Transcript

Ani
Hi and welcome to the Somatic Coaching Academy podcast. Hey Brian.

Brian
Hello.

Ani
I’m so excited about our topic for today for episode 44. We are talking about social impact today and how coaches can grow their practice with social impact programs. This is something that’s near and dear to my heart because it’s something that we’ve done with our business, it’s something that we encourage our students to do and we actually have a social impact program we’re going to talk about as well.

Brian
Yeah, I love this topic as well, and it’s been kind of an exciting one to work on with people. A couple of podcasts ago, I just mentioned the motivational map assessment, which we do with clients, teams and organizations. And one of my most…

Ani
And you can find more on our website.

Brian
Find more about it on our website. One of my most favorite things to do with motivational maps when we work with small business owners and coaches are small business owners. At least that’s the way we like to help people. Coaches see themselves as small business owners, not just solopreneurs or solo proprietors. But when you do a motivational map with a small business owner or coach, you can help them identify how to increase revenue in their business based on their motivational map. First of all, which is a really cool thing to do, and motivational map kind of breaks up. There’s nine different categories of motivators, and one of them is called the searcher motivator, which is all about impact, creating impact. And there’s another motivator called the builder, which has to do with accumulating affluence or money, essentially. And there’s no right or wrong, good or bad, to any motivators. But one of the things that we would see for people with high searchers and low builders is they would always struggle and bring revenue into their business. It would be really challenging for them. But these people were like really into creating impact in the world, not only for their, for their own clients, but they’re also really into making an impact in their communities with different organizations that they would volunteer for or if they had enough money available, they would donate money for these organizations.

Brian
Like, think about like the SPCA or free from human trafficking, all kinds of things. Like the stop human trafficking. All kinds of things that people would love to give to. And one of the things that we help people do, one of the ways I love to help coaches use social impact programs to grow their revenue is to pair their own mission with social impact missions – with other missions. And so when you can find a group to align with, like that shares your values, your missions, what’s important to you… Maybe animals are important to, animal welfare is important to you, maybe children and child education is important to you. Maybe stopping hood violence is important to you. Whatever it is important to the person, we would identify that. And it was usually pretty easy to find because people were like, oh, my God, I would love to do or give more to that. Then you can create a partnership with that organization. And the partnership was just so amazing. Goes something like this where, and this feels like a big stretch for people, but it’s a game changer for folks, is you commit a certain amount of your revenue every month specifically to that organization, a certain percentage of your revenue, let me put it that way.

Brian
So it’s whatever you bring in every month in revenue, you take 1234-5678 910. Whatever percent, doesn’t matter. Whatever percentage you’re committing it to that organization. And then you know that when you are enrolling clients or new business, that in part, the benefit of doing that automatically gives you a way to donate resources to an organization that you feel really aligned with. And that would just brighten so many people up and they’re like, oh, my God, that feels so good. I don’t just feel like I’m selling for myself. I’m actually selling in order to bring money in to help another organization. And oftentimes the organizations they partner with actually become a referral source for the person because it helps them, too.

Ani
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian
So can actually start growing your community of people that you can offer services to, and it helps everybody in that way. It’s so great. So that’s like one of my favorite ways to help, you know, coaches and small business owners use social impact programs in order to increase their own revenue is it’s kind of a partnership sharing and all ships rise.

Ani
I love what you’re saying about that because the fact is, when we bring more revenue into our business, we’re able to do more. And yet, like, you said, a lot of solopreneurs aren’t actually motivated by the money, they’re motivated by the impact that they’re making. And that’s great. Any way that you’re motivated is exactly right and great. Knowing that and being able to work with it so that you can do the things that you really want to do is fantastic. And so if, for example, you were to do something where rather than donate money or donate time, one of the, which is you could totally do that and have that be a part of the way that your business operates with a social mission. But one of the things that we see is people who are shy about bringing revenue in if their social mission is about donating their time and they actually start to deplete their time and energy tank because they’re not bringing in enough money to sustain themselves. And then they have committed to giving time to these organizations, and yet they don’t have the foundation for thriving in their body, mind, and business family.

Ani
And so kind of switching it up there and doing the give-back model, the percentage of the revenue actually does drive revenue, drives networking, it drives interest, it drives motivation, and it allows somebody to really create the thriving business that they want while doing the things that they really want to do for their social mission. You know, I want to bring up for just a second what you said about it being challenging to start one of those things. What will you say more about maybe a particular client or what you’ve seen with people in terms of the challenge of thinking maybe that they’re good enough or like what comes up? Why is that challenging?

