[00:00:00] Ashley: Welcome to the High Earning Coaches podcast, where we talk all about how to market and sell coaching in a way that feels good to you. Each week we’ll share conversations about what’s working now in the coaching world to market and sell coaching so that you too can become a high earning coach. I’m your host, Ashley Jangro. Today we are hearing from Master Coach Lake Kendra Smalley. She is an incredibly successful coach. She certifies life coaches, and she’s also a good friend, lake Kendra, thank you so much for being here

[00:00:34] LaKendra: today.

[00:00:35] Thank you, Ashley. You look so beautiful today.

[00:00:38] Ashley: So do you, and I’m so excited to talk to you. I’m so excited to share your story with everyone and then kind of reverse engineer how you have built your coaching empire, because I think you have so much wisdom to share, both for coaches who are just starting out and for coaches who are already successful and are kind of ready to take their business to that next level.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] So I’m so excited to hear from you. And for anyone who is here listening during that live premiere on YouTube, let us know real quick where you’re listening from and what kind of coaching you do throughout this whole episode. Feel free to type any comments or questions because both La Kendra and I are in the chat to connect and answer any questions you have.

[00:01:21] So again, thank you so much for joining us. I can’t wait to hear your story. So to start out, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna ask you to describe kind of what your business is like today, just in a couple sentences, and then we’re gonna back up to the very beginning and outline how you got to where you are.

[00:01:37] But first, I want people to understand the, the big picture of what you’ve built. So can you kind of describe where you’re at now?

[00:01:46] LaKendra: So right now, um, I’m a multimillion dollar company, life coaching company where not only do we certify and train life coaches, but we hire life coaches because we’re the only life coaching [00:02:00] school.

[00:02:00] In the US that is credentialed through, um, health insurance. So here in the state of Texas, we’re credentialed through Texas Medicaid, where we’re able to go in and serve, um, underserved and underprivileged communities, um, you know, in the field of, of mental and behavior health. So we do that and we are really, really big in the school districts.

[00:02:23] Um, so I have created this, you know, this masterpiece where, you know, coaches, especially if they’re here locally, they can come in, they can invest in a certification teaching, teaching them the skills that they need, um, to be successful, and then they can get a return on their investments by being contractors with the institute.

[00:02:43] So, It’s so super amazing. I love this.

[00:02:46] Ashley: I feel like it meets so many different needs because you’re also serving an underserved community that might not have the money to pay for coaching, but you’ve really hacked that. I mean, I say hacked. What you actually did was spend, you know, six years doing a lot of hard work [00:03:00] to make it work where you can work with insurance companies and uh, Medicaid.

[00:03:04] So I think it’s so incredible and I think that people might have a lot of questions about how that happened. Um, so then, so I love thinking and you know, we’ll talk about it a lot at the end, but you also have something new that’s coming out that’s going to serve an additional audience. Do you wanna share that now or do you wanna wait until the end?

[00:03:22] I

[00:03:22] LaKendra: can share it now. So I’m a retired educator, so I was a behaviorist for 16 years in education underneath, you know, special ed. And so that’s where my heart is. My heart is in the education, the education arena. So now we have the life coach educators, which we have been piloting for, you know, the last six years of what that, what does that look like?

[00:03:46] What does that look like in a school district? Um, what does, what does that look like monetarily wise for a school teacher? And so what we’ve been able to do is, um, beta this inside of a school, um, in [00:04:00] Arlington, Texas. We. We probably have about six or seven certified teachers that are in that school. They teach different subject areas, but we call ’em life coach educators.

[00:04:11] And then, um, what we’ve been able to do is go in and create a partnership with the school to identify their top tier three kids. And this is really specifically in Title one schools, right? Mm-hmm. So, because Title One schools have a lot of funding that go unused. So because I came outta education, I knew that this funding existed.

[00:04:33] And you know, a lot of schools just don’t use it. So I’ve been able to. Kind of come in and, and nurture, nurture that situation with, um, the administrators. Mm-hmm. Um, where we have life coach teachers that are in the school that, that can work with those kids, those, those top tier three kids, you know, and those kids are facing drop out failure.

[00:04:56] Um, just all types of things. Right. And so, um, we’ve [00:05:00] created just a beautiful family or a community inside a school where life coaching exists and it’s a game changer. It’s a game changer for the whole industry because if I can do it, anybody can do it. Right. So it’s just, it’s just having a desire to do it.

[00:05:17] So, um, so Life Coach Educators is, Coming soon, September 1st, we’ll start the promotions for that. Um, we’re gonna be really gearing up here in the state of Texas because that’s where I can really benefit the most. But of course, we have coaches globally where we’re using the same model. Like even in the Philippines where we’re housed, we, we have another location, um, to see what that looks like.

[00:05:42] So I was just there in May, we went and visited one of their top science schools, which is not a, you know, it’s not like a Title one school, but it’s a school in need because the kids are struggling with high levels of stress. Yes. And they’re trying to figure out like, how can we have life coach teachers here?

[00:05:59] Because we’ve also [00:06:00] done a poll there in their school using life coaches. So this is gonna be so great for our

[00:06:05] Ashley: industry. It’s so amazing because it allows teachers to have this other thing that makes more, helps them make more money. Yes, but it’s using district money to pay them so that they’re not relying on the money of their one-on-one clients.

[00:06:18] They’re not relying on, you know, having wealthy families or wealthy kids around. It’s also allowing them to support the mental health of their students in their classroom. It’s like a win-win win all over the place. Yeah, it is.

[00:06:29] LaKendra: And thank you for reminding me of that. So, you know, there is additional funding, um, that, you know, life coach teachers or even life coaches can even, you know, go after, go after, um, in school districts.

[00:06:43] And so our teachers are leaving, good teachers are leaving. And this is a way that I figured out how do we keep good teachers in the classroom because they don’t wanna go work at Walmart. Mm-hmm. They don’t wanna work at, you know, department stores. They really just wanna serve in their community. So now [00:07:00] they get additional funding that, um, that filters through the institute that we’re able to pay them.

[00:07:05] And then those kids that, um, that have. The insurance and that it’s a medical necessity. So let me make sure that’s clear. It has to be a medical necessity. Right. Okay. Which, which we figure out, you know, how we do that. And so now the, the teacher creates two additional streams of income. Mm-hmm. Right? And it’s amazing.

[00:07:26] And it’s just amazing just seeing. Like a lot of my, my coaches that are, that are educators, they’re happy, they’re able to spend more time with their family now because everything they can, they can really do like with within a school, a school day and earn that additional income. That’s so

[00:07:43] Ashley: amazing. I think that one of the reasons we really connected so easily is because I also used to be a teacher, and I think about if this had been a possibility back when I was a teacher, the, you know, one of my huge passions was serving in Title one schools.

[00:07:56] I wanted to be there. I, um, [00:08:00] desperately wanted to help with the mental health aspect of my students, which is why I went back to become a counselor and I needed to make more money. So it’s like it serves all of those desires and, and passions and needs, but then it’s also actually helping the kids and the school.

[00:08:16] So I think it’s amazing. So this is like big picture. Definitely. I really wanted people to see what you’ve accomplished because it’s so incredible. So let’s back way up. How long ago did you become a life coach?

[00:08:28] LaKendra: So I started call, I started calling myself a life coach in 2008. Okay. So, and then I finally, yeah.

[00:08:34] Ashley: So that 15 years. Okay, so let’s back up 15 years and let’s just go through like why, what happened? So give me just a kind of a summary of what made you wanna be a life coach, and then how did you get started?

[00:08:45] LaKendra: So, I didn’t know what life coaching was in 2008. Right. Um, but, but my mentor, you know, that I, sewer door, which is, um, Mr.

[00:08:57] Maxwell, you know, John Maxwell? [00:09:00] He, I saw him on television. He called himself a coach. Mm-hmm. And when I went and did his, read the background, read about the background on him, I was like, this is what I do. Right. I serve in the community, I train, I educate, and this is so cool. And it’s a, and it’s a different perspective of.

