Wendy (00:04.29)
Hello everyone, welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I have a special guest with me today. I've got Kristen Sharp here with me. Hi, Kristen. Hi, so good to be here. So I'm so happy that you're here. Kristen is someone who I met through a business mastermind that I was in. So as a coach, I obviously believe in the value of coaching and I continue to get coached myself. And Kristen and I were in a really intimate coaching container together. When was that? I guess last, this year, but.
I think we wrapped it up a few months ago. And so I got to know a little bit about Kristin and her coaching business and she is doing some really cool things and has a really interesting background. And I thought it would be really interesting to you as a listener to hear some of the different ways that people are using their coach training and some of the different avenues that are available for generating revenue and building a business as a coach. So.
Thank you so much in advance, Kristen, for giving us your time today. I would love it if you would start by just telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do and maybe your background in terms of your training and your previous experience and your certifications. Yeah. Well, I do a lot of things. And one of the questions that a mentor of mine asked me is, who are you without titles?
And so I love to just introduce myself that way. And so something about me that I love to share with people is I really take a stand for authenticity and freedom, courage and connection. So those are some of my top values. And as I think about, you know, the work that I do in the world, it's all about really having a positive impact and helping to elevate the consciousness on this planet.
How I do that is I work as an executive coach and leadership consultant inside a lot of corporate companies. So I got my start actually in corporate retail. I worked through a lot of different large companies here in the Bay Area of California. I have a master's and undergrad in statistics. So that led me into working in strategic analytical roles. So very technical.
Wendy (02:21.848)
but I built a really successful career in analytics and customer relationship marketing. What I loved about it was I got to work with a lot of people in a lot of parts of the business. And so that really helped me get a sense for, you know, how does a business work? What are the different considerations that people are thinking through as they're making different business decisions? And as I got more and more senior in my role, I was doing less analytics and it was more about relationships and people. And I started
leading others, developing teams, building teams, and leading teams. And what I really found is that what lights me up is that part of my work. And so about eight years ago, I went on this big soul searching journey of who am I and what do I want to be about in the world? What is my real purpose? And I had my first coach and he asked me this question, if you could do anything, what would you do? And we put money aside out of the equation for a moment.
And I said, well, I would live by the beach and teach yoga. Yoga had been something that had really changed my life for the positive. And so once I finished my coaching up with him, I thought, well, if I really want be a yoga teacher someday, I've to go do yoga certification. So I had a two and a four year old at the time and signed up for 200 hour teacher training. And it was through that program that really started to waken me up to
this whole new realm of spirituality and really kind of this quest for what is my purpose. As we went through the program and started teaching, I discovered like, okay, yoga is my passion, but not the thing. So let me just go dip a toe in the water into coaching, because I'm good at people and relationships and cultivating talent. I took a class, I went to the Coactive Training Institute, which is, you also went there and it's one of the oldest.
well-known, well-recognized around the globe training companies. And into that first day, I was like, I have found my thing. I don't know what that's going to look like yet, but this is the thing I really want to be doing. so went through the five courses, went through certification, became a CTI certified coach. And then shortly thereafter have, you know, started out on my own coaching.
Wendy (04:45.646)
And, my gosh, Wendy, there's so many things I could say about that journey. But it was, you know, my leadership team really supported my exploration of coaching because what at the time I believed was this is something I'm interested in. And whether or not I go be a coach or I just bring coaching into who I am as a leader, this is going to help me be a be a better leader. And
I finished all the courses and about halfway into my certification program, I was a hundred percent all in and said, this is what I'm doing. And I left my corporate company and I started my own coaching business. And now I am, I just hit my sixth year anniversary out of corporate and in as an entrepreneur. And right now I'm like, I I'm so grateful. It has been a wild six years, but my primary work is I work as an executive coach. I do a lot of leadership, facilitation and training.
