Q1: Why did you decide to start a coaching business?
I knew over 25 years ago that coaching was my calling! My degree is in Psychology, but I knew I didn’t really want to work with severe mental problems, but rather wanted to help people live their best life, free from any internal or external constraints.
About a year after college – before the coaching industry was even a “thing” – I was incredibly fortunate to find my way to a coaching and transformational training company that offered seminars, and I loved it! After going through their full curriculum, I worked for them for a couple years and got incredible continued development, both personally and professionally. However, the job came with insanely long hours and low pay and would have required nearly constant travel, so when the local office closed, I changed gears.
Through the years I found other pathways to continue to get great coaching while also developing my own coaching skills as I helped people be true to themselves, pursue their own callings, and enjoy life. One way I did that was by owning and operating a Yoga Studio as a side-hustle for 15 years while I was working full-time in corporate. I would sneak life-lessons into my yoga classes through down dogs and headstands… but it still felt somewhat limited as it was a brick-and-mortar business that required me to physically be there all year long.
Once I discovered the world of online business and the ability to serve clients globally from the comfort of my own home (or from anywhere with an internet connection!), I knew that starting a coaching practice was the perfect opportunity to step into my full purpose & passion, while doing it in ways that would work for me, my family, and what really matters to me.
Now I regularly take off at least 1-2 months every summer to travel, and take off all of December, too! I know I am doing meaningful and impactful work that is changing my clients’ businesses & lives, with massive ripple-effect-benefits to their clients’ lives, too. AND, I am loving my own life every step of the way!
Q2: How does your business differentiate itself from other coaching businesses?
One of the key distinctions as a business is that I partner with other businesses to exponentially increase their clients’ level of success. For example, I previously served as the mindset coach for the client base of a multi-7-figure business coach, and also for a large group of course-creators. I’m currently looking to work with VCs, accelerators, and other investors to coach the start-up companies they invest in. Some of my best client stories have been with clients who were getting well-supported on tactical business skills like branding, marketing, sales, etc, where my coaching helped them breakthrough upper limits they previously didn’t know were there. Those breakthroughs regularly increase their revenue 300%, and in some cases has led to over 1000% (10x) increase!
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
Another key distinction is that I go deep with clients to the source or root causes of their challenges and limits, whereas many coaches just brush the surface with things like positive thinking, visualization, and affirmations. For example, for one of the clients I mentioned before who has worked extensively with another coach, she was getting great tactical direction, but one of the biggest things we uncovered early on is that she tends to make things hard, like she needs to fight her way up and out of difficult situations, so much so that she would unknowingly create challenges to fight through. For example, when we first started working together she was charging new-solopreneur clients $1500 for 3 months of support, and was finding them difficult to work with. She had a background in corporate consulting and enjoyed being in that area much more, so when we talked through what she could offer to corporate clients and at what rate, she was very lit-up by the possibility! Within a couple of weeks, she had signed her first far-more-enjoyable corporate client at $25,000, for a shorter period of time. Because of her newfound awareness about her tendency to make things hard (and why she was doing it), she was able to take new actions, in a better-aligned and more enjoyable market, which created exponentially larger financial results!
My experience and expertise is another differentiator in this industry. While there are some fantastic newer or even untrained coaches who are truly gifted, it’s not a regulated industry and anyone can call themself a coach. While I am not a therapist, my coaching is informed by my Psychology degree as well as having received extensive training & mentoring to become a coach that was developed by some of the industry’s founders. Now an International Coach Federation (ICF) Professional Certified Coach (PCC), I have a long 25-year record of living the work, “practicing what I ‘preach’,” and helping others do the same.
Q3: What are the most common problems faced by women starting or running their own business and how can these problems be overcome?
Fear – Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of what people will think of you, fear it might change you, fear it will take over your life or require so much of you that there won’t be any time or energy left for the people & things that matter to you… and those are just some of the conscious fears! ; ) There are countless SUB-conscious fears, too, all of which can keep you playing small and limit your potential! To overcome any of them, you need to become a master of awareness by recognizing when fear is kicking in, then take intentional action to move through it, just like my client I’m about to share with you did.