[00:09:17] A psychologist because my, my background is in psychology and sociology. So when I started researching life coaching, I couldn’t find a lot of information about it around 2008, but it was enough to intrigue me of I need to go back to school. Right. In my mind, I’m like, I need to go back to school. So I started researching schools that had life coaching and no wonder like, this, this is not, there was no one, this is not a field of study.

[00:09:46] Right, right. Like, and I was like, but no, you know, I’ve, now I’ve researched several other people. This exists and these people are multi-millionaires and are calling themselves a life coach, so I know that [00:10:00] I can do this. Nope. The schools, even my school, and I was so close to my counselor at the time, she was like, look, Kendra, this is, this is not a regulated industry.

[00:10:11] Don’t get into it. Oh, you have a, you have a beautiful background already. Just push forward, go get your PhD, right? Mm-hmm. So I did, like, I started, I, I did a full circle. I enrolled in my PhD for psychology, and within a year or two I was like extremely depressed. I didn’t know it, but I was so drained because I didn’t wanna go back to school.

[00:10:37] I just wanted that, that additional resource or tool that I could use to do the same thing John Maxwell was doing. Right. And so

[00:10:48] Ashley: this is so good. This is really fascinating because this is kind of a similar to my path. I went back to get my master’s in counseling. Mm-hmm. So that I could serve in that, in that way.

[00:10:57] And I thought, this is not, I, I learned a lot of [00:11:00] theory and I learned a lot of, of history and all of that, but I’m like, this isn’t the tools that I need to, like, it’s not the tool. Make it work in real life. So I love that you shared that. Okay. So,

[00:11:12] LaKendra: So I, um, two years later, two or three years later, maybe it was, I think it was 2010.

[00:11:18] Mm-hmm. I wake up in a panic attack. Mm. And John Maxwell is on television again. Okay. Right. So I wake up in a panic attack. He’s, he’s on stage just this one share. He’s on stage and I’m, and, and it’s almost like he coached me out of the panic attack because he was talking about, yeah. He was talking about, um, you know, human development and taking control of your life and blah, blah, blah.

[00:11:45] So the, when I, when I went back to sleep and woke up the next day, I, my, I told my husband I’m dropping out of my PhD program. Oof. I found a life coaching school that I could get certified Uhhuh, um, and it was in Orange County, [00:12:00] California. And so anyway, me, me and my best friend and my sister-in-law, we get certified as life coaches.

[00:12:07] And it, and it just completely. I changed my life and all I wanted to do at that time was just say, out, out of all the education I had, right? Mm-hmm. I just wanted to call myself a life coach, and that’s just truly how it started. And so sitting in that classroom, and there was only, it was a classroom of probably about 47 to 52, um, people who were, you know, aspiring to be life coaches.

[00:12:34] There were only two African American women, which was me and my best friend. Wow. And I said, my community need this. It it, that’s just kind of like how it started first, like, my community need this because this is, to me, this was like warp, like warping into healing like a, like an advanced level of healing.

[00:12:56] Mm-hmm. Because in, in those three days of [00:13:00] that class, my life was completely transformed. Wow.

[00:13:03] Ashley: Yeah. I am taking notes here as you’re talking, because I think this is such an incredible s um, story. I love what you just said. It was an advanced form of healing and you thought, mm-hmm. My people need this. Okay.

[00:13:14] So what did you do next?

[00:13:16] LaKendra: So next, um, so I started off with two partners. My, my best friend and my sister-in-law. And I, you know, we contacted the school and we were like, like your program is so freaking amazing. Mm-hmm. But there’s so many different levels that, you know, we feel that you need, which is kind of like that diversity inclusion part piece of it where it could speak.

[00:13:38] ’cause look it, listen, if it speaks to us, then you can really reach more people. In our mind, that’s all we really wanted. We wanted, because let us just help you because we’re so good at building curriculum too. Mm-hmm. Let us help you reach more people, more of a diverse, you know, um, platform. And they said, no, we’re not interested.

[00:13:59] Ashley: Oh, [00:14:00] they said, no thank you. Okay.

[00:14:01] LaKendra: They said, no thank you. Boy, they didn’t regret that. Now listen, I was raised by entrepreneurs. So my mother was an entrepreneur, my grandmother was an entrepreneur, and they said, baby, if if, if they don’t give you a seat to, to the table, just build it. So we built it, we built the institute.

[00:14:16] So initially it was called the Life Coach Training Institute. And um, but it wasn’t a global piece yet. Right? Um, ’cause I hadn’t totally sold my partners on it, you know? ’cause I, in my mind I’m thinking we could make a greater impact, you know, if we just because the world need this. This is how I just felt like the whole entire world needed to learn about life coaching because it was the, it was like the highest level of personal development.

[00:14:45] I. Experience in my life. And so we, we went on our journey. Um, our contracts first started with, uh, we did a lot of pitching. Mm-hmm. Because no one knew what life coaching was. [00:15:00]

[00:15:01] Ashley: You had to like educate people as you were selling it. Yeah. So when you say you did a lot of pitching, what does that mean?

[00:15:07] LaKendra: Yeah, so we did a lot of pitching.

[00:15:09] So what we did, we sat down and we. What population do we wanna serve, right? Mm-hmm. So we knew that we wanted to be in at-risk communities where, you know, they just didn’t have a lot of services and we wanted those services to be very effective and efficient for them. So we just thought about if we could go in and train their leaders, then the leaders of those communities can train, do, you know, do what they do, because they’re mm-hmm.

[00:15:35] They’re the community, um, leaders. So we started with the Boys and Girls Club. Mm-hmm. Um, we did our first pitch with the Boys Of, of Boys and Girls Club, and we, we looked at their most intensive department, which, which was a game unit at that time. Mm-hmm. Right? So we already knew that those people were stressed out.

[00:15:57] We knew, but then we knew that they have passion [00:16:00] and we knew that they loved their, love their community, though, Uhhuh. But we knew if we could provide them with a, with an outlet of learning how to. Manage their stress, manage their emotions, manage their thoughts and their feelings, that they will be greater.

[00:16:16] And that’s what we sold ’em on. So the Boys and Girls Club were in, they was like, you can certify our whole department. ’cause they are like, they’re burnt out. And so that’s how we got our, that’s how we first booked our first name. We started certifying the gang, um, unit, department of Boys and Girls Club in Greater Fort Worth.

[00:16:34] And, and the rest was history because when we saw that, that pitching, that pitching model worked mm-hmm. Of really identifying and targeting like a high level, you know, leadership role. But that came with so much baggage and stress. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:55] Everyone was just like, please train our staff. [00:17:00] Hmm. The training that they got was a Life book certification training, so that’s what it was at the beginning.

[00:17:05] Ashley: Okay. So I wanna back up and like really pull that apart. So you looked at, you were like, we’re gonna start with the Boys and Girls Club. You really researched it.

[00:17:11] You looked at what is their most I import, or what is their, the highest need critical that they have there. Critical, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then what did you do? Did you write, you wrote out a proposal you called

[00:17:22] LaKendra: someone, how did that Oh yeah. That it was a whole, you know, it was a whole movement, right?

[00:17:26] Mm-hmm. So, um, we had to do the research to see who we need to contact, and we had an inside person at the time. I wanna say maybe my brother, um, worked in the Boys and Girls Club, but, you know, it’s always good just to ask around, ask people like, who do you know? And if you can’t figure that out, the website is the best place to go and get information.

[00:17:44] So, at the, about back then, in 2010, 2011, where, you know, technology wasn’t as, it wasn’t so accessible, but. Um, all, all of the, the big companies, you know, at the bottom of the website, it has about [00:18:00] mm-hmm. You know, it has, you know, all the information about the leadership and we just emailed them. Mm-hmm. We emailed them.

