From Charging $697 to $15K: Erica Carrico's Coaching Business Transformation

[: 00:00:00

[00:00:19] Leane: that you know you're meant to have. Let's do this. Hi, Erica. Welcome to Zero to Rockstar Coaching Business. I am so excited to have you on my podcast in front of me because not only are you an incredible coach and mentor to me, but you are also in, in Colorado, which is like, are you six hours behind me, Erica?

[: 00:00:42

[00:00:44] Leane: hours. Yeah. I appreciate you so much for coming on this and I just know that we are going to have an absolutely phenomenal conversation about what it actually takes to get your coaching business off the ground. I

[: 00:00:57

[00:01:06] Leane: It is. So let's start at the beginning. You and I actually trained with the same coaching academy, right? Which it's that, I love that we're in sync with that. You were about, we'll be just talking about like three or four years ahead of me. When was it that you actually trained to be a coach, Erica? I

[: 00:01:22

[00:01:27] Leane: Wow. So you're an

[: 00:01:28

[00:01:35] Leane: me about what led you to become a coach, because you worked in corporate for a long time, right? I did.

[: 00:01:40

[00:01:48] Erica: I didn't know how. But I knew that I was here to make a difference in some way, shape or form. So I actually I did go to university and study psychology like I think a lot of us do. I was going to go on and get my master's degree in counseling, but I just honestly I thought about it and I really was, I had the travel bug at the time and I wanted to travel and whatever.

[: 00:02:07

[00:02:25] Erica: And I was earning millions of dollars for a company that already had millions of dollars. And I hit total burnout. I was like, what is the point of my life? I, I'm not doing what I'm here to do. And at that point, I went and saw a life coach. I think I was 28 at the time, and I had an amazing series with her.

[: 00:02:42

[00:02:58] Erica: But everyone told me [00:03:00] you're never going to earn a living doing that. Wow.

[: 00:03:02

[00:03:11] Erica: I love that. I know. So I listened to them and I was like, yeah, they're right. I'm getting ready to get married. We're going to want to start a family.

[: 00:03:17

[00:03:37] Erica: I was building someone else's dream. I was doing all this work for another organization and I, I wasn't using my, my own gifts and it took a cancer diagnosis for me. To really be like, Hey, you are here to do something different. You have this calling, you're not paying attention to it. What is it going to take?

[: 00:03:56

[00:04:16] Erica: Um, and I just did another recording a minute ago or an hour ago and was like, I finally feel like I've kind of landed on the other side of that now. It's been a journey, but that was really what finally like hit me to sign up for the life certification and start my business.

[: 00:04:32

[00:04:40] Leane: Yeah,

[: 00:04:40

[00:04:58] Leane: Wow Thank God you're here, Erica, and you are a survivor, and I've obviously been following you for years now.

[: 00:05:04

[00:05:26] Leane: And yeah, I just think, hell yes to having women like you in my orbit. I think we all need women in our orbit that are an inspiration to us. And what I loved about you, Erica, is that you didn't just want it all for yourself. You're on a mission to, yes, you want it all and that's bloody brilliant, but you also want other women to have it all.

[: 00:05:46

[00:05:55] Erica: absolutely. Well, and that comes down to, you know, when people are starting their business, I tell them [00:06:00] they really need to have one, a spiritual why.

[: 00:06:02

[00:06:22] Erica: So by me helping all of these women to build their soulful businesses, all the people that I'm able to heal through them, it's like that's my, I feel that is my reason for being here from like a work service perspective anyway. I love that.

[: 00:06:37

[00:06:46] Leane: Because I feel like a lot of gorgeous women listening to this podcast may be at the point where they've got their coaching qualification and they just can't seem to get traction in their business. And we've all been there, haven't we? I remember being on a call with you and crying my eyes out because I couldn't get a paid client.

[: 00:07:05

[00:07:06] Erica: Yes, very clearly. I still tell your story because it's so inspiring. You were literally like, I'm going to have to go back to corporate and get a job I can't get a paid client. I love your story so much because, you know, however many months later you were like, I've had 50 women come through my program.

[: 00:07:20

[00:07:37] Erica: And I think it takes that kind of a mentality. Yeah. The only way it will fail really is if you quit, otherwise hire the right mentor, take the right courses, do what you need to do, follow your intuition and just don't quit. Yeah. How

[: 00:07:50

[00:07:56] Leane: I know that in the beginning, Erica, I think. You decided not to go down the social media route because you just thought it was a time suck. How did you feel coming out of the gates and getting your first clients? How did you make that happen? Well,

[: 00:08:09

[00:08:14] Erica: And I just didn't want to be on it because I felt like such an imposter. I was comparing myself to everyone. On social media to the point of my detriment that I was like, I need to figure out how to build my business off of here. And then of course, later, what I realized and figured out is that people who are just trying to post on social media, it's a hamster wheel.

