The Foureva Podcast
Welcome to The Foureva Podcast, where we break barriers and redefine success!
Join host Jamar Jones, a dynamic entrepreneur, national speaker, and author of "Change Your Circle, Change Your Life," as he takes you on an extraordinary journey of inspiration and motivation.
In each episode, we bring you an impressive lineup of star-studded guests, each with a unique voice and a wealth of insights to share. From industry leaders to renowned experts, we uncover their secrets to success in personal, business, and marketing domains. Prepare to be captivated by their stories, strategies, and experiences that will empower you to reach new heights.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a marketing professional, or simply seeking fresh perspectives on life and business, The Foureva Podcast is your ultimate destination. Discover the transformative power of changing your circle and unlocking your full potential. With each episode, we delve into the minds of the most influential voices in the industry, providing you with the tools and inspiration you need to overcome obstacles and achieve greatness.
Don't miss out on this dynamic podcast that will fuel your ambition, challenge your limits, and propel you toward success. Tune in to The Foureva Podcast and join a community of driven individuals who are ready to make an impact. Get ready to be inspired, motivated, and 'foureva' transformed!
The Foureva Podcast
From Burnout to CEO: How Nicole Wood Built a 60+ Coach Career Empire
In this powerful episode, we sit down with Nicole Wood—CEO and co-founder of career and leadership coaching company, Ama La Vida. Nicole opens up about her journey from management consulting to discovering the life-changing impact of coaching, and why she built a business to make this resource accessible to more people.
We dive into the challenges of scaling a coaching business, building a team of 60+ coaches, and finding the balance between personal brand and company identity. Nicole also shares candid insights on leadership, setting boundaries with your team, and the fears that often hold professionals back from making bold career transitions.
From practical tips on marketing and client acquisition, to deeper lessons on self-worth, confidence, and the role of coaching in unlocking potential, this episode is packed with wisdom for entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone navigating what’s next in their career.
✨ Episode Highlights:
✅ Nicole’s journey from consulting to coaching
✅ How she scaled Ama La Vida to 60+ coaches
✅ The #1 fear that keeps people stuck in unfulfilling careers
✅ Marketing strategies that actually attract the right clients
✅ Why coaching should be normalized (and how it changes lives)
✅ Lessons on leadership, boundaries, and building trust with your team
If you’ve ever wondered whether you need a coach, or how to scale your impact while staying true to your values, this conversation is for you.
So what now? Um was all of this worth it doing all the quote unquote right things to land this great job? And luckily at the time I had been promoted and the firm gave me my first leadership coach. And I was really skeptical and was like, what even is this? I had no idea what coaching was, but I totally hit it off with my coach and ended up working with her independent of the firm. And she coached me through my first career transition. And through that experience, I realized this is so valuable. Everyone around me deserves access. Yeah. I'm sure it's like equally fun to have them come and then you're ready to take a breath when it's time for them to go.
SPEAKER_04:100%. 100%. I was exhausted. I actually took a couple of naps just because of how exhausted I was in the middle of the day. Like 10 minutes, just like I just need to close my eyes and just can you do that?
SPEAKER_00:It's a power nap.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, like I have to. Like I mean, before, like uh, I would say about 10 years ago, no, no power naps. The older I get, I feel like the power nap is essential to life.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Maybe I need to revisit it because I was great at it in college and now I'm just like can't shut off my brain.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, yeah, it's like uh I don't fall asleep. It's just I just need to shut my eyes for 10 minutes, you know, and just kind of relax and just just chill out. So I don't know if I'm actually napping or if I'm just if I'm meditating.
SPEAKER_00:Just hiding from people.
SPEAKER_04:Just hiding. Um, I don't know what the difference is, but uh whatever gets you through the day. Yeah, yeah. This is amazing to have you on the podcast. Um, can't wait to dive into all the things with your coaching business, your personal brand, um, how you started, how you have uh a co-founder. Like you have just so many different things I want to cover today. Uh, first of all, can you just let everybody know people are kind of filtering in too on the Instagram live? Can you let everybody know um who you are and what you do?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm Nicole Wood. I'm the CEO and one of the co-founders of Ama La Vita. We are a career and leadership coaching company.
SPEAKER_04:Awesome. And how long have you been doing it for?
SPEAKER_00:Eight years. We celebrated our eight-year business birthday in September and still going strong. So, in some ways, it feels like it was just yesterday, and in some ways it feels like I've aged decades, and that's the joy of running a business.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, yes, the aging is real.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it is real.
SPEAKER_04:So, and you're based out of uh Chicago, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, we're based in Chicago, headquartered here, but we have coaches all throughout the country.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, cool. What do you love about Chicago?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, this is like uh depends. If you ask me now, I'm still I have a lot of positive things to say. If we were having this conversation in February, I'd give you a different response. Um, so I moved to Chicago first thing out of college and was like, I'm gonna spend maybe two years here. I accepted a job and was like, that's gonna be it. Well, I met my husband day one on that job, and I'm still here all these years later. So, aside from him, there are a lot of things that I do like about Chicago. I think it's a very livable, walkable city. I mean, for as big and beautiful and as much as we have, it's still like an affordable and great place to live. Um, endless food and restaurants. I love to eat. Um and I think so. I grew up in Philly. I feel like it has a similar kind of energy, like big sports town, um, kind of laid back, not nobody takes themselves too seriously here. I feel like it's a good, um, it's a good match for what I'm used to.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. I love the the deep dish pizza in Chicago. Me too.
SPEAKER_00:At first I was not sure, and then I fully embraced it. And like when you get it delivered and you feel like 15 pounds being handed to you, and you're like, I'm supposed to put this in my body, but it's so worth it.
SPEAKER_05:And you never have to eat again for about a week.
unknown:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:It is worth it though, guys. If you haven't been to Chicago, Deep Dish, they're known for it. It is totally, totally worth it. Um, yeah, yeah. I I love Chicago. Um, what do you think about how how often have you been to Milwaukee?