[00:18:06] We found their number. We could never get in contact with them via, via phone, but we emailed them, we followed up the, the first person, you know, wouldn’t respond. We went to the next person. Okay, well maybe we need to start with the high person. We need to start with the person underneath that person. Yeah.

[00:18:23] Um, the second in command, the second in command, you know, responded. And then from there, we just built a relationship. So like, once you finally connect with someone, that means that there’s an interest, because I will say, if people don’t reply to you, Either they don’t see it or there’s not an interest.

[00:18:40] Mm-hmm. So people are really, really good at ignoring you. Mm-hmm. But I just told my team, if we get a, a yes, just a yes in, Hey, I received acknowledgement, not yes, but an acknowledgement first. Yes, it is. Game on. Right. Because now I have all these different strategies. We’re sending donuts, we’re sending, we’re [00:19:00] sending flowers, you know?

[00:19:01] Yeah. We’re gonna get in the door. And that’s exactly what we did. We just built this really organic relationship mm-hmm. Until, you know, it bumped up to the person who we needed to see. And they were like, you know, you have, you have really come in and infiltrated our community, so, you know, we’re ready to meet with you now.

[00:19:20] Okay. And that probably took about three months.

[00:19:22] Ashley: Okay. Three months. I love that you mentioned that. So tell me about that first email. You said, Hey, we have a program that mm-hmm. You know, we see that your community needs. So were you talking about. Serving individuals who went to the Boys and Girls Club, or did you talk about, um, starting out with We wanna train your staff?

[00:19:41] LaKendra: Well, we started out with just kinda identifying, um, their statistics, which, which were mm-hmm. Which was researchable, right? So it was like, Hey, we see that you service, you know, this high, um, this high level population that, that are in, you know, [00:20:00] gang um, communities, um, high crime communities, and we wanna be a part, you know, we wanna be a part of your team and helping your staff to truly reach that population.

[00:20:15] Mm-hmm. So you can see a transformation in your clients. Right. So we really just kinda, um, we use both the staff in, in, in the community. Right. So, When a person is reading that and you know that there were just, you know, four murders in the community and the murders that happened had to do with members of, you know, your facility and you’re looking for help and police can only do so much, right?

[00:20:51] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, so I think, I think just around that time, because there was so much happening in, in, in Greater [00:21:00] Fort Worth, that everyone who served in those communities were looking for additional help. Mm. So like, even now, now somebody is looking for you, like somebody is looking for your email, your phone call, your knock at the door, because there’s so much happening in a world right now that one organization cannot combat alone.

[00:21:23] Right? So the collaboration. That’s all I, we spoke about. We wanna collaborate so we can help with the self-efficacy of your program, so you can have, you know, better, um, just, just a stronger membership where you can have a stronger leadership to serve your membership. And

[00:21:47] Ashley: so you really figured out what are their needs and then that you really have

[00:21:50] LaKendra: to figure it out.

[00:21:51] You really have to figure it out. But it’s, it’s so in black and white if you just do your due diligence and research, right? Mm-hmm. Like the, like the computer, [00:22:00] um, it is, it is right here. You can look up news articles, um, just to like see like, has that organization been in the news? And if, if so, what were the things that, that were being discussed.

[00:22:13] Mm-hmm. And so, you know, the Boys and Girls Club, the, the Y M C A, um, girls Inc. You know, they serve a, a, a high. Youth risk, you know, at at risk youth and they’re always looking for programming to come in and just to help with the self-efficacy of the program. Yeah.

[00:22:36] Ashley: I think this is so good. And the reason that I’m pulling it apart so much is because I think a lot of the coaches I talk to have this idea of, you know, I have to go out there and get one-on-one clients to start building up my business, and I just always wanna present.

[00:22:49] There’s so many different ways to do this. So one of the ways Yeah. Is to approach these businesses that are already serving your ideal clients. Yeah. And [00:23:00] approach them and bring up ways to collaborate. So the other thing that I wanna emphasize, I mean, first of all, I think you were really creative in doing that, but then you also, and I know this from our conversations before, you didn’t just approach one organization, right?

[00:23:13] What did you do?

[00:23:14] LaKendra: No, like, I mean, even corp, even corporations, right? So, I have several avatars. You know, that’s the other thing, you know, we’re, we’re so, you know, programmed that we have to have this one perfect avatar. But in coaching, you know, I feel that life coaching is a lifestyle, so it’s okay to have several different avatars.

[00:23:37] Right. So, um, I also reached out to psychologists offices, licensed, you know, um, licensed counselors, um, hospitals and corporations that also had, um, who possibly served my community. Um, and then they, [00:24:00] their employees had a high stress rate, or their company had a high turnover rate. Mm-hmm. So we, so even around that time I did, you know, work with Dell computers who, you know, they had a, a high turnover rate, um, because they serviced a lot of, Um, title one schools, you know, and giving, and giving computers and stuff out.

[00:24:22] Right. And so my thing is like, once you get into flow, it’s like, it’s, it’s almost like when you’re a baby and, and you first start eating baby food. Mm-hmm. And that’s, that’s the only thing that your body really can, you know, um, digest. Mm-hmm. Until one day you’re so, you, so you eat eating this baby food, this mushy, mushy food, and then one day your parent gives you something to chew, and then because your body is already digesting food, it accepts the hard food.

[00:24:56] Well, for me, I, that’s just like business. It’s like once [00:25:00] you start with the simple things, the flow, like it’ll just shift. Something just shifts. It’s, I don’t know, it’s energetically, it’s spiritually, but movement produces. Success moving, moving produces action. And if you can just get outta your own way of thinking one way like this, that there’s this perfect way, there’s no perfect way.

[00:25:26] Mm-hmm. It’s just you believing the process and moving through it. So, so what happened next was there was another business, there was another business, there was another, another avatar happened, and one of my biggest avatars that happened from a nun, um, recognized industry mm-hmm. I pitched to a psychologist, a group of psychologists and psychiatrists.

[00:25:55] And, um, I didn’t get the, I didn’t get the contract with the first [00:26:00] group. But, but like I said, it’s just like eating a baby food and then something of greater substance come along. Another company just heard about me ’cause I’m pitched to like four or five different, you know, mental health facilities or whatever.

[00:26:14] And, and she calls and she says she introduces herself and she says, I’m looking for a life coach to work on my team. And I said, well, I said, well, who do you serve? She said, we serve immigrants here in the US Okay. And I need a life coach. ’cause after they see me and we diagnose them mm-hmm. And we give them their meds, I need for them to come to you and you give them the skills and the strategy.

[00:26:42] Mm. And I was like, who are you again? And then she said, how much would you charge my, how much are you gonna charge my people so I can prepare them for it? And I said, well, you know, I go through this [00:27:00] bill and at that time, so we’re talking about now 2012. Mm-hmm. I said, I charged 2 47 an hour. Mm-hmm. $47 an hour.

[00:27:10] She said, can we negotiate that? Mm-hmm. And I said, the lowest I can go is $225 an hour. She said, perfect. And I have been with them. I like, I’m my, I’m still with them. So you still

[00:27:23] Ashley: see one-on-one clients from that organization?

[00:27:27] LaKendra: I now refer them to my other coaches because I don’t have time that, but we still accept them in.

[00:27:33] And I, yeah, and I have some golden’s that I’ve trained Uhhuh. But what I’m saying is, is like we’re talking about an, uh, at this time, you know, life coaching people were really, especially the licensed community, you know, the professionals, they were really like edgy about us because you’re coming in and you’re calling yourself.

[00:27:55] You know this, you know, you know this person who can [00:28:00] help and, and, and my, and my field is mental and behavioral health, so the flow of me believing that I am a life coach and I deserve, and I deserve just what everybody else have, right? I deserve it. Just really just started landing me gigs left and right, and, and I, and I went from, I quit my job three times.

