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. I am so excited because, over the next week and a half, I am going to be featuring five of my best mastermind students. So, we are kicking off a series called the ABA Coach Mastermind Interview Series.
And today, I am having on my guest Saren Eads, who is a life coach who helps you manage your mind to create a life and career you love. Saren has a unique story, an amazing story, and I can’t wait for her to share it with you guys. So, welcome to the podcast, Saren.
Saren: Hello, hello. It’s such a pleasure to be here.
Lindsey: I am so excited for you to share your story. I know so many people are going to get so much out of it and just wait until they hear the results you’ve created. They just boggle my mind and I can’t wait for them to hear it. So, let’s jump in. I want to start all the way back at the beginning of your journey, when you found coaching and you decided to be a coach, and then we’ll just kind of dig in from there. So, where did this all start?
Saren: Yeah, absolutely. I’m honestly so honored to be able to share this part of my story because there was a time when I didn’t know it was possible for me. I had a surprise pregnancy back in the summer of 2019 that ended in a miscarriage and I had such bad anxiety afterwards. Even going to the beach with friends didn’t feel normal anymore or cliff jumping, like I love to do, or other adventurous hikes that I love to do felt so scary and I just felt like I wasn’t living my life anymore.
And so, on my way to work, I found The Life Coach School Podcast and I heard Brooke talk about how our thoughts create our emotions in our body, not what happens to us. I was like, “That can’t be true because it was my miscarriage that gave me anxiety and now I’m struggling with it and I just want to do everything I can to help it.”
But then I was like, “Wait, but what if it is true?” And honestly, I think that question has got me to where I am right now because every time I get coaching, every time there’s something that I’m recommended I’m like, “What if that is true for me?” And I look at it and I explore it and then I let it be true.
And that was one of those thoughts that I was like, “Oh my gosh, it totally is.” And so, throughout that process of simply just listening to this podcast, I was able to make anxiety a normal emotion in my life again rather than something that took over my entire life. And I was like, this is absolutely too good to not share with other people.
And so, I looked into getting certified, and that’s when I came across a good friend. Her name is Jackie Skinner. And then she just got married, so Jackie Murphy. And I know you know her as well. But she’s the one that was just like, “You know Lindsey Mango is not certified, right?” And I was like, “Wait, what? That’s so cool.”
And so, I was inspired to just start my business. And going back to that time in my life, I was like, wait, I’m 23 years old. So, I was actually intending to go to grad school back in the beginning of 2020. I was going to spend a year in Europe and do a year in Boston. And I thought that it would be something that would help me figure out what I wanted to do. And it felt like something that I should do, not because I necessarily wanted to or was looking for my passion. And it felt like I was trying to make grad school and the corporate world fit into the life I wanted, and it just didn’t feel like it was working.
And then I had the thought, what if I did what Brooke Castillo is doing? What if I did what Lindsey Mango is doing? What if I became a life coach? And I was like, I can’t, I’m too young, I don’t have enough money, I’m not certified enough, who’s going to take me seriously at 23 years old?
And I was like, you know what, those are all just thoughts and those are things that I can work through and they don’t have to be true. And that’s when I decided to start. And so, last May of 2020, I decided to start taking on free clients. I started working with people, doing trades with people, just mastering my craft, falling in love with coaching.
And then, it took a while to start signing my first clients. I was doing a lot of consults but I had a lot of money objections in my own mind, until I found the value of getting a one to one coach and I was like, “Oh my goodness, this is it.” It helped change the way I think so much and it’s so speedy in the way that I’m able to shift into a new version of myself.
And once I figured that out, clients started coming more and more. But I was really pregnant and working full time. So, I started my corporate job in March 2020 and got pregnant at the end of April, may-ish. And I was honestly, not going to lie, a little devastated. Excited to have a baby. Still feeling the trauma from that last pregnancy. This one still wasn’t planned. And I was like, this is going to kill my business. This is going to kill everything I want in my life.
And I was like, you know what? It only has to kill if I want it to. So, I started exploring that thought, like what if it could actually be not as hard as I think? What if I can do this with a baby? Is it possible? And so, I started continuing to work full time and coaching in the evenings while being pregnant.
