Micheal Pacheco 0:00
Okay all right. Hey, everybody, and welcome again to another episode of the remarkable coach podcast. I’m your host, Michael Pacheco. And today with me, I have Alicia Whelan. Alicia draws upon 20 years of professional experience in varying roles in the financial sector, compliance, marketing, operations and sales capacities. As the founder and CEO of her own coach and consulting, coaching and consulting firm. She offers professional coaching, consulting and Reiki to national and international leaders and high achievers looking to leverage their inflection points, to reach a higher potential, whether it be in their personal or professional lives. She is seasoned in helping entrepreneurs, executives and small businesses explore where they are now. How they want to accelerate and where they want to go next. Alicia, welcome to the remarkable coach podcast.
Alecia Wellen 0:55
Thank you, Michael. I’m happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah.
Micheal Pacheco 0:58
So I always like to kick off the podcast by simply inviting our guests to just talk a little bit about yourself and what got you into coaching?
Alecia Wellen 1:08
Yeah, well, it’s been an interesting journey. You know, you had mentioned, I’ve got 20 years of experience in finance, which is very true. Backing up, you know, before that, I, you know, took the traditional course of action for school, undergrad, and marketing masters in finance, you know, all the corporate job work that I’ve been doing is in the financial sector. And, you know, in all the firms that I’ve worked with, over the years, there were opportunities for coaching, and mentor programs. So, you know, I always took advantage of those either as the mentor or the mentee, and I started getting some really nice feedback about what I was sort of contributing to my mentees and larger groups, and you know, people just kind of saying, Oh, my gosh, why aren’t you doing this for a living? Why don’t you get paid for this? And, you know, I always blew that up, like, you know, finance and love the stock market and really enjoy investing money. So it just was something you know, I didn’t passing but I heard it enough that I started thinking, Well, you know, mate, what does that look like? What does a coaching career look like? What does that entail? started doing a lot of research. And lo and behold, I found a really nice program that I was interested in, you know, I think we all get to a certain place in our careers where we kind of stop what we’re doing. And we take inventory, look at the lay of the land and think, oh, my gosh, okay, how did I get here? Do I want to be here? Is this what I really want to be doing? Yeah, the answer is, yes. I love my corporate job and my finance career. But you know, as a side dish to that, I thought, Well, I’m not going to regret learning anything new. So I dove into this really great coaching program that I had done a lot of research on, and decided, I’m gonna go all in. So I signed up for all the classes and certificate certification, like committed to that from the get go. And before I knew it, I had a budding business. So here I am.
Micheal Pacheco 2:59
And was that did you go do that through IETF for another coaching certification company?
Alecia Wellen 3:05
Yeah. So it’s actually the coaching certification program that I did. It was in tandem with ICF. So the first one was with collective its TTI Certified Professional collective coach. See, and then I am a professional certified coach a PCC with the ICF, which is sort of the gold standard for coaching the coaching world. So I’ve got both of those under my belt, and I enjoyed both of both of those curriculums.
Micheal Pacheco 3:33
Awesome. Yeah. And how did you I’m very curious about this. So I, I do swing trading myself, and I went to university in Japan, I speak fluent Japanese. So I know that Reiki stands for Ghost energy, the Kanji is ghost energy. That’s an interesting. That’s a branch. So maybe talk a little bit about that. It’s quite a, it’s quite a leap going from from, you know, one to the other.
Alecia Wellen 4:02
Yeah, it’s, um, you know, again, it’s something that that I happened upon and buried together in a very weird way because kind of set myself apart. I think, you know, a lot of people call themselves coaches these days, some are credentialed and some are not, and credentials are important to me. But, you know, timing being what it was at the time that I was doing research for the coaching program. I had a couple of people mentioned to me, Reiki and how they thought I would be really great at it. And you know, I I love a good Tarot reading every now and again, and I meet with mediums for fun. My sister and I have always done stuff like that. And, you know, I heard it enough. The I’m a big believer that the universe doesn’t allow you to miss out on what’s meant for you. I think that we get little whispers from the universe and from people and, you know, it turns from a whisper into a nag and so I had heard in a very short For a period of time, it was probably about six months, I had three different people talk to me about Reiki. And in particular said like, there’s something special with your hands, do you ever considered becoming a Reiki Master? And, you know, I was like, No, are you kidding? I’m a corporate person, I climbed a ladder, and I did, you know, solid paycheck love my 401k. And at the time, that I had started into the coaching program, I thought, you know, again, I’m not going to regret learning something new. So why not like, why not look into this. So I just dove in and decided to become attuned and become a Reiki Master at the same time that I did the coaching curriculum. And pretty quickly, that that was going to be certified niches, introducing energy into corporate America, and see kind of where that took me. And it’s been quite the ride, very unexpected and exciting. And, and also really fun to watch, you know, type a people like me, it’s this energy space, and actually start paying attention to it, and seeing, you know, what the positive effects are in their day to day lives, whether it be personal or professional. So it was just something that I decided to toy around with and create as my niche, and I don’t regret it. It’s been really fun.
