Join an enlightening conversation on The Abundant Coach with Stacey Berger, a 7-figure coach with over 10 years of experience in the coaching industry. Discover her journey from corporate life to making millions through coaching. 

Stacey shares actionable insights on connecting income to impact, navigating entrepreneurship, and overcoming common coaching challenges. This episode is perfect for new and experienced coaches seeking inspiration and practical tips for business growth. 

Don't miss out on proven strategies to foster both personal and professional success!

[00:00:15] Stacey Berger: Hello, Lauren.

[00:00:17] Stacey Berger: What an absolute pleasure and you and I both love talking all things coaching, business, personal development. So, to do this formally is really an honor.

[00:00:46] Lauren Newton: So, The Abundant Coach podcast is really, Stacey, about experiencing abundance. Yes, as a coach and all the revenue you will make and all that good stuff but also like, just having a feeling in your life. Like it's abundant [00:01:00] and really helping our audience understand ways to navigate that. So, I'm going to be asking you lots of questions about that.

[00:01:19] Stacey Berger: Yeah, for sure. So I will be coaching now for 10 years this year. So hitting that 10 year anniversary, which is a little bit of a shock, right? How quickly a decade can go by in that 10 years have generated 5 million dollars in revenue. So very proud of that. And through the different social media platforms, speaking, coaching tens of thousands of lives impacted.

[00:02:12] Lauren Newton: So it's taking it off of you, like, the income. It's all about me to going, wait a second, if I'm not having it, I'm actually not making that big of a difference. If I'm not having the impact that I want to have.

[00:02:30] Lauren Newton: That's very true, it's interesting cause with the income thing, I think there can be, of course, so many beliefs that we have about money and what that means over the years. And I think, probably, one of the biggest jobs we have as coaches, at least in the very beginning of our business is, learning our own limits when it comes to money and changing our relationship with it. Because you really can't make an impact if you're not enough money to make yourself comfortable to be able to make that impact.

[00:03:13] Lauren Newton: And I think about for her, how she had 50 years of getting up and serving this mission. And in complete transparency, sometimes after 6 years of serving this mission, I get weary with things. So, I would just love to hear a little bit about, what gets you out of bed in the morning, 10 years in?

[00:03:42] Stacey Berger: It's so interesting. I am so grateful to stand on the shoulders of Mary Morrissey and how she has shortcutted my learning curve, both from an awareness perspective but also a business building perspective. And I actually have a different thought of that when I think I'm [00:04:00] 10 years in.

[00:04:24] Stacey Berger: And that doesn't mean I don't have my days where I'm like, Oh my gosh, can I really do this? I definitely have those days but overall, I feel so blessed to do this work on the planet that, it's exciting to look forward to what the future holds as well.

[00:04:59] Lauren Newton: [00:05:00] Cause you can look at it, I've been serving this vision for 10 years. It's a long time, I'm like, I've only been serving this for 10 years and look at where I've come and look at where there is to go. So, do you notice like a lot? Cause I know, I want to just see if I'm accurate here in 2023, your business hit the million dollar and more annual mark.

[00:05:17] Lauren Newton: So, your business continues to grow, continues to get bigger and bigger. So do you see that there's a big difference between where you are? Where you were year one and two? Just in terms of like, your day to day? Or does it surprise you that it's not that different or how does that stack up for you?

[00:06:20] Lauren Newton: And do you think that shift came when you hired your first employee or is it something that has been gradual or?

[00:07:07] Lauren Newton: The problem to have. That's like champagne problem.

[00:07:37] Stacey Berger: Like, I just want to go coach and I'm so happy and now I got to do the paperwork on the payments and mail things out. And it was an important thing to me. I wanted it done but I could notice in my own energy. And so, when it was time to hire, it was, what if I could outsource that? And it's not always easy, right? I think I've always hired before I've felt ready. It's a [00:08:00] financial investment. It's scary but it freed my energy most importantly and then my time to go do other things that could generate greater impact.

[00:08:31] Lauren Newton: And there will become a time when you don't have to do everything. But right now, let's let ourselves fall in love with all the parts of it because it's what helps us to serve people. But what I also love and I think is super helpful for what you're saying, Stacey, is that, I think sometimes coaches think, Oh, when I hit the million dollar mark, I'm going to have no problems.

