Our main objective here at the National Coach Academy is to enable aspiring coaches to reach their full professional potential. One of the most effective ways to educate students about the world of coaching is by offering them a window into the world of real, practicing coaches and showing them all the different ways coaches make a difference in the lives of their clients.
We hope today’s interview adds another insightful glimpse into the dynamic world of coaching.
Today we are interviewing Alexis Wendt. Alexis is a Life Strategist, Prosperity Coach, Business Consultant, and Entrepreneur based in Santa Barbara, CA.
NCA: Can you describe your company and the kinds of clients you typically work with?
Alexis: Yes. My company is a self-branded coaching practice and I service — You see, I do two different tracks basically. I have one track where I work with millennials or the quarter-life-crisis clientele. You know, they have been working for a little bit and hitting a point where they’re just not feeling too confident about their future, their finances, relationships and their career. So I help them remove whatever is holding them back and shift their perspective into a healthier attitude in approaching their world.
I have had some really great results with that. That’s actually most of the clients that organically come to me. I use a lot of my spiritual psychology tools combined with my ten years’ of business background experience and Jack Canfield’s Success Principles. So it’s pretty cool what we can achieve in those sessions… a lot of transformation, a lot of growth and some healing work as well.
So the other track – I do business coaching and consulting as well, for women – women doctors specifically, like veterinarians. That one is more in-person. My philosophy is that a business is a direct reflection of the owner. For these clients, I will go into their practice, take a bigger look at what’s going on, diagnose, and we just start working on transforming the owner’s mindset and whole health of the business. So I’ve had success in that direction as well.
So those are the two different segments within my transformational coaching practice.
NCA: What initially got you interested in this career path and what kind of degree or certifications did you need to complete, if any?
Alexis: I would say the universe kind of found me in this career path. It was really funny because I had a big car accident and had a big awakening when I was living in Austin. The next thing I knew… it’s like everything in my soul sent me to the University of Santa Monica for spiritual psychology. I started doing a lot of the deeper inner work, like the psychology tools and the meaning of spirit for life, while leveraging the power of spiritual energy to do the heavy lifting and higher leverage in healing.
Then I worked with a coach first who had graduated from USM I had so much progress and so much transformation. I was just like “I have to do this with people. This is incredible.” It was definitely a calling for me. Everything in me said “Yes, let’s do it”. So, here I am.
I’m certified at the University of Santa Monica from their two-year program, Soul-Centered Living I and then Soul-Centered Living II & Life Mastery. Those are my two certifications from USM where I learned the bulk of how to deeply coach and participate in my own transformation.
I am also certified in Jack Canfield’s Success Principles program. He has a similar background as the USM framework, as well. Then right now I am pursuing getting an ICF certification so that I can work more in the corporate world for businesses. A lot of businesses do require that at this point, which I completely understand. From a business perspective, it’s smart to hire coaches that do have that ICF certification. I feel like they do have good training and standardization in the industry.
You want to be able to set yourself up so that you are feeling abundant at all times, you are growing at all times and if that takes having a support system and a full time job while building this business, then by all means, do it.
NCA: What is the most rewarding part of your career?
Alexis: The most fulfilling thing is just being able to provide a space for somebody while they work through their stuff and the immense amount of gratitude, perception shifts, and freedom that clients experience within that ultimately transfers to their outside experience of life. So that’s incredibly rewarding.
You want to be able to set yourself up so that you are feeling abundant at all times, you are growing at all times and if that takes having a support system and a full time job while building this business, then by all means, do it. You cannot serve from a place of lack – you serve best from a place of abundance.
NCA: What is the most challenging aspect of the work that you do?
Alexis: The most difficult part I feel for me is the expectation of how fast you can build this business and call in the clients. This is an up-and-coming industry but there’s still a very large part of society that doesn’t quite understand what life coaching is or what the value is. We are selling a luxury service at this point. I predict it’ll shift though. Life coaching has the potential to help every single person on the planet move ahead more quickly in their lives to attain their goals, heal, grow, and contribute to whatever the individual’s highest values may be.
The reality is that there are a lot of coaches out there and creating a sustainable business in this industry has a big learning curve. Coming into acceptance of that and shifting my mindset that this is much longer-term game, and coming at it from a place of service has helped. And so, if I can just show up and be of service, it’ll keep growing. It’s teaching me so much about patience, you know? And doing the extra stuff I can do to build out the processes and design a coaching experience for clients can help move the needle forward.
NCA: Can you think of one client or mentor who challenged your beliefs or made you rethink the way you approach your clients or your work?
Alexis: Oh, that’s a fantastic question. I worked with Christina Berkeley in her Hatch program. I hired her as my coach and got to see the inner workings of successful coaching programs, and learned with some grit that you can create a completely boutique client practice. The possibilities are endless when it comes to how you want to design your business.
NCA: What advice would you give someone looking to get started in the career path that you chose?
Alexis: Don’t quit your day job [laughing] – not right away at least and not until your income consistently starts supporting you and replacing it, because when you quit and even if you have a nest egg to work off of, this work likely takes twice as long as what you expect it to – as any MBA program would tell you, as well. You have so much growing to do. It challenges you with so much growth, and just choosing this path, it’ll bring forward everything that you really need to work on yourself. The universe will meet you at the place of taking action and at the same time you don’t want to put yourself in a place of neediness, ever, because you cannot serve from a place of lack – period. You know? You serve best from a place of abundance.
So it’s like you want to be able to set yourself up so that you are feeling abundant at all times, you are growing at all times and if that takes having a support system and a full time job while building this business, then by all means, do it – or start cutting back to part time while doing it. And then you will see the results come forward where you can take those next steps, but it’s worth taking the smaller steps to get there. It’s going to be the smart way of going about this business.
