Marina Borukhovich of YourCoach.Health On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Health and Wellness Industry

An Interview With Luke Kervin

Wellness is leading your best life. It’s not just one thing; it’s not solely nutrition or being your optimal weight. For some people, it’s spending more time with family, getting more sleep, or establishing a lasting morning routine. Wellness is highly personal and always holistic. Health coaches are so effective because they help clients define wellness on a deeply personal level.

The global health and wellness market is worth more than 1.5 trillion dollars. So many people are looking to improve their physical, mental, and emotional wellness. At the same time, so many people are needed to help provide these services. What does it take to create a highly successful career in the health and wellness industry?

In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Health and Wellness Industry” we are talking to health and wellness professionals who can share insights and stories from their experiences.

In this particular interview, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Marina Borukhovich, CEO & Founder of YourCoach.Health.

Marina is a serial entrepreneur, cancer survivor, passionate health coach and transformative tech CEO who’s made it her mission to kickstart the Health Coaching Revolution. She’s the founder and CEO of YourCoach.Health, a full practice management solution for the rapidly growing gig-economy of health & wellness coaches and an operating system for behavioral change, powered by a technology-augmented army of health coaches.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you grew up?

As a young child, my family immigrated from Belarus to America and I was immediately immersed in American culture. My parents came here, as many immigrants do, to find their “American dream.” For my family, and for me, being healthy was always a huge part of that dream. In our home, happiness always meant health. My personal health journey is a winding one — I was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago. I went through chemotherapy, a mastectomy, radiation, multiple reconstructive surgeries — the works. It’s through that journey that I became endlessly passionate about health coaching. What I needed when I was going through my treatment, and especially afterwards, was a trusted partner to help me rediscover my strength, set new and achievable goals and reprioritize not just my physical health, but my holistic health and wellbeing. I founded YourCoach so that every person who wants or needs a health coach has access to one. As the only operating system for behavior change, powered by health coaches, we’re on a mission to ensure the global population has access to health coaches by 2030.

Was there a particular person or event that inspired you to live a wellness-focused lifestyle? Can you tell us about your main motivation to go all in?

My grandmother had four cancers in her lifetime and through it all was the most resilient woman I’ve ever known. She’s been my inspiration, always (even before I was diagnosed). What inspires me most about her is that even though she had no formal knowledge of the science of health and wellness, she had the most brilliant intuitions. She knew to focus on whole foods, she always maintained a positive attitude, and I truly believe that these healthy habits helped her heal. If she could make it through four cancers with the help of healthy habits, think about how much more we can do today.

Most people with a wellbeing centered lifestyle have a “go-to” activity, exercise, beverage, or food that is part of their routine. What is yours and can you tell us how it helps you?

Boxing has always been a part of my wellness journey and is my absolute go-to whenever I need to feel more empowered. Even if this is the only part of my health routine that I’m able to keep constant, it makes me feel like I have control over my health and happiness even when things spin out of control. In today’s world of uncertainties, I firmly believe that everyone needs one healthy activity, one daily health habit, that is a mainstay in their routines to support a truly healthy and happy lifestyle. Health coaches can help hugely in making that happen.

To live a wellness-focused life is one thing, but how did it become your career? How did it all start?

My career journey began with my cancer journey. I was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago, at 37, at the height of my life. I was healthy, happy and living the life I had always envisioned for myself until I discovered a lump in my breast. This “lump” turned out to be five tumors. My cancer journey shed light on the patient experience in a completely new way. The one thing I truly wish I’d had was someone to inspire me and help implement those lasting health habits that I needed to maintain beyond the doctor’s office. That’s how I discovered health coaching and that’s what led me to create YourCoach.Health, so that we could connect health coaches to more individuals, creating happier and healthier humans. While doctors come and go, depending on where you are with different insurances, different ailments and different geographies, health coaches stay with you throughout your health journey.

Can you share a story about the biggest challenges you faced when you were first starting? How did you resolve that? What are the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

I think one of the most difficult, yet important challenges — especially when pioneering a health tech startup — is to determine and define your focus. As a startup, your to-do list is ever-growing and it’s tempting to try to tackle too many things at once. I’ve always found multitasking never gets things done effectively, so I’ve worked very hard at maintaining the bigger picture while tackling one task at a time. I think this bigger picture vision is one of the most critical factors in successful startups, keeping you focused on your mission, adaptable but not conforming to trends, and inspired to get things done.

Can you share with us how the work you are doing is helping to make a bigger impact in the world? Can you share a story that illustrates that?

At YourCoach.Health, we’re at the forefront of what we’re calling the Health Coaching Revolution–a powerful shift in the healthcare system, where health coaches are beginning to occupy an increasingly critical role on care teams. What makes them so keystone? They implement change when it really counts — beyond the doctor’s office. As an end-to-end practice management platform for the growing gig economy of health & wellness coaches; and the only operating system for behavior change, powered by health coaches that matches our industry partners’ clients, members and talent to coaches who are actively practicing on our platform, we’re working to spread the power of health coaching to more people than ever.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

