The Owner's Odyssey
The Owner's Odyssey is a business podcast focused on exploring the unique journeys of real business owners co-hosted by Brook Gratia, Paul McCoy, and Zach Jones.
The Owner's Odyssey
The Voyage of Business Growth and New Horizons in Coaching With Starla West
When Starla West swapped the security of her consulting job for the roller-coaster ride of entrepreneurship amidst the 2008 economic crash, she wasn't just chasing a dream—she was leaping into a new reality. Our latest episode zeros in on Starla's unguarded revelations about the lessons learned through her coaching business's evolution. From trusting her gut over traditional business plans to nurturing invaluable relationships with an advisory board, Starla's narrative brims with the tenacity and wisdom only found on the front lines of self-made success.
Scaling a business isn't for the faint of heart, and Starla unpacks the intricacies of growth with the precision of a seasoned pro. She shares the significance of having a board of advisors—each a maestro in their realm—and how this council helped her filter through the cacophony of entrepreneurship advice. There's a moment in every business owner's journey where you must decide between deep involvement or expansion, and Starla was no exception. Her candid insights give a sneak peek into the critical decisions and the strategic moves she made to ensure her business thrived without losing its soul.
The conversation takes a profound turn as we venture into the realms of marketing authenticity, pricing strategies, and the promising field of psychedelic integration coaching. Starla's personal experiences and forward-thinking approach exemplify how one's values and business acumen can unite to chart a course through uncertain waters. Whether she's navigating the complexities of networking or contemplating the integration of psychedelics into her practice, Starla's pioneering spirit and commitment to authentic growth are nothing short of inspiring. Join us as we uncover these riveting developments in the world of personal and entrepreneurial breakthroughs.
Hello and welcome to the Owner's Odyssey, the podcast where we delve deep into the transformative stories of courageous business owners who have embarked on an extraordinary adventure. I'm Zach Jones and I'm Brooke Gattia. We're here to explore the real life experiences of entrepreneurs.
Brook:Each episode, we'll embark on a quest to uncover the trials, triumphs and transformations of remarkable individuals who dared to answer the call of entrepreneurship.
Zach:Like all adventurers, our guests have faced their fair share of challenges, vanquished formidable foes and braved the unknown.
Brook:Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned business owner or simply an avid listener hungry for captivating stories.
Zach:The Owner's Odyssey is here to help you level up. So join us as we embark on this epic expedition. This is the Owner's Odyssey. Let's start our adventure.
Brook:Welcome to our podcast. We have Starla West with us today. Starla owns a business. Is it still called Starla West Coaching?
Starla:Yeah, starla West Coaching, starla West International. It just depends on how you want to, whatever's happening that day and who's speaking.
Brook:So I met Starla oh, I want to say four or five years ago, maybe more, more than that. Basically, you came needing some accounting assistance and kind of jumped in and kind of basically helped you doing your taxes and got to know you a little bit. Starla is a business coach, largely with and I'm going to let her explain a little bit more but executive coaching and particularly helping people learn how to think as an executive coach. She herself has a podcast which I'll let her talk about later at the end of it. But Starla is one of those people who just feels very natural to talk to and very comfortable.
Brook:And I've got lots of clients and sometimes you have the very intense and in-your-face clients. Starla seems to be aware of all of her items but not overwhelming in her engagement of it. I really enjoyed my small interactions with Starla from that side. But, starla, I would love for you to tell us a little bit about how you went from college student whatever it is up to the point where you're. You don't have to go back to college student but like your journey to being a business owner. When did you start, starla West?
Starla:I started it in 2009.
Brook:Okay, so you're going on 14 years.
Starla:Yes, Wow, Do you still like it? I love it. I love it Now, not every day, but for the most part, yes. I absolutely love it and it was the right thing to do back in 2009.
Brook:Yeah, so tell us a little bit. What were you doing before you started this and how did you decide to jump into this fun world of?
Starla:ownership. Probably the easiest place to start was where I was at in 2008. And I don't know if you guys remember what 2008 was like, but the economic climate here in the States was not all that great. But I found myself working for a consulting firm that was based out of Lincoln, nebraska, and I had been with them for about, at that point, probably six, seven years, loved the organization, loved the work that I was doing. But I found myself getting really bored and I went to my boss there and I said you know, I'm really bored, I'm tired, can I take a break? I said I'll take a two-month sabbatical, unpaid. I'm happy to do that. And she was like well, she came back to me and she said Starla, we completely understand, and part of the exhaustion was simply I was traveling the country about 60 to 80% of the year and I was doing kind of the same thing over and over and over again with just different clients, and so all of that was just leading to some exhaustion. And she came back and she said Starla, you are our star player, you've got two months paid sabbatical. And I was like well, okay, I'll take it.
Starla:And so during that two-month period I was just kind of doing a lot of soul searching and trying to figure out. You know, is this the place that I want to be? No-transcript Starla, our people listen to you and you can actually walk in and have the really difficult conversations with them and they actually listen and agree with you and start. They change their thoughts, they change their behaviors. So, that being said, we know you guys don't typically offer this kind of training, but we know that you could figure that out and create it for us and do it. And they were right. I was like what's your problem? Let's figure out first what the problem is and then let's look at all of our possible solutions and then, if this is something I could do for you, I want to do it. But what I would do is I'd go back to the company andla. It's not what we do here at this organization. We need to stay in our swim lane, which, for obvious reasons, we need. You know that was the smart decision.
Starla:So I kept getting just frustrated because I was like I know I can do this and I know I can help here and I know I can fix this problem over here. But then the other thing that I noticed was happening was that and I was fine with it. And what I realized after? Actually I started noticing this well before 2008, but it just all kind of came together. It was a collision of things in 2008, 2009.
Starla:But I just I started to realize people would lean on me. People lean on me Even my good friends lean on me to help them think through whatever it is that they're going through. And then I would see my friends come back and they're changing jobs and it was all because of the conversation that we had just had and everything that we had worked through. So in 2008, I decided I was like I'm done, I'm just done, and I gave my husband and my family a heart attack because one the economic climate in the States was not good and I was leaving an organization that was paying me incredibly well, with amazing benefits that you probably weren't going to go and find anywhere else. So I was giving up financially a lot of money to go and start a business that I've never done before and I just kept thinking to myself I know I'm really good at what I can do and I'll figure out this business side of it.
Brook:So people talk about finding your superpower. I don't know if you've heard people talking about those things. Do you feel like this was kind of your little superpower?
Starla:that you stepped into it is. It is my superpower. And I always joke. I always say that if this doesn't work out, I'm in trouble because I'm not equipped to do anything else. This is really what I was built to do and this is my superpower. So I was fortunate that back in 2009, I was able to really kind of start to see that very clearly and I was ready to make the change.