And let me tell you, it was exhausting. I did not have an easy pregnancy at all. It was definitely, like, sick for about seven and a half month of it. I ended up having preeclampsia, which ended up I was induced early with my little baby girl in early December. And I had signed clients starting in January. So, it was kind of crazy to have my whole story build up.
And really, what flipped the switch for me after having my baby is I was like, “This is what I want. This is the life I’m going to create. It doesn’t matter what other people think anymore. It’s just going to happen. It’s almost just done in my mind.” And I felt this shift of how that felt in my body, when beforehand it was like I was trying to convince myself of it.
And then, once I felt it actually in my body, like this is it for me, that’s when I started signing clients and that’s when I started helping amazing people start their businesses and feel better in their lives and manage their marriages and pregnancies in the future and just different things that I was able to help so many women and men with, starting in January. And that was crazy.
And then, I signed up for this mastermind in February, and that’s where we’re at now, which is honestly the coolest thing.
Lindsey: That is crazy. Okay, so before we jump into that part of the story, you know a big one of the foundational things I teach is changing your own life with coaching and being a result of your transformation. And it’s so fun because not all of you guys met me through that part of the process. A lot of you went through your own transformation and that’s how you decided to be a coach.
But I’m just curious, your take on how important that part was for you in starting your coaching business and being successful that you went through your own transformation and saw the power of coaching in your life. How do you feel like that played a role?
Saren: I honestly think that’s the biggest piece because feeling it deep into your bones and watching yourself blow your own mind with goals that you once thought were impossible. Like, I honestly thought that building a six-figure business in my first real year of being a full time coach was insane. And yet, I’m about to hit it.
And that just feels so different in my body than the thought, “Oh my goodness, I could possibly, potentially, down the line hit my goal.” And becoming the person that does create that goal is actually what helped me create and actually hit my goals was focusing on who I wanted to become the first time I was doing it, how I wanted to live my life, versus hitting every single goal along the way.
Lindsey: Yes, and you’ve done this from the beginning. Not even just at this point in your business. You used the coaching tools to create change with your anxiety, to completely change the way you showed up in your life, which I think is obviously still so powerful in the work that you’re doing and what you’re teaching.
Saren: Yeah, I totally agree with that. Honestly, to feel it differently in my body helps me sell it. It helps me show people what’s possible for them. It helps me believe in their changes and their results that they want, to the point that now I just know, every single human that wants to create something can and their brain can help them do it.
Lindsey: Yes, that’s so good. Love it. Okay, so you launched your business – last year in May you started taking on free clients. You said January is when you started taking paying clients. So, tell me about where you were when the mastermind opened and some of your struggles or just where you were at and what you were wanting in the next phase of your business.
Saren: Yeah, I honestly, in January, signed I think eight clients, which was crazy and mind-blowing and I was so proud of it. And then, the applications opened and I was like, is this the next step? Am I just wanting to, like, grow in a way that is stretching me or is this actually what I want to do? Is this something I need to do versus something I want to do?
And I was really struggling with feeling like, “Okay, I have all these eight clients now. Am I actually certified?” Those same thoughts came back up for me of am I actually helping them, is this something that I’m capable of? And it was so interesting to see my brain do this same exact process when I was hitting a new level of growth and not make that a problem.
And so, that was a lot of my work, was letting my brain be a brain, letting myself be human first, not making it a problem, and continuing to process those thoughts and emotions so I could continue to show up the way I wanted to versus the way my primitive, scared, anxious brain wanted to.
Lindsey: Yes, that’s so good. And I think it’s really fun because everyone I’ve interviewed comes from different standpoints. And your standpoint is like you had created some really amazing results. And I remember talking about this with you, that you had this really confident belief. Like, I can do this on my own, but there’s something that spoke to you – what made that connection in your mind? Like you can do this on your own, which I think is such a powerful belief to have. That’s what I want to establish in all of my students. You had that stepping into the group. So, what really fueled you forward to take that step and make this investment and make this commitment?
