Hey Reader,

Now that we are back and recovered from my vulnerability hangover, we are picking up on the last two lessons on the list! But before that - how the hell are YOU!?

I am in LOVE with fall. I can't tell you how happy I am for cooler temperatures. All of my New York City dreams are finally coming true! (now that I'm not a sweaty little soup dumpling just trying to survive the humidity I can DO things and appreciate them!)

This weekend we are going to go upstate for the first time and I am totally and completely amped about it! 🍁 🍂 I have wanted a fall on the east coast since college and now I finally get it!!

I hope that you are making your fall season dreams come true too! (and if not, what are you waiting for? lets get after it!)

Today In the Rebellion

• 10 Lessons I've Learned from my coaching business, #9: Other People Don’t Know You like YOU Know You
• Notes & Quotes To Noodle On
• Am I living out my purpose?

It's hard to believe that WholeYOUniversity has been shut down now for 2 months. It feels more distant than that and it also feels like I am supposed to go log into slack and check on everyone right now.

But regardless of the time since WholeYOU has been here, I am still reminded daily of the lessons that I have learned from the evolution of running my health coaching biz for 5 years. There are two big lessons left that I want to share with you.

This is lesson #9: ‘Other People Don’t Know You like YOU Know You

Aka breaking branding rules for your biz

I’m going to be so honest. This lesson was probably one of the hardest to learn. It goes up there with the first one that I shared in this series - that someone else has the ‘right answer’

This was one that I would have loved to learn the FIRST time around, and not have to invest multiple times before I figured it out. 🤦🏻‍♀️

When I started my health coaching business and I wanted to create an image - or a brand - I mean we all do. That is part of the point of doing this all on social media.

We want to create a brand that our future clients will resonate with, where they can see everything that we will teach them, understand it clearly and what makes us perfect for them.

This ended up being much easier said than done for me, and the truth was, that it didn’t HAVE to be that hard.

The reason why this didn’t work for me was the way that I went about creating my brand. I started by looking at other health coaches in the space.

Harmless, yes.

BUT I looked at them and thought - wow, they obviously are doing it right, they look so put together, and clean, and they have clients - I must need to do it like them.

That is where I went wrong.

Thinking that I needed to do it ‘like them’ to get it right.

I started becoming like other people’s coaching businesses and I was actively putting myself into a box 📦 of how to show up.

The words I started using weren’t my own, the poses I started doing weren’t how I would stand normally, the outfits I started wearing were mimicking other big coaches - it changed what I actually wore to the gym so that I could get IG friendly pictures.

In reality, I started CREATING an identity based on what I thought it 🚩SHOULD 🚩 be instead of just showing MY IDENTITY or who I already was.

Of course now looking back I know that isn’t what the world needs of me, the world already has those other people who I was dressing like and posing like and talking like. The world needed a me to be different than all of them for my person.

But, I didn’t get it then.

So when I went to do the business thing and talk to a designer about branding Whole Human - about getting a color palette, making my website, getting a logo etc it went in a direction that wasn’t truly me.

When I went through the questionnaire with the designer about my business the things that I told her weren't ME. They were based off of other coaches.

I ended up with BEAUTIFUL branding, truly beautiful. But something that is beautiful doesn’t mean that it translates who I am, what I offer, and what I stand for.

It didn’t exude my energy or did it show how I truly coached my clients and the experience they would get with me.

It was all very soft, and light - and oh man, if you have been around me you know that is NOT me. I am electric and fun and high speed. ⚡️

Because I didn’t stick to myself - I could not help the branding person create what I truly needed.

And I didn’t stick to myself because I was looking at what the rules were:

🚩 How a health coach was supposed to show up

🚩 What they were supposed to look like

🚩 And what colors represented the things I was supposed to stand for.

And that wasn’t the only time - I had a couple more dips into branding after that.

Not until after some great coaching by my coach, did I realize WHO I was as a coach that was different and did I realize how I needed to show up in that way. THAT was when my branding was truly fitting with what I did in the health industry and Jon helped me to create a brand around that.

And that is when I felt seen and understood in what I was doing too.

So if I could go back and do it again - here is what I would do differently.

First - I would just WAIT. You don't need a brand in the very beginning, especially if you are working on social media, it is NOT worth the money or brain confusion to try to figure it out when you are starting.

Once you start moving in biz, you will learn what your brand is.

