fbpx

Ep #67: Leaving Behind the Practical Path with Chelsea Wright

Enjoy the Show?

Don’t miss an episode. Follow via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen.

Leave me a review in Apple Podcasts!

I am so excited because I have a brilliant student of mine on the show this week for an interview. You guys know I don’t do tons of interviews, so if I’m bringing someone on for a discussion, that means they have done amazing work in their business and in our work together inside Anything but Average.

Chelsea Wright is an incredible life coach and personal stylist who helps women feel confident in who they are, what they wear, and what they want. Chelsea has been in the same place so many of you are right now, wondering when the right time is to go full-time, knowing there is more out there, and she’s here to share what it takes.

If fear, doubt, or confusion are stopping you from investing all-in on yourself, listen in this week. Chelsea is the perfect example of someone who is 100% willing to keep growing through the mess and evolving at every level, which is exactly why she’s experiencing the kind of success she is today, and I know she’s going to inspire you to get moving too.

If you’re ready to take this work deeper and create your own coaching business, join us in my signature program, Anything but Average. It’s where I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about starting a coaching business, so click here to enroll and I’ll see you on the inside! 

What You'll Learn on this Episode

  • How Chelsea incorporates life coaching and personal styling in her business.
  • Why your style and outward appearance is a reflection of your inner world.
  • How dressing like the next version of you allows you to step into that role faster.
  • Where the journey all began for Chelsea in building the amazing business she has today.
  • How Chelsea decided to leave her corporate job to transition into becoming an entrepreneur.
  • Why Chelsea knew that the time was right for her to join Anything but Average.
  • How working on her thoughts has moved Chelsea forward more than any of the actions she’s taken in her business.
  • What kept Chelsea committed to her goal of starting her business, no matter what, even when things got really difficult.

Featured on the Show

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE

Click to Read Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Anything but Average Podcast where I will teach you how to create a coaching business one step at a time. I’m Lindsey Mango, a life coach passionate about helping you create the life of your wildest dreams by creating a coaching business. Let’s get started.

Lindsey: Hello and welcome back to another week and another episode of Anything but Average. Guys, how are you? I am so excited because I have a brilliant student of mine on for an interview. And you guys know, I don’t do lots of interviews, so if I’m bringing someone on, they have done amazing work in their business and their life and in our work together.

And so, I wanted to introduce Chelsea Wright, a life coach and personal stylist who helps women feel confident in who they are, what they wear, and what they want. So good. Welcome, Chelsea. I’m so excited to have you on the show.

Chelsea: I’m so excited to be on the show. Thank you, Lindsey.

Lindsey: You are welcome. It’s so fun, when I hear life coach and personal stylist, I feel like that is the most fun thing to do ever. Do you just love it?

Chelsea: Yeah. I do love it because I feel like I am working with women in such a way that is just – it’s so impactful. It’s a little bougie. I always give that disclaimer. Like yeah, we’re shopping and whatnot, but we’re also looking at your life and looking at where there’s maybe some dissatisfaction – dissatisfaction, oh my god – dissatisfaction.

Lindsey: I make up words all the tie. It’s fine. We’re good.

Chelsea: I do too. When you become an entrepreneur. It just happens. There’s no way around it. But yeah. It’s helping women in such an intimate way where you really just give them leeway to be in control of what they want. And it’s so empowering for me, but it’s so much more empowering for them. And I’ve been on the receiving end of coaching. I haven’t been on the receiving end of styling, but…

Lindsey: That’s just a gift you have.

Chelsea: Yeah, I know the impact of style and the doors it’s opened for me and the impact that it’s had on my life and just how it’s been able to make me feel and how it’s been able to help me carry myself through life. And so, this work is incredible. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

Lindsey: That’s so good. I love hearing that. Before we jump into the questions, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, but one of my biggest transformations when I first started this work – I mean, I’m really into style too and I love bougie, but there was a point in my life where I was stuck and not really showing up as the woman I wanted to be because I was just kind of on autopilot. And I’ll never forget, I had just hired a coach and I looked down at my outfit that day, and I was at my job, or I think I was reading a personal growth book, and I was like, what is happening?

Because I swear, I just rolled out of bed – which is funny to say now. I can’t even imagine doing this at a job, much less – I dress up at home, like when I work. So I rolled out of bed, m hair’s a crazy mess. I threw on these boots that didn’t even match. I had this weird skirt on. And like, it just doesn’t even look good.