Saren: Absolutely, yeah, it was like a big belief that I could do it on my own, which is what I think helped me create that results I wanted to in the mastermind. But it really came down to, this is the room I wanted to be in. This is the coaching I want to get. I wanted to create a personal relationship with Lindsey Mango and I get to know you on a different level, get to know myself at a different level, and build more of the life I wanted. Not just in my business, which is what I was focusing on, but in every area.
And one of the big things that sent me all the way in, fully committed, was being able to create a life I loved with less hustle, with less grinding, with less work, with less stress, because I had just had a baby. She was two months old. And I was like, “Okay, well I’m going to apply for this so I can live more of the life I want with my baby girl at home. And I can do that anyways, but why not do it with all the help and the wonderful brilliant minds in that room with me?”
Lindsey: Yes, and I think that’s such a hard shift too because I think most of our brains have been taught by society and life in general that we have two choices. We’re either pushing, hustling, forcing and hitting big goals, or we’re not.
And that’s really one of the foundational things I teach in the mastermind and I’m always coaching you guys on is that balance of it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It gets to be both. We want Saren to be there and to be present with her baby and fully available and take care of herself. And we want her to make more money, create more success, and have more freedom than ever.
And it’s so funny to say that out loud as I’m talking, I’m like, I could totally see people listening and they’re like, “That sounds almost too good to be true.” But that’s why being in a room like this and having coaching at the highest level is so important. Because even if your brain is thinking that, it’s possible. That’s what every single student is doing. And wait until you hear what Saren has created. But it’s like you have to stretch your brain. That’s the thinking that has to change. That’s the belief that has to change in order to create that.
And when you’re surrounded by other people who are committed to that process and in a room where that is the goal, it’s like, it just really commits you to doing both, to creating freedom while continuing to build your business and trains your brain to have the ability to do that instead of constantly leaning in one direction or the other and kind of having that tug of war of more time invested and bigger results, or more freedom.
So, tell me about what that process looked like. So, you joined the mastermind. What do you feel like have been some of the biggest shifts and transformations you’ve had being in that space?
Saren: This is honestly the best question because my brain loves to find problems, meaning that it’s a problem-solver, like most human brains. And it meant that I like to hustle and do more, be more, change my prices and fight even harder for my goals. And if I wasn’t fully committed, then I wasn’t enough.
And what I realized through this mastermind specifically is how much it wasn’t about what I was doing. It was more about how I felt when I was doing it. And I didn’t actually have to put in all the extra hustle energy into my actions. I could simply work on my brain and become who I wanted to be throughout this process and watch results calibrate with where I was at. It was honestly so cool. It almost was as if my brain was like, “Wait, did I even earn this anymore?”
And I’m honestly sitting here thinking, did I earn to be on this podcast? Because my action lien was so much less. But I was able to create so much more results because of the brain I’ve created. And I think that that has been crucial in growing because I have this person of who I am for the rest of my life. I have this brain for the rest of my life. My results are just getting started here. And all the action I took – and if I would have hustled even harder, I may have gotten the same result, but I wouldn’t be the same person I am today without the brain work.
Lindsey: Yes, and that’s what I was really trying to say earlier. Not in a short, eloquent way, but it’s like, it really is. When you learn how to build your brain, you build something that can create exponential results over time. When you only know how to build results from action, it’s like it’s going to require more and more action. You don’t actually change who you are and the value of your mind and the way that you think.
And so, you just have to keep hustling more. And so, that, I think, is one of the most challenging transitions to go through. But it’s the one that pays off the most in your life and in your business.
So, I just had this hit when you were saying that, how does it feel to think about who you are right now and being a mom, like, what does that mean to you and the example you set for your daughter?
Saren: I honestly get goosebumps thinking about it, about how not only am I building this life for me, but I’m building this life for my baby, for my husband, for all the other moms out there who feel like they can only have one or the other or they have to do the basic corporate world in order to survive and make enough money because we don’t believe in ourselves yet.