[00:09:08] Lauren Newton: And there's always going to be challenges, opportunities, roadblocks, things we love, things we don't love and just letting ourselves continue to grow through those things. I think, why we ultimately end up loving what we do. Cause we can look back and see how much we've grown through and be like, damn, I'm okay. Like, I'm pretty good actually.

[00:10:16] Lauren Newton: So true.

[00:10:25] Lauren Newton: I think that's so important. I think you have to fall in love with every part of it. You just have to cause yourself to think the thoughts that remind you of why you're doing what you're doing? And what it means to you, like, beyond just personally but spiritually. Because that's what gets you up in the morning.

[00:11:01] Lauren Newton: And just at the level of fact, it's like, on a spiritual side, I'll get to there. But like at the level of human fact, it can be tiring. And I remember we were on day five of actually six days cause we did a bonus day. We're on day five and I woke up and there was no part of me that wanted to do it.

[00:11:50] Stacey Berger: I think it's so important for new coaches to know. I didn't always want to go to the networking event. I still don't always want to go to the networking event. I don't always want to make that cold call [00:12:00] or that sales call but we cause ourselves to do it. And so to think, that was easy for Stacey or Lauren or no. But it was in service of a bigger purpose and mission.

[00:12:26] Lauren Newton: Okay. So let's go back to the beginning of your career as a coach. So for you, just take us into, how you discovered coaching? Was it something you'd always want us to do? Just give us like, how did this all come about?

[00:12:54] Stacey Berger: I did looking back on it. I did a form of coaching and mentoring in the business world. So mentoring [00:13:00] entrepreneurs, I didn't know what a life coach was. Like, 10 years, like the landscape and coaching has changed significantly over the last decade. But had a desire for something more. I'd always had this spiritual piece of my life and the corporate piece, they felt very separate. And just really had a calling, there's got to be more to life than this. Had three young kids at home, wanted to be spending more time with my kids and ended up walking away from that corporate career, knowing there has to be something more. I didn't know what that was.

[00:13:36] Lauren Newton: Let me make sure I'm clear. So you actually left the job before you knew it?

[00:13:42] Lauren Newton: Wow. So how was that? That has to be scary as hell?

[00:14:08] Lauren Newton: Like spiritually, it was time. I just can't cause myself to go anymore.

[00:14:33] Lauren Newton: Good though. That really is good advice.

[00:15:01] Stacey Berger: And so I went into it, maybe this is an opportunity. But either way, this is something that's going to serve me if I go back into corporate, if I build a business, got certified, fell in love with it, let me just share a little bit about making the decision to Brave Thinking Institute.

[00:15:43] Lauren Newton: It's very different actually.

[00:16:20] Stacey Berger: And in many ways, I feel like I lucked out finding Mary at that time and just so grateful. I do believe it's the Harvard of coaching certification programs. And just so grateful to be a part of that. It's been 10 years I'm still holding their hand, right? Because, I see so many coaches now struggling, they have a certification but they don't have the economic engine, they don't have the marketing, they don't have the sales, they don't have the enrollment piece. And so, just feel very blessed about that.

[00:17:08] Lauren Newton: Interesting. You gave yourself like a six month runway there.

[00:17:30] Lauren Newton: When you put any sort of panic or like, Oh, let me go back and forth about this. You just put that on pause for six months. And you were like, I'm all in. So did you even revisit it at six months? Or was it just like by the end of six months, you were like, I don't even need to revisit?

[00:18:15] Lauren Newton: I think that the such important thing is like, the beginning is absolutely going to be rigorous. The beginning of any business, not just a coaching business. And I think that can be the thing that gets newer coaches off track is thinking that they're doing something wrong if it feels hard or thinking they're doing something wrong, if it takes a little while to get started. But if you look at any startup business, like forget the coaching industry, just look at a tech startup. Like every startup business is going to have that time period where they're like, is this going to work? And they're not doing anything wrong if that's what it feels like.