Blindspots & Limiting Beliefs – The client story I’ll share about “blindspots” as a problem illustrates many of the common problems faced by entrepreneurs. A blindspot is something you are blind to or can’t “see,” which is more accurately referring to beliefs, fears, feelings, behaviors, or impacts that are not in your conscious awareness. When one client first came to me, she had just started making $10,000 per month. She said she wanted to make more but added, “I’m not one of those people who wants to make a million dollars.” In that first session it became apparent that she thought more money equals more problems, AND she believed that if her professional life got really good, then her personal life would get really bad (and vice versa). She didn’t want either one to get bad. So, as she was seemingly taking all the “right” actions to grow her business, while also going out on dates, she was unknowingly keeping both her business and her romantic life juuuuust “okay” due to this blindspot she had. It was created by a LIMITING BELIEF, which was causing a FEAR, and had her unknowingly SABOTAGE her potential success to keep her “safe” from undesirable consequences of success. It also lead to her feeling like an IMPOSTOR because on the outside it looked like everything was great, but inside she felt like a huge failure since she didn’t have the level of business or relationship that she wanted. As we uncovered her beliefs and their root causes (how/why they formed), she saw how they were impacting her through subtle forms of “sabotage” to keep herself safe. With newfound awareness, she was able to start taking new courageous actions in both business and romance, such as taking risks to invest in ads and slowly increase her ad-spend, as well as being fully herself with her new boyfriend. One day said with a smile, “I’m thinking that ‘million dollars’ doesn’t sound so bad after all!” Within a few months she had gone from $10,000 revenue months to consistently making at least $40,000 revenue per month, and within 18 months she hit her first $100,000 month. She has continued to grow since, and as far as I know, her romantic life is doing pretty darn well, too. THIS – more than 10x revenue, with increased joy & ease! – is the kind of game-changing results available to you when you uncover your blindspots!
Self-Sabotage – As we just said, if you are out of alignment with who you are, what you’re here for, or what matters most to you, then you WILL eventually sabotage it one way or another in an attempt to save you from yourself. Some examples are armoring up to “be the boss” in ways that aren’t true to you, taking a path that you think you “should” go down but don’t really want, or building a business that is completely counter to your values or desires (like if you want to spend time with your family, but the way you built it requires you to work 80 hour weeks). Your best chance of creating a successful, sustainable, fulfilling business is to make sure you are living in full alignment with who you really are, what you’re here for, and what matters most to you!
Q4: What are the key elements of a successful business?
There are numerous elements for any successful business, but I’m going to sum it up with the focus & perspective of my wheelhouse as, “Effective business tactics WITH Alignment, Insight, and Reinvention,” the three main elements of my methodology.
Most of what I help my business-owner clients with can be boiled down to “mindset” or personal development, but I don’t believe success is “just” about mindset. You definitely need to understand and implement the tactics in areas like Branding, Marketing, Sales, etc. However, “just” working the tactics is not likely to get you top results on their own.
My methodology is based on the idea that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, and that there is inherent conflict between who we are as limitless, spiritual beings, and who we are as break-able human beings. When we experience struggle or feel dissatisfied, held back, get ill, or feel like what we want is not coming with the speed, scale, or ease we want (which every business-owner faces at some point) – it’s because we’re creating some form of resistance like unknowingly driving with the emergency brake on as part of our natural design to SURVIVE.
The success of your business and its ability to THRIVE is directly linked to your own ability to thrive with freedom, fulfillment, and the power to make FULL impact (NO playing small!).
To do that, you must integrate your two parts – Spiritual & Human – through:
- Alignment of who you really are (on a soul level), what you’re here for, and what matters most to you…
- Insight to recognize when aspects of your humanity (like fear, doubt, and not-enough-ness) get in the way of that alignment…
- And continuous Reinvention of yourself through authentic, vulnerable, courageous actions (like to let down your armor & risk getting your butt kicked) as you take big, bold, game-changing moves again and again and again!
Being who you’ve always been & doing what you’ve always done is NOT going to get you to the next level of where you want to be. If it could, you’d already be there! And, counterintuitive as this may seem, a big part of it all is choosing to BE fulfilled / happy / satisfied / ENOUGH regardless of what you accomplish, because when you feel as though you are not-enough, then nothing will ever be enough, no matter how much you do or achieve.
Q5: How should women business owners face the fear of failure?
Recognize & accept fear as a natural part of your human wiring. Resisting it or pretending it’s not happening will only make it grow out of control! Fear is literally what has kept us alive through human evolution and that’s a GOOD thing! Experiencing fear doesn’t mean you’re weak, wrong, failing, messing up, not cut out for business, or anything else … it just means you’re human!
Use Fear FOR You, to shine a light where it’s needed. In modern times, fear is usually triggered by a perceived threat to our identity (or ego) not an actual threat to our survival, but the feeling and physiological response is much the same. Every time you experience fear – even in not-so-obvious ways, such as procrastinating, trying to be “perfect,” or going on massive Netflix binge – it’s a perfect opportunity to shine a light on something that previously was hidden.
