Career Coaching Secrets

Michele Charles Gustafson: Why "Start With You" is Key to Coaching Success

• Davis Nguyen

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Rexhen Doda interviews Michele Charles Gustafson, a confidence coach and brand strategist. Michele's unique approach helps high-achieving women build magnetic personal brands by integrating inner confidence with outer image, stemming from her marketing background.

She targets accomplished women in transition seeking realignment. Her primary client acquisition is through personal referrals and a strong digital ecosystem including her "Confidence Shift" podcast and "Show Up Confident" book, which qualify leads. Michele, also a city councilor, emphasizes defined systems for business growth and managing her multiple roles.

Her advice to coaches: "Start with you." Invest in your own confidence and development to scale your impact.

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Michele Charles Gustafson:

moving up the ranks in different business and all of these things. It wasn't landing. And I found myself in a place where I was quite depressed. i couldn't figure out how to reorient my purpose and figure out how to serve people in the way i wanted to and so i started out by being my own image consulting client i started to dive into things that i really loved which was color and i'm a color expert so what that means is that i understand the three levels of color psychology

Davis Nguyen:

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Nguyen and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. Before Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven- and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself and consulted with two career coaching businesses that are now doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or just building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Rexhen Doda:

Hey everyone, welcome again to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. Today my guest is someone who truly embodies confidence and clarity in business and brand. Welcome to the show, Michelle Charles. Gustafson. You got it. So for anyone who doesn't know Michelle, Michelle is a confidence coach, a brand strategist, and the founder of Hue and Style Image Consulting, where she helps high-achieving women unlock purpose and build magnetic personal brands. With nearly 30 years of experience, she's created a signature process that blends inner confidence with outer image. So her clients don't just look successful, they own it. For career coaches who are going to be watching this, who are building their own personal brand or helping clients define theirs, you'll get so much value from Michelle's approach to transformation, her business model maybe, and also how she's grown a purpose-driven brand that truly stands out. So again, Michelle, welcome to the show. I'm excited to dive into your journey.

Michele Charles Gustafson:

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Always happy to chat.

Rexhen Doda:

You're welcome. Tell me a little bit more about what inspired you to become a brand coach.

Michele Charles Gustafson:

I think anyone who is in the coaching field legitimately has had a winding road to how they become a coach. And I'm not different. I started out as a marketing consultant, mostly for packaged goods and small businesses. a product so you know why we choose the laundry detergent we choose on the shelf or why do we choose the toothpaste we choose and when i was making a transition from helping people build smaller businesses uh i realized that the people who were building the businesses had a real challenge about their confidence so that means their sureness of self and then how they put themselves into the world for people to experience them and then their businesses. And that disconnect is a problem because if you don't have a feeling of confidence within yourself, you will shrink from who it is you are trying to attract. And so I took my background in packaged goods marketing and I decided, you know what, it's not different to market a person than it is to market a packaged good. So just like you choose a certain kind of toothpaste, there are qualities about that toothpaste you're picking. There's a brand name about it. There's a packaging that allows you to know that it's the right brand for you that catches your eye. Well, I did that. applying it to people. So I developed my system in my human style universe and it is not just about clothes and most people will say an image consultant, they'll think of me as a typical stylist, I am not. I work on the strategy in behind just like every great packaged goods marketing department does when they put a brand on the shelf. We look at purpose, we look at why that Product needs to exist. We look at who it helps. We look at the competitive advantage around it, why someone would choose it, and then we package it in an appearance that catches attention so that the right people find you at the right time.

Rexhen Doda:

And it's so interesting as you were talking about products in the shelf. I was just thinking exactly the same. I was thinking about toothpaste. I don't know why I didn't think about something else.

