What made you decide to become a business coach?
When I first became a coach I worked with my clients on what is now known as life coaching. It was a lot of mindset shifts, confidence, and finding their purpose so they could live a life they love. I also coached women in relationships teaching them who to be in order to attract the man of their dreams, and most importantly, keep them so they could have lasting romantic relationships. In the process I discovered very clear ways of finding and signing high-end clients and it wasn't long before I had coaches lining up asking me how it was done.
Organically, some of my personal clients requested that I come into their businesses and teach their staff some of the skills, tools and techniques I had been teaching them. Prior to becoming a coach, I was an International Award-Winning Sales Trainer so I decided to use skills I already had and go learn from the best mentors in the business world.
Whenever I coach on something I always ensure it is from a place of mastery, so it was important to me to master all the areas of business. So I now mentor coaches in having high-paying coaching businesses,
I work with entrepreneurs, commission sales people and businesses to grow their bottom line and create stronger, happier business environments.
How long have you been on this wonderful business journey?
In hindsight, I realized my entire life was setting me up to become the business woman I am today. I actually started my first business when I was twelve years old! My first management experience in retail was at age seventeen and by age twenty-one I was an International Award-Winning Sales Trainer, traveling North America coaching people in public speaking, and commission sales. Through a series of life-changing events I founded MLI Coaching in 2013.
What are some of the biggest challenges that you have faced since you started your business?
The hardest thing for me was having to have people believe that I was extraordinary regardless of my age. Once people actually started working with me there was no issue, but getting them to trust that I'd get the job done initially was difficult. I actually had such a hard time with this that I created a brand called The Invisible Coach; it was a referral only, secret underground network style coaching program. This way I did not have to show my face or show myself, I didn't have to explain myself or tell anyone how old I was.
I created a high-end self-sufficient coaching practice based on invisibility just so I didn't have to go through the initial difficulty of being taken seriously. Being seen as an expert as a young girl in my early twenties was definitely not an easy task.
If you could give advice to your younger self back when you were facing your start-up challenges, what would that be?
To be brave, to be bold, and to show my true young self sooner. I have found, now in my late twenties, that people find it just as difficult to get over that initial shock or skepticism when they first meet me. If I could speak to my younger self, I would tell her that everything is going to be ok...actually everything is going to be extraordinary and to stop worrying so much about who may not believe!
''I actually started my first business when I was twelve years old! My first management experience in retail was at age seventeen and by age twenty-one I was an International Award-Winning Sales Trainer, traveling North America coaching people in public speaking, and commission sales.''