How to Step Into Your Taylor Swift Era of Coaching

This week is a fun episode that has a lesson in the pun… Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith talk about how to enter into your Taylor Swift era of coaching. They talk about Taylor Swift’s different eras and their pivotal role in her journey to success. They relate the icon’s journey to different stages of launching, growing, and scaling a coaching business, discussing key takeaways.  

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• How Taylor Swift’s eras compare to launching and growing a coaching business
• Tips on how to work through those transitional periods
• They compare the specific eras that Taylor was in and how those times can compare to what it’s like becoming and evolving as a coach
• Unspoken truths about coaching that Em and Lex have personally experienced
• How the different Taylor eras reflect different times in life and business
• Identifying what era you are in now and what era you want to get into next
• And more on all things Taylor Swift…

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Emily Merrell  

Let's coach. Hi, guys. Hi, Lex.

Lexie Smith  

So I'm good. I'm Emily, I have to say top of show the theme of today's episode is all Emily's idea. And not exactly sure how it's gonna go down. But if it's brilliant, give her credit. If it's not blame her.

Emily Merrell  

Let me just start off with its Hi. I'm the problem. It's me.

Lexie Smith  

I will say I use that phrase. So much. And before we dive into the theme of this episode, which she'll tell you about shortly, that was a big hint. I'm going to give you another hint by sharing a quick story. Last night, I got I couldn't call my husband. He's on a work trip. He's supposed to be landed in Seattle and his phone was dead. And I got a text about an hour later saying like he can't get to he like doesn't have a hotel reservation. And he's trying to figure out where to stay and his phone's dying. And then I didn't hear from him again for another hour. And he calls me and he goes, I landed in Seattle, in my hotel lost my reservation. And every other hotel in Seattle is completely sold out. So now I'm like 40 minutes outside of the city like in this crappy dumpy place. Because Taylor Swift is in town and all the Swift DS he didn't use the word Swifties. I doubt he knows what that means. took up all the hotels and I kind of think that the hotel air quote lost his reservation when they realized they could probably upsell because of Taylor

Emily Merrell  

1,000%. But I think the real truth here though lax is that your husband is not on work conference. He's at a Taylor Swift concert. Oh, my God, you imagine? Yes, I could. And I think he would, he would love it.

Lexie Smith  

And that's where our marriage vaulted? No, I

Emily Merrell  

think that's when it excelled. Which brings me to last week. It was a Thursday night. And my sister celebrates her birthday in big ways. And one of her requests for her birthday, was while we couldn't get Taylor Swift concert tickets in Denver, Colorado, there was a pre Taylor Swift concert dance party at this bar. So of course I obliged. I bought the ticket on the same day of the I bought it a few days before I looked that night to see what time it starts thinking it starts at a reasonable hour like five 6pm No, no, it starts at 9pm which I'm out. I know which, you know, you're getting old when you're like, oh my God isn't 9pm And I was like I was kicking and screaming all day making up a million excuses trying to figure out how do I get out of this. And bless my sister's heart. She bought dresses, probably anticipating knowing that I would come up with a way to get out of it. And I bet on that dress and I put on some lipstick and I put on my my heels, drink some champagne, and danced my pants off. Basically, I was dancing until midnight, I had the most fun I've had in such a long time. I burned through like all of my calorie calorie rings for like the next three days dancing. And it was just such a reminder to try something new. Because so often we are in mindsets where it's hard to say yes to opportunities or to say yes to things. And I I really think that Taylor Swift is kind of like going to a dance party a Taylor Swift is kind of like coaching. You know where it might feel unattractive at first or it might feel intimidating, or it might feel out of your comfort zone. But once you give it a shot, and you really lean into it, you feel right at home.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, so Emily's teeing up the clear theme of today which is

Emily Merrell  

how poutine is like Taylor Swift

Lexie Smith  

Okay, here we go, guys. But no, no, hold on. Hold on. Let

Emily Merrell  

me refine that. How coaching. Basically in this episode, we are going to talk about Taylor Swift's different eras and how you need those eras for coaching. Lex, how can people find out how to

Lexie Smith  

work with us? is super simple go to ReadySet Coach program.com and you can show knows Oh, okay, actually I'm following more now and more along for the ride. So, I hope you're watching our two.

Emily Merrell  

Okay, so let's we're gonna start off with era number one which is lover era. So, as a coach, what are some tips to get your clients Lovering? What you're doing?

