Sherri Coffelt Business Coach & Consultant She takes her clients dream of having the freedom and flexibility to work WHEN they want, from WHERE they want, with clients they LOVE and helps them make that their reality.
Freedom Finder Checklist – Discover where you are strong and where you need to focus to build a business that allows you to work WHEN you want, from WHERE you want, with clients you LOVE.
https://www.ResultsPartner.com
https://www.yourresultspartner.com/freedom-finder-checklist
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Transcript
Hi and welcome to The You World Order Showcase podcast. Today we have with us Sherri Coffelt. Sherri is a business coach and consultant who takes her clients dreams of having the freedom and flexibility to work when they want from where they want and with the clients they love and helps them make that their reality. Welcome to the show, Sherri. We're really excited to have you with us.
Today.
Ohh, thank you Jill.
I'm so glad to be here.
Hi.
Back from Portugal, living, living the things you're teaching.
Yeah, just got back.
From a week ago.
Yes, I do. I definitely. I definitely call, I call it live your bucket list now and take your business with you.
I love that. I love that and you know.
It's never too early to start that bucket list.
No. And why wait for someday? Let's do what we want to do now and and live the live lifestyle we want and have the business we.
Exactly. So how did you get started in all?
Of this. Oh, goodness. Well, I have been in this crazy topsy turvy world of coaching consulting for going on 24 years, 24 years in May and and net 24 years. You know, I've had a lot of different versions of my business, but quite honestly, one of the things that has been a constant through that time.
Is my belief that all businesses need to start with the business owner getting clarity on their vision for their life, not for their business, for their life?
Because then we can build a business that fits into that life versus taking over your life. Now, I know you've been around for for a while too, and this this industry, and we all know those business owners that get into business and you know one year, two years, five years in, they look up and they realize that they've built this hopefully successful business.
But they're not happy. They're not living the life that they want to live. They're not maybe doing what they really want to do and and. And that's the tragedy to me because they truly do believe we get to have both. So through that, that all of my years of coaching and salting, I've always believed.
Vision and honestly about gosh, what's it been now about eight years ago now? I think it's been.
About 8:00.
Years ago now I was updating my vision letter, which is part of my vision process that I do.
Every year.
And I realized that once again, I was writing how I wanted to travel more in quotes.
And I had that I called that that knock upside the head moment.
When I realized that here I am teaching start with your vision. And yet I had unconsciously got myself into a place in my business where I was very successful and was doing what I wanted to do in my business. But because most of my clients were coming from live networking and live speaking.
I was kind of stuck being there, if you will, and if I stopped accepting speaking engagements or going to networking events then my flow of clients would start to trickle down, right? So I could hardly, you know, take off for Portugal for a month and not have it impact my business.
M.
So you know, there's that old saying once you see it, you can't Unsee it.
Well, I that was a day really. I put the stick in the in the ground and within six months I completely revamp my marketing in my business. I was already doing quite a bit of online marketing, but I really ramped it up in a different way. I completely changed my.
Goal, which was.
To travel full time sold my house, put the stuff I couldn't part with in storage, and I was off for Australia for four months and I've never looked back and that was the day that I that I I think that I ramped up or that I amped up. Maybe my commitment to helping business owners to really get that clarity on what they want their.
Lifestyle to look.
Look like and helping them build the business of their dreams. That allows them to live that lifestyle but also serve the clients and.
There.
That's awesome. So you are, are you still in Australia or are you back in the US?
No, I have been all over the world in the pre COVID and then of course COVID kind of messed things up for me and then ramping up my travel again. Now I just got back from Portugal and Spain as I mentioned and taking off for visiting some family in the summer and then heading to Iceland and heading to the East Coast of the US for a while and then heading to Montreal.
In Quebec City, and that's the rest of this year at least. So I plan plan my, my.
My year out. And then I also work that speaking into my travel because when I decide where I want to go then I reach out to people that I have in my community that are living there, try to find people that they know that might be looking for speakers so I can combine that business and and.
Personal travel. So yeah, so it works pretty well. So yeah, I know. I travel all over the world and Canada is the fall for me this year. And then Australia actually is what I'm working on for next next January through probably April or May.
I love us very.
Yeah, and New Zealand, actually, I'm going to New Zealand. I was in New Zealand when COVID hit, so I didn't get to. I didn't get to finish out my trip. And and luckily, I almost decided to stay there and wait it out. Thank goodness I didn't or I would have been there for over 2 years.
Hmm.
Yeah, yeah, they that was Snow prison island.
They shut her down. They.
