How do two nurse coaches go from burnout and uncertainty to building a 7-figure coaching business rooted in deep presence and spiritual alignment? In this episode, you’ll meet Laura Minard and Shelby Kurz, co-founders of The Successful Nurse Coaches—two women who have built a thriving business at the intersection of entrepreneurship, healing, and transformational coaching. We explore the personal turning points, business strategies, and soul-deep practices that helped them quit their jobs, launch private practices, and eventually co-create a company that’s changing lives. From embracing fear and uncertainty to aligning with their deepest truths, this conversation is full of insight for any coach committed to walking a transformational path. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow, you’ll walk away with tangible tools—and a big dose of inspiration—for building a coaching business that’s truly values-aligned.
How do two nurse coaches go from burnout and uncertainty to building a 7-figure coaching business rooted in deep presence and spiritual alignment? In this episode, you’ll meet Laura Minard and Shelby Kurz, co-founders of The Successful Nurse Coaches—two women who have built a thriving business at the intersection of entrepreneurship, healing, and transformational coaching.
We explore the personal turning points, business strategies, and soul-deep practices that helped them quit their jobs, launch private practices, and eventually co-create a company that’s changing lives. From embracing fear and uncertainty to aligning with their deepest truths, this conversation is full of insight for any coach committed to walking a transformational path.
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow, you’ll walk away with tangible tools—and a big dose of inspiration—for building a coaching business that’s truly values-aligned.
⏰ Timestamps
00:26 – Welcome to the Deep Coach Podcast
01:19 – Meet Laura Minard and Shelby Kurz
02:56 – Shelby’s Spiritual Awakening
14:55 – Laura’s Journey to Holistic Health
19:10 – Starting a Coaching Business
39:15 – Finding Space to Breathe
39:41 – The Birth of a Business Idea
41:04 – Early Challenges and Successes
42:32 – The Importance of Partnership
44:29 – Navigating Fear and Trust
49:45 – Entrepreneurship as a Spiritual Journey
01:00:44 – Coaching as the Core of Business
01:02:04 – The Power of Coaching Conversations
01:03:38 – Characteristics of Top Coaches
01:06:53 – The Messiness of Success
01:09:33 – Long-Term Vision and Persistence
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🔗 Connect with Laura & Shelby
Website: The Successful Nurse Coaches
Instagram: @thesuccessfulnursecoaches
LinkedIn (Laura): Laura Minard
LinkedIn (Shelby): Shelby Kurz
Their Podcast: The Successful Nurse Coaches Podcast
YouTube Channel: @TheSuccessfulNurseCoaches
The Deep Coach Podcast
Episode 2: Laura Minard + Shelby Kurz - The 7 Figure Deep Coaches: Learn the Proven Strategies to Build a Thriving Coaching Practice
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Laura Minard: once I knew what to do, then it was, it wasn't really, um, a matter of if it was gonna work or not. It was a matter of how long would it take.
Shelby Kurz: I had just gotten three yeses.
Of course, four yeses felt like the natural next step. and that's like when my season of nos started, it was just like, no, no, no, no one right after the other. And this was probably like one of the very first time of a hundred times that I cried hard on one of my coaching calls.
Welcome to the Deep Coach, the podcast where we explore the transformational journeys that shape us and that propel us to change the world. I'm your host, Jonathan Hermida, and in each episode we sit down with those who have journeyed into the depths of spiritual transformation and who are now reshaping the world through their presence and their work.
In listening to these incredible individuals, you'll find insight, inspiration, and practical tools that'll support your journey as a coach and as a human being.
Today I am joined by two extraordinary guests that I'm really excited for you all to get to know. These two women are absolute powerhouses as you'll come to find. They've not only transformed their own lives through coaching, but have helped hundreds of others do the same. By bridging the gap between coaching and successful entrepreneurship for all of you coaches in private practice or looking to build your private practice, this episode is especially for you.
Laura Menard and Shelby Kurz met in 2018 during their nurse coach certification program. And if you were wondering, yes, there is a thing called nurse coaches out there, and these are nurses who are becoming coaches and taking their supportive patients and clients to the next level. So in the course, they were assigned as each other's first peer coaching partners, and that partnership turned out to be life changing as they both encouraged each other to take a leap of faith, quitting their jobs, and going all in on their private practice.
We'll talk more about that leap of faith and other details of their journey during this episode. In short, they were so successful that they went into business together to teach the art of marketing, sales, and business creation In a way that feels deeply aligned with the inner work of coaching and their business boomed into the seven figures.
That's right. Seven figures. Oh, and by the way, they did all of this while having small children and being the primary breadwinners in their home. So like I said, these are incredible women. They're actually gonna be offering the center's deep coaching intensive to their community this year in 2025,
And by the end of the year, we're looking to launch their business development program for our coaches. So a lot of really beautiful synergy and collaboration here. In today's episode, we're diving into their personal journeys, what it really takes to build a thriving coaching business, and why they believe that entrepreneurship is one of the most profound spiritual paths you can walk.
I have said enough. Let's dive right in.
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Jonathan Hermida: Laura Shelby, thank you for being here with me. I'm curious, and I'm sure everyone listening is curious what set off your transformational journeys? And I know that's a very big question, but given that you're in the world of deep coaching, what is it that set off this grand adventure that you've all been on?
Laura Minard: I mean, there's like 10 layers to that answer.
Laura's Journey into Coaching
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Laura Minard: But what comes to mind immediately is how I found out about Leon. And I had been in coaching for two and a half years and we had been asked to speak at a live event in front of a lot of coaches, and so I was developing what I wanted to speak to the audience about and I wanted to speak about self-concept.
Because I think for me, I, as soon as I realized that I didn't want to go find myself, I wanted to create myself, I really became aware of the importance of self-concept. And I was like a Facebook group and I was like, who's got the best resources for self-concept? And Leon's name came up. And so I just went to Amazon and bought the book.
And then I read the book the first time in like four days and then told everybody I knew about the book, knowing very little about it, what it actually was. and so that's how I came, came in contact with Leon's work. But I had been a study of a Course in Miracles. I had studied the course, a Course in Miracles at 17. And I had always had like a deep spiritual longing and that didn't seem to fit a lot of different contexts. So I think for me, I was always a seeker spiritually. And then I feel like Leon's work is where coaching and spiritual seeking collides. And so that's why it resonated so much for me personally.
Jonathan Hermida: And Laura, what? What do you think it was about your disposition as a young woman that had you as a seeker so young?
Laura Minard: Uh, mystical experiences that no one could understand and just trying to find some measure of what had happened and what I had, what I believed. And I'd had, um, like the only thing I could say is like, walking near death experiences of different, yeah. Of, of just very strange experiences. And we weren't religious, so I had no, I was looking for an explanation of what had happened or what I believed and was just seeking for anywhere I could. And of course, the miracles was the CO at that time was like, as soon as I read it, I was like, oh, this person gets it. The author of this book gets it, which is, you know, interesting. And then of course A Way of Mastery was a book that came a little bit later. That's also, I find really, really important. And I just feel that Leon, a lot of Leon's work, it just sets on what both of those I learned in both of those books. Um, it's like the closest thing to Spiritual Truth that I could find growing up.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Yeah. How about for you, Shelby?