SPEAKER_00:Only a couple times, but I like Milwaukee.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, okay, cool. It's definitely growing, it's definitely growing. I know next time uh I come to Milwaukee, I'm I'm gonna try to make a Chicago Chicago trip so I can be able to see some people, see you. I got a ton of other people too that I just want to make a day trip out of it. Yeah and go there. I go, I go back to Milwaukee pretty often, um, because that's where that's where I'm originally from. Yeah, now I'm in uh beautiful Virginia because it's warm still.
SPEAKER_00:I know. I'm really glad we didn't have this conversation because I would not be kind to you.
SPEAKER_05:It's all right. That's I would expect nothing less. Yeah, nothing less.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my goodness, or maybe that's just when I need to come visit you. Yeah, yeah, you gotta, yeah, you gotta come down south.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Always welcome to come down here. Always. Um, no, this is this is cool. So you've you've built up quite a business, and I know a lot of people um really struggle with the scaling part, um, especially within a coaching and leadership training and and that type of business, because it oftentimes starts with one individual um that people go and seek and they like, they really like that one individual. I know a lot of speakers, authors, um, and consultants that are really, really good at what they do, but it's it's hard for them to scale once you get 20, 25 clients. It's like there's only so much time you actually have in the day. So either you can increase your prices um to you know keep growing and scaling that way, or you have to duplicate yourself. There's really no other no other way. And you've been able to deep duplicate yourself with 60 plus coaches. So, how how are you able to go from maybe just you and your co-founder to to now having 60 plus coaches?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a great question. It's tricky, and also it was something we knew we wanted to do right off the bat, even before we got to that tipping point. Part of that was our vision for what we wanted the company and the brand to be, and part of that was knowing the coaching industry, so many people get into coaching because they want to help others and they want to be a coach and they have absolutely zero interest in becoming entrepreneurs. But back when we started, there were almost no other options. It was become a coach, start your own practice. And so we started interacting with all these coaches who are like, I don't want to do it. I'm tired of doing business development. I hate marketing myself. I just want to work with clients. And we were like, we serve our clients, but we also need to serve the coaching industry as well. Um so we always see kind of two sides we serve our coaches and we serve our clients. And so um we started slowly a couple at a time, um, and have scaled since there. But it's a good, I think part of the tricky part is figuring out how prominent you should still be in that brand. And we've gone back and forth in that throughout our history of, oh, people are connecting with me and forum, my co-founder, and it's all about us and our faces on everything to oh no, that's too much. It should just be about Ama La Vida and kind of you know, take the person out of it so that there can be that connection. And we've kind of landed somewhere in the middle where there is this resonance with us in our story, but there's also this connection with each coach because they have their story as well. So we've kind of found a way to strike that balance.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and and where do you where do you find these coaches? Because one thing that uh I know I hear from a lot of different people is it's hard to duplicate yourself, um, but also to find good coaches. So they may love to coach, but are they good? Yeah, you know, like how do you find these people?
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Um, so we get a huge volume of applications. As we said, there are a lot of coaches out there who are looking to join an organization like ours, don't either want to supplement their own private practice or don't have an interest in building one. So the volume is not the problem. To your point, it's finding the right fit. Yeah it's who A is trained and qualified, because as we know, coaching is an unregulated industry. So anyone can stand up an Instagram page tomorrow and say I'm a coach, whether or not they actually have any credentials and training. So part of it is finding people that's like table stakes for us. Have they do they have a professional background that aligns with what we're looking for? And do they have a qualified training that's through an ICF accredited program? But a lot of it's also just do they fit in our model? And so we coach clients on a long-term basis, minimally six months. And so that brings with it a certain business model of coaches who want to have that longer-term approach. Who, of course, we want to have quick wins and help people make progress right away, but we want people who have this really proactive and strategic coaching approach. So there's a lot to do with kind of weeding through the applicants to find people who fit in that model and have an interest in being part of the organization, which took us many uh trial and errors to figure out exactly how to do that.
SPEAKER_04:I'm sure. I I mean it's tough. The people side of the business is the toughest, I feel like is the toughest part of scaling a company.
SPEAKER_00:Um, because you have endlessly unpredictable.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, yeah, seriously, and and as a and as uh an owner, it's really hard to separate, at least for myself, it's hard to separate the how close you want to get to your team versus you being the leader, and at the end of the day, you're you're the owner or you're the boss or you're the manager of these people. And at some point, there's gonna come a day where there's gonna be hard conversations that are gonna need to be had, and you need to have some type of line or boundary or just something because if you get too close, you know, to the sun, you might get burnt, you might get burnt. So, how did how do you manage that with um because you have a team of of around 10 um uh employees, but you probably work with contractors and and etc. Um, so how how do you how do you draw that line um as far as with getting a little bit too close either to your employees because people want to have that family environment, they want to, you know, especially in this in a in a small business, it's it's a very tight-knit group, right? And everybody kind of knows what's going on. Obviously, at if you have 500 employees, it's hard to know what the day-to-day life of everybody is. Um but yeah, how do you how do you set that boundary up?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's tough because I'm a person, as we all are, who wants to be liked, who enjoys working with people who are friends, who have hired people who have come from my personal network who legitimately are friends. And so it is tough to strike that balance. I don't think you need to have, and I won't put up walls. So it's not that I won't share certain things, like I'm pretty transparent about a lot of things that are going on in my life, and I think that helps still to build connection. But I do think approaching it in every interaction through the mentality that you're not family and that you do have the things you say and the things you do, even though you just feel like I'm just a person showing up to work, recognizing that that feels different and that lands different because those people report to you is a place to always operate from and to be mindful of. There's a great book called The Promises of Giants. I don't know if you've ever read it, it's a leadership book. Um, it's written by a guy he's now in the coaching space, but he's a former NBA player. So he's like quite literally a giant. And he talks about how he kind of grew up knowing that his presence in a room had that impact on people. And even unknowingly, sometimes like he could physically accidentally like hurt someone. And so I think it's it's that same mentality that you have to bring to leadership. Like you are a giant in the room, even if your company is small or what have you. And so you need to be mindful at any time that the way the decisions you're making and the way you're show up are going to impact others in that way. And then I think taking a step back, I've never felt like, oh, I can't make the right call for the business because I'm too close to this individual. But I've always questioned myself of can I see what the right call for the business is because I'm close to that individual, or am I seeing them through it? So it's really checking my own self in that as well.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, great question. That's uh I I feel like no matter how how big you get in your business, you're always gonna ask that question. Um it's tough because you know, people uh this is what uh Kimberly Spencer told me when we were out in New York. Um, she's a speaker and she runs a gigantic podcast guesting business. Um, and she said, People are gonna people. Like I know it's like that's that's very short, and I it's short and sweet. I just love how that's said because people are gonna people at the end of the day, and um, no matter how big you get, um, how much systems and processes you put in place, or you feel like you've got this great community um or culture within your company, there's always some curveballs that are gonna come your way, and you're gonna have to figure out and make some either some really tough decisions or uh some wrong decisions to learn from them. So it's just nature. Right. That's crazy, yeah. So so and you how do you think about it?