Zach:Oh, I'm sorry. In that transition process, do you feel like that was something that you were kind of cast toward or drawn toward in a way, where you were kind of figuring it out as you went along, like was that a fairly abrupt process of transitioning into that and a strong pull there, or did you kind of have a runway for yourself to, you know, kind of plot it out and create transition space?
Starla:Great question. It was abrupt because the part that I left out was I had hit a point where I was just mentally and physically I was done, but I was not yet ready to quit on my own. So, in typical Starla fashion because I have a history of this I engaged in some self-sabotage and forced the company's hand. So it was a mutual decision. I had had a conversation with my boss one day and I had said to her I'm tired of being a traveling donkey. Those were my words, and when she got really quiet I was like oh, You're like, yep, that did it.
Starla:She's not responding very well to this, and she didn't, and you know, to her credit. She just looked at me and she said you know, if you're that unhappy, then it's probably time to go. And I said you're probably right. And so it was abrupt, and at that point though, at that point I it was like it was a very, it was very refreshing. It was just like yeah, relief yeah.
Starla:Yeah, I'm, I'm. I'm frustrated that I didn't have the courage on my own, um, to just say I'm done. I had to. You know, I had to make it happen that way Because, unfortunately, it didn't lead to a departure that was as as ideal as I would have liked, right? But I knew it was the right thing and at that point I was like well, I guess I'm going to have to figure this out.
Paul:What about? You? Had some companies that were wanting your services that were currently clients of your ex-company. Now, how did that transition? How did you manage to navigate non-competes and all this other?
Starla:Well, unfortunately I didn't have a non-compete no-transcript with about my departure, and so I explained very clearly what I was leaving the company to go and do. And I remember, sitting on the sofa, I'm having to chase, my feet are kicked up, I'm crafting this email that I had spent probably three or four hours just crafting right it was probably a two-paragraph email and spent three or four hours crafting it right and I pressed send. I sat there for a second because I knew that this was blasting out to all of my clients and I just wasn't sure what the reaction was going to be, and this is no exaggeration. I just shut my laptop lid, or whatever it's called, and I turned to stand up and my phone rang and it was one of my clients down in Florida and it was the marketing, the chief marketing officer for this particular client, and he said Starla, I am so super excited for you.
Starla:If you have a couple of hours, I'd love to strategize with you on the marketing side of what you're going to be doing. And then I, at that point I was like this was right. So that's what kept me going. Actually, the first couple of years is that I had these clients who already knew me and they just started reaching out saying hey, we know you're not with them anymore, so can you come do this, can you come and do that? So that's really what saved me those first two years is that I had clients that I could already start working with.
Paul:Nice.
Brook:Were you, since it was so abrupt. How did you know you were going to be stepping into this if it was that abrupt? Were you already like thinking through this, but just not courageous enough to say it? And that's why you were able to do the kind of passive, aggressive, abrupt thing that you went through and then be able to send an email out saying this is where I'm going to Like to not to have done it so abrupt, but really have a very clear pattern of where you're going. How'd you have that overlap?
Starla:Well, I had been thinking about it for a year and I think on both a conscious and subconscious level, there was a lot of processing going on for about a year and a lot of planning going on in my mind. So when that happened, I had already kind of thought out the direction I would go and what it would look like.
Brook:Did you have like a business plan together? Oh heavens, no, none of that. No, so you were just like well, here we go.
Starla:No, no, and I think that's why everybody that loved me, they were so terrified.
Zach:They were like you're absolutely right, I don't, but how hard can it be? It was my confidence. So what were some of the things in those early days that were the biggest learning curves, or maybe just curve balls in general that you know you were? You didn't feel innately equipped for, based on your prior experience?
Starla:Well, one of the things would be you know what you pointed out, which was I was operating without a business plan, I was going off of my gut on everything, and the other thing that started happening was that I started connecting with entrepreneurs and other business owners here in Indianapolis and they were all in my ear, right. Well, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? And so what I quickly started to become I hate using the word victim, but I was like a victim of listening too much to everyone, because I started listening, you know. Okay, well, let's say, I need to be doing this and I start doing this. I need to be doing this and I need to be doing this.
Starla:And all of a sudden, it became about all the backend infrastructure that needs to be built for your business.
Starla:And I had left so that I could deliver right, so I could work with my clients.
Starla:And so I found myself really having tried to trying to balance what's really essential right now.
Starla:I need to be up on my feet, I need to be getting money in the door, but at the same time, I need to be preparing for, you know, creating the infrastructure on the back end so that I can grow this and scale this and be able to show up for these clients in ways that I've always showed up for them, because what I was leaving was a company that was doing all that for me on the back end. They were selling me, they were, you know, taking care of all the invoicing, they, you know all of that stuff right. All I had to do was show up and just wow the client. And so now I started to realize, oh, I have to, I now I need to be responsible for all of this stuff. So I stumbled I'm not going to lie, I stumbled for probably three or four years just trying to figure it all out, and even at you know, four or five years in, I didn't have it all figured what I was doing.
Zach:And what are some of the tools or biggest tips that you learned along the way that you feel allowed you to pull away from some of the minutiae or the parts that you're less passionate about and back into the core of what you intend with your business?
Starla:One of the tips that I got early on was to start to farm out everything that you're not good at, which I think is a pretty obvious tip that most, most entrepreneurs get these days.
Starla:And, um, my weakest area are the financials. I am not a numbers person and so that was one of the first things I farmed out pretty quickly is like I had asked for a referral. I got referred over to Brooke and then I you know, I remember sitting down in your office that you had there in Broad Ripple and working through all that and just unloading all of the financial side of it was important to get that to a place where I actually had numbers that I could look at, but still, I have a weakness in running a business off of numbers. So the other thing that was recommended to me very early on that I was glad I did, was I created a board of directors or board of advisors. I called them my strategic intelligence board because they were not paid at all. Right, but uh, one of the things I did is I started, I created a board of advisors who filled in all of my gap areas, all of my weak spots.
Brook:Like what were the subjects they were in Well.
Starla:So I had two numbers people. Okay, I knew very clearly I needed people that were going to challenge me on the numbers, because I'm I'm a big ideas person, I and I just it's not intuitive for me to think about the numbers at all and I definitely don't think about it in the beginning of any kind of um you know, conversation about you know business decisions. And so I had two numbers guys. One was a CEO of an organization and then one was a business coach um who helped people build their you know their financial structures for their company. And then I had, um, a gal that's very visionary um, someone who could look out into the future and see what I was doing and how it might translate from a very futuristic standpoint, because I'm very much here in the now person and I knew that kind of you know doing the forecasting about where the market is going and what trends are we seeing and how could this be built out in a way that is bigger than I ever intended. I had her. And then I had a marketing guy who owned his own marketing firm. He was on the board as well. And then I wanted a fellow female business owner, someone who had already been there, done that, built something and knew. Kind of, she could say, yes, I was in your shoes 20 years ago. Here's, you know. Here are the things you need to be thinking about.