All of the people out there that are still believing that, I just want them to know that what they dream about is actually possible for them. And so, to be evidence of that when I didn’t think it was possible at one point in my life and I was struggling to believe that I could be the person, like it was for everyone else but me, and now to be on the other side of it knowing that your brain can create this. Like, every person’s brain can, including my daughter, who’s going to grow up knowing that her brain creates her results, how cool is that? She gets to go on in her life creating whatever she wants to create because she’s watching her mom do it.
Lindsey: That’s so good. I have goosebumps. So amazing.
Saren: It’s so tender, like a special thing to be able to gift to not only myself but my future generations and my future family, my clients’ families and their family’s families.
Lindsey: Yeah, it changes that storyline because just like for all of us, we’ve only seen that working harder and doing more and all of that is the only way. It’s like, we’re all changing that story. And the next generation is going to be like, “No, wait, that’s not how this works. We just get to love our lives and do amazing work in the world and make lots of money and take Fridays off.” It might work in the other direction. They might have their first job and be like, “Wait a minute, I have to work on a Friday? I’m really confused.” But it’s a really beautiful thing because it’s just really changing belief systems that will last for generations.
Saren: Right.
Lindsey: So good. So, you came in the mastermind and you make this shift and I want to hear, what are the results you’ve created? I know what they are. But I want you to share with the audience, you officially start signing paying clients in January, and you enrolled in the mastermind in February. We started I think one month after that. What have you created since then?
Saren: Honestly, like, blowing my own mind. I want to start with some of the intangibles that I’ve created and then go into the actual numbers. But one of the biggest intangibles for me was detaching my results from my personal value.
So, when I didn’t hit my goal or I failed in some way or made a mistake along the way, I didn’t feel absolutely defeated because I was able to know that my value as a human being was constant and my business could fluctuate here and there.
And making that distinction helped me so much in how I feel, which is one of the biggest results I feel. I don’t feel as heavy when I fail. I love failing. It’s something I’ve been able to move forward with and be like, “Oh, that’s a cool way to look at it,” or, “I could do this differently,” or, “That’s interesting to just watch my brain do the same pattern that it’s been doing this whole time.” And now be able to be so neutral with those types of thoughts.
Versus before, I would beat myself up for them or think I wasn’t good enough because I wasn’t as impressive as I wanted to be or my results were slowing down and all those things. So, that was one of the biggest intangibles for me is the way my brain now works is to love failure and to occasionally still get frazzled because I’m still human, but to look at it at a different way and to breeze through it versus trudge through it.
Lindsey: That’s so good. I love it. and I feel like that is what creates these tangible results, right? It’s so easy for all of us to focus on that, but it’s like, this is the how. This is what’s created what you’re going to talk about next.
Saren: Absolutely. I honestly, that’s why I wanted to talk about it because it is the brain that created it. And then the results literally just caught up with me. So, that’s what’s so cool. But I have a now seven-month-old baby and I am $34,000 away from hitting 100K this year. Within the mastermind alone, I have pocketed $33,000 in the last four months and contracted $54,000. And those are numbers that replaced my salary for an entire year in six months.
And that is just a testament to me that – it was in six months, from January to June or July I was able to hit my income goal for the year in six months. Knowing that I could double that was blowing my mind.
Lindsey: All while taking care of a seven-month-old and, like, spending…
Saren: I know and watching her grow.
Lindsey: That is unbelievable. And how does it feel to say that out loud?
Saren: It honestly is one of those goosebump moments that, like, it’s something that I’ve had to constantly tell my brain, wait, sit in this feeling. You don’t have to be bigger, stronger, faster. Just sit in what you’ve created because this is what you dreamed about six months ago. This is why you were like, “Oh, can I make it happen? Let’s try anyways.” And now I’m actually sitting in it faster than I ever imagined. And my brain sometimes likes to skip over that. It’s like, wait, let’s sit in how amazing this feels and let’s be here in what I’ve created.
Lindsay: I feel like that’s half the battle with you guys in the mastermind sometimes is slowing you down to really celebrate what you are creating. Because it is truly mind blowing. Guys, I just want to bring it all back. Saren is 24 years old. Has a seven-month-old baby and is going to hit six figures in her first year in her coaching business because she spent the time up front to build the brain she needed to create that. That is amazing.