SPEAKER_00:How do you mind that boundary?
SPEAKER_04:Oh my god. I mean, for me, it's uh it's a learning process, um, constantly learning, constantly. So I want to say this before people be getting at me in the chat. Uh um, it's a learning process, but I would say that I I I always want to be the the person that's there for um our team, no matter what, you know, personal or professionally, of whatever they're going through, because you want to at least be that support system for them, or at least know that the door is open, that you can you can come to me and you can talk about whatever. Um, obviously, there's probably you know certain things that I don't need to hear, but I want to make sure I have an open door so that way we can be able to discuss and get through those things, especially depending on whatever the environment that they're coming from or that that they're in. Um I want to know that door is open, but I would say that um I need to I need to be able to not go too deep um and and have my feelings um overtake whatever the business decision that I need to make. Um sometimes I want it more for the person than they want it for themselves, and uh I see the potential. I'm a I'm a I I just see like I can see things that other people can't see. So I'm seeing the potential in somebody, and sometimes they don't see it in themselves yet, and they're working towards it, and I make a lot of decisions by the potential I see, not what's actually transpiring in front of my face. So that is something that I'm constantly working on. Uh, everybody, I'm constantly working on, but it's it's but I on the other side I've had where I see the potential, they grow into it, and it's amazing, and it's absolutely incredible because you trust and you have belief in that person of what they can do. So um, I'm still Nicole trying to find the line. Um, yeah, you know, and I'm sure we will be forever, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's and it looks different for each person, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And it looks for every person. When you think you gotta figure it out and then somebody new comes around, you're like, oh, this is different. Yeah, this is different. So yeah, I'm still I'm still learning. I'm definitely still learning. Um, so with your with your company, um, you specialize in career coaching, um, and you help people navigate their careers. Now, who is who is the perfect like situation where they need to come to you as far as to to help with their career? What kind of pain points are they feeling? And um, what can you help them achieve?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'll start by sharing my personal story and how I even landed here, which I think also, like many entrepreneurs, I'm my first client. Like I was going through a thing and was like, we, this needs to be a service. And so I started my career in management consulting, which was an amazing place to kind of launch a career. You become such a polished professional through that experience. And also, you're flying out every Monday, you're flying home every Thursday, you're working a lot of hours, and you start to reach a point of like, well, where am I headed with all of this? I'm making a lot of sacrifices. Where is that leading me to? And there's kind of two paths you go. Either you are on the partner track and you're trying to move up in the organization, or you want to land one of your clients' roles. And I realized I wanted neither. And I was like, okay, so what now? Um, was all of this worth it doing all the quote unquote right things to land this great job? And luckily at the time I had been promoted, and the firm gave me my first leadership coach. And I was really skeptical and was like, what even is this? I had no idea what coaching was, but I totally hit it off with my coach and ended up working with her independent of the firm. And she coached me through my first career transition. And through that experience, I realized this is so valuable. Everyone around me deserves access to something like this and needs it because I'm hearing all of my friends going through the same thing. And what are we doing? Complaining about it to each other at happy hour. No one was actually doing anything productive about it. Um, but I never would have sought it for myself. And I was like, why? And you know, a decade ago at the time, there was either coaching for the C-suite, where I was like, I'm not there yet, or there was wellness coaching. And it didn't feel like there was anything really in that career professional development space. And I was like, we need to create this. So I teamed up with Forum. She's an incredible coach herself. I was like, I'll figure out how to build a business around this. And she was the initial coach coaching the people. And eight years later, that's still pretty much our roles where I oversee everything pre-sale and she oversees everything post-sale, including our team of coaches. Um, and I tell that story because I think it's it really still speaks to who eight years later the right type of person to work with us is. Of course, we can help people land jobs. We do that every day. But the work that we love to do is helping people really understand themselves, understand the patterns they've had in their careers, understand what the next path can look like that balances both that desire for fulfillment in your work and your lifestyle needs. Because a lot of people, myself included, were like either I do something I love and I make no money, or I do something where I sell my soul to make money. And there is an option that combines the best of both of those. And that's what we help people figure out through these more intentional, deliberate career transitions.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And is it just uh within corporate jobs? Is it uh in trade? Like, what's the area?