And I realized, the only reason I was getting dressed that way was because I had to dress in business professional clothes and I wasn’t doing it for me. And so, one of the biggest transformations I had was actually first in my style and dressing myself for me and in a way that made me feel really empowered.

So, I just so deeply believe in – I mean, I believe in all the work my students do, but I just felt such an impact on myself and how I showed up and how I carried myself and clothing and style is such a reflection of your inner world. It all is so tied together. So, I think it’s so cool how you incorporate life coaching and personal style all together in one, because I know it made an impact on me.

Chelsea: Yeah, it’s so funny to hear you say that because I remember when I first found you, and it was actually through someone else’s podcast, like a little over two years ago. And I thought you were so stylish. Truly. And I thought I love how she talks about how she puts herself together so she can embody million-dollar entrepreneur Lindsey. Like, I love that she talks about this.

And I even shared something you put on your story once where you were saying that, dressing like the version of me that I want to become, or dressing like the next version of me that’s making a million-plus a year. I’m like, yes, because that was my messaging at the time. It’s like, dress for the woman you want to be. And it’s so true that, like, dressing yourself in a way that represents who you are and just what you want for yourself, it allows you to step into that faster.

Because it’s all about embodiment and it’s also about permission to put yourself in that place. And when you take the time to take care of your appearance, your energy shifts so much. I mean, I watch my clients, when I’m in the fitting room with them, I watch them put something on that they love, and I mean, I don’t even have to say anything.

Lindsey: I have chills.

Chelsea: I know. I have chills too. I just look at them and I watch how they look at themselves and they just feel so good and it’s like I’ve changed their whole world and their whole perspective of themselves just because I’ve put them in an outfit that actually fits, that actually they like, and that feels like true to them and true to the style that they want to create.

A lot of people would say that working with a stylist, it’s superficial, it’s something that only the celebrities need and this and that. But truly, it’s not even so much about me helping women look good, but more so about helping them feel their best.

Lindsey: So good, I have chills. Okay, so this is where you are now, this is what you’re doing for women now. But I want to take it back to the beginning of your journey and becoming an entrepreneur, becoming a stylist first, and then adding in coaching, where did this all begin?

Chelsea: Okay, so let’s take this back three and a half years, maybe more like three years. I can’t do the math, but it was like September 2018, I was working in my insurance job full-time, nine to five. And I was trying to figure out what I really wanted to do for me.

I was actually in an MBA program that I didn’t want to be in. I was doing it because my parents told me it was a good idea to do because my job was going to pay for it. And so, I was like one or two classes in and I thought I am going to start a fashion blog, because I really like style and this is just going to be something that I do that I can enjoy. Because everything in my life right now is about working and doing and performing and I just want something that feels good to me that I can just thrive in and not have any expectations from.

So, I started this fashion page on Instagram and I was just talking about different pieces in my closet, how to style them for summer, and where they’re from. And I remember doing a little photoshoot with one of my friends who is a photographer. And I remember it being just like my whole world had changed.

I had this epiphany like this is it, this is what I want to be doing. And then I’m telling you, a few months later, I was so caught up in my schoolwork and I kind of had put the Instagram page – I kind of had let it fall down by the wayside because I was so busy with work and school. And I remember being in my kitchen – well not my kitchen. I was at my parents’ house – being in their kitchen and my god-mom was in town and I was just chatting with my mom and my god-mom about what I had going on with work and school and with my Instagram stuff and thinking about how I would love to change careers. Like yeah, I know I’m getting an MBA right now and everything is set up perfectly. I’m like the poster child…

Lindsey: The boxes are all checked, right? You’re doing it all right.

Chelsea: Right, like no debt, got my nine to five got my MBA going, like yeah I’m doing all of this. But also, I’m thinking about quitting my job altogether and doing a job in fashion. And I am telling you, literally, the idea popped into my head right then and there that I wanted to become a stylist.

And I didn’t know any personal stylists. I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. And I was like, I know this probably sounds crazy, but I really think this could work. And you know, maybe I don’t become a full-time personal stylist just yet, but I do it on the side and just kind of dabble in this because this feels exciting to me. I love fashion, I love working with people, and to mesh the two together, that sounds like the perfect career for me.

And I remember my mom being very honest with me about what she thought of that. And of course she said, you know, that sounds great but don’t let your job go. That’s supporting you and maybe once you get married you can actually think about doing that full-time.