And then I also run private masterminds and run off sites for leadership teams. That's like a nutshell. Where do you wanna go No, I love that. No, I love it. I love it. I mean, this is one of the reasons I wanted to have you on. Cause your backgrounds, have lots of, I've worked with lots of coaches who have corporate backgrounds, have most coaches, I think. Coaching is not their primary, their first career. They've started somewhere else.
they've gotten to a place where it hasn't felt like exactly the right thing, or maybe it's felt like the wrong thing since the beginning in my case with my law career. And at some point they try coaching and they fall in love with coaching. so we've got a lot of, there are a lot of coaches in my BBB program where I support coaches and people who are followers and who listen to this podcast, who are coming from another industry. And I wanted to have somebody on here who's in that same
sort of category of coaches, you can talk about how you built a business because you have become really successful and how did you build a successful business from that place that you were in? Because presumably, you you're in a place and you're like, I don't know, I don't know where to start, this is we all are. So what were your first steps when you decided, no, I'm gonna try to, I'm gonna make a go at this thing. How did you start out?
Wendy (06:59.234)
Well, what would the benefit of going through CTI's program and entering into certification is that you have to have five clients. Right. And so some of it is a forcing function where I knew I really wanted to do this and I had to get five clients. So it's almost like there was no other option. It was happening. And so although it was forced, it's like when we have, when I had just had this inner conviction that there was no option to fail, there was no option to not
be a coach or to not have clients. And so then it was really just going out and owning that conviction, owning this passion and asking people, Hey, I'd love to coach you. And people were honestly so surprised. they were so honored. You want to coach me? Okay. Like, sure. You're going to invest this time in me and I'm going to get some support.
Some people didn't know what most people honestly didn't know what they were signing up for. I didn't even know how to tell them what to expect. I just knew we were going to do this thing. And I think the reason it worked was because people already knew me. They trusted me. And we had a great rapport with each other through something that was not coach related, right? Which is the value of like who you are, how you show up in the world and the people that you've already built a relationship with. Right. It's that simple.
Yeah, and that's the place to start. And that's why I wanted to talk to you about this, because so many coaches come to me and say, like, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've got this really beautiful website and I've got it. I've got my calendar set up and there's a booking button for a discovery call. And I've got this Instagram page and I'm posting these, you know, posts every day, but I'm not getting clients. And my my answer to that is always the same, which is that is not where you're to get your clients in the beginning.
Eventually, if you keep working at that, you will get clients through those avenues and you might get a random client from those avenues, but it's not going to be enough to build a business or sustain a business. And so I'm all about old school marketing, which is going back and looking at who do I know who already likes, knows and trusts me, which is exactly what you just said, because business building is all about building like no trust. And so that takes a long time.
Wendy (09:14.604)
which is why it takes a long time for social media to pan out. It takes a long time for the other avenues that you're just, you know, your newsletter list and all those things that you're building to actually turn into paying clients. But where do people already like, know and trust you and how can you go there and leverage that to start building a coaching practice? So you had those first five clients and then how did you use those first five clients? What was it from those first five clients that led to like your next five clients?
Well, at the time, so I had my five clients and then I decided to leave my corporate company. was like, I'm going to go start a business. And there was the passion, but there was also the intelligence. And I think this is something that I'm, I do really well is intuition and intellect strategy and soul, inner and outer. Like I was so convinced, had so much conviction, but I also was like the joy I look back now of being a beginner. tried so much stuff.
Yeah, so many things. And I was willing to be imperfect, but put my best foot forward. Like I wasn't a marketer. I wasn't a business builder. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur. My parents had their own business and I said, no way, never will I. Yet here I was. So I had to dispel some of my own myths. But honestly, again, it was, who do I know? So I did a ton of personal invites.
And I asked, I just invited people to come to this weekly workshop that a friend and I put on was called wake up Wednesdays. And every Wednesday we would show up and we would offer a concept, a tool, a framework, place to have a conversation about growth. And they, some of these topics were a little silly and outrageous, but they always just offered a place for introspection, community and consciousness. And
just by showing up and consistently inviting people in, sometimes we would have one person, sometimes we would have 20 people. We just didn't get too attached to how many, it was just like being in action and putting out the invite. So doing that on my own, but then what I also did was I was like, I just want to coach. I don't know.