SPEAKER_00:All over. We have certain industries that we see a really high volume from. A lot of that has to do with the nature of those industries, particularly among the past handful of years. So healthcare, education, there are a lot of people trying to find alternate ways out of some of those industries and trying to figure out okay, what does my experience even apply to in a new role? If I've been a teacher for 12 years, um, what else can I do? Um, so definitely we see concentrations, but it's all over the map. And it goes either from corporate to corporate or corporate to starting a business or to nonprofit. We really specialize in helping people bridge gaps that feel scarier than just one job to another job.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. How do you um so with growing the business, how did you deal with um do people normally have a job when they engage with you, or do they are they in between? Because the reason why I ask is that um it's it's kind of funny, but a lot of people when they're at that most painful point of like, hey, I'm in between jobs, I gotta figure out what's next. I do need a coach, but I can't afford one right now because I don't got a job.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So how did how did you how did you get past that hurdle and be able to actually grow grow this business?
SPEAKER_00:So the answer is both. We help people in both situations. Uh, like I said, our ideal scenario is when someone has the breathing room to be intentional. And so in most cases, those individuals are still in a job and they're they have some time to figure out what comes next. We know, however, that's not always the case, particularly over the past handful of years. There have been sweeping layoffs that have affected a lot of our um members. And so a lot of times people are coming to us like, I gotta pay the rent. And so we have different service offerings for them. We have what we call the Hire Me Now TriPack. It's three super powerful sessions resume, LinkedIn slash networking, and applying and interviewing. So we're like, let's get in there at a price point that can serve this person and meet their budget, help them land this job, get them into that job, and then let's go through the self-reflection of what's the longer term strategy. So we've always got to address like the immediate need. Um and sometimes for our clients that they're out of a job, and sometimes that's I have to quit because my well-being is being impacted by this job that I'm in right now. And that might be okay, let's get you out of there, let's figure out the right next step, and then let's give ourselves that breathing room for the longer term approach.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. That that makes sense. So you help people with where they're at, and then, but you also help them think down the line of like where where they need to go, strategize, and actually get to the ultimate goal of whatever they're trying to achieve.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. And even there, it's not just about okay, you're in this role, it's how do we stay ahead of it so you don't find yourself back in this position down the road? How are you creating opportunities from within? Maybe you're happy there, but you want to move up, or you want to make a lateral move, or you want to achieve a higher income bracket? How are we staying proactive with all of those things versus just waiting for when you're really in that pain point to start to seek that help?
SPEAKER_04:And what's what's the if you had to boil it down, because you've got eight probably plus years, you've probably been in this space for a long time, even before you started your business of just understanding this. So what is the one thing why people are not able to effectively transition to the career of their dreams or the the thing that they want to do? What is holding them back? What is the thing? If you had to boil it down, I know there's probably a lot of you know scenarios, people are different, there's personalities, there's probably a lot of this goes probably pretty deep. But over the course of your time, what have you seen been like the number one thing that people really need to look at?
SPEAKER_00:I think it's fear is the answer that I would give. There's lots of different fears, um, but it's a fear coupled with an undervaluing of their own experience and their ability to face the unknown. And so people end up staying the devil you know versus the devil you don't. And I've very rarely seen once people do start taking them those steps, them looking backward, but it's getting that momentum going that is so hard and that leaves people really complacent because they're scared about their ability to show up.
SPEAKER_04:I feel like that's in everything, it's in everything. Um man, it's so and and the only way to really do that, like to not be fearful, is to get more practice or to gain more confidence. Um to not be fearful, um, because you're not really scared. If you've done the haunted house 56 times, right, you now know that okay, this ain't a really a big deal. I'm gonna go here with my eyes wide open.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. Your first time, but the way you get there, right? But the way you get there isn't to just stand back and go, I'm gonna wait until I don't feel scared to go in this house. It's I'm just gonna buy the ticket, or I'm gonna get a friend to come with me, or I'm gonna take one little step and I can always turn back. So it is to your point, the practice, it's not the waiting until you just feel confident.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so you feel confident, right? And that's where the coach is so important because the coach has already been there, done that, seen a ton of these different scenarios, and can actually guide the person, but give them the confidence like, no, you can do this, like absolutely submit to this job. You have enough experience, submit the application, and we've now helped you a little bit on the interview process, so we also can help you answer the right questions and make sure you're you give them the best shot that you possibly can, which then you your fear level drops down, and also your value level goes up because now you feel like, oh, I really I can do this. Um, it's just incredible that that that piece that you just said, I think is not just with with careers, it's just with anything in life. I mean, we we talk with a lot of people with their personal brand and their business, and sometimes most people, most people are actually not charging enough, or they for some reason they like uh sabotage, self-sabotage themselves. Like, even if they know that they could get a certain amount, they just say, like, ah, maybe it's too soon, I can't do it right now, and then they'll like drop their price and cut it in half and be like, you know, especially like speaking. That's another big one. Is like they'll be like, Oh, you know, I could probably I I feel like I'm I've been doing enough to get 5,000, but I'm just gonna keep doing 2500 because like it's what I can get, and it's just what I've been normally, you know, used to. So it's in it's in everything, it's in everything.
SPEAKER_00:It is, and we see the same thing with salary negotiations with what people are asking for or what they feel they can't ask for. Oh, my company is doesn't operate like that, or it's really traditional in the way that it approaches. And I guarantee you, there is someone at that company doing exactly what that person wants to do. And so, to your point, the coach can bring that perspective of like, uh-uh, I've talked to someone else who was just doing this, and here's how we did it. So it's the perspective, it's the practice. So they can have they can have those conversations, and most important, it's the action. So here's the one thing I want you to do, and I'm gonna check in with you next week to make sure you did it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So, why how do we make coaching more popular in today's society? Um, I did not plan on asking you this question. Um I had like other ideas, but this conversation is good because I feel like um coaching, like in sports, like you have a coach. The team can't just be running around with no coach. Like, so why how do we normalize coaching in today's society where it's not just for the elite?