Yeah, they really shut it down. So yeah.
Yeah. So.
But there are people that survived it.
There are. There are absolutely and and you know, it would have been the worst thing that could have happened. But I am glad that I came back.
Yeah. Well, we're glad you came back too. So I know you were talking about speaking live, but do you also you do stuff online too?
I do most of my business is really online these days. I do live speaking engagements. Like I said, when I go to to a a place I usually go for a month.
To each location because I want to live there. I want to live like a local and I set up my office. I have my workspace. I have my work hours while I'm in that that location and so I want to speak live. If I'm there to local networking groups or marketing groups or whatever entrepreneurial groups. But for the most part I would say about 70%.
Of my speaking is virtual doing podcasts like this and doing my own workshops, doing trainings for other peoples groups, all kinds of things, summits, all that, all that kind of good stuff.
Yeah, that sounds really interesting. So a lot of your marketing is just through networking and I'm sure you get on podcasts through networking because that's how we connected.
Yes, I do.
Yeah. And one of my one of my top mantras, if you will to my clients is to choose no more than three marketing strategies and go do.
Because one of the biggest I I truly believe that the two biggest enemies of entrepreneurship are inconsistency and overwhelm and inconsistency in my opinion causes a lot of.
The.
Overwhelm and one of the biggest places that we see inconsistent inconsistency, particularly in newer entrepreneurs, but frankly it can happen in any of us.
But.
Is in marketing.
Because let's face it, there's so much noise out there every week. You know, you hear another new tactic that that you have to be doing, which is not true by any stretch of the imagination. And so when you're new, you don't really know how to sort those those filters. You don't have filters that information. So you end up doing just a little bit of everything and not doing.
Anything. Well, or giving up on a strategy before it's really had a chance to work to do the tweaking in the.
Testing to make sure that you've optimized it before you decide it is or is it for you. So I have my three marketing strategies which for me are speaking LinkedIn is is a primary strategy for me and live networking. Those are my three top strategies and then I sprinkle in some other things here and there.
Do you use groups on LinkedIn?
I do not use groups on LinkedIn, we we could spend our whole time talking about that. LinkedIn is an amazing place for entrepreneurs like us to network. It's how I'm getting about 40% of my connections and and in fact I think we met on LinkedIn.
If I remember correctly, yeah, I think we did and I used, I used LinkedIn as a place to grow my connection. So I'm growing my community, but then to turn those connections into relations.
Public.
Chips and those relationships turn into connection calls which turn into collaborations, referral partnerships and yes, clients. So I get so many opportunities for collaboration and expanding my network through the people that I meet on LinkedIn, whether it's doing a podcast and and getting access to your audience with your podcast or some.
Elses or free gift swaps or interview trades. I do a lot of that or speaking to other people's groups. Collaborations are one of the best ways for entrepreneurs to cost effectively grow your audience because we all need to build our list so so it's definitely one of the one of the ways that I use it. But.
Groups to answer your question directly.
Groups on LinkedIn have never been as effective. Now Facebook groups aren't nearly as effective as they used to be, but Facebook groups are still the best group out there, at least right now.
And I've I've kind of found that I didn't know about LinkedIn groups and I was kind of curious about that. It LinkedIn honestly is not one of my major.
Marketing methods. I use the podcast and and Facebook groups is how I market, but you're you're totally.
Bang on when you're talking about people trying to do too many things and switching horses and not really getting good and giving it enough time.
Yeah.
It's nothing happens overnight.
Yeah, exactly. And everybody is looking for that that quick quick hit and you know, I want to get to 6 figures and I want to do it tomorrow. And the reality is.
In the marketing world.
That most of us are not going to have that happen, you know they're going to be a few that that do have that happen and more power to them. But for most new entrepreneurs, it takes structure. It takes planning, it takes consistency. There's that word again and really getting clear on who you want to attract.
Why you are best qualified and uniquely qualified to help them solve a problem, and then how you how you are going to help them solve their problem so that you can attract them to you in a way that has them saying, you know they're raising their hand and saying yes, I want more of that.
And that.
Circles right back around to your starting point where write down your vision because if you don't know where you want to go and I, I would even say if you don't know what the end goal of your business is, you need to sit down.
Yes.
Yes.
And.
Give that a real good thing.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Are you?
You can't just.
Trying to grow a business to sell it. Or are you trying to grow a, you know, a personal brand that is is really built just around you? Are you trying to build something that you want to turn into a 7 figure business or not?
