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What does it take to have a mature, financially stable coaching business?
I asked three past graduates of our program, all of whom have transitioned careers and developed signature bodies of work in the embodied arts.
Preeti Mattoo from Well Adorned, Christina Lane a dating and relationship specialist & Mary Lofgren from the School of Sensual Living join us for this delicious conversation.
If you’re wondering how long it takes to develop a stable income, how to navigate your way forward when you seem to be taking the long road, if entrepreneurship feels daunting or you’re worried you’ll just never get there this is a wonderful conversation to join.
In this episode, we’re exploring:
- Careers before Coaching – Past careers & the call to pursue your passions. This educator, fashion executive & esthetician chatted about ‘what my body was calling me towards’ and taking forever to figure it out
- Leaving ‘impressive’ & ‘serious professionals’ to pursue something as crazy as coaching
- Financial security & maturity – we hear three stories about establishing financial security as a coach & entrepreneur, and many of the lessons along the way
- The nature of entrepreneurship & 3 big lessons – including “I’m not my business” and how these coaches hold their relationship with their work to avoid feeling burnt out or burdensome.
About Our Guests
Preeti Mattoo
Feminine Empowerment Coach
www.welladorned.life, Instagram
Christina Lane
Feminine Embodiment Coach
www.lanechristina.com
Mary Logfren
Feminine Embodiment Coach & Teacher
School of Embodied Arts
www.schoolofsensualliving.com
Get The Full 9 Part Series
This is the 6th installment of our 9-part series. Here’s what else we have planned:
- Ep1 – Passion, Purpose & Career
- Ep2 – Tolerating The Job (while we make a career change)
- Ep3 – Accidental Entrepreneurship. When following your passions means having a business
- Ep4 – Am I making the right move? The Career Change Stories of 3 Women
- Ep5 – Safety, Money & Starting Up a new career
- Ep6 – What Coaching Is Not… Mentoring -vs- Facilitation -vs- Coaching
- Ep7 – Return on Investment (in yourself)
- Ep8 – Career Change Stories: 4 Coaches Share Their Experience
- Ep9 – Embodied Ways of Working & Feminine Leadership in our career
This series is perfect for the woman who’s quietly seeking a career change, actively navigating the chaos of change, or just wants to become a more interesting person in the way you relate to your work.
To catch all the episodes & have them delivered to your inbox week, pop your details in here:
Resources
- Pursuing Your Passions Limited Podcast Series – sign up for all 9 episodes here →
- Feminine Embodiment Coaching – an emotional embodiment & vulnerability-based professional training for coaches
- Preeti Mattoo
- Christina Lane
- Mary Lofgren
- Kajabi – the platform Christina mentioned (we use it too & this is an affiliate link)
- Primal Feminine Flow – Embodied At Home Movement Practice
- School of Embodied Arts
- Leave a podcast review on iTunes here
- Thought or reflection to share? Leave a comment on Instagram here
Transcript
(This transcript is generated by AI so might not be perfect)
Speaker 1: What is required to have a mature and financially stable business? As a coach, I asked three past graduates from our coaching certification program. All of these phenomenal women have transitioned careers and developed signature bodies of work in the embodied arts. And today, I’m so thrilled to bring a really insightful, intimate conversation with Preeti Matteo, Christina Lane, and Mary Lofgren. [00:00:30] If you’ve been wondering how long does it take to develop a stable income, what kind of techniques and tools should I be using to navigate my way forward through a career transition? If entrepreneurship is feeling really daunting or if you’re worried, am I ever really going to make it in this industry? This is a really warm and lovely conversation where we get to peek behind the curtain of these established women’s work and really see what it was like [00:01:00] to get to this point of mastery, how long it took, and some of the bumps on the road. So a really warm welcome. I’m Jenna Ward, and we are here for career change stories.
Speaker 1: A warm welcome. I’m your host, Jenna Ward, and I’m living, creating and broadcasting to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, the traditional and beautiful lands of the Gubby Gubby people. I am a feminine [00:01:30] embodiment coach, a teacher. I’m also a mother and a lover of chocolate and chai, and I write coach and teach in the art of embodiment for women, both personally and professionally, for those who want to deepen their skills in the somatic arts and come home to their feeling, sensing and magnetically alive body. The School of Embodied Arts podcast is a place where we explore these themes. [00:02:00] You can listen in to explore the art of embodied living as a woman, as a practitioner, or simply as a human who desires inspiration and resources for full spectrum living. So let’s dive in. Extending a very warm welcome to our delightful guests today, who I’m going to ask to introduce themselves soon. These wonderful women I all know and have been through the ringer [00:02:30] of career change. So let’s meet them. Christina, did you want to kick us off just sharing where you’re from, where you are now in your career?