[00:28:21] Mm-hmm. Before I just said I am literally making enough money where I can leave my job forever. And so that’s just

[00:28:31] Ashley: what happened. Oh, this is so good. So I wanna pull apart like three different things that you talked about. You’re, when you were talking about the baby food and then taking solid food, you’re giving me goosebumps because I was thinking about what you’re actually doing is you were increasing your tolerance for rejection.

[00:28:45] So you got rejected over and over and over and you had to put yourself out there and do scary things, and you increased your tolerance for that rejection and for the, for the scary things. So then you were able to do something just a little bit scarier. Yeah. So imagine like [00:29:00] coming up with a price on the fly like that, and then thinking about negotiating.

[00:29:04] You probably had no idea what to, you know, what that was gonna look like, but you had increased your tolerance for saying scary things. So then you were able to, so that’s how I like to think of what you’re describing as baby food. That’s why Yeah. I tell coaches so often, you just have to take action because what you’re, you know, even if it doesn’t work, you’re increasing your tolerance for failure and then you’re willing to do bigger and scarier things.

[00:29:29] LaKendra: I love that. I love how you put that. Um, and, and when you, and when you increase your tolerance for failure, it’s like, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m a God girl, right? And so mm-hmm. You know, one of my favorite scriptures is like, your gifts will make room for you, but action, but you have to take action or the things that you desire will never come to pass.

[00:29:54] Yes. Right? Like, that’s all in the Bible, right? Uhhuh. And so, um, even with [00:30:00] Psychology Today, which is, which at the time was only for licensed therapists, Uhhuh doctors. Mm-hmm. I was trying to get on there. They were like, girl, no, no. They were just, they were just denied me like, you’re a vice coach. No, thank you, Uhhuh.

[00:30:17] And, and, and I mean, I would, I was denied like three or four times. Mm-hmm. And, but in my mind, I, I envisioned myself being on there and so because I could see it. Yeah. I knew that I was going through the process mm-hmm. Of learning how to digest this. Right. This is just something new that’s being put in my mouth.

[00:30:37] I need to learn and I need to learn how to digest it like everything else. And then one day I just called again, something said, call again. Got this really, really nice lady and she was like, I guess they have notes in the system. And she said, she was like, listen, you have to have some type of certification.

[00:30:57] And I said, what about my special [00:31:00] education certification? Oh,

[00:31:03] Ashley: that got you in.

[00:31:05] LaKendra: She said, that may work. I said, but when you put me in, I don’t wanna be a special educator. You know, special education. Mm-hmm. Educator, I wanna be a life coach. She said, oh, once we approve you, you can be whatever you wanna be in there.

[00:31:19] And so I get a lot of clients, even now I get a lot of clients that just see my bio. Yeah.

[00:31:30] One-on-ones. I, you know, I don’t have time for that. So

[00:31:33] Ashley: the other piece that I wanted to pull apart from that was you didn’t just focus on action. So I always think that when it comes to life coaches building a business, there has to be a combination of action and belief. There has to be that mind work.

[00:31:46] So you mentioned you had that belief in yourself. I deserve these things. I’m good enough for these things. Because I think, you know, the programs that where, you know, you’re learning to build a life coaching business that are super heavy on belief, you still need the [00:32:00] action. But if you’re just focusing on strategy and you don’t have that belief, you’re gonna, you’re gonna fail at selling you yourself.

[00:32:07] You’re gonna fail at getting out there and doing the pitches because you don’t have that. It’s like the foundation of everything. So talk to me about some of the things that you were believing about yourself in order to keep going through all these failures and rejections.

[00:32:21] LaKendra: Well, you know, in, in the life coach, in my, in the Global Institute for Coaches and entrepreneurs, I have, you know, a model that I created.

[00:32:28] So I live by the model, right? Mm-hmm. So in the model, we talk about the awareness of our thoughts, like mm-hmm. What are we really telling ourselves and, and what, and once we figured it out, once we know that we’re self sabotaging ourselves. Mm-hmm. Right? For me, it was like I had to go to my belief system because if I’m saying that I believe in a higher power, and I, and I feel that I’m made an image of something that is so freaking great, [00:33:00] but yet I live my life at the, at the very minimum, it’s like La Kendra, do you really believe?

[00:33:08] Mm-hmm. So, so in, in my, in my global heart model, The focus when you get to awareness? Well, the, the first part is, is vision. It’s called the iCare global. Right. Okay. So the first, the first the I is, is everything that I feel I am. Mm-hmm. Right. So, So I, I felt that I was deserving. I felt like I should be a global leader.

[00:33:34] I felt like I should be helping in communities because I was really good at it and passionate about it. So once I identify who I was, then it was the awareness of what’s keeping me from it. Mm. And a lot of it plays in your thoughts, A lot of it plays in your words, but how do you even get those things together?

[00:33:54] It has to be connected to your belief system. Mm-hmm. So if you say that you’re a believer, [00:34:00] then you must identify what your principles and what your core values are. Right. And so we take, we take our clients through that process, which, you know, I’m self coaching myself all day long. So I took myself through that process and at the end of the day, it was something that my doctor told me.

[00:34:19] My doctor helped me build my model out. That’s amazing. A medical doctor. Right. And he said, look, Kendra, there’s a middle way to life that. Everyone wants to live this, you know, this way of success, this way of, you know, fulfillment and growth and abundance, but then you have the negative part of life and you have the positive part of life mm-hmm.

[00:34:41] That keeps us from this middle way. Mm-hmm. Right? And so a lot of it is like, you know, it comes from our heritage of what we, what we’ve been taught. It comes from, you know, stimuli around the world. It tells us how we should live. So all those things just create our thoughts, you know, and create patterns.

[00:34:58] Mm-hmm. But if [00:35:00] you really believe in what your face says, like to me, that’s the blueprint. Mm-hmm. So when I’m sad, What does my faith say about being sad, right? Mm-hmm. It says, you know, joy will come in the morning. Like this is just an isolated day, so, so look for joy tomorrow. Mm-hmm. Right? Look for the silver lining.

[00:35:21] So once you start, I teach faith so heavily in my practice. Mm-hmm. Because we. But do we really believe? Mm,

[00:35:31] Ashley: right? Yeah. And it doesn’t even have to be, you know, like a religious faith or you mentioned that you are a woman of God. It doesn’t even have to be God necessarily. It can be the universe. But it’s, what you’re saying is you have this set of principles of values, and you go back to I, I sometimes call it a belief stack.

[00:35:50] So you have your belief stack. This is what I believe about the world and how it works, and this is what I believe about myself and about my community, and all of those pieces. And then you can go back [00:36:00] to that to find your truth. And one of those things being the negative of the world is temporary. Like this is gonna hurt, but only a little, only for a short, too early time.

[00:36:10] Yeah. And it’s so interesting because whatever, whichever ones of those beliefs that you’re really focusing on, I love thinking about how our brains work. It’s what, you know, kind of creates the filter through which we’re seeing the world. Mm-hmm. And so if you’re focused on, you know, this pain is temporary, it’s gonna get better, then you’re gonna be begin seeing proof of that everywhere.

[00:36:32] Whereas if you’re really focused on the negative, you see the proof of the negative everywhere

[00:36:37] LaKendra: that, you know what that’s so that and that, and it leads you to the next, you know, phase of, um, the model. Mm-hmm. Which is, it’s, it’s constant reflection. Like there’s three levels of reflection. So when you’re in awareness, when you have a vision, when you know who you are, you have your vision, you’re in awareness, then you can, you can reflect [00:37:00] on a high level.

[00:37:01] So there’s simple reflection, there’s complex reflection, and then there’s reflective reflection. That’s the highest level of reflection that, that, that keeps you. Move moving and not, you know, and out of stagnation. You know what I mean? Because if I know that change is inevitable mm-hmm. If I know that at, in any moment of my life, you know, or in a position that I, that I am in change will happen there.