Michele Charles Gustafson:

It's a deep down connection because my dad actually was a dentist, and so I use that example all the time in that toothpaste. We all choose. There's a million different brands out there, just like career coaches. You're thinking to yourself, wow, I'm in a sea of competition. There's a million of us out here. Why would someone choose me? Personal branding is how you communicate why and how someone should choose you. It is a vital skill. And I tell people it is a skill. It is not something you just get by happenstance and, you know, cobble it together. It is a skill. And once you learn it, you build a reputation over time that pays you back.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, exactly. So, Michelle, how has your journey changed? changed or what does your journey look like uh from the moment you started your coaching business to where you are at today

Michele Charles Gustafson:

yeah i i actually started out as a typical stylist so back in the day um let's say around 2010 yeah about 2010 i i had had gone through transition and that I had had my daughter and when you have a child you realize that you're not the same person anymore and the person who I wanted to be that really ambitious type of person moving up the ranks in different business and all of these things wasn't landing and I found myself in a place where I was quite depressed and I couldn't figure out how to reorient my purpose or and figure out how to serve people in the way I wanted to. And so I started out by being my own image consulting client. I started to dive into things that I really loved, which was color. And I'm a color expert. So what that means is that I understand the three levels of color psychology that happen when you not only look at a color, but when you place it on your body, the symbolism around it, and how you can use it to actually influence and motivate people to act to act around you and so i started to do a little bit of that for myself and then i turned into that typical stylist where i helped other women find their colors and then dress in a blouse and then put their clothes together and feel professional but what i found out right away is that the women that i just changed the clothes for still didn't have the confidence to put themselves in the world the way they wanted to, to be able to market their best self. And that's really when I turned more from a typical stylist to a coach, an image coach, a confidence coach. And so I made a turn in that I developed all the pieces of my signature program that I would put into one package to be able to show the journey, the transformation journey of not just seeing yourself as a woman in a new blouse, but how you would define your purpose, your competitive advantage around your personal brand, the reason why someone would want to work with you, the reason why you are competitionless to all the other people who are in your industry, and then to package that expertise in a way that is captivating for people to look at see and remember because i tell my clients it doesn't matter if someone sees you on the internet or you know going through your news feed if they're not captivated enough to say okay wait does that person solve the problem i have and Do they look and feel like the person who aligns with my own personal values? They just keep scrolling. Attention is dime a dozen these days. I am not interested in getting people attention. I'm interested in them communicating their authenticity so that the people who are for them come directly to them and understand really what they're about. So in my journey, At about 2014, I realized that that was the formula for me. And from then till now, I've been running my human style program and associated other advanced mentorship programs doing that. And my results for my clients have dramatically changed. I can't count the number of women who have changed their entire life with what looks like they just changed how they dressed. Because what we know now is that it's not just about the clothes. It's about who's standing in those clothes. And the thing about women is that when they get really clear about who they are and about what they offer, they use that to create power. It is undeniable. And my people are actually undeniable. If you lined up a lineup of 100 women, you would be able to tell which one are human style women

Rexhen Doda:

easily. Not just how they dress, right? Yeah. How they present themselves.

Michele Charles Gustafson:

That's right. That's right. Is

Rexhen Doda:

there a specific group of women that you're working with?

Michele Charles Gustafson:

Yes, my women have particular characteristics in common. The biggest characteristic they have is that they have gone through some kind of transition, whether that's in the last 6, 12, even 24 months. that has knocked them off their feet. These are highly accomplished women. They are ambitious. They know their craft. They know their business. They have created results for people in the past. They are not new at creating results, but something has knocked them off the track. Sometimes it's a relationship change, divorce, even getting married. Maybe they've had the baby and they don't know who they are anymore. Maybe they're going to a new level and they need to be in a different realm of people who need to see them and they're not used to that realm. Maybe they've stepped up into leadership. Something has changed and they feel misaligned with where they're going with who they feel like they are. And there needs to be a realignment there. That's the biggest characteristic they have in common. Women who are accomplished and completely happy with their lives, even if their lives aren't serving them. So like workaholics who feel like they wish they could get out of it or women who who just are playing the corporate game but are happy to. Those women don't come to me. It's the women who know they want something different. They want something more. And most importantly, they want to be themselves while they do it. So those are the women who are like, I need that alignment. I need that full communication. And they come to me with a full heart because they know that what I do isn't just about clothes. And I think that's the really important thing for coaches to know is that you have to be a pure embodiment of the transition and the transformation that you give. And doing that is partly a personal branding play, but it's also an inner confidence play. You have to do them at the same time.