Wendy (11:40.514)
business yet. So how can I get reps in? Somebody really early on just said, coach your ass off. Coach as many people as will say yes to you. And then you'll fine tune and figure out who do you like working with? How do you like working with them? What's your unique magic? But if you over invest in trying to figure out all of that first, in my experience, that didn't work. Like I even hired a business coach to help me
niche and message and market and do all the things and it was not fruitful. So I worked through a coaching company, a couple of them actually, and that helped me just get to show up and coach and not have so much pressure on my business. And then I went through some massive personal change and I just doubled down my effort on that. And it was great because I was getting again, getting in the rep.
And then that's where I also started to get mastery in my leadership training and facilitation space. But meanwhile, like what ended up happening on my private business side was people that had seen me message and invite them into these weekly calls were coming out of the woodwork. They were saying, you sent me this email two years ago and I always knew I would come back at some point.
But now here I am, I have this change or I want a new job or I just got a new job. So something was changing in their life that they were like, my name was top of mine. But that was because I had showed up. But it also showed me that things like emailing or posting take a long time to convert. so to keep being consistent, but
Honestly, when COVID happened and big life changes happened and I was coaching through these other companies, all my marketing stopped. I don't have an email list. I don't really do much on social media. I don't really market anything because I haven't had to yet. I have just been able to build a business based on repeat business and referrals because the people that I've showed up for
Wendy (14:00.46)
have gotten such great value that they've talked about it. And I'm like, well, who do you know that could benefit from this? And they've helped me to drive business, but then it's also soccer games, the playground where my kids go to school, just telling people what I do. And also then listening, like what's going on for you and your team? What's going on in your business? I think I could add value. Do you want to have a conversation?
Right. And if I think I can genuinely serve them, then I offer some ideas. And I, that's how I've had some of my like biggest clients to date and like massive exponential leaps in terms of growing the portfolio of my business. And what I do is simply through organic conversations with people that might not have any idea what I'm doing, but it's just the way I show up and the passion I talk about it with and listening to like, who are they? What are they about? Where are they struggling? And if I can help them, try. Yeah, I love that.
I'm so glad we're talking about this. A couple of things. First of all, reaffirming this whole idea of the conversation. I was actually in a training today in another coaching program I'm in now. And the coach who was running the call today was talking about how sales have changed and the way that people buy has changed and that it now takes people need to really be in front of you, like with you for seven hours before they're willing to part with their money.
And I thought, well, that makes sense. And again, that is connected to this whole idea of having these conversations. We have to actually get in front of people now to build that like no trust. It is not happening anymore through a sales page. Someone is landing on your sales page. I've got this great program. Here's the program, go buy it. It's not working that way. And I think that's just another reason to do some of these things that Kristen's talking about now.
So if this is something that you haven't been doing in your business, if you haven't been focusing on creating contacts and connections and having conversations with people, this is the thing that's going to take you to the next level. I promise you. Like this is the thing that for me changed everything was starting to reach out and have more conversations with people. So that's the first thing. The second thing is this whole idea that it takes a while. I love that you said that.
Wendy (16:21.518)
I still use this example of, you when I first started, Mike, I've had a long and storied career as a coach. I've been doing this for about 15 years. And when I first started, my very first certification was in natural nutrition. And so I was doing food and wellness coaching. And I used to go out to people's homes and do cooking demonstrations, talk to their book clubs about healthy eating, like whatever I could do to do exactly this, right? Get in front of groups of people. And most of the time, these were people that I was already connected with, friends that I knew, you know, whatever people through my old law neck.
networks, whatever, how can I get in front of a group of people either at your office or at your home? it was like, the funniest part of all of that was, yes, I did get some clients from that in the beginning. But years later, I would have people doing, you know, sending in applications for like completely different type of coaching, because by then I had moved on to like, I was doing burnout and transition coaching for professional women. And people would send in applications. And there was a little piece of my application, where did you find find me? Or how did you find me?
