Kevin Stafford 0:02
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the coffee with coffee with coaching. I did it I was explaining that about the name change that I had finally mastered it and called it conversations with coaches. And I just had a sip of coffee and I called it coffee with coaches, the conversations with coaches podcast, formerly coffee with coaches, and don’t worry, I’m still having coffee right this moment. My guest today is not me talking about how much I love coffee and my guest is Deb Erickson. I’m very pleased to have her here today. Deb is a neuro trainer, mindset expert and creator of the ICANN neuro system app, helping direct sales and network marketing professionals catapult their businesses to new heights. Unlike any other industry training, Debs revolutionary legitimately revolutionary approach is designed to look at success from the inside out merging proven neuroscience based tools without our skill based business training, liberating entrepreneurs from mental limiters to quickly and consistently increased selling and sponsoring activity resulting in unprecedented revenue growth, a lot of big claims they’re, quite frankly, all of them backed up. And I’m really excited to talk to them about today. Deb, thank you so much for being here and letting me stumble over my intro.
Deb Erickson 1:11
I am so excited to be here. You know, there I love talking about coaching. We’ll shoot
Kevin Stafford 1:16
let’s get right into it, then. And let’s start. Let’s start with your start. How did you first become or maybe realize that you were a coach? And how did you turn that from that realization from that beginning into the coaching business you have today?
Deb Erickson 1:29
Well, I will say it was a legitimate athletic coaching experience. You know, I had a very troubled childhood, by the time I got to a brand new school and got my first basketball coach, you know, I realized that my head was not in the game, I had a lot of skill, I was captain of the team. You know, I was running the show the little general but but my head wasn’t in the game, my coach would pull me aside for a game and say, talk to me, I want to I want to look in your eyes, I want to see where you are. And she would tell me at the beginning, right, we’re either going to win the game or lose game based on your mindset. Um, it was really powerful. And, but then she backed it up with real tools we practiced all kinds of at the time, it was called positive mental attitude. But, you know, today I look back and I realized those were the early kind of the early stages of neuro tools and neuro training, she was teaching us how to train and rewire our minds. And quite honestly, I look back and I say She saved my life because I was in trouble as a kid. And, you know, I had that experience that those moments with her. And as I then became an athletic coach and a teacher and got out in the world, I saw the same thing with kids all the time. And so then I decided to get on the motivational circuit. And I was teaching, you know, I was going into gymnasiums, and talking to 1000s and 1000s of kids working with troubled kids and leaders. And that said, wade into business, you know, everybody was coming to me and say, Hey, we love what you did with the kids, could you come to it for our business. And so after a period of time, I kind of found my sweet spot with the direct selling and network marketing community. And I developed the skills and the tools into really a neuro coaching, kind of certification and process and, and that’s where I’ve landed and hung out for the last 20 years.
Kevin Stafford 3:39
I like I like that term hung out because it really it sets Yeah, it’s casual and serious. There’s a lot of connection going on. And we’re here to have a good time and learn how to be better versions of ourselves, let’s you know, take it seriously, but not too seriously. I love your journey to how just how natural I mean, you’re probably skilled and expert at describing it at this point. But it’s just such a natural progression. I imagine at some point during the journey didn’t quite feel so smooth or natural, but it’s just you have a lovely way of expressing how how each, each moment each phase of your life bled naturally into the other it shows what a lot of coaches demonstrate very readily and very willingly is that ability to reflect and learn from their journey and then translate that to to a to a form that other people can really access and understand it’s just just lovely.