And I will never forget her telling me this. And you know, at the time I was kind of insulted that she would say that. And now I look back and I think that is actually the way a lot of women think, not just even moms, but women, like, well once I have the husband to support me, I can actually do what I want.

And sidenote, Lindsey, I actually had that thought myself that, well, okay maybe she is right that I should just wait until I have a husband who has a stable job who can just take care of me and I can do what I want and I won’t have to figure all of this out on my own. But me being sort of the rebel that I am – and this is why I was so pulled to you because I heard you talking about this same thing on a podcast.

You were talking about how you viewed your job as like an investor in your business. I had to keep that mentality myself because I was ready at one point to just up and quit and I had like two clients. And I was like, you know, I can make this work. I’ve got savings. Like, I can just – I’m ready to just try it. I’m ready to just quit.

And so, I did. I quit my job after having made like, I’m telling you, no more than $3000 in my business. And I was just going to figure it out. And I was like, I’m going to move to LA and live off my savings as long as I need to and I think there’s more of a market out there for this. And so, that was going to be the plan, to move out to LA, jobless, and build my styling business.

Well, my parents were not into that, of course. And I had no support. So, I would think about it and just think about how I could make it work and I was looking at apartments and the rent in LA and I thought, there is no way I can make that work.

So, long story short, I ended up getting my job back and asking for a relocation out to Orange County. And I felt like a dog with my tail between my legs asking for my job back. I felt like such an idiot. I felt like they were probably like, “Yeah, told you so.” Because I told them what I was doing. I told them that I was doing styling and I was taking it full-time. And of course they supported me, but I’m sure they had doubts, like who does she think she is? She’s just going to go build a styling business in LA and be successful…

And of course, me being naïve about it, I just believed that it could happen. But I ended up going back to work, put in a year, and I quit again last year in the middle of the pandemic and I hired a life coach, a one on one life coach in, let’s see, July of last year. And we worked together for six months and met weekly for an hour. And I didn’t know what to expect from this journey of working with a life coach. I just knew I needed some help beyond the business coaching that I was getting and being in a mastermind group with other stylists. There was just other stuff in my life that I needed help with, like when it came to my relationships, with my family, and just kind of my belief in myself.

And I didn’t even know this at the time, but I struggled a lot with feeling good enough and I had so much coaching around this that I realized why I wasn’t really making money last year. And a lot of it had to do with just me feeling like I wasn’t good enough and, like, when I have that thought, I’m not good enough to sign clients or to have my own thriving business, that was showing up in my results. I wasn’t really signing clients.

And things changed in December of 2020. I was so impacted by my life coach and the coaching she gave me that I decided I wanted to add life coaching to my styling business. And I ran the idea past her. She loved it.

I remember, I attended one of your masterclasses and, I think I didn’t sign up right away, but I had followed you for well over a year and I just always loved your take on living life to the fullest, never settling, going after what you really want and not falling into society’s standard of what is right and what you should be doing.

And so, I signed up for Anything but Average in January of 2021 and it’s so funny because that weekend that I signed up, I signed up on a Sunday, I was sitting on the couch journaling and I didn’t really have a plan to sign up. Something in me was like, “I’m ready to join Lindsey’s program. I need this.”

It was perfectly geared toward what I was getting ready to do, with adding life coaching to my business. And I also wanted to get in on your marketing – what was it? 15 days to sign your first client. I was like, I need to get in that. I need my first life coaching client.

And so, I signed up for Anything but Average. I got my first official life coaching client, I think definitely within two weeks because I signed her up in that 15 days to your first client, but I signed up a few days into that.

So, I signed up my first life coaching client within a couple weeks of joining Anything but Average and I remember just being so sure one day that I was going to get a client that day. It was weird. I just knew within that someone was coming. And ironically it was one of my good friends. But it was perfect because – not that she was looking for a life coach, but she just had a lot going on where she needed someone to talk to. And so, we decided that we were going to coach and I was going to support her, you know, in a paid life coaching capacity.

Lindsey: So good, two weeks, what?

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lindsey: Anyway, do you have more to add because I want to take it back really quick because I have a couple questions about your journey.

Chelsea: Yeah, ask away.

Lindsey: Love it. So, when you first took – first of all, that is amazing. And it’s so funny, I remember your name popping up like when you enrolled and I was so excited and then you joined and you just signed a client two weeks in. I’m like, “Who is this girl? So good.”