Brian
Right. I think a lot of times the root of it, the root of the whole dispersion between the high impact drive and the low money drive is I’m not worth it. And I think that’s a lot of times it keeps those two things separate, which really can’t have a sustainable business if you’re not considering the revenue that’s coming in.

Ani
Right.

Brian
That’s just not going to work. Nobody’s coming to save you either, by the way. I mean, that’s another thing we like to say. You really have to, if you’re in business, you’ve got to get this going for yourself.

Ani
Yeah. Which is good thing.

Brian
What I see is that when people are in that place, oftentimes they are living kind of like hand to mouth with the amount of money they’re already bringing in, and there feels like there’s no wiggle room. So if I suggest 5% goes to that organization, they’re gonna be like to donate, that money does not exist. Like, that’s not gonna happen for people. So that’s like the first barrier wall. So a lot of it is doing some mindset work around how money actually works, the universal laws around money and prosperity and abundance. And so we have to do some work around that. Ultimately, the most fascinating thing is the way that people prove that law of prosperity and abundance is to do just what we’re asking them to do and to show that when we are focused on all ships rise and that we’re connected to all things, that’s how we prove that law. Then more money starts coming in.

Ani
Exactly.

Brian
I think the other little mindset glitch is that people are… They believe that they’re focused on helping other people. So they’re very impact-driven. Like, they get such a charge from helping other people achieve something. And that’s why they go into things like coaching and why they go into things like counseling, or they’re being a therapist. Right. They’re into those things that really.. love to help other people achieve things. And so they really believe, and I’m not saying they’re not, but they have a belief that they are focused on other people. However, when it comes to finance, is they’re really focused on themselves.

Ani
I’m so glad you bring that up. Yeah, right.

Brian
Because it’s like, I don’t have enough money. I don’t have. So there’s a very self-focus around that. And that self-focus actually closes off the flow of resources coming to a person. So they think I’m really focused on other people, shouldn’t that mean that I should be rewarded and have more money coming in? No, because there’s such a sclerotic effect on our own fears around our own money issues sort of thing. So when we start opening that up and we understand that we just have to create evidence for someone that more money can come in, period.

Ani
Exactly.

Brian
And part of the way it’s coming in is opening up that sclerotic effect to include the money you’re asking for to already automatically go to an organization. It starts to grow people mindset around money.

Ani
Yeah, 100%. Another thing that I’ve seen people have a challenge with is to think, me, my business is so small. Like, why would I have a social impact program? I’m just little me making whatever amount of money I make over here in my little community or whatever. Like, that’s something big companies do. That’s not true. Any company, any size, can have a social mission. And, yeah, you do have to think a little bit more of yourself to go out of yourself to go to, for example, the head of the SPCA and say, I run this business and I’d like to give a percentage of my income to the SPCA and partner with the SPCA. And, like, you do need to actually be more and do more and think bigger and be bigger to do those things. And it’s a really, really, really awesome exercise. Even if you committed for a year to doing a social mission, a social impact kind of program, and you had one of those conversations, you got to the year and you decided not to do it anymore, you would have grown so tremendously through the process of becoming. You would become somebody awesome that you’re really proud to be.

Ani
Yeah, I think that happened with us. I remember for us, this was a number of years ago when we first decided to do a social impact program with our company, and we were giving a percentage of income. And I had all of those fears, Brian, that I had more contraction around money than I realized until we started to get in there. And I was like, whoa. Every month I felt like, whoa, how are we going to meet these commitments? And it tremendously helped my money mindset to have that implemented into our business. I also definitely became somebody bigger and better because of it, because of the conversations that I had. And I’ve got to tell you, writing that check every month.

Brian
Yeah.

Ani
Was awesome.

Brian
And it felt so good, too. It felt so good on the website to have listed the organizations that we were giving money to every month.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
I mean, that felt just amazing, didn’t it? So that everybody came to the website, like, saw who we were, who we stood for, what we cared about. And then people who cared about the same things were like, wow, like, I actually want. I actually want to give money to that, too. And by the way, I need some help. So your client can kind of tick off two check marks at the same time. They’re actually, they know now that they’re donating that organization that they also care about, and at the same time, it’s coming kind of out of the fee that you’re asking them to pay to you. So it feels good for everybody to do that, to have, like, yeah, I mean, that felt really great for me.

Ani
Yeah. Yeah. I think it really changed everything about business for me. I mean, I’d been working on money mindset for a long time, and obviously trying to really step into being the business owner I wanted to be. That was a tremendous shift for me, my business. And I really highly encourage you, whether it’s that you want to make a bigger impact. You’ve wanted to have a social mission, or you just feel stuck. You need to, like to revive, revive yourself, or you’re trying to kind of combat a lack mindset and step into abundance. Definitely, definitely look at having a social impact program.

