Have you seen our Day in the Life series? In these posts, we give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like to live and work as a Primal Health Coach.
Maybe you’re interested in being self-employed and running your own health coaching business, like Rachel Barber, or PHCI’s own Erin Power. Or you’re curious about working for someone else, like Adan Rios who’s employed at Virta Health. Or perhaps you’re asking yourself how you might split your time between your current job and working as a health coach.
Juggling two jobs is what Primal Health Coach Chris Prior does—and in today’s Day in the Life post, we’ll show you exactly how he does it.
Chris has a really interesting niche. The recent PHCI grad works with corporate dads who want to lose 20+ pounds forever without cardio or “dieting.” While this job is extremely fulfilling, so is his other one. As the Creative Arts Director for his Richmond, Virginia-based church, Chris spends every Sunday (and whenever he can during the week) writing and performing music, creating multi-media presentations, leading volunteer teams, and overseeing all of the church’s small groups.
This theoretically means he has less time to focus on growing his health coaching business, The Optimized Life. But this doesn’t seem to faze Chris one bit.
In fact, he says it’s what he doesn’t do that’s most important.
Chris takes Thursdays and Fridays completely off every week. No work, social media, client sessions, or discovery calls. “This might not be the smartest thing for an entrepreneur to do when starting a business, but unplugging as much as possible for two days keeps me refreshed for the week ahead,” he says knowingly, adding that “it requires a little bit of faith in the universe to provide abundance for me in spite of not being on seven days a week.”
Saturdays Are for Social Media
Chris’ workweek begins bright and early on Saturday mornings, where he batches all of his social media posts for the week. He dedicates this day to creating content for his Instagram page and private Facebook group for clients since it requires the highest level of originality (and he’s the most refreshed). After writing and editing five captions, and pairing them with photos, Chris schedules them using the When To Post app to calculate the ideal time. He also sends out a video newsletter about once a month that’s inspired by whatever health book or podcast has him fired up at the moment.
Client Days Are Monday-Wednesday
Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Chris serves his clients with coaching calls, support, and anything else they might need as they work toward their goal of losing 20+ pounds forever. And his days are jam-packed, getting up before the sun rises and often working until 8:30 at night.
5:30 a.m.: Chris says that mornings are his favorite part of the day. He spends the first couple of hours on what he refers to as “me time.” But it’s not bubble baths and mimosas—it’s a non-negotiable self-care routine that helps him function at his best all day long. Starting with a freshly-juiced key lime mixed into 20 ounces of water, Chris heads to his infrared sauna for 25 minutes, followed by a 3-minute cold shower.
6:45 a.m.: After warming back up with a cup of coffee, Chris is ready to begin knocking tasks off of his Streaks app (he’s a huge fan of apps like this to help him stay organized and on track). His morning to-do list typically includes includes a 2-mile sunrise walk, meditating, journaling, reading one of his health-related books for 20 minutes, practicing guitar for 20 minutes, and sending his current clients a quick video or text message to encourage them for the day.
8:30 a.m.: Chris works with clients one-on-one. When his workday officially starts, he hops on a Zoom video call for his first session. He says that the majority of his clients are online, but even the ones who are local usually prefer the convenience and efficiency of video calls. Chris’ Richmond-based clients also have the option of working with him in person at his home office.
10:00 a.m.: Like a lot of entrepreneurs, Chris makes time to pursue prospects within his niche audience on social media—although he admits that it’s one of the things he likes the least about the entire health coaching experience. Because friending and following people and reaching out to cold leads isn’t his favorite task, he adds it to his Streaks app and gets it done as early as possible. Otherwise, he says, he’ll blow it off.
12:00 p.m.: Chris practices intermittent fasting with a compressed 17:7 eating window. Most days, breakfast is a one-and-a-half pound salad consisting of spinach, avocado, chicken thighs, hard-boiled egg, yellow bell pepper, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and an avocado-oil based dressing.
2:00 p.m.: To stay alert (and to squeeze in workouts), Chris takes a 5-minute break every 25 minutes, using another app he loves, Focus Keeper. He’s a big fan of microworkouts, which only take a little over a minute to complete. By this time of day, there’s a good chance Chris has already done this at-home routine about 10 times. If it’s a Wednesday, he’ll also include a 25-minute sprint session.
5:00 p.m.: For some people it might be the end of the work day, but since Chris’ niche is corporate dads, this after-hours time slot is key to his success. He continues his day checking in with clients via video conferences, reviews and responds to their pre- and post-coaching forms, and gets them set up in his “8 to STRAIGHT” online course. Chris says his favorite thing about being a health coach is hearing a client say, “I owe my life to you,” adding that it makes him feel like all his hard work is worth it.
6:30 p.m.: Chris’ eating window ends promptly at 7, so he takes another quick break for dinner. It’s usually “a hunk of meat and some roasted veggies,” opting for 8 ounces of grass-fed ribeye and air-fryer roasted broccoli whenever he can.
9:00 p.m.: With a morning routine as structured as Chris’, you might expect his evening routine to be just as elaborate. However, after his workday is done, Chris says he’s in bed by 9:00 and dead asleep by 9:03!
Where You’ll Find Chris Next
When he’s not helping corporate dads lose weight, posting microworkouts on YouTube, or juggling responsibilities as the Creative Arts Director at his church, you’ll find this Primal Health Coach taking some much-needed time off on quick overnight solo backpacking adventures in the Appalachians.