Okay, so I’m going to take it back to when you first had this idea of I want to be a stylist and your family wasn’t really onboard with it and you quit your job and then you went back, but you kept going, right? Even though you had some doubt and you were kind of offended by their thoughts about your goal and dream, you still stayed committed to it. What helped you through that? Because I think that’s something a lot of people struggle with is they look to their family, they look to their spouse, they look to the support of other people to believe in their own dreams.

And it always has to start with you, which I think that’s kind of the journey of realizing that. And I want to know, how did you stay so committed to that at the time, even though you had every reason to be like, “You know what? I’m on this path, I could just keep going. This is what I should be doing.” What made you continue to take that risk and stay focused on your ultimate dream?

Chelsea: You mean when I went back to work?

Lindsey: Yeah, either way, just kind of throughout the process, you had the dream, you left the job, you went back to the job, and you still stayed committed to your dream. And I want to point out – so first, through that whole process. But I also want to point out, I think a lot of people think they have to leave their job right away to actually have a business, but I highly recommend – not for everyone. It depends on your situation. But I recommend building it while you stay at your job so you can build your belief and build your clientele. So, I just think it’s really cool to hear about your story, how you left, went back, but you still stayed committed to your dream. You never really just let it completely fall by the wayside. What kept you so committed to that? What were you thinking when you had this doubt and outside doubt and all of these things happen?

Chelsea: So, I actually was thinking about how amazing is it that I get to move to California and build up my dream business there and have a paycheck behind it. Like, there were a lot of times where I got frustrated with work and I was feeling like this isn’t for me, I don’t want to be doing this. But I just want back to that thought of, “Okay, this is helping me get to where I want to be. This isn’t forever,” and I just had to go to a place of gratitude, of appreciating the money that I was making at my job that was supporting me to build up this business that I really wanted to have.

And I had made a decision that when I went back, I was going to put in a year. With relocation, they require you 12 months with the company, otherwise you have to pay it back. And so, I set a date of, like, when I was going to resign again and take my business full-time.

And let me tell you, the pandemic hit, and of course, that was completely unexpected. And I had all these hopes and dreams of meeting all these people right away when I moved and signing clients. But then March of 2020, the world shut down and I had to figure out how to take my business virtual. And I wasn’t expecting to have to do that and I had to learn how to work with clients virtually and how to still support them and give them that near-similar in-person experience except over Zoom.

And I still kept going at it as if that was the only thing supporting me. I was committed to posting like five days a week minimum and I was like in peoples DMs, which I don’t DM people anymore. I stopped doing that. But I was doing whatever it took to build my business while working so that I could get to a point where I was able to leave the job.

And I ended up – I left before I replaced my income. I didn’t replace my income and then leave the job. But I took the necessary steps to lay out my expenses and budget and all of that to know how much I needed to be making every month to support myself.

So, I didn’t just up and quit like I did the first time, willy-nilly like, “I quit, it’s over.” There was some strategy behind it. I had a plan. I knew my numbers. So, it was different. But let me tell you, when I quit the second time, there wasn’t just a magic wand waved where, okay, Chelsea quit her job, pour in the clients.

And that’s where the coaching came in because I had to learn that doing a whole bunch wasn’t getting me as far as having the thoughts to support my belief in what I do and why people are batshit crazy for not working with me.

Lindsey: Yes.

Chelsea: Like that, right there, was the secret ingredient to having a successful business, having the thoughts to support my belief in myself and thinking in a way that creates positive feelings of empowerment and self-belief and confidence to get me to a result of making money in my business.

And I feel like I learned that later than – if I had learned that earlier, I would have been making more money faster. But I had to undo all of this conditioning around you have to do, do, do and just run yourself into the ground, doing all this stuff and hustling to create a successful business. I had that mentality for well over a year.

And then I learned, it’s not about what you’re doing. Yes, that’s a part of it, but what you’re thinking is what comes first. And if I’m taking empty action and posting on Instagram every day but I don’t believe people should buy from me, then nobody’s going to buy from me.

Lindsey: Yes, was that one of the big shifts you made when you joined ABA and the work – because that’s the foundation of what I teach in starting your coaching business. And I’m very action-oriented too, so learning this was such profound work, which is why I tach it, because it’s so easy to think it has to be a grind, you have to exhaust yourself, you just have to hustle. There’s a lot of that culture out there too teaching us that. And there’s just such a better way to do it.

And I think obviously we find the things we need at the perfect time and you came in already having your styling business and adding in coaching. But I think it’s so fun to hear that you say that because ultimately the program is to help people start coaching businesses. And while we have lots of people join who already started, I love that we lay the foundation of that in such a rock-solid way so that people don’t start off, for the next three years, burning themselves out, running themselves into the ground.