Starla:So getting that strategic intelligence board in place was really good. And then what would happen is I would all the things that I was hearing from you know all of my fellow entrepreneurs you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to. I'd bring it back to my board of advisors and I'd talk it out with them and they would be the ones to say you don't need to be wasting your time on that right now. You know that's going to be essential later, but don't worry about that right now. Start over, and that I need to focus on. It is so very hard when you're running a business. So, like you, sit back and talk about you. Help people think.
Brook:And sometimes, when you're in your own business, you can't even think through your own business because you're taking care of helping everybody else and you're exhausted by at the end of the day. And so it's very funny. I mean, I'm the same exact way. I finally got to the point where I don't do doing it for everybody else. So you are in the same spot of like you are helping people think, but you have learned that you need other people to help you think too.
Brook:And it's not just I got this figured out, and so let me tell you all this it's just as much of a journey for you and bringing around that community to kind of pull through it, and so it's kind of it's entertaining to me that I'm sitting back going. You're helping people think, and at the beginning you were like I don't know where to look first, like you needed someone else to help you think because you were too close to it. Um, and there's nothing to be embarrassed about by asking people for help, like that's just what I think if you're, if the quickest way to fail as a business owner is to think you can do it all yourself and you don't need any advisors somewhere in there, and so, um, yeah, that's just. It was an interesting kind of piece that you were saying.
Starla:And I think any business owner that would not agree with that. They're definitely in denial and preparing for failure.
Brook:Yeah.
Starla:You can't do it yourself. You've really got to bring, you've got to surround yourself with people who are going to ask all the right questions and stimulate your thoughts in ways that you're just not going to be able to do it yourself.
Zach:Yeah, I talk a lot about triangulation, like I want. I want one person that thinks all the way on this side of you know, or or. I like to sit in between two people on a spectrum in terms of my you know kind of advisory influences, and I think you do kind of naturally get a yeah kind of you know triangulation of, of a comprehensive perspective or what concrete there is.
Zach:You know there, because most things are perception or gray area or what have you. But you know you kind of find those commonalities when you take those extreme points and find that middle space.
Brook:Now, have you ever gotten to a point where you it's going to be more than Starla, so I mean, there's so many hours in a day You're talking about helping people think so, you spent four hours with your girlfriend and you loved it, but like those four hours so there's only so much touch you can do with it. Is this a business that is your own lifestyle or is this a business that is more than your lifestyle? Have you journeyed back and forth with that topic, like, where are you on that spectrum of things?
Starla:Oh boy, that's a. That's a big question how team player are you? Well, and actually it ties quite nicely into the conversation that we were just having, because once I got about, you know, three or four years into the business, and my name started becoming known, and I started to feel the same thing that most solopreneurs feel, which is especially those that are selling their time is that I've got bandwidth issues and I there's, you know, there's a point at which I'm not going to be able to make any more money because I don't, I've maxed out. And so, you know, when you start articulating that to people, the first thing they're going to look at you and say is well, you need to scale right. So does it have to be you? And that was a tough question for me to answer, because I'd left that company and started this business because I knew I had things I wanted to do and I wanted to show up and do them in the star of the way. And so my first, my initial response, without even thinking, was well, yeah, it kind of does need to be me. And they were like well, let's talk through that right. So, after tons of conversations, I had been convinced that it didn't have to be me and, ultimately, anybody that wants to scale a coaching business. You have to get there. This business is about more than just me, right? And so I had mentally gotten to that point and I just thought, okay, well, if I want to scale this business, I need to bring other coaches in under my umbrella, and then I need to start offering things that I can, you know, farm out to other people.
Starla:And I went down that path and I hated it. I hated it because I found myself day in and day out spending time on the things I did not want to be doing. I did not want to be overseeing other people. I did not want to be. And it took me and the sad part is it took me three years to figure it out, because I wasn't clear on what my vision was. And once I finally went back and said you know, five, ten years out, starla, what is your vision? Where do you want to be?
Starla:And I got really honest with myself. That's when I had to look at everybody else. But then I had to look at myself and say you did not start this business because you wanted to scale it. It's not like you're trying to build a business coaching empire. Build a business coaching empire. I mean, it can be done and that's a great path for a lot of people, but it's not a great path for me. I'm unhappy and I just don't want to do this anymore.
Starla:And so that's when I started pulling back and I said, nope, this business is all about me showing up and having the kind of impact that I know I can have and I can make people's lives better and I can help make companies more effective in the work that they're doing. And if I go to my grave doing that every day, then I will be a very happy woman. And um, but that's a tough decision to make, because you look around you and you see all your friends scaling businesses and and building empires, and then you think, well, should I be doing that? And and you know every business owner has to figure that answer that, the answer to that question out themselves. They just have to.
Starla:And for me it was no, I do not want to be doing this. And so then that's when I redirected to okay, well, there are other ways to build a business and to make money while you're sleeping. And I also had lots of people knocking on my door saying Starla, you have amazing content. Why haven't you turned this into a book? Why haven't you turned this into a project or a product? Why haven't you turned this into an online course? And I'm like oh my gosh, I'm so excited I could do that. I could hide away in my office for months creating stuff like that for clients.
Brook:And I was like, okay, that's how I'm going to build this business and that's how I'm going to make this business talk to people about, like what will make you grow and become profitable. And the very first thing that I go through is it's your perspective and your mindset that you bring to it. And if your mindset is feeling like I'm going to mess up and fail and fall on my face, or you're nervous or you're anxious about something, you're kind of going to make decisions that probably aren't the greatest. Or if you feel like you're going to succeed, you kind of keep pushing through, even though you hit roadblocks of stuff or a mentality that's like I'm not comfortable doing risks or like whatever your mindset is, it totally impacts things. And then I have people who talk about passion over here and I'm like passion is a form of your mindset. If it's something you love, your mindset is going to sit back and go. I want to get up and do this. If it's something you hate, you're going to be like gosh, like all right, I have to go deal with that. And every job has some piece that you're going to hate, like, okay, we had a mistake. I have to come to you. I have to tell you that there was a mistake. Or you know, there's some piece of something that you're just like ugh, I don't really want to do that aspect. And then there's some piece that you do like to it, but it's super important that the core of it is something you enjoy, because you will bring the right mindset to the table. You'll make the right decisions, and you are probably you're making decisions at one point in time based on what everybody else is telling you you should do of like hey, I should be a scaling business, like for me to be successful, for people to look at me and be like dang, like she's doing awesome, like I have to have an empire. But you're going, that's not what I want. Like that's not the like. So now I feel trapped and like I'm dying and I don't want to be here, and your mindset starts to shift to the wrong thing. And passion is just as much a part of that mindset as just your own dealing with traumas and various different things. You have to that impact stuff, but it definitely plays a huge key in being able to sustain through all of the stuff that is not fun about business sending out invoices, doing marketing, organizing podcasts all of those. I love talking on them, but all of those things that cannot be as fun. You have to have some passion that makes you go. Okay, I'll do those piece because it allows me to do this piece of it. So, yeah, I totally respect that.