And and I'll speak for myself. I've had a 7 figure business. You know, I've had a 7 figure business. I don't want a 7 figure business anymore. You know, that's not the lifestyle I want to live. I don't want. I don't want the people that it takes to typically run it. I don't want the. I don't want to work that hard. I'm going to put it. I'm going to be flat out honest. I don't want to work that hard right now. At this point in my life.
The monetary goal.
And so you got you have to be clear on that because the direction you want to get to as you're saying.
Is going to change how you build that business. It's going to change the marketing strategies that you choose. It's going to change the amount of investment that you need to make upfront and building that business. You have to be clear on that, absolutely. And then the flip side of that coin is how do you want that business to fit into your life so.
Really getting clear on what do you want a typical day to look like and I don't mean just making up the perfect Nirvana day. I mean, what do you really want your typical day day in and day out to look like? I mean for me I want travel to be a part of that and I want to be spending at least six months a year.
In another country.
And exploring and being able to, you know, really get into the cultures of other countries and understand how the people live and live like a local while still be a being able to attract and serve the clients that I want to.
Serve.
So when I build my business virtual speaking linked and.
Networking, which most of which I do virtually, are perfect marketing vehicles for that. But if I said well.
I think I well, I think I'll build a a live speaking business. It would be a lot harder. I could do it somewhat, but it certainly be a lot harder for me to build my business and live that lifestyle that I've chosen to.
Yeah, it's it's all about knowing knowing the end before you start at the beginning, where do you want to go?
Yep, start with the end in mind.
We hear that, but for most people, especially coaches out there, because they, they get into coaching, they just want to help people and.
Yep, Yep.
Bless their hearts, I I love that about them. And they're so passionate about what they do and some of them are so amazing. I mean, I've I've run into people I've had personal experiences with. Some of these people where they've healed things on me.
Right, yeah.
It's like it's gone and it was.
Yeah, it is amazing.
Just.
Like oh wow. I can't believe you did that. But they they they just want to help as many people as they can. I've I've talked to coaching this coaching companies that and their their goal was we want to help a million people.
Time.
There's three of them.
Like.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yes, that, that that's a, that's a good one too. Is, is, is your is your structure aligned with your goal. The other thing that popped for me when when you're talking is that.
So many of us as entrepreneurs, we start our business and I'm just I'm pulling a number 90% out of the air. I think it's probably pretty close to be honest, but I don't have like track statistics of that. But literally I think about 90% of us as entrepreneurs started our business because we have a gift we want to share. Now that gift can be like you were saying healing.
Energy work or or graphic design or you know whatever it is, we have a gift that we want to share with the world, so we decide we wanna turn it into this.
And one of the things that I often say is that the minute that you decide to turn your gift into a business, you are no longer an energy healer or a graphic designer or a virtual assistant. You are now in the business of providing those services.
And most of us don't have the background to know how to run a business. So what happens is we say, OK, I'm going to hang my shingle as a, you know, fill in the blank.
And we want to help people, but we go out there and we don't have the the foundation in place. We're not clearing our vision, that's one. And then two, we don't have a foundation in place from which to launch the business basically. And I know this is the boring stuff where people think it's the boring stuff. But the fact of the matter is, if you don't have clarity.
On who you want to serve and if you don't have clarity on what the what the real problems are and the pain points are that are strong enough for them to be willing to invest in getting a solution to get away from that pain. Because let's face it, we buy to avoid pain.
Is primarily why people buy.
And then have a solution that explains why you're uniquely qualified to solve that problem, and an offer that is is magnetic enough that people are going to say yes, it doesn't matter how good at filling the blank again you are, or frankly, how many marketing strategies out there trying to implement.
You're not going to be successful, but yet people want to skip that foundation step and you know, they think it takes too much time. They think they don't need it. They think they know. That's another one. Ohh yeah. I I know my messaging. But then you start asking questions and they really do.
I don't.
And I I had a a client this is years ago now. He was an internationally known doctor. Still is actually that was internationally known doctor and he had written a book and he wanted to share his message with millions. Right. So he wanted people he wanted women in his case where his his target.
To be able to get access to this information in a way that they could implement what he was teaching in their lives.
And so he thought he wanted to create an online course. So he went out there and he created an online course that kind of followed the the teaching in his book. And he launched his online course. He had paid a marketing company 25 grand to help him launch his course.
And at the end of the day, and he'd been working on this. When I met with him. He's working on it like, 18 months. He'd sold three course.
And when I started asking him some of those basic questions about the pain points is, well, what, what do these women tell you? Is their real problem. He didn't have the words.
So it was no wonder that his marketing was falling flat, even though he'd spent all that money.