[00:19:06] Lauren Newton: Amen to that. So one of the things I want to go back to that you said when you were sharing your story about deciding to quit your job, you decide to do coaching, you find Brave Thinking Institute. You mentioned that when you were in corporate, the spiritual felt separate from that.

[00:19:44] Lauren Newton: So, how did you get over the hump of keeping those things separate? Like, there's corporate over here and there's spiritual over here?

[00:20:33] Stacey Berger: It could be a top athlete, a CEO, a business owner, a stay at home parent, it's all the same. Transformational principles work no matter who you are. And sometimes you have to adjust your language a little bit depending on your audience. But when you understand the truth with a capital T and how to produce transformation, it really takes. It removes any barrier, right? We're all the same. [00:21:00] We're all in this journey.

[00:21:25] Lauren Newton: And so I think that combo makes it easier as well. Cause I've talked to coaches and I felt this way myself. Like when I would think about going into a business or corporate. I like imagined these like robot beings where like, business people were somehow different or separate because I wasn't a business person so I didn't know.

[00:21:56] Stacey Berger: And I really, it was interesting as I started to understand [00:22:00] transformation, I could look back at the corporate experience and go, Oh, that's why that project was successful. Oh, that's why that one wasn't because we did this. Again, consciously, unconsciously and Oh, we missed this piece over here. And that's why that one didn't have the results. So again, when you start to understand truth and true transformation, you can see it everywhere.

[00:22:45] Stacey Berger: I would say it's changed over, so this is one of that has shifted and what really was the bread and butter in the beginning and when I say in the beginning probably, for the first seven years [00:23:00] was speaking on other people's stages and networking. And just getting in front of as many people as possible but speaking and yeah, networking and just building relationships was bread and butter and that's still really important. What's shifted now just for us to be able to make a bigger impact and to impact other more people, is running our own events. So we run some fairly significant large events three times a year. And I would say that's now the bread and butter. And one of the ways that we're filling those rooms is through the networking and the speaking.

[00:23:55] Lauren Newton: It goes back to the thing of, nothing's going wrong [00:24:00] if you're ramping up. And so like for a new coach, a lot of times there'll be like, only five people showed up for my workshop. I'm like, dude, I'll take 5 people all day long that are interested in hearing about this work and want to know more.

[00:24:28] Stacey Berger: It's very good. And without the 5 people, there's not the hundred people and you need the 5. And I've spoken to my share of empty rooms and 3 people showing up and people don't see that we forget. Again, 10 years in, right? 10 years in.

[00:25:10] Lauren Newton: So when you think coaching and curriculum, what has been your most important there?

[00:25:25] Lauren Newton: Amen to that. Yeah, because what I noticed and maybe you noticed this too, Stacey, as we learn to be coaches. It can be tempting to get really involved in what's going on that day for the client. And it's not that we don't want to help them transform that but also, if all you're ever doing is like plugging holes and problem solving what's going on that day.

[00:25:54] Stacey Berger: Yeah and I'll tell my clients that the moment you hear me make agreement with one of your [00:26:00] conditions, fire me as your coach, right? I think as a coach, our

[00:26:05] Stacey Berger: Greatest job is to be able to hold space and to create a container where we know that they're greater than any condition, any circumstance, any situation. And so if you're plugging holes all the time, there's more opportunity to make agreement with their conditions and their circumstances too.

[00:26:44] Stacey Berger: Great question. I would say, start with the end in mind. So what's the result that you feel like that client requires or your ideal person wants? So starting with the end in mind and then really considering what steps are required [00:27:00] in order to get to that result.

[00:27:22] Lauren Newton: Amen to that. I think it's so helpful. I think one of the things that I see coaches that don't have a structure, like we were given when we became certified at Brave Thinking Institute. Curriculum, a step by step of what to do in your coaching sessions. And I think that can be one of the most challenging things as curriculum development.

[00:27:53] Stacey Berger: This is an interesting one. Again, I think as coaches, a lot of people get into coaching because they want to help people. [00:28:00] And I would say, the mind set around, I'm also a business owner. And so adopting that mindset that yes, I want to help people but I'm also operating a business. So I think for most coaches, that's a mindset piece.