Brook:You went through that thought pattern and I almost think too you have you sat back and said I didn't know my vision, like I didn't know where I was going with it. Like if you had started at the beginning of people were telling you to grow and you would have known your vision, you would have said no to that. But I kind of think sometimes you have to go through the thing. That's not right for you to go. This isn't right for you not to ever wonder somewhere down the line. Did I make the wrong decision? No, I made it and I didn't like it. So it's not the wrong decision, it was you have. You have to step into the like.
Starla:I don't want to regret, I don't want to wonder I'm going to test this and no, I don't like it and I can definitely look back and say I tried it, I tried it and I don't look at it as failure. I look at it as part of my discovery process and don't get me wrong, because I still have those things that I don't want to do on a daily basis in the business. Right now that never goes away. As you just stated. Proposals that's the worst thing. Like I'll get off the phone with a client and we have agreed to do business.
Starla:I've got to write it up, and now I've gotten really good at making sure I don't tell my husband about that phone conversation or that day, because my husband's a sales guy and he was like so you got the engagement agreement out right away, right, and I was like yeah. I'm going to do that tomorrow. He'll ask me two or three days later and I'm like, oh my gosh, like I know, like.
Brook:I'm terrible about that. I get a tool that makes them easier, right, so that you're just like okay, I'm going to pop it up. It's the same engagement letter for everybody. Like, put your name in, send, like good, like I don't have to like customize it, but those are the things that. Yeah, habits and systems. Yeah, systems that are so simple that it's like okay, it seconds of, and I can do it from my phone, or like finding the right tools.
Paul:I have one question about. With the. You had a bit of advisors all the way through this. They took you on this growth spurt and then you said stop, I don't want to do this. How was that? How was that received? And did they try and sort of keep you on that?
Starla:path. Well, yes, they my advisors were incredibly supportive advisors and they never took me down a path that I didn't show interest in pursuing. So it wasn't as if these particular advisors were coming to the table saying here's an idea, we think you should do this right. This is all stuff that I had brought to them for discussion. They would support me, and so when I started to pull back, they you know they I think they had worked with me long enough to know okay, this is you. Okay, she's pulling back. She must have a reason for it. Let's ask her all the right questions, let's help her think through all this stuff, but if that's the path she wants to go, that's the path she's going to go.
Zach:They were fine with it. Was that recommended to you by putting that board together? Was that someone's idea that you had come up with, or was that something that had developed organically through networking relationships that you had?
Starla:That was suggested to me. So I had, very early on, connected with someone who said if you just started a business, you need to join the National Association of Women Business Owners. And I'm like, okay, great, tell me what that is, I'll join it. And so I had gotten into that organization, started building relationships and it was actually the executive director of that organization just having coffee with her one day and at the end of the conversation she said you know, starla, I've listened to you enough to know you're. You're at a place where you're ready You're really ready for a board of advisors. So that that came from her. That was not a brilliant idea I came up with on my own At all.
Brook:So you have um started now your own podcast, and you are now switching into uh, creating material. Where are you? Where are you wanting to go with your?
Starla:company. Great question, great question. So well, you know one thing I will point out um, the reason and the sound and I hope this doesn't sound too ego involved, but the whole reason I'm still in business today is, um, because I'm good at what I do. Not because I'm brilliant at marketing or sales, because I still, to this day, invest very little in marketing and sales and and um, promoting myself on social media.
Starla:I cringe every time I have to press, send and promote my blog post that I put out in my podcast, and I know that that's kind of a necessary evil. I need to do that, but that's all I do, right? So the only reason I'm really in business is because I have survived on referrals. Return clients and then speaking on stage always generates business for me, and then, if I can produce content and push that out, that is what produces business for me, and so I'm still here today simply because of that.
Starla:And if I wasn't good at what I did, I would be out of business by now, because I one of the other weak areas that I have is just building a, a marketing plan at the beginning of each year and and executing a marketing plan in a way that real businesses. Actually, I say real businesses, but but you know legit businesses should be doing, and so I don't. I don't want to gloss over that, because I do think that that is a mistake that I continue to make, and I'm just fearful of the day that that comes and bites me.
Zach:I think marketing is oh sorry, I think marketing is difficult for good listeners, if that makes sense Like marketing is building a conversation in a space where you are assuming no one is listening or no one is paying attention. Um, and as a good listener and as a good communicator, it is tough to shout things repeatedly into the abyss and not you know know if that engagement is happening or in what capacity that engagement is happening. Not receiving that feedback, I feel like that's just something I identify a lot, that people that part of their specialty or, you know, superpower, bread and butter what have you is is listening and, you know, kind of being in that advisory role, those sorts of things. Those are typically people that don't like to talk about themselves upfront or do the you know kind of snake oil salesman.
Starla:I think you hit the nail on the head on that. Yeah, I mean, that is actually a very beautiful read, because that's why I don't want to convince anybody to do business with me. That's not my mode.
Brook:I don't think you. You made the statement of like how businesses should run. So there's a book called Getting Naked by Patrick Lianoni. I butchered that. So whatever, lianoni, okay, say that again.
Paul:Lianoni Lencioni, another Italian name that people struggle with.
Brook:But he does this whole thing about.
Brook:It's a kind of parable story of two consulting firms that come in and one of them buys out another one that's like doing really, really well, and he goes in and studies them and realizes that what makes them do really well is they go in for a sales meeting and instead of pitching stuff, they actually just start doing the work and they like build up the relationship and the trust and they don't do hardly any marketing, it's all referral of mouth.
Brook:But that that I think we as businesses get so caught up sometimes in the marketing we forget the just do quality work and care about the person and not just try to sell them but engage in them and understand them, and I think that will by far outlast the typical marketing driver of like let me shout into the abyss. So I I mean I don't think you really worry about it, but like your statement of like this, I might be in trouble someday. I think if you are content with it, just filling your time, and you are enjoying it and you are loving it, and that is going to be contagious and fill enough of your time, I mean I think it's the perfect marketing aspect of things. It takes momentum, so you have to have enough people underneath you to like in long enough time. It may be a slower grow, but it's probably a pretty dang stable one.
Starla:Yeah, well, and I think probably what you just witnessed is one of my challenges that clearly I haven't gotten past in 14 years, which is watching what the rest of the world is doing, especially those in my industry, and and and thinking to myself, well, I probably should be doing that, but I'm not right. And because you can, I mean you can't. You can't go out to social media and in your feed not see probably every 10, you know 10 posts some coach out there promoting their programs, right?