Shelby's Path to Self-Discovery
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Shelby Kurz: Oh, I have, Laura and I have quite differing origin stories I feel like. Um, and so if I rewind a little bit of like, uh, probably almost 10 years ago, I, um, was feeling out of alignment, but I didn't have the words for it. Like I was, I had recently graduated nursing school. I was working in the hospital and there was many moments to where I, I. Either was hearing voices or getting nudges from the universe. One or the other being like, this isn't it, this isn't it. Like from a professional standpoint. And that eventually is what led me to coaching and like exploring this path that felt more in alignment, um, but also kind of coinciding with, with switching specialties with a nursing to become a nurse coach. Um, right after I got certified as a nurse coach, my mom sent me, um, a planner in the mail to like be supportive. She sent me this planner and it had a cross engraved on the front and I was raised, um, like a version of Southern Baptists and that is like its own sub niche within religion all and of itself.
And I remember getting this planner in the mail and being so irrationally mad at my mom for sending me this planner. And I was. Kind of taken off guard of, um, like, why is this making me so upset? So like a good little coach, I took it to my coach at the time and I was like, yo, I think I'm having an irrational response to this planner.
Like, I know my mom didn't send it to me on purpose. and that kind of marked, I had no idea what deconstruction was or what any of that I had. No, I had no reference point for it, but it started happening to me all at once. So like I started my business and then there was the spiritual unfolding at the same time of pulling apart what I had been raised in, pulling apart what I've been taught.
Like, is this true for me? Still just a deep questioning. And I mean, Laura's ridden shotgun beside me on this for like, gosh, seven years. And, um. Leon's work kind of found us. I mean, Laura found the book and then like she said, she told everybody about it. I was one of probably the first people she
told, and then I was reading it and I was like, oh, there's this other way, there's this other way to relate to spiritual connection.
There's this other way, um, to relate with other people through spirituality when you have differing like foundations or backgrounds, which was very new for me. Um, if anyone's familiar with, um, like Southern Christianity, it's very one way or the highway. You are either right or wrong. And so this just like cracked open a whole realm of gray in the best way for me of like, you get to decide like how, how do you relate to it?
And I would say that I'm still, hmm, very much in like the great unknown of that and like redefining it and pulling things, piecing it all, piecing it all back together. Um, but. Without coaching in general, I don't think that I would've had the tools or I wouldn't have been at the right place or the right time for this to happen.
And there's still a chance I would be angry at that silly little planner that my mom sent me in the mail.
Navigating Personal and Professional Challenges
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Jonathan Hermida: You know, it's, it's interesting because your story, Shelby, you kind of, let's call it, woke up or, or became aware of this world. I, you were already a parent, right? You were certainly married. You were already a parent.
Shelby Kurz: Yep.
Jonathan Hermida: You were a business owner, so there was a lot of sort of stable aspects to your life and this transformational journey to be quite disruptive in many ways.
So what, what was it like to have all of these sort of stable pillars in your life, but then also kind of get existential about the meaning of life and where your life was going?
Shelby Kurz: Yeah, that's a really good observation. I don't know that I've connected those dots before. Um, yeah, my, my first daughter was probably like six months old when all of this happened for the very first time. And, um, I would also say that she was probably a catalyst too, to all of this, of like, I'd, if I wasn't a mom, I don't know that I would've been so hungry to, to, to figure it out, to use air quotes here.
'cause then it becomes of like, okay, well then what am I going to teach her? You know, how am I gonna teach her to relate to the world? The framework I was given doesn't feel correct for me anymore. So like, now what? And I think that that was good fuel in my, in my tank to explore. Um, but like. I don't know.
The short version, Jonathan, is like, thank God all of the other areas of my life were stable. Like genuinely and truly, I think that I had walked out on my ER job at the time, started a business, was a new mom. So while things were stable, there was a lot of new in my life. So it makes a lot of sense that like, yeah, let's throw in a, a spiritual evolution as well.
At the same time in this, it kind of like blends right in to the math equation real easy.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah, so, and it's interesting, just one question and then I'm gonna ask you something there.
Transitioning from Nursing to Coaching
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Jonathan Hermida: Uh, Laura, is you mentioned that nursing wasn't the thing and then you kind of switched the quote unquote thing. It was still around nursing and supporting nurses. And can you, can you share a little bit about how nursing itself wasn't the thing, but supporting nurses became the thing?
Shelby Kurz: Yeah. I have known that I wanted to be a nurse since I was like 12. Like I've had this knowing for a really long time that I like to help people. I like to be of service to other humans and other people. And, um, I think that I had an idealistic picture in my head of what nursing was in the hospital.
And while there were some moments that were so precious and so tender, and I'm so honored to have been someone's nurse, like, you know, during their most vulnerable moments, their scariest moments to be able to provide relief and comfort. Um, there was a disconnect for me because it felt like I was a cog in a broken system and I didn't have any power to influence it.
I, I very much felt like this is just what we do. As nurses and yep, we kind of know we're setting up some patients for failure, but we don't have any other tools or resources to like get out of this just wheel of doom, which is, sounds really dramatic, but that's the way it felt to me at the time. And, um, I tried really hard for about five years to make traditional nursing work.
So I was a new grad, um, and I worked on an amazing floor. Actually, the nurses on that floor were incredible and they took me under their wing. I feel like if I was gonna have the best shot, like that was a really. Great place to begin. Um, but then I got the travel bug and I went and did travel nursing. I worked all over the country in many different hospitals, kind of like searching for the place to where it all made sense of like, oh, this hospital is doing it well, like we're doing a good job here.
And I never, I never found it. Um, and so then in kind of like a last ditch attempt, I joined, I started working in the er, which is like hysterical to me to look back on now, like, it's not working, so let's double down on the not working and go work in the er. And um, and I mean, it's like going to a war zone every day at work, whenever you work in the er.
And, um, I didn't know at the time like what a deep empath I was. I didn't know how much of just like my patients. Hardships and traumas. I carried around with me and working in the er just like poured gas on that. And I had a really hard time coping with the intensity of the er, the patient loss in the er and how quickly you have to move on. Um, so I worked in the ER for almost two years, again in about three ERs across the country. And um, that's when I met Laura was when I was working in er right when I, right before I quit. And, uh, I remember her encouraging me of like, they'll always need you back, but you better go find out if this is the new path for you. Like, never a better time than right now to see, to see if this is it. And, uh, I, it it's just like a gut sense knowing of like, this, the work I wanna do with people is more proactive than reactive and traditional medicine is reactive. And I just knew I could have been good at that job for the rest of my life and, you know, gotten awards and done all the things, but I think it would've come at a price. To my, to my soul, to be honest.
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm. How about for you, Laura? What was the deciding factor to transition from traditional nursing into private practice coaching?
Laura Minard: gosh. I, um, be, when I gave birth to my son, I became chronically ill and for three years I went to every specialist. I mean, it was, the conventional medicine system separates you into like different pieces of matter. So like if you're toe hurts, you go to the toe doctor. If you have an irregular heart rate, then you go to the heart doctor.
If you've got a headache, you go to the neurologist. And I had this constellation of symptoms, so I was sent to all the different. Doctors to, to look at different pieces of me. And at the end of three years, I was almost disabled. I was on 14 medications and my new primary care physician said to me that it was all in my head and that I really probably needed to, to work more on psychiatry. And I remember, and I had, my sister was an ER nurse who's also a deep coach now as well, side note. But she had come with me to that appointment and I just left defeated. And I'm crying because I'm like, first they don't believe me that I'm in so much pain. They think I'm like trying to get drugs. They're treating me like I was like a drug addict.