[: 00:08:31

[00:08:34] Erica: mic drop. And a recipe for getting no clients and burning yourself out and ultimately wanting to quit. So, but yes, I had that time period as well. I think I, it took me probably about six months after graduating to get my first client and six months of a lot of rejection, a lot of fear, a lot of crickets, a lot of watching other people get their first clients and me not getting mine.

[: 00:08:56

[00:09:06] Leane: going. Can you remember getting your first client, Erica? Where did that person come from?

[: 00:09:12

[00:09:15] Erica: So one of the things that I have new people do, whether you're a coach or a healer or health care practitioner, and I or Vedic comes, I mean, whatever, is literally create a list of people. Who do you know? And I went back to LinkedIn colleagues from like my old recruitment days, you know, whatever. And I started reaching out to people.

[: 00:09:35

[00:09:51] Erica: And was like, Hey, do you know anyone? Who is tired of being trapped in their corporate career. I have a new program or new I'm doing this new coaching series for women who want to leave their corporate jobs. And who do you know? And I want to say three or four people sent some, some people my way. And one of those became my very first client.

[: 00:10:13

[00:10:14] Erica: charged? Yes. 697 for a three month coaching

[: 00:10:19

[00:10:30] Erica: Yeah, absolutely. So right now a three month series with me, actually the same structure as back then would be 15, 000 US.

[: 00:10:38

[00:10:50] Erica: Oh, and it does. And it will, you know, it does. And it will.

[: 00:10:54

[00:11:12] Erica: Yeah. So I think the number one thing for me back in the day was I knew I had to do it in a way that felt right for me in a way that I was going to enjoy it. And in a way that didn't feel salesy. And so by me trying to post on social media, I didn't enjoy it. I actually hated it. I loathed it. I didn't get anything from it.

[: 00:11:32

[00:11:49] Erica: Like I would buy crystals there. I would go and get a massage there. I would get Reiki done there. And they had a perfect little room with like lights and this beautiful window that they held classes in. And I was like, I [00:12:00] wonder if I could just hold a class here. And so I reached out to the owner and she was like, we'd love to have you hold a class here.

[: 00:12:06

[00:12:27] Erica: And I, you know, after the workshop, I shared how they could come and work with me. And I signed enough clients to have like a, it was a 10, 000 workshop. Yeah, because enough of them wanted to sign into my program and that was when I knew I was on to

[: 00:12:40

[00:12:49] Erica: Oh my gosh, yeah. I felt then like I had a real business. Where it was when I was just posting on social media, I felt like It just was destroying me from the inside

[: 00:12:59

[00:13:05] Erica: business? Yeah. I think, you know, and this is something that you know, cause you, I taught this in Soul Business Accelerator is.

[: 00:13:14

[00:13:37] Erica: And I remember saying, I need to, approach my business and make decisions in my business and how I'm putting myself out there from the place of where I want to be and not where I am right now. Ooh,

[: 00:13:48

[00:13:52] Erica: Exactly. Making decisions from where you want to be rather than where you are today.

[: 00:13:58

[00:14:14] Erica: Right? I'm probably going to look at where can I get published or where might I be able to go and speak or what podcasts can I get on where I can share more about the work that I do. Right? So you start. Treating it very differently when you're making decisions from a place of where you want to be as opposed to where you actually are now.

[: 00:14:30

[00:14:42] Erica: stay stuck. Yeah, that's like, but humans are biologically designed to feel fear and our brain's job is designed to keep us small and keep us safe so that we don't put ourselves out there and, like, go get attacked by the lions or whatever, you know?

[: 00:14:56

[00:15:13] Erica: Yeah. Get comfortable being uncomfortable and allow the fear to be in the passenger seat with you. Just don't let it take over and don't let it drive the car. Do you

[: 00:15:23

[00:15:36] Leane: I

[: 00:15:39

[00:15:57] Erica: It was literally like, You know, he just kind of slapped me upside the head and was like, this is your responsibility to do this work. Like, I am literally going to give you a chance and you better get your ass out there and do it because this is what you're here for. And so for me, it was like, no matter how scared I was, I felt that I had a responsibility to put myself out there.

[: 00:16:15

[00:16:20] Leane: than me. Absolutely. Erica, would you mind sharing with us maybe some things that maybe didn't go well? Like, I know that you've maybe had a workshop and maybe only one person attended. Like, let's normalize things not being perfect for every coach.