Micheal Pacheco 6:17
That’s awesome. For our uninitiated, viewers and listeners, can you just give us a quick brief rundown of what exactly is Reiki? How do you apply that in this setting? And talk a little bit about that?
Alecia Wellen 6:30
Yeah, I mean, you know, in short, it’s energy healing. So everything in every body is made up of energy at varying frequencies, it’s kind of that thing when you walk into a room and you feel something, and you’re not really sure exactly what it is, we all bring energy to space. And you know, an orange on your table has energy, an energy frequency, just as you and I do, some are more subtle than others. And it’s the energy within us that sometimes can get locked up, you know, sometimes with physical or emotional injury, energy can kind of get locked up and stagnate in certain areas of your body. And so Reiki is, you know, an effort to balance out that energy and their blockages so that you can, from top to bottom, find a balance and a synergy. And, you know, get rid of disputes, if you will. And so, you know, I actually specialize in remote Reiki, which is a little harder sometimes for people to wrap their minds around. Because I don’t have to be in the same room with somebody when I’m doing it. And it was something that I decided to specialize in, and it served very well for the pandemic. We’re able to tap into that and really enjoy the benefits of it. But you know, we all are made up of our aura, and we have chakras and meridians. And so your aura brings energy in, you’ve got your chakras, you know, crown, third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral, and root. And all of those are aligned through your body and you balance the energy and then your meridians kind of distribute that through your body to create a balance. And so, you know, people have described many different things through Reiki, you know, sleeping better mental clarity, emotional balance. You know, it’s different for everybody. But yeah, I, you know, isn’t that into coaching? It is taking something type A, you know, people will hire me as a coach or a business consultant. Some of them want to leverage me for my 2020 year business acumen. And then they find out about this beside dish of energy healing, right? And it doesn’t wait and wait. So it’s not a condition of my coaching package, but it is something I offer, and I’ll say, I would say 90% of my clients take me up on it. Some come into the coaching space, and they say, you know, I’m not interested in that. Don’t even ask me about it. Yeah, they might circle back and, and, and ask about it, and then they introduce it. So it’s really something I don’t hard sell it. It’s something that people have to be called to do. I find that it’s more valuable and resonant if they’re asking me about it. So if they want to integrate it into their coaching package,
Micheal Pacheco 9:12
we do it. Interesting. Interesting. Here, would you talk a little bit about what remote Reiki is and what that looks like? I’ve never I haven’t I’m not familiar with that.