Speaker 2: Sure. My name’s Christina Lane. I am a full-time embodiment coach. Most of the women that come to work with me are dating men or in a relationship transition with a man. They’re having a spot in their marriage they need help with or in an early relationship, [00:03:00] and we’re using embodiment tools to deepen their relationship with themselves and to help them relate to men better. Kind of my specialty and where I was before is my background is in literacy and curriculum development. I’m a reading specialist and I have a master’s degree in creating reading and writing curriculum and a lot of other certifications [00:03:30] and how children and adults learn. So it was, when I made the jump, it felt a little crazy, but now I can actually see how much my background plays into how I deliver feminine embodiment and my particular flavor of it. So that’s actually been don’t super awesome for me to see this year.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love hearing that. And we’re going to dive more into it, your unique flavor. [00:04:00] Thank you, Preeti. Welcome. Would you like to share a little bit with us about who you are, where you’re from, and what you do now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would love to thank you for having me. So I am coming in from New York. I don’t know if that was where I’m from New York, New York, and I’m the founder of Well Adorned and it is a women’s empowerment [00:04:30] coaching platform. And it’s interesting because I support both men and women. However, I have branded myself and identified myself as someone who helps high achieving women, mostly in midlife who are experiencing burnout, living a lackluster life or found themselves so many of us in toxic patterns. I help them get unstuck and re-pattern [00:05:00] those behaviors and mindset so they can feel better. I really work with emotional and I guess emotional and mental resilience and embodiment, and it all lends itself to then supporting better relationships, better professional outcomes, and just a happier and more whole existence. What did I do [00:05:30] before? So my path here is definitely not linear.
Speaker 3: So many coaches I know I have a background. I was a fashion executive and consultant. I worked on the marketing side of publications such as Vogue and W, and there were some exploratory detours I took including getting a master’s in public health at one point because I’ve had such a love for help and wellness. So it just lived in there, but then I just would, [00:06:00] so I decided to go off path and take a chance at this different career. And then it was like a boomerang. I went out and I was pulled back into fashion. And in my last position before I transitioned fully into the healing and helping space, I was at a fashion tech startup. And after being there nearly five years, I resigned and took the big leap to where I am now.
Speaker 1: Love hearing your [00:06:30] story. Thank you for sharing and Mary Delicious. Mary, would you love to share with us where in the world you are and a little bit about your career change?
Speaker 4: I would love to. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody. So good to be here with you. So my name’s Mary Lofgren and I’m in Asheville, North Carolina in the United States, and my work is called Come to Your Senses. And the work [00:07:00] that I do is being a feminine embodiment coach and helping women really reconnect to their humanness and reconnect to what’s real and what really matters in their lives through having a more sensory, sensual beauty filled life. And I also am a member of the teaching team at the School of Embodied Arts, which I’m really proud of and grateful for. And my career [00:07:30] started, or my work life started in the world of beauty where I used to be a licensed esthetician and I was also a corporate trainer for a skincare company. So I’ve always followed my passion in terms of my work until my passion led me to a brick wall of corporate monotony and I couldn’t take it anymore. [00:08:00] And I also had my business for several years before I took the Feminine Embodiment Coaching certification. And that really, really transformed my career and took me from what I would consider almost a hobby business to a legitimate full-time career as a coach.
Speaker 1: Amazing. Now the thing that strikes me as I listen to each of you is it just sounds so nice and discreet and polite and I was this [00:08:30] and now I’m that. And I’m curious if the journey felt that crystal clear while you were on it because I know for a lot of people who are transitioning particularly in the realm of coaching and personal development, there can be a lot of questions around, well, is the space saturated and what’s the unique thing that I’m going to bring? How am I going to do it my unique way? And as I listened to the three of you, there’s a delicious [00:09:00] love adornment, pleasure filled flavor that is somewhat common to what you are all sharing. There’s a feminine embodiment piece that’s common to what you’re all sharing, and yet you are all very distinct, unique flavors in what you’re doing. So Mary, do you maybe want to share with us a little bit about, was it always crystal clear for you what this was going to end up becoming in the throes of that change? And maybe you could share a little bit with us about some of the highlights [00:09:30] along the journey towards that clarity.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it’s like laughable to think how unclear it was. And I once heard Elizabeth Gilbert author say, sometimes the best prayer you can utter is just not this. And as a corporate [00:10:00] trainer, I mean for the first couple of years I really loved my job and I loved my work. And then I went through my own personal transformation of just waking up to what I really wanted in my life and what was important to me. And my body just was like a cult kicking against a barn door in a stall that’s too small. I started having physical symptoms of [00:10:30] just brutal insomnia, stress, anxiety, panic attacks, and it was like I just didn’t know what the lily pad was going to be that was going to connect me from where I was to where I wanted to be, but I knew that I had to take a risk and leave behind what I was doing to open to what I felt like my body was calling me towards.