[00:37:29] Whether it’s good or bad. And if I’m aware of this, and I know this, even though you know, it may hurt you, you may be in a lot of pain. Mm-hmm. But you know that there’s always a greater outcome if you just keep moving. Mm-hmm. Right. So if you, if you establish that commitment to yourself, right. Which is the last part of our model, is just establish the commitment and, and just know that just because you’re a good person, just because you’re doing great things and you’re living for purpose, [00:38:00] you’re not excused from experience life.

[00:38:02] Mm-hmm. So we’re gonna all experience it, and I think that’s why life coaches are so freaking amazing because most of us have gone through the fire of life and we’re still here. Trying to make a difference in the world.

[00:38:17] Ashley: Mm. Every time you talk about your program and what you teach inside your program, I’m like, oh, I need to come learn from you.

[00:38:23] It’s so good. And just the way that you have your little acronyms that help you remember, oh, these are my options. I can go into reflection, I can go into reflecting on my reflection. It’s so good. Oh, I mean, I can see why, you know, people spend time with you and they get certified by you, and they learn your, your model, and they are like, this is gonna change my life forever.

[00:38:44] It’s so good. So backing up to where you’re, you know, you, you finally get this system that worked with the Boys and Girls Club, that’s so amazing because then you have proof of concept, right? Mm-hmm. Then, then it becomes this flow. Suddenly people are reaching out to you to [00:39:00] say, yes, I need you to, um, help me serve my clientele.

[00:39:05] And it all came back to who you were passionate about serving. You know, these, these underserved communities. So then, What happened next? How did you grow to that next level?

[00:39:16] LaKendra: So, um, we’re making all this money, right? Mm-hmm.

[00:39:20] Ashley: Isn’t that amazing? I mean, serving people who are not paying you directly, so it’s not like you are relying on your clients to fork over thousands of dollars for these huge packages.

[00:39:31] Yeah. This, you’re being paid by insurance companies. You’re being paid by organizations, sometimes by clients. Yeah.

[00:39:38] LaKendra: So by sometimes by clients. But I am not relying mm-hmm. On my, on an individual to get me to the level of success that I, that I’ve seen in my mind, right? Mm-hmm. Um, because I know who my avatar is and I know that my avatar cannot afford.

[00:39:55] Mm-hmm. You know, like if, if, I mean I could charge a lot of money, but I know that [00:40:00] it would put my avatar in so, in so much more risk. It wouldn’t be like

[00:40:04] Ashley: you wanted either. You wouldn’t be, exactly. Yeah.

[00:40:06] LaKendra: Exactly. And so that was a conscious. It was a conscious decision that I, I really had to coach my ego through.

[00:40:14] Mm. Right. Because just because I could do it didn’t mean that it needed to be done. Mm. Right. So,

[00:40:22] Ashley: and to be clear, when I talk about these organizations we’re paying you, so it was like, for example, it was the Boys and Girls Club paying you directly to coach. Um,

[00:40:33] LaKendra: their, they’re paying for the certification.

[00:40:34] Yeah. Their staff. Their staff

[00:40:35] Ashley: to certify their, their staff. Staff. Mm-hmm. And then sometimes paying you to come in and coach their, the individuals that come into the Boys and Girls Club. Right.

[00:40:43] LaKendra: To run workshops and

[00:40:44] Ashley: programs. Mm-hmm. But it was them paying you, not the people who signed up for the workshops and programs.

[00:40:49] Correct. Okay. Correct. Perfect. Okay. So keep going.

[00:40:52] LaKendra: So the same thing for, you know, corporations, you know? Mm-hmm. They have the money, they have money. They have the budget, they even [00:41:00] have the budget for you. Right. And they’re looking for you. Or that money just sits, sits there. So to me, like that’s the type of money life coaches should go after.

[00:41:10] Ashley: Um, so lemme ask you about then. So, when you approached Dell, Dell was paying you to coach their staff or to certify their staff?

[00:41:18] LaKendra: So when I did Dell, I, I went in and did, um, a, I did a facilitation workshop for them, for their sales team. So

[00:41:28] Ashley: managing their own stress, not necessarily helping manage the stress of their clientele.

[00:41:33] LaKendra: Correct. So they, their sales were down. Mm-hmm. Right. Their cells were down, they were overworked, they were overwhelmed. Mm-hmm. And they were like, Hey, we heard about you. Can you come in and motivate our staff? Like, can you come and can you come and speak to them? And I said, well, I’m not a speaker Uhhuh, I’m a life coach.

[00:41:53] I’m gonna always just say I’m a life coach. Right? And they was like, well, what is that? I said, I can come and facilitate their [00:42:00] hearts by the time I’m done. They’re gonna be so rejuvenated. They’re gonna be pumped up, they’re gonna be refreshed, they’re gonna have tools that they can use once I’m gone and it’ll, it’ll boost up the cells like I promised.

[00:42:14] And so that’s what I did. I, I went in, I did, um, I did what I call my flower garden presentation. Mm-hmm. Where everybody got a flower pot like that. That’s what the facilitation is for me. It’s movement. Um, I call it a motivity. So it’s motivating through activity. Right. I love it. It’s a different form.

[00:42:35] Motivational speaking, everybody is engaged in the process. So anyway, um, we, we, I took them through the process and it was just amazing. So they, it was like, Hey, you know, in our next quarter, can you come back? And I’m like, sure. So that was just another gig that I had ranked.

[00:42:53] Ashley: Oh, this is so beautiful. So you had these things, I love how you said you worded it too.

[00:42:58] So you didn’t say to them, [00:43:00] okay, well I have this activity and we’re gonna, I’m gonna bring in these flower pots and this is what we’re gonna do. That’s not how you sold it. You said, I’m gonna do this activity and they’re gonna be rejuvenated. So you really focused on what is the outcome that they’ll experience?

[00:43:10] They’re gonna be refreshed. Yeah. They’re going to, they’re gonna be better at sales at that point, so I love that. Yes. Um, so, okay, so then you’re working with all these different companies, and then is it at that point you decide to open up a certification?

[00:43:25] LaKendra: No. So the certification is already open. You gotta remember that the certification happened first, so we’re already certifying.

[00:43:32] So people

[00:43:33] Ashley: were still coming to you, not necessarily through these organizations, but also just one-on-one.

[00:43:38] LaKendra: Yeah, just Okay. Just getting certified. And so then, you know, we’re, we’re probably like in year four mm-hmm. Or five, and I’m ready for like, if, if we could do this locally. Like I’m so ready to do this on a global scale, right?

[00:43:57] Mm-hmm. I’ve proven to myself that, [00:44:00] that my community, and when I’m talking about my community, I’m like, the African American community is, is open to this. Mm-hmm. Right? And, and now, Now that we’ve infected them, now they’re seeking us out. And it’s no longer about us having to go in and educate because we’ve done our due diligence, right?

[00:44:19] Mm-hmm. So now let’s just go bigger. ’cause there’s other underserved, other privileged communities in this world that needs life coaching. So I just started, I remember sitting down, I did a vision board and I was like, what does it look like? Me? Uhhuh, expanding globally. I didn’t know how it was gonna happen.

[00:44:40] My, but my en all of my energy, my morning meditations, my movement was just centered around somehow, like, we need to expand outside of the us. Mm-hmm. Well, at the time, like my, my business partners, they were just like, that’s not what we really wanna do. Oh, wow. So you, so I [00:45:00] bought, mm-hmm. I bought. And then I solely own the company.

[00:45:04] Mm-hmm. So, but before that happened, I had got this really strange phone call. I just want y’all to listen to this real quick because this is what I’m talking about. Like, when you believe in what you desire, Uhhuh and the universe will show up for you. Yes. Right. And it sounds so woo woo, but it’s just how it happens.

[00:45:23] So I’m manifesting that we need to go global. I get a lady to call into the institute and she’s, she literally, the name of our institute was the Life Coach Training Institute. The name of her institute was the Life, I mean the Coaching Institute or something like that. Okay. So it was like a, it was like one word off.