Alecia Wellen 9:25
Yeah, but to go back to the basics. Typically, if you’re doing Reiki with somebody, you’re in the same room with them. Not massage therapy, you’re it’s not a hands on approach. But typically you lay on a table and the Reiki master sort of holds their hands in varying positions over the certain chakra points. And there’s a meditation that occurs and every Reiki Master is a little bit different. When you’re dealing with Reiki, it doesn’t timespace do not exist. And that’s a hard concept in this linear world. to hold on to, but the best metaphor I have for it is, you know, fear, faith and love are all things that we feel, but we don’t see, stand across oceans, you can feel love or fear from somebody or faith between states or countries or you know, wherever you are. And so energy works very much the same. So with Reiki, for me, we pick, you know, a day at a time usually takes about an hour, and I go into a meditation, and I spend about three to five minutes on each chakra, it’s very much a lucid dream for me. So with my attunement, I just go into a meditation, I work, I act as a conduit. So, you know, I’m opening up for energy of my client to come through me. And then there’s an experience that happens there. For me, again, it’s very much a lucid dream. So I do, you know, hear things or see things, and they’re very much random for me. And so it goes up into synapses, and then send them to the client at the end of the session, and then we discuss it. So it’s always fun for me to dismiss it, because again, it’s very random. So they tell me sort of how it resonates. And you know, what they’re feeling or incurring on the other end of that. But, you know, again, the tiny states, it doesn’t exist. And so a lot of my clients will go on about their day, some for they’ll hire me to do it and forget them doing it. I’ve done Reiki for kids on the playground, where their parents will say, hey, so and so’s gonna be playing at this time. Can you do a Reiki session for him? So you can be at the gym, you can be at work, you can, you know, some of my clients decide to meditate alongside me just, you know, to get an hour to themselves to really dive into that energy space. The clearing and the balancing happens regardless of being in the same room, quite frankly, in my opinion. And I think most of my clients would agree, remote Reiki, sometimes the benefits are better when you’re not in the same space, you know, so if somebody breathes different or they cry, or there’s a, you know, a hiccup in their breath, I stop and sort of check in on them, right? I’m a human so I want to see like, are you okay, I want to check in and doesn’t necessarily break the session, but it does distract me. So I would argue that remote Reiki is a little more beneficial in that it’s a straight hour of, you know, really honing in on each of the chakras with no distraction.
Micheal Pacheco 12:26
Interesting. Interesting. I like I like I love I love the personally, I love the concept of like a lack or there is no time or space. There’s there’s a story that I’m absolutely going to butcher but I’ll try and tell it anyway, about rom das and Timothy Leary. They were both teaching at that school and they wanted to go to somewhere in South America and climb a mountain and ROM das got his pilot’s license and bought this crappy old plane. And by the time I think Timothy Leary, and another buddy of theirs was gonna meet him down there. It ended up not working out, they all met up in Mexico, Timothy Leary, and the other guy had found mushrooms and said to rom Das, before his name was rom Das. There’s no such thing as time. And now it’s kind of projected this whole big thing. Timothy Leary went his way. And Ron das went his way. It’s yeah, it’s a fascinating, fascinating subject.
Alecia Wellen 13:26
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s very much something that we put in this human life right to live by. But when you’re dealing with energy, and like I said, you know, my favorite metaphors are the fear of faith and love, because those are just, you know, things that everybody binds into, for the most part, right? Separate and apart from the energy space, but they definitely act and feel very similar. So
Micheal Pacheco 13:49
tell us a little bit about your your clients, who is Who’s your ideal client, who do you typically work with?
Alecia Wellen 13:55
So again, you know, I’m really big on on the value in residence. I think there’s so many coaches out there these days, some are credentialed, some are not we all bring something different special to the table. So chemistry is super important. I again, I don’t hard sell what I’m offering, it’s really allowing space for referrals or clients to come my way that happened upon what I’m doing. So you know, I make space for anyone’s that anyone who is up for coaching with me and sort of what I offer. What I find to be the common denominator is growth and transition. I can look and feel different, right. I work a lot with entrepreneurs. I work a lot with executives and I work a lot with small businesses. The executive piece is interesting. A lot of times it’s women entering the C suite for the first time and its executives exiting the suites, C suite, retirement right. They’re so tethered to their identity being in that professional executive role that they don’t know really who they are. What they want to do afterwards, you know, and I don’t work with just women, I work with men and women, I my roster is predominantly women, I will admit. But it really is a matter of growth and transition. And a lot of times that can look different, you know, it can be people getting married, or between parents for the first time, Mom, I have two kids. And so that resonates with a lot of people and sort of balancing work and home life as well. So it’s really the growth and transition piece, it’s people wanting to do something bigger, better or different, and sort of on the cusp of something, and they’re not exactly sure what it is, but they know they want to do something bigger, better or different. And so they need help navigating what that is. And you know, the coaching that I do is it’s coactive. So it’s not just about what you’re doing, we can set and attain goals all day long. That’s, in my opinion, easy, writing more about not just what you want to do, but who you want to be through the transition. And on the other side of that transformation. Because, you know, if you’re vibrating higher, and you’re doing something bigger, it’s going to require a bigger version of yourself. So you know, back to the 2.0 3.05 point now, we’re just done, who you are and what you’re doing. But it’s a lot about the transformation and who you are becoming as your deconditioning and brachial cycles. So it’s really that growth and transition phase for people. Yeah,
Micheal Pacheco 16:27
that classic phrase, you what got you here won’t take you there. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that’s a great way to put it. Yeah. So we have a lot of coaches on the podcast that work in the C suite. And with, you know, transitioning, management and leadership, you’re the first person I think, that we’ve spoke to that also works with C suite moving into retirement, I’d love to talk a little bit more about that, because that strikes me that’s got to be that’s got to be a big move. Because if you’re in the C suite, you’re you’re working 80 hours, weeks, you’re you know, flying around, depending on how big the company is, right. But you’re heavily, heavily, heavily involved in transition from that to retirement, whatever retirement might look like, gotta be helped transition.