Speaker 4: That was [00:11:00] just a little snapshot of the absolute desperation at 4:00 AM of I don’t know where to go, but I know I can stay here. That I think is so common that draws so many of us into a career that we’re really passionate about. And I’m so grateful to be a passion led person because being an entrepreneur requires a lot of devotion and a lot of ups and downs [00:11:30] I find, and I wouldn’t be able to do it. And in a way it’s like having a nonstop infant at times who really just demands your love and attention even when it’s crying and being annoying. And so I’m really, really grateful for that really grateful containers like this one where we can find, like you said, Jenna, people who are doing work of [00:12:00] a similar vein, but where we’re all collaborators rather than competitors, as we say in the certification. Yeah,
Speaker 1: That’s such a lovely way to put it. And you are right. I did reference the space as being like, for example, coaching as an industry is a very fast growing, very in demand industry. And so I love how you connect the question mark around saturation with the idea [00:12:30] that actually it’s not competition. There’s such unique distinct flavors that everyone brings to the way that they work, that it becomes the opportunity for collaboration and connection. And I can totally agree with my business feeling like an infant. It’s been really interesting to watch it mature. It is still not got its driver’s license, still needs a little bit of parental supervision, my business, but I think that’s a great analogy. Christina, what about for you? Did you also have that feeling [00:13:00] as Mary described about your body calling you towards something different? And was it always really clear to you that you wanted to explicitly be a coach in your career transition or what was the journey a little like?
Speaker 2: No, I still don’t want to be a coach. I still hate that word. It still feels like not good enough, not academic enough, not serious enough. I think there’s people in my life that don’t really get it. They’re confused why. [00:13:30] I was at a really good place in my career and I was out of the classroom. I had owned my own school before and then I had moved, I had done all the right things and I was just about to transition into a really impressive role and I just sort of bailed. And I’m a single mom and a homeowner. I have three kids. And so [00:14:00] no, it’s still hard for me to be like I’m a feminine embodiment coach, even though I know that I have full-time client roster and I create tons of curriculum for them and I solve a lot of problems and I’m really good at my job.
Speaker 2: And I have never had a client that didn’t want to keep working with me after a container. I have been very successful, but [00:14:30] no, it’s still hard for me. I still have trouble coming from my background with the term coach. There’s something about, I know that there’s women who have had bad experience with coaches that really offered them something that they couldn’t deliver. And so I struggle that all the time. But when I made the transition, I was lucky in that I was able to work with [00:15:00] an established coach already from the School of Embodied Arts and I worked under her. So I did that at night while I did my other job. And I went through a time where I took over the program and I was like, oh, the other women really gave me that. And then the women in the program, I did all the clinical hours, could I traded all the time with everybody.
Speaker 2: And so those two things, I had so much feedback, Christina, this session was life-changing [00:15:30] and I was getting so much from it. I didn’t even sign up for the program to coach. I literally asked on my call, I was like, I’m definitely not going to coach ever. I am a serious professional. There’s no way I’m coaching, but I need this because it is the only thing that has worked. It is the only thing I’ve done like E M D R and every kind of therapy in the world and feminine embodiment is all that worked for me and [00:16:00] I need to do more of it. And so this is my gift to myself is joining the program. And then of course I took it really seriously because I really was for myself and a commitment to myself almost as a mother too. My kids are older.
Speaker 2: And then during that time it was just like, this is what’s lighting me up. And I actually felt like even though it still seems like a crazy thing to do, it felt [00:16:30] like it just was so right and I just had to do what Mary was talking about. I had to then the most of what I’ve had to do is work around being an entrepreneur, developing an online voice. All of that stuff was really hard for me. It was hard for me to call myself a coach and then really the first time I had to record something for Instagram, I felt like I was going to throw up and everyone would make [00:17:00] fun of me. Everyone that knew me would be like, what is she doing now? And that’s not true. Actually everyone that knows me is like, oh my gosh, I’m so glad you did this right? Because in my life I embody what I teach. It’s not like I’m not living what I teach. So anyways, I guess, yeah, just to say that even as someone who’s been very successful, I feel like I still actually struggle. Just the coaching industry as a whole is a complicated [00:17:30] place to have a lot of ethics and to feel really good about that title can be complicated sometimes. I
Speaker 1: Really appreciate you bringing this to the conversation and I love how you described leaving this impressive career for something that wasn’t a serious profession, and yet now it’s how you earn your money, pay your mortgage, provide for your children. And so in a financial sense, it sounds like it’s quite serious, and you can correct [00:18:00] me if I’m wrong there.