Because he really didn't know what his his ideal client wanted.
And so, yeah, I could talk about this for hours, but it's so important that you get.
It's the foundation. It's the fundamentals and.
Yeah.
They don't teach you that when you go to get your little shiny certificate. So instead they think oh, I need another certificate. No, what you need to do is.
No, please don't.
Yeah, there's no right.
Drop a little tiny down to score or somebody who can help you and the senior corps retired engineers. They're amazing people. Or call Sherry and yes, Sherry guide you.
Yes, and and and I'll just add call call whoever go to whoever. Just make sure that they have done what you want to do and score is amazing. I was involved with score.
Mm-hmm.
A bit quite a few years ago, the challenge was something like score is a lot of times they are retired corporate people and they don't have the experience for most of us as entrepreneurs. So it's difficult for them to to help as well because they're trying to take their their skills from corporate and turn it into an entrepreneurial setting.
And.
And.
A lot of them are retired, therefore they're probably not really all that familiar with starting an online business, because that is a fundamentally different than starting an offline business.
Yes, they're not.
It is. It is.
Yes, and that's why I say always, always find someone as a mentor and or a coach who has done what you want to do. They have, you know, gone from zero to.
Seven figures, if that's your goal, you know they have built successfully built a consistent flow of clients. They have created the agency, they have done whatever it is you want to do, make sure they have that experience because that's that's what you want, right, is to follow in someone's footsteps to shortcut the path to success. That's why you invest in a coach.
To get.
And don't be afraid to hire somebody that's just a little bit ahead of.
You.
Oh, absolutely.
Because you may find that the shorter the distance is between where you are and where you want to go, I mean ultimately you might want that 7 figure business. But if you're starting at 0, you need to be talking to somebody that's, you know, 5 or 10K a month because they remember.
Yes.
The things that you're going through.
And how to fix them?
Or that that's who they work with right now.
Yeah, and that's who they're working with right now. Somebody that's making you know, six and seven figures and trying to help somebody just starting out.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
Doesn't.
Really, remember all of the day-to-day bits that you're struggling with? It's the the pain is.
Yeah, I would agree with that, yeah.
Yeah.
Fresh for them.
Yeah. I I I would agree with that and you know and I think it also one of my one of my pet peeves is the gurus out there that are recycling strategies that work for them ten years ago.
M.
And they're still selling it.
And like.
It's not working. Today. The world is such a different place, yet they're still selling strategies and saying that you should do XYZ when that's not the world we live in today. And it just it it, in my opinion, it just gives the industry a bad name.
And it drives me insane.
And it confuses people, especially coaches, you know.
Absolutely. And it's it's why people have a lot of of bad experiences with coaches, because they end up investing in these programs and they don't get the results that.
They want they.
Don't get the support that they want and you know they're they're.
Six months later and X thousands of dollars lighter in their bank account, they're in the same place they were before, and that breaks my heart.
It breaks mine too, and that's why I was mentioning, you know, don't be afraid to hire somebody. That's not all the way there.
Yeah, absolutely. But.
You know, do.
Your due diligence with the.
Person, and I think we're we're more.
Absolutely.
Or.
In a a period of time where people are are wanting to have a real relationship with these people that they're hiring, we're not just hiring that guru off the street anymore. You you have to have a track record and you need going, going and listening to. I think they're primarily.
Yes.
Like bro marketers?
The the guys that were like, yeah, I'll just do your high ticket thing and comment down their throat.
Yeah, standing for the Ferraris and yeah.
That.
That's just not it anymore.
Yeah, it. Yeah, yeah, I it it unfortunately still is for for more people than I wish it was, to be honest. But I agree with you in terms of relationship I think that you know one of the gifts of COVID and there's always gifts and everything right is that we did realize that we can have relationships at different levels.
People.
And we can have relationships like this, like you and I are having a relationship right now and that there are things that are more important than than the bank account. Things are more important than you know.
It just being busy for instance. So I think that I think you're right. And and I think it's also why so many of the big gurus right now are having problems selling their group programs.
Because people are not wanting to be one of hundreds in a group program where they're really not getting any kind of personal attention. They're just one of many in a crowd on a on a, on a virtual call and one-on-one coaching or small group coaching like I, I like doing triads for instance.
Because I think that.
There's there's value in the community and the connection and having more than one person to bounce ideas off of. Yet I don't ever want a group to be bigger than what I can stay on top of what every person is doing.
So my biggest group programs usually are 12 people because of that.
