Coaching clients’ mindset is messy. It’s not enough to just “ask the right questions at the right time”. You need to know what to say on a sales call without making false promises, recognize when emotional eating is out of your scope, figure out why your client won’t actually tell you what’s going on, and navigate delicate situations, like supporting the close people in your life with their health, without overstepping or causing harm to the relationship.
This is Part 2 of a live Q&A that I (Dr. Kasey Jo Orvidas) hosted with coaches like you, and the questions in this one are some of the realest, most relatable coaching scenarios I’ve gotten. If you coach people in any capacity, you’re going to hear yourself in these.
What We Get Into: Real Scenarios for Coaching Client Mindset
We start with a question about the difference between teaching and telling—because a lot of coaches accidentally cross that line without realizing it. If you have a coaching program that includes educational content (like lessons on protein or training), you might be wondering: is it okay to ask clients to apply what they learned, or does that count as telling them what to do? I break down the distinction and why it matters more than you’d think.
From there, we talk about what to do when you have limited time on coaching calls and there’s a ton of mindset work to get through. If your client has a fixed mindset umbrella hanging over everything, do you start there? Or do you keep chipping away at the smaller stuff? I walk through how to prioritize so your client still feels like they’re making progress without you spinning your wheels.
Then we get into emotional eating—and this one’s important. There’s a real difference between overeating, binge eating, and binge eating disorder, and knowing where your scope of practice starts and stops matters. I share a simple question you can ask your client that will immediately tell you where their mindset is at with it, plus why the labels they use might be making things worse.
One of my favorite questions from this episode comes from a coach whose client had been hiding her struggles for an entire month behind hyper-positive check-ins. We dig into why “what can I do to support you better?” might not be the best question to ask—and what to ask instead to draw out the real stuff without making your client feel like she’s in trouble.
We also cover how to handle sales calls with integrity—how to communicate realistic timelines without scaring people off, and how to build credibility without making promises you can’t keep. This is one new coaches especially need to hear.
And then there’s the question I know a lot of you have been wondering about: what do you do when you’re trying to coach someone you’re in a relationship with? Your boyfriend, your partner, your spouse—someone who knows you’re the nutrition person but doesn’t exactly want to be coached by you. I get into why the pushback usually has nothing to do with food and everything to do with autonomy.
Why Coaching Clients’ Mindset Doesn’t Work the Same on Your Partner, Friend, or Parent
This came up in the Q&A and it’s worth highlighting because so many coaches deal with it. When your partner pushes back on your nutrition advice, it’s almost never about the advice itself. It’s about feeling like someone thinks they know better for them than they know for themselves. The same psychology that applies to coaching clients mindset applies here—maybe even more so, because the relationship stakes are higher. I walk through exactly how to navigate it in the episode.
The Question That Reveals Your Client’s Mindset on Coaching and Change
When you’re working with a client around emotional eating or any stuck pattern, there’s a simple scaling question that immediately shows you where their head is at. I won’t give it all away here, but it takes about 10 seconds to ask and opens up some of the most productive coaching conversations you’ll ever have. Jump into the full episode to hear it.
Listen to the Full Episode
This one covers a ton of ground—teaching vs. telling, sales call integrity, emotional eating, scope of practice, coaching clients’ mindset around self-worth, and what to do when you’re the coach and the girlfriend. Hit play above to catch the full Q&A.
Missed Part 1? Be sure to catch it here!
Links & Resources
Learn more about the Health Mindset Coaching Certification (HMCC)
Find me on Instagram: @coachkaseyjo