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah, you see that with sports, and then you see it throughout adolescence. Like, there are guidance counselors, there are academic advisors, there are coaches in all of these different realms, and then it's like, okay, you're 22, you're a fully baked human. Good luck. You're on your own. It's like, what? I've never done this before. You know, you're not an expert in negotiating, you're not an expert in applicant tracking systems and how to navigate that. And so it's mind-boggling that we don't already have this normalized. I think there is a lot of things moving in the right direction for us. I think we're probably about a decade behind if you think through like where therapy is at. Over the past decade, the percentage of people that seek some sort of mental health counseling has doubled. And so a lot of it is reducing stigma. I think that's as simple as people talking about it. If you do work with a coach, talk to your friends about that, recommend that to others. I think that really helps normalize that this is something that's an asset and not something you had to do because you needed help. And we see this even in we work in the corporate space as well.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Just like me, when I was given a coach, you're like, what did I do? But it was definitely delivered as this is an investment in you versus coaching used to be either coaching someone out or because you did something wrong and they needed to address an issue. And now we're totally shifting that. And we even won't work with corporations in that space. We are here to be an investment in that individual. And so I think some of it comes from how corporations are deployed. Employing dollars and what investments they're making. Some of it comes in continuing to normalize and reduce stigma. And some of it comes in how we make it accessible financially because we're doing everything in our in our power. What therapy has going for it is it's um covered by insurance.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, insurance. I was gonna say that.
SPEAKER_00:And so until we lobby and get uh some support for this, I think it's continuing to find creative ways to make it more accessible from a price perspective.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. I I think you give a killer answer too, by the way. That's uh that's that's exactly what we need to do. I think lobbying to get it covered. Um, but also just let people need to let people know that they're working with coaches. I mean, it's almost like this taboo thing. Like you don't want to let people know like you're like it's infidelity or it's like uh like coaches. I was gonna say coaches are not hookers.
SPEAKER_05:They're not, you know, like you should be. Coaches are not hookers. You know, like they need to, like, you don't have to hide that, you know. Like people are like, oh, I'm working with a coach, by the way. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I didn't and they feel like they can't tell somebody that it's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing to have a coach in your corner to help you get to the next level because every single successful person that I've met in my life has had some kind of mentor, coach, advisor, something, somebody helping them get to the next level. You can't like, yes, you can stumble into stuff, stumble into like some levels of success, but to continue and you get to wherever the goals you're trying to get to, you need to talk to somebody else that's already been there or that knows the route, like of where to go with your unique situation. Like, that's absolutely it's just it should be no, it should totally be normalized. Totally be normalized.
SPEAKER_00:You even if you have a great support structure around you, not everyone does, some people do, those people, while well-intentioned, don't have that same unbiased perspective, and so they might be telling you a lot of things that might not ultimately be in your best interest versus someone whose sole job is to help you succeed and achieve that goal and can bring that experience from coaching a broad range of individuals, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because the and there's the and that's a great point too, because there's the total difference between support and somebody that's actually a mentor or a coach because so you and you kind of need both. Some people are and there's different levels of support. There's there's mental support or um just emotional support. There's like, hey, I just got you, like I believe in you no matter what you're gonna do, but they don't know how to do the thing that you're trying to do. They just believe in you, so you just kind of maybe need that person to fall back on. You may you may not want to hit up your coach all the time for all the emotional support. You might just want to hit up a family friend or um or family or friend um to for that emotional support, and then you say, Oh man, it's just really hard right now, it's just really tough. I got my you know, my coach is telling me this, I got this going on, this just happened. I just need to talk this out and just get this out. And you know, there's different levels of that support or a sponsor or some people to help and speak for you when you're not in the room and all those things, but you need to have all those things I I believe in your circle, you know, of people to get you to the to the next level.
SPEAKER_00:And most of us are just stumbling through life and just trying to figure it out as we go, and we're taking a lot of risks and a lot of chances when we don't necessarily need to, or we're not taking risks, and we're not taking chances because we're scared to because we don't have that roadmap, and that's where that um person who's been there, seen that seen it, done it, can help you out.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. This is good, this is really good because I don't I think in all the episodes I haven't dove this deep into like why you actually need a coach um to to get to the next level. What um I have a question on so you've been able to build this business. Um, how are you able to like how do you market and and really grow this this brand and this business? Um, so like how are you acquiring uh customers? Because I know you said you're more on the pre, everything pre uh to the sale, that's you. Um so how how are you finding success on in different marketing channels? And if you could try to be as particular as possible with this question, because um a lot of us are trying to find ways to be able to attract the right clients, um, but also find a way to systematize this so we can actually truly scale it. Obviously, everybody says referrals are the number one, you know, thing. I get it, but there also needs to be some mechanism or some kind of lever that you can pull in your business to be able to uh actually acquire uh clients.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Short answer, we give all our money to Google. That's the answer. Um longer answer. Um, no, honestly, paid media really is the driver of our business. We're a direct-to-consumer business. Um, you have to pay to acquire clients. When we first started, we were so naive and had the if you build it, they will come kind of mentality. We're like, we are doing great work. We have a we spent a ton of time developing our curriculum and our content, and we're like, uh, we've arrived. We're no people and there were no people because we didn't find a way to acquire them. So over the years, we've experimented with a lot of channels. We've done paid media through Yelp, we've tried Meta, we've tried all different sorts of things. We have a social media presence, but the vast majority of our clients still today are coming through paid search. Um, but the trick for us is we're not venture-backed, we are bootstrapped. Um we have to acquire clients profitably. We don't have an option to do it any other way. So for us, it comes down to optimizing every single little piece of that funnel from what's the ad look like, what are the landing pages look like, what's the email sequence someone gets if they don't follow through. So all of those pieces matter, and a one percentage point difference matters to help make sure that that is a profitable acquisition channel for us. And then I think the other big thing that we've done, particularly in the past year, which we talk about all the time with personal branding, but it's still so hard to do, which is stop trying to be everything to everyone. We were doing way too much stuff, we were way too many things. That's a whole nother podcast. Confusing. And so we just dialed everything back to we are career coaching for what's next. That is what we do. We are about transitions um and helping you navigate that next step with confidence versus all the other million bajillion things that we can do and do also do, but that is really what brings people to us. And it's scary and hard to really draw those lines and speak so specifically. But as we know, when you niche down, when you niche down, it works.