Paul:Really engaging. Who's to say they're right.
Starla:Absolutely, You're absolutely correct and I will tell you that. You know, in the coaching world, coaching coaches are like Starbucks, I mean, there's one on every single corner and I actually got to a point, probably a couple of years ago, and said to myself and I don't know if this was my way of consoling myself, but I was just like you know what they're doing that because they need the business, You've got the business, you don't need to do this Right. And and I'm also also very fearful of what kind of business I would get, because I've gotten myself to a place where I don't want to work with you. If I'm not your the right solution and even though I could help you, if there's not alignment here or I feel like there's someone else better, better equipped or is going to have a much larger impact with you, then I'm referring you on Because, again, I don't want to do that.
Starla:That would make me incredibly unhappy to be showing up and doing work for people just for the money. And, trust me, there are lots of people that look at me and they roll my eyes, the roller eyes, including my husband, who's a business owner. He's just like Starla take the dollars. And I'm like I'm not taking the dollars because I do not want to work with this person, Right, and so that that puts limits on my business. That puts limits on my business, but I have actually gotten to a place where I'm like I am comfortable with that, because it's not why I started this business in 2009.
Zach:As you kind of move into the content development side of things, I'm curious kind of some of the you know internal elements of your decision making there, like and maybe this is a total you know layman's thing that I'm I don't understand, but like why not just increase prices and keep doing what you're doing? Like if you've got a full schedule and and you know demand is high, like what keeps things from kind of continuing in that space of you know, I just I know consultants all the time that are like oh yeah, price is going up, price is going up. So what, what makes you more? And yeah, I'm sure you know it's not to say you never have a price increase by any stretch of the imagination. But yeah, like, like what, what keeps you from playing exclusively that game versus going the more kind of you know syndicated or broadcasted approach? Like what are the benefits versus the, the or you know the major kind of pitfalls or or benefits that you saw?
Zach:uh, kind of saying I'm, I'm kind of you know, branch out and do this brand new thing on that side instead of increasing prices instead, instead of yeah, like, instead of leaning into, you know you've decided I'm not going to scale, I'm not going to do this with with other people. Is it a um, a matter of trying to? Is it revenue growth? Is it exposure to, you know, the person that you're looking to impact, like, what's the primary driver in putting yourself in a media format and kind of taking that more uniform approach, when the consulting that you've done up to this point has very much been, you know, kind of that. There's no one size fits all and you know I'm going to come in and take a very customized approach, right, right, yeah, okay.
Starla:So great question, and I understand it now. So I've started. In the very beginning I started with terrible prices. I mean, they were just so low, in fact, the money, the money people that I had on my advisory board. One day I had come in and I was so excited that I had I had booked this client and of course they asked okay, what's the? You know what's the fee that you're charging? And I shared it with them and I saw the two money guys just kind of look at each other and then, on break, they started. They were over there just scribbling and doing some math and I was like, oh, I'm so in trouble, here we go. And they said, starla, we need for you to come over here and take a look at this, because you've got first, we've got some questions for you. How much time are you going to invest in doing this? Right? So they started going through all said you're going to lose money, this one. And I was like, oh my gosh, but I can't increase my prices, they won't pay more. Who's going to pay more than this? And so I had a learning curve very early on that I had to start to really realize what the market was going to pay. Now I'm proud to say I am at a price point now that I am getting the quality of the client that I want.
Starla:About five or six years ago I did sit down and I developed psychographics for who my ideal client was, and that was as a result of my advisory board saying you know, who is your ideal client, who gravitates to you, who does well, you know, under your coaching umbrella? I was like that's a great question. So one of the things I did is I and I'm kind of going off course, but I will circle back to of all my clients, and I had individual clients and then I had my corporate clients, and so I cut, I printed out these color photos and I just spread them all over my living room and I was like, okay, what do these people have in common? Right, and it was. I wasn't looking for demographics, I was looking for psychographics. And you know how do they think, what do they care about? What's important to them, what do they fear, what do they, what do they not give a crap about? You know what industries are they in and at what level. So I developed all these psychographics and then, after I did that, I had this beautiful picture of who SWI, starless International, serves and I started to realize that price point, that that aligned with who. They were Right.
Starla:And so now I'm at a price point where I'm getting that the quality client that I want. Could I increase my prices right now and not lose opportunities? I'm not 100% sure, I would have to test that, but I am at a place where I just don't discount my prices anymore. So if I have coaching clients that you know want to come in but they just can't, you know, pay my fee, I, you know, I just I refer them on to someone else. So I do feel like my prices are solid and I feel good about them.
Starla:Now, all that being said, um, my shift to content was the way my heart would break when I would have to refer someone that I knew I could help, or when I would just have to not take someone on because they could not pay my fee.
Starla:That's so painful for me, especially if I see that they have the capacity to get to where they want to be and they have the passion for it, but they just don't have the means. My heart just broke. And so, finally, one of the ladies on my advisory board said Starla, you just got to start putting out content. You know, if you create the online courses for them and you offer that at a price point that they can afford, that's how you'll be able to start serving them. And that's how I was sold on it right away, because I was like I want to help these individuals, but I've got to stay at this price point or I'm not going to be profitable and I'm going to have to go back to corporate america and I don't want to go there. Right, so I have to stay at this price point. But how do I start to deliver to those people who really deserve this content?
Paul:and it's through the you online courses and in the podcast as well yeah, that becomes your marketing campaign is they do the online courses, then they graduate through and up.
Starla:Right, it's just a classic way to do it, the whole funnel thing that I hear everybody talking about what are those marketing terminologies?
Paul:well, they get a taste of your style and they like the content, then they. You know, the first one's free, the second one they pay a little bit more. Right, that's a drug thing, isn't it?
Starla:It works in all industries.
Paul:Exactly.
Brook:What is the biggest thing you are proud of and the biggest thing you are kind of?
Paul:sad about, ashamed about, with your whole business side of things.
Brook:Still working on, still working on. Maybe that's it. I have friends with our kids. They say you can't say you don't like food. It's you're still learning to like. So what is the thing you're still learning to?
Starla:to to better at Well let's start with what I'm most proud about. Well, two things. One, that I'm still in business 14 years later. That's awesome. That's, no, no small feat. Yeah, I'm very proud about that. I'm very proud of the reputation that I, that I believe I have among the people that you know I care most about. And then I'm really proud of just my clients. Just being able to sit back because I kept all those photos and I continue to print those photos because I want them in front of me every day. And when I can look at all those photos and know, you know, where I started with these individuals and where they are now, that's what fuels me every day. So that's what I'm most proud about.
Starla:The list of what am I still working on? What am I? Oh gosh, that list is long. I'm trying to figure out what would go all the way to the top. I boy, I would say that probably what would be at the top of that list is still getting better at running the business based on the numbers. If I have to be honest, I really, I mean I, I fight that every day, but I know it is my kryptonite. It is my kryptonite and if I don't get my act together.