But I was in so much physical pain and she was, uh, she was trying to advocate for me. She's like, there's nothing I can do to even advocate for you. And I just remember thinking spiritually, like God would not put me through this for no reason. So like what's the reason? And I remember having that really clear.
And I also remember having the thought of, if I wanna be well for my children, I. I'm gonna have to figure this out on my own. There's no doctor, there's no expert that's gonna fix me. And so it was like, that was a big turning point for me, is realizing I had to be my own advocate. Nobody cared about my health the way that I did. And I stopped, um, displacing ownership of my physical wellbeing to doctors. And thank God I found a, a naturopathic doctor went and saw her and she did a 90 minute intake with me and listened to my story and wasn't taking notes and wasn't trying to diagnose. She just kept asking me more questions about me and like my stress levels and my childhood.
And it was like really, like there was a deep coaching element even to the way that she did her intake, because it was very holistic. And at the end of that 90 minute session, she said, I don't know what's wrong with you, but there's something wrong with you and we'll figure it out. And I felt immediate relief.
It was the first time someone believed me and in 16 weeks just through diet, exercise, she made me get a weekly massage. I remember. And, um, she said, don't try to lose weight. Just eat these healthy things. Get 'em a weekly massage, like sleep as much as you can take these supplements. And in 16 weeks we had results back.
But, um, I knew exactly what was wrong with me and I was off all of my medications. And so as that was happening to me, I was working as an advice nurse for the same system that failed me. And then I, I remember one day I was getting calls from different women in their thirties with the same constellation of symptoms, and I realized if I told them how I got, well, I would be fired. So I was un like my job didn't allow me to help people. In fact, it, it would've, yeah, I would've been fired. And so I remember driving home from work that day, and by the way, I was making almost a hundred dollars an hour working part-time with full benefits for my whole family. It's the highest paid nursing job in the country. Um, and it was like, by all means, the easiest job, lowest risk, highest pay. Four, six hour shifts. And so that, that was like, that, that's the thing important, because I remember thinking, of course, you've rose into the pinnacle of like the lowest stress, highest paying nursing job, and it's awful. Like it's, it like, I could not do it.
So I quit with without notice. I told my husband, I just was never gonna go back. And I quit that day. And, um, that was right before I found nurse. Uh, I think I just started nurse coaching, maybe my certification. So I think quitting, you know, seven days into a coaching training program, it puts a little fire underneath you to open a business. So like, the timing was perfect. I was like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I am figuring it out because I cannot, there is no plan B for me. Like I can't go back to that system. So, uh, it sounds dramatic, but I just started taking nurses with me. Shelby was my first, um, victim.
Shelby Kurz: I'm jumping. You're coming. Let's go. Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: Well, we're, we're gonna get into this because oftentimes, you know, the question around what does it take to start a successful coaching practice, you know, comes, a lot of coaches struggle with that,
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: and I've found that it is those that sort of, and, and. Disclaimer, I do not advocate for this. I don't think this is the best approach.
But burning the ships does incentivize,
Laura Minard: work.
Jonathan Hermida: it incentivizes you to sink or swim, you know?
Shelby Kurz: yeah,
I do think Jonathan, it is the best way. It's not the most logical way
though. It's not, it's
not, uh, yeah.
I, I agree. Big asterisk on that one, but that's what we both did.
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: all wrote something related to this in, in, in the form that you each consistently chose the unknown. Uh, you each consistently chose to take risks and face challenges ahead. What was it inside of you that allowed you to trust in life and in that next step, without knowing what that next step was gonna be or whether it would
Shelby Kurz: Hmm.
Laura Minard: gosh, I know what mine is, which will be think. I love this audience that's gonna be listening 'cause I know you all will take this and probably know what I'm talking about. But,
um, for me, when I started my business, I knew subconsciously that my husband was gonna be fired. I don't know how I would know this.
He was a fire captain in the Bay Area. He had been there for 10 years. Really well-liked leader in his, in his department. And I just had this knowing that I had to kind of hurry because it was gonna, I was gonna have to take care of our family. And it was not rational. I, I had talked to one coach about it one time, but it was just this thing I knew and it came true.
He was fired. Um, about two and a half years after I started my business. So for me, unfortunately, I think it was fear, it was subconscious fear of something I felt already happening. It was, um, kind of like Spirit was saying, we don't have a whole lot of time to do this, so we're gonna have to, like, you can't mess around here.
Like, you're just gonna have to keep taking steps into the darkness. And for me, that was what propelled me is I knew I was being called to take a different role in my family. Um, a hundred percent that was mine.
And what about you, Shelby? Because I feel like we were like woven together in that.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah, yeah. A little context. So Lauren and I met in certification and we were partnered together for some like practice
coaching, which is how our relationship started. But then for like the first year of our private practice, we were very much just friends, like cheering each other on, on
the internet.
And we didn't join business-wise until a little while later. But the, I'm glad that you said fear. I was afraid that you were gonna give some like high level response,
because mine was also fear too, in the sense of like, I would do anything to not go back to the er, I would do anything. And now that I have kids, and now that's a little different, I would do anything for my family, including going back to the er. But I can see the hospital where I had my very first job from the house I'm living in right now. And it is like a looming, a looming reminder for me on the horizon of like, Hey girl, you better keep going. Or else, I mean. I mean, and I know rationally that there's a hundred other options, but this is kind of the little game that I play with myself whenever it comes between choosing like perceived safety into the unknown.
So that's absolutely how, how the fuel in my fire, like I was so burned out. I was so just morally injured from working in the ER that like I could not, I would do anything to not go back and that's pretty powerful juice to like
plow through a brick brick wall if you need to. Um, and then also too, I think when it began to shift for me out of fear was in 2021, I had an open heart surgery to repair an aneurysm and I had, um, uh, like, I don't know, what would you call that, Laura?
Like an existential moment on the or table
or like a a moment met face-to-face with, with my higher power and. There was obviously a lot of anxiety leading up to that. I had to wait for surgery for like six months. So there was this whole ceremony I was in waiting for this huge surgery that I didn't know that I was going to survive.
And, um, uh, whenever they were putting me under anesthesia, I've put people, like, I've sedated people before and it always seems like instant. And for me, laying on the table, it's like, oh my God, please. Like, I'm crying. I'm so, I'm so worked up
and I can't, like, the drugs aren't kicking in fast enough. And um, like I can feel them starting IVs.
Like I can feel someone holding my hand being like, just keep breathing. Shelby. We're almost there. We're almost there. We're almost there. And then there was this moment where I heard this voice of you did it like you did it. And then I felt an overwhelming amount of peace in a way that I have not been able to replicate. And then I went out and I woke up later in the ICU and I've thought a lot, I've thought a lot about that moment over the years. And I think in two parts of like, yeah, I did it. I survived. I made it to surgery to kinda like hand over the baton to the team to save my life. And then I also did it like I'm a dreamer, Jonathan.
I got a long list of things I wanna do in this life. And while that bucket list for me was incomplete, like I didn't do all the things that I wanted to do before, before this like moment of getting to fake my death here. But like all of the, all of the important things like the going for it, the risking it, the choosing the unknown, choosing my soul's alignment over like what I should be doing.
Like there was such relief for me in that moment of the list is incomplete. But you did, you did the important parts. And that has just, that's like ingrained. In me to where even, even if it all still fails, even if it all still doesn't work, I, I honored myself and that's awesome.