Deb Erickson 4:30
Thank you thank you
Kevin Stafford 4:32
yeah, I started there was no question there. I just wanted to compliment how how elegant that was that that covers I’m sure there’s a lot of stories and a lot of those years but we have a short podcast so we’re gonna bring it up to the present here real quick. I would love to know any wherever you want to begin wherever you want to jump in what are the what are the nuts and bolts of your your neural system your coaching approach these days like I also not just the process itself and the system, but who you primarily focus on coaching if you have specific industries you lock in on or specific levels or people at certain stages in their journey, like, Who do you coach? And how do you coach them in your practice these days? Yeah,
Deb Erickson 5:08
I focus a lot on men and women in the network marketing space. So these are people who are selling a product, they are building an organization, they are solopreneurs. They, they need support. And so, you know, I kind of started with coaching individuals, then we moved into group because I just couldn’t handle you know, all of the that was eating up my cow, you know, my calendar. And then I realized one day that you know, what I’m saying the same thing over and over and over again, I was like, ah, time for class. Because as a coach, when when you are, you’re kind of tiptoeing into different relationships during your coaching session. So there’s the question and discovery period, right. And then there is the oops, we need to do a little training here, you know, give a little bit of information here. So there’s, there’s different parts of a coaching session. But what I noticed is that everybody needed some core understanding about how their brain was wired in, I think it was really, when I first started my own, you know, my own childhood abuse, kept, kind of I would leak in and I realized that my wounds were pretty much their wounds. And I had to be really careful because it it people really wanted to kind of move it into therapy. And it was like, No, we’re not, there’s no therapy session, coaching session. And so I began to really uncover what are the key components that people don’t know about? How we’re wired, how the brain really works, why we are showing up the way we are, right? So what’s the wiring from the past? And then what can we do to change it. And up until this, that point, I think what was happening is I relied heavily on coaching strategies that I learned in athletics. So be the cheerleader be the, you know, the motivator, the inspiration, you know, all of those things. But what I discovered was when you when you’re moving with individuals, when you’re helping an individual create change, all of that has temporary support, you know, it, it allows somebody to feel better in the moment, but it doesn’t create long term change. And, you know, I was after longterm, I wanted to help somebody have a massive breakthrough, and then have the daily tools that they needed to truly transform their thoughts, their beliefs, their emotions, you know, and then therefore, their actions. So what I what I did really over a period of 20 years is I took everything I was experiencing, and created some classes, right here, some neuro system classes for people to understand what’s going on. And then I did classes that were designed to help them get specific results, like, you know, face their fear and elevate, you know, their selling and recruiting experience. But, but it was really doing a whole, you know, hours and hours and hours and hours of coaching, finding the parallels finding the places where universally people were getting stuck. So I created that system.
Kevin Stafford 8:18
I love that. There are a million things I could latch on to there. But obviously, there’s a few things that jumped out to me, one in particular that you came back around to is that, that commitment to and process of discovery. And actually, if I could, if I could borrow a metaphor for a moment, it reminds me a little bit of the things I’ve read about or heard about regarding how stand up comics will work on stuff like obviously, when you see like the big names and they’re on the stage and they’re doing the hour long special and everything flows naturally one into the other and they’re telling stories and getting laughs and and bringing the emotion down. You see this like I was just masterful. What you don’t see, maybe you don’t see maybe you do if you’re if you’re an aficionado of that form, that art form is that you don’t see them bombing on stage in tiny clubs, and standing up in front of you know, 11 people, five of whom are comedians themselves, hardest audience possible. Just trying stuff and having it not connect or having it not work or maybe having it work too well and derail the rest of their act, et cetera, et cetera. And I just love that your your one to one coaching, obviously, you hit that eventual calendar limit, there is only so much of you to go around and realize that a change was required. But you also understood or really gleaned so much insight from those one to ones and really understood and this is where I love is that commonality that the places where we’re all struggling where we’re all lacking where we could all benefit from some real specific teaching, some real coaching, quite frankly, and again, not therapy, coaching, very important to catch that line before it goes too far across. And then move into it with a system with a plan with a blueprint that’s common to everyone and adaptable to the individuals needs and that’s just, it’s lovely. And again, I don’t so much have a question. They’re just so much to latch on to. And I just, I love how thoroughly and completely engineered your system and processes, while still remaining completely permeable and vulnerable and very human, quite frankly. Yeah, I love it. Well,
Deb Erickson 10:17
it’s the reason we moved it to the app is just what you’re saying is that, you know, we did all the classes on Zoom, we put it on a platform, it was available, we I built a library of neuro tools, there’s about 80, plus neuro tools, searchable by topic, and by need and even by moment, and by probate, you know, all that. It was one, you know, that’s years and years and years of development. But then, you know, there there kind of comes this moment where you’re like, the, what’s the next step, and building an app was next, because what I realized is people need these resources 24/7 online are off, right? It’s a, it’s an in the moment, access, that makes all the difference. What we are seeing is, you know, people have always had a short attention span, but it’s getting worse, it’s getting shorter and shorter and shorter. And you know, all the reasons for that, but but the training, right, people have to consume stuff in smaller bites. And so making everything microburst training, so they can get in, get the point have the moment. And so what the app does is it allows me to do all of it, right, it’s kind of how adults learn. There’s some training, that’s the learning side, then there’s the application or practice side, that’s where they using the neuro tools in their daily life, and, and then there’s the feedback side, right, where they get to come back, be back together in a community, share what they’re doing, get feedback, find accountability. So what I discovered is the app allowed me to do the cycle, put the cycle together, so that no matter where somebody was, they were they were surrounded, you know, statistically, we know that women hit their goals. At 6% More of the time, they’re 86% more likely to hit a goal, if they are surrounded by community coaching countability. So when they’re in isolation, they really struggle. And so we that’s part of what we did is built, we built all of this success support, you know, pieces of the equation for people so they can have it in their pocket. So lovingly, people call it dev in my head. They got they got me with them all the time.