Alecia Wellen 17:16
Yeah, it is. And, you know, it’s, it’s a fun space to work in, because we’ll just do what I said, you know, it’s, it’s a lot of people whose identity is very much wrapped up in the company that they’re working at, and their tenure, right. And a lot of times, they’re working at these firms for, you know, a couple decades and varying roles, it’s been very much invested in what they’ve created and how they’ve helped mold the company and the teams. And sometimes it’s hard to let go of that, right. It’s your very sense of pride point, something that you’ve worked really hard on, and you’ve spent your life’s work doing. And so when they think about transitioning out into retirement, or, or a lot of times, it could be board positions, right, it’s still within the company, but suborn physicians, so they’re not necessarily the same type of decision maker. And, you know, they’re not necessarily on the frontline, but they’re still orchestrating a lot of the company culture, you know, processes operations, you know, different things. And so, it’s, it’s very much it’s not an identity crisis. I don’t like to call it that. But it’s very much a growth and transition phase of, you know, just what the next step is. And a lot of that comes with work in delegation and empowerment in a different way. Because they’re grooming somebody and a succession plan and a depth chart and restricted bench, right. But they don’t really have the grasp on what it’s going to have, you know, how the company is going to be next. And so a lot of there’s a lot of perspectives work that goes into that and aligning with new values and redefining fulfillment. A component that I call it the saboteur, it’s sort of the imposter syndrome, the limiting self talk, you know, keeping your youth safe and Small tour really ramps up when someone is exiting out of the C suite, because it’s, you know, did I do a good job, maybe I didn’t do a good job, the company is going in a different direction is that because of something I did, you know, a family life look like now that I’m home rather than in the office 80 hours a week, and so it’s fun space, and it was an unexpected one. When I hired I had one person hire me for that, and then it became a referral point. And so I have several on my roster that are sort of in that space. And the beautiful part for me in it is the work itself, but that demographic is typically not open to the energy piece. And so that’s a fun space of introducing and watching them sort of discover those that are open for it. That energy component and what that looks and feels like Like in this next chapter for them, and I can tell you that a lot of times that weighs very heavily, and is a big part of the integration and something that they pay attention to more whether it’s going into the board position directly after the C suite or just strict retirement.
Micheal Pacheco 20:16
Yeah, I’m sure. You mentioned, you know, grooming and successor and coming up with a secession plan. I know that CEOs do that. Do you also find like information officers, ops officers, marketing officers? Are other officers doing that sort of thing as well? Or is that primarily with with CEOs that you’re working on that with
Alecia Wellen 20:39
traditional sensitives, the CEOs, but there are a lot of CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, a CFO, they have their own version, right. And I think, really tethered to them wanting to hold on to the integrity of what they’ve built, right? And so they want to groom somebody to step into their space and LinkedIn what they’ve done, but that’s
Micheal Pacheco 21:04
the work that they’ve done previously, right. Yeah. And
Alecia Wellen 21:07
it’s, but it’s also, you know, a lot of perspectives work on doing that, and allowing the space for empowering the new person to look at it with fresh eyes. Right? And especially if the company is in a growth phase, which a lot of times it is, what does that mean? And what are the different strategic points? And you know, whether that’s the financial component, or the people component, or different processes and operations, and so, yeah, there, there’s a non traditional, I would say, sense of succession planning that goes on with different members of the C suite.