Laura Minard: Yeah,
Jonathan Hermida: Beyond awesome. I, I cannot emphasize anymore how extraordinary you two are, given that truly, truly look at all the factors that are on, on, on display here. You each had pretty serious health scares in different ways. You're raising small children, you're having career existential questions coming and, and, and transitioning into something completely unknown.
In one case, a partner is losing their job. How, what allowed you or helped you to move through all of that in the way that you did?
Laura Minard: I mean, all the big decisions were made with a coach. The whole time. I don't know that Shelby and I have ever been without someone that we trusted, that we were meeting with semi-regularly and having conversations about the fear and the actions and the vision and the why. And so I also, like I tell all, all of our clients that we mentor, that you have to believe in coaching to, to sell coaching, to, to make a living as a coach.
Like there has to be this reverence for the modality itself. And the best way to have that reverence is to be a product of it, like the best product of it. And I think that I was always the best product of whoever I was working with. Like I never went to my coaching sessions and got 60%,
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Laura Minard: didn't matter.
Like I was just gonna get a hundred percent out of each one every single time. So for me, I feel like that was the unfair advantage is. I always had support, and then we had each other too. So we had like a really strong coaching community. And then pretty, my husband became a coach. My sister became a coach.
Like, so now, like my whole world is filled with people that think the impossible is possible. So it's like, that makes it easier too, just like being in community and being surrounded by and in contact with people who do things that are scary, that becomes the norm. So I, I attribute a lot of our decisions and the, the doubling down on perceived risk as being in constant contact with a good coach.
Really,
Shelby Kurz: Yeah. Someone
Laura Minard: done it without it.
Shelby Kurz: true. I agree. Uh, someone's able to hold your vision even when it feels shaky for you. Um, I remember waiting for my heart surgery and I, we were thinking about enrolling a group for something Laura and I were working on, and I went and asked my coach of like, okay, this is great if we sell out this group, but like, what if I die during surgery?
Or what if I have a stroke and then I can't speak afterwards? And she didn't miss a beat, Jonathan. She just said, I'll step in for you. Like, if that happens, I'll step in for you, but keep going. And like, I don't know, that's so delusional to like, but, but I was like, okay, okay, yeah, you'll step in for me. And then I like just kept going.
You know, like there, there's, there's, um, I, I think that especially healers called to this type of work that God, you just don't have to like do it by yourself. You know, there's, there's no reason, and I hope that what comes across in this interview is that Laura and I have had help every single step of
the way. Every single step. There's never been a moment where we've been or like that we just got lucky or, or, you know, like we've had, we've invested at every chance.
Jonathan Hermida: Or that you had to carry the full weight of what you were going through on your own shoulders.
Shelby Kurz: totally.
totally.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
What was it like in the early years of your private practice? I.
Laura Minard: Mm. I was like so wily. Like, I look back on my first year and I'm actually really proud of her because she, I, I did not hire a coach at a certification. I just tried to figure it out on my own for the first six months. And I opened up, opened an office. I just started charging people whatever amount I thought I could.
I didn't have any, like, I just didn't know what I was doing, but I was constantly offering free coaching to everybody. So my first six months, my goal was to coach as much as possible. And that was really without, um, listening to, like, that wasn't advised to me. I think I learned it from a book maybe. Um, I'm so grateful for that because. Um, six months into owning a private practice, I was doing live events in my community and people were loving them. I was getting good feedback. I was barely making ends meet, but I wasn't going into debt, which was great because I had all these expenses. I was pay, I paid for like a $4,000 website. That was terrible. Um, like things like that. But I made the primacy of my focus how many hours a week I could serve another human being. And, and then you get better at everything else because of the repetitions that you have. And so I like, I feel like I learned the hard way and, uh, Shelby, I'll let her tell her story, but, um, I learned a lot from her too.
And we would ping pong back and forth. We were like. Doing weird things and like, Hey, this isn't working for me and is this working for you? So we kind of leaned on one another 'cause nobody else was really doing it from, from our class that graduated. Nobody else was doing what we were doing. I mean, we had to make it work 'cause it was our job.
We didn't keep a job. So it's like we were tossed into the deep end and just trying things like all over the place. Just weird stuff.
Shelby Kurz: My favorite story of Laura's during this time is how she was like in a sauna with people where you're not on your phone, and she's just like, Hey, can I coach you? Like, Hey, just like the best, the best,
Laura Minard: I went to the sauna every day. It was part of my business plan. 'cause you had good conversations in there.
Jonathan Hermida: Wherever you.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah. Yeah. I, I did hire a business coach right out of the gate and I am so thankful every day that she was worth her salt. 'cause I think that hiring the right type of business support of when you're brand new is really, really important. 'cause you can get sucked into like, the vortex of $4,000 websites and funnels and ads and all this stuff.
Right. Um, but I mean, I just, yeah, got lucky. And, uh, I ended up working with her for two years, but this is when I had just, I quit my job in the er. I had, I was probably like 10 weeks pregnant and, um, I had just started my practice. Oh. And at the same time, this is when I found out about my aneurysm too. So like, this is all happening like at the, at the same time. And. For me, I didn't know what I was doing. Obviously no business background, like I was, gosh, 26, I feel like I was pretty young, just married like the year before. And um, I just wanted to be told what to do. And my coach was really good at that, of like, here's the checklist, follow the protocol. You can do this, you can say this.
And the first proposal call I ever had with a potential client, they said yes, and I was covered in sweat, head to toe, like freaking out. And she said yes. And I was like, oh my gosh, I can do this. Like I can do this. Look at me. Go. And um, that was kind of like enough, it was a little bit of like chasing the dopamine hits for me for the first four months and right around when my daughter or. A few months before she was born is when I got my first like slew of nos to where it's just like I got like five or six no's in a row. And it was very terrible. Like, very awful. It was not fun because then you're like, wait, I was getting all these yeses. Am I not supposed to be doing this anymore? Am I even good?
Like blah, blah, blah. You start this like mental tornado and um, gosh, I had, I had to pause for maternity leave kind of in that head space and then take a huge break, learn how to be a mom, and then come back about four months after she was born. And the, the mental game in the first year is why you need a coach so deeply.
It's
why, um, 'cause I had talked myself out of it every week. Of like, I can't do this. This is too hard. I'm not good. Especially when I started getting nos, like your ego is just raging 'cause it's all uncomfortable and it's all new and you're kind of not great at it yet. And so we're just
looking for any reason to stop. Um, and like Laura said of like, I never went and got 60% out of a coaching session, same for me of like, even when I didn't wanna show up, even when I didn't wanna do the work or the homework, I wasn't gonna come to my call empty handed. Even if I told my coach, Hey, this was really hard for me. I didn't wanna do it this week, but I did it.
Um, that's, uh, I think what allowed me to put one foot in front of the other
for probably the first 18 months,
to be honest. Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Looking back now, what would you each say was the biggest lever that helped move things forward and creating sort of a bit of success for you?