Rexhen Doda:

And as you were explaining that, I was just thinking how this might even be in some way indirectly affecting these women's careers as well. So

Michele Charles Gustafson:

it's kind of like... is not getting them what they want. Whether the certain clients they wanna have, look them over, they feel passed over at the corporate ladder, they feel like they're shrinking, many of them will say, I just feel great. I had one client, she was actually a career coach, Maureen, she said, during the time she had lost her mom and she wanted to grow her business, but she goes, I felt great. And yeah, grief will do that. But she's like, I needed a way to snap out of it and see myself again. And that's when she came to me because she knew whether by intuition or something I had said in my, we'll talk about funnels and things like that, but something I had said in my ecosystem, is that you have to be able to see yourself in a different way before you expect people in your career and your business to see you in a different way. So if you want to go up, it means you have to go up. That's a perfect example of that.

Rexhen Doda:

And when it comes to finding these clients, where do you find them? What is the marketing channels working best for you? I mean, they just lean on the fun of it. Yeah, you can dive a little bit deeper into that.

Michele Charles Gustafson:

Well, obviously I'm a marketer, so I understand what it takes for someone to say yes to you. And it is a mix of a few different things. Most people, when they're building businesses or coaches online, they think, okay, I need the technical pieces. I need a funnel. I need a lead magnet, all these different things. buzzwords that are out on the internet of what you do to build a business. But I was the business owner before there was the internet. And for any business that's successful, the very first thing that you start with is an offer that is absolutely something that your person needs. So you need the offer. You need to make sure that you create the outcome that they're looking for. That's the first thing. I use a mix of online pieces, offline pieces, and my reputation so if a person has a reputation that they are an outcome creator that's a personal branding play many of my clients have come to me through different venues like this where they've known um who knows that i get the outcome so referral is a big one referral based on my reputation. And I understand that there's internet referrals and then offline referrals, but the most important and the most weighty are a personal referral. I get most of my clients from that. Now, that's great, but what do I do while I'm attracting other clients? I do a lot of work in storytelling, whether it's video or small workshop for my clients before they are my client. I am an educator before I need you to be my client. when a woman is really, really clear about her personal brand and the outcome she gives, it becomes a very liberating exercise to exclude people who are not your client. Did you get that? Exclude people who are not your client. So a lot of my assets on the internet, my podcast, which is Confidence Shift, even my book, Show Up Confident, that was an Amazon bestseller in 2020, still is in certain realms. These are meant to be able to influence introduce my clients to myself, my process, my history, my philosophy. And what they'll find out right away is that if you were looking for someone to just put you in a new blouse, I'm not going to be the person for you. So the only way you can get your outer assets to match the people who are going to come to you is by being 100% clear about your offer and and about why you're different. And that goes to a personal branding strategy. So I use a mix of podcasting. I use my speaking engagements. I use my book. I use storytelling on my posts. But I do tell coaches and people who are working in personal development that it is very rare that a person will just see a post, fall down your funnel, and then all of a sudden say, I'm signing up. It doesn't work that way. There is a sales process that has to happen. And part of my background is actually being a top sales director in a direct selling company which it gave me the skills to know that there is a funnel but then there's also at the same time a sales process that a person has to come through in order to say yes and so I keep those pretty tight in my realm so that the people who get to me are actually my client it's in the end once I get talking to them it's whether I like them enough to invite them into my program and that's a really powerful place to be

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, and I really like how you just mentioned that your branding or the messages you put out not only attracts people, but also excludes the ones that are not. qualified so it's kind of qualifies the leads before they even decide to take a step forward raise their hand and maybe get on a call with you so

Michele Charles Gustafson:

that's right that's the sales part of me coming forward because it's all fine to have a lot of attention on you which you know I have a lot of friends in the online realm I've been online I feel like a dinosaur I've been an online coach since 2013 when nobody was doing it and you know I've had a few friends in the realm of even running ads which I done in the past too and just all sorts of different ways to be able to put yourself out there and we joke because there are a lot of coaches that are out that are branded and broke and the reason why they're branded and broke is because the process of how you acquire someone is not attached to the transformation you give them and the way they get to you also how you qualify them through the process that is super important

Rexhen Doda:

so For any career coach that's having that issue, they can come into my podcast and we can share the transformation that they help people achieve. Maybe that helps with branding as well. Absolutely. Yeah. On the future, what are some goals you're working towards for the next one to three years with your coaching business?

