Follow My Journey from — $0 to 100K

In honor of celebrating five years since launching my website, livingoutgoals.com, I’d like to share my journey to becoming a full-time life coach.

While now my week is full of coaching paying clients, this was far from my reality when I started.

Unfortunately, my goal of becoming a full-time coach took years.

Back in 2016, I hired my first life coach to help me figure out what I wanted to do in regards to my career.

I was working as an assistant principal and knew that the work was no longer for me. I felt stuck.

I wanted to work for myself but didn’t know what that would look like.

Working with my coach helped me realize that I wanted to be a coach too.

Well, more like she told me what I was describing was group coaching. Let’s just say I wasn’t sold on the idea.

I didn’t believe I was ready to start charging people to coach them, so I definitely wasn’t starting a business around that. Silly life coach I thought.

Instead, my coach encouraged me to share my ideas via a blog. This felt more tangible.

On April 30, 2016, I published my first blog post on my website. This was a huge step forward in my mind. I was sharing what I cared about with the world, even if only a handful of family members were reading it.

That first step opened the door to more opportunities to step into being a coach.

When a Meetup group with 1000 members was about to close, I stepped up as its new organizer.

I began hosting monthly Meetup events to connect with potential clients and deliver massive value. I coached any and everyone via monthly brunches, special events, and anyone who got on the phone with me.

Any opportunity I could serve someone I did.

Somehow, I missed the part when you ask them to pay you LOL.

So, a year went by and I was growing in my ability to coach.

Yet, I made $0 from coaching.

But, I loved every minute of showing up to serve people as a coach and would remain committed to making it my full-time job no matter how long it took.

Since I hadn’t learned the skill of selling life coaching, I was no closer to leaving my job in education.

So, in 2017 I created an educational consulting business instead of going all-in on coaching.

I was already making money consulting on the side and figured I would at least work from home and have more control of my time.

Makes sense right???

I told myself “Now I’ll have time to coach.”

If I had still been working with my coach, I’m sure she would have stopped me from doing this. SMDH

Having two businesses sounded great in theory but working two businesses simultaneously wasn’t working.

I was showing up to do the consulting work that paid the bills and barely showed up to deliver value as a coach.

Something had to change if I was ever going to become a paid life coach.

After hosting live events for a year, I moved the in-person Meetup to a FB group and decided I’d be consistent in doing a weekly live training.

Again still giving value for free.

Two years in, something was still missing in my ability to believe that I was ready to charge for coaching.

So, in 2018 I sign up for a coach training program so I feel “official.”

And I make the bold choice to shut down the consulting business and go back to working at the district I left.

I wanted a steady income while I focused on the only business I cared about, my coaching practice.

Returning to the district would have been hard had I not coached myself on why this was a loving decision and best for me in the long run.

There was no space to entertain thoughts of being a failure for shutting down my first business, just compassion for what I knew I wanted even more.

However, instead of returning to a position as an administrator, I took a position as a coach and teacher trainer. This aligned with who I most wanted to be in the world and how I wanted to help others.

Boy did my coaching tools come in handy as I was met with discrimination, difficult teachers, and ridiculous deadlines.

But I stuck with it knowing that the job was my temporary investor.

Being employed gave me the financial security I needed to invest in my own coaching and my business.

Armed with my certification, 2019 I started investing in learning the business side of running a coaching practice.

I invested in a program that taught me how “to set up shop” and look official so that I could charge higher prices.

Energetically that wasn’t a match, so the work I put in wasn’t translating to paying clients.

At this point, I paid to be certified, paid for the business program, and still had $0 to show for my investments.

In July 2019, I invest in another program that promised I would learn to make $2,000.

Far from the 10K in 30 days, the first program promised; but something about making my first 2K seemed tangible.

I invest in this new program and commit to making my investment back.

This program worked because I worked at it.

I would revisit concepts over and over because I believed in the process, I believed that the mentor knew what she was talking about, and her process aligned with the type of coach I wanted to be.

One who makes decisions based on serving her clients well.

And yet, it took my ass six months of going back to the basics, addressing my feelings of entitlement, and committing to regular mindset work before I finally signed my first two paying clients.

That’s right, it still took me six more months!

But signing my first two clients changed everything.

Because I knew if I could sign two clients, there were more.

I invested time coaching people that never paid, I invested money in learning the skill of coaching and being coached, and I invested in programs that didn’t give a financial return.

AND ALL OF IT WAS VALUABLE.

• I built up expertise in the skill of coaching which better served the clients who did pay me.

• I had a well-managed mind that allowed me to transform who I was and how I saw the world.

• I learned what didn’t matter when launching a coaching business and the few things that did.

• I learned the skill of selling with value.

Best of all, I learned how to create any result I wanted.

I had grown into the life coach I wanted to be and knew how to make the life I dreamed of a reality.

This laid the foundation for what I was able to create moving forward.

I declared that 2020 would be my last year as an employee.

I told myself I’d leave my job by January no matter what.

I set the criteria that would make me feel comfortable leaving and went to work to meet them.

In working on average 10 hours per week as a coach I made $40,000.

Best of all, I loved how I created every dollar and knew there was so much more to come.

And yet it was still uncomfortable to quit my job.

Despite the bank balance showing, I had enough saved for a year, despite having the number of clients I wanted, and despite this being what I’ve been dreaming of since 2016.

I was afraid of taking the leap into full-time entrepreneurship again.

Because I knew that this time it was going to be forever.

But, this was what I wanted and I had everything I needed to make my coaching business work for the rest of my life.

Well, I didn’t make it to January like I planned. I quite even sooner.

September of 2020 when I was asked to return to work in person, I confidently said, “No, I’ll be resigning.”

I was proud that I had created so much security for myself that I no longer relied on my job/salary to provide it.

Now 2021 I plan on blowing my own mind with how much faster things will move.

I am serving at a high level and on track to make $100,000 as a life coach.

An amount I never made in education. More importantly, I am loving every minute of it.

My dear friends wherever you are in your journey keep going.

You are now further along than you’ve ever been. All the past “failures” were just a learning experience that you get to bring along with you and use to grow even faster.

My desire is that my transparency highlights what is available when we stick with a goal, commit to the process, and believe even when the evidence isn’t there.

How long are you willing to stick with your dream business?

How much are you willing to invest before you see a financial return?

I had no limits and continue to invest time, money, and energy into what will be my million-dollar brand.

Not because of the financial return, but who I get to be in the process and how many people I get to help along the way.