Kevin Stafford 12:42
Oh, that’s perfect. I love that so much. I’m certain that it said with tremendous affection. And you’re right. And I love it’s an expression of, I mean, wisdom that is as old as human thought, quite frankly, just that the things that you need to do that need to be able to be met where you’re at, in order for something to truly affect the change you want in your life. And in these days, people are all over the place. And like you said, it’s not it’s not just the attention deficit, although that’s there as well. But you just have people are more spread thin maybe. And they’re also spread across the world. And yet, you know, you have something that is valuable to them, and you want to make sure that they have access to it. And also those you have those moments of impact where it’s like you can provide what turns out to be a lightning bolt for someone, it only takes minutes, but it goes back with them and hits them at 3am You know, or whatever, whatever that right moment is where they just needed it. And you couldn’t be there personally, but they had access to it. I just love this, this blending this hybrid approach that really takes everything that is truly magical about the technology we have at our disposal, and also everything that is deeply and profoundly human and merges them together in such a way to have maximum impact on the most people in the best ways. And I’m not gonna get debit my head out of my head. I don’t think for the rest of the day. I love that so much. Is there I mean, I could keep you here all day, I’d be greedily jealously, but before we go, is there anything that you’re anything specific that you’re excited about is coming up around the corner, anything new or just anything that you want to promote? Or talk about here real quick?
Deb Erickson 14:21
Yeah, you know, I’ve spent 20 plus years in the sales and you know, marketing industry helping salespeople, and I had this experience, but five years ago, somebody was at one of my big events. So there were like 1000s people in the audience raised her hand from the back of the room and said, Hey, would this stuff work for weight loss? That you have to know that my life has been up and down? Yo Yo dieting ballooned up, balloon down. Part of you know, part of the result of, you know, troubled childhood but I’m standing there on stage the heaviest weight I have ever been in my life. And I had that moment you know, where I, I had this lightbulb moment I’m like, What the heck? How could I not have thought about neuro tools designed for wellness and weight loss. So I went home and put the neural tool package together, I started using it. And in a very short period of time, about six months, I’ve lost 50 pounds and kept it off, I’ve kept it off not put a single pound back on now in over five years. And so then I had my customers because you’re on zoom all the time, people are watching you shrink away and they’re like, What are you doing? And so we have launched a brand new you know, same thing app, personal coaching package for mind and body. And basically we’re using the same neuroscience the same kinds of neuro tools but design for health and wellness. And we’re just launching that people can can check that out it honestly that’s my new love is helping people with their mental emotional and physical health.
Kevin Stafford 16:03
I love it. And of course, like, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense. Of course, you address the entire human existence mind body, spirit, emotion, it’s, it’s all connected on one thing it’s it’s, it’s helpful to break it up sometimes so that we can address specific problems but it’s perfect, quite frankly, it’s perfect. Where Where can people find out more about this? Is it just your main website? Or do you have a special place you like no,
Deb Erickson 16:25
I have a special I have a special place we it’s called I can mind and body So www I can mind and body.com They can go they can try the app free for 14 days. So get some through an entire module neuro tools neuro training, checking calls, you know everything. But if they go there they can they can log in and check it out.
Kevin Stafford 16:50
Awesome. And is there I’ve obviously had a tremendously excellent time talking with you. How How do you like to meet people? Do you like are you particularly active on any social media? What are you like to for people to get to know you better?
Deb Erickson 17:01
Right? Well, you know, if you want to get more information about the mind body, we’ve got our own social channels and YouTube channel and you know, all of those things, and I’ll get you all the links so we can put them in. And the business side of the equation, everything is under I can institute which is my company name. But depending on what is right for an individual, we have apps, we have tools, there’s free resources, I mean, free resources out the wazoo training, neural tools, all kinds of stuff. Excellent.
Kevin Stafford 17:33
Man, this is awesome. I’m actually I have a little bit of homework of my own to do because I just did a little bit scratched the surface and realized I could I could just be reading about everything that you’re doing for the rest of my day. So I’m gonna do that here later on. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Did I? I hope you could tell that I greatly appreciate it. And I really love talking with you.
Deb Erickson 17:52
I feel I feel the same way. Thanks, Kevin.
Kevin Stafford 17:55
And to the audience, find out more dip into these resources. The links will be in the show notes. This is quite frankly, this is amazing stuff and I think necessary. So check it out. Reach out to Deb finder, get to know better. We’ll talk to you again soon.
