Why One-on-One Coaching Creates Career Breakthroughs | Arienne Ischer

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, Kevin sits down with Arienne Ischer, founder of Shine Career Collective, to explore the power of one-on-one coaching and why deep, personal conversations often create the biggest breakthroughs. Arienne shares her unconventional journey from cosmetology and insurance sales into recruiting, and ultimately into building a coaching-led recruiting and staffing business rooted in partnership, not transactions.

They dive into how Shine Career Collective was born, how referrals fueled early growth, the impact of COVID on her business, and why “Coffee & Clarity” sessions are central to her coaching philosophy. Arienne opens up about pricing struggles, managing emotional capacity, investing in yourself, scaling sustainably, and the courage it takes to bet on yourself, especially after layoffs and major career pivots.

This episode is packed with honest insights for coaches and business owners who value authenticity, customized client experiences, and meaningful career transformation.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arienne-ischer-white-0288bb80/overlay/contact-info/

Website: https://shinecareercollective.com/home/about/arienne-2/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shinecareercollective/

Transcript

Arienne Ischer: 0:00

I really like to do one-on-one coaching. I've tried some of the group settings before, but I don't necessarily feel like the magic happens in the group coaching sessions. I've done, well, I would say that every one-on-one coaching session is unique. Every person where they're at physically, where they're at mentally, where they're at emotionally, where they're at within their career and their personal relationships as well as their professional relationships, that all dictates how someone's going to show up in their daily life and it's going to reflect into their career. And so talking with folks and having more of an intimate conversation and breaking down all of those things, there tends to be nuggets in there, gold nuggets all the time, where there's aha moments and there's different perspectives and there's things that come across that help redefine something for someone so that they can show up their most truest authentic self. And we can then work from that platform and guiding them to the next level of their career.

Davis Nguyen : 0:52

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 Wynne, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Kevin: 1:23

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Kevin, and today we're joined by Arian Isher. She's been a coach for 10 plus years, is the founder of Shine Career Collective. Welcome to the show, Arian.

Arienne Ischer: 1:37

Thank you for having me, Kevin.

Kevin: 1:38

It only took me three tries to like get your name down, but eventually we got it.

Arienne Ischer: 1:43

We got it. You did great.

Kevin: 1:45

So one of the first questions I always like to ask on this podcast is the origin story. You could have been a lot of different things. I think we talked a little bit about your background pre-podcast last time we spoke. But yeah, you could have been a lot of different things, like a pastry chef, a professional bowler, but out of all the things that you chose, you chose coaching. And so what made you go into this industry and more importantly, turn it into a business?

Arienne Ischer: 2:10

Great question. I think that coaching ended up choosing me more than me choosing coaching. I started out in cosmetology and then decided once the industry got kind of flooded with where I was going with that, to take the traditional corporate role. And I went into insurance sales and I quickly learned that insurance sales was not what I liked doing. But I did really love the relationship building, connecting with people, being out in the community, identifying different relationships and partnerships. And so while I was doing that, I ended up getting recruited to recruit, which was really interesting. But at that point in time, I had no idea what career coaching was or what recruiting was. I was foreign to me. So I didn't jump in at that point. And then a little bit later, not too far along after that, I got recruited again to recruit by a very close friend. And so at that point, I was like, maybe I should look into this and check it out. Uh I ended up going in and having an interview and was hired on the spot and learned how to recruit and absorbed with my team and found really quickly that I was successful in it. And our team was fantastic. I was doing agency recruiting at that point, but our team was doing something a little bit differently in that we were incorporating partnerships and coaching into the recruiting and staffing that we were doing. So much of recruiting and staffing is coaching, right? You're mediating partnerships and relationships. You're coaching through offers, you're helping to identify people strengths and place them in careers. And we were working from a space that wasn't just transactional. It was really trying to place the best people with the best roles and how that matched their skill sets. Agency in itself, though, is a grind. The more you recruit, the more you're the bigger the KPIs. It's like a hamster wheel. It just keeps growing until eventually you sort of pop. And a lot of recruiters end up transitioning into different recruiting roles or leaving the industry entirely because your time just disappears, but the work continues to grow. And we had hit that point. I had hit that point and tried, we just our team tried to make some differences to change from within the company that we were with to move to a more less transactional, more partnership way of doing recruiting. And that just wasn't happening. A lot of changes happened within that organization. And so people started leaving. And eventually I did too. And my friend who brought me into the business, she actually started her own consulting firm at that point. And she said, Do you want to partner? Do you want to do this? And I was, I just wasn't quite ready to bet on myself yet. So at that point, I ended up taking another corporate role in recruiting. Yay. And six months later, I was laid off. And so if that wasn't the aha moment of like, you should do this. So I called my friend back and was like, Are you ready? I'm I'm ready. So let's bet on ourselves. Let's do this. And that was September 2019 when Shine Career Collective was born. So it really just sort of chose me and and it worked through everything that showed up, showed up to be down this path. And we started Shine Career Collective to redefine what recruiting and staffing looked like. We wanted to build a model rooted in partnership, not transactions, not metrics, not burnout. And we wanted coaching to be the center and forefront of everything. And that's you know what we've done. This year, as of this year, my business partner actually exited the company. So I'm now the sole owner and working on building it from my vision.