We’re thrilled to be partnering with Dr. Sears Wellness Institute to introduce an Apprenticeship program, helping new health coaches gain more experience with the support of hands-on mentors. Once accepted into the program, a new health coach will be paired with a client on our platform and an experienced mentor coach from Dr. Sears Wellness, to guide them through the entire coaching process. We’re so excited for how this innovative program will open doors for coaches who have graduated from a variety of programs across the country and couldn’t be more grateful to partner with an organization as well-respected and established as Dr. Sears.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Resilience has been one of the most important qualities I’ve channeled throughout my personal and professional life. It’s helped me stay positive after my mastectomy and thyroidectomy just as much as it’s helped me stay focused when running my startup. Life can have so many unexpectancies; we have to remember everything we’ve overcome in the past in order to continue accomplishing in the future.
2. I’ve always prioritized integrity and authenticity. We work hard to make sure that YourCoach is more than just a practice management tool — we truly honor the coaches who practice on our platform and empower them with opportunities to succeed. We recently hosted our second-annual Symposium event, convening speakers from Forbes, the National Board of Certified Health Coaches, SHRM, Happify Health and more, all at no cost to our community. We provide free webinars and resources throughout the year and have even constructed our pricing model so that coaches can effectively lower the cost of the platform to just $10 a month, the more they work with clients through the platform. If you want to truly foster community, you have to lead with integrity.
3. Similarly, I live by the motto, “lead with love.” It’s so important to love what you do, the people you do it for, and the people that work with you to make it happen. I’ve built a team that truly believes in the work that we’re doing, and I reward that passion with more opportunities to grow. I’m constantly encouraging teammates to pursue continued education opportunities and certifications, and I think this genuine interest in their professional development has been a real protector against the constant startup turnover you often see across organizations — nearly all of my current team has been with us since the very beginning.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. Wellness is an incredibly broad topic. How would you define the term “Wellness”? Can you explain what you mean?

Wellness is leading your best life. It’s not just one thing; it’s not solely nutrition or being your optimal weight. For some people, it’s spending more time with family, getting more sleep, or establishing a lasting morning routine. Wellness is highly personal and always holistic. Health coaches are so effective because they help clients define wellness on a deeply personal level.

As an expert, this might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to expressly articulate this. Can you please share a few reasons with our readers about why focusing on our wellness should be a priority in our lives?

If you’re ever on an airplane, you’ve likely heard the flight attendants instruct you to put your own mask on before assisting others when emergencies strike. The same idea can be applied to prioritizing wellness. You can’t fully show up for the people and things you care about in your life until you put your own health first. Taking care of your health needs isn’t selfish, it’s the most selfless thing you can do, and the only way you can truly take care of others.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasingly growing understanding of the necessity for companies to be mindful of the wellness of their employees. For the sake of inspiring others, can you share steps or initiatives that companies have taken to help improve or optimize their employees’ mental and physical wellness?

The healthcare system is transforming rapidly post-COVID, transitioning quickly to a wellcare system where wellbeing is truly at its core. Health coaches are championing this paradigm shift globally as individuals demand a holistic approach to health, factoring in physical, mental, emotional, psychosocial layers and more. Health coaches are the inflection point for these intersectional goals, making lasting health goals happen in collaboration with patient care teams. At YourCoach, we’re creating a new category, the operating system for behavior change, powered by health coaches, to improve the lives of as many individuals as possible by targeting:

• Health coaches, who can utilize our end-to-end practice management platform to grow their business and get matched with new client opportunities.
• Industry partners looking to deliver health coaching to their clients, members and talent.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Health and Wellness Industry”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1. Passion — Health and wellness is truly a passion industry. Every person that we’ve spoken to, every coach, every client, has a personal story behind why they’re seeking a health coach or why they became a certified health coach. Hearing these stories is a necessary reminder of why the work we do is so important — and there’s no shortage of this passion among my team, the coaches on our platform and our industry partners.
2. Education/ Knowledge — There’s a lot of voodoo science out there and people are often so desperate for help that they will trust anyone. There’s a huge responsibility as a health and wellness professional to educate oneself and educate your clients on the most up-to-date, accurate, and scientifically-backed information to inform their habits. At YourCoach and on our platform, we take that responsibility very seriously and think that anyone in health and wellness should hold continued education as a major tenet.
3. Active Listening — It’s easy to give advice, but many of us have trouble with active listening. This is a core skill that every health coach learns to facilitate an effective practice. It’s more than the occasional head nod, it’s reframing and restating your client’s thoughts in a way that shows them you heard them and affirms that what they shared was important. This skill is key in health and wellness.
4. Commitment — Wellness is a long-term process, you need to commit to your clients and your clients need to commit to working with you. We live in a very fast-paced society, so patience needs to be cultivated, but nothing in health and wellness is ever possible without commitment.
5. Community — It truly takes a village. You need to surround yourself with people who challenge your assumptions, encourage you to brainstorm and troubleshoot, and celebrate your wins. At YourCoach, I’m grateful to have a strong team supporting the company, but also to have such an active coaching community utilizing the platform. It’s truly one of the biggest reasons we are where we are today.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would promote the most wellness to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

We firmly believe that we’re championing the Health Coaching Revolution — a shift in the healthcare system where health coaches are becoming a critical component of patient care teams. We’re confident that these coaches will help individuals better address their health needs by implementing change beyond the doctor’s office.

We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

We’re going to shoot for the stars here and name the one and only Oprah! She’s endured so much throughout her lifetime and was a proponent of wellbeing before the term became hugely popularized. Who wouldn’t love the chance to pick her brain and bask in her awesomeness!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can stay up-to-date with all things YourCoach at our website, www.yourcoach.health, or any of our social channels.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

About the Interviewer: Luke Kervin is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of PatientPop, an award-winning practice growth technology platform. PatientPop is Kervin’s third successful business venture. Prior to co-founding PatientPop, Kervin co-founded and was President of ShopNation (acquired by Meredith Corporation) and was the first executive hire at StarBrand Media (acquired by POPSUGAR).