Micheal Pacheco 21:40
Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. So you’ve talked a little bit about your clients in, in who they are, I’m curious to know, how do you get those clients, you do? Some different stuff, you’ve got different skills? How do you market yourself? How do you market something like Reiki to the C suite? For example? You know, I? I’m curious to know,
Alecia Wellen 22:04
it’s a good question. So um, I don’t do much marketing. You know, when I started this business, it was you know, I was teasing it out and, and seeing, I was following the passion. And I wanted to see, you know, you take, take a step forward, and the universe takes 10, right to sort of validate what you’re doing. And I went into it wanting to do something for the greater good, and give back, you know, from a place of passion for me and fulfillment, but to really cater to provide a service for other people. And so I wasn’t in a position per se, to be spending a lot of marketing dollars. And it really was more about leveraging my network, and a 20 year stint in the finance world helped me do that, right. And I can’t express enough how important exposure and networking is. And networking is kind of a dirty word. You know, when I think of networking, I think those you know, after work, happy hours, where everyone’s standing around, and nobody really wants to talk to each other, and you’re getting during work. Yeah, not my favorite. But it’s, you know, I took a different lens on networking. And I’ve just started openly talking about what I was doing and what I hoped to achieve and giving back to a certain community. And before I knew it, it really was my network working for me. And I started getting a lot of referrals and people calling, asking questions. And, you know, I had mentioned before, I don’t sell Reiki, I don’t, it’s just not, it doesn’t make sense, because energy work is something that you’re called to do. And it’s got to be valuable and resonant for the recipient, they’ve got to be the ones to feel like a blockage or, you know, not the clarity piece is missing, or you know, something is calling them to do the energy work. Now, visit my website, they get introduced to Reiki and start asking questions, right. And so again, it’s not something that I necessarily market but it really started out very much as referral and you know, a lot of pro bono work. I did link up I do some pro bono work with my, the college that I went to, graduating seniors always have a lot of questions and need a lot of guidance and help as they’re entering the workforce. And so it you know, that creates a very nice pipe of people who I’ve worked with as they’re entering the workforce and then as they need help or move up in their space. It’s very helpful. So I do a little bit of marketing I you know, I love doing engagements like this to sort of get the message out and that kind of thing, but it really is a little bit of local marketing and a lot of word of mouth. And so it’s it’s more referral base really than anything, which is a really nice validation to me that I’m doing something that means mean something to me go and talk about it and send their friends and family or coworkers. With the bigger companies that I’ve worked with You know, it’s, it’s interesting with, you know, the succession planning, sometimes I’ll work with, you know, a CEO that is exiting, and I will with the person they’re bringing up. And so tandem approach and sort of working with them together, it’s sort of like couples counseling. So it’s a nice way to sort of create space for both sides, old and new. And so that has has served me well. Also.
Micheal Pacheco 25:26
Interesting. Nice. Yeah. I was curious about that. It would be, you know, for myself, as a marketer, I’m trying to think about how you would work something like Reiki into, essentially, you know, executive coaching, this is what you’re, you know, kind of talking about here. But I guess so, at what point? At what point do you feel compelled to? Or do you actually, is there a point at which you feel compelled to suggest recommend or offer that to a client? Or do you completely just leave it up to them? If they’ll discover it on your website? That’s up to them? They’ll figure it out? It’s totally up to them?
Alecia Wellen 26:13
Yeah, I mean, in the in the few spaces that I do marketing, I, you know, it’s like a three prong approach. It’s consulting, coaching and Reiki. So when people come across, you know, local marketing, they’ll see that, and they might ask me about it, it’s definitely on my website. So people do see that sets, you know, in a prospecting call, if someone’s open to that kind of work or not. Some people that will say, Hey, I saw right here on your website, I’m not interested in that. And they say it right up front. And so now, are there opportunities within the coaching dynamic, and the coaching sessions themselves that lends itself to energy work? Yes. And sometimes, depending on the client, I’ll ask them, you know, hey, this is a good space to discuss energy, if you’re open to it. They are, and sometimes they aren’t. But it really is more or less people who are either called to do it already interested in it or curious about it, and they drive the conversation. And so they’re the ones sort of asking, like, you know, what is that? How does it work? How would you integrate that into coaching? And, you know, it’s their curiosity that sort of drives that, and it just creates a nice space for me to candidly talk about it. And you know, some people who are like, oh, yeah, I don’t really know about it. But you know, there’s nothing to be afraid of. So like, let’s just do it and see what happens, right. And so it’s kind of just a nice space of curiosity, and I’ve got nothing to lose, and I’m hiring you. So let’s see everything that you have to offer working at its best, and let’s just do it. So, you know, um, and I do also, you know, to be transparent, I have some clients that come to me that are not interesting, interested in coaching at all, they only want to hire me for Reiki. And so there is like a very small component of my business where, you know, they’ll pay me for 12 months of Reiki, and I do it once a month. And as we talk about it, sometimes we don’t.