Speaker 2: I make much more money and my potential to make more money is exponential.
Speaker 1: And so it seems like if we look at the scale of what defines success, there’s a financial scale that we can look at, check, there’s a sense of satisfaction, joy, as Mary described, passion. Okay, so you’re definitely a check in that realm, and I hear you in terms of the reputation of the greater industry. And I think [00:18:30] actually this is something that our school is going to have a big conversation around at the end of the year because I know for myself, the title of coach never seemed particularly attractive to me. It seems like I was going to have to do some scammy Instagram thing if I wanted to be a successful coach, but actually when we peel it back to the heart of what it is, it’s actually just a coach is just someone who can ask powerful questions. And yet I really hear you in terms of the, it’s a crazy thing [00:19:00] to do.
Speaker 1: So celebrating the check on financial check on passions, check on the potential for what this can create. Thank you for sharing. Brite. Would you like to share a little bit in terms of your experience about, you’ve already described the Boomerang, so you sent out a lot of different leads and inquiries. Will it be public health, will it be different styles of coaching? Where are you actually going to land in your sweet spot? [00:19:30] I’m curious, so we already know for you that it wasn’t necessarily super clear in terms of where you were ultimately going to land, but I’d love to hear a little bit from you around what was the guiding force that supported you to make decisions and have the determination or the courage to keep moving forward to find that right spot, that sweet spot for you, which may still be something that continues to evolve.
Speaker 3: Yeah, [00:20:00] I think I was led, and so much of what I have created for my clients is led by my own healing journey. I think the roots of this are in Greek mythology somewhere that we’re wounded healers. And I really believe that. And I think I don’t know where I’m going. I know that I am loving [00:20:30] every drop of the journey, and it has been like an insatiable appetite to just learn more. It’s been fueled with so much love and curiosity. No fear. There’s no fear to step through a door and be like, what’s behind it? Because I just believe it’s bringing me to where I’m meant to be without escaping where I am right now. So I’m a firm believer in that and it’s really served [00:21:00] me. And I can say that where I am now is the sum of all the parts of where I’ve been, my four pillars at, well, adorned are wellness, balance, purpose and style.
Speaker 3: And so you see how it all gets folded together in a beautiful way to heal. And I do think that as an industry, it can [00:21:30] be tricky. Our filter as coaches are very narrow because we’re looking for a lot of people I follow on Instagram, which it just all around me in my professional world now is it’s very saturated with coaches. But I know when I’m in social circles or I go somewhere and I’m really like the person that people gravitate to in the room once they hear what I do because [00:22:00] they’re like, oh my God, you support people with burnout. And I think many people have been exposed to coaches in a very different way in the professional world, whereas in the more holistic health world and in the modality, we as embodiment coaches really bring forward. It’s a very different resonance and essence and way of moving through the world that people are so magnetized [00:22:30] towards. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing. I love that distinction. And as you speak about the different types of coaches, I can very much appreciate being the person who at the dinner party, I’m often hesitant to describe what I do because it naturally invokes so many questions. And I’m often not there to be in teacher mode unless I feel really passionate about speaking about it. [00:23:00] But so grateful for your reflections. It’s really juicy. Now, one aspect that has come through what all of you have shared is that there’s an aspect of moving forward with this career transition into what’s flourishing for you each. Now there’s been an aspect of the passions, the inner work that my body led me here, the personal healing. So that’s the real inner alchemy. But then I’ve also heard each of you speak in different ways [00:23:30] around that part of entrepreneurship, that aspect of building a business, developing yourself into the more professional aspects of your work.
Speaker 1: And we’ve spoken at length on this podcast series about the difference between your skills to coach and your skills to actually run a business or to develop something that has some financial predictability and [00:24:00] knowing how your income is going to be generated. So I’m really interested just to speak a little bit about, I feel like for a lot of people when they’re interested in career change, we’re often first led by our body and then later on we realize, oh, I’ve got to develop all of these entrepreneurial skills as well. I’d just love to hear a little bit from you about how long, if you can, I don’t necessarily expect you to put a number on it, but just speaking around [00:24:30] the idea of how long it’s taken you to develop that more entrepreneurial side of your work, to a point whereby it has for all of us on the call, myself included, this is our primary and only work.
Speaker 1: This is the work that we do for our financial security and stability. Some of us may have partners, some of us may not. I’m sure we’re all in different economic circumstances and relationships, but at the same time, this is our [00:25:00] primary work. So I’m curious, and we might kick off with Mary if you’re happy to share a little bit about how long did it take you to figure out this business entrepreneurial side of the equation and get comfortable or get what you might describe as secure, if you’re happy to describe it that way, in your way of working,
Speaker 4: Who said I had it figured out,
Speaker 1: Also have my hand raised for that? I feel like I’m constantly figuring it out.
