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 Kimberly Spencer. Kim is a High Performance Coach and CEO of Crown Yourself Enterprises.
NCA: Can you describe your coaching practice and the kinds of clients you typically work with?
Kim: My coaching practice has evolved over the course of the past 5 years. I started as a body image and wellness coach because I paired that with my Pilates business back in 2014. Then it evolved more into mindset coaching. What I recognized through 10 years of teaching Pilates and owning my own private studio was that it was never about whether somebody was too technically fat or technically thin or if somebody works out 5 times a day or didn’t work out at all or if they ate healthy or they didn’t. What influenced how people saw their bodies and how they experience the world was their mindset. That got me radically fascinated with mindset.
I shifted from body image and wellness diving deep into just mindset coaching, NLP, Time Line Therapy and hypnosis, asking the question “How do we really go to town on somebody’s subconscious mind? How do we look at the past programming and past patterns and determine how those patterns are impacting not just their bodies but their relationships — their relationships with money, their business, their relationship with their kids, their health or spirituality? How can we see those patterns? That’s what got me totally shifted and up leveled my coaching business.
I then added on High Performance Coaching: working specifically with high achievers who are creative, visionary leaders. They desire to stand out in their industry. They want to make an impact. They have such a heart for service and they struggle so much with the disease to please and self-sabotage, whether that’s via their own mindset or from their habits. That’s what we really dive into working on. That’s been the evolution of my coaching process.
NCA: It sounds like you shifted your career from Pilates to coaching when you were able to pinpoint more precisely what the core of the issue was for most clients — namely, their mindset.
Kim: Yes. I came to Pilates looking for help just like I dove into mindset coaching looking for help back in 2015/2016. When I came to Pilates, it was because I was struggling. I was about 6 or 7 years into an eating disorder and Pilates was the first form of exercise that I had found that made me feel really good about my body. Like Seneca says, “While you teach you learn.” The more I started to teach, the more I started to see that A) I wasn’t alone in my struggle and B) as I was being more open and vulnerable and sharing what I was learning, I was actually learning faster and I was role modeling the way for my clients that were about six months behind me in how they perceive their bodies.
All of my clients go through a round of personality tests to get a holistic picture as to how they make decisions. Not just what motivates them, which is more DISC®, but how they make buying decisions, how they influence and persuade with the BANK personality test. I also use Myers Briggs to see where their strengths are, whether they’re an Introvert or Extrovert, Judge or Perceiver, a thinker or a feeler — how do they really experience the world? By using all of those tests, I get a very clear picture.
And it’s crazy because when I surveyed all of my private clients, it turns out they were all pretty much the same psychologically. There were a few variances but for the most part, they crave significance. They desire to make an impact on the world and they want to stand out. They’ve just been told or have past programming that said that they shouldn’t want that, so I help unlock that pattern and that programming so they can stand out as a leader. I use a lot of personality tests in my coaching to not only give me an idea of how to market, but also how to serve my clients within a coaching session with them.
I don’t really believe in niching by demographics. I have male clients. I have female clients. I market to psychology.
The habits that have made [a client’s] relationship successful could also be practiced in their business. The problem is we think that it’s a different thing — that because it’s business or because it’s marriage, the things that made you successful in other areas are suddenly radically different and you have to do other things. And that’s not true.
NCA: What kind of degree or certifications did you need to complete, if any?
Kim: When I started doing wellness and body image coaching, I didn’t have anything but my Pilates certificate and the knowledge of what I had been through from a 10-year battle with bulimia and the experience that I had working with literally hundreds of bodies and hundreds of people. Because as much as we’d be discussing the body and the kinesthetics of movement, we would be talking about body image and how it feels.
This is what my upcoming book, Mind Full Meals: How to Dethrone Food Fears and Reign in a Body the Rules, is all about. How do you actually program your body on a physiological level to be able to start recognizing the mindset shift and changes that you’re having?
Tony Robbins says, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” It really does come down to that. I tell my clients who are newer coaches “Look at the whole picture of how this behavior is showing up in their relationships.” Or maybe they’ve mastered that behavior in their relationship and that’s a behavior that they can then take into another area of their life. The habits that have made their relationship successful could also be practiced in their business. The problem is we think that it’s a different thing — that because it’s business or because it’s marriage, the things that made you successful in other areas are suddenly radically different and you have to do other things in other areas. And that’s not true.
I came up with the idea for Crown Yourself Coaching back in 2014 when I was on my honeymoon. Prior to that I had been bought out of my first E-commerce company that I was a co-owner of. Literally three weeks before my wedding, we signed the buyout agreement. It was a doozy of a summer dealing with lawyers and things when you’re supposed to be picking out napkins and the cake. It’s definitely taught me a lot and I’m very grateful for the experience. When coaching businesses that are going through a buyout or going through team issues, it helps to know how to coach them around that on an empathetic level. Going through it was not pleasant, but I’m very grateful for the experience.
I was so scared because being bought out of my first company, it made me so doubtful of my ability. I doubted everything. I doubted my capability. There were some things said through lawyers that really shook the foundation of all the beliefs that I held: the fears of not being enough, the fears of being worthy, etc. I was stymied on taking action with my coaching business because I had all these beliefs of “No one’s going to take me seriously, no one understands what Crown Yourself is. What do I think it is? How would anybody follow this if I don’t even know what it is?” It took a couple of years of trial and error. Lot of errors, lots of failures to figure it out.