It’s like you’re really building it off of beliefs that are going to serve you and build a business that isn’t just going to – you can only keep up with or six months. It’s something that you can build on over and over and over again for years and years to come and continue to create more impact, more clients, more money without overexerting yourself and just pushing through it.

Chelsea: Right, exactly.

Lindsey: So, there was one other thing I was going to ask you about with your story. Oh, well, why was this so important? There was this hungriness inside of you. You could have easily just, again, kept on with the same route. What did you have to remember or what was the thing that you thought about the most that made this something that you were committed to no matter what?

Chelsea: What had me committed to this? So, I mean, I knew when I – even when I first started working right out of college, I knew that I wasn’t going to be there for long and I didn’t want to work a job that I hated for 40 years until I finally got to that retirement age and could actually live my life.

I wanted to build something for myself. I wanted to have flexibility with my schedule. I wanted freedom to be able to travel when I want and not have to get permission or worry about not having enough vacation days if I want to go on a trip or, you know, see my family. I just wanted freedom. I wanted freedom in my life. I wanted financial freedom.

And I had a coach for over a year who is a personal stylist ad I just saw the life that she’s been able to create for herself in building her own business up. And I saw what was possible. And the same with you. I followed you and I watch your stories and how you would talk about basically everything I just talked about with having the freedom and the flexibility when you have your own thing going where you’re able to work from anywhere and your income is unlimited and you get to support people and change their lives.

I knew that that was what I wanted. And so, I just reminded myself of that and it was a nonnegotiable to just keep going and do what I needed to do, like one thing every day just to move me along and help me progress up to that ultimate goal of being free and being able to live my life fully. That was the goal, to just live fully and go down my own path.

Lindsey: That’s so good. The reason why I wanted to hit on that is I think, so often, I call it amnesia, like our brains, they want to stay comfortable. Then it’s almost like amnesia. We forget why our dream is important. We get caught up in the day to day.

And so, I’m always curious because there always has to be something that you are so hungry for that you’re willing to go through all of that discomfort, all the family not agreeing, going back to your job and having to deal with that. It’s like the desire for the thing you want has to be so much bigger than all of that. And everybody has that. They’re just not always paying attention to it. And so, I always think it’s fun to hear, like, what really drives all of you guys. Because that’s the same thing for me.

I just hit that point too where I was like, there was nothing scarier honestly to me, like anything I have to do, any discomfort I have to go through, there’s nothing scarier than sitting at a job that I hate for the rest of my life and wasting away. That is the scariest thing I could think of. And that pushed me so hard, and it sounds like you are the same way too.

Chelsea: Oh, absolutely. I remember telling my mom, I don’t want to sleepwalk through my life and do this every day. I cannot imagine having to wake up and do this for the rest of my life. I mean, and not to say that working a nine to five your whole career is bad. But when you know it’s not for you, you know. And you really can’t get yourself to do it because everything in you is just fighting it. And it’s like…

Lindsey: It’s screaming. It’s like, no, don’t do it.

Chelsea: Yes. And I remember reading Jen Sincero’s book, it was either You’re a Badass or You’re a Badass at Making Money where she talks about this. When you force yourself to do things that you don’t want to do, it feels – I forget how she phrased it. It feels like energy draining. It just sucks everything out of you. And you don’t do your best because you don’t want to do it.

Lindsey: That’s so good. So I think your story’s really cool because you had a business before coming into ABA. You were a stylist and then you wanted to add in coaching. But I think what’s so cool about it is that you went through kind of the process ahead of time in a way. Obviously, you learned the belief in the change your life portion of the program and bringing that into your business and offering coaching to other people.

But you also went through that process of using coaching tools to change your life and get your own results and see that transformation. How did that play a role in you wanting to add in coaching and your belief in your ability to help other people?

Chelsea: Well, I will say that I’ve never done so much thought work in my life as when I started life coaching with styling. Because I am my own client first and foremost. And I have to be willing to look at what’s going on in my mind. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

And that part of it, yes, it’s uncomfortable, but it is necessary. And I’ve just learned that feeling your feelings is – it’s required in this work. And I hear people knocking life coaches, like my cousin made fun of me for being a life coach and just saying I was scamming people for money.