Speaker 4: [00:25:30] And I think it’s so important in entrepreneurship to normalize that there is no arrival. And that’s kind of the nature. And what’s exciting about being an entrepreneur is that there is this constant evolution of work. And I’ve gone through different brand names and identities in my work work, and I would say, [00:26:00] I mean certainly a couple of years before I really felt like I had a sense of this is who I am, this is what I’m doing. And I will say that I had my business for several years before I took the Feminine Embodiment Coach certification. And during those years, I really felt like I was kind of wandering, just wandering, just [00:26:30] kind of picking up, well, maybe I should do a yoga teacher training and maybe I should do this, and facilitating retreats and workshops in the range of the things that I did.
Speaker 4: But without that one reliable, dependable service that I could repeat in my business and create substantial results that was so [00:27:00] impactful for me to feel confident as an entrepreneur is when I first started coaching one-on-one, I offered a package of sessions at a discounted rate for clients who wanted to test the methods so that I could gain experience and experience. In the beginning, I was just marketing it. I don’t really know what I’m talking about here because I just [00:27:30] really hadn’t embodied it yet. And just the level of income, but also the level of satisfaction that I get from my work relationships and the quality of clients that I work with is just so dramatically expanded as a result of investing in a repeatable skill. So I think for me, it was like I just knew I had [00:28:00] this blind passion to share some of what I loved and what I was curious about in the world, and it was really the coaching certification that crossed me over that threshold from, like I said, hobbyist with my career and calling it a business to feeling like I am an entrepreneur, I am a business owner, and I own that identity.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love hearing that [00:28:30] experience and it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. You’re such a fabulous coach in the way that you work and the unique magic that you bring. And I can see how you’ve described that reproducible skill that is the one-to-one work is the most deep intimate, and thus it has the highest price point. And that can be, and for me earlier in the podcast series, [00:29:00] I was speaking about my income as it grew, as I developed my coaching business and transitioned from a time for money model into a more outcome for money model. And I know it was a huge game changer for me in terms of really valuing the outcome that I could create with my clients and thus that having an impact on the prices that I felt like I could charge and yet skill of your trade first and then the entrepreneurialship [00:29:30] after. Beautiful. Christina, did you want to share anything about the nature of entrepreneurship? I know for you the timeline is a little bit shorter than for example, what Mary sharing around. You’ve already spoken a little bit about your financial security, but is there anything that you wanted to add to this conversation around your journey into entrepreneurship?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that something that’s interesting about my journey is that you want to be in [00:30:00] this feminine embodied place when you’re creating, because you’re a feminine embodiment coach, and so you want to put something on the world and try it and see if it’s right and then no, it’s not right, and take it back into my woman cave and massage it, and I can’t do that. I don’t have that privilege, so it’s just not my privilege. And I had a very real sense of that when I started that I quickly needed to make clear offers [00:30:30] and I had to get past a lot of my stuff pretty quickly. I had to figure out how to feel good about being online and building audience and selling things and being very straightforward that I was selling coaching and courses and workshops, and I immediately replaced my income because I had worked under another coach.
Speaker 2: And so then I was able to take one-to-one [00:31:00] clients. And so that wasn’t a problem, but to grow the business, to make things sustainable, to build containers that were very, very clear that women could come in at multiple entry points and get into understanding the world of basically, you have to let people get to know you. So they have to come into your world. Maybe they see you on Instagram, they get on your email list, they download something for free, maybe they buy a [00:31:30] small workshop and then all of a sudden they’ve gotten to know you enough to build trust. They might want to work with you in a more invested way. That is a core entrepreneur skill that I didn’t have, but I had to figure it out.
Speaker 2: So it’s one year before I felt like, okay, all these pieces are in order. It would be very easy for me to tell someone what I do, the kinds of clients [00:32:00] that I work the best with, and that I understand how to do a sales call and those kinds of things. I worked really, really hard to read and understand its basic marketing and entrepreneurship, and I did not have any other option but to do that. So I think that now though, I would say that the result of that is that I have this, [00:32:30] something that I teach about, something we all teach about is I have this really masculine container now where everything’s on Kajabi, everything’s in one platform, and everything’s very clear and I feel really good about it. My clients feel really good about it, and when I need to upload something new for somebody, there’s a place for it to go.