And so many people said, I was at so-and-so's house, you know, like seven years ago, you were making hummus and I think you made kale chips. Or they'd say, I saw you, did a workplace presentation, you know, five years ago at my office. Like these things take time, but people remember you. What people won't remember is that they got a newsletter from you five years ago. They're not gonna remember that.
But if they saw your face and you interacted with them, again, it's like getting this face time in, which a lot of the time is happening now virtually, which is okay. Like just getting your face in front of people. And that can be through actual one-on-one conversations that you're having. It can be when you're speaking to a group live. It can even be prerecorded video content that you get in front of people, but it gives people a chance to spend some time with you. And that's how you're gonna build this like no trust. But.
it does take time and you will, if you're a new coach, you will see this play out. You will have people come to you and you will not believe how they found out about you. It will blow your mind. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad you mentioned that because it's reminding me. also, when I was teaching yoga, my dear friend who owns the studio was like such a fan and such a supporter. So it's like, we need find those people that just
Wendy (18:41.714)
love you and want to see you succeed and surround yourself with them a but then also pitch to them like, can I can I do a workshop once a month at the studio and she was like, Sure, whatever you want to do Sunday nights, Wednesday mornings, like pick a date, pick a topic, put a flyer together and show up and again, sometimes I some months I had no one show up and I was like, my god, I put so much into this but that's part of the process. And other times it would be just the
sacred women circle that would end up manifesting. And I remember having like a mother daughter combo and taking them through the same thing. And they got both such profound insights and then learn something so special about each other. And in that moment, what I it was like, yes, I was on purpose. Yes, I was making an impact. But I was also getting to see I have something really special to offer that transcends
age, titles, genders, races, like showing up as a powerful coach and, I just got chills, owning this gift that we are sharing with people is so powerful. It doesn't matter where you're showing up as long as you're showing up. Yeah. Yeah. Such a great message. So great. so I know, go ahead.
No, I was just going to say, think that that ties in with the whole, what you were talking about earlier, which I did want to come back to because it's so important, especially for new coaches, this idea of like, don't spend years, months, weeks, even spinning your wheels around your niche and what it is you do and how to describe yourself and the copy for your website. In the first instance, I just had this conversation in office hours today with a new coach. It was like, stop, just get someone to put the page up.
And I said to her in the call, like, you will feel so much better if you just have this thing done, get it done, but it does not need to be fancy because it's going to change. In five years, 95 % of the words on that website will not be there anymore. You will change everything. And the point of coaching in those first few years is about getting out there and getting the experience. Like you said, get your reps in, get out there and figure out what is it that I love to coach around? What am I, where am I weaker? Who are the people that-
Wendy (21:01.87)
work with? What are the problems that I help would love to help people work through and solve? What is my special sauce? What are people telling me about how I coach that is really like working for them? And as you get that experience and you build that confidence, you're also going to get so much clarity. that clarity and that confidence is what is going to help first of all, inform your copy on your website. If you do go back and which I'm going to advise you, please do that over and over again, change your website. Mine has changed a million times in the last 15 years, but also
it's going to help you sell yourself. You're gonna get so much more comfortable in those conversations that Kristin's talking about on the side of this, you know, soccer field or, you know, at the dinner party or wherever you find yourself with other people, you're just gonna get so much more confident in that, get out there and coach. So that whole like, I need to narrow my niche, like not in the beginning, Too much about that. Just get out there and get the coaching reps in.
A question that a lot of people ask too is when they're wanting to get into this workshop space. So they say, well, what do I offer? And honestly, where I started was I just thought about what tools or training have I gone through that a, feel I mastered and I understand well enough to go teach and offer back. And it can be simple as like CTI, one of their core foundations is all around leader purpose and values.
And I just did a values workshop this morning where helping people connect to an experience, narrow in and define their values and why values really matter. And then giving them some space to uncover what those are for them. It can be that simple. Like we don't need to go reinvent the wheel, make up something fancy, come up with our new, like this is my signature process and framework. Like you do, we do not need that.
So letting it really be simple and when for me, I've come from a place of this is something that's really impacted me. I can be so much more passionate about it when I'm teaching it. And then over time, I've really seen which of those tools resonate deeply with my clients. And then those become the ones that are part of my signature collection that I pull from, whether I want to do a workshop or I'm working with a new client. Yeah, I love that. That's a really good way to do it.
Wendy (23:28.142)
And I always say to people, like when you're starting out, if you're thinking about making an offering to a corporate offering, which is such a good idea, by the way, and everybody can do that. You don't need to be a corporate person to be able to offer a corporate offering. You just need a topic that is a helpful topic that will resonate with people and that will help people and will add value to people's lives. So what is that thing? And start with the one thing that you're actually really passionate about and
probably it's something that you've been coaching on privately. That's usually how people come up with their workshop topics. What's coming up over and over again with the one-on-one clients that you have? How can you turn that into a workshop or what, like Kristen said, what's the thing that you learned that was really helpful to you and how can you share that? And then from there, you can start building out your portfolio of offerings, but you just need one thing to offer people in the beginning. And you know what? Be flexible. If they come back, I always say like, even now as somebody who's been doing corporate,
wellness speaking for like well over a decade now and I've done it in all over the place in all different formats and forums and all the rest of it, I still say, is there something that you really want? Because I can do that. Like I can talk about anything. I say that all the time. I can honestly talk about anything. I have such a wide variety now of experience. If there's something that you want, let me know. Or there's something, there's a gap that there's some, a gap in your organization or in your training that you feel like would be really helpful to, for me to fill in some way. Let me know what that is because I can probably.
Help with that. And so asking like, where's the gap? What do you need? What are your employees asking you for? What are your HR people saying that you need more of? How can I help fill that gap is also a way to do that. But you don't need 10 presentation topics. You just need one that you're excited about. And from there, it will just naturally evolve and grow.
The other thing that as you're talking about, I often get asked about from coaches is, what does it mean to work in corporate? And I think a little bit because I think there's such innocence behind it. But we there's often this myth that like corporate is this whole different entity that we need to do something different with. And I think that I just call BS on that.
Wendy (25:51.66)
Because corporate is a collection of humans and ultimately we are in the game of helping humans. And so I think for us to maybe just have a little conversation here about what that looks like because I think there's a lot of value in that. I totally agree. I I wanted to ask you about executive coaching. I said that to you before we started recording because I get this question all the time from the coaches in the BBB who are like,
What do I need to do to be an executive coach? Because it seems like executive coaching is like where the money is. And I always say, nothing, you got to call yourself an executive coach and go out and try to make connections with executives or with people who work in corporate. So tell me what you think it means or what it means to you to be an executive coach, because that is one of your titles, I think. And just tell us a little bit about, well, just
talk a little more about what you were just talking about, because you already know what I'm to say. I don't want to put words in your mouth. Yeah. Well, I do feel myself an executive coach in most spaces, because I really want to evoke this executive presence in the clients I'm working with. And the people that I really call forward are people that want to have a seat at the table, have a voice in the room, and command presence and authority. That, in my mind, is executive.
It's not a title, although it often is collapsed with a title. But in my mind, I'm really thinking about how am I evoking that inner leader within people? Now, some people might say that to be an executive coach, you should have some corporate experience. I don't think that that is necessary. But for me, myself, I want to own my own experience. I worked in corporate for 13 years.
I work with literally probably every department at some point in my career. So I understand how corporate companies work, which I think helps in some sense, because I understand their language. But on the other hand, you could almost argue the opposite. I can sometimes get caught up in the constrictions and the rules and limitations of corporate, such that I'm not able to see it through a clear and biased lens. Right.
Wendy (28:09.056)
So rather than thinking I have to have this corporate experience, I really think about it as coming in and I own my mastery. Like I am so confident in myself, in my presence and in my coaching. And I really put the ownership on my clients. They own their work.
They own their leadership presence and they are the experts in their world. It's not my job to understand their world. My job is really to come in and help them remember who they are, help them widen their perspective and see new possibilities and really commit to this vision of who they wanna be and what they wanna be known for. You don't need to have corporate background to do that. Yeah, I think that's a really important point.
I think I do, do, this has my experience certainly in supporting so many coaches over the years and in doing the corporate work that I do, I hear it time and time again, the fact that I practiced law for 12 years and it was a partner for almost five of those years is a very big deal when they're hiring. So I think the corporate experience helps. And if you have it by all means, like shout it from the rooftops, use it. It's gonna be really helpful, but I totally agree with what you're saying about, know, is it necessary? No, not at all.
And really coaching, executive coaching is coaching humans who happen to work in corporate oftentimes in higher level leadership positions in corporate. But it's just coaching at the end of the day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Okay. Before we wrap up, I would love it if you would share, I'd asked you this question, I put you on the spot. But I did give you a few minutes to think about it. I said I was gonna ask you this, which is,
If you were going to give out like three kind of tips to new coaches, just things that you've learned that you think you sort of wish that you had known before, before you started trying to build your business, like what have you learned that you would share?
Wendy (30:14.798)
Early on, I found myself at this networking event, I have a little story. And I had met some pretty impressive people with impressive backgrounds who were coaches, and they had left their job a little bit before me, and they were struggling. And I brought that back to my mentor coach at the time and she said, you know what, Kristen, 10 % of the coaches are making 90 % of the money.
Who are you surrounding yourself with? The 10 % or the 90 %? And what are you choosing? And I said, I'm going to be in that 10%. So at the beginning, what I've learned and what has helped me be steady and strong through the six years is failure wasn't an option because this is my life's work. So be so committed to what you're doing because no one can take that away from you.
and surround yourself with other people who have the same commitment to it and who are succeeding. It is a huge big deal. Like that group that I was with today, I'm with women who are succeeding in this. And it's such a different vibe. Like when we were in that group this summer, it's people who are like, there is no other option. This is the thing that I was meant to do. And I absolutely believe in...
it not just in coaching, but in my coaching and what I can do and how I can help people. And I want to be with people who feel the same way. And I also want to be with people actually who are ahead of me. I want to be with the people who are doing the things that I'm not doing yet, because that's how I get excited and inspired and all the rest of it. Yes. So who you surround yourself with to get a kick ass coach. Like, yeah, not from a place of I'm not good enough or I need to do something.
from a place of this person inspires me, they're gonna call me forward or they're gonna tenderly hold me through this challenge that I'm in. Like really tuning into what I want and finding a coach that aligns with that, that's going to hold me and call me forward. Great coaches have coaches. I've always been investing in myself. Agreed. And then three is like, this gets to be fun.
Wendy (32:35.768)
So have fun with yourself, have fun with your clients. Like give yourself permission to get out and then fill your cup outside of the work you do. Because every investment I've made in myself has always paid off, whether that's a surf lesson, a retreat, or I don't know, something fun. Letting it be fun because it's really not meant to be so, so serious. And we can forget that. We can forget that. Yeah. And if you are having fun,
Everybody will know you're having fun. And when you are having fun, people want to work with you. That's the truth of it. Like if it comes off as too serious, if it doesn't feel like you have joy in the work that you do, you're going to have a really hard time attracting the people that you want to attract to your coaching practice too. Like this is all, it all comes full circle. So I really, really love that. Thank you so much, Kristen. This has been awesome. I knew it was going to be a great conversation. I didn't have a really specific plan, but I knew it was going to be great. Where can people find out more about you, Kristen?
Yeah, can visit my website, the Kristen sharp.com or come find me over on Instagram and you can download some of my free resources. Send me a note, share with me what you're up to. I love to meet new coaches and celebrate you as you're on your path and doing this very important work in the world. So amazing. Thanks again to connect. Thanks Wendy. Bye.