You will see what makes you different and special - your specific skills will start to show as you work with your clients. What you do will continue to evolve and refine - and I really don’t think branding is necessary to invest heavily in until you have had some refinement.

Second - I would go back and watch me and my biz and my clients deeper. So much of branding that I have done was surface level.

What I’ve learned is that the best branding and marketing MEANS something to you and to the person who is watching/reading/seeing/absorbing it.

So I would look for the deeper meaning of it all. 🔎 And if you are a newer people leader - I would urge you to do that too.

Thats what hits. And thats what will be YOU. Which is the number one most important thing.

And that is how I discovered the rebel piece to what we did in health, and what we do on the podcast, and what we do in this newsletter.

No matter what I am looking at - I am breaking the standard rule and making my own - and urging you to do the same.

But I could only find that when I looked on a deeper level to what my clients and I were doing together when we worked together.

And you can find that for you too.

And I wouldn’t go paying or branding until you do.

P.s. super proud plug - my husband now does deep world building and branding for cool peeps. You can check out his IG here. Give him a follow, and after you have been in your biz for a while, maybe he can help you out!

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Listen to this learning (with more detail and commentary) on the podcast:

Notes & Quotes To Noodle On 🧠

A book I read TWICE that is again on my re-read list now that I have a new biz to think about is Building a Story Brand, by Donald Miller.

This book is all about creating the story in which you will share to show your ideal client what you can do for them, how you can do it with them, and what they will get after working with you. But I think that if you don't have a biz and you are working on creating a brand on social - you can do the exact same thing for what you want to create for people/guide people in with your page.

It really is about creating the story of the client journey.

In the book they share that we learn the best from stories because they are 'sense-makers' to us. They help us feel seen, heard and understood - so it makes sense that we would use them to share what we do in a story so that our clients can feel seen, heard and understood.

One of my favorite points that Donald Miller stresses is that our clients are the HERO and we are the guide. This matches my personal philosophy of giving ownership to our clients during the coaching process and us not being the person with all the answers - and he has you start that in your marketing.

He says that our audience has to know:

1️⃣ Who the hero is

2️⃣ What they want

3️⃣ What they have to defeat to get it

4️⃣ What will happen if they don't do that

5️⃣ And what will happen if they do

- that is the story that we have to tell.

I also LOVE that he points out this: What we are saying and what they are hearing are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. We have to make sure that our message is clear.

If our audience is confused - they will tune us out - and so as Miller says - you confuse, you lose.

We need to tell the story of how our product guides our client away from a life they don't want to live and into a life they DO want to live. And it needs to be clear and digestible.

Test your message by having your parent (or someone who doesn't know all the things about your biz) answer these questions for you:

• What do I offer?
• How will it make your life better?
• What do you need to do to buy it?

If your person can't answer those question based on a quick glance at your IG/a one pager you give them - then we have some clarifying to do!

Am I living out my purpose?

After creating Coaches College, I have been reflecting a lot on living my purpose and what living my purpose means.

And one thing that I know about me is that talking about how people learn, how we can help people be the best humans possible, and helping hundreds of people do that - is my purpose. 👩🏻‍🏫 🧠 🤓

When I was teaching I knew that, and I was living it. I knew that each kid that went through my classroom was going to become a better citizen of our global community because they were in my room. I knew that every teacher I taught would only make that effect ripple out wider.

Then, when I was running WholeYOUniversity - it honestly didn't feel the same and I struggled with it. I was doing great work, and important work. I was helping people live better lives for sure. But it felt like a step away - just one step outside - of my actual purpose.

So being back in this realm. Where I feel like I am directly working on creating better humans - and helping more coaches create better humans, this I know is my true calling.

It makes me wonder for you, do you think you are living in your true purpose? Do you think that what you are doing in the world is exactly what you were meant to? Is there something else that nags at you inside - like getting back into a more educational field did for me?

If so, please, take my journey as a sign, to take a step in that direction.

🏆 This journey is so rewarding.

If you are already walking your purpose - celebrate that! It's no small feat to do and stick with.

I would love to hear from you about your purpose! Hit reply and share with me - what do you think your true purpose on this planet?

Later Alligator,

Kayla

p.s. there are TWO ways to work with me.

1: Coaches College is my signature coaching skills program where I teach coaches autonomy based coaching strategies that will get their clients better and faster results and get the coach more money while doing it. You can get on the waitlist HERE!​

2: Want to get my hands on your brain, business and life? Hit reply and inquire about 1:1 coaching availability.

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