SPEAKER_04:It works. It works. And how long did it take you? Let's go back to the to the Google. How long did it take you to figure out a formula for your your funnel um and how to use Google? How long did that take you to where you now feel like, okay, we we got something?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we're still iterating on it, and I'm sure we will be forever, but yeah, years, honestly. Years. And as you scale and you scale your spend, then things change again. And so it's like, can we now still do it if we're spending this much and now this much? And so it is a constant iteration. Um, but I would say it's it took a few years.
SPEAKER_04:And how long did it take you to to niche down? Um, because the eight years, eight years, eight years. Oh my god, I can relate. I've been in business now for a decade. Um and yeah, it it definitely took, it definitely took about the month that amount of time.
SPEAKER_00:And it's that it's that expand and contract piece too, because then you're like, okay, we're here, but then there's a shiny thing over here, and there you're excited about this opportunity. You want to serve people in this way, and so there's always this like, I want to be opportunistic, I want to expand and grow, and also keeping those guardrails of here's what we do best, and let's stay in our lane.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I I also feel like for for me, and I hate to go back to this time because I feel like it's like it's like such a dark time, it's like Mad Max, like where it's just like we don't want to go back there, but COVID definitely messed me up. Yeah, it definitely messed me up. That 2020 was terrible. So at that at that particular time, we were doing a lot of uh marketing, but also we were doing it, was primarily video production just at that time. Um, and since we couldn't go out and do all the video production all across the country, like, and every marketing person wanted their refund or money back or something. Um, you know, then we started to like not by shiny objects, it was kind of like a survival thing that happened for a few months. I mean, it was like from what March to June, and it was terrible. I mean, it was absolutely terrible. We were just we're getting all this momentum, we're picking up, everything was clicking. We had stuff scheduled out. I mean, it was it was great, and then boom, and then all of a sudden, like, okay, maybe we need to try this, maybe we need to do this. And then I went down this like rabbit hole of trying stuff, and then at the end of the day, I just I kind of went back to not not necessarily video, we still do a lot of some video production stuff, but I went down to the core of why people engage with us in the first place, totally. Um, and and that is always like the number one answer. Um, so this is a reminder to everybody that runs a business don't chase the shiny objects um and just keep on like um who is did you see the new Shark Tank episode with uh the owner of Raising Canes?
SPEAKER_00:No, but I love raising canes, they're about to open one right by my house on the day.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I love raising canes. Oh my god, it's that sauce of the chicken. It's the sauce. So I'm excited for you, by the way. Because uh anytime you can get anytime you can get a raising cane next to you, it's a good day.
SPEAKER_04:Um, but in that in that episode, it's crazy because they're doing, I think they're in lifetime sales, their I think it was three or four billion. It was one of those, three or four billion in lifetime sales. But what was crazy is that they just served chicken. That's it. It's chicken tenders, fries, little coleslaw, little garlic bread.
SPEAKER_05:That's it. And their sandwich is literally taking the garlic bread, the two slices, and then putting on putting the chicken in between, and that's your that's your sandwich.
SPEAKER_04:There's like they could have like added on burgers and you know, uh frost or not frosties uh like smoothies and all different types of stuff.
SPEAKER_00:They literally just serve chicken, like that's all they do, and it's just chicken tenders, they don't got no thighs, they got yeah, like we do one thing and we do it really well, and that's there's something to be learned from that, and I'm with you. And I think we all did that during COVID, so I think we need to give ourselves some grace. It was a weird time.
SPEAKER_01:We were all thank you.
SPEAKER_00:We were all experimenting, we were trying to survive, we were buying I think we lost Nicole.
SPEAKER_04:Or maybe we didn't. Well, my internet's still out. What's up, everybody? If you guys can hear me, um Nicole will be back. We'll we'll get we'll get Nicole back. Something happened, something happened midstream. Maybe, maybe, maybe she didn't uh she lost her connection and got lost, I think. Oh, okay. You're not frozen. Oh! What's up, people? What's up, what's up, what's up? Okay. We're still recording too, by the way, guys. So um as a way for Nicole to come back in. How you guys liking this episode? This episode is is crazy good. Um, we're gonna get that her full thoughts on giving us grace through COVID. And um, dude, she's built an amazing business through coaching, and I think we all can learn learn something uh through that. And even on how her business is structured, we can learn um we can learn something through that as well. Because she does all the pre-work and then she has her co- other co-founder do all the postwork, um, or at least in charge of it. Which is it's very like even that setup is is incredible. And it also goes to show that Google ads do work. Google ads do work, and and maybe we all need to look into Google ads and being able to attract business because we build things and we think that they're you know they're actually gonna like everybody's just gonna come through, and oftentimes that's not what happens. So we gotta build channels, guys. We need to build channels to help with uh with our businesses, and we can't just wait for opportunities. We need to build actual marketing and sales channels to help with our business to to get the results that we're looking for. So I want everybody to kind of reassess from this episode, like reassess, rethink what's going on in your business and how can you build build something that is attracting using your own brand and your own likeness. But like Nicole said, it's about having the in-between. So doing something in between of your personal brand and your business, and doing something in between so that way people can see uh kind of the face of the of the business, but also can know that there's more behind it as well. Oh, we got Nicole, she's back.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh. I was like, was it me? Was it you? What's happening?
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. I they told me I'm still alive, so okay, then it's me.
SPEAKER_00:Sorry, everybody.
SPEAKER_05:I'm like, she's she'll be back soon. So I just started talking.