[00:28:32] Stacey Berger: So setting those things in place, I would say, don't let it become consuming but not to make it so big, so overwhelming but also recognizing it's a very important.

[00:28:45] Stacey Berger: Marketing, I think some of the best advice that I received early on is that 85% of your time is in marketing and advertising in the beginning. And that means you're networking, you're calling, you're speaking, you're posting on [00:29:00] social media. And I say, do the things that are going to make the cash register ring.

[00:29:05] Stacey Berger: With calls are you making getting in front of as many people as possible? And is 85% of your time doing that? Because if it's not, chances are, it's going to take a lot longer to build the thing. So do it and do it when it's uncomfortable.

[00:29:52] Stacey Berger: And do it without a website and do it without a business card and do it without branding and a professional photo shoot. [00:30:00] None of that matters if you're not getting in front of people. And I see it all the time too, Lauren. I just got to get my branding right. And I got to get my backend and my website, it's busy work.

[00:30:11] Stacey Berger: Yeah.

[00:30:27] Stacey Berger: And remember, you're your business. Your logo's not your business. You are your business. Coaching is a relationship business. You need to go out and build relationships.

[00:31:21] Stacey Berger: I made 10 phone calls a day. And I think that's another great test is, if someone's struggling in their coaching business, really look in the mirror and ask yourself, how many phone calls have I made today? How many people have I talked to? And I would say, that's usually what it comes down to is, Oh, I called one person this week and they got their answering machine and I didn't call back. It's usually just quantity of connections.

[00:32:02] Lauren Newton: And then it's like, starts to just be more of a snowball effect where, it's not that we're going to stop making the calls. It's just, we don't feel like nothing's happening. Like just knowing that's happening. Speaking of that, I'll just give a quick tip that, when you feel like nothing's happening, cause I know a lot of coaches feel that way.

[00:32:38] Stacey Berger: The affirmation that I would say to my and I still say to this to myself, is I'm planting seeds. I planted seeds today. So even if I would speak and nobody would be interested, I planted a whole bunch of seeds today and I would just trust that, there would be a part of me that would be disappointed. But I would trust that, hey, I have no idea to your point [00:33:00] what conversations are happening and who's thinking about calling me right now and just. Putting that out there that it will, I'm planting seeds and I will reap them.

[00:33:32] Stacey Berger: I had a client. I'll just quickly run an event that came to this event. She has been on my email list for seven years and enrolled in coaching this year. This was her moment. But the fact that I've been showing up in her inbox every week for the last seven years, planting seeds. And you just don't know who you're impacting and what's happening.

[00:34:05] Stacey Berger: Again, I'm just singing Brave Thinking's praises here. But the fact that investing in that certification program, there was an enrollment script. I have no sales training. That is not something that I'd ever been professionally trained in. And so I would say, get a script that works, right? So investing in some sales. Training, enrollment training to follow a system and a structure that works. It's been returned 5 million dollars to me investing in that script, right?

[00:34:52] Stacey Berger: I think it's like, investing in a McDonald's franchise and then saying, I'm not going to follow their system. I'm going to go do it my own way. [00:35:00] And in the beginning, it does feel mechanical and it doesn't quite feel authentic. But the thing with the sales script that works is it's been tested. And so, why not follow a proven system and the more that you do it and the more that you read that script, the more that you work with your script, it no longer feels, I still use that script 10 years later, just so you know, I still have it in front of me, I'm still reading the script. It lives within me now, so it doesn't feel like a script.

[00:35:43] Lauren Newton: Yeah.

[00:36:09] Lauren Newton: I love that. I think that, one of the things I've been thinking about a lot lately as I've worked with coaches, train and certify coaches and all of that. Is there's a way that you can answer yourself when you have a challenge and objection. So, if your mind is saying to you, Oh, this script doesn't feel natural, it doesn't feel conversational and then they don't use it. But there's another point of access. And that could be, is there a step I could take to make this feel more conversational? Oh, I could practice it a hundred times and then it will be conversational because it's in me now. So I love when you say, get over it.

[00:37:00] Lauren Newton: Give it a whirl. Okay, so let me ask you a couple other things. I think this is a juicy question and I think it's great, especially to ask someone who's been 10 years in. I'm going to say, I will ask every guest on this show the same exact question.