Kevin: 5:46

Oh, that's so crazy. That's uh that's amazing. I know you rushed through that last part, but I have so many more questions about it. Just to rewind for a second, you know, because you told me that you kind of refused to call. You kind of uh took another corporate job and you're laid off six months later. What was going through your head like during that time, that transition point when you got the notice of the layoff, right? Like what was going through your mind at that time?

Arienne Ischer: 6:08

I was just like, Are you serious? You know, I think that's what goes through a lot. I'm like, what? Like I I had invested so much and worked so hard to learn. It was a new model of recruiting for me. I was doing like occupational staffing, medical recruiting. And I was, you know, I had a team and I was helping to coach the team. And so I was really excited and I was motivated. But at the same time, I was like, you know what? This is meant to be. This is the way this is supposed to go because truly, I don't think I felt home there. It was a stepping stone and it was a platform. I was a regional manager, and so I learned a lot of financials and I learned how to operate and run a business from a recruitment standpoint. I was doing PLs and finances, and I was managing a team. So I honestly feel like it was an incredible platform that helped pave the way to running my own business. I don't and I think it aided in the success. So I'm grateful for it. But at the time it was a little scary, but you know, discomfort often is the precipice of change. So yeah, growth.

Kevin: 7:10

Yeah. And so, like, I'm kind of curious. So you start up Shine uh Career Collective, right, with your friend. And let's fast forward to today, kind of like, because I'm sure it's kind of like evolved over time. But how did you guys decide your ideal client, like the people that you decide to help and all that? Like, yeah, who are the people that you help?

Arienne Ischer: 7:31

My business partner had a long-standing career in recruiting and staffing prior to even me joining in with her. And so she had quite a few relationships in the community with business partners, hiring managers. And during my time with recruiting, I developed a lot of those as well. And when we left and we put the word out that we started our own business saying you build it and they will come, they came our business, all of our candidates and hiring managers and past people that we coached, they just flooded our doors and our business really took off booming with some of our best partnerships that we had developed over the years.

Kevin: 8:08

So it sounds like you kind of leverage uh you both you and your business partner kind of leveraged your previous careers to kind of get the clients in the door. Kind of curious, how did you sustain that momentum too? Like, like let's talk about marketing too. Like, I obviously have word of mouth, but were there any other uh marketing channels that you're using at the time or even to today?

Arienne Ischer: 8:31

We did a little bit on social media, but honestly, it was primarily word of mouth. We didn't have a lot of marketing budget starting out and being pretty scrappy and trying to build this from the ground up. It was very organic. When we place people in positions, we work really hard to follow with them, to check in with them, to maintain a relationship so that those candidates oftentimes will become hiring managers. And then when they are managing budgets and need help with staffing or they have a situation where they need coaching, they call us back. And if they have anybody that they know that's going through any kind of a transition or needs coaching or support, they would refer us. So I mean, it really just kind of snowballed. And we were a small business, so it grew, but it had our hands full. I'll say that much. It had our hands full.

Kevin: 9:19

Yeah, I can imagine. Also, like I know sometimes people talk about like referral-only businesses or word of mouth where you know sometimes it can be quite there can be fluctuations, especially with like leads and stuff, because you're relying on other people to kind of refer you business. Did you kind of experience any challenges of predominantly relying on referral only, I guess, or we have through the years, that's apparent.

Arienne Ischer: 9:44

I will say that when we started this, there was just magic there. The era of COVID, it made our business expand pretty quickly, to be honest. We ended up going into a niche of manufacturing and manufacturing boomed during the COVID era. And so our business, we had more business than we knew what to do with. Now, post-COVID, things have slowed down a little bit, but we have some long-term clients that are kind of the core of our business, and then we are working in coaching and staffing alongside that. So post-COVID, I've done more external networking, partnering with some of our local chambers and different networking groups, setting meetings, going out to the community, meeting with different business owners, having lots of one-on-ones with folks. So there's definitely a little bit more footwork than there was in the beginning of our business, but because we had such an influx at the beginning, it really kind of set the foundation and paved the way for success.