Zach:I'm constantly going to struggle with that, yeah, and Do you feel like that's a give and take in any light? Or do you think, pretty comfortably, that if you follow the numbers more closely that would be a net positive hands down, just like, do the gut? You know gut reactions and the kind of I wish I? Could say Tissue, just like do the gut, you know gut reactions and the kind of tissue connectivity to your business Like. Do you think sometimes that, yeah, I wish I could say, yes, I wish.
Starla:I could say yes, but it goes so much deeper than that. But as it goes deeper, it also becomes incredibly clear and simple. I'm not motivated by money. Yeah, I'm just not motivated by money. I'm not like I don't get up in the morning and and think by money. I'm not like I don't get up in the morning and and think about money and and because of that it I just don't do things in my business that I need to do. When it comes to the numbers and really thinking about the numbers and how that translates to how much you know, you know revenue that the, you know the organization is bringing in, and and so I'm embarrassed to say that. But at the end of the day, I also know that that's my truth, and I'm still working on trying to figure out how do I fool my mind into looking at this a little differently, so that it's not about making money but more about sustainability, and that's where I'm kind of at right now is how do I think about?
Starla:it as just being sustainable.
Zach:Is making more money synonymous with better service to your you know served population, or to you as you know the piece of it that's your passion project of population, or to you as you know the piece of it that's your passion project? Or are you saying you should follow that just out of the intrinsic sense that businesses should make as much money as they can?
Starla:Well, that comes from a couple of places. One, you know I need to be building wealth. I hit 50 this year, and so I'm on the on the backside of things and I'm nowhere near where I would want to be if I wanted to slow down, and so building wealth is something that's going to be essential, and then the more money you have, the more you can show up and do for your clients, and there are things that I want to do, but sometimes my financials keep me from doing it, and so those are the kind of things that I try to run in my head every day. That this is why this is important, starla. This is why this is important to look at those numbers and to really be focused more on budgeting and planning.
Brook:I'm a firm believer that very few people are really about the money. It's the thing behind the money. So I want to be able to have that luxurious house. I want to. You know, I grew up in poverty and I need a safety net and I don't like, like it's a fear factor that makes them focus on money or this, um, uh, just security or comparison to others. It's never the money itself, it is always something else, and if you can find your something else, it helps you be more comfortable just looking at the money side of things, and it also maybe helps you hold the money not so tightly.
Brook:Um, where you're like, oh well, well, that cost me a little bit more than I needed. Money will still keep coming in and I'll figure this out. It doesn't have to be your anxiety driven thing. If you can figure out what it is behind the scenes that you're trying to get to. So money is, it doesn't surprise me that you're like I'm not about the money. Very few people are, and you get up to do what you do because you love it, and the only reason you look at it is do what you do because you love it, and the only reason you look at it is again, so you can have. So you can keep doing that and that when you are done doing that you don't have to keep doing it sort of thing. So I think that's completely fair from that side. Yeah Well, I have a few fun questions, um, just to get your reaction to so, um, uh, so I'm going to ask them give me your one word answers, your five word answers, whatever piece those are. But so for you, how late is fashionably late.
Starla:How late is fashionably late? I don't know, because I'm not an advocate of being fashionably late. I'm almost always on time or early, so I don't know. Got it.
Brook:So hey, you're like if I'm not there at the time that it is. I am late and it's not good.
Starla:That's the mindset I'm in.
Zach:Is that personal events too, like if the party's at six, like you're at the party at six?
Starla:In most cases, yeah. Yeah, I mean if we have some flex time. You know, I'm usually not too, but I want to get there. I want to get there as quickly as I can because I need to.
Brook:I said it either, and I can't wait to see everyone, and I've got all kinds of questions for everybody. So your at a business networking event. What is your drink of choice?
Starla:Oh, I would say probably goose soda and a lemon.
Brook:Goose soda. I don't even know what goose soda is.
Starla:Grey goose vodka Grey goose and soda.
Brook:Oh okay, got it. See, there's some things in life I'm so not.
Starla:Mine is a nice glass of red wine, I learned early on when you just get vodka and soda, and especially if you don't put fruit in it, people aren't clear on whether or not you're drinking. Yeah, of course, these days it becomes pretty clear after the second glass. She's had two, she's good.
Brook:Do you get super talkative when you're a little tipsy?
Starla:Yes, but I also get tired. Okay, I get really tired now.
Brook:Yeah, it's kind of crazy how you change what is your personal motto.
Starla:Personal motto let's get after it.
Brook:Let's get after it. Let's get after it, get after it.
Zach:She knows this right off the bat, I appreciate that the motto is about let's get up and do it, and she was ready, yeah.
Starla:Just do it. My clients will tell you In. I mean, they verbalized this to me. They were like, if I hear you say that one more time Is that how you end every meeting.
Brook:Let's get after it.
Starla:Let's get after it, let's go or stay the course. That's another one that they like in the beginning. But they're like, okay, I've heard that enough, starla. I'm like stay the course, we've got our plan. We know what the vision is, we know what the. What color do you think of when you think of a business owner? When I think of a business owner, probably black. Interesting why? Yeah, I don't know. Just black is what I associate with being businessy, businessy.
Brook:It's the suit that goes on Buttoned up. Yeah, even though very few people do that today.
Zach:Yeah, I feel like we've gotten black and blue a lot.
Brook:We got red once.
Zach:Well, I think I. Oh, you did the red, okay, so I don't count.
Brook:You do count, you totally do. Favorite person to follow podcast Instagram, facebook, tiktok Dr Huberman.
Starla:What is Dr Huberman that's?
Zach:Andrew Huberman Andrew.
Starla:Huberman yeah, he's a neuroscientist. I hope I'm getting that correct.
Paul:So details are not my thing.
Starla:Details are not my thing, but he's a neuroscientist at Stanford who has created this podcast that I'm personally in awe of, because it's very science-driven and as soon as you start getting into science with me, I mean, that's when my eyes start to gloss over, and his podcast episodes can be anywhere between an hour to two to three hours long, and I listen to them the entire thing and I just geek out on everything that he discusses. So, yeah, he's my idol right now.
Zach:Is there a topic or one in particular, like an episode or something you can think of? That really was a profound. I know he goes all over the place, so I'm just curious if there's a specific one that like kind of stuck with you that.
Starla:Well, I have two answers to that. One of them is going to be a little long, is that okay? Yeah, fine. So one of the reasons that I listen to him is research for my clients, because once you start to listen to him, you start to realize he is all about optimizing your mental health and your physical health, and he has a very science-based approach, which I appreciate.