Micheal Pacheco 28:05
Yeah. Interesting. Cool. So you mentioned three prong approach, consulting, coaching, Reiki? Where is your what’s the line of demarcation for you between coaching and consulting?
Alecia Wellen 28:20
Well, it’s very gray. It’s very, very, yeah. You know, some people will say, Well, I’ll put it this way. And I say this in all of my prospecting calls very candidly. We are one person. So when I’m coaching or consulting with somebody, you know, they may come to me and say, I only want to work on my business. And I say, Yes, I am open to that. But I’m gonna say this, you are one person, and you can’t compartmentalize your life, if you’re going through a true transformation, and you’re deconditioning, and you’re breaking cycles, you want to level up and do something bigger, better or different, you can’t do just part of your life, right? So we’re going to start there, but just know that I’m open to it evolving into personal professional, you know, there’s a lot of flow that goes back and forth there. And so I let them know that I’ve opened for that. And 10 out of 10 times, we get there with our coaching because it’ll you know, something will happen at home. And they’ll want to vent about that a little bit beginning of the coaching session. And then very quickly, do you connect dots, that something that is happening at home has resonance or impact in society, right? And so it’s collectively something as a whole person, could they survive or learn a new perspective or, you know, a mindset, if you will, that impacts both sides. And so that sort of all of that to say that when somebody comes to me for just consulting on a small business, oftentimes there’s there’s coaching in there. Now comes to me just For, you know, for lack of a better term life coaching, there’s always there’s usually a consultative piece to that, because they are working professionals most oftentimes. And so it’s, you know, again, it just there’s a flow back and forth. And so I’ll ask them, you know, hey, I feel compelled to take off my coaching hat and put on my consulting hat. Are you open to that? And so now, it usually starts off as one thing and then collectively comes in with all three or two.
Micheal Pacheco 30:34
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, that makes sense. There’s, there’s so there’s a running there’s a running joke on this podcast with pretty much every executive coach that I’ve ever had on is that the dirty little secret of every executive coach is that they’re also a life coach. Because yeah, exactly the same stated you can’t compartmentalize that stuff, like it’s, it spills over because you are one person.
Alecia Wellen 31:03
Yeah. And the a nice way of putting that that I learned from CTI is, you know, everybody is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole, everything is inside you. And it’s my job as the coach to tease that out whether it’s in a business capacity or personal capacity, or in an energetic capacity. But yeah, I mean, people I think sometimes get turned off by the term life coach, and I just said a minute ago, right? For the lack of a better term life coach. We are one person living a life and living a professional life. And all of us wear many hats, right? You’re a parent, you’re a professional, you’re volunteer, you’re, you know, many different things. And it’s cool to start in one, one aspect of your life. But if, when I know that the coaching or consulting is working, is when I see it bleeding out into all to, to level up an entire person, right. And I want them to be aligned with their values, feeling fulfilled, by the way that they define it and combating that saboteur in all aspects of their lives. So that it’s, you know, coming full circle, rather than killing it at work and really sucking at home, or vice versa. So important to point that out. But yeah, I buy into your dirty little secret.
Micheal Pacheco 32:17
Now, well, we’ve had I’ve had, I’ve had one guest on the podcast, who vehemently denied that he was anything remotely close to a life coach, he was an executive coach. And that’s it, because like, okay, all right, I won’t step on your toes. Yeah.
Alecia Wellen 32:33
I mean, I would already executives have lives. Right. That’s, that’s the way I view is that executives have lives and you know, moms have executive presence, right? It can go both ways. If you’re looking at, you know, a parent, so yeah.
Micheal Pacheco 32:51
I mean, yeah, I think the lessons, you know, yeah, lessons, lessons are cross cultural. Right. And by cross cultural, what I mean is, right, a lesson can apply to business, it can apply to your personal life, it can apply to your family, apply to whatever, the different areas of your life. Yeah. What sort of things did you first struggle with when you started coaching?