Laura Minard: hmm. I hired a really good business coach six months out and was in a, a, a neat space and, um, I think I, I learned important things about business on how to do, I was willing to do, but I didn't. Like, once I knew what to do, then it was, it wasn't really, um, a matter of if it was gonna work or not. It was a matter of how long would it take. And so that really helped me, right? Because it's like this person who was really successful, who had a long career before she was a business mentor, um, told me what to do and I could do what she told me to do. And I figured if I just kept doing what she told me to do, it eventually would work in a way that felt sustainable and that was the truth. So I feel like I had the, the tenacity to keep taking action. And I was used to being afraid, but when I knew what to do, then I started having, um, traction. Like, you know, things started to work. I, my sales skills developed, I raised my prices and I was just able to, to feel more like a business owner. I think your self concept takes about a year or two years to even change. And so I think that got me to that point where I had this self-awareness of like, I'm, I'm a business owner. Like I have enough skills. I'm never gonna go hungry as long as I don't give up. But I think it was a combination of, um, knowing what to do and then the commitment to that I wasn't gonna quit for me.
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. What, what were, what were some of those? What to dos that started to work for you?
Laura Minard: I mean, always offer one to two free sessions to everybody. And so you lead with service. So essentially you're just making the world a better place. You're relieving suffering and offering value, and then you're entering into relationships. And some of those relationships have a natural turning point where they turn into paid relationships. So it, there was never selling or marketing or trying to get people to buy my thing. It was how much do you need to serve? How many relationships do you need to have? And as nurses, we could do that. That didn't feel icky to me. I, I could do that all day long and I'm so grateful for that because we've had, there's lots of business owners and business coaches that don't teach that way, and especially for like more transformational coaches, we just resonate with the service mindset so much more.
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Jonathan Hermida: And Shelby, what about for you?
Shelby Kurz: I, I, the one moment that jumps out to me to where things got less stressful and I could like see the bigger picture. Um, I had set a goal to like sign for clients in one month, which. Is kind of like pushing the edge. Like that's kind of a lot. And also it felt doable for me. At the time, I had just gotten three yeses.
Of course, four yeses felt like the natural, the natural next step. Um, and that's like when my, my season of nos started, it was just like, no, no, no, no one right after the other. And this was probably like one of the very first time of a hundred times that I cried hard on one of my coaching calls. And my coach at the time, she looked at me and she goes, Shelby, are you gonna go hungry because you didn't sign these clients?
And I was like, no. She goes, are you gonna be homeless because you did not sign these clients? And I was like, no. She goes, are you gonna be naked with your newborn on the street corner because you did not sign these clients? And I was like, no. And she looked at me and she goes, then chill out. Then chill out. And um, it was like a, a snap, like, you know, just like a good. I mean that's really direct. But it was a snap for me of like, dude, relax like it is, it's allowed to take some time here and you're probably gonna get told no a hundred more times in the future. So like, take a deep bath and breathe. And something about that moment, just like I was so hyperfocused on doing what she told me, and if I didn't hit the mark then I was wrong, or I don't know, I wasn't good enough or whatever.
And then in that moment, it's like I was able to like zoom out and like, okay, if this takes five years, will I be okay? And at the time the answer was yes. You know, like, if this takes 10 years, are you still here? Are you still committed to, to figuring it out? And the answer was yes. And so I think being able to like have some space to breathe, like allowed me to relax a little bit
and trust the process.
And trust, trust the unfolding. And um, I. Yeah. Not be so hyper-focused on just like the 30 day arbitrary marks I set for myself or else that's a super easy way just to beat yourself up every month.
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: So true. So true.
The Unexpected Business Call
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Jonathan Hermida: So at what point did you come together and were like, we should start something?
Shelby Kurz: Well, you know how like people don't call each other out of the blue anymore. Like that's not really like a super thing. Um, I mean, I call like my parents out of the blue, but Laura called me outta the blue one day and I was like, God, this is weird. I hope everything's all right. And we weren't the kind of friends that that did
that.
Like that's not what we did. And so I answered and she was like, Hey, I have an idea. And I was like, okay. And she goes, you and I are the only two that are gaining traction here in our, in our business and our community needs help. Like I think that we can help our nurse coaching community learn how to make money. So, 'cause Lauren and I have both pretty deeply rooted. Wise in like helping healthcare elevate and be better and do better. And, and you know, if nurse coaches are not making any money, then like, what are we doing? You know, money, money is a service done in the world. And, um, so I mean, that was like our first business agreement that was almost at the two year mark for both of us.
And just like, okay, I'll call you next week and we'll see what this means. And um, yeah, that's where it all began. It was just like this random call, 4:00 PM
Laura Minard: Yeah,
Shelby Kurz: Yep.
Laura Minard: I remember that well.
Launching the First Business Group
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Laura Minard: Everybody just kept asking me, well, how are you getting clients and how are you doing this? And I was just doing all these things like. Getting on the phone and, and telling them. And um, the coach I hired at the time was like $12,000. And they, they didn't wanna do that. They didn't wanna, hi. That was too much money for them. And, um, so I was like helping them already. And then I was thinking, you know, I have two small children. They're two and three. She has, you know, Shelby has a newborn. I don't feel comfortable like doing this, starting this other business the way it is. But if we did it together, then if one of our kids were sick, we could cover each other.
So my thought was, we're both two years in, we have more success than our community. We're both still new, but together we could likely help. We'd have, provide enough value. And I think we sold out our first business group in two weeks. And that was the first of, uh, it just ha I mean it was like our community was so hungry 'cause there was no nothing that it just started to become this thing. And I held onto my one-on-one practice for another, probably two. Year and a half. And then at some point I realized if I really wanted to help the nurse coach community, I had to go all in on it. And, and then we both kind of just decided, okay, this is our thing. I guess for now, this is gonna be our, our only focus.
And as soon as we did that, I, our, our profession exploded. I mean, I think it was important for us to, to do that. Like I think that spirit was having us do that in that way. It was not what we set out to do. That was not what we thought we were going to do.
No. Yeah.
The Dynamics of a Business Partnership
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Jonathan Hermida: What was it about each of you that you felt like partnership made sense outside of each of you were, you know, finding success and all that? I.
Laura Minard: I mean, we were each other's first peer coaches. So the first time I ever was a quote unquote coach, I coached Shelby. And the first time she ever coached, she coached me. So we had that like, right, that we were each other's first, and then we were both kind of the only, I mean, Shelby was the only other person that was like me, where it's like, yeah, we should just go for it.
And she'd be like, yeah, I guess you're right. I guess, I guess we should just go for it. So there was like this resonance there with, um, now I'm looking back on it and it could be con perceived as reckless, but uh, we were just, nobody else was like that. nobody else had the kind of conversations that Shelby and I had.
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I also wish that I could look back and I'm like, I put Laura into a pro and con chart and I was like, these are the things that are great about Laura, and these are the things I can learn to live with. But it, it just, um, I don't, Laura and I, Laura and I are pretty intuitive and in the moment it just felt correct.
Like it just felt right. And now looking back, I know how risky partnerships are. I know how often they don't work. Like there's so much more that I know now that I'm so glad that I didn't know then because we were able to just like link arms and just run and just run really quickly,
to be honest. And so, um, I.
I am grateful for what I didn't know back then 'cause it might've scared me out of it, but it's continuing to work and here we are, like this is probably the most conscious relationship I have in my life. Like the most aware. We've definitely grown into it. For sure. For sure.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. I mean, business partnership is, is a marriage. You're, you're each second, marriage is what, what are the keys to making it work? I.
Shelby Kurz: Well we have agreements, we
have agreements. Two, uh, in the nurse coaching world, we, we have these agreements for coaching relationships, right? And it's like this is a safe and confidential space. Um, you know, you're in charge of how deep we go in this conversation. And, you know,=
there's like these rules, rules of the rodeo that we have and we have kind of adopted them into our relationship right outta the gate.