[00:45:45] Mm-hmm. And so she says, I’m looking for Bob. And I said, this is a all female owned school. Mm-hmm. And she was like, no, I’m, I’m looking for Bob. I need to talk to him about. [00:46:00] Bringing life coaching to the Philippines. Oh my goodness. Okay. And when she said that, I knew it was for me. I knew the universe had showed up for me.

[00:46:09] Mm-hmm. So I said, well, I had got really excited. Well, there’s no Bob here, but let’s, let me see if I can call him for you. So we tried to call him Threeway, got his voicemail, and so I just instructed her. I said, Hey, this is really, really cool. You know, I told her about our school. I wished her luck. I said, send him an email and if he doesn’t respond, call me back.

[00:46:33] So about 90 days later, she called me back. She said, Hey, I’m just wanted to follow up with you. I got in contact with Bob. Bob is not really his name. Okay. I got in contact with Bob. Mm-hmm. We talked about it. He said he wasn’t comfortable and he pulled out. Mm. And I said, that was for you. How about you give our institute a try?

[00:46:57] Mm-hmm. And she was like, I was [00:47:00] hoping that you said that. And I asked her, why do you want life coaching in the Philippines? And she said, because the need, the mental health need is so great that we’re so underserved here. And I just, you were like binging bing, bing, bing. Yeah. Um, she attended the first certification virtually.

[00:47:21] Mm-hmm. And then the next, I flew there. We certified our first class and our second class and our third class, like, we have over 300 coaches there, so. Oh, that’s

[00:47:32] Ashley: amazing. So these are people who are, you know, you did it there, but you also do it virtually. But these are people who are becoming life coaches and then going out and building their life coach businesses in their communities and serving the mental health needs of their communities.

[00:47:46] LaKendra: Yes. And, and in their own, in their own way. So, you know, in. Because of the amount that we’re charging was really, really expensive for the Philippines, right? Mm-hmm. So all of the, all of the coaches that [00:48:00] we certify, they are very high level. Mm-hmm. They’re in a government, they’re in education, they’re in entrepreneurship, you know, they’re everywhere.

[00:48:07] Mm-hmm. But they are, even as a professional, you know, we still struggle with, you know, mental health, whether it’s, you know, stress management or, um, just being, you know, over overworked and overwhelmed. So now there’s a, there’s a group of, you know, beautiful change agents in the Philippines that are, that are serving, that are serving the Philippines.

[00:48:32] Um, and so it’s just amazing.

[00:48:34] Ashley: So it’s not necessarily coaches who want to build their own coaching practice, but it’s people who wanna bring these mental health solutions into their existing

[00:48:42] LaKendra: role. Yes. And their existing leadership role.

[00:48:46] Ashley: Mm. This is so beautiful. So this is what everyone who’s listening right now, this is the, the big takeaway that I want you to pay attention to is I talk to coaches all day, every day who are concerned about, do I [00:49:00] have a group coaching program or do I do one-on-one?

[00:49:02] Do I, um, start serving this niche or do I start serving this niche? And I want you to hear that as La Kendra built out her business, those were not the questions she was asking. She was looking big picture, she was making her vision board, she was focused on believing that she knew she could do big things in the world, and the universe showed up to support her in that.

[00:49:26] And I think that’s so beautiful.

[00:49:28] LaKendra: Thank you. It it, it really has. My life is, Is forever changed. I’ve, I’ve, I just got off tour, you know, so now I do this leading with Love tour. Um, so I went to, um, my first stop was in Manila. Mm-hmm. And then I went to Telo, then I went to Dubai, and then I went to Nairobi, um, Nairobi, Kenya, and now I’m back home, you know, and so, and I’m traveling as a life coach, right?

[00:49:59] I’m [00:50:00] showing up and I’m showing out as a life coach, but I’ve built my own methodology. And I think that we should all have one. Like, what is it that you believe in and what, and what is it that you want the world to know? What do you want the world to receive from you? And what and what type of, like, we’re all healers.

[00:50:19] Mm-hmm. So what part of healing in the body do you wanna infect? Right. So my, my part of the body I wanna heal is the heart. Mm-hmm. You know, you have some people who wanna focus on the mind. Mm-hmm. You have some people who wanna focus on the, the, the gut, which is the other, our second brain. You have some people who wanna focus on, you know, mobility, whatever it is, you have to create something for yourself and believe that it is going to nce the world.

[00:50:51] And that’s just what I believe. Mm. Like, I’m good enough to also have this healing power and to help other people.

[00:50:59] Ashley: [00:51:00] So amazing. I mean, I feel like if we were to kind of reverse engineer, leaving out the little bitty details, but you developed your own methodology. You deeply, deeply believed in it, that it could change the world, and then you just started trying things and getting it out to people in the world, and you maintained consistently that belief.

[00:51:21] I mean, there’s probably so many little questions people have. Like even I think about how did you start traveling? Like what made, what made that start happening? Who did you, how did you know who to get ahold of? Mm-hmm. And I think that it all comes down to you had this methodology, you had this belief in your methodology that it could help people.

[00:51:39] And so then you just tried things. Yeah. Do you wanna give an example of something like out of off the wall that you’ve tried that ended up working out?

[00:51:48] LaKendra: You know, so, um, this is the biggest tour that I’ve been on in my, in my whole life coaching, you know, history. Um, so I created, I, I said, [00:52:00] who is it? Do I serve?

[00:52:01] Mm-hmm. You know, like in, in general, like I really serve leaders. Mm-hmm. People who identify themselves as leaders. And so my question to myself is, what is it that leaders need? Mm-hmm. Like, what are we lacking? So we’re lacking self care, we’re lacking self love. We’re, we’re, we’re lacking collaboration and we’re lacking, um, the bridge.

[00:52:26] Mm-hmm. Like the bridge between borders and zip codes, right? Mm-hmm. So I created like a whole program that connected the bridge where I. For leaders who, who wanna expand their territory, who want to, um, live outside of the box, who wanna do who, who want their business to be known everywhere. And it, and it doesn’t have to be a really, really, like, I’m not a really, really big, huge company, but my impact is humongous, right?

[00:52:58] And so, [00:53:00] That was the first thought. The second thought was, where the hell do I start? Yeah. So because of the connection with the Philippines, I traveled there for the first three years alone. Like my family didn’t go with me, Uhhuh. It was a mission of my own. Um, it wasn’t until this year that I finally took people with me.

[00:53:21] So because of that, I’m traveling and who am I meeting other people, like on the plane and here and there, you know, it’s like, well, what do you do? And I’m like, oh, you know, I travel the world and I teach leaders how to lead with love. Oh my gosh. Like, where are you from? All from Pakistan. We would love for you to come here.

[00:53:38] Well, what company do you work for? So amazing. This is. It builds, it builds, it builds. This

[00:53:46] is

[00:53:46] Ashley: one of the things that I try to emphasize to my clients all the time. Like once you have that, that foundation there, your belief, your methodology, you know who you wanna serve. So you have that vision there.

[00:53:57] There’s opportunity [00:54:00] everywhere. And I talk about how I’ve gotten so many clients on airplanes, so I am like really purposeful about not putting my headphones in right away because I just wanna see what’s available. But you turned in a wrong phone number, a wrong number, call into a huge business opportunity.

[00:54:16] Yes. Like, because you’re so grounded in your belief and you know where you’re going. Even somebody who called and asked for Bob, you turned into a massive opportunity. So I really genuinely believe that deep down, that everything is an opportunity once you’re grounded in your

[00:54:33] LaKendra: foundation. Oh my gosh. And you know, my, my big, this is what I, this is what I asked all of my coaches, like when you figure out.