Michele Charles Gustafson:

I am always looking for women to change. That is my ultimate goal. I am... I wear many hats in my life and I share with some of my community that when you build a personal brand that is based on your values and the outcome you offer people, opportunities that you would never expect will come to you. And one of the opportunities that came to me was to work with a few luxury brands around the things that I do and to be able to have different platforms to be on while sharing the same message. One of the most recent is that I was elected in my municipality onto our city council. And I share that while I do have the skills to do it, and I'm very excited to do it, and it's a new opportunity for me to run alongside my business, that opportunity came because I had personally branded myself and it had become an asset for me. To run a political campaign, so to speak, even if it's just municipal, is 100%. a personal branding play. You are offering who you are in service to the public and being able to communicate that helps you step into opportunity that you never would have seen coming. I didn't have that on my bingo card for my life, but because I had created a personal brand and a persona and an idea of how I wanted to serve, it fit the bill. And so for me, I will always continue to look for the women that I serve, to have the women that I serve understand the outcome I give them and to wholeheartedly take a step towards me when they decide that they have a need in order to become their best. So for me, my next three and four years are doing exactly what I do in the way that I do it because one of the quotes that I share in my book is that legacy lives in those you change. So to me, The more people I change, the more I live in those lives for them forever. And when I'm done my life, I should be able to look back at my personal branding mission statement and go, did I do that? And am I happy? And if I were to look back now, I would say absolutely yes, but I also have more to do.

Rexhen Doda:

I'm so glad that that is an absolute yes. And next question I have for you is more of like challenges. So What are some of the biggest challenges you faced in scaling your brand coaching business or challenges that you faced that you overcome or that you're still facing today?

Michele Charles Gustafson:

Yeah, I think the biggest challenge for any coach is to stand out from the sea of their competition. When I started in 2014, there wasn't really, there were people, but there wasn't a lot of competition, even in what I did. And at competition, I don't mean direct competition. It can be like another coach doing career coaching. But it can be distractions from the people, distractions for your target client to get to you. It can be limitations that they believe they have that keep them to get to you. It could be obstacles they have to overcome to get to you. So any career coach, including myself, is always thinking about what are the things that keep my people from seeing me? But seeing them is one thing. Believing that you have the solution is another. And so for me, a challenge is being in front of the right people. But how I get over that is by working and having systems that allow me to. You heard me mention referrals are huge for me. referrals and having a referral system in the back end of my business is the thing that keeps the wheels turning. That's a behind the scenes after someone gets to you. I have other challenges or other ways I've overcome challenges are things like running ads. Those have been a way to get into different circles. Other ways to get into different circles are even having a series of workshops or a book that you've written that allows you to talk about your expertise, that allows you to get into other circles. Speaking engagements have helped me do that. The brand deal helped me do that. Aligning with partners that are in your realm help you do that. I think it is what is going to become increasingly important now that there are a lot of people doing what you do as career coaches is going back to old school personal branding things, which have nothing to do with the internet. They have to do with outreach. They have to do with touch points and maximizing your touch points between people you would collaborate with. And they have to do with maintaining relationships. Those are going to be more important because those are the things that are building your reputation over time. I know that people want the attention of the internet. But attention doesn't sell your program. Attention doesn't sell your reputation. Attention only gets you a viral moment, but that doesn't necessarily translate into dollars into your business. So making sure that you have a very solid personal branding strategy, I think, is the way that you get around the challenges that are coming next.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Michelle. I look forward to ask you this other question, which is, how do you currently handle the balance between delivering great client results and managing business growth on the other side? Seeing as you're also the city councillor in Lloyd Minister, Alberta, Canada. So yeah, just find that to be... difficult from my perspective.