Speaker 2: I know exactly how I sent client notes and because I was forced into those systems right away. [00:33:00] Now there’s sort of this breath coming. It’s like every day it’s like this bigger exhale of like, oh, I have this masculine container, and now with these structures I can play and get creative, even though I had a little resistance to creating the structures the way I did. That’s like on the other side, they give me space to be creative and secure and know that I’m going to have income and understand how [00:33:30] my invoicing works and it doesn’t feel so like scattered, which actually just isn’t my position in life, and I have a lot of responsibilities. And so I think sometimes that’s comforting because to my clients to hear that too, because a lot of them are also have a lot of responsibilities. They might be the main breadwinner in their family, even if they’re married or they might be a single mom. And to hear that [00:34:00] you can make a career transition in a feminine way and still get a creative juicy kind of sexy experience in your work, but you can create structure and clarity at the same time. I think that also comes into my coaching and the kind of women that end up working with me. So it’s all the same thing, right? Entrepreneurship and who you coach, it’s the same. It’s all meshed together [00:34:30] in your path.
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing. And I love the maturity that you are speaking about in terms of as systems develop and structures exist, and all of those things really turn me on in my business because I know that the more structure that’s there to hold that I don’t personally have to hold the more life force I then have available to take my morning Oracle walk and think about what do I want to podcast [00:35:00] on today, for example. I know that the pieces that need to be taken care of are being taken care of, and that for many people is a real journey to figure out. That’s taken me many, many years to figure out. So I love the energy you bring of I had to do it. It had to happen on this timeframe, and so I applied myself. I think that demonstrates a lot of uniqueness in your circumstances, but also a lot of conviction in I can make this happen. So really celebrating that for [00:35:30] you. Touching in on the entrepreneurial journey and what it’s really been like for you to develop yourself as an entrepreneur, did you want to share anything with us further around that?
Speaker 3: Sure. I think what I have always found so unique becoming a coach is how I had this background in business [00:36:00] in, I mean, whether it was in healthcare and strategic planning or it was in marketing and branding. So when I first arrived on the scene, I was like, website, no problem. Branding, no problem. My pillars are no. I mean, they have somehow stayed and there’s been an evolution within those pillars, but that part didn’t feel as, I didn’t feel as resistant to that because I’m like, [00:36:30] this is how people will find me. Instagram, I always had an assistant and I had a lot of people doing things that supported me and except in the startup, which was very scrappy. And again, that just reminds me of how the journey is exactly how it’s meant to be because it was a lean team. It was so scrappy and I had to wear all the hats. And so when I got here as the next career, I’m like, oh, this is a startup. I’m in a startup.
Speaker 3: [00:37:00] I think one part that I can really add here is that there’s whatever certification, like the feminine embodiment certification, there is a place where people can find me. I’m a nationally board certified health and wellness coach. There is a place where people can find me. I mean, there’s so many of those places, and I have been so lucky [00:37:30] because I mean, I’ve gotten a bunch of clients through School of Embodied Arts because someone found me on that site and that has been incredibly supportive. And I think whatever someone considering this field does, it is just try to go all the way and get your name put on those platforms where people can find you because people are looking and I’m proof of [00:38:00] that. And there’s always these synchronicities along the way that kind of affirm like I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do because someone found me who is looking for me, and I’m exactly meant to support them.
Speaker 3: And I think it took a couple of years before I felt stable, I tried to create a signature coaching program. I did it, I put it out there, and then my clients were like, I don’t want this 12 week thing. I just want to continue. [00:38:30] So I kind of don’t do it anymore. And I think that is the beauty of entrepreneurship. You can do whatever you want and you’re the boss. So it feels wobbly, but that is the beauty of being a creator. You can create and you can then pivot and it’s completely r and d all the time, right? It’s like you’re just [00:39:00] continuing to refine and distill and refine and figure out exactly what works. And there’s no right or wrong.
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing. What you’re saying is so aptt. I was chatting with Al, our operations manager here at the school yesterday, and I said to her, do you think we will ever get to this point of magical business maturity where we just feel like everything’s sorted? She said to me, Jenna, what would be the fun in that? [00:39:30] And she was joking, but she was also serious because it is all research and development and it is all evolution. So thank you for sharing. I’ve got one juicy last question for each of you. I’m really curious to know what’s been your biggest lesson on the journey so far? So the journey to pursue your passions, the journey to evolve your careers, the journey into entrepreneurship, into entrepreneurship, maturity, [00:40:00] which is an ever unfolding state. I’m really curious what has been either a personal mantra or a lesson or something that gives you courage or faith to keep pursuing the path that you’re on? Because it still, I know for me, there’s still ups and downs and loop the loops and all kinds of unexpected curve balls still come. I think part of my soul wanted to be an entrepreneur for [00:40:30] that reason, for the constant edge of personal development that it presents. But we might start with Mary, if there’s any lesson or mantra that’s been really pivotal for you either currently or over the course of your journey.