[: 00:16:34

[00:16:37] Erica: Oh, my gosh. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I've I think every entrepreneur fails more than they actually succeed. I've had more failures than I have had successes, honestly. And again, it's because I just keep getting up after them and I keep going. I mean, I've had plenty of workshops where no one came.

[: 00:16:55

[00:17:10] Erica: I brought all my stuff. I've left my kids with the sitter or my ex husband and there's no one here. And, you know, I sat in the room alone and I cried. And I picked myself up and I went and I, and I would do it again.

[: 00:17:22

[00:17:32] Leane: So how did you just keep

[: 00:17:34

[00:17:50] Erica: Okay, that's like doing 5000 two hour workshops. So how are you, how are you going to say that you did one or [00:18:00] or no one showed up to one and then you're just going to quit and throw the whole thing away. You know, I did have evidence that it worked. Fortunately, my very first one was a super, so I was like, I can repeat that, you know, maybe it was a fluke, but let's just check.

[: 00:18:14

[00:18:31] Erica: Is it the place, you know, the people at this point? I'm holding it just aren't aligned or is it at the wrong time? Was it just a weird night? So you know what I would do is at that place, I would try it again a couple of months later and if no one came, then I would literally take that place off my list and I just hold a workshop there anymore.

[: 00:18:47

[00:18:51] Leane: thing. I love that you were allowed yourself to be in like test mode, if you tested things and if things didn't work, you tweaked and you went and did it again. And I think as coaches we need at the beginning of our business, well always to be honest, not just in the beginning, we've got to be willing to be in test mode.

[: 00:19:09

[00:19:14] Erica: Yes. And literally, I will tell you after, I mean, now at this point working with hundreds or thousands of women, success is always on the other side of failure. Always. I think one person that has made it that has not failed probably more than they've succeeded.

[: 00:19:32

[00:19:32] Leane: agree. And when you think back to me crying on that call with you, huge success was actually around the corner. And now when I have a dip and I do all the time, I know you will, we have moments where we're like, what can I continue with this? But then there's a breakthrough on the other side. So I kind of welcome these times now, because I know something bigger and better is going to come on the other side.

[: 00:19:54

[00:20:01] Leane: Would you like to share any more little failures with us, Erika? Yeah,

[: 00:20:06

[00:20:29] Erica: Webinar or an online workshop, and I had even like run little amounts of ads to it, and I think there were 30 people that showed up live. 150 people or so had registered, and I went through the whole thing, and I was so excited when I got off. I hope I was like thinking I was going to see sales coming through.

[: 00:20:48

[00:20:58] Leane: sale. It's happened to [00:21:00] all of us. The best of us. What did you put that down to?

[: 00:21:05

[00:21:15] Erica: So I think it was probably my energy. Honestly, I'm just, I'm not sure. Sometimes we don't know.

[: 00:21:22

[00:21:25] Erica: And that took me a good two to three weeks to bounce back from. I was, I was a mess for a long time after that. I really was like in a bad place. But again, you pick yourself up and you're like, okay, well that didn't work.

[: 00:21:34

[00:21:44] Leane: Yeah, they are. So, Erica, a thing that I talk about all the time is big deal energy. I see you in your big deal energy a lot, and I just want to know, as a daily practice, how do you get into your big deal energy?

[: 00:21:58

[00:22:00] Erica: my gosh, that's such a good question and you know, someone else was recently asking me this too because the whole time that I've been building this company, you know, I was going through some really hard stuff. You

[: 00:22:12

[00:22:20] Erica: Cancer, divorce, COVID, you know, I mean like. I mean, it's just been horrendous in all honesty, but what really allows me, it's like finding what fuels you. And for me, I know it's alone and it's in the mountains and it's doing my adventure. It gets the adrenaline going. I love it. I achieve big things out there and I can pull that back and achieve that in my business.

[: 00:22:43

[00:23:01] Erica: Ooh,

[: 00:23:02

[00:23:18] Erica: it's always something out here.

[: 00:23:21

[00:23:32] Erica: Well, one, don't.

[: 00:23:37

[00:23:39] Erica: Because if you're not getting consistent clients, you're not doing the right things to get consistent clients. It's actually that simple. The consistent marketing in the right way is going to get consistent leads, which is going to lead to consistent clients.

[: 00:23:51

[00:24:12] Erica: So it's not like a. It's not like, Oh my God, I just really want to like manifest consistent clients. Okay, great. And what are you putting in place consistently every single week or every single month in your business to make that happen? It's not rocket science. It just, it takes the strategy and the right action.