But people have no idea what life coaches actually do and how much of the human brain is a part of the whole coaching experience and how everything starts with your thoughts. But with Anything but Average, with the weekly coaching and the change your life portion, I mean, it’s really made me dig deep and see like, what thoughts are going through my brain that are holding me back and being willing to look at the ugly stuff.

Lindsey: There’s a lot of courage. People don’t realize how much courage it takes to be willing to dig that deep, especially when your brain doesn’t want you to. I always joke, it would rather watch Netflix all day and do nothing, but that’s not where amazing lives are built.

So it takes so much courage and it really is a science of how the brain works and understanding that so that you can change your reality and then go out and help other people do the same. So how has that – you doing your own work, how has that impacted your ability to help other people while adding in coaching to your business?

Chelsea: Well, I will say everything that I deal with, with my own brain and my own thoughts that I think about myself, my clients have the same stuff. And I’ve seen it happen where I’ll go through something where I’m looking at what I’m thinking and just how I’m bullying myself honestly, because I think we as humans are our own worst critics.

And as a coach, I’m constantly putting myself out there and I have a lot of judgment about myself. And when I coach my clients and they bring things to me like being judgmental about themselves and things they’ve done, or being judgmental about their bodies, I’m like, yeah, been through that, I know how to help them. So it really does take you being willing to look at your own critical thoughts about yourself and even your thoughts about other people.

Lindsey: You’ve got your own brain and your own life, and then you also have your brain when coaching clients. Understanding how to manage that so you can stay out of your own drama and really be neutral and help them as well.

Chelsea: Yes, exactly. You have to take yourself out of the pool so that – you don’t want to be in the pool with them and wallowing. You both are wallowing.

Lindsey: Yeah, you’re like, shoot, that does suck, instead of helping them get past it. Interesting coaching. Shoot, that does suck, I don’t know what you’re going to do about that. So good.

But yeah, when you dig that deep then you have a deep understanding of where it’s coming from, why their brains work the way they work, and how to actually help them. And I think it’s so cool that you had that experience before joining ABA and then ABA kind of took that to the next level in applying that to your clients.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lindsey: So you said you joined ABA. I kind of halted your story. And then you signed your first life coaching clients, you just added that into your business when you started the program. You’ve been in, what? For a few months now.

Chelsea: Five months.

Lindsey: Five months. Wow, really? I’m like, what month is it? Actually, I got a little ahead of myself. What were you struggling with before you joined the program? Before we get onto where you are now.

Chelsea: So when I announced that I was also going to be doing life coaching, I didn’t know how to structure life coaching calls, I didn’t really know how to change up my marketing in a way that was talking about life coaching and styling because up to that point, I was only talking about changing your outer appearance to make you feel good. But life coaching is kind of different.

It’s helping you transform yourself but instead of through clothes, it’s through how you’re thinking. And so I just really needed to know, okay, how the hell do I change it up? I was offering free sessions just because I was a brand new coach and I thought this will be great practice.

But to actually bring this piece of my business together and of course be able to make money from it, but also coach people in a way that is effective and where I’m not “getting in the pool” with them, but remaining neutral, I needed some help with that. And I of course followed you for a while and I’d seen ABA over and over. And so I thought okay, this is the perfect next step for me to learn how to mesh the two, coaching and styling.

And I remember at first when I joined, I had a lot of confusion still around my niche and exactly how to package up my services where I was doing both life coaching and styling because it was very separate in my brain. I had my styling packages and I had a life coaching package, but it wasn’t together. It was like I had two different businesses.

And so I would come onto the weekly Lives like okay, I need to know, how do I mesh the two together where I’m not either a life coach or a personal stylist but I’m both? And I’m still working out the kinks with that, but it’s not so separate in my brain anymore where I’m either a life coach or a personal stylist.

And I have a life and style coaching six-month package where it does include a style transformation and weekly life coaching sessions, but I’m also incorporating the coaching piece in with styling clients who just want me to help them refresh their closets and who have thoughts about themselves and their bodies that are keeping them from wearing things they actually want to be wearing and feeling confident in their clothes. Because I mean, I don’t think I’ve had a single client who hasn’t struggled with some type of body insecurity.

And through ABA, I’ve learned first of all, I don’t always have to have the answer. Sometimes it’s just about letting people be where they are. I don’t have to preach to people to love their bodies so that they can love their style. It’s not really – people don’t really need that. Sometimes people just need someone to listen.

Lindsey: So true. So it’s so good though because everything is so interconnected and it sounds like – what I think you’re such a good example of is you’re still figuring it out. I think so often people think like, you’re going to just be there and you’re going to be done and you’ve got it all figured out.