Michele Charles Gustafson:

It's a lot. I work with women primarily. I do work with some men, but I work with women primarily. And I use this analogy a lot. And it's the analogy of a dinner plate. And on your dinner plate, you know, when you put your protein down, you put your starch down, you put your vegetables. So you got like three things happening on that plate. Well, listen, as women, we have eight things on that plate just to start. And in order for us to feel happy, fulfilled and confident, we've got to make sure that the plate isn't overfilled and so in order to do that i've got my business i've got my family i got my husband i got my child i got like city council other things um In the business, the business needs to make sure that the results it gets comes from systems. Systems are highly important. And so I have a system for onboarding clients, offboarding clients, moving them through their coursework, moving them through their transformation process with me in terms of sessions. I have a very defined system that I started in 2014 and I don't deviate from that system because it's the system that gets results so as soon as you lock into how is you deliver the results for your clients you lock that system in it becomes something you lean on and everything else on your dinner plate you can then move around and it's been the thing that has been able to has had me been able to keep a balance in my life while still creating client outcomes and being happy about that but also that I can take up something else on that plate without being overwhelmed. System, system, systems.

Rexhen Doda:

And when you say systems, how much of that is actually also delegating to team members that you might have?

Michele Charles Gustafson:

I understand that people use team members. I have a very high capacity to do things myself. My one friend, she says, you're a lone wolf, Michelle, but it works for you. And it does. There have been times in my business that I have had a personal assistant who's done a little bit of the client work or at least some of the administrative pieces. But for the most part, I own the skills in just about every part of my business, whether it's program development, advertising, marketing, sales. But saying that, I recognize that not everybody has all of those hats. And so when... When I advise businesses and small businesses, what you want to look at is what your competitive advantage is, what you are best at, and then the very next thing that you are not best at, that is an income-producing activity for your business, after you're clear about the transformation you give others, that's the part that you get help on. And if that means that you're hiring a consultant, you're hiring a coach yourself, that's an important part. time to know that's an important piece to know when you actually need help and so systems are important understanding when to ask for help is important but at the same time it does come down to you this is your business and so many coaches out here are solopreneurs where you're doing it mostly yourself with bits and pieces of help it is you so you want to make sure that you've invested in you in what you think of your business, in how you feel about yourself, because you're the one creating the outcomes and you've got to be the most confident person you can be.

Rexhen Doda:

Thanks so much, Michelle. And for a closing question, what advice would you give to, in this case, career coaches or executive coaches who are going to be watching this when they're looking to scale their impact and maybe improve their personal brand?

Michele Charles Gustafson:

I'm going to say almost what I just said two sentences ago, which is start with you. I understand that as a coach, you have skills to help everybody else. And that is amazing because that's going to make you great at getting outcomes for other people. But very typically, people who help other people, soft-hearted people, givers, helpers, healers, teachers, they forget the person who's doing the healing, which is you. It's you who's doing the doing that you need to take care of first. That means giving yourself the permission and giving yourself the value and the self-worth to be able to say, you know what? I need the confidence before I can give it to someone else. I need to be an example to others myself before I can ask them to step up into their career or to step up into their leadership. That may mean that you, need your own personal coach in order to step up. And do not see that as a cost. And that is an investment in the future success of your business. So start with you.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Michelle. All of that was very valuable. I think a lot of coaches watching this are going to take note of that. For anyone who wants to find your connect with you later on, they can find you at Michelle Charles Gustafson in LinkedIn. Also, michellecharlesgustafson.com on your website. Is there any other way they can connect with you? No, you know,

Michele Charles Gustafson:

if you type my name into Google, you'll see everything. Just make sure when you type my name that you put one L, not two. So M-I-C-H-E-L-E, Charles Gustafson, and you'll see it all. And I'll see you around the internet.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you, Michelle, and have a nice day or evening.

Michele Charles Gustafson:

Thank you so much.

Davis Nguyen:

Thank you so much.