[: 00:24:28

[00:24:28] Leane: it's like what you spoke about earlier is that we see, we see so many coaches doing one thing once. And then expecting to be fully booked, that is not going to happen. It takes consistency, but it also takes time. You can't just magic a waitlist out of like posting on Instagram for a month. It's probably not going to happen unless you've got a huge budget behind you.

[: 00:24:49

[00:24:49] Erica: can. Absolutely. Honestly, though, even now I have a multimillion dollar company. And if I just stopped doing all of my external marketing and just posted on social media, I guarantee you we would tank to probably like. 20, 000 a month, maybe. And right now we're anywhere between 100 and 200, 000 a month.

[: 00:25:06

[00:25:20] Leane: It doesn't, and I think the sooner the new coaches realize that, the better then they can focus on other things.

[: 00:25:27

[00:25:51] Leane: Oh

[: 00:25:51

[00:26:06] Leane: Duh. Yeah. Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't?

[: 00:26:09

[00:26:23] Leane: Yeah. It feeds your inner critic, doesn't it? It feeds your inner critic with evidence that you're not good enough because no one's liking or commenting or engaging on your stuff. Yeah. And once you get caught in that loop of thinking you're not good enough, it's a one way ticket to quitting your business.

[: 00:26:40

[00:26:40] Erica: an almost guaranteed ticket. Yeah, it

[: 00:26:44

[00:26:58] Erica: My number one and this [00:27:00] shifted everything for me around my money mentality was Denise Duffield Thomas. She's an Australian entrepreneur and her Get Rich Lucky Bitch. I read that book in 2015 and that was really, like, I was the woman who was married and was, like, trying to get my husband to read books on creating wealth and, like, I was getting so mad at him.

[: 00:27:19

[00:27:36] Erica: And on, and becoming an entrepreneur. And then I think the second one that I read a lot is the millionaire mind by T Harv Eker. I've tried

[: 00:27:45

[00:27:48] Erica: Honey, it either resonates with you or it doesn't. I just cannot, I don't know, whatever it does to my brain, it just gets me so excited about doing money right and investing and, you know, and the reason also why I teach money and why I love, like, talking about wealth so much, I think there's this stuff.

[: 00:28:04

[00:28:26] Erica: Thinking about how you're going to pay your dang bills, you know, and like when a woman is earning money and she is abundant in her business, she is a more powerful coach, a more powerful healer. She shows up so much more powerfully in her work and in her life. And that's why I'm so passionate about teaching money also, because the impact that you then have is so much greater.

[: 00:28:45

[00:29:09] Erica: And that's really what that book did for me, so.

[: 00:29:13

[00:29:28] Leane: And I'm like, It's me that does this for a living, forget about the husband, I don't even have one. And I was like, yes, Queen! Can you remember posting that?

[: 00:29:37

[00:29:47] Erica: Yeah,

[: 00:29:47

[00:29:49] Erica: is all me. Yep, you're welcome to her.

[: 00:29:53

[00:29:57] Erica: Yeah, so, have you ever heard of the series, [00:30:00] they're older, but they're also really good, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? No, I haven't. Okay, Rich Dad, Poor Dad would be a great book to read.

[: 00:30:07

[00:30:34] Erica: Cause I think a lot of us start out not knowing that we're like, I just want to earn money so that I can like do whatever, but we don't really think about the bigger picture of like, Hey, what do we actually want to create here? What does this look?

[: 00:30:45

[00:30:51] Leane: And maybe even the. DDT one because I've, um, it's been a while since I've read that. Erica, thank you so much. Before we finish, we obviously need to know how the hell can people work with you? What have you got going on? What can we, what can we come to? What can we watch? How can we get in your space? Yeah,

[: 00:31:08

[00:31:09] Erica: Um, well, I do have the 12 minute training video that I can send you the link to Leanne, but that just shares my strategy that we teach, uh, to get you to. figures. Yeah. And that's, and then of course, from there, if you wanted to book a call, we then talk about sole business accelerator and that's the, the roadmap really from a, an offering perspective to a marketing perspective to take your business from zero to consistent 8, 000 a month.

[: 00:31:36

[00:31:42] Erica: Yep, there will be one in April, um, you can buy tickets. The, the tickets to buy are just at the very top of my website, um, which is www. ericacaricot. com you can come in. I'll teach that strategy. Yeah. In a two day event live in April.

[: 00:31:58

[00:32:04] Erica: as well. Yeah, I'm on Instagram. It's Erica Lynn Carrico on Instagram. And this is the thing too, like what you said, it's like, if you want to have a presence on social media, have a presence, you know?

[: 00:32:15

[00:32:27] Leane: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Erica, thank you so much. I love you.

[: 00:32:32

[00:32:55] Leane: Just drop me a DM and we will [00:33:00] rendezvous.