SPEAKER_00:Did I drop off right at margaritas and toilet paper?
SPEAKER_05:I didn't hear the margaritas and toilet paper. Oh, yeah, yeah. You were just talking about COVID, so we should give herself a little grace, and then you then you were.
SPEAKER_04:I think you said the margaritas and toilet.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it was a strange time. But yeah, I think what I was saying was we I at least for us, we felt like we had gotten through the hardest part when we made it through 2020, and just the volatility that came thereafter was so much harder than just getting through that early phase. And so we were experimenting even further. And it was this year as well for us has been a year of going back to our roots, remembering why people came to us, why we started this in the first place. And I think the other thing is a lot of ideas that we had in the early days that didn't work didn't work not because they weren't good ideas, but because they weren't right for just where we were in our evolution as a business, or maybe the marketplace wasn't quite quite ready for it. And so revisiting that core idea and message and why we started, it was like, okay, now's now's the time. And so I think always remembering that an idea doesn't just inherently have to be good, it has to also align with where you are in your stage of business for it to be specifically.
SPEAKER_04:100%. Yeah, timing is so so key. So key. Um, and I've seen that most times. Did you ever have like a thing, a time a weird timing thing that you couldn't even like anticipate, but that happened for your business that that actually like you felt like you went up a level um because it happened? Like, so maybe when you had five coaches and did something happen where, like, oh my god, we need like was it a a weird anomaly thing? And next thing you know, you have like a uh a couple companies that are like, Hey, we need you know, 10 additional coaches for this, or was there any kind of point in your business that there's some weird stuff that happened that that actually grew your business from a timing perspective?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think COVID was actually one of those things, and so some of the early days we were really focused on this like localized in-person strategy. We had opened up a brand new big office space February 20th, 2020, and promptly shut it down three weeks later. And we're like, crap, we have a rent payment. Part of our marketing strategy was this super localized Chicago-based approach. And what it forced us to do was throw all of that away, figure out this more digital-based approach, um, which ultimately helped us scale to a nationwide organization, but also revisit how we were selling our offerings, which was very package-based, and we moved to this longer-term subscription-based model because we also had the time to sit back and think about it when we weren't just responding. And I think that has happened time and time again. And Forum and I always recognize this. We make the best decisions sometimes when our backs are against the wall. And so it's like, how do you replicate that without being in such a stressful position? But be constantly questioning, like when things are going good, you don't change stuff. Right, right. So, how do you make sure you're still making those hard choices and thinking what's propelling you forward, even while things are in motion?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I saw uh about two weeks ago, or maybe a week and a half ago, I don't know, time it just slips my mind at this point. But I got to uh interview uh Jarek Robbins, which is Tony Robbins.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_04:His his uh so powerful, I cannot wait to release it. I did not realize it was gonna be that. Like I had a list of questions for him, and it just threw it all out the window, uh, because he just he took over, but he he said something was so powerful. He he said, to your point, he said that the the best work for any individual, no matter personal or professional, is in the deep thinking, so deep thinking, and so he said oftentimes we have to remove ourselves from our current environment and just allow space to deep think, and that's this is why a lot of times masterminds or retreats or things of that nature are so powerful because it actually removes us from what we're currently doing, and you get into a space with a bunch of other individuals that are also doing the same thing, right? And then it unlocks something because you ask, um, have you ever heard of the five whys? Like you just yeah, you just keep asking why, why, why. So by the time that fifth why, you're going to get something, a little bit of a better answer than what you had on the first why. And so it's about that deep think. And the longer you give yourself space to just to have to think, and I think that's what COVID did. It forced us to to just sit there because you can't go anywhere, you can't do anything. You're just thinking the whole time, and you're like, How what do I need to do? And you just kept and you know asking those questions to yourself. So that is it's such a it's such a powerful thing, and we need to allow ourselves more time to think, and that's also back to a coach. This is why you work with a coach because they give you the ability and the space to actually do some deep thinking and do the deep work that needs to happen because you're not gonna most times you're not gonna do it on your own, you're just not, you know, you're just going to need the accountability because you're just busy, and we hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_00:I don't have time for coaching, or I don't have time to carve this out in my schedule. And it's like you absolutely need to. I always say my favorite sessions are the ones where nothing's changed and everything's changed. Like an hour of time has gone by. I didn't literally produce a slide or go change something or go do anything. All I did was that deep thinking and reflection and conversation with my coach, but the person I walked out as is completely different than the person as. And so it's like technically nothing's changed, everything has changed, and now I can go back to my job and be a million times more productive, have a million times more conviction in my decisions because I gave myself that space and time to reflect.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's so powerful, so powerful. This is a this is a great episode. This is a great episode. There's so much stuff that has happened. Uh Nicole's dipped out and came back. This is this is this. I'm like, wow, that's never happened before.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sorry, my God.
SPEAKER_04:No, it's all it's all good. No, but this has been an incredible, uh, incredible episode. And I think we like we we learned a lot uh from this episode. And so what what's next? What's next for you? Um and then I and I have one last question after that, but what what's next for you from um like where do you see this company going? Where do you see even your your brand going? Because I know you're also like you said, like you and your you and your business partner are also you know personal brands yourselves. Like, you know, you go out, you you're on podcasts, you speak, and you do the you do these things as well. So, how what's next for you um that you see on the horizon?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we really see Ama La Vita as bigger than coaching. We want to be where people go for growth. And so right now, starting with the what's our bread and butter, why do people come to us? It's coaching. Um, and it's career coaching. But where we want to head long term is to be a brand that is a partner to you as you are always bettering, which we always is our tagline, always be bettering throughout your life. So that might be an app that you use to track your goals throughout your journey. That might be re-reinventing what we call our happiness hub, those office spaces throughout the country where you can drop in for a resume review or a meditation workshop. We really want to be a brand that is the partner to you alongside your personal and professional development growth journey over your life with periods of intensity where you go, okay, I might need a coach for the next year or two to work through this next phase. And then periods where maybe there's a little bit more of a distance and we're connected more passively. Um, so right now we're focused on that intensity piece through coaching, but we can see this being much, much bigger.