Alecia Wellen 33:18
Um, you know, niche was a big one. And a lot of the individuals that I’ve met in the coaching curriculum courses, you know, it was interesting, because I went into this wanting to learn something, I wasn’t necessarily doing it to start a business, it was wanting to learn something new and to home some new skills. And very quickly, as I was sitting in this group of 30, plus people, every weekend, it became clear that they were doing it to start a business or their companies were sending them in to sort of enhance the corporate side of the business. And so people started talking about niche. And I did have a moment of anxiety where I thought, Okay, I’m going to buy into maybe creating a side hustle here. And, oh, no, I can’t just do all things for all people. And so like, what is that? Right. And so I think niche was a scary place in that when you’re starting a business, you want to do all things to all people because you want to make money. So you’re not going to go to a prospect. But what I found is if you become a yes person, and you don’t have a niche, you’re not really serving in your greatest capacity for the people who are searching for something. You know, I’m not a wellness coach. I’m not I don’t specialize in like, neuro diversity like ATD or ADHD in C suite. You know, I think that there are people better suited and more professional with different credentials that can do that. Niche was out there was a panic moment for me, but then I reminded my Self that my niche looked and felt very different from others because it was the energy space, right? So when people started talking about leadership coaching, you know, HR consulting, career coaching, wellness coaching, you can get 1000 different certifications for 1000 different things. And nobody else that I had met was doing the energy piece. And so there’s a moment where, okay, I think I have my niche, but also, it’s very different. And like, Am I crazy for even trying this because, you know, energy and type a name to match up or make sense. So it took me a while to sort of embrace that and get, you know, really loving to myself in my niche about what I was doing, and that it was different and a little weird, but also in a very beautiful way it does come together. And it does make sense for the type a person or the C suite person to just shine a light on something that they hadn’t considered before. So that was a long way of answering your question that I think, you know, my biggest hurdle when starting really was the niche piece. And, you know, I just don’t believe in coincidences, I don’t believe in failure, I think everything happens for a reason, the universe is never gonna let you miss out on what’s meant for you. So you try a bunch of stuff on and you see what works. And, you know, nobody can do what I do the way I do it. And so there’s not a lot of competition, there are other coaches that do something similar to what I do. Because I’m bringing a different energy to it. It’s my expertise. And it’s something that I created I built. And, you know, it’s my own unique way. And so, as I built that niche, and as I embraced it and sort of dove into it, and you know, talked about very authentically talking about what I was doing that sort of build it, they will come right. And that’s hard to buy into. Because I think in this human world, we’re so obsessed with controlling and creating and driving something which is necessary, right? I mean, you can use money as an example, we all make it in order to feed mouths. But if you let go of the control a little bit, it’s letting go develop is a good way to put it, you will use for something and remove the limit, right? Like this can be better than anything I can imagine. Because I haven’t quite done it before. Right? It’s, it’s allowing space for something that’s unaccounted for something unexpected. I do want it to be bigger, better different and something unexpected that I can’t quite imagine yet. And once you sort of make space for that, and just try it on the universality too. And you learn really quick that what you’re doing does matter. And you are doing it in the right way. Not a binary person, I don’t like black and white, right or wrong, good or bad. But you get that validation. And for me it was by referral. And so my business grew exponentially year over year. And there’s no better validation than having people come to you and and want help from you for what they’re trying to do in their lives, whether it’s consulting, coaching Reiki, or a combination of all three.
So yeah, I mean, I think niche was really my biggest, my biggest hurdle. And once I sort of let go of trying to control it so much, it opened up and you know, we’ll see where I go next. But for now, it’s working.
Micheal Pacheco 38:32
Nice. Yeah, I think to speak to your point about, you know, how you’re, you come with your own energy, you’ve got your own style coat with coaching is, that’s one of the thing that’s so fascinating about the coaching space, is that it is so it’s so much more personality defined, I think, then then something like consulting, I did consulting for a number of years with enterprise corporations and SMBs. And it you know, it didn’t necessarily matter that I have the personality that I have, what mattered was that I had the knowledge that I had, right, but with coaching, it’s really, it’s one on one, you’re spending a lot of personal time you need that trust. And because of that, I think, you know, there’s, there’s room for you, right, there’s room for whoever wants to do it, but at doing whatever feels called to it. There’s room for that.