Starla:I cannot stand doing things until there's a scientific reason why we should be doing this. Prove to me how this works and why it works this way, and then let's make it as simple as possible, and he does that. He does that with all of his podcasts. So the first reason I listen is just research my clients, because I take so much of that and then I can go back and have conversations with them. One of the topics, though, that he has hit on quite a bit which is on my radar right now and it goes back to a question that you had asked what's next for my business? You've caught me in a transition time, because I am feeling a very strong calling to incorporating psychedelic integration coaching into my lineup.
Brook:Very interesting. What does that mean? I'm going to be the uneducated silly one here and I will just ask it no, you're not, no, you're not.
Starla:You probably know what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, I mean saying psychedelic assisted.
Zach:I mean something similar to like a therapy. You know how they're doing with therapy, but in a coaching space, I would assume. Yeah, I've not heard of before, but just the way you described it, I kind of intuited.
Starla:Yep. So and you don't have to apologize for not being familiar with this, because this is this is me now future casting One of the things that I've gotten really good at working with my clients is just really paying attention to trends and signals in the market right now. That could give us some idea as to where things are going in the future, right, so I spent a significant amount of time, especially with my corporate clients, future casting, really trying to pay attention. So, uh, you know, thought, well, start. You know you teach your clients to do this all day long. You really need to start doing this for yourself.
Brook:Uh, so about five years ago, I had I started paying attention to all the research that is being done right here in the United States on the use of psychedelics to treat mental and physical health problems.
Zach:This is LSD and psilocybin.
Starla:I was like is she talking about drugs? So a lot of people there's a small portion of people in the United States that are paying close attention to it and most everybody else has no idea that this is happening. If you go to clinicaltrialsgov and you just search psilocybin or psychedelics in general, you will find I think the last time I checked there are 176 clinical trials right here in the United States using and there's several psychedelics out there, but using psychedelics to treat or to help with mental and physical health problems, and so in paying very close attention to that, I started to see that the psychedelics are doing exactly what I'm trying to do on a daily basis and what therapists are trying to do on a daily basis. They're doing it far better and quicker. In fact, we are in third-phase trials right now. Third-phase trials FDA is real close to approving psilocybin for the use of treatment of PTSD.
Starla:Two guided trips and when I say guided trips it's someone taking psilocybin in a very safe space with a guide therapist, three, four hours and then, as after they've went through that experience now, they start working with their therapist to start integrating what happened during that trip into you know, real life, cause you know you come out of this trip. You've got to go back to the real world, but there are so many things that happened during that trip that can help you work through whatever it is that you need to be working through, and so I just became fascinated.
Zach:I was like are you kidding me? You know I. I mean I can work a full year with a client just trying to open up their mind and help them set their ego aside so that they can start to see
Paul:things or reset something that's deeply set in terms of their habitual patterns yeah, that's so interesting.
Zach:So what are the kind of as you embark on that? Like that has to be a hairy kind of thing from the standpoint of finding certification, or how do you go? What, how do you? How do you?
Starla:go about getting into that territory.
Zach:Well, one would think it would be here or rather what you know, what red tape is there or is there?
Starla:not Well.
Zach:So you know, I guess I'm yeah, my wife is a therapist and like we're like well-versed in this stuff. So I'm thinking about it from her side, where there's so much stuff that has to be done and education and things to be the therapist in that room. I'm curious if there's any of that for a coaching space or if it's.
Starla:There is Okay, there is yeah.
Starla:So ketamine is the only approved psychedelic in the States right now, but there's ketamine treatment centers all throughout the country and what we're seeing is it's not going to be long before there are going to be a couple other psychedelics that are approved here in the States Now.
Starla:They're going to be approved for things like PTSD, depression, anxiety, and so when it comes to the integration, that's going to require a therapist because you know you're talking about mental health issues you want someone who is qualified and has, you know, done all the work they need to do to just really understand what's happening when that person's, you know, under the influence of psychedelics and then helping them use all of that to treat those mental health issues. That's not the path that I want to go. I thought about it because I was fascinated. I was like, you know, and I also have so many clients tell me, you know, starla, I've moved forward far quicker with you in six months than I have spending four or five years with my therapist, right, and so I'm like but I'm not a therapist, don't go telling people, I'm a therapist, I'm not a therapist, but they're like you are my therapist.
Starla:No, I'm not your therapist, do not say that out loud. But so I was thinking do I want to go down that path? And you know there's a lotote, all of that in South and Central America. We are really starting to see a large number of individuals from the United States go down to Central America, south America, for ayahuasca ceremonies or any kind of plant medicine ceremony, and my husband and I did that in May. How did it go?
Starla:It was the most amazing experience that I have ever had. It was the most spiritual experience that I've had and I'm not a very spiritual person, and it was the most spiritual experience I ever had. It was like pressing the reset button on my brain. It was a big fat reset button on my brain and it helped me work through some things that I had been struggling with the last couple of years that really had kind of stalled me out personally and professionally, and I had gotten to the point where I knew I've got to do something, because working with a therapist isn't enough.
Starla:Doing my own internal work, trying to address this on my own, isn't working, and I know that there are ways of looking at this that exist that I just I can't quiet my mind down enough to see it, and my husband was also very ready for it, and so we felt a calling at the start of this year and we were sitting on the sofa one night and he was like, are you ready? And I was like I'm ready. And so in that night we booked you know, we booked our trip down to Costa Rica and went down there in May and had a fantastic experience. And so I that, combined with just everything I've been listening to and everything I've been researching, there is a need, and there's going to be a huge need in the next three to five years, for integration therapists and integration coaches. And the difference between those two things is that integration coaches are going to be preparing those individuals who are wanting to go through those experiences for self-actualization purposes. So the therapists are going to handle, you know, the mental health issues.
Zach:Breaking your walls down with you.
Starla:Right, right. But for those that are really just trying to figure out what the next chapter is, or how do I break through some of these barriers that seem to be in front of me and just simply self-actualize, there's a whole industry of coaches out there, and I'm just feeling a calling of adding that to my repertoire of coaching.
Paul:So that coaching is on the front end or the back end.
Starla:Both, because if you're going to go, if you're going to go through this kind of experience, you want this is my personal opinion you want to be prepared for it. Right, you have got to go into it with the right mindset, because these medicines are incredibly powerful and if you don't go into it with the right mindset, the right intentions one, they could be deadly, but two, you could have some really unhealthy, painful experiences. Now they're bad trips, and bad trips in fact, I don't even use I don't like using the word good and bad. There's pleasant ones and there are unpleasant ones, and you're supposed to have these unpleasant ones for a reason. But these medicines will beat you up if you're not in the right mindset and you're not physically and mentally prepared.
Starla:So it's on the front end, but then definitely on the back end. So you have all these experiences and you're walking away. Now you've got to do something with this. What do I actually do with it? And that's where the real magic is. It's not like these psychedelics are going in and actually fixing anything. They're creating the environment where your mind can start to surface everything it needs to surface and everything it. But it is extremely interesting.