Brian
Definitely. And that this is one of our… I think both of us in our company Somatic Coaching Academy feel like it’s really, really important. It’s how it’s so important to help people change their mindset around money itself. And that is that’s that old parable. Like, give a man a fish, he’ll eat for the day. Like, teach a man to fish, he’ll eat forever. Like, that’s. We really kind of come at it from that idea that we want to really teach people how to fish. And we’ve built our own social impact model and program here at the Somatic Coaching Academy, kind of around that tenet.

Ani
That’s exactly right. So it was probably, oh, gosh, Brian. It was after Covid, maybe a year or two after Covid, that we actually started to get quite a number of requests for scholarship, even more than in the past. In the past, we really didn’t get much of a request for scholarship, but we started to get regular requests for scholarship. And it was really fascinating to us as we were having conversations with the people who were requesting the scholarship and looking at their background and their capacities and their networks and who they were and why they wanted money. And so we started to think about, like, what really would help to serve these folks, like, what really is their mission and what really would help to serve them. Just a caveat here. You and I have both helped nonprofits to become successful and grow leadership and start to help people start nonprofits and grow nonprofits. And thing in the back of our minds, as we’re talking to these people who are looking for scholarships, and some of them want to create for profit businesses, but kind of a lot of them want to create some kind of nonprofit business, even if they don’t know that’s what it’s called, or they don’t know

Ani
like, to say that nonprofits need money, too. Yep. Nonprofits have money come in so that they can do things with money. So nonprofit leaders and nonprofit business owners also need to develop money mindset, a healthy money mindset, an abundant money mindset. I have a client I’ve been working with for a long time who started and is growing a nonprofit. I’m so tremendously proud of her. Every time she bumps and bumps and bumps into a new capacity to approach money mindset. One of the things she wants to do is build a building so that her people can come and have retreats. And that costs a lot of money. That’s going to be a lot of asking for money and being in relationship with conversations around money to do that. And she’s been really growing her capacity to be a person who can sustain a business that has that retreat center that she so dreams about. So when we created our social impact program, it was really important to us that it wasn’t just about passing people money. Because one of the biggest, bestest ways for you to develop a better money mindset is to need to bring in money.

Ani
Yes, to need to bring in money. And if we just give you the fish, the money, then you don’t learn how to fish. But here, one of the things I think I’m really most proud of, Brian, as I talk to people who are considering our academy and they ask me, you know, what kind of business building skills do you have here at the academy? Not only do we have business-building skills, but I’m really proud, proud of the kind of business-building skills that we have. I’m proud of it because we see our graduates gaining more clients and traction than most other programs. I’m proud of it because I know that our students aren’t going to other educational institutions and saying, I haven’t been able to make it. They’re staying here, helping each other make it and doing it like they’re actually really. And I think a big part of that is because our students in the somatic coach pro program, who are learning how to be somatic coaches with us and learning somatic coaching skills with us, learn as a part of the curriculum and then also even more as bonus curriculum, how to enroll clients through the process of a sales conversation.

Ani
We do not just teach marketing, we don’t give you a website. We don’t teach you how to make a website. And I hope you hear what I’m saying. We don’t give you these things because we want you to be a person who can create sustainable, thriving income revenue so you can do the things that are most important to you in your life. And having sales conversations, influential sales conversations that are not manipulative, but help you to be in your own way of influence and help others win-win to step into the influence that they want to make in their world, too. Those conversations we actually teach as a part of the curriculum. And then there’s even more bonuses to help people do that. And it takes capacity for an individual, it takes self-worth. It takes self-esteem. It takes knowing you’re lovable enough. It takes knowing you’re safe enough and all these core issues to be able to have these conversations in the world. So when I’m so glad we’re doing this podcast because we often have a very limited amount of time to express the passion behind the social impact program that we have here.

Ani
But we will not just give people money on scholarships. We will teach you how to fish. We will teach you how to create a thriving business, whether you want to have a nonprofit or a for profit business. And so the benefits that we, that we award when… So this is what happens. A prospective student, first of all, will start studying with us because we will only entertain these conversations when you’re serious, because we take this seriously. And we’re not going to waste our time if our prospective students aren’t serious. So you will sign up for something and become a student with us, and then we know you’re taking this seriously, and then we will take what you’re bringing seriously as well. You fill out an application, we bring it to a committee that includes right now, us and a number of graduates, and we’ll look at a whole bunch of stuff, including your background, what you really want to create. How clear is your vision? What’s your network like? What really is the money that you have and your bills and stuff like that. Take all of that into consideration. And then we will create an award that’s based on really the skills and development that we feel like you most need to be able to bring your vision to life.