Allow it to motivate you & make you better. The sooner and more often you fail, the sooner you can learn from it and succeed! At EVERY stage of growth & expansion into new territory, we’re no different than a baby learning to walk. Babies “fail” by falling down countless times before they master walking! What if the first or second or tenth time they fell, that thought, “Oh this is terrible! I feel like such a fool! That was such an EPIC FAIL! I’m never doing that again!” Yet as adults, we do that ALL. The. Time. We make ourselves wrong for it and let it mean something about us (always a negative meaning) and I believe most business “fail” simply because the owner gave up. I’m not saying you should keep charging ahead at any cost, but if you’re slowing, stopping, or changing directions just because you feel bad about possibly “failing,” then take it on, see what empowering lesson you can learn from it, and keep going!
Q6: What three pieces of advice would you give to a woman planning to start her own business?
- Get a Great Coach (or 2 or 3 or more)! The key here is to choose “great” coaches, teachers, or mentors and to choose them sooner than you think you can. Let’s clarify what makes a coach “great.” First, I believe a great coach is someone who not only has experience and desired results in the area they are coaching, but also has great training and mentorship as a coach. There are a lot of self-proclaimed coaches out there who got lucky one time doing something one way, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way or the best way for you, or that they can help you recreate their way or their results. Some without training CAN be great, inspiring, and hugely helpful, but it also can be a bit like Russian Roulette because, sadly, there are many well-meaning coaches out there who are unintentionally doing more harm than good. Second, a great coach for you is one who aligns with your values AND encourages you to TRUST YOURSELF! Just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, you already have exactly what you need – your coach’s job is to help you find it because ultimately, it’s YOUR business and YOUR life and it has to work for YOU!
- Do the INNER Work (and “inner” is not just in your mind). I’m not just talking about things like journaling or meditating or visualizing what you want. Those all have value, but too many people stop there. What I’m really talking about is taking the SCARY STEPS to put yourself out there, do the things your identity/ego is terrified of, and keep taking RISKS again and again and again! With my clients, it’s not just about seeing what they want and what’s in the way of it, it’s also about BEING & DOING what’s needed to move through it so they can create their desired results (and not only enjoy having those results, but also enjoy the path to them).
- Live Life NOW. One thing I have done and encourage all my clients to do is to build your business as one component of the life you want. Too many entrepreneurs focus on business first as the primary container for their existence, and then are left trying to squeeze some semblance of a life into or around the business. Life is happening NOW – this is not a dress rehearsal. If you’re thinking some version of, “When I ___ (accomplish whatever goal) then I will ___ (enjoy it, be happy, be fulfilled, etc)” you’re fooling yourself. My intention for starting my 1st business when pregnant with my 1st child was to have more time with my kids. But, as she was entering middle school 12 years later, I realized much of her after-school time through her primary years was spent with babysitters while I taught classes or worked on marketing or admin. The thing is, entrepreneurs tend to be high achievers who are always pushing back the goal or finish line. There’s always MORE we want to do. Whether it’s rooted in some version of self-actualized healthy striving, or it’s rooted in a fear-based need to prove ourselves, there’s always more to reach toward. Make sure you’re enjoying the journey along the way, honoring who you really are, what you’re here for, and what matters most to you, because you’re never going to “arrive” and it can all be gone in a blink.
Spencer Snakard’s BIO:
Spencer Snakard is an Executive Transformation Coach, Trainer, and Speaker. She helps visionary entrepreneurial women leaders break through upper limits so they can profitably & sustainably turn their mission into a world-changing movement … without life-sucking consequences!
With 25 years of experience, her transformative programs cause profound & lasting shifts in participants’ lives by getting to the heart of what drives us, what holds us back, and what it takes to be truly fulfilled as spiritual beings having a human experience. Helping clients get out of their own way, she has taken them from self-limiting beliefs that were putting a ceiling on their revenue & impact, to multiple seven-figure years with a business & life of their design.
Spencer has a degree in Psychology and extensive training & leadership in Ontology. She is a Success Principles trainer, a Yoga instructor, and a Professional Certified Coach who brings a sense of play & humor into all her work.
Married to the love of her life, they are a combined family with 4 children, ages 15-26. They love spending summers together on the rocky coast of Maine and are currently building an oceanfront home there to enjoy for family getaways & client retreats.