Kevin: 10:39

I see. Now, I'm sure people you're going out, you mentioned you're going out in the community. I'm sure your clients that are working with you are like, Arian, your work is so great. So, like when people find out about you and are raising their hands and they're like, oh my God, how do I work with you? What does a coaching engagement look like? Or what do some of your offerings look like?

Arienne Ischer: 11:01

I really like to do one-on-one coaching. I've tried some of the group settings before, but I don't necessarily feel like the magic happens in the group coaching sessions. I've done, well, I would say that every one-on-one coaching session is unique. Every person where they're at physically, where they're at mentally, where they're at emotionally, where they're at within their career and their personal relationships as well as their professional relationships, that all dictates how someone's going to show up in their daily life and it's going to reflect into their career. And so talking with folks and having more of an intimate conversation and breaking down all of those things, there tends to be nuggets in there, gold nuggets all the time where there's aha moments and there's different perspectives and there's things that come across that help redefine something for someone so that they can show up their most truest and authentic self. And we can then work from that platform and guiding them to the next level of their career. We do things like things from helping people with offers to they're having a challenge in the workplace, to um, they're having a tough time talking with the manager about something and they want help all the way to massive career changes and, you know, making big changes in their professional space. So I know that a lot of times career coaching can kind of go into life coaching a little bit. We're not life coaches, but it ends up taking that shape from time to time because I mean, who you are in your life is how you show up in your career. So we tap into that and we work on that. I would call it coffee and clarity as it's kind of a you know our entry coaching session, and then we build from there. And I don't necessarily know that a lot of the aha moments come from just the define like workbook work, but more so those conversations. So we work very closely and having those come those close conversations.

Kevin: 12:48

I'm sure the topics that you're talking about can be quite intimate sometimes, especially doing one-on-one. And so, how do you kind of manage your current client capacity like so that your cup stays full? Like, do you also have a team on top of yourself or are you doing all the coaching yourself?

Arienne Ischer: 13:04

I have a team. So right now I do I do mostly the coaching, and my team will then help support the recruiting. Prior to the change in ownership, I had a much larger team. So right now it's me and one other person, and I'm looking to scale up this year or 2026. But um, I like to take the coaching, and depending on what I'm doing that day within my coaching sessions will dictate how I structure my schedule. So have more than three coaching sessions in a day. And if they're kind of coffee and clarity initial coaching sessions where we're gonna dive in deep, then I'll do two because a lot of times the things that we're unpacking with those people, they're big, and I want to be able to like emotionally invest with that person. And that takes a lot, right? That takes a lot out of each person to show up and be there for that. And so I don't like to stack my plate too much. I like to make sure that um I'm taking care of myself, I'm filling my own cups so that I can be there for the people and show up for them and support them in whatever path they are going down.

Kevin: 14:04

The work that you do is so transformational, especially these conversations that you're having, right? Those aha moments that you're talking about. But sometimes it's really hard to like decide like, oh, how do I charge for this like aha moment, right? Like we feel this on the inside, right? And so I find that a lot of the coaches listening to this, they struggle with things like what do I charge? How do I come up with my initial numbers? How do I package this? Of course, uh, Erin, you don't have to give any hard numbers, but how do you think about pricing uh and structuring your services today? Like whether that's hourly, packages, retainer, value-based pricing. And are there any key lessons that you kind of learned that shape that perspective for yourself?

Arienne Ischer: 14:43

Gosh, Given, that's a great question. I think so many of us struggle when we're starting out on how to value our services, but then also be competitive and draw people in. When we started, I will say that our prices were much lower. But in saying that, when you're starting out, those people that are coming to you, they're creating your business. They're the creating the foundation of your business. They are the ones who kind of get grandfathered in, if you will. And you're both testing each other out in a lot of ways in what in what you're doing. And you're creating structures within your business, and then you're kind of, you know, working them out with these people, right? And so in my mind, I'm like, that's a really great gift to offer someone when your prices are a little bit lower. And then as you're growing and you're learning and you're becoming more confident in what we're doing, and there ends up being different value ads, then yeah, the prices adjust and they go up from there. And you might shift and adjust packages or rates, however that may look, and structure things different going forward. But I have remained true in keeping pricing the same for those people who helped us start shine. And then just adjusting prices as we go forward as our value adds and packages shift and change to what we're what we're doing. So we started out with an hourly rate, and then uh for the coffee and clarity, there's just sort of a flat hourly rate. And then we would build packages up from there. We would go by session, and we've definitely remained true to that and just kind of adjusted how our packages work and the pricing around them. Oh, that's interesting. No, I haven't experimented with that. We've definitely gone by set by session. If someone is just like, I want to have multiple sessions with you, I want three, they're very specific. Then we have some people who are like, I just want to be able to call you, starting three brand new businesses. And I'm gonna have days where I'm just going crazy and I just need to be able to call you. And those we set up more on an app base and make ourselves available and help those people. So it's based on it's kind of individualized. And I think I've done that a lot with Shine and our packaging, is that we really want to offer comprehensive solutions to our clients of all levels, and we're really flexible in what we offer by tailoring the solutions that we have because each person's different, their needs are different, and uh we want to be able to accommodate that.