Lexie Smith  

Is that the same era as Tim McGraw? like Taylor Swift with curly hair and a guitar.

Emily Merrell  

Oh no. No different era.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. Isn't the first era Tim McGraw. That's Taylor. Just stay with me what errors lover? I know sounds like lover, but I don't know

Emily Merrell  

what it was way, way back when you said Tim McGraw. Oh gee. Oh gee. Yeah.

Lexie Smith  

And then get up was her big coming out party basically I think you're starting at the wrong era. So should we start at the I think we should I'm hijacking this. I do think it's worth starting at Tim McGraw because one of the things that is iconic about Taylor Swift is she made such a huge transition and she did it in such a big way between shake it off and Tim McGraw

Emily Merrell  

Lexie, this is I'm following the tour, the era's tour in the order in which the internet is telling me

Lexie Smith  

little ears sorry, I don't know how to talk about lover so I'll let you answer that. But I'm going to now that I'm on one, briefly talk about the transition because Taylor Swift started in a certain identity. She started very country she I'm pretty sure grew up seen in church, if I remember correctly from her documentary, or I'm thinking of another celebrity, but she was this all American Girl Next Door, very mild mannered, like a theory looking in her cup every cover images. And this reminds me a lot of what happened with Miley Cyrus at some point. She grew out of that. And guess what she was allowed to now some of us might have started kicking and screaming when we saw her emergence with shake it off, right? That was her big rebrand. Just like Miley Cyrus. What was her big wrecking ball small, right? They they made a lot of noise and it made people a little bit uncomfy but they allowed themselves to evolve and holy crap Taylor Swift I'm pretty sure now has sold the most albums of any female artists in history.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, it's It's remarkable and the way that she's owned her, that where she owns her songs and all of the things but what you're talking about Lex is actually the fearless era, which is you belong with me and love story? Yes. And, and, and I think to your point, yes, she had to reinvent herself and be fearless in what she was doing, where she wasn't just identifying and putting herself in a box. She was able to branch out and people who didn't like country now like Taylor Swift, which is not very different from a consultant or a business owner, who is only serving one audience now offering something new to a new audience where

Lexie Smith  

or even before that, right, starting your coaching journey. Right? You might be a professional right now or you might not do anything related to coaching. And so changing that taking on this new identity, taking on the title. I love how I was resistant to this. And now like clearly I'm on a spriggan soapbox, kicking and screaming, screaming guys, but now I'm like, Oh, I see it. I see it now. Your new era of becoming a coach. Okay, sorry. I got excited. I interrupted you continue?

Emily Merrell  

No, no, no, it's great. So okay, so we started about fearless. So this is the person who is thinking about becoming a coach who is unsure but then they realize like, I'm going to identify to a new audience. I'm gonna put myself out there, which I'll then move it to I'm not doing it in chronological order because I don't know the orders y'all. I'm a swift de light. And I don't know what follows but according to the internet, this is how they they pant it out. Okay, so bear with us. Let's go to lover era. And I think this is one of the biggest objections that people have is about about putting themselves out there. As a coach they feel like they don't have enough people who love her what they're selling. They

Lexie Smith  

I'm here for it.

Emily Merrell  

Scrap this episode. No, but you're putting yourself out there you're offering a more mature offering. You're you're putting yourself in if you are a founder, for example, say you have a product that you're selling. Now you're selling you you're not selling the product you're not hiding behind the product anymore. And I think there's this intimidation though, where you have to find those, those super fans or those people who are loving what you are selling. And it can be intimidating because there again is whiplash, where people might feel like, well, shouldn't you just be a founder? Like, why is she putting herself out in this way?

Lexie Smith  

And I think something else worth highlighting is both the transitions. We've talked about both of the eras, Taylor Swift didn't do alone. Yes, she's the face, but it took a village and so similar, we just want you to hear that if you're working to launch a business or grow or scale your coaching practice, to really enter the next era, you might need to embrace some help.

Emily Merrell  

And legs. I think this is an area that you can talk about, but the the reputation era, where you know, people from music

Lexie Smith  

video where she had, like, all those different costumes.

Emily Merrell  

Look what you made me do. Like, yeah, sorry, I can't answer the phone right now. Cuz she said. And so I think, I think there's something about this era that I really like, in terms of coaching is that you're not going to be for everyone. And there's this fear of as you're selling your brand, which is you that you're you're our most human instinct is wanting to be liked by everyone. I mean, it's hard. When someone tells you like, I don't like what you're selling, or you feel you've made me feel X, Y and Z. So your reputation can get tarnished, if people don't like what, what you're putting out there. But it's also pushing through it, and still showing up and listening to you and also listening to the people who love what you're doing.

