Sally Crewe was our guest on LMSCast four years ago, when she shared how she transitioned from nutrition therapist to website developer, thanks in part to her work with LifterLMS. She shared how she then developed a training course to teach other nutrition therapists how to build online lessons to educate their own clients, only to find that many of her clients preferred to focus on their services and instead have her set up their courses and websites. 

Over time Sally noticed her clients had well-functioning websites and the ability to sell courses. However, the lack of systemic cohesiveness and the use of a vast variety of plugins often had her “playing whack a mole” to keep up with so many different site configurations.

In the past four years, however, the WordPress ecosystem has evolved exponentially, making it possible for Sally to restructure her WaaS business. Now called NurtureDash, it is more centralized and manageable thanks to her use of WildCloud, a multi-tenancy deployment platform. Since WildCloud allows entrepreneurs to create website “shops” much like Wix or Shopify, she can sell, develop, and manage client websites from one unified interface. 

WildCloud simplifies client site management for Sally, while also allowing her to set up a plug-and-play interface for her health practitioner clients. There they can choose a package, a domain name, and a template, and get started with the least amount of stress possible. 

For those who also choose to offer online courses, the ready availability of LifterLMS in the Nurture Dash platform makes it a breeze for them. Depending on each client’s business structure, they can choose to create lessons from scratch or use provided templates. They can even re-sell the courses they’ve built to their own clients and colleagues, making LifterLMS into a “digital franchise.” 

To support this multi-level member structure, Sally stays on top of the plugins that integrate optimally for her clients. Among her current favorites, in addition to WildCloud and LifterLMS, are:

• Fluent CRM: Marketing automation
• Fluent Bookings: Appointment booking
• UIPress Pro: Customized, intuitive WordPress dashboards

I’ve said to my folks, this is a curation of the best plugins for the job as far as I’m aware. And I’ve been at this for twenty plus years… I’m going to look after them. I’m keeping ahead of the curve. That’s stuff they don’t have to have in their brain.

A Therapeutic Approach

While she may no longer work directly as a nutritionist, there is no doubt that therapy as a calling still plays a large part in how Sally approaches her business. Behind the scenes, Sally does all the technical heavy lifting for her clients, hence her self-described label “website sherpa.”  Using the WildCloud platform is only one part of how Sally makes it as easy as possible for her tech-resistant clients to spin up a website and keep it going. Sally’s ethical “tech therapy” philosophy extends to many other aspects of her WaaS business to reduce website owner stress. 

Scaling and automation certainly relieve some of her own stress. But to further imbue emotional care to her clients’ tech world, Sally adds a button to their website backends for a work time-out that includes a video of an ocean. Client site dashboards are customized with UIPress Pro to improve usability and productivity and display only what is needed.

Mindfulness extends to how NurtureDash impacts the world. Sally has partnered with One Tree Planted to plant a monthly tree for each NurtureDash subscription, part of the priority she places on nature and animal well-being. 

Marketing 

NurtureDash offers three website packages:

1. Website for selling health and nutritional therapy services, with client portals, appointment booking, and email campaigns.
2. Package #1 plus the ability to sell digital products
3. Packages #1 and #2 plus the ability to add memberships, courses, and/or community

Beyond the packages on tap is a creative marketing approach that goes beyond a one-size-fits-all client profile. One example is Sally’s course to “unblock tech chakras.” Bringing together mindfulness and tech, the course guides students to connect energy levels to their businesses while helping to resolve some of their “tech trauma.” It also directly ties into areas of the NurtureDash platform, which helps to educate them about the tool.

What i also interesting about the marketing approach here is that there are two ways to access the course. One can sign up for the platform and get access to the course, or they can purchase the course and get access to the platform for a year. This flexibility makes it easier for people to access NurtureDash according to individual priorities and allows them to see what else it can offer them.

In a similar vein, Sally’s creative approach to a list-building magnet dispenses with the idea that it is sufficient to have people sign up, download a document on offer, and then perhaps not engage any further. Instead, she suggests that her clients create a membership portal and give those who sign up access to an exclusive area that may include additional content or a community to pique more interest.

Trust me to be the guide for that part of the business. You don’t need this particular bell or whistle that some other guru was telling you that you need.

Four years is an impressively short time for a journey from nutrition therapist to web developer to education entrepreneur. With creative thinking, innovation, and a sharp eye on technology. Sally Crewe continues to offer an increasingly valuable, stress-free product to her clients.

We have published a podcast episode with Sally Crewe on LMScast. Learn more in detail in this podcast, “How to Simplify Your Health Practitioner Business Technology Stack With the Website Sherpa.”