But it’s like, starting a coaching business, or adding it into your current business, it’s like an evolution. You’re always going to be learning, you’re always going to be growing. But what’s important is that you don’t let it stop you from going out, serving people, adding value, signing clients, that you keep allowing it to evolve with you.

So I think you’re such a good example of that. You’re like, of course you’re still figuring it out, just like as humans, we’re never – we’re always a work in process. I just wrote a post about that, it hasn’t gone out yet, but that we can’t expect like we’re going to be done, we’re going to be complete, we’re going to be perfection, and then we go out and coach people. Just like we can’t expect our business is going to be perfect and seamless and make all of the sense.

It’s got to be messy; we’re going to be learning, we’re going to be growing, but it doesn’t have to keep you from going out and serving people, signing clients, changing their lives, and you’re such a good example of that.

Chelsea: Thank you.

Lindsey: You’re welcome.

Chelsea: It really is an evolution.

Lindsey: It is. It’s forever. I know for a while we all get it stuck in our head, we’re like, we’re going to get there and it’s going to be fine, we’re not going to feel these things again, but it’s not true. It’s forever work, which is so fulfilling. Okay, so you came to ABA, you were a little confused, you talked about this a little earlier, you were still lacking some belief in the value you had to offer, you felt like you had to hustle a lot to get it out there. Where are you now? You’ve been in the program for five months. What’s different about you, your business, and the results you’re creating?

Chelsea: Oh my gosh, so much is different. I don’t – I’m conscious of when I’m taking action from a place of need, like I need to sign clients, I need to make money, I am so conscious of that. And sometimes I just won’t even do anything. I’ll just sit with that mentality and I’ll journal about it.

And when I’m able to change my thoughts around the action and what I’m doing, then I take action from a place of service. But I have signed nine new clients since joining Anything but Average, which is amazing. And I’ve made about I think it’s $13,000 in my business.

Lindsey: So good. And I think I remember you posting you had your biggest month ever, it was $7000 in one month.

Chelsea: Yup, that was April. That was the month I went home. I went home for three weeks to be with my family and that was my biggest revenue month and that was the month that I was the most relaxed.

Lindsey: And you worked the least I’m guessing.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lindsey: That is truly – that’s such a good example of how the process works when you change the way you think, show up differently, add value to the world. It’s like, you are creating results all of the time without having to be the person who grinds it out. So I love that.

So if someone would have told you a year ago that that is the result you had and you’re life coaching people and helping people with style, what would you have thought then? Made $7000 in a month, signed nine clients.

Chelsea: Well, part of me is like, I would be like, well, it’s about time because I wanted to be at 10K months last year. But of course I wasn’t doing this work in my belief in myself. And so that was creating the result that I had. But I would be like, this is so worth it. All of the discomfort and just putting myself out there because that was so uncomfortable. When I started going on video last year, I started going on video consistently and I thought this is like, I hate this. People don’t care what I have to say, I had all these thoughts about – that people didn’t care.

Lindsey: That’s a common thought when people get started. Like who cares about this?

Chelsea: Right. And I didn’t have much evidence that people cared. I would see people watch my story but it felt like people were just kind of skipping through. And I don’t pay attention to that anymore. I have built up my belief and of course it’s come with this evidence that I have from signing clients and working with people and making all this money.

But I have just built up this belief that people need and want what I have and that there are women out there who maybe have followed me for two months and maybe they’ve followed me for an entire year. But they are like, at a tipping point where they are so over not looking how they want to and they want to work with me.

Lindsey: That is so good. And the thing is you build – the belief comes first. And that’s the hard part. You have to trust in that stuff before you have total evidence. But then the more you trust in it, the more you show up with that as the energy behind it, the more results you create and now you have all this evidence. So good.

I think that’s a huge thing and I’ll probably do another podcast on this but it’s so easy to focus on all the wrong people, right? The people who are clicking through your story and they’re not – they don’t care, they’re not your ideal client. It’s just so easy to get stuck in that instead of focusing on the nine people who you don’t even know are watching you and who need your help.

I mean, I didn’t know you were watching me for a whole year. That’s always happening and it’s about building your belief in that over the other side of it that’s not going to serve you to show up and help people. So good.

Chelsea: Exactly.

Lindsey: So how did it feel when you took the step to join ABA? Because you were like, it wasn’t even on my radar and then all of a sudden I was like, I have to do it. How did you feel the moment you hit enroll and you joined the program?