Lexie Smith  

This is so good. Emily, I have goosebumps because then we look at the progression of what got Taylor Swift to this iconic moment in history that she's in this moment of time for her was key. And this moment in time for coaching is when you finally own that you're allowed to say no, when you finally own that not every client is someone you should want to work with. And that does come after a few those first initial progressions.

Emily Merrell  

I love this fact from the internet. But before this album, she was seen as like Taylor was seen as is typical American sweetheart. But after Kanye West publicly humiliated swift by taking her word on stage, and then Scooter Braun stole the rights to her music, Swift when it does prove she could stand up for herself and was unafraid. And I think that's that's very much a coaching thing to like, usually, there's, I don't know about you X. But even in my, my corporate journey, like I felt like I had to play this good girl and this nice girl and being my own business owner and being a coach where I really everything that I talked about is, is truth that I believe in. And so I can say things like we're talking about fucking Taylor Swift on a podcast right now like I can, I can speak my truth. And I don't have to, it doesn't have to be a sign a sound bite that's regurgitated for a company that is bigger or beyond me. Yeah. And

Lexie Smith  

she another like the second half of that right is some pretty big public. Setbacks happened. And there's a couple of things she could have done. There's a couple of ways you could have reacted, you could have folded, but she chose not to, she chose to let it evolve her and reclaim her power. And really, thank God she did, because again, that's what led to her iconic status today.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah. And then I love her, her album, the speaker, or the Speak now era. And I think this plays well into even reputation, but owning your voice and speaking your truth. And as a coach, again, I'm I sound like a broken record, broken record, but you get to, you got to speak. You got to be your own boss, and you got to show up the way that you want to show up.

Lexie Smith  

So we started in one iteration, we took a leap of, of courage, we were fearless finally owned, becoming a coach. As we grew, we then began to show up, we accepted help. We then entered the era where we realized we aren't for everyone. So we own the power of No. And now we're going the next level, which is thought leadership, which is where my brain goes with this is once you've done, you know the basics to start marketing yourself and getting yourself out there. What's that next level that next level is thought leadership and PR and that's that's actually how we present it in our program to we talk about lead generation and then beyond lead generation 2.0 is PR when you really start to own your thought leadership.

Emily Merrell  

Hmm, yeah, I think that's a great point. And then I also think about branding too and like a personal brand. And one thing that we've tried to do and hopefully we have done with ReadySet coach is when you see us even in our photo shoots, we are wearing like a dark Have a dark green and a light pink. And we've, we share those images and those colors in a lot of our Instagrams as far as we're trying to be really consistent and build a brand. Which reminds me of the red era for Taylor Swift, where when I think of Taylor Swift, I think of, I think of her bright red bold lip. And I think of her in that point. Like, I always just think of that image, which is probably not the right way

Lexie Smith  

of why you're wearing a bold red lip look like her is that my hair on you, and then we're there.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, but like, during this era, she's rocking a white t shirt with like, text on it, and these leather, kind of leather, sparkly pants, and then a bull hat type thing. But like her signature lip, she's wearing such a simplistic outfit yet the lip stands out so much. And I think a having that personal brand where it's recognizable, and you automatically think of that person or that thing is really important. So as you're building your coaching business, like what's something that can be your signature thing,

Lexie Smith  

vibe, that's another way that it What's your vibe, that's something that should you know, every successful coach that Emily and I know, has their own vibe, and their own look and their own way of being. So this era really is doubling down and being known for something and being known for your vibe.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah. And then I'm gonna combine two of the eras but I think folklore and evermore give off like a magical transformation or like a magical essence and, and with coaching. There's magic that happens. It's, it's not topical. It's undercover. It's, it takes time. It takes perseverance. I think that can be one of the biggest frustrations about coaching is that sometimes you want to see, you want to see immediate results. Gosh, I wish we could be like an Uber on demand on that sense. But oftentimes, the magic takes a little bit of time to sink in. Before you see the final transformation

Lexie Smith  

into their sweat. Swift worked her little Swifty butt off to get to this point. And I think that's relevant to business and coaching. And there is a hustle that that is at the beginning here. But there does reach a point when you've put in the hard work where it starts to manifest and it does get easier and you're able to breathe. So keeping the folklore and evermore in mind as you're going through the Speak now is in the reds and the all the things