Speaker 4: There’s been so many. What I’m currently working with is the mantra. I am not my business [00:41:00] even though I am my business in the sense that I’m the only one aside from my team who supports me, I’m the face of the business, the service provider, et cetera. It’s tricky in the world. I was reflecting to a mentor the other day about taking it personally when if my numbers are not where I want them [00:41:30] to be, and she was like, I imagine it’s a lot easier to take it personally when it’s your soul’s journey on the line as opposed to selling a product or something like that, like selling refrigerators or something. It’s very, very intimate work, and there’s a lot of points of enmeshment. So for me, in order to really embody my brand [00:42:00] and my message, the work that I’m doing now and the mantra I’m seeking to embody is just actually a step back from being an entrepreneur, being the sole, or at least the biggest chunk of my identity, and instead allowing my entrepreneurship to fuel this deeper, richer experience of who I am in my life [00:42:30] with my business being a part of that.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I so adore that. It reminds me strangely of I had a child and when she was about two, I began to feel like, oh, my identity as a human being, not just a mother, is reemerging. And I know we’ve used that analogy already a little bit with businesses being like infants that require so much care. And I love that aspect of individuation [00:43:00] because it can become so enmeshed. It’s such a deep personal inner journey to have a successful business. It requires so much of you and you are not your business. I take a lot of issue when we start to see in the online world, people starting to say things like, well, you should charge what you are worth. And it’s like, oh, well, I’m not charging somebody my worth to work with me. [00:43:30] I’m charging them for the outcome that we are going to create, that they’re going to create, and that I’m just here facilit facilitate and to coach. And so I see a lot of different ways whereby unconsciously it can be really easy to connect my worth with the success of my business, which I feel like success in financial terms is another topic that we’ve discussed on this podcast because what if success [00:44:00] means something else? So really appreciating that delineation. Is there anything you wanted to add to that?
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. I really relate to that, and I actually wrote that down. I think just like, and this is something that I really learned from you, Jenna, is moving through my journey of success in a way that doesn’t outpace my own body
Speaker 4: [00:44:30] In this experience of magnetism, which I personally find the word magnetism often very irritating in the coaching world because it speaks to this experience of passivity and what we want just kind of coming towards us. But my experience is receptivity. When I [00:45:00] am in alignment doing my embodiment practices, my mind is clear and I’m not doing that thing that we do, which is override my own boundaries, my body’s own boundaries in order to get it done. Sometimes that results in me being willing to make some sacrifices for the amount of financial success or the amount of clients I take on. But I’m really committed [00:45:30] now that I have a deeper sensitivity of my own embodiment. It’s like I’m really committed to just not letting my life outpace what feels good or what feels true for my own body.
Speaker 1: Deep exhale. Thank you. Rudy, how about for you? What’s been one of your, or the current lesson on your journey of pursuing your passions?
Speaker 3: [00:46:00] Yeah, I have two and they’ll be super quick. The first is, and I only discovered this when I started working with a coach a very, very long time ago, and now of course, that’s a lot of the work that is done in my work, really living aligned with my values. That is a non-negotiable. The minute negoti, I derail, everything [00:46:30] goes sideways, everything. So that is probably the one thing that I constantly check back in with and it’s kind of been just such a support system for me. And then I have a mantra that I’ve never shared out loud, really. So I’m happy to do it here in Mary. I’m so sorry, the word magnetizes in it, but I’m going to say it anyway.
Speaker 4: I love magnetism as we talk [00:47:00] about it. It’s just that kind gives you the creeps kind of message about magnetism, but rock on so into it.
Speaker 3: I am so with you. Yeah, I’m just going to go with it. And this has roots because I have, obviously I support women in burnout. I myself have experienced, which is so prevalent in coaching burnout. So this is my, every [00:47:30] moment I have to breathe into this mantra. So I am arrested woman, I attract and magnetize abundance, inspiring people, places and things. I am in service to bringing pleasure and power to myself and those I serve
Speaker 1: Big exhale, a delicious exhale with that one as well. Your people can come and drop little wisdom bombs on me any day over [00:48:00] the week, and I’ll just rest back and soak them up. Thank you for sharing. I really appreciate both of your tips. And I know that living a life in alignment with your values, that is a constant navigation. Additionally, when you add entrepreneurship into the equation, we were just recently searching for a new contractor to work with in one arm of our [00:48:30] business operations, and we had to interview, I said just yesterday, I said, I feel like I’ve been on Tinder, swiping, swiping, swiping, to just try and find the right person who’s a value match with our company to pay and help us with this challenge we have. We found the right people yesterday, but it can be really challenging. It can be really challenging to live life in alignment with your values, particularly when they’re countercultural or [00:49:00] someone’s promising really big results that seem sexy, it seem alluring, and you actually have to check in to say, Hmm, that’s not a fit for me. So I can see how that’s such a big practice. Thank you and lucky last to close us for today. Christina, would you be happy to share with us a lesson, a reminder, a little truth bomb?