Then I got pregnant. I realized that I could still have my Pilates studio, but I just wasn’t happy with doing that level of teaching and keeping it very focused into the body rather than going all in on mindset and what is really driving people. Once I found out I was pregnant, I knew I couldn’t not go forward.
What was funny though, was I was literally on the phone a week before I found out I was pregnant with the woman who would later become my coach. We were talking about an NLP certification and Time Line Therapy Hypnosis, and about figuring out the strategies that had made me successful in overcoming an eating disorder but how can I get out of my own way when it came to business. At that time, I was charging $100 a month for coaching for 4 sessions. Ouch! My self-worth was shot to pieces back then. I was trying to figure out what was stopping me? I now know.
Even though I was on the phone with her, I was unsure, I was in debt back then and I knew I really wanted to do it. I knew I really wanted to go all in and I really wanted to sign up for it and it would be a benefit. Then I found out that I was pregnant and I was like, “I can not NOT learn this.” And literally within two weeks, I was driving across from L.A. to Vegas to go get certified in NLP Time Line Therapy and Hypnosis that it changed my life.
Literally a month or so after I went through certification and was working my coach, I had my first $2000 month, then it went to $5K, then $10k and it’s just been great from there. It shows you why the mindset is so freaking powerful because we’re the only ones that are holding ourselves back.
And what was even better was my clients were seeing greater results – hitting their first $10k months, getting engaged, leaving crappy relationships, landing their dream job and a $12,000 raise, one even hit half a million in sales in the year she worked with me! Now, that’s the power of a high-performing mindset.
I see clients come to me with their limiting beliefs, with their fears, with their shame, with the things that they’ve been holding on to for so long. And when they finally have a breakthrough that changes everything, it is like fire.
NCA: What do you think initially got you interested in wanting to coach?
Kim: I think one of the things that kind of guided me to be a coach was the fact that I grew up with an addict. I say regularly that I grew up with 4 dads. Same person, 4 very different personalities. I had the alcoholic dad who was an asshole. I had the painkiller dad. I had the stoner dad who was pretty laid back. And then I had my dad who is just a really awesome guy. He just had his own demons and his own stuff that he needed to deal with.
The thing though that I’ve seen with kids who either have been abused or kids who grow up with an addict is that there is a hesitation. It’s not necessarily long but there’s a moment of observation before engagement. If you don’t know who you’re going to be dealing with then you hold back. You observe behavior first. I learned sensory acuity at a very young age to learn, “Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t engaged right now.” Sometimes I would just because I’m a challenger. Not really the best choice for a 5-year-old. [laughing]
One of my skill sets that I do believe that I learned from my upbringing was that I see people’s highest and best. I saw my dad as the amazing father that he was when he was sober. He did extraordinary things. We had such a great time together when he was sober and I saw him at his highest and best. And that was a skillset that I was able to take into my business.
I see clients come to me with their limiting beliefs, with their fears, with their shame, with the things that they’ve been holding on to for so long. And when they finally have a breakthrough that changes everything, it is like fire. It is like suddenly they are that rocket ship. They just launch. And a rocket ship takes about 80% of its fuel to get up into the atmosphere. It’s like the whole time that we’ve been working together, it’s like burning, burning, burning and then suddenly, it lifts up off the ground. That moment is so powerful because I see them step into the fullest of their powers.
I worked with one of my clients through some massive sexual abuse that he had been through. In a year, I have seen the most beautiful smile on my Facebook feed! He has transformed by choice because he took ownership. He’s moved forward with his own choices. He just needed to choose and take ownership. He needed to choose habits to lean into instead of ones that he felt he was just given. That, for me, is everything. I tell my clients that I am a warrior for possibility because I do believe that it is possible.
NCA: That’s amazing, thank you. What is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is just starting out in their coaching career?
Kim: One thing I frequently tell new coaches is to raise your prices. [laughing]
Here’s why: Coaches get caught up in this perception of worth. “Oh, I need to charge what I’m worth and I don’t feel like I’m worth $1000 a month.”
Ask yourself: what is the process that you’re putting them through? Even back when I was doing body image and wellness coaching and way undercharging, I still had a process that I was putting them through that was the same process that got me into my own healing. It was a process of being able to ditch the food rules, of asking yourself “What does food really mean to you?” There was a process that I had. By having a process and by creating a process, you have something to put trust into. It’s no longer that you’re selling You; you’re selling a process.
That’s why I love the Certified High Performance Coaching process that I work my clients through. That’s why I love the process of Time Line Therapy, of NLP, of hypnosis that I merge in with Certified High Performance Coaching because it is a holistic process that I put them through. There are things that I know that we will be doing on session 12 regardless of of whether or not they had a bad day that day.
Having a process — whether you develop it or license it — is a lot easier than selling yourself. Because when you’re selling yourself, you’re going to attach your price here on self-worth and that’s not a really great place to be, especially if you’re just starting out. But if you’re selling a process, it’s a lot easier to start out and then once you sell the process, and experience doing acts of worth – coaching – on a daily basis, it’s then a lot easier to raise your prices as well.