So, tell me too, the other thing that I think is important to note about this is you’ve created this seven-month-old baby, all of the things, but also, I feel like you’re always traveling. You just told me something before we got on the interview that I think you should share with the audience too because I think it’s just so cool.
Saren: Absolutely. I’m actually at a lake house right now and I had to run around all day trying to find some internet because the wi-fi we have at the house wasn’t working and then we also have some young kiddos who are going to be running into that house unannounced. So, I had to find a quiet space with internet to be able to do this here today. And it was such a privilege to be able to be here, to travel with a young baby and live the life that I’ve always wanted that was outside of what I thought I should be doing my whole life.
And so since having my baby, she’s been all over the United States. I know COVID is a little bit crazy still, but we’ve been able to visit family in Hawaii for six weeks, we’ve been able to visit best friends in Florida, we’ve been able to go to Colorado to visit my grandma, who has cancer. And be able to live more of the life that we’ve always dreamed of, while traveling.
And let me tell you, there’s moments where it’s really stressful. There’s moments when baby is not doing so great, or there’s moments when traveling and people are just kind of mean, and there’s moments when people are so nice that you just want to sit there and cry and be like, wow, thank you for what you just said because I felt so much stress in that moment.
And it really comes from the same mentality that I can do whatever I want to do while I’m doing what I’m doing, meaning I can travel and go on a 22-mile backpacking trip with my three-month-old baby and do whatever else I want. And that has been such a privilege as well to not only feel unstoppable in my business but to feel unstoppable in my everyday life.
And that was just a byproduct of working in this mastermind, it’s the byproduct of being me. And the craziest part about that is I signed even more clients when I was hiking on a coastline and repelling waterfalls and doing all the things that I love to do.
People came to me more because I was living in full authenticity for what I was selling and what I believe that they could have too. And it was so cool to watch that. I could do less, travel more, and create more results in my business.
Lindsey: Yes. And that really is one of the biggest and most important things I think as a coach is – I just wrote a post about this the other day that it’s like, if you hate your life so much that you just want to start a coaching business and get out of your life, it’s like, think about the message you’re sending people.
And if you’re frustrated all of the time, of course you have human emotions, of course you have a human experience, we’re not saying that, but if you’re not being a living, breathing example of what’s possible for your clients, they can feel that.
And so it’s such a hard shift to make because when you’re frustrated or you’re maybe not getting the results that you want, you feel like you have to sit at your desk all day and keep grinding it out. But what it does is it keeps you from living a life that’s going to inspire others. It keeps you from being the example.
And one of the most important things is that you are always setting the example of what’s possible for your clients. The more you do that, the more they’re going to want what you have to offer. And that is what you are living and breathing every single day.
Saren: Oh, absolutely. And there’s – I’m not going to lie guys, there’s moments when my brain’s like, wait, should you be doing this? Isn’t that too stressful? You’re going from one thing to the next to the next to the next and what about your baby?
And I have to really navigate those same normal human thoughts thinking like, wait, am I enough? Am I capable? Am I at my limit? And look at what those are doing and what they’re saying to me. And then decide what I want to do outside of those thoughts.
And to have full mind management like that in even just my travels and where I go in my day-to-day life is so cool. It’s so inspiring to me that this is just a byproduct of what I’ve created, that this has become an easy thing for me to do to travel with my daughter and to live more of the life I want to live because I know it’s so possible.
Lindsey: Yes, and I don’t know if you’re ready to share this yet, this won’t come out for a few weeks but you have had a life-long dream of moving to Hawaii? And that’s – isn’t that happening?
Saren: Absolutely. Yes, so guys, my husband just put in his two weeks and honestly, this whole process with my husband is he’s like, you might make money in the first year maybe, I’m going to believe in you anyway, you got this, but maybe try marketing differently or do a different thing here and there. Like you’re spending a lot of time on your thoughts but maybe some more action.
And watching me blossom with my thought work and watching me blossom with the way I’ve been able to create the mind I want to live with, he’s like, oh my gosh, you amaze me, and now he’s watching me make so much money in my business that he’s like, wait, why am I working? Let’s go live our dream life and I can find something else that I really love to do.
