call with Dr. Ola, and basically she’ll tell you everything about this. I think it’s wonderful, but the next dates, I know, because I know you, you only do this a few times of the year.
At the time of this recording, we’re recording this in September. When is the next date they’re going to be available?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: So October is our next speaking engagement. We actually have one taking place in a couple of weeks, but October will be the next one. October 21st and 22nd. So our speakers arrive the day before they arrive on the 20th.
We take them to the studio the very morning of the event and just to help them get familiar. They get to meet the team there that would walk them through just speaking in a studio. [00:16:00] 100 percent of our speakers have never spoken in studio rooms. So everyone is really on the same level, but our team makes you really comfortable.
But so it’s October 21st and 22nd.
Dr. Mike: And you want to share, I know you, this isn’t the first time you’ve done this, you’ve already had, you already have people who’ve gone through it, what has been their experience?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: They’ve really been able to just, they’ve used a lot of what we’ve given them, the pictures, the videos They promoted themselves a whole lot online.
I see their posts almost every day. And even when they’re having challenges, or they’re having just anything even unrelated to that actual event, they’re using all the footage that we’ve given them to promote themselves. So in terms of visibility, they’re gaining a whole lot of visibility. They’re gaining even clients, because that’s the goal.
The goal is to get you more clients. And so they’re getting that as well. Cause oftentimes, when people see a post of [00:17:00] you in a studio room, there first of all, they’re thinking, wait a minute, what’s that all about? So they’ve gotten more clients, which of course equates to more sales.
Dr. Mike: Awesome. Again, the website is VIPstudiospeaker. com. The next one is in October. Again, what were the dates?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: October 21st and 22nd.
Dr. Mike: October 21st and 22nd. So not a lot of time guys. So obviously there’s a limited number of people who can show up. If you’re a coach, consultant, or maybe you think about it, we all need to market better.
What better way to help be done in a professional setting, helping you with your coaching, to help you market it. She’s a physician herself. I love supporting physician owned businesses. This is a no brainer guys. Go in and contact Dr. Ola. Ola, any last minute thoughts before we end the call today?
Dr. Ola Kolawole: Sure. Although our next speaking engagement is the 21st and 22nd of October we do this all year round. So if there is anyone that maybe [00:18:00] cannot make it for the October event, I would still encourage you to reach out to me. We feel pretty quickly. And the reason for that is we try to promote individuals from different industries.
So if there are a couple of maybe mindset coaches or a couple of business or leadership coaches, we try not to put too many together in one speaking engagement so that, there’s more opportunity for clients or visibility for the particular coaches that are with us. So I say that to say even if you’re, you can speak in January or February.
Reach out and let’s chat. Let’s lock in a date so that at least that way, you know that you have that speaking opportunity to look forward to. You know, I really appreciate you having me on your podcast. Dr. Mike. It’s really been a pleasure being here again, my goal is to really help coaches out there because I’ve been there and like I mentioned earlier, a coaching business without clients or without sales is not [00:19:00] a business.
And in order for us to begin to live the life that we really would love to live, we really need to boost our businesses. And speaking is a great way.
Dr. Mike: Thank you again for coming. Again website VIPstudiospeaker.com. Come and check it out.
Again, I think it’s a no brainer. If you’re a coach consultant, we all need to market better. We all need better exposure. This is a great way to do it. Thanks again guys for listening. Thanks again for supporting the program. If you like this, please give us a, or, rate us on Apple Stitch or wherever you’re listening to your podcasts.
And as always guys, you’re going to up and downs in your business. Just do something a little bit closer, something a little bit each day to get you closer to your goals and keep moving forward.