[00:54:43] What you really want, right? The first relevant question you should ask yourself is, will you allow it to be possible? Mm. So I went through a lot of freaking healing. Mm-hmm. Right? I’ve been on my healing journey since I was [00:55:00] 19, and there’s so much that tells us that we can see it, but it’s impossible.

[00:55:07] Nothing is impossible. All you have to do is answer the question, will you allow it to be possible? And if your answer is yes, it’s like the stars start to align. Like all of this woo woo stuff starts to happen, and as long as you’re moving, you will produce

[00:55:31] Ashley: results. It’s amazing. I am gonna write that quote down on a sticky note and look at it all the time.

[00:55:38] As long as you’re moving, you will produce results. Yes. So you, this is everything you’ve shared is so good, and I feel like there’s so many little nuggets that we can pull out of here and apply to our day-to-day life to grow our own coaching businesses. So here’s what I wanna, I have a couple questions for you.

[00:55:53] The first one is, if you were to start over, this is my favorite question during the interview. If you were to start over right now, you know what, [00:56:00] you know already you have a thousand dollars to spend on your business, what would you do?

[00:56:09] LaKendra: What would I do with a thousand dollars to spend on my business?

[00:56:12] Because, you know, you wanna have with, with all of the knowledge that I

[00:56:14] Ashley: have now. Mm-hmm. You know, you wanna build a big business. How do you start day one? How do you start?

[00:56:21] LaKendra: I would take, honestly, I would take that thousand dollars and I would invest it into something. So, so, so much bigger and profound than my business.

[00:56:34] Because here’s the thing, you have to understand that money is energy. Mm-hmm. And you don’t have to hold onto it, but you gotta know what to do with it. So that was something that I didn’t know at first. Right. So at first I was chasing, I was chasing the dollar. Mm-hmm. Instead of investing, investing the dollar.

[00:56:57] Mm-hmm. And I know that’s a weird answer, but [00:57:00] it’s an honest answer because this is where we lose as entrepreneurs, we put all of our eggs in this one basket of mm-hmm. Marketing. Like, I need to, I need to, I need to do ads, I need to, I need to do this, I need to do that. And then that money is gone. And if you don’t do it efficiently, then that thousand dollars doesn’t come back.

[00:57:22] Mm-hmm. What I’ve learned, You know, of being an entrepreneur is the money that I have. I need to figure out how to make this money, make money to produce what it is that I need to have in my business. Mm-hmm. So my answer is going to be, I’m gonna take that thousand dollars and I’m going to invest it and to, um, a CD or wanna invest it into some type of, um, business, um, passive income opportunity to grow the money because the money is gonna grow within a 1, 2, 3 [00:58:00] months uhhuh.

[00:58:00] And then now my thousand dollars is gonna be about $5,000. Mm-hmm. And then I can say, because I know my business is.

[00:58:13] 50% of that money, and I’m gonna put it into marketing now I’m gonna put it into, you know, visibility of my business. And that’s just the honest truth because, because my brain is really different. If you’ve been listening, listening for a while, you know that my whole business model is, is, you know, like cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

[00:58:31] You know what I mean? Because it’s so free spirited and heart centered. So my, so that’s what I really wanna say. Stop spending your money. Stop giving your money away in the business. Stop feeding it. Make sure you can produce money. Make sure you can take that money and produce money with that money.

[00:58:51] Money. Mm-hmm. Then support your business, because that’s how you create sustainability. And now I’m talking like real business talk. That’s how you create [00:59:00] sustainability. Because for years I just kept feeding the business, but because I hadn’t built a brand or ’cause I hadn’t built, built, you know, the, the, um, Where the, you know, where people knew me and, you know, the following, I would just lose that money and have to start back from scratch.

[00:59:19] But now I’m so much more and wiser now I just make my, make my, my, my money make babies Uhhuh. And now I have sustainability where I can say, okay, so I turned a thousand dollars into 5,000 and now I’m gonna take this money and feed the business Uhhuh. That’s what I’m gonna do with that thousand dollars, Ashley.

[00:59:38] Ashley: That’s amazing. So, I’m also curious then, what would you do with your time to start building that au, you know, rebuilding the audience? So if you don’t have your business, but you have your knowledge, how would you, what would you do? What would you spend your time doing?

[00:59:52] LaKendra: Time is that, that’s, that’s for me, when you’re building a business, you don’t start with money, you start [01:00:00] with time.

[01:00:00] Mm-hmm. Your money gotta go do something else. Right, right. Because you gotta, you gotta convince yourself that your money can, it’s energy and it will grow time you have as long as you are on earth. So I’m going to be going all over my metroplex, all over my city, and I’m gonna be showing up as a life coach, and I’m gonna be telling people exactly what it is that I do, because that doesn’t cost me anything that’s free.

[01:00:28] Or it may cost me a drink or two if I go to a happy hour or something like that. But it’s still affordable. So with the, with, for me time is your number one asset when you start off. Mm-hmm. As a life coach, because even still today, in 2023, people still are very weary and uneasy about the word life coaching.

[01:00:52] Mm-hmm. So you have to show up, you have to go to network events, you have to go and set up as a vendor, [01:01:00] you have to go and introduce yourself through. Um, whether it’s email marketing, like just stuff that is so freaking free mm-hmm. Because it’s, you’re using your time to serve your business. Hmm.

[01:01:14] Ashley: So you are getting out there in any way possible and telling people, these are the kinds of results that people get when they work with me.

[01:01:22] LaKendra: Ashley, I, my best friend was Eventbrite. Mm-hmm. And it’s still my best friend, and I can go right down to Eventbrite and pull up personal development, um, workshops, conferences in my area, um, women’s, women’s conferences, business conferences. And I’m going to find the, um, the, the person that is, that is over it.

[01:01:45] I’m gonna say, Hey, can I come and be a vendor? Can I come and set up, you know, um, and this is, and this is what I can produce for you, you know, um, as somebody of quality at your event. I still do that now. [01:02:00] We have five events even now. The, the, the great, you know, stability, financial stability that we’re at.

[01:02:08] I still do the same things. I’m going to set up an event, me and my team, and we’re gonna sit there as life coaches, and when people come over, we’re gonna rock the world. Because when a person meets a life coach in person, as a person who really feels that they’re a real, authentic and genuine life coach mm-hmm.

[01:02:25] You’re going to, you’re gonna transform a life. And right there, that’s either a client, that’s a referral, or that’s just someone now knows about who you are. So time is your money when you start out. You do not have to spend thousands of dollars. Like I do not recommend it. Mm-hmm. I just do not, and if you wanna learn how to grow your money, just reach out to me.

[01:02:47] Ashley: I know when you’re talking about you grow your a thousand dollars into 5,000 in a few months, I’m like, well we need that class first of all.

[01:02:56] LaKendra: Absolutely. Yeah.

[01:02:57] Ashley: But I’m like, this is amazing. I mean, I think this is [01:03:00] such great advice. Just show up, show up all over the place and just have conversations.

[01:03:04] Because like what you’re saying, you don’t even have to have a plan for what you’re gonna say. People are transformed just by interacting with you. If you are that real, genuine life coach.

[01:03:15] LaKendra: If you are realing, your genuine, you don’t, you don’t have to spend thousands dollars on freaking out your image. You know, like, like all of those things.

[01:03:24] Like my image has even grown, you know, over the years. Just authentically be yourself. ’cause I think that if you are authentically yourself and not trying to be something else mm-hmm. You’re going to attract Exactly who can afford you and exactly who needs you. Mm-hmm. I

[01:03:42] Ashley: love this. And I think in a lot of ways, especially when we’re getting caught up in like, what should my niche be and who’s my ideal client and all of that, you have your values, you know your values, you know your big vision, and those things all work themselves out.

[01:03:56] So as you, yep, as you get out there and start serving, you figure out [01:04:00] those pieces. So I never recommend that you start with those ahead of time, but you show up, you see what makes you, I mean, you have your big picture in mind ’cause you know what you value, you know, you know what your methodology is, you know, um, what tools you have accessible to you, and then you just keep showing up.