And I think the biggest one is just like, if anything feels weird, speak up. Like
our, our livelihood depends on our ability to be vulnerable and also to be able to assume positive intent from one
another has been, um, super helpful. But I, I think that. Both of us being willing to swim in the deep end of like, we weren't one foot in, one foot out on our business.
Both like, we're both sole providers for our family now. So like literally our, our business pays the bills, so we have to kind of live in, in the deep end together. Um, so that's my take on it. Laura, I
don't know if you have anything different.
Laura Minard: yeah. I know the way that I'm built, I'm not built to be a solopreneur. Um, so I do, I have a very happy marriage and I have a very happy business marriage and I do best in partnership with the right people. And, and so for me, it, any business that I could imagine would either have a 50 50 partner or I would hire somebody and they'd become a 50 50 partner.
I don't think I am. I'm just not built to, to run a business solo, and I just feel like we got super lucky, but I also feel like I. From like a spiritual standpoint, our industry needed to be amplified and I think we were both tapped on the shoulder to do it. And we just said yes first is what I think happened. I feel like, you know, like when a, a book needs to be born, I think a lot of authors are taught are tapped on the shoulder in hopes that one of them says yes. And I feel like for Shelby and I, it was kinda like, Hey, something needs to happen here. We wanna amplify this. We need leaders to step to the front and start paving the way. And I think we've just constantly said yes. Like we have it shrunk back from that. In, in the last year's, been the most uncomfortable with, with launching Nurse Life Coach Academy. Like talk about unknown. It's unknown times five. Um, and I think that when I start to feel like, I don't know if this is gonna work, Shelby will just say something like, in no universe does this not work. Then that's enough for me. And the same with Shelby. I'd be like, we got it. You know, it's like this, just this, this, um, subtle way of like being what each other needs to be in our lowest moments, which I'm so grateful for. It makes it really hard to fail in that dynamic, you
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah, you're a true unit, uh, that self calibrates,
uh, in moments of need.
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: very powerful.
Shelby Kurz: I like that word, self calibrates. That's a good one.
Pocket that one for later.
Jonathan Hermida: I use it. I use it. Yeah. There's a, a flow that, I mean, I find with my wife and I, that we get like the unspoken, that we just fill in the gaps
Shelby Kurz: Mm.
Jonathan Hermida: the needs of the household. It's not a conversation. It's not like, Hey, you go take care of cleaning the, the, the living room and I'll take care of our son.
And it just said is a, it's a sort of, um, unspoken, uh, we're like an entity now,
you know, that, that kind of, uh, self-corrects, you know, as, as we go, which is a beautiful place to be in partnership. But it's not often a place that people land in, unfortunately,
Laura Minard: Right.
Yeah. We, I feel like when with our business coaching clients, in some ways we play that role for them in those very like, vulnerable beginning stages where, I mean, I think that that's part of the role of the business coach is like the inevitable moment when the client, when the bus, the new coach starting a business feels like, I can't do this.
This isn't working. I'm terrible. I suck, I should go back. You know, just that, that, that constriction, that constriction moment, that is inevitable by the way, for anyone listening. Um, to have the right person to self calibrate or to, to co calibrate with you in that moment is imperative. And, um, I think we're both lucky.
We have, um. Strong romantic relationships as well. So we have it at home and we have it at work, which we're so grateful for. But I think that's what we try to also be aware of when we're supporting clients is, yes, we're teaching them a skill set. 'cause there's, it's a whole skill set you have to learn, but I'm also watching for the inevitable moment where they would likely quit.
'cause that's, that just happens and then like normalizing it. It's like, all right, quit this week. We'll come back next week and talk about it. If you still feel the same, we can quit again
as opposed to having it be so serious. Um, and so while we do that for one another, I feel like it's taught us how to do it better for our clients that we're partnered with for a particular moment in time as they're birthing something new. Um, yeah,
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Laura Minard: that
Entrepreneurship as a Path to Self-Actualization
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Jonathan Hermida: You mentioned something around entrepreneurship as a path to self-actualization and as a healing modality. Can you share more on that? I.
Laura Minard: I hear this in lots of circles now, but, uh, becoming an entrepreneur,
the decision to become an entrepreneur when you haven't been one, um, is a process by which every fear that you have will float up to the surface and asked to be looked at. And it's just the nature of it, it's vulnerable, it's the unknown. It is, you're constantly challenged in different ways. Um, is the perfect playground to like master sp to have spiritual mastery, in my opinion. It's, it's difficult. You, you can't stay in business for five years and not, in my opinion, not in this work. And so it's almost like signing up for grad school.
You're like, hi, I did this coaching thing and now I'm gonna sign up for like spiritual grad school by launching my own practice.
Jonathan Hermida: Can you, can you double click into that? What, what you mean by being a sort of a spiritual masterclass or bootcamp?
Laura Minard: yeah. It is. Um. The the thoughts of I am not good enough, I am not worthy. I am gonna cause harm, I am being icky, I am all those, like those interpersonal things that come up. I feel like you're constantly being asked to either meet them or shrink back from them like over and over again. And then once you find a groove in business, it'll inevitably change. And so then you're asked to do that again. Well, when you've done that five or six times, there's very little things that can happen in your life that you're afraid to face or to get through. And so what it builds is, I don't know how I'm gonna solve it, but I trust that future LO has got it figured out. And like that's insane confidence. 'cause you can just tolerate long periods of time of discomfort without it affecting you in ways that it used to. And I don't know of any other thing that can do that for me. Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: There. There's an interesting, the way you said it right now, there is an interesting relationship between our current self and our future self, where
sometimes a relationship is, let me do the hard thing today so that my future self thanks me for it.
Laura Minard: yeah,
Jonathan Hermida: And other times, like you said, let me trust that my future self can figure out how to get me out of this situation.
I.
Laura Minard: yeah. It's easier to sleep, I mean, right. It's like if I trust, if I trust Laura in April of 2025 to figure it all out, then in March if I have a bunch of uncertainties, I can
sleep. I don't have to worry. And it's like a very, it's an awesome relationship with the future. So the future's not scary. I actually, I'm like, well, April Laura is gonna be even better than March, Laura. So like I like, she's constantly got my back and because of the growth trajectory that I'm in. And so when somebody says We should do this, it doesn't matter how big it is, like immediately, I'm like, yeah. We totally should, and it's, that's automatic. It's not calculated. It's somewhat, um, I, we'd call it like a reality distortion field.
I think I've created a permanent reality distortion field with between me and my future self. That is working very well right now. It works well. Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: Well, and that that's where entrepreneurship as a path to self-actualization is not a given. It is not just it. That's not the way everybody takes it. It just so happens that. Each of your constitution is, is that of sort of deepening and spirituality and being tapped into something more than yourselves, which is where I find it amazing that you've incorporated spiritual elements with the deep coaching intensive soon, but also with Leon's book into your programming to sort of bring in that, uh, spiritual aspect to the coaches that go through your program.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah, I think there's a lot of moments, especially in the early years, where holding your, your dream, your vision does feel too big to do it by yourself. And I see most of our clients that wrestle the most with this, like growth evolution is when they are not connected to something bigger to themselves.
When they're not rooted in a higher power or spirit. The universe, however we wanna label it, they, because it's all on them right there, there's no one, like, you know, we can help carry the load with them as their, as their mentor and be the sounding board and all those things, but there's no replacement for their mentor and be the sounding board and all those things.
But there's no replacement for that piece, in my opinion. And if we have me on the path, it is, you know, like that's an active choice.
That
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Shelby Kurz: you have to make that's not given just because you start a business like that
mindset is earned.
Jonathan Hermida: It is earned. Yeah. Through hard effort and a lot of nos and a lot of rejection and, and all those things.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah.
Coaching Through Fear and Building a Business
Jonathan Hermida: How do you help coaches coming into the industry? Because you mentioned each of you fear was a motivating factor and it is a motivating, it's, you know, we kind of. Demonize fear in many respects. But, but we have a part of our brain that is here to protect us.
And so fear is a very important emotion to have to help us and chart, you know, chart the, the path forward. But it's also an unsustainable resource over the long term. So how do you, what's the interplay that you see between trust and fear in building a business?
Laura Minard: Hmm. Yeah, I always say fear doesn't burn as clean,
Jonathan Hermida: Hmm.
Laura Minard: but when it's present, use it
Jonathan Hermida: Yes.
Laura Minard: and it will likely be present. 'cause there's so much new, right. So, um, and then I also, I like the thought of when we're talking to new coaches of like, what's your relationship with new and all of our co all of our clients so far have been, not all of them.
I've helped, um, other people in business as well, but most of them are nurses. And so it's funny because nurses specifically have jobs where we do hold lives in our hands. It's not like the, the, the phrase like it's, it's not rocket science or it's not, you know, brain surgery. Like when you're a nurse, if you make an error, people die.
And so there is a real seriousness with that role. And for us it's been like untethering that from the coaching role. And it's like the worst case scenario is that you just love somebody and listen to them. Like that's it. The worst case scenario is you leave the world a better place. That's our, like in coaching, in the service that we provide.
And from that perspective, it's like the lowest risk endeavor I can, I can imagine in entrepreneurship we're not open opening a ti, a tire shop or a restaurant with $500,000 loan. We are selling a service that requires us to love somebody for an hour. And so I think it's just constantly reframing and I think as much fear as I've had over the years, I've also had like moments of like the feeling of totally doing what Spirit wants me to do and then enjoying the rewards of being in that moment over and over again.
So it's a push pull and I think it always is, um, like running from fear or letting fear motivate you when it's present and then also being present to like the gifts that it brings as well.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah, I love that. I love coaching around fear. It's like, I love reading about fear and how it like influences our everyday decisions. And I think in the beginning there's so much unchecked fear that new ner that new coaches have just in general because it's all, like Laura was saying, everything is new, so it's a really good way to flare up your fear.
And for all of these, like what if thoughts to come into play? And I think within like the first year or two of business, we're kind of like tending to this fear. The fear of what if the what if I fail the what if I'm not good enough? The what if I accidentally do harm? The what if, what if, what if? Um, and we get to like tend to those as they boil up and challenge 'em of like, is this real?
Is this not real? And if it is real, if it is your truth, like let's be with that. Let's, let's untangle it together. Like, let's see. I always think that fear, fear is kind of the. Um, canary in the coal mine for like a call, a call to like love ourselves on a deeper level. It's just it's, the part of you that has the microphone begging for your attention.
And so can we slow down enough to be with it rather than shoving it to the side or, you know, ignoring it. And I think as coaches, as conscious business owners as healers, um, if you choose to accept this work, like confronting your fears over and over and over again, it makes you a better coach too. 'cause then you're able to be with your client's fear as well, because you've been here before. Um, so I see, I think, I mean, tending to my own fear has just made me be the calm for my clients whenever they're in it big time. I was like, yeah. I've been here before. I can remember how this feels. You're not crazy. Let's, let's be here together. I also know that this doesn't last forever either. Um, but if you are experiencing fear, I would argue that you're probably doing it right at some point. Yeah.
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: And, and the power of a regulated nervous system sitting across from you
Shelby Kurz: Oh yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: activated. You
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Laura Minard: So good.
yeah,
Jonathan Hermida: I also think your method, your approach of having as many coaching conversations as possible is such a brilliant approach because it, it, it, it allows the coaches to be in their sweet spot of, of developing relationships and that's probably their strength in all of this and, and sort of alleviate some of those fears while they're also being taught how to build a business alongside it.
You know what I mean?
Laura Minard: yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: Because the reality, I don't know how you all feel of building a coaching practice is that 80% is working on the business, 20% is working in the business, at least in the beginning.
You know, I I tell coaches coming into the industry that you're not actually gonna be doing that much coaching in the beginning compared to the amount of time you're investing working on the business.
So I don't know how you, you all feel about that and how you sort of help, um, set level, set expectations for new coaches.
Laura Minard: I think, uh, if you're not coaching, you don't have a coaching business. Is what I often say. And so I don't recommend going more than 14 days without a session. I don't care if you have to coach your grandma for free,
like you should, like if you aren't coaching regularly, that is the wind in your sail, you're building your sailboat. The wind is the coaching conversations, the regular coaching conversations and everything else in business emanates from that. And so when we get too focused on like building the rudder and we've gone a month and a half with no wind, then we're like dead in the water and it starts to not make sense.
But as long as there's like a little bit of wind, then everything else can be built around that. And I find, um, I mean we've had, we've had 500 people go through our programs, the top. 25. That's what they did. So it's like not even us guessing, it's like us watching, they just kept, um, they had the mantra of just coach my butt off. Okay, forget about all the other stuff. Like, quiet the noise, let's just coach this week. And so I think if we can keep that 20% that keep the main thing, the main thing, the other eighties easier to tend to, 'cause the other 80 isn't necessarily super fun
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Laura Minard: all the time. Yeah.
we scare a lot of people away.
We could probably sell a lot more business coaching if we didn't tell the truth.
Jonathan Hermida: But, but again, you're, you're, you're absolutely right about having those coaching conversations. You must be coaching, you know, that's where the magic happens. And, and, and that's also, that's also the best mechanism for sales is having someone experience what it's like working with you
Shelby Kurz: Yep. Yeah, I have heard so many coaches be like, Shelby, I can't figure out Stripe, or I can't figure out my Google workspace, or I can't figure out this, that, or the other. And then because they're coaching on the sideline and then they have a person be like, how do I pay you? This has been so helpful. How, what's the next step here?
And it's like this natural evolution. Then all of a sudden, Jonathan, they figure it out. They figure out the tech stuff. You know, like, 'cause it's, it's go time. Yeah. It is go time. And so, um, yeah. I, I, it is so intentional the way that we teach people and we we coach a, a lot of folks through the initial, like kicking and screaming of like, I don't wanna do it that way, or This doesn't make sense to me.
And it's like. My, my friend, if you can just, if you can just be coaching, I promise everything else falls into place. Um, I promise. I promise. And that's probably why Laura and I were able to, to keep going at such a stride in the beginning is because we were coaching frequently every week all the time. In, in, in the weeds with, with real people like it, it made all of the other stuff feel real.
All the websites and the emails and the whatever, it, it just puts more context around it.
Jonathan Hermida: Right. What would you say are the characteristics of those top 25% that allows them to do what they do?
Laura Minard: Mm. I have a couple that come to mind. Um, I feel like the top 25 coaches have been coaches their whole life. They just didn't know what it was called. You know, I hear that all the time of like, I kind of been doing some version of this, I just didn't know what I was doing. It's like this deep calling to be a part of the human experience with others. Um, so I think that's those, those top 25. It's not that they were geniuses in marketing or had a social media following, like I think that it can look like that it was, it was more of, um, their presence. You, I noticed something about them and their presence pretty early on.
Um, and then from a business standpoint, it is the ones that made coaching a hundred hours, the main focus above all things for an extended period of time.
That's really it. The another side note too is, um, their primary relationship. Was supportive. I would say that's another like circumstance that we see tied in. So, um, like being moun, like your main person being on board for the ride with you is, is helpful.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah. I would also, I get asked this question a lot from our community of like, Shelby, what, what makes special people special? And my answer is always that they, they choose, they choose to be special, and they, and they do. They show up for the work, they follow the process, they follow like the cookie crumbs of success that we have left behind of like, you can bill or burn four weeks on a website if you want to, but we just recommend waiting a couple more months and then we can circle back to it.
Like they are just open and receptive to what works. Um, but I think above, like the biggest overarch here is just that they choose, they, they choose
to be in on the rollercoaster. It's not that they like choose to be successful in a way that bypasses them from all of the work, but they choose to be on the ride. Because we've told them it's gonna be a ride, and they're like, okay, all right,
I hear you. I'm on board. Let's do it.
Laura Minard: yeah,
Jonathan Hermida: yeah. That's the business side. And on the personal side, Laura was alluding to a bit of an it factor. And that it factor can feel abstract and like, how do I work towards an IT factor? But really the IT factor is ultimately a full commitment to yourself and your own transformational journey
ultimately, that then, you know, you then feel it from that person.
Like, wow, this person's really been through the thick of it.
You know, you sense it in their presence. And that's, that is part of the difference that I see in, in coaches who kind of have it, that you know, is just a gravitational pull of I can trust you and I, I wanna sort of be in space with you versus others that are, you know, intellectually wanting, wanting to be a coach, but they still have some work to do and it, and that's okay 'cause it's all a process, but it's also reality, you know?
Laura Minard: as long as you're on the path, that's it. Yeah. I, I'm like, thinking of some of our top performers and they, I'm gonna use air quotes. They quote unquote, were the messiest on our calls. Like, they didn't come, uh, to calls as like the, a student of like, I did all my stuff and I did my reach outs and I coached 10 hours this week.
They came, um, crying, saying, I don't think I wanna do this anymore, Laura. You know, like, it just like the vulnerable, um, the mess. I think that it factor requires you to acknowledge that you are a mess and I am a mess and Shelby is a mess. And, um, yeah. It's, it's, you can't quanti quantify it. It's not intellectual.
It is, um, I don't know. It's, you, you can spot it when you see it and you feel it in the deep coaching community, you all already have it. If you're, if you're in the deep coaching circle, like I think. Compared to like the nearest coaching world, you guys all have it. So don't even be thinking, listening to this, worrying that if you have it or don't believe me, you have it.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah.
Laura Minard: You do because you're there. Like you don't get there by accident. It's just you're on the path if you're in this world. For
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah.
Laura Minard: Yeah,
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah, the deep coaching intensive takes you there whether you're there or not.
Laura Minard: Yeah. you wouldn't even show up there if you weren't, you know what I mean? Like it, it wouldn't even appeal to you.
Jonathan Hermida: It's so true. It's so true.
Laura Minard: You guys have a special, special little bubble. You guys really do
Jonathan Hermida: It is a unique, it is a unique space for sure. If you could each leave listeners with an invitation, so something to reflect on or practice in their own business journeys, what would it be?
Laura Minard: Hmm. That feels like a loaded question. I have to pick one of 10 here. Um, I'm gonna just do a very intellectual matter of fact one that maybe you can, um, tuck away. The only way it doesn't work is if you quit. That's it really. That's the one rule.
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm. Yeah. The one that was coming up for me was like, are you just willing to try? If you don't have the next 10 steps figured out, can you at least do the next right thing?
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Is there anything that you haven't shared that would be worth sharing in this space before we close?
Laura Minard: Yeah. I have one that really helped me. You'll likely overestimate what you can do in year one and you completely underestimate what you can do in three years. Yeah.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah. Ditto. Dito. There's, um, oh, the Dunning Kruger effect. If you guys have never heard of that before, go ahead and give it a quick Google. But it's like about being at the peak of Mount stupid and you don't know what you don't know. And like, wow, Lauren, I have been here repetitively over the years of like, that doesn't seem too hard, let's do it.
And wow, that has, that thought has gotten us a long way. Um, and you know, then you get into the valley and there's this whole other, there's this whole other part. But just because you're not where you wanna be at the end of year one, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything of what's possible for the years to come.
You've laid a foundation and it's only, it's only up from here.
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: I wanna end with a very, very early sneak peek at a partnership that we have between. You all and the Deep Coach, uh, or the, the Center for Transformational Coaching. So these brilliant people are, are helping us create a business program for the Deep Coaches, which we are so excited for. As you can hear, these two women are extraordinary and brilliant and have been through it, and have helped, have helped over 500 people build their private coach coaching practice.
So what a gift, what a privilege it is to have them support us in creating a program for our deep coaches. Recognizing that building a business is tough, doing it alone is not easy or advised. And that either are systems that we can, and processes as you've been hearing and that they've been alluding to in here, that can really help you to, uh, fulfill your dreams, you know, of, of really making this your thing.
So I don't know if you want to add anything to that.
Laura Minard: Yeah, I, um, I remember a very early conversation that I had with Leon and I remember a, a, a thought I had early as a business coach. And it's like if the talented coach doesn't figure out a way to monetize the skill, then it is likely that the skill will not be given to the world in, in full of like in in, in nature unless you're independently wealthy, which is wonderful. But for all of us that have to put a certain amount of energy into how we pay our bills and we feed our families, um, if we don't learn to monetize the coaching skill itself, then it's a lot of, um, like wasted good in the world. And so then it became like my ethical responsibility to learn how to monetize it so that I could do more of it for longer periods of time with more people. That really helped me in the beginning, like making it my ethical responsibility to learn how to monetize it so that I could keep doing it.
Shelby Kurz: Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
We are so excited and so honored to be, I've been. In like the DCI bubble for almost two years at the time of recording this. So I'm like in the deep coaching community in learning and all the things, and I, my life was first like elevated by the modality of coaching and then has been completely just turned on its head in the best way.
I have more meaning, I have more value in my life. I like, I feel like I'm really squeezing the juice out of all my lemons over here because of deep coaching and like Laura's alluding to, we would love to play a role in help help this community learn so that other people can have this feeling too.
Laura Minard: Yeah.
Shelby Kurz: Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida: It is already happening. Thank you both Laura Shelby. Appreciate you.
Shelby Kurz: Thank you.
Jonathan Hermida: Thank you so much for being with us today. To learn more about today's guest visit our podcast landing page at www.podcast.centerfortransformationalcoaching.com. You'll find links to their website, social media, and anything else they might wanna share there. And if you're curious to explore more about our work, our trainings, or the deep coaching approach.
You'll find everything at www.centerfortransformationalcoaching.com. A new episode of this podcast releases every two weeks, so please subscribe wherever you listen to. Stay up to date. Until next time, stay present, embrace love, and continue sensing into what life is calling you toward. See you soon.