Kevin: 17:02

I personally love customizing things for people. Like there's something that you're right, every person's a little different. But one of the things that I've noticed and I've heard from other coaches as well is like, how do you keep track of all this? Because if you're creating customized things and you have like, I don't know, 10 billion like clients and all that, like how do you keep track of things?

Arienne Ischer: 17:22

We have an ATS CRM system that we input everything into. And then we use our Google shared drive where we have contract templates and our team's just very fluid with what we have and what we offer. And because we're still small but mighty, we have the opportunity to sit down with our team. And if they have questions on, you know, can I offer this? And we talk through it and say, let walk me through what that looks like. And so we want to give our team the freedom to be able to customize things for people. And then of course, you know, that goes into our system. And when we go to bill for that, there's a place where we can identify what we're billing for each individual client on kind of like a so that it all remains seamless.

Kevin: 18:06

Yeah.

Arienne Ischer: 18:07

I'm sure as we get bigger, we might have to do something a little bit more streamlined because, yeah, thousands of clients and every single person has a different billing structure would be crazy. But for right now, it's been working. And I think that that's a a big value add. Our clients really appreciate that.

Kevin: 18:24

One of the interesting things that you mentioned was that your ex are exited of the business this year. Um looking to scale. I'm kind of curious your future goals. Like, what does scaling mean to you? Like, where do you want this coaching and business to take in the next few years?

Arienne Ischer: 18:39

I am definitely looking to get back to a team of around six to eight folks. I want to really strengthen my offerings and have a diversified book of business between recruiting, staffing, and coaching. I think that having the diversified book really helps to aid in the ebbs and the flows of the marketplace and what's happening so that we don't necessarily feel so much of a hit and there's more structure and stability in that. And I really want to develop more of an external marketing presence through through schools and and kind of taking a look at what external marketing is available for my area and for our business to capitalize on that. Rebranding, kind of a new face, a new website, those are all big goals for 26.

Kevin: 19:29

Sounds like quite a bit. You know, behind every goal or initiative, sometimes I know that what what I noticed is that there's like growing pains too. And I guess in this season of business right now, what are some growing pains that you're going through? Was there anything unexpected?

Arienne Ischer: 19:45

Let's see. Well, there's the market's dipping right now a little bit in general with with staffing, but in lieu of that, there's a lot of coaching opportunity because people are making shifts in their careers. I don't necessarily know that there's anything unexpected. Just yet, because we've been doing this for so long, but it's just working with the curveballs and and ebbing and flowing. And I think that's what's so great about having a business that does recruiting, staffing, career coaching is that we can really be fluid with what's happening in the marketplace and with clients in the area. Yeah.

Kevin: 20:17

You know, the other question I have for you too is like as it sounds like you've invested in people in the past, staff, staff members, having a team, right? And as a business owner, as a coach, you probably invest in things like other things like uh training, maybe some marketing. There's a lot of and endless amounts of stuff that you can invest in, right? But I'm kind of curious about your overrated, underrated, it's right. So yeah, what were some of the most like overrated investments you made and what were some of the most underrated ones?

Arienne Ischer: 20:50

Overrated. Well, I'll start with underrated. Underrated would be investing in yourself. I think people put enough emphasis on doing that, taking the time to do that and putting the effort into doing that. Because if we're not ourselves, if we're not at tip top shape, we're not gonna be for everybody else. And how we show up in the business is gonna be lacking. So, you know, the massages, the chiropractic work, the the membership, all the things, right, the sleep, the eating right exercise, the time to do all of those things, like invest it in yourself, whether you're a business owner or uh a coach or an employee or whatever it is, you know, take the time to invest that in yourself. Man, that's a tough one. I don't know that I've received much overrated.

Kevin: 21:33

Sometimes overrated, it's not something that you necessarily trash on or anything like that, but something that you know a lot of people talk about. You've tried it and it was kind of like, yeah, it was kind of helpful, but it definitely was not like I feel like is overhyped a little bit.

Arienne Ischer: 21:48

Mainly like the paid networking groups, the big ones. I think sometimes in the staffing and coaching realm, depending on which one you choose, it can be overrated. I think you have to be really selective and pointed with what you're choosing there. Some people will tell you, join all your chambers, join your BNIs, join your all of them, right? And you're like, okay, and then you do, and the ROI just isn't necessarily there. It can take time with those because you really do have to invest for a while to establish those relationships and gