Ep #101: Changing Thoughts Vs Changing Circumstances with Claudia Curran

Welcome to the Make Money as a Life Coach® podcast, where sales expert and master coach Stacey Boehman teaches you how to make your first 2K, 20K, and 200K using her proven formula.

Stacey: Hello.

Claudia: Hi.

Stacey: How are you?

Claudia: I’m so well, thank you, so excited.

Stacey: Are you so excited to be here? I’m excited.

Claudia: I am so excited. I have to tell you something. So I was going through various notes ahead of our chat and I found something I had to share. So on the 19^th of October I was chatting to Simone, or rather Simone had posted, I think on Facebook, one of her laugh out loud goals that she had set herself coming true. And I was like that sounds like a really fun thing to do. I’m going to do that. So I wrote October 19^th be asked to go on Stacey’s podcast.

Stacey: And you’re here, right? My God, that’s so fun.

Claudia: So fun. So I’m going to be doing this the whole time now.

Stacey: That is so great, I love it. I have never heard of this like, so it’s a laugh out loud, like lol goal?

Claudia: Exactly, what are your lol goals?

Stacey: You just if you achieve it you just laugh because it’s so amazing?

Claudia: Exactly. What would be a really fun crazy goal to have?

Stacey: That is so fun, I love that.

Claudia: And [inaudible] a crazy goal to have.

Stacey: Well, good for Simone, I love it. And I love that that’s what you wrote, that’s so fantastic. So why did you want to be on the podcast?

Claudia: Why did I?

Stacey: Yeah.

Claudia: Because I think as just an underdog, I was like I want to share my story. I have blown my mind with what I did this year. So I just thought it would be so great and fun to be able to help others be stuck in that same place where I was at the beginning of the year where doing a 100K just seemed so far away. And to say, “No, that it’s totally possible. I did it, you can do it.”

Stacey: Oh my God, that’s so fun. And you can come on the podcast and talk about doing it, which is super fun.

Claudia: Yeah, exactly.

Stacey: Alright, well, are you ready? Let’s just dive in.

Claudia: Perfect.

Stacey: Okay, fantastic. Coaches, welcome to episode 101. Today I have Miss Claudia Curran here from the 200K Mastermind. She was one of my underdogs from our August class. And she is here to share her incredible story. So let’s just dive in and tell them some quick things. I’m going to ask you rapid fire questions. How much money had you made when you applied for 200K?

Claudia: I had made 10,000 when I applied.

Stacey: Okay. And how long did you have to make the 25K to make sure that you got it after you got accepted?

Claudia: So before August, so our Mastermind was in August, so this was in May, so between May to August I had to make the 25.

Stacey: And how much money did you make?

Claudia: By the time I joined in August, 40.

Stacey: Yeah. How much?

Claudia: 40.

Stacey: $40,000, right, we’re going to talk about that in just a second. But how much money have you made, so that was in August of this year?

Claudia: Yeah.

Stacey: Okay. So now we’re in – what – oh my God, November, we’re in November, end of November this year. So you applied in May, by August you had made 40K, it’s now end of November, how much money have you made?

Claudia: 110.

Stacey: $110,000. Now, last question, who do you coach?

Claudia: I am a general life coach. I help people get results drama free and stress free, but no niche, which is I think what we should be talking about, given that was all the drama I had in May.

Stacey: Yeah, okay. So I wanted to just start it this way, 10K to 40K, to 110K with general life coaching. This is the other question I wanted to ask you. And where do you live?

Claudia: I’m now in Ireland but I was in Singapore when we started, so I moved here three weeks ago.

Stacey: I just think that is so fun, I was thinking about that with Simone and how she just made a million dollars. And I was thinking about she’s in South Korea, making a million dollars all over the world, really, just it really struck me now that we have so many international students. We have Debbie in Israel, so many international students that I’m like there…

Claudia: There’s Vicky in Europe.

Stacey: Yeah, Fanny and Vicky in Europe, there’s multiple people in Europe now and really making money truly has no border now. Not that it ever did, but it really just occurred to me that you could be anywhere in the world and be a life coach and make money. That to me is not a little thing.

Claudia: Well, that was part of the reason that we were able to Ireland three weeks ago, because I suddenly realized through the Covid period that all my clients before wanted to see me in person. And through Covid it was like, no, happy to transition online. And people are now like, “I want to find the right coach for me rather than a coach near me.”

Stacey: Yeah.

Claudia: So it just opened up all, yeah, there’s no more borders.

Stacey: That is what a lot of clients…

Claudia: So I realized I could go anywhere.

Stacey: Yeah, that is what a lot of clients and coaches think, don’t you think? I mean not I wouldn’t say encounter people like us who are doing the opposite. But I do think a lot of people even when I talk about my coaching business out to civilians out in the world. They’re always like, “Do you meet with your clients every week?”

They kind of think of it like therapy in that you’re going to go into a room, you’re going to talk to a person, it’s in person. And it can be but it doesn’t have to be. And now more than ever I feel like location independent virtual coaching is exploding in such a powerful way.

Claudia: Yeah, because I think also when I first started all my clients were, most of them were from the finance world or in the corporate world. And so the expectation set was you just meet in person, that’s what you do. So therefore if I have a coach it has to be in person. And so yeah, Covid just made the transition of, no, actually I don’t even want to see you in person anymore. It’s far more effective to be able to just logon and not see you. So it’s amazing.

Stacey: I don’t want to see you in person, get out of here.

Claudia: Exactly.

Stacey: Take that saliva somewhere else. I love it. Okay, so let’s talk about the general life coaching. So some people may have seen this video where I was coaching you really hard, but they didn’t know that you were the one I was coaching, they just saw me talking about – and not everyone is going to know what we were talking about because they won’t have seen the video. But they should go to my Instagram and find it. So I coached you pretty hard at the live event. So let’s give them some background for those of them that haven’t seen the video.

I think the video was called Coaching Hard, and I coached a lot of different people but you were, I think the first person we started with and we weaved it in throughout the entire video because it was such a great example. So you came to me, let’s try to remember the model because I don’t remember it a 100%. But it was like you came on screen and you wanted help honing your niche.

Claudia: That’s right.

Stacey: And I knew your story that you had just gone from 10K to 40K in a couple of months. And I just know, this is what I always tell people, is, “Never change what’s working when it’s working, not in the beginning, not in your first 100K. The only thing you want to do is find that wave of success and then ride it.” And at no point do you want to say, “Let me get off to get on a different ride.” That was immediately the red flag that was brought up.

So I started coaching you on it and you were like, “No, it’s not working though.” Your thought, your predominant thought was it’s not working. “I have to change my niche, I have to hone my niche, I have to get clear about this.” And so let’s just start there. Tell everybody why did it feel like it wasn’t working? What was the story you were telling yourself about the 40K that you had made?

Claudia: Yeah. I was like, “I know.” I’m like, “Stacey, you don’t understand my situation.” So I’m like, “I understand what you mean by don’t change something that’s working.” But I’m like, “That’s not relevant here.” I was really resistant to your coaching and I think I had come…

Stacey: Yeah, but why did it feel like it wasn’t relevant?

Claudia: Sorry.

Stacey: Why did it feel like it wasn’t relevant? What felt like your situation was a snowflake situation?

Claudia: Because I had got in my head that in order to build a business it has to be sustainable in terms of the client flow.

Stacey: So the thought was that your client flow was not sustainable?

Claudia: That’s right. I think that was the exact model.

Stacey: So where had your clients came from up until the 40K?

Claudia: Yeah. So they were all referrals, personal network, people I knew. And so you said, “No, but how do you…?”

Stacey: So were they reaching out to you? Were you reaching out to them? How did you get the clients?

Claudia: A combination of both. So I think when I applied for the first 10K, and I thought okay, I’ve got to make my 25K back, I went into the hustle mode. I remember thinking Brooke says, “If you really had to make money, if your family were kidnapped and you had to have the ransom fee, you’d go and do it, you’d get it.” And so I applied the same thinking. It was like, okay, I’ve got to make this 25K. How am I going to make it happen?

And so yeah, I reached out to my network, I reached out to people that I knew. Asked people to, if they knew of anybody who might be interested, I hustled. And I did get that 25K but therefore I was like this isn’t sustainable. I can’t hustle the whole time. My business has to come from…

Stacey: So how did it feel? What made you think this isn’t sustainable? Because I think this is a very interesting question and I want to talk to you about you reaching out to people because so many people in 2K have so much drama. I teach people not to reach out to people. However, I also always tell them, “If it’s working, keep doing it.” And then Brooke teaches to reach out to people I think, or so people have told me. And I’m always like, “There’s no wrong answer, just make some fucking offers. Stop getting into how do I make it and just get out there and get messy.”

And I love that you said it’s a combination of both. So I want to talk about that, but just let’s put a pin in that. What made it feel like it wasn’t sustainable? Did it feel bad that you were doing it? Did it feel uncertain? What was the piece that – because I’m like, you could do that all day long, someone could do that…

Claudia: Because it felt like it was luck. So it came back into that story of it was just luck that somebody said yes. And also I was like I think I’d gone through my entire phone contact list now. So if I have to make another 25,000, I’m like I have no more contacts. So that’s where it was like that.

Stacey: So your thoughts really that made you believe that it wasn’t sustainable as I have no more contacts. I’ve run out of the contacts. And what was the other one?

Claudia: I’ve run out of contacts, yeah, I’ve just got nobody else to call now.

Stacey: Okay, I thought there was another one and now I can’t remember what it was. Okay, so I’ve run out of contacts and so there’s nowhere I can make another 25K. And no, there was another one, what was it? Oh my God, it just slipped out of my mind. That it’s luck.

Claudia: That it’s luck, yes.

Stacey: Yeah, okay. So it’s luck was the thought and that I’ve run out of my – it was lucky that some of those contacts said yes but now I’m out of those contacts.

Claudia: Correct.

Stacey: So it’s not sustainable. So this is where you came to the coaching and I told you…

Claudia: And I was like a niche will solve all my problems.

Stacey: Okay, a niche will solve all of my problems.

Claudia: Because if you have a niche, a niche will allow me to be very specific with my wording. I can create Facebook ads with the problem and the solution. So I’m like I need a niche in order to be successful.

Stacey: This sounds very clever doesn’t it?

Claudia: Yeah.

Stacey: It sounds smart and very logical, and thought it. I mean I love it. I know that people are going to be listening and nodding along and being yeah, “Yeah, I could have more constrained copy, I could be more specific with my words. I could fund Facebook ads.” I know that they’re totally agreeing, so, fantastic. So then I come in and I’m like, “No.”

Claudia: Yeah, well, not even that, you didn’t even allow me to finish my question. I was like, because I [crosstalk] on the first day. I was like, “I’ve decided this is my niche. And I’m going to talk to Stacey about the messaging.” And I couldn’t even finish. I think I started saying, “So I’ve decided on a niche because I need to grow my business.” And you’re like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop.” So yeah, so you took apart me saying, “Why do you need a niche in the first place?” I’m like, “Well, to make money, to make it a sustainable business.”

And that’s where you then questioned me and saying, “But you’ve made 40K without a niche, how did you do that?” I was like, “No, I don’t know, this is the problem.” And so I took that coaching and you coached me hard, it was my first time I had a coaching with you.

Stacey: Well, because this was so important. And I want everyone to hear this. This is why, to me it doesn’t matter if you have a niche or you don’t. I’m not like, “You must be a general life coach.” That’s not my stance, but here’s what I knew was going to happen. If I let you change your niche I would also be letting you keep the thought that it was luck that created the 25K. And then I would also be letting you keep the thought that you couldn’t make more money beyond your initial contact list. And so we could have changed your niche right then and there, that coaching session.

I could have made it all fancy and Staceyfied and help you really make it sell. We could have done all of that but the thought you would have taken into it would have been that I make money with luck. And I hope this works too, and those thoughts would have continued on. And I think I even showed you in that coaching that whatever’s on our T-line, you could literally – I love writing out a model and putting in the thought, the feeling, all the actions and the result and then erasing everything in the middle of the model.

And being like, “Listen, it doesn’t matter what happens in the middle of the model.” If you don’t change the thought it just falls right into that result line no matter what you do. Literally whatever goes in the A-line is insignificant whether it was hone your niche or change your niche or whatever it was. It was like, how was it, what was going to continue on with you. And that’s why I was so hard with you about it, and I also noticed that you had this unwillingness to go in and look at it either. You didn’t want to slow down and see it. So what do you think that was about?

Claudia: I just really didn’t understand what you were saying. I was just like no, I really couldn’t let go of this niche. I was like, “No, she’s just wrong.” A niche would really fix everything. And it wasn’t until – because we finished the call at 6:00am for me in Singapore time. The Mastermind finished at 6:00am.

Stacey: So you were up all night, this is the middle of the night that we’re having this conversation?

Claudia: We stayed up all night, yeah, exactly. And so then I spent the rest of the day really reflecting on what you said. And I remembered looking at other examples, to your point of you can change the circumstance. And I realized when I was going through the certification at The Life Coach School it was amongst my peers, it was a bit of a joke that I was always the one who would buy every marketing program there was. Because I was like, “This is going to be the answer. This is what’s going to help me get clients.”

And it was the same, the certification meeting where I was like, “In order to be a coach I need to be executive certified. I need to be life coach certified. I’ve done NLP certification.” I was like, “I need all the certifications out there to be a brilliant coach.” And then it was like, “I need all the marketing programs out there in order to help me grow my business.”

So then I really recognized what you said of it’s your thought pattern of that it’s not enough, instead of just owning, no, I am a coach and I’m a brilliant coach. And I can help people right now. I can help anyone anywhere anytime and really stepping into that.

Stacey: You need a brilliant salesperson, because you just reached out to people and were like, “Listen, I have something to sell you.” And they were like, “Okay.”

Claudia: Yes. But I had to reframe it because the salesperson, that label wasn’t working for me. I was like, “Sales is so, I can’t do sales. It means I’m forcing something on somebody that they don’t want.”

Stacey: Which is so fascinating though because people do want it because they said yes to you, so we know that they want it, it’s totally a thought that they don’t want it and I’m forcing something on them.

Claudia: Yeah. And I think what I then did was then I, you know, you said, “Coaching is selling, selling is coaching.” But then I also went deep into that. I was like, okay, well, I am obviously selling. I’ve sold 40,000 worth of coaching. So therefore if selling is coaching, what is coaching? And I was like, well, coaching is a series of transformations small or large. And I must have been doing that some way with my network, with my referrals. So then I went, “Well, okay, how did I do that?”

So I went into every one of my clients of the 40,000 and I was like, “What was the transformation or the value that I offered them?” And it could have been I shared a story of another client who was in a similar situation. And just gave them the vision of a new possibility of what could be for them, that’s a transformation. Or offering a bit of coaching, or changing their perception, giving them a question to mull over, they were all transformations.

And so that was the start of me going, “No, I really was selling.” When I looked at it that way then it’s like, yeah, I am a great salesperson.

Stacey: Yeah, you were just out there, that’s what I think about sales. You’re just offering many transformations everywhere you go. And how could that not be fun and exciting? And how could that not be sustainable?

Claudia: Exactly. No, it was so fun because I then started working from there in terms of yeah, if I just speak from the heart and coming back to when I’m at a coffee with a friend. The reason why they all sign up for coaching is because I so believe in what we do and the work of coaching. And what I do and that I can really help them understand that their life or their problem doesn’t have to be a problem if they don’t want to have it that way, and so speak from the heart. And so I then stepped into a different version of myself.

Stacey: That’s so great. And here’s what’s amazing is that the model, what ended up happening is your thought was it’s not sustainable. And what would have happened if you had changed your niche is you would have kept changing the circumstance in order to create the result. And what I had told you at the live event was that that is not sustainable. What ends up happening and why I think the work we do in 200K is so important, is so many coaches learn to make money by changing the C.

They change the website, the niche, the pricing, the marketing. They make a bunch of different programs. They sell a bunch of different things. They just keep changing the C all day long. And then they get to a lot of money by hustling. But their profit is so slim because they’re constantly spending money, they’re exhausted, they’re hustling, nothing is thought out, nothing is well planned and well executed. And you literally can’t sustain that.

You can’t sustain a business model where you’re changing the C all the time. You can’t sustain a mindset model where you’re changing the C all the time. That isn’t sustainable.

Claudia: Because it’s so stressful, and you believe you have to find the right C. It’s like the right C will make me money, this isn’t working, so keep changing it until you find the right C. And then you take that, like you said, into the next problem. You’re like, “I know the solution, I’ve been here before. I just have to keep changing the C’s until I find the right one.”

Stacey: So this is brilliant. You are a genius. Are you ready for this? It’s just like my head just exploded. Hustling that is bad, the bad hustle, we talk about, “Stop hustling”, whatever. That bad hustle is when you’re changing the C, when you’re constantly just changing the C. That’s the hustle that we never want anybody in.

Claudia: That’s it, yeah.

Stacey: And then the kind of hustle that were like hustle to a 100K, that’s the hustle where you work hard with belief. And you call all of your contacts in your list and you offer all of them mini transformations. And you offer to help them and you get out there and you meet people. That is a different kind of hustle.

Claudia: I like that.

Stacey: And I love the way that you just explained that. It’s like that hustle of changing the C will never create a net positive result for you, but hustling and going to work and being willing to call your entire contact list and give them transformations and meet people for coffee. That will change your entire being along the way.

Claudia: Yeah, because the bad hustle of changing the C, that’s when you come from a place of scarcity, it’s never enough.

Stacey: Yeah. I mean it was brilliant, thank you.

Claudia: I’m happy to [crosstalk].

Stacey: That was fantastic, such a good explanation. Okay, so you learned now – tell me about, now you’ve made 110K, does your business feel sustainable truly?

Claudia: So honestly, I just [inaudible] a few weeks ago. I was like I now understand what everybody says about whether it’s at a 100K or 300K you will still have those moments of freak out because I had exactly that. I hit a 100 and I went into that place of I need to be doing more now. I’ve got to a 100, how am I going to get into 200? And that pressure came. And it was exactly like what you said, “Don’t change something that’s working.” What worked for me of getting from the 40 to the 100 was actually slowing everything down and focusing on this can be simple and easy.

I just decided this was going to be simple and easy. And it was simple and easy until I got to a 100K. And then now I’m like, no, but to get to a 100 it can’t be simple and easy. I’m going to have to do a lot of work. And that’s when I had the coaching with you the other day where I was like, “I’m not doing my backend, I’m not thinking about intellectual property. How am I going to get to 200 and being simple and easy?” And you’re like, “Hang on, slow down.”

Stacey: It’s so interesting. So, okay, I think you have two different models going on, because you have one where you’ve really figured out that to have a sustainable business you have to make things simple and easy. That is the secret. That is the truth. The only way that you can scale a business, so everybody listen, along with, you listen too, take notes.

Claudia: I’m taking notes.

Stacey: The only way that you can have a scalable business is you first have to make it simple and easy. And then you make more money on top of it. So, Brooke actually taught me this so deeply in scaling my business is the first time you make a major jump in income or a major jump in, for example, when I grew the size of the students in 200K. Anything like that, or when I raised the price to 25K, any time you make a big jump you want to keep everything the same that first big jump. The reason is because if you keep all of the C’s the same the only thing you’re allowed to change is what?

Claudia: Your thoughts.

Stacey: Your mind. So for example, so when we look in Million Dollar Mentoring, we get together. I’ll give you my example, at 2.5 million, no, let’s start with a million. So at a million my business was still not simple and easy. There were still a lot of things that were not simple and easy. So we decided to keep my goal the same, but the goal really wasn’t the same. So going into the next year we were going to keep it at a million. But it wasn’t the same goal because the goal was do a million, but in less energy, with less energy.

So do a million but do it simpler, do it easier, do it in less time with less energy, do it more planned, do it better executed. So what people want to do is they want to double their income and also they want to do a double growth and figure out how to make things simple and easy along the way. But it never works because the model that they’re taking into the double, doubling their growth, doubling their income is the same model that where it’s not simple and easy.

So they just create, this is why I say in 200K that, “If you don’t fix that, what you take is your three biggest problems and you magnify them x10.” So you end up with two million dollars but 10x the drama, 10x the client issues, 10x the money issues. So the same thing with 2.5 million, when we got to 2.5 million I still had some money stuff to work on. I had a lot of money and I was having freak out about not managing it well. And we didn’t have backend systems and processes fully set up and supporting us.

So we’re going to do 2.5 million again but now we’re going to do it simpler and easier and we’re going to make it more effective. And then when we do that then we can double our gross because now we can support it because we’re in the model of simple and easier. So for you to do 200K, you don’t want to change anything, so that you can learn how to make that same amount of money or double your income, but just with your mind.

Claudia: Yes. And not hustling to change the C’s.

Stacey: And not hustling to change the C. Any time you think, like this is the indicator for everybody listening is any time you think that the only way to make more money is to change the C, that’s how you know you’re about to hustle for the next year.

Claudia: Yes, it’s so interesting because I started to go down the route of okay, maybe now that I’m at a 110, I can start doing Facebook Ads. And I caught myself, I was like, “Wait a second, what I’m trying to do here is I’m thinking if I change the C’s, that’s going to create the 200.” So I managed to catch myself this time.

Stacey: You did, yes. This will come up at every level. I genuinely think what you’re experiencing, that happens at every growth level. So even once you make 200K, the same thing will present itself at 500K. And for me that’s true too, even at say 10 million or 20 million, that same opportunity to try to change the C to create the result will always pop up, you just get better at noticing that it’s not effective and it’s not the way you want to go. It’s not throwing you off the same way.

And the reason we know this is because the first time we had this conversation you were like, “I don’t even want to discuss this. I’m not willing to coach on this.” And now you’re like, “I’m noticing this thing that keeps popping up.”

Claudia: Exactly. No, before I was like, “No, no, this is the solution.” And I think that’s whenever you’re so dependent on that outcome, you’re like, “No, this is the solution”, that’s a red flag.

Stacey: Yeah. And listen, from my own experience, anyone listening and you, any time you’re like Facebook Ads will make my life simpler and easier, just know that it’s a thought error.

Claudia: Yeah. That was probably one of the other reasons. I started entertaining the thought and I was like oh my gosh, my to do list, I’ll just work on my thoughts to get me 200,000.

Stacey: I think the misconception, the one that I had when I first started writing ads is that I’m going to just pay Facebook money and they’re just going to find me clients. That’s really what I thought would happen, you just put money into Facebook.

Claudia: Is that not what happens?

Stacey: It’s not what happens, it’s very unfortunate.

Claudia: And that’s the problem, I think what you see and hear is all these lovely fairytale stories of Facebook is just the best return that you can ever make. So you’re like, “Well, it sounds like it’s this cash machine.”

Stacey: Yeah. My rule is if you want to run ads, start them when you’re willing to spend money for a year and not have a return.

Claudia: Right, because it takes that long to tweak it, to understand it?

Stacey: Maybe not, but think about for you where you would have to be to decide to run ads and be okay with not using them to increase your list or get clients and to spend money out without getting money back for an entire year, where would you have to be in your business results and in your mindset?

Claudia: Yeah, mean already I could see it would just create so much mind drama for you that it would take away from other areas of where your business is doing well. And that’s why I just thought I’m going to shelf that right now. I have so much more to work on, on just my thoughts to bring me to 200, to 500. I think Simone was saying in terms of Facebook Ads, it’s not; you just don’t need it until much, much later.

Stacey: Yeah. Well, it’s not that you don’t need it, it’s just that for me I’m from the school of thought of exactly how you just described it. Is I’m going to find all of the things that I can work on without spending money on marketing, on paid marketing. I’m going to work on all of the other things, my brain first and foremost. And my organization, and my copy, and my messaging, and you can do that even when you’re working in general life coaching, you can learn how to write really good copy.

So I want to make sure the foundation, what I would say is everything in advance selling that I teach, you want to make sure that all of that feels like I got this, I’ve run out of things I can work on within me and within my business. And now I want a project that’s going to have me grow, that’s going to challenge me, I’m out of the river of misery, I’m on the other side, I’m well rested. I’m well financed so I have enough money to spend a 1,000 or two. It’s not a lot of money that you would start out with. But I can spend a 1,000 or two a month and not stress about it for an entire year.

So 25K for an entire year, and I don’t have to stress about it. I can spend some money. I don’t have to freak out about the return. And none of the money that I plan to make this year, I plan to create ads from it. For me that’s the best way to start ads, because you have no – it just makes it to where you’re thinking with your logical mind and your critical thinking when you’re working with them instead of in that hustly desperation of I’ve got to make this work.

Claudia: Be more dependent.

Stacey: Yeah, it was the same with my podcast too. I didn’t depend on my podcast to produce clients. I mean I really don’t even now, I never, sometimes we mention promotions or stuff here. But we really don’t ever think about the podcast as really being part of our launch strategies or our income strategies. And it just makes the process so much more fun.

Claudia: Yeah, of course because then you don’t have that, yeah, the hustling, desperate energy behind it of this has to work. Am I hitting the right topic? Is this really what’s going to get listeners interested? And you get to talk about fun things and what you want to talk about and then your natural authenticity and the personality comes out. And that’s what ultimately people are attracted to.

Stacey: Seriously, I want you to think about for you, a $200,000 business that takes half the energy this 100K business took.

Claudia: Oh my, Stacey. I’m going to be up all night now thinking about this.

Stacey: Oh my God, what times is it over there now?

Claudia: Well, no, I’m in Ireland now, so it’s 4:30, yes. I have to change my circumstance of moving countries; the Mastermind time was [inaudible].

Stacey: I love it, you and Simone.

Claudia: But no, so I think – so I genuinely feel actually how I got from 40 to a 100, I really feel was really stress free and relaxed.

Stacey: So what if 200K is too?

Claudia: Yeah. I was to going to go for the same…

Stacey: [Crosstalk]. Huh?

Claudia: I said I was going to go for the same level but to half it that would really have to get me thinking of how I do that.

Stacey: Yeah. Seriously, I’m going to tell you, this is how I went from a 150 to 300, are you ready? It blew my mind, it was crazy.

Claudia: Yeah, tell me.

Stacey: And I’m not suggesting this is your path. I’m just suggesting that it can really be this easy and we make it so hard. So 150 to 300K this was the difference, because I had had a ton of renewals at the same time come up. But I doubled my price and I halved the time that I was coaching. So I went from an hour to a half hour and I doubled my price and I made $325,000.

Claudia: That easy, there you go, you just decided, right?

Stacey: Yeah. I was like, “I’m going to do this year easier. I’m going to do this year better.” And I had a ton of demands, so it wasn’t like I was just like, “Okay, I’m going to double my price and go find a bunch of clients.” I had already that demand there because I had been doing the advance selling process the whole time and meeting people. And so people are always reaching out for consults, it’s not all of my current clients renewed.

But this is what I love about general life coaching, is when you are just helping someone change everything in their life, they want to work with you for a long time.

Claudia: Yes, because now once you’ve discussed one area and they see the power and the value they’re like, “Ooh, let’s discuss this.” I’ve changed my thinking from general life coaching is the best niche. I don’t even know why I want a niche now.

Stacey: Tell everyone why.

Claudia: Because everyone is a potential client. How amazing is that? I know that I can literally help anyone I speak to.

Stacey: Yes, that’s so good. And listen, that could be used the wrong way. People can abuse anything, so you can use that to be super hustly and think you have to sell every single person you meet. But the way you’re saying it is not. I just want to clarify for everybody else. But I love this because this still happens to me where people find out I’m a coach and they want to refer people to me. They want to work with me. They want to find out more. They’ve never been introduced to a coach and I’m like, “I can’t help you. I could refer you to someone.”

But I have a specific niche, every single person that asks me about it, like Neil always is fascinated by that. But I’m like, every single person that asks me about coaching, I’m going to say almost all of them will never have the – unless they become a coach they don’t get to work with me. Well, when you’re a general life coach every person you meet that’s like, “What’s a life coach? I want one of those.”

You can be their first point of contact and if they hear about a life coach from say you, and you’re their first point of contact, they are so much more likely to hire you than if you said, “I don’t specifically work with you but I know someone who does, I’ll refer you.” Just, it’s the craziest thing but just that little bit of passing off loses the connection, just the slightest amount of connection that is needed for that person to feel comfortable and safe enough to say yes, and they had it with you.

And if they don’t get it with the person that you refer them to, I’m not saying not to refer people, but it can be a barrier for them to be like, “Oh, I really wanted to work with that girl, I really connected with that girl.”

Claudia: Yeah, because in our business it’s all – a lot of it, it’s connections. And so you bring up a point about why I had an issue with general life coaching at the beginning? Because I found that I didn’t know what to say. So people would say, “You’re a life coach. So what do you do? Who do you help?” And I kind of went, “I can help everything, what do you need help with? I can help.” And I didn’t know how to speak about it. And so that’s why I thought if I have a niche I can describe the exact problem that my client group typically deal with and how I can help them.

And with the general life coaching it was like I didn’t know how to do that. It’s like should I give a relationship example or should I give a work example? But what if that’s not their issue, it won’t resonate? And what I found during my coffee chats or with my how I got my 40,000 with my personal network was it was just general conversation through coffee of what coaching is, finding out what are their pain points. And so then taking it from there and saying, “Well, this is how coaching works.”

But at the beginning as a general life coach, I was stuck in my head of like if people ask me, I don’t know what to say. I don’t have the specifics of telling them how I can help them, which is such nonsense.

Stacey: Yes, because first of all you know how to help them, right?

Claudia: Yeah.

Stacey: I love that you said this because I think general life coaching forces you to do two things. It forces you to do just what you said, which is figure out how to explain to people just in general what coaching is. And get really good at that, being able to say that a 100 different ways, through coffee chats, through phone chats, virtual chats, whatever it is.

But the other thing is I think, and something you said triggered this, is that when you’re thinking in your head you’re meeting with someone at coffee and you’re in your head trying to think about how to, like should I explain to them a relationship thing, or should I do this? What you’re not doing is listening. This is what so many coaches don’t do is they’re so preoccupied with themselves and how they’re supposed to explain something, and make it seem clear in a way that sells somebody else. But they’re not listening.

And so I think when you don’t have this perfect elevator pitch and niche to explain exactly what you do in a really simple one sentence way. Instead you have to listen to the person, hear what they have going on and then on the spot explain to them what coaching is just in a way that’s tailored specifically to them without having this pre, like the script in your head.

Claudia: Yes, like a prepared…

Stacey: Like a predetermined.

Claudia: An agenda that you have to, yeah, speak to.

Stacey: Yeah. So is that what you experienced, you just got in there, you were having coffee, listening to people, getting creative and [crosstalk].

Claudia: Yeah, so it’s what you say, I mean it’s your organic marketing module. But because I wasn’t in a formal context of a cold call consultation, I didn’t see it like that, whereas the 2K process is great if you’re able to have cold calls coming from where people – you can go through that process. But I’m like, “That’s not working for me.” Because I’m having coffees where people are like just through natural chats, “What are you doing now?” And so I’m not going through that whole process.

Stacey: You mean the five step sales process?

Claudia: Yes, exactly.

Stacey: If you have a consult with someone, you can do that very specific five step process. But if you’re at coffee, so were you signing those clients at coffee or were you getting them onto a consult?

Claudia: Yeah, at coffee.

Stacey: My God, this is fantastic.

Claudia: Dinner parties, coffees.

Stacey: Actually signing them up for coaching?

Claudia: Well, they would say, “Yes.” And then yeah, and then we’d discuss it and then the payment would happen and stuff, yeah. So that’s why I’m like this isn’t sustainable. I’m not going through the five step process. I need to be practicing the five step process and getting good at doing consults in order to be able to grow to a million dollars. So that was my whole [crosstalk].

Stacey: And I think it’s the opposite, I’m like, if you have the skill that you have created to go into a dinner party and walk out with a client and all you have to do is discuss payment, it’s the most sustainable thing ever because it’s just who you are. You walk into parties and leave making money.

Claudia: And I think I actually changed that into one of my self-concepts because I remember you saying, “I think it’s the most difficult thing to actually coach people that you know or clients.” So I think I have a self-concept of like I love the fact that I can take what’s difficult or not for other people into my way of generating clients. I love that.

Stacey: Yeah, that’s fantastic.

Claudia: And you just triggered me on one other thing just now when you said, “You make it all about the client.” And that was the other thing at the beginning I had 12 offers.

Stacey: Stop right now. You have the Stacey Smith business, the Diva Business School business.

Claudia: x3 I think in total.

Stacey: No, at one point I had 12 offers, yeah.

Claudia: Okay, there you go.

Stacey: Yeah, at least. I would sell retreats and there would be three different tiers that you could buy into.

Claudia: Yes. So my thinking was I don’t want to give people a reason to say no. So it’s like six weeks is too short, I wanted something longer. I’m like, well, I’ve got six months.

Stacey: Tell me what you got. Let me reach in my bag, I’ve got that offer.

Claudia: I’ve got it right here, prepared. And what I realized in the Mastermind, you gave an example of one of the workbooks was asking about it from the client’s perspective. You go into a store and you see all these offers, how do you feel as a client? And I had never done that. I was thinking all about from me, I was like I don’t want anybody to walk away. And from a client’s perspective it’s like gosh, overwhelm. I don’t know. I’m just going to walk away because this is all just so confusing and complicated for me.

And that was another big key was thinking about it from the client and just having that one simple offer.

Stacey: So what do you do now, because from 40K to a 100K, so you only had the one offer, what happened when they were like – did you just sell them on the offer that you had and make it the best thing?

Claudia: Yes, that’s it.

Stacey: Did they try to negotiate different offers with you? What happened?

Claudia: I spent so much time doing the intentional thought creation. I did the exercise of saying, “Okay, my goal is to sign 15 people up with this one simple offer. How am I thinking about it after I’ve achieved it?” And that was so powerful to me because I think I came up with my program – I’d got my stage stuff to the state of believing that this one offer was really the best thing for everyone. There is an opportunity cost to saying no to this offer.

Stacey: That’s good.

Claudia: Why would they say no? They can’t afford to say no. And I really got my – I really do believe in what I was offering, it’s like they would win the lottery. How you say your clients feel.

Stacey: And I really believe that about coaching, anyone who buys coaching has won the lottery.

Claudia: Yeah.

Stacey: Seriously, I just think it’s a miracle, as a person, like when I was outside of the coaching world, I still think about it. I’m like what a fucking miracle that I met someone at a grocery store and they said, “I’m a life coach.” That to me is the most miraculous thing. I’m like did God send that person to me? I think about the millions of people on the planet, the millions of places that I would be to meet a life coach and have the opportunity to change my life to the extent that I have to this day.

I seriously think that can’t just be a series of decisions, there has to be something also bigger in the world that was looking out for me. It feels like I can’t discount the magic of that. And it’s the way that I think about us telling people, telling the world, “Hey, I’m a life coach.” I think it’s creating that magical opportunity for someone, it’s literally most people feel like they’re out in the ocean drowning. And every time we come along and we’re like, “Hey, I’m a life coach, I can help you”, we’re just throwing them a raft. And how lucky, how lucky that that can happen, I just think it’s…

Claudia: And it’s not just your life, because of that woman that she had the confidence in making that offer to you look what she’s done. And when you think about the generational change that you’ve created through 2K for 2K and 200K, so if this woman hadn’t have made that one offer to you everybody here would be [inaudible].

Stacey: Yeah, a 100%.

Claudia: It’s crazy to think about.

Stacey: It’s so crazy to think about when we get in our head about I’m going to bother someone by making an offer.

Claudia: Yes. And that was my thing about the word ‘selling’ I was like I don’t want to sell, right?

Stacey: It’s like, I don’t want to sell to me is like I don’t want to offer people that magic [crosstalk].

Claudia: I don’t want to offer help to change lives.

Stacey: Yeah, I don’t want to save your life, no. It’s crazy. I really hope people take from this episode, just if they take any – I mean there have been so many nuggets, it’s insane. But if they just take that one, you are seriously – when we make it about us and they don’t want to hear from me and I’m bothering them, we are literally robbing them of the experience of the miracle of coaching and getting to have that moment. Or when we present like a weirdo and we present like life, you know, we have this like you know the Weirdo Network Podcast?

Claudia: Restricted sales pitch where you’re not authentic and you’re coming from that, yeah, this is a weirdo.

Stacey: Yeah. And not all network marketers are also weirdoes, there are some really amazing people and I buy from them. But there are a lot of like…

Claudia: [Crosstalk].

Stacey: There are some that are super creepy about it and they’re like at Trader Joe’s trying to get you to go to an Amway meeting. That’s not what it is. That’s not how we have to feel about selling. That’s not how we have to experience selling. And that’s not how people will experience, unless you are weird about it, that’s not how they will experience it. I remember being profoundly comforted when someone said, “I’m a life coach”, because my life was a mess.

Claudia: Amazing, yeah.

Stacey: And I’m like, “Oh my God, I don’t even know what this is but I definitely need it.”

Claudia: So just that sentence, she didn’t even offer you kind of like a transformation as such, she just said, “I’m a life coach, I can help.”

Stacey: She did after and it was like a five minute little coaching thing where I was just like, you know, when you tell someone you’re a life coach they start telling you all about their life. That’s what happens. And I started telling her all about my relationship, and all about my awful partner, and all about how awful things were. And she was like, “You’re not taking any responsibility for this.” And I was like, “Wait. What?” I mean it was literally the comment, “You’re not taking responsibility for any of this.” I’m like, “What do you mean? How am I responsible? It’s all his fault clearly.”

Claudia: But you were open, you didn’t walk away. A lot of people I think would be like, “Oh, how dare she, she doesn’t know my story.”

Stacey: But it was like she said it from such love and no one – think about this, when you’ve spent a year, two years, three years, actually I think we’d been together five or six at this point. So however many years, telling everybody that your misery in your relationship is somebody else’s fault. And your friends and your family love you so they’re just going to validate it and maybe even pile on and tell you about their relationship and their partner and like, “Well, let me tell you about this. At least he doesn’t do this, this and this.”

No one had ever had the audacity to say, “You’re not taking any responsibility for this.”

Claudia: Yeah, she got you to think in a different perspective and that’s the key. When I’m at my coffees, or the dinner parties, or just chatting to people in the checkout queue, it’s like if you can just, whether it’s a statement, or a question, or an inspiration of another story, just to shift their way of thinking. That’s all you need, right?

Stacey: Yeah, to hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s all you need. It really is the skill.

Claudia: And no Facebook Ads.

Stacey: No Facebook Ads. Listen, and also listen, Facebook Ads, you have to be so good at explaining what you do. And you do have to be very clear about what you offer.

And so I just want everyone before they go into Facebook Ads to have presented what they do, even if it’s general coaching. What they do and how they work with people and who they help over, and over, and over to real people before you start going out into the virtual world because if you haven’t done that you will flush a lot of money down the toilet. And I was actually just talking about this with Lindsey Dotzlaf she started a podcast and it’s so good, I literally…

Claudia: It’s so good.

Stacey: It’s so good, Mastering Coaching Skills for everyone listening. It’s so good. But I was messaging her and I was like, “Listen, do you want to know why your podcast is so good? It’s because you waited until you had something to say. You are so clear about what you have to say.” Because she’s coached so many people on becoming a better coach and mastering that skill over, and over, and over, that she’s so clear and so succinct. That it’s just four crazy powerful episodes of… I can’t get enough.

Claudia: Yeah, she knows the pain points, you’re listening to it and you’re like, “Yes, that’s exactly me.”

Stacey: Right, but because the pain points are so practiced. And I think the same is true for Facebook Ads is you just want to be so practiced at explaining what you do, and how you do it, and who you work with, and giving scenarios. And the best way to do that is for free on Facebook, or Instagram, or Twitter, or LinkedIn, or at virtual events, or regular events, whatever it is.

But I was going to say what I think is so amazing is that hearing you talk about the process you’ve gone through to create a 100K. I think everyone needs to listen over, and over, and over to literally take notes about the things that you did, the questions you answered, the coaching that you did with yourself. Because this is what you needed to do instead of changing a bunch of C’s, you would never had the opportunity to think this deeply about how do I explain coaching, and all of those things. And what is the difference between selling and coaching?

And how do, like specifically when you went and looked at those clients that you made the first 40K with and you were like, “How did I get those people’s transformations? What was that like?” Really breaking that down and breaking down your success.

Claudia: Conversation by conversation, yeah.

Stacey: That is what you want to do because literally what you did is you created the foundation for every sale that you’re going to make from here on out. In your mind you created the foundation for who you are as a coach, for what you do as a coach, and how you help people, all of that in that investigation over this last couple of months, which is so crazy.

Claudia: I know. Can you imagine just literally three months.

Stacey: I mean really you started in May, I mean and even before that I’m sure you were working on your business. So it’s not like – I don’t want them to think that it’s over…

Claudia: So I started, I had my very first client October 2019. I had one client in 2019.

Stacey: Yeah. So it was not like it was an overnight success but you really started moving in the right direction and then the results compounded so quickly for you. But I do think it’s because you did that work. You could have easily come in to 200K to that live event and then like this is some bullshit and Stacey sucks and left the live event mad. And convinced that you were going to change your niche and do what you think is right because it makes sense. You could have done all of that, literally that was an option for you. And you would have [crosstalk] transformation.

Claudia: Yeah, I thought 200K, what was really interesting; I thought the Mastermind was going to speed up the process for me. I thought it was going to give me a lot of how’s. And what I didn’t realize now is actually looking back, what it’s done is it’s slowed the whole process down for me.

Stacey: Yeah, but in such an amazing way.

Claudia: In a really good way of now understanding that actually it’s that foundation of you, because I think in 2K for 2K when I was looking around and reading other people’s comments, I was always like you’ve got to have the basics but also what am I going to do about this? And I was looking at other people and saying, “I need to be there.” And so I was always wanting to take on and look for the next thing. And in the Mastermind you’re surrounded by these incredible people. But I’m like isn’t it exciting that that’s where I’m going? And I’m not there right now.

But it’s really fun to know in my own time I’ll be there so I’m going to look over and observe, but I’m staying in my lane and I like where I’m at. And it really helped to slow it down.

Stacey: Yes, I feel like we spend a lot of 200K fostering that mindset because there are so many people growing so quickly. And even if you’re a fast grower, like you have monumental success very quickly. There will always be a time in your business where you’re not in a major growth period. That’s just how business works. And if you don’t stay in your lane during that time that is when you’ll pick back up the hustling and do things that are not healthy for you or your business, or your clients, trying to keep up with someone else.

And then when you’re in a Mastermind with someone that’s always succeeding, so you could be always trying to keep up with someone different and run yourself into the ground. So we really spend a lot of time fostering that mindset of staying in your lane and using people that are succeeding to celebrate, and to give hope to you, and to look up to. But always being where you are with your journey so that you make the most mature business decisions.

Claudia: And it helps you too, I think in the Mastermind, I am so kind of limited by my own thoughts, that when I saw and heard Vicky doing a 100K in six months whereas I was a 100K in 20. It’s like the first time that’s been broken you’re like, “Hey, how about that, that would be fun. Why am I saying a 100K in 2020? I could say 100K in six months.” And I love that of it’s just that you have to be very disciplined in saying, “Why am I doing this?”

Stacey: Yeah. So why did you want to do it? Why did you want to do, because you did, you did a 100K in six months?

Claudia: I have done a 100K in six months.

Stacey: So why did you want to do it? Why is that important?

Claudia: Because I didn’t actually didn’t make that my focus, my focus was more a 100K in 2020, that’s what I was going for. But then as I was keeping it simple and easy, I have to say I kind of got to a 100K in six months without making that my goal. It just kind of happened. My goal was actually a 100K in 2020. So to your point of actually sometimes not going for too far, but saying, “Let’s keep this simple and easy.” And it just yeah, got there in six months.

Stacey: That’s how I did 6 million instead of 2.5 this year. At the beginning of this year I was like, “I’m going to do 5 million.” Then I met with Brooke in the Caymans and I was like, “I’m not going to do 5 million. That sounds terrible. I’m going to do 2.5.” Again easier and simpler, because I thought I was getting married this year. And so I committed to 2.5 and I had to coach myself a lot on 2.5 on staying the same. I really did, I had weeks.

Claudia: Because you wanted to do a lot more?

Stacey: Yeah, and I would always catch my brain trying to be like, “Well, but really what we’re going to do.” And so I really had to pull it back and be like, “No, no, no, if I were only doing 2.5, what are the decisions I’d be making?” Which means I didn’t sell for six months, we’ve done two webinars this entire year, and it was all about, I wouldn’t spend any time selling. I would spend all of my time managing my team and working my processes. And we’ve spent a lot of time recording content this year and creating brand new content.

And so I really think that when you commit to your goal, truly commit to it, how you know you’ve committed to it is you stop thinking about it. And you start making decisions based on trying to hustle to get there and get there quickly so you can believe that you can get there. And you’re just carried with like I’m committed and it’s done and it’s going to happen. And when you’re there and you’re focusing on other things that is what always creates it so much faster.

So we were committed to 2.5, we only focused on things that didn’t have to do with bringing in more money, because I knew I was going to do 2.5. I did it the previous year. So it was like if we sell nothing we will do 2.5. So in that focus of other things I created the value that got us to 6 million in less time and energy than it took to do 2.5, which is insane.

Claudia: Amazing, yeah.

Stacey: I’m so excited for you to learn that lesson, for you to learn that at the 200K level, and then the 500K level, and then the million level.

Claudia: [Crosstalk], you’ve given me stuff to think about tonight.

Stacey: I know, it’s like a coaching session for you, a coaching session for them, it’s so fantastic. Seriously, I am so grateful that you came on. I think this is such a great podcast and so many gems in this conversation for everyone.

So if we could end it with one or two gems that you might have thought about when you were thinking about coming on the podcast that you might want to tell people who feel like they’re an underdog. And they want to do a 100K in a year or a 100K in six months, for the right reasons, they’re not trying to hustle. But what would you share with them? Is there anything we haven’t covered?

Claudia: I think for the first 100, it’s going back into dropping the pressures of having to build the business or wanting to get to that first 100 and bringing it back to the basics of your clients. This is ultimately why we all started in the first place. And I think somewhere along the way when we’re trying to be a paid coach, or making that first 10, 25, 50 you lose sight of that and it becomes about numbers.

And so I think it was bringing it back to why am I here? And having that in every conversation, whether it’s a consult or a coffee, or whatever, it’s like how can I – this person is, whether they’re suffering or they have a goal but they don’t know how to get there. It’s like can I offer them an insight to help them? And coming from that place really changed everything for me, and that’s what helped, what I mean when I say I slowed it down.

I brought it down to the absolute basics. And having that one simple offer and not confusing it, believing it, that it can be that easy. Make it about the client, make them an offer and that it’s. You do it over, and over, and over again.

Stacey: That’s so good. I love that. It really is service over numbers. And you know when you’re focused on one or the other. When you’re in service you stop caring about the numbers. You’re like, you know what? Even if this person doesn’t sign I’m still going to serve them to the highest level and I’m still getting to do what I love. And I’m still getting to give them something so valuable. And you just stop caring about the outcome, none of it matters truly when you’re in the love of service. And you know when you’re in the numbers.

You know when you’re freaking out about I haven’t made 25K, or I haven’t made 50K, or I’ve got to make a 100K, or everybody else is moving so much faster than me, or I’ve got to hit my goal by the end of the month. We’re not meant, as coaches I feel like we’re not meant to be numbers people as entrepreneurs. We’ve got to become numbers people a little bit in a different kind of sense. But in the beginning I think you’re right, you’ve got to go back to the basics of what is a life coach? That’s not someone who crunches numbers and focuses on all the money they are making.

But they’re the person who focuses on serving others and that really does matter above everything else and it’s the thing that gets you to the outcome that you want.

Claudia: Yeah. And then that then affects the copy that you’re writing, the messaging when you’re speaking from the heart.

Stacey: Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for – okay, is it 4:30 in the afternoon there or in the morning there?

Claudia: Afternoon. Ireland’s far more sensible than China is.

Stacey: Far more sensible, I love it. Thank you so much for coming on. This was a treat.

Claudia: Thank you for having me and making my lol goal from October [inaudible].

Stacey: lol goal, this is fantastic. I want an lol goal. What’s it going to be?

Claudia: Yeah. Everybody should write their lol goals, it’s been so much fun.

Stacey: Fantastic. I love it so. Simone, she’s such a good spirit.

Claudia: I love her.

Stacey: Alright, I love it, thank you so much.

Claudia: Speak soon.

Stacey: Bye.

Claudia: Bye.

Okay, listen coaches, if you want to work with Claudia or you want to follow her and be inspired by her and to have another person to connect with as a life coach, make sure to look her up at facebook.com/theinnerimpact, on Instagram at theinnerimpact and her website is also theinnerimpact.com. So you can’t forget it, The Inner Impact, reach out to her, if you’re looking for a general life coach, I think we should all at some point experience what it’s like to just be coached on our mind, on everything. And what an amazing coach to get to work with.

Alright, so make sure you go to the innerimpact.com, Instagram at theinnerimpact and facebook.com/theinnerimpact to connect with Claudia. Alright, talk to you next time.

Hey, if you are ready to make money as a life coach, I want to invite you to join my 2K for 2K program where you’re going to make your first $2,000, the hardest part, and then $200,000 using my proven formula. It’s risk-free. You either make your 2K or I give you your 2K back. Just head over to www.staceyboehman.com/2kfor2k. We’ll see you inside.