Yeah, and they're probably long enough that you can really help those 12 people. If you, the shorter your program is, the fewer the people that you want to be pulling along. Kind of like 5-5 is a good number to me or maybe 8. I'm really into eights this year.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's just like it's it's enough so that they can interact with each other on a very intimate level and they can. I can, I can help them individually if I need.
Yeah.
Yeah.
To yeah, absolutely. And and really know what, you know what they're what they're saying and and read between the lines.
Underneath what they're saying or not saying.
Yeah.
And that's hard if you're in a group of 100 people.
Yeah. And. And you feel it. And usually those bigger programs you get, you get farmed out to people that really aren't the expert that, that, that annoys me a lot. I've I've seen it a lot, but you know.
Right.
Yeah, it it happens way too often, unfortunately.
But you know, everybody starts at the beginning and you're you're going to you're going to learn and you're going to see. And like I said, hiring coaches is.
You you must. You must continue. There's always continuing education that's going to happen and it's just it's just a business expense get.
It's a business investment.
You're not.
Because and and I think any any money we spend in our business need, we need to think of as an investment if we you know sign up for a scheduling tool. It's an investment because of the efficiency it gives us without having to do back and forth on e-mail to set up meetings. Coaching is no different and and it all the other thing that I asked ask people sometimes when they're.
Concerned about investing in coaching is particularly for coaches. It's like, how can you possibly ask somebody to invest in you as a coach if you're not willing to invest in a coach for yourself?
And there are there are different coaches for different seasons. I've been, as I said, in business for almost 24 years and in that 24 years, there's been about two to three years. If I add up the months that I haven't had some kind of a coach.
And all different kinds of coaches from life coaches to specific tactic coaches. I had a a Facebook ads coach for three years, for instance, but have always had someone that I could.
Use as a as a sounding board, and that I could use to you know, prop me up when I needed propping up because we all do right and to celebrate successes. That's something we don't do enough of someone to remind you to celebrate your successes. One of the things I do with my coaching calls is every coaching call. I start with the question what are you?
Already today.
Yeah.
And I do it because as entrepreneurs, we're always about what's next, and we forget to celebrate the successes along the way. And when we just take the time to celebrate the successes, it's amazing how that helps us want to go for the next thing.
It really is and.
It's it's the whole hustle culture thing. Yeah. You know, we're here to have a life, not.
Yep it is.
To work ourselves to death.
Exactly. Exactly, boy. Hallelujah. You're preaching to the choir.
On that one.
So I know that you offer a a freedom Finder checklist. Do you want to tell? Tell the audience about that a little bit.
Absolutely. So no surprise since our conversation that I am all about you being able to build a lifestyle that gives you the freedom and flexibility to.
Live the life you want with.
And so I developed the Freedom Finder checklist to help you to see in different areas of your life in your business, what are the things that you're already strong in and what are the things that you may need to shore up or get some support around in order to truly build that that freedom lifestyle. So it doesn't take you all that long to, to, to complete.
It's kind of a self-assessment, if you will, but it helps you kind of know where to start next. So I'd love to give that to everyone and and.
You know, give yourself the gift of really taking a step back. It's also a great place to start.
And building your vision.
Yeah. And if you haven't built your vision yet, today is a great day to start.
It absolutely is. It absolutely is.
We are always creating the reality that we're living and if you don't.
Choose one carefully. One will be provided for you.
Why isn't that the?
Truth might not like.
It. Yes, exactly. Be careful. The choices you make or don't.
Yeah, mostly the choices you don't make consciously. So, Sherry, this has been a great chatting with you. What's the one thing you would like to leave the audience with?
Right, yes.
Today.
Well, there's so many.
My.
Party thought would be a reminder that you are a gift.
And as we talked earlier, each of us was put on this earth. I firmly believe this to leave the Earth a better place.
And to share the gift that we were given that you were uniquely qualified to share with other people.
And to remember that you also deserve to be compensated for that gift that if your desire is to turn that gift into a business, that there is a way that you can do.
Do it and you don't have to do your business. Excuse me. Do your gift as a hobby that you can turn that gift into a business and allow it to be the vehicle that lets you live the lifestyle you want to live while you make a difference with how many people you want to make a difference with.
That's perfect. So how do people get in touch?
With you.
They could always contact me through LinkedIn. It's Sherry kaufeld. It's my LinkedIn handle and they can go to my.website@resultspartner.com or I'm sure you'll put the link to the freedom Finder assessment in the show notes in there, there, there will be a link there to get.
In touch with.
As well.
Awesome. Thanks for joining me today.
You are very welcome. I enjoyed it thoroughly.