So not only am I finding my passion, but I’m giving this opportunity to my husband who grew up believing that he had to be the sole breadwinner in an accounting job his whole life, that he can actually do what he wants to do too.
Lindsey: And you’re moving to Hawaii.
Saren: Yeah, we’re moving back to where my family is at, back to where we met and got married, kind of going back to what feels like home. And it’s honestly a dream come true. We thought maybe when we were 50 and could retire, we could go back. But really, it’s something we can do right now and it’s so possible and it’s just blowing my mind that this is what we’ve created for ourselves.
Lindsey: So good. I love it Saren. So what would you tell someone who’s listening to this episode and they are on the fence about joining the mastermind?
Saren: That’s so good because I’m going to go back to maybe the other perspective of people that are like, wait, I know what I’m doing, I’ve got this, I just have to continue what I’m doing, it’s working. Because that’s how I felt.
I was like, okay, I’m doing what I’m doing, but I still felt like there was something missing, and I really didn’t want to join this mastermind because I felt lack. I wanted to do it because I felt sufficient. So if there’s anybody in the audience feeling like, I want to feel sufficient so badly that you don’t want to jump in and invest in yourself, I would say just do it.
Taking this step, I remember thinking, “Oh wait, Lindsey probably accepts everybody into this program, I’m probably not special.” But the truth is we’re special in so many different ways and being in this mastermind has shown me what I’m special at and what all my fellow coaches are special at.
And learning how to learn and grow through this room and through the people that are with me in there and watching them blow their own minds and their results and watching myself do it too and also being able to get coached at every single level of where we’re at and taking every bit of coaching back into my own life has really been one of the best investments ever.
I’ve already made it back 10 times and we still have a few more months to go. But even without the money, the brain I’ve created because of this mastermind has – I honestly keep saying mind-blowing but it really is just simply mind-blowing who I am and the brain I’ve created.
And if anybody’s on the fence, I want you to think about who you want to be when you create your results. And if you want to be somebody that wants to hustle less and be able to create more results but while traveling with your young baby or looking at what else is possible for you, this is the room to do that in because Lindsey helps us so much to be able to stop hustling.
She told me to stop creating extra drama for myself and to sit in where I’m at right now and to keep doing what I’m doing with ease. If that’s something you’re interested in, this is the room that you need to be in.
Lindsey: So good. Thank you. I love that. Saren, this has been such a joy. I know you guys personally, but it’s like I don’t always get to have these individual conversations with you and hear your whole story. So it was just so cool to hear where you started and how fast – I knew your results were fast but I didn’t know how truly fast and mind-blowing – we’re just going to use that word the whole time. We’re just going to call the episode that. Mind-blowing results. How mind-blowing they truly are, and I just so, so appreciate you sharing it with the audience.
Saren: It’s honestly such a privilege because I honestly know it’s not just for me. It’s for every human that wants something like this or who has a dream in them. It’s in them because it’s for them. And being an example of that, of other people I’ve admired like Lindsey, you, and all these other coaches that I’ve admired, it’s so cool to be one of those coaches that also tells people what’s possible for them.
Lindsey: Alright Saren, so where can they connect with you?
Saren: So good. So the best place to find me would be on Instagram. It’s @sareneads. And that’s the best place to find me. Come and chat. I’m very open, very flexible, I would love to talk to anybody about what they’re thinking about this episode.
Lindsey: So good. I love it. Well thank you so much and for those of you guys listening ready to apply for this mastermind, or whether you feel ready or not but you’re just deciding this is what you’re going to do and this is the room you’re going to put yourself in, applications are now open.
They close September 5th at 11:59pm Eastern time. There are only 20 spots available. Go to lindseymangocoaching.com/abacoach and I will see you on the inside. I love you guys and I will talk to you soon and Saren, thank you so much for your time. I am just so amazed by what you’ve done.
Saren: It’s so awesome. I love being here, love you all listening.
Lindsey: Bye.
Saren: Bye.
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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.