Speaker 2: Sure. And what I was going to say kind of ties into what everybody said, [00:49:30] so it’s pretty cute. So the way I think of my business, I mostly coach women who are dating or who have a man problem. So I think of my business with the same principles that I teach women to relate to men. So I always reminding myself that it’s like my man. I energetically separate from it. Every day I go to a place in the body where [00:50:00] I exist without any relationship to money or this business. I do the same thing with motherhood with any man who’s in my life, a place where I just exist under myself. And I feel like when we drop women into the body, that’s where they go. And so I energetically separate from the business every day, just let it burn away for a minute. So I don’t feel it on me.
Speaker 2: I never want [00:50:30] to wear it like a weight. And then I also, the same thing as everybody else was saying, I believe in making sure that the things that are unique about me and where I’m going in life, it’s so weird compared to where a lot of people are going. I’m 42, I don’t live with a man. I have these older kids. I have a child going to college. I have different [00:51:00] goals for relating with men, and each of my clients do too. And there’s no right way. There’s no right relationship container with a man. There’s no right kind of man. And so I always think that coaching advice around your business, it’s so much dating and relationship advice. It can be trying to coach you into a relationship that worked for somebody else, but you maybe don’t want to date the c e o or maybe yoga [00:51:30] van guy.
Speaker 2: He’s not for you. You have your own type of way that you’re going to get to where you’re going. And that a really cool thing I guess that makes me feel excited is that actually it’s not that hard to make money online. It’s like once you figure out some tools, there are thousands of ways to enter this industry. It’s like an incredibly abundant [00:52:00] place to be. There’s so much energy in the online industry, there’s so much opportunity. And so that always kind of resonates with me. It’s the same thing as women who are like, if I can get them excited about online dating or dating in general, there’s so much opportunity to meet people that, and you can do it your own way in a way that maybe women never had the privilege to before. And I think that’s sort of the same thing in the online world.
Speaker 2: All four of us could [00:52:30] essentially accomplish the same types of outcomes financially in our own way, like webinars or coaching programs or group coaching or one-to-one. And whatever marketing you do, you can run ads or you can do social media or you can have an awesome email list. It doesn’t matter. It’s like the energy behind it and then it matches your values and where you want to go, which is essentially the same thing you got to do with a man. So I guess that’s what I always just think of. I’m dating my [00:53:00] business is my man
Speaker 1: That I leave at the end of the day and Unam meshed with. I love that. That’s right. The beautiful maturity in that and really echoes a lot of what Mary was speaking about earlier. Love that reflection. And I love that you’re finishing on that really positive and optimistic note around the abundance that exists in the world, in the online space [00:53:30] financially. I feel that the panel we’ve convened today certainly has a delicious kind of pleasure flavor, a flavor of sensual aliveness, a flavor of that reverence and that joy to be of life. And I’m going to include all of your website links with the show notes. So you would only just have to go and just click on these three different links and you’ll be getting three very unique transmissions of that [00:54:00] really delicious, joyous flavor of life that exists, a world of opportunities. So thank you each for your time and for sharing so beautifully and honestly about your journeys.
Speaker 1: I think it’s just a real privilege to be able to peek behind the curtain and hear about people’s journey to this point. Because if you just stumbled across your website, you would assume that here’s somebody who has it all together, has a beautiful offering, and for somebody at the start of their journey, they may be thinking that [00:54:30] is so unattainable and so far away from me. So this just really does a great job to humanize the journey to that place, the ongoing journey that’s still unfolding and you’ve each shared so much wisdom. So thank you all for your time today.
Speaker 1: If you’ve enjoyed this episode, the most sincere way you can share your thanks and celebrate the conversations that we’ve been having is to leave us a review wherever [00:55:00] it is that you listen to your podcast, drop us some stars on Spotify, a comment on iTunes. I would be so grateful if you would share the love as it really helps others to find these important conversations. And also, I get a little bit of a sweet sparkle in my heart when I read those reviews. For more information around feminine embodiment coaching and the School of Embodied Arts, you can always find us@jennaor.co. And as we wrap our [00:55:30] podcast for today, I’m going to leave you with some words from some of our past graduates from the coaching certification who can share in their own words what the experience, the training, and the outcomes were like. So I hope you enjoy hearing from some of our past graduates.