[01:04:16] This is so good. So, yeah, I, I think that you’ve given so much good advice. I just wanna ask you, before we sign off, if you have any other advice to give either new starting out life coaches or coaches who wanna grow their business.

[01:04:30] LaKendra: Yeah. First I just commend anyone who wants to become a life coach, because it, it’s like, where did this profession even come from?

[01:04:38] Like, it just, it’s like it dropped out, dropped outta heaven, right? Mm-hmm. Dropped down from the, and then boom, you know, life coaching exists. So my, my guidance for you is, you know, first of all, find somewhere to get the training. Mm-hmm. I think, I think anybody who’s serious about, [01:05:00] um, going into a, a professional arena needs some type of training.

[01:05:04] Even though in life coaching, you don’t have to have training. You can just literally call yourself a coach. And I always tell people that when they call my school. However, if you wanna be intentional about it, if you want those stars to start aligning for you, um, then get, get you some training somewhere.

[01:05:20] Secondly, just be open. To the process, be open to the transformation, right? And be open into believing that you can either earn another stream of income, it can become a part-time job, it can become a full-time, it could it become a full-time, just a passion project. I don’t even like to call it a job. It’s like this is a passion and a purpose project that I’m on and I never wanna get off, right?

[01:05:49] Mm-hmm. I just wanna keep evolving at it. So if you come into the space with not thinking about money mm-hmm. [01:06:00] Because movement is gonna create money. You just gotta believe it. If I keep moving in this path of me being a life coach, I’m gonna generate the money that I desire to make. Right? And, and, and, and find you a community.

[01:06:14] Like find you a, um, a, a business bestie that’s doing the same thing. You know, maybe, maybe it’s a person that you’re gonna meet in a class. Or, or find you a mentor or hire you a freaking coach. Right. So, or

[01:06:28] Ashley: be part of a mastermind. Yeah.

[01:06:30] LaKendra: You know, you can hire or you know, be a part of a mastermind. And I won’t even say be a part a mastermind first, because you know any great mastermind that’s gonna cost you some money.

[01:06:39] That’s true. I’m about, these are things that’s not gonna cost you anything but the investment of your future, which is attending a class. So you have to invest in your future. And I’m very simple. I use very simple language, as y’all can see. It’s not some type of master [01:07:00] universe. You know, information download that you have to have is just, this is my vision.

[01:07:09] Mm-hmm. This is what I’m going to believe. I am not gonna allow anybody to take me off this path and I’m going to find my enlightenment. As a life coach. Life coach, this is so

[01:07:21] Ashley: beautiful. That is amazing advice and I think it’s so incredible. ’cause so often we are looking for strategies or techniques or tactics, and it’s not that.

[01:07:31] It comes back down to what am I believing inside? What is my long-term vision for myself? What do I value? And then move forward, continually take action that aligns with those

[01:07:44] LaKendra: things. It’s really that simple. Ashley. Yes.

[01:07:47] Ashley: So beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing all of the wisdom that you have today. So let us know real quick, how can people get ahold of you?

[01:07:54] How can they connect with you? How can they be part of your orbit? Yeah,

[01:07:58] LaKendra: so, um, you can, [01:08:00] my, my website is simply la kendra um.com and simply kendra.com will will connect you to, you know, the global life Coach Training Entrepreneur Institute, which is the cer, the certification side of life coaching. It’ll connect you to Jaice Loves, which is the mental and behavior health side mm-hmm.

[01:08:19] Of, of my life coaching. And it’ll also just connect you into my community. You know, I’m on Facebook, um, I’m simply La Kendra on Instagram. I’m simply La Kendra, and I am the funniest. Very simple. I’m not getting on there trying to read you quotes every day. I don’t have time for that, right? It’s just, it’s life.

[01:08:44] I live a real life. And if you know anything about life coaching, you know that life coaching encompasses seven dimensions. So you should see the social part of you. You should see the business part of you. You should see [01:09:00] the, the humility part of you. So, That’s what I look like on social media, so don’t be disturbed by it.

[01:09:05] Okay.

[01:09:09] You are

[01:09:09] Ashley: very entertaining on social media, I have to say. I love it. Okay, so go to Simply Ndra, find Simply Ndra on any social media platform and you’re gonna find all the real behind the scenes life of Master Coach LA Kendra. And I think this is so amazing. I cannot wait to just pick out some of the little nuggets from today.

[01:09:29] ’cause I think there’s so much goodness in here. So, um, I also would love to give you the opportunity, you already shared a lot about your upcoming launch, your upcoming, um, promotion. So do you have anything else that you wanna add about that, what we should watch for as you’re launching

[01:09:45] LaKendra: that? Yeah, so, um, September one we’ll start, um, you know, running.

[01:09:53] Ads, like if you are an educator mm-hmm. Um, in a, and, and at this point, it doesn’t matter like where you’re in [01:10:00] the world, but you’re just ready for transformation because as I said, all it requires you to do is to take action and move, right? Mm-hmm. And then your movement, um, you’re going to produce whatever it is that you desire, just be on, you can, like I said, you can go to simple kendra com.

[01:10:17] I mean, you can just kind of find me on social media and, and just get connected. Um, even teachers who want more, that’s where, that’s where y’all need to go. Teachers who want more.org, because that is gonna be such a isolated, um, it’s such a isolated movement. Mm-hmm. So if you go to teachers who want more org, you’ll be able to connect to my ebook.

[01:10:43] Mm-hmm. That will give you a thousand dollars discount. If you just go through it, it’s, so I want you to go through it because it’s so many tools that you need for this school year. Mm-hmm. Um, so go and download that book Teachers Who Want more.org and, um, and if you forget that Simply La [01:11:00] Kendra’s easier to remember, you can still connect to, to the website through my simply la kendra.com.

[01:11:05] And then if you are, you know, locally, if you feel like. Flying and traveling. I’m having a conference here. I’m ending the Leading with Love Boutique Style Conference here November and third and the fourth here in the Dallas Fort Worth area. And I would love for you to join me, um, but I wanna have just all different type of dialogues on how we can improve.

[01:11:25] Holistically in our, um, personal life and business. So it’s gonna be an amazing second annual. I’m excited about it.

[01:11:34] Ashley: Ooh, that is exciting. I will obviously be there, so I’m so excited about it. Yes. So, um, fantastic. So simply La Kendra and teachers who want more, I mean, this is amazing for educators because they learn how to support the mental health of their students.

[01:11:47] They learn how to make an an additional stream of income and they do it in a way that is really serving their community. So it’s a win, win-win all around. So if you have friends or family who are educators, then send them to [01:12:00] teachers who want more.com and they can check that out. So, um, if you also, those of you still listening, if you are listening now and you’re at a point where you wanna figure out, you have your vision and you have your belief in yourself as a coach, you know, you’re a phenomenal coach and you’re ready to build out your business, you’re ready to grow your, your coaching business, and you wanna figure out what model do you follow, whether it’s, you know, do you start working with corporations like Lake Kendra or do you start doing live events like Tavana, any of those things.

[01:12:29] Then let’s talk. You can book a time for a strategy session with me by going to talk with ashley.com and let’s just figure out what you want your business to look like and. Also, if you’re watching, don’t forget to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel, or if you are listening to this on a podcast, then um, you can, what is it?

[01:12:50] Review and follow the podcast because that just helps us reach more individuals. So I look forward to meeting you. I look forward to talking with you, and we will see you next week on the next [01:13:00] episode of How to Market and Sell Life Coaching. Thank you again for being here, LA Kendra.

[01:13:05] LaKendra: Thank you, Ashley.

[01:13:06] Ashley: Thanks for listening to another episode of the High Earning Coaches podcast. Subscribe to the show and never miss another episode. I’d love to stay connected, so make sure to connect with me, ashleyjangro, on Instagram.