Alecia Wellen 39:29
Yeah, and I think you know, a really nice thing and I say this to every prospect, not at work, but just everybody I work with a small group of people, you know, throughout the year because I want to make myself available. I want to I want the quality over quantity and I think that’s really important and making myself available in between the coaching sessions is really important because a lot happens a lot of magic happens in between coaching sessions and validation that the work that we’re doing is amounting to something and so you know, I tell every, every call every prospect it’s got to be valuable and resonant to them, like I come from a finance background, I can hard sell anybody and I can get what I want. But in space, I’m not interested in doing that. Because what I want is a client to hire me because they feel value in resonance. Without the resonance, they’re not going to achieve bigger, better things, they’re not going to level up. Because it’s me barking orders or creating an agenda for them. And that’s just not how this works. That’s not how I’ve created my business, my businesses, you have everything that you need inside of you, you don’t know how to access it, and I’m going to help you do that. But you have to that it has to feel valuable and resonant. And there’s chemistry there, yes. But there’s got to be sort of what I call designing the Alliance, right. It’s not just about what they need from me as a coach, but it’s what I need from them as a client is to issue an order for it to really work and for them to decondition and break a cycle to really do something different. It’s unaccounted for, it does not live in an agenda. It’s not about me telling them exactly what to do. It’s about me teasing out what it is that they know is in there, they just don’t know how to access it. And so we do talk a lot in my prospecting calls about value of residence, and what we need from each other. And you know, and I also, frankly, I encourage every one of my prospects to interview other coaches, you know, I want them to watch Mark. And so a lot of times people get surprised at that. And they’re like, oh, my gosh, are you telling me to go somewhere else? No, I’m not telling you to go somewhere else. But go do your due diligence, right? That’s part of the business. That’s part of the negotiation. Go out and see everything that’s out there, to make sure the feeling that you have inside is resonant so that you can achieve this thing, this unaccounted for thing that’s bigger than anything you can imagine. Right? It’s removing the limit. I’m here to help that, but I want to make sure that they’ve got the right gal. Yeah.
Micheal Pacheco 41:56
Awesome. I like that. Alicia, I want to be respectful of your time. Is there anything else that you would like to chat about? That we haven’t touched upon already?
Alecia Wellen 42:08
Thanks. So you’ve asked some really great questions. And yeah, like I said, I’m just super happy to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me and having me. You know, thanks for highlighting the energy piece. I think I love getting that message out there. I think people are are integrating that more and more into their day to day lives. And you know, what I’m doing is a little bit different than most. So I’m happy to talk about that and highlight it. So I appreciate you bringing that up.
Micheal Pacheco 42:31
Awesome. Alicia, you have a complimentary strategy session for our viewers and listeners. We talked about that a little bit.
Alecia Wellen 42:38
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I would, I was just describing it, as you know, a prospecting call, right? So somebody will call me and want to get to know me a little bit. And that’s not a complimentary strategy session. The complimentary strategy session is if somebody knows for sure that they want to work with me, and I want to work with them. And there’s, you know, the Alliance there and the chemistry, i Everybody gets a complimentary strategy session no matter what, because that’s where we sort of dive into the data, right? Tell me about your values. Tell me about your fulfillment, let’s get really acquainted with that saboteur. So that I know what to listen for and who I’m dealing with, it’s keeping someone in small. So the complimentary strategy session is, you know, once we’ve committed time to each other, you know, anyone is welcome to call me and get to know me. And if they’re inclined to work with me, then everybody gets a, you know, an added session to the package so that we can get, you know, some basic direct data out of the ways that we were getting to know each other and what I can help with what they want out of coaching, and really just laying the foundation, the foundation and the framework for it. So anybody can schedule that through my website or via email. I mean,
Micheal Pacheco 43:47
awesome. And your website is Alicia Whelan. It’s W E L L, E N, which is spelled, I’ll just spell the website out. It’d be easier that way, a LECIAW e LL. E. n.com. We’ll also add that to the show show notes. My tongue is twisted right now, Alicia, where, where else? can our listeners and viewers connect with you online? Do you do social media at all on LinkedIn?
Alecia Wellen 44:12
No, I have a love hate with social media. But I am on there I am, you know, most of what I do is on LinkedIn. But I do have an Instagram, which is just Alicia wallet coaching. So you got the website, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Micheal Pacheco 44:27
Awesome. We’ll get those links into the show notes as well.
Alecia Wellen 44:31
Perfect. Awesome. Well,
Micheal Pacheco 44:32
thanks. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you to our viewers and listeners for joining us as well. We’ll catch you guys next time. Cheers. Thanks.