[00:37:21] Stacey Berger: That what's coming to mind and it feels a little esoteric though is, I would have more faith. So my first year in business, I was operating out of fear. I had three little kids. It makes me just want to cry. Like babies, I had to put food on the table. And so, a lot of what I did was around fear.

[00:37:58] Stacey Berger: Am I going to be able to do [00:38:00] this? And I didn't like that. And it was very uncomfortable and I just wish, if I could go back and do it again, I would say, Stacey, get back to impact, back to faith, trust yourself, trust the process. And I wish that's what I would change but as far as the system and like certification and the action steps, I wouldn't change anything. It would be more within me.

[00:38:42] Lauren Newton: And what I have found with serving coaching clients, people who want life coaching is that, a lot of the actions that get taken out of stress, push energy, those kind of things. And the more I coach people, the more I realized, the first thing I want anybody to do is if there's a fire, stop, drop and [00:39:00] roll.

[00:39:22] Lauren Newton: For me, it's higher power, spirit, God. But that's not going to land for everybody but it's like, get reminded about that first, get impressed with that first, then go do your thing.

[00:39:55] Stacey Berger: So let me also say that. Is I didn't get there on my own, that was [00:40:00] me working with my own coaches who had a higher level of awareness, who reminded me that, who repatterned that. And I would say, to all coaches and I say this to my clients, don't hire a coach that doesn't have a coach. It's one thing to know about transformational principles. But I can't see my own blind spots. And so I would attribute a lot of my success to, I've invested every year at fairly significant levels with my own coaches because I want to keep expanding my own awareness.

[00:40:46] Lauren Newton: And so if you're a coach who believes in the coaching model, why would you not give that to yourself? Like it seems so out of harmony to me, like it just seems obvious to me that as coaches, we would want to be in the structure that we believe in [00:41:00] so deeply. If we really think it's going to be impacting people's lives, why wouldn't we be in that structure somewhere?

[00:41:14] Stacey Berger: So that I'm modeling it for them. And so therefore they're saying, Hey, I'm seeing you grow. You obviously are living what you're teaching. And so they continue to invest. It's really powerful when you're living what you teach and specifically as a transformational coach, that is so important.

[00:41:50] Lauren Newton: And of course that's not who we want to be. So I think being, like you said, being an example of growth, people want to be a part of that because that's what they want. And so, I think that's just [00:42:00] the most irritating thing for me. This is just little me now. Stacey and I have a practice of when there's little me and then there's big me.

[00:42:24] Lauren Newton: And I'm like, it just makes me sad for, I don't think that happens a lot, not in the circles that I hang out in. But when I see that, I'm like, don't do that. Just do what you're saying.

[00:42:44] Lauren Newton: That is true. So back to big me, the great news, the greater me, the great news about that though, is when people do find an authentic coach like you, like our listeners who they really feel connected with. And they can see like, Oh, this person is real and honest. Like it [00:43:00] just makes it that much easier for us coaches who do as endeavor as best we can to live what we teach.

[00:43:23] Lauren Newton: This is so wonderful because someone like, actually is caring and being a part of something really great.

[00:44:02] Lauren Newton: There's is no such thing as a perfect coach. Hence the fact that on this live podcast, I went off on little me for two minutes. There's no perfect coach and we don't have to be perfect. The endeavoring is truly the most important part for sure. So I'm curious, as we're wrapping this up here.

[00:44:28] Stacey Berger: I would say, if you truly have the vision to help people and serve people, just that it's absolutely possible. And so, the willingness to set any doubt, fear, worry aside and continue to serve the vision. I just think, that's what I want for everybody is just to know that you're capable of so much more than you know. And your work in the world is important. It's important and it matters.

[00:45:06] Stacey Berger: Yeah, if you want to get in touch. So probably my website, it'll take you to all the social media channels and whatever platform is most comfortable. But StaceyBerger.ca, I'm in Canada. So, S T A C E Y B E R G E R dot C A.

[00:45:35] Stacey Berger: I love you too and you're doing very important work in the world, Lauren and it's just an absolute gift to have you in my life.