Chelsea: Oh my gosh, it was so exciting. I was like, okay, finally. Because I had seen all the promotion around it and I wasn’t “coaching” before, but when I added life coaching in, I was like, this is perfect because she’s teaching me how to become a life coach or a coach, because there’s other coaches in ABA besides life coaches.

But I was just so excited and I was just filled with possibility. I remember posting my intro in the Facebook group and saying I was new and talking about how I think my tipping point was when I saw your post about your Benz and just how you’ve been able to build up this business and have this dream car.

And I was just envisioning okay, I’m joining in January, imagine where I could be by December. I could help so many people and people need this. I was so adamant about that because life coaching changed my life. And I just thought, imagine all the money I’m going to make with this $2000 investment.

Lindsey: You’re already – what is that? A 700% return? So fun. And you get lifetime access so I can’t wait to see when you get your Benz and you post. So fun.

Chelsea: Yeah, I thought like, this is – it just felt so right. And that weekend, I went to this resort for a night because that was MLK weekend. So Sunday night I went to this resort and that was kind of my celebration of joining and just all the possibility that 2021 had. And I remember waking up the next morning and hopping on, all excited for my first Facebook Live coaching call. It just felt so right. And I say it wasn’t on my radar but subconsciously it was.

Lindsey: Good way to explain it. Like they’re floating around in the back of your mind. Love it. So what would you say to somebody who is either on the fence – when you think about yourself at the beginning of your journey and you were thinking about starting a business and they’re on the fence of joining ABA to get started in their coaching business, or maybe they’re like you and have a business, they want to add in coaching, they’re sitting on the fence, they have it in the back of their mind, what would you say to someone who’s in that place?

Chelsea: So I know that investing in yourself can feel scary because you’re like, well, what if I don’t get x, y, z result. But when you’re committed, you can only go up. So I would say to someone who’s on the fence, go back to your why. Why are you so fucking passionate about starting this business or adding this to your business? What will it bring you? What kind of impact will you be able to have on people?

And what do you want this coaching to bring you and just show up with the expectation that all of that is possible and that this coaching is going to help you move forward. Because I remember my first coaching investment, it was two grand. And for me at that time was a lot of money. But I’ve developed this growth muscle of investing in lots of different aspects of my business beyond coaching.

And so it gets easier, but I know this feels like you’re signing your life away. But honestly, you can’t go wrong investing in Anything but Average. And when you’re committed, you will see results instantly.

Lindsey: That’s so good. Because that is one of the biggest things people do with any investment they make. They spend all their time thinking about what could go wrong, which is essentially why they haven’t taken the steps they need in order to change their life. The only choice is to take the risk and go all-in on yourself to get the tools and the coaching you need so you get out of your way to get the outcome you want and remembering why. That’s really important. Will get you any of that fear and doubt.

Chelsea: For sure. It’s like, when you invest at this level for the very first time, it’s less about the decision but more about who you become with this decision. It’s like saying yes to a future version of you that you are dying to become.

Lindsey: I have chills. So good. Okay, and it’s exactly what you – with style too, right? You have to believe that for the woman you want to be, what you put on your body, dressing as her, feeling the way she feels. So good. So for all the people listening and they’re like, I love this girl, how do they follow you? How do they find you? How can they connect with you?

Chelsea: Yeah, so I’m on Instagram. My Instagram handle is @chelseawrightstylist. I have a website, chealseawrightstylist.com and I’m also on Facebook, Chelsea Wright, so definitely hit me up on Insta if there’s any questions or you want to connect there. I’m on there all the time.

Lindsey: So good. We will put all of those links in the show notes so you guys can find that there and connect with her. Shoot her a message, tell her what you took away from it, and Chelsea, it has been such an honor and so fun to coach you and watch you thrive and thank you so much for being on today.

Chelsea: You’re so welcome. Thank you for saying that.

Lindsey: For all of you guys listening, I will see you next week. If you are ready to take that step, go all-in on starting your coaching business, go to lindseymangocoaching.com/anythingbutaverage and I will see you on the inside. Bye.

If you’re ready to take this work deeper and create your own coaching business, join us in Anything but Average, where I will walk you through the step-by-step process to become a coach, start your coaching business, and start signing clients. Go to lindseymangocoaching.com/anythingbutaverage and I will see you on the inside.

I love hearing from you!

If you liked this podcast, take a screenshot and share on Instagram.