Emily Merrell  

well Lex I think that's a great tip for the Midnight's era where it's like you are, you're grinding, you're you're working really hard to make this a reality and what we teach it Ready Set coaches to to work, have a work life balance. But I think one of the unspoken truths about coaching that I think we would be selling you a fallacy if we said like, oh my god, you put your website up and Bada bing, bada boom, and you have a million clients and you're a gajillion heir. But there is that like grinding at midnight moment where you were writing that email sequence and you are doing competitive analysis and whatnot. So there is that aspect of darkness in coaching, too.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, and here's where I'm seeing going with that where I just talked about where it does get easier. It doesn't always stay in bliss. And I think that's the reality is that any business ebbs and flows, there are going to be moments where it gets easier. But inevitably, in the world of business as the world changes. Now we have robots taking over the world, there will be moments where you have to go back into grind mode, Emily and I kind of are in our like folklore, folk lore era when we are delivering and teaching within a cohort. But then when we come out, and we have to refill that cohort, we transition back into Midnight's

Emily Merrell  

well done, well done. And then we're gonna conclude it with 1989. Well, this one's a hard one.

Lexie Smith  

I say what is what is she? What is the like core messaging of this? What does the internet say?

Emily Merrell  

The internet says little she was born.

Lexie Smith  

This is where she's at now. Right? So icon? How much is her pricing of her tickets? Insane. She sold out. She's in high demand. She's charging. I don't know how much a Taylor Swift concert is. But she has reached the point where she's a high ticket coach that people want to work with.

Emily Merrell  

Well done because this was the moment when 1989 came out the era this is like when she really stepped into her own. She wasn't this like I kind of I've heard of Taylor Swift person. This is when she became a phenomenon. And she was mature and she had personality and she was fierce and she's always been fierce. Don't get me wrong, but she really really became that true icon that we know as Taylor Swift.

Lexie Smith  

I think that my kicking and screaming led to one of my most favorite episodes, we've recorded to date, Emily?

Maybe you should listen to me more often. So

Lexie Smith  

I try. I'm in my, let's see, I'm not in. I'm in my speak now. So I don't want to hear you speak to

Emily Merrell  

you keep going. You're crushing it. You're doing a great job.

Lexie Smith  

So what's our homework from from today? Emily, I'm gonna tee you up.

Emily Merrell  

I teed up the episode. So my homework for you is called we should create a downloadable actually,

Lexie Smith  

all the things don't hold us accountable for that, or

Emily Merrell  

no. But we'll create a Taylor Swift downloadable. But I think there is this aspect of if taking inventory of what error are you in now? Are you in? Like 1989? I don't care that the paparazzi is taking pictures of me. I am a badass and I can do what I want? Or are you more of a reputation era where you're feeling like, you're you're a little nervous to go out there but because you're not quite sure what the world thinks of you. So take inventory of where you're at. I would love to, we would both love to hear what your favorite era is both Taylor Swift and also business wise. And then Lexi has a little more homework for you.

Lexie Smith  

Because you're going to identify what area you're in now. And then what area you want to get to and some of the steps you need to take to get to area two, for example, are you in trying to get to fearless even maybe you're not even in fearless. What do you need to do to be able to enter your fearless or if you've been you're kind of a newer coach, and you want to get up to your speed now. Maybe it's enlisting help, right. So where are you at? And where are you trying to go? And what steps do you need to take

Emily Merrell  

to get there to take center stage

Lexie Smith  

to take center stage? Yeah. And with that this was the most at it was amazing. But I have to say, Guys, we are dropping this episode early this week. Because in a short two days, we are launching our summer cohort of ReadySet. Coach. And now we don't typically sell on this podcast, but we do have a couple spots left. And we want to in the spirit of Taylor Swift, invite you if you're someone who's looking to move eras to check it out. And this isn't something you're going to sit on. Again, we kick off in two days. So if you're listening to this in real time or watching us reach out to us here is your invitation to

Emily Merrell  

grab tickets to our next concert. Yeah. All right. Well, with that, we'll sing it's us. We are the problem. It's us know,

Lexie Smith  

on the ready, set code.

Emily Merrell  

Right. If you're enjoying the ReadySet coach podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening. For more information about ReadySet coach, visit ReadySet coach program.com