Zach:On DMT I think it might be called like the God molecule or something like that, but it goes through in detail all of these different people's trips and kind of what it's doing on a chemical level in your brain, in your brain and yeah, it's very interesting how psychedelics they really do kind of, um, your brain is constantly reinforcing neuron pathways based on what your thinking patterns are, and it's one of the few things that can kind of break those down, break those down and allow you to create brand new ones, particularly as you begin to age and, you know, start to really sort of firm some of those things up and in your brain. So habits like smoking habits and stuff yeah, and that was yeah, addiction, things like that.
Zach:There are a lot of people that say they, you know we'll start to trip and all of a sudden, they, you know they've smoked two packs a day or whatever, and they don't feel the same draw to that because they set the intention beforehand of you know, I'm going to do this and and work through whatever this thing is. So that's, that's so interesting.
Starla:Yeah, like I just listened to a podcast this morning to a researcher who is now looking at it in terms of autism.
Zach:Okay, that's interesting yeah.
Starla:It's fascinating because autism is a genetic challenge. Yeah.
Zach:It's genetically driven, yeah right, it's passed down.
Starla:Yeah yeah, it's genetically driven, yeah right it's passed down, yeah, but they're finding that what you were describing, which is there's a period of plasticity in our brain, first 25 years, and then that closes down. And if our brain is going to create any more of those connections in our mind or shift any of those connections, it now has to be driven by us, right, whereas the first 25 years of our life our brain's doing that on its own, we don't even have to ask it to do it. Years of her life Our brain's doing that on its own. We don't even have to ask it to do it, it's just doing it. But there's apparently a connection there. I can't speak too intelligently about it, but so there's all kinds of trials going on that are going to lead to the need for this out there, and because I'm feeling such a strong calling to it, I'm looking at a two-year program to go back and get my therapeutic coaching license.
Paul:Wow, are you going to rebrand, are you going to rebrand the psychedelic coach?
Starla:I don't know. That's a great question, though, because I will have to answer that question. Is this something I just integrate into my coaching business and I say I have executive coaching, personal mastery coaching, psychedelic integration coaching, or do I do two separate?
Zach:And that was my other question too is like do you feel like this will be the same demographic slash, psychographic that you'll end up working with in the space? Yep, okay, yep, very cool.
Starla:You know, up until about a couple of years ago, you know, most people would keep this quiet, whether or not they were doing this, but because it's, it's where it's at right now. I think you guys would be surprised to know the number of business executives that are traveling down to South America and Central America pretty consistently.
Zach:Oh yeah, I think it's in there One of the big Steve Jobs type guys was supposed to have I think it might have been. Steve Jobs took LSD, micro-dosed LSD, on a daily basis. I'm pretty sure because he just said that kept his brain in that space of being able to have brand new ideas that had completely unfounded connections.
Brook:I don't think I've ever heard of this. I mean, I've heard of psychedelics. That's where I was going.
Brook:Is my definition of this the same as your definition. Actually, I am not one who's ever done anything Like. I once took a gummy bear and that was it. Like, that's the extent of my like anything, and I'm not sure I felt anything, but anyhow, um, it's intriguing to me because I like, uh, what blocks my business from growing? What blocks me from growing? I'm my own freaking what blocks my business from growing? What blocks me from growing? I'm my own freaking roadblock, and sometimes I don't even know what it is. There are many times I start to shake if I hit something really personal, but I don't even understand why it's personal, I'm just shaking. So apparently there's something going on internally. I don't even know how to deal with my own emotions or even what they process them sometimes.
Paul:And.
Brook:I think I'm a fairly stable person in the world. That's incredibly normal, by the way, I believe that is normal too, like. But so it intrigues me because I'm like I. I do feel myself like you just said. I felt like I had this like thing in my business where I was kind of stale and like, just in this like I had those like it's everything in me to pull myself out of some of those spaces, and so I find myself, as I'm listening to you, going I might want to take a trip down there. Now, if I told my other half this and tried to explain it, it'd be like what in the world?
Zach:But definitely requires some reading beforehand. It definitely does.
Brook:But I just and I don't necessarily want to pick up and go anywhere just yet, but it makes me want to research a heck of a lot more about it, and I don't think I've ever even realized this existed. So yeah, you totally have me going around and picking up a whole bunch of things to read about Me too.
Paul:I knew about the PTSD and I knew about those, but I didn't realize about the other.
Starla:Yeah, well, I mean, just go out on your podcast app and put in psychedelics and you're going to see all the episodes pop up out there. But, dr Huberman, what's your name?
Zach:Ten words or less.
Starla:Dr Huberman and Tim Ferriss are two that are having some really intelligent conversations around it, and I just actually attended a nine-day summit with physicians and psychiatrists from all over the world, from Johns Hopkins, from Stanford, from Harvard right.
Starla:So it was a nine-day summit of some really incredibly intelligent people having some amazing conversations about the work in this area, and as a result of that summit, I was like this is where the world is going and it aligns quite nicely with the calling that I'm feeling, because this is just a nice addition to the work that I'm already doing with my clients.
Starla:And if I have clients that feel the calling to it and they decide this is what's right for them which, by the way, no one should ever tell you whether or not it's right for you I mean, this is something you have got to want to do and be 100% bought in. If they want that, I want to be prepared to help them get ready for it and then to come back and do the things with it that are possible, and that's going to take an additional certification. It's going to take about two years of my time to get myself ready for, but I do think, circling back to your question, I do think that that's where I'm headed. I think that's what's next for my business. I would like that to be what's next for my business as of today, at whatever time it is, yeah.
Paul:The mental health issues are just ballooning, so helping people Very cool.
Brook:Well, starla, thank you so very much for coming and joining our podcast and I learned a ton and I appreciated very much your candor of like the journey to jumping into your own thing and all your like, just the transparency and kind of rawness and, what's the right word, vulnerability of it. So thank you very much and thank you very much.
Brook:Tell us a little bit where people can go to learn more about you. What's your podcast name? What's your website? How can people connect with you if they want to be like hey, I want to chat with this lady.
Starla:Yeah, absolutely so. My website's fairly easy starlowestcom, and my podcast is called Help Me Think with Starlow West. It's out on all the standard podcast apps and it's actually kind of a combination podcast and video. So if you go out to YouTube, all my podcast episodes are out there too if you want to watch them. But that podcast is a combination of solo episodes, sometimes where it's just me providing content, and then sometimes it's interviews with other individuals Fairly new podcast. But we just put episode nine out and I'm so excited to get to episode 10 and say I got to episode 10.
Zach:Yeah, that's a big milestone. It is.
Starla:It's a big one for me because I have a tendency to move slow on things. But yeah, so help me think with StarlaWest and StarlaWestcom, and of course I'm out on social media Easily found out there too.
Brook:Very cool, we appreciate it Well, thank you Bye.