Ani
If it feels like your vision is clear and it feels like it really has passion and energy behind it, and it looks like you have a network to be able to support that vision, most of the time, what our students are awarded is business support because not everybody will have, we do some strategy with our students when they come in Somatic coaching program. We do some of that. But some people need elevated strategy and they will need some elevated business support to learn how to do some really foundational stuff to be able to get themselves going. Those are the kinds of things that we’re helping people with again, so that we can teach people how to fish so that you can learn how to grow a thriving business that’s sustainable.

Brian
Can I just kind of summarize? Yeah. So first of all, I want to say comparatively, from all the research that we’ve looked at at other somatic coaching certification programs, even coaching programs, we feel like our students, who are just in the general certification track get so much business support, much more in comparison to other programs. Let’s just say that so everybody gets a tremendous amount of business support to help them really be able to create the business and practice that they want. If someone qualifies by filling out the application the way I was talking about, they will get additional above and beyond our customary support with people, additional business coaching, consulting, strategizing those kinds of things in order to help them bring their really strongly defined social impact, their own social impact, to life a little bit more. And so, and that is infinitely valuable. I can’t really put a value on that compared to simply giving someone a certain percentage off of tuition or something like that. That having that business support just continues to create more revenue ongoing in the future.

Ani
I’m going to put a number on it. It’s worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Brian
There you go.

Ani
And here’s why. Because we can help you create a business that if you wanted to, could bring in multiple seven figures to help you to make the impact that you really wanted to make. And I think it’s important to go ahead and put some of those numbers on it because it’s easy to say things are invaluable. And in some ways you’re so right, because, Brian, the person that we become on the other side of this growth is even better than we could possibly say. And let’s put some numbers on there, because at the end of the day, butter costs $6 a box and eggs cost $6 a carton or whatever it is. And this is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. We’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn some of the things that we’ve learned that we then pass on to the students.

Brian
I will say, too, we have had students, I love when students do this, is they..Because our program is trauma-informed, trauma-sensitive, evidence-based, they’ve actually gone and gotten grants.

Ani
Absolutely.

Brian
From other organizations in order to come in and do our certification, because our certification is so strongly based in, again, the physiology, the evidence-based and trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive care is needed more and more and more and more and more. So a lot of students who know they’re going to have trouble kind of paying for the program have gone out and gotten grants from other organizations, and we’ve given them paperwork and supportive materials in order to apply for those grants in order to make that happen. And that, to me, really shows initiative and really wanting to bring this work into the world. And that counts for a lot.

Ani
It does count for a lot, and it helps to, again, win, win, win. Help to expand because the organizations that are given the grants oftentimes will be like, I haven’t heard of somatic coaching. What is that? And so we’re getting a chance to educate even more people and organizations that can make bigger differences for a lot of people. Brian and I have a saying that the road to success is paved with paperwork.

Brian
Sure is.

Ani
It is. The road to success is paved with paperwork. And so the process of going through, applying for things like that and needing to gather the things that you need to gather prove for yourself your resourcefulness, it’s not about having resources. It’s about knowing that you’re resourceful because you can never lose that. You can always tap into that. That’s a wellspring that you can always tap into. So understanding, really claiming for yourself, understanding and proving that you are resourceful is oftentimes about filling out paperwork, doing some research, and that’s being successful.

Brian
That’s it.

Ani
We’re doing a whole bunch of paperwork right now. We’re always doing paperwork right now. So we hope that you can feel our passion for this topic because social impact matters. There’s a lot. It matters to us, it matters to our students, it matters to our grads. We assume it matters to you. There’s a lot of different ways that you can include social impact into what you’re creating. We highly encourage you to dream, to know you’re capable, know you’re worthy of that. Go forward, take the next step in initiating that. You’ll, I mean, let us know, like, you know, what comes up for you because we know there’s tremendous amount of positive growth that’s in there for you. And we’re excited to have shared a little bit about our social impact program here at the Academy because a lot of people ask us about it. Now you understand a little bit more about our passion, where we’re coming from and also what it, what it involves for you. So if you have any more questions about anything, we’re talking about today, of course. But I guess specifically the social impact program, you can find information on our website and some people will say, I can’t find it.

Ani
That’s fine. Email us info@somaticcoachingacademy.com, and we’re happy to point you in the right direction. But for now, keep making your impact, keep dreaming big about the impact that you can make. And until next week, we will see you then.

Brian
Thanks so much.

Ani
Bye.