SPEAKER_04:That's cool. Because there that doesn't really exist today. There's no there's no uh what am I trying to say? Like there's no like drive-through, get your get your resume looked at real quick.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_04:Um the only the only time that that's kind of accessible is through recruiters um that you know look at your resume and kind of give maybe a point or two on it, but there's not like a a space where you can where you can do that, right? Am I am I right in saying that?
SPEAKER_00:There's I mean there's different like develop development type centers, but there's nothing really consistently um across the country. So it there is a void there, and I think even bigger that where can I find like-minded people who are also interested in personal to and professional development, who have don't have a stigma around investing in things like this and are vulnerable enough to say, I'm on this journey, I'm I'm learning too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's cool. That's a cool idea. Thanks. That's a cool idea. I like that.
SPEAKER_04:I like that. I think I think it definitely could uh yeah, because accessibility is really big, and especially if you could create something that is uh low ticket, that people could just be able to enjoy the environment, get their stuff looked at. Um, and if they want like a longer engagement with you, there's there's those options too. Um, but that yeah, that's a cool idea. I like it. I like it. But we'll yeah, we'll we'll we'll keep it uh for right now. It's career coaching. Yeah, stick to the main thing, let the main thing be the main thing, I think people say. Um so my my last question is how how do you balance between um you and your business partner? Like how um I unfortunately didn't have a good um uh outcome with uh a business partner at a time. Um and we found that the we our our values and our morals did not align. And we didn't we kind of jumped into bed too quick. Um and did I didn't figure out this stuff just like any relationship, you know, you don't figure out and ask all the right questions, but like in the beginning, it's good, you know, everything's exciting, and yeah, everything's exciting, it's right, we're passing forward back and forth business. Like, oh man, maybe we should just partner on this and like like blow something out. Then later on, you're like, ooh, I didn't know you were like that. I didn't know this happened, and oh, this doesn't this doesn't connect right. So, how how do you um make sure that you you have a healthy balance uh between you and your business partner?
SPEAKER_00:I think we got super lucky because we also did not do the work to figure out up front that there were values alignment. We got lucky in that there were. Um, and so I think there's two pieces. One is the values alignment piece, absolutely. That's super critical, just like in any relationship, like you said. Then the other piece is the what do we want from this and when? And I think that's the piece that people don't talk about as much. So, like, how long am I willing to go without an income if that's a part of the process? When do I need to make an exit if that's something that's important to you? What are we expecting from each other in terms of timeline to quit another job if that's the case or hours that we're putting in? I think a lot of people don't have those really tactical conversations that end up driving wedges between relationships because there's someone's expecting, I thought we were gonna be here till midnight every night if that's what it took. And other people are like, that was never what I signed up for. And so I think that's a really big piece of the upfront work in addition to the values alignment piece. And then again, just like any relationship, there comes the okay, how do we keep working on it ongoing? And so we make sure we carve out time for ourselves to take a step back, to reflect, to just be friends and partners. That's really a critical part of the relationship. And I think we approach each other with a foundation of mutual trust and respect in everything that we do. We're not gonna always agree with each other's perspectives, um, but we respect each other's judgment. And we know when that means to just let it go. And sometimes that's as silly as we have an exercise where if we're arguing about something, we'll go, okay, on the count of three, and we put up fingers on our head and one through five. Five means I super duper duper care about this. One means I actually don't really care. I'm just arguing because I had an opinion. And whoever has the highest gets to make the choice. And it's like, okay, it's done. Because you don't realize sometimes you get in these heated debates and you're like, this isn't even that important to me.
SPEAKER_05:I just want to win.
SPEAKER_00:We've instituted some silly stuff like that over the years where we're like, these are our ground rules, and that helps the relationship to stay up love.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that. Man, I feel like any everybody needs to uh adopt this. Um it's just I would just feel like a jerk if I put the one up. It's like, dude, you're you're just arguing just because you want to win right now. Like, come on.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, Nicole, this has been absolutely incredible. Um, I think as a great ending piece, um, what does Amalavita mean?
SPEAKER_00:It means love life, and that's what we help people do. And we really wanted people to know that you don't have to wait until 5 or 6 or 7 p.m. when you get home from work to start loving your life. You can and should be able to do that throughout your day.
SPEAKER_04:Oh man, perfectly sad, perfectly said. I Googled it, to be honest. I Googled it, so I knew before you said that, but um, I feel like that was a perfect way to end it. Thank you so much for being on this episode. We're gonna have all the links and places where people can connect with you. But what is the best way to get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_00:Um, you can just reach out to me, Nicole, at alvcoaching.com, and then we're on all the socials at ALV Coaching.
SPEAKER_04:Awesome, awesome. And guys, everybody that's listening and watching, please take everything that you've learned from this episode. Please apply it to your business. There's so many different pieces um that you can take and be able to, you know, ask yourself these questions, ask the Five whys of and do a little bit of this deep work. And and I know a lot of us, probably let's say about 85% of us are probably doing way too much. And we need to distill that down and get it to the niche and uh of where we know that we can operate best. And then you build up from there. Look, if if Raising Canes is still selling these chicken tenders at billions of dollars of revenue, you don't need another product, you don't need another channel, you need to do one thing really, really well. Yeah, keep doing the thing over and over and over again, and then that's where the success is at. Um, and don't forget to like, comment, share this episode with anybody and everybody. We're streaming on all platforms. And don't forget, everybody, if you can change your circle, you can change your life. So thank you so much, Nicole, for being on the episode. And we'll catch everybody on the next one. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. And don't forget to hit that notification bell for more amazing content that we're going to be putting out. And don't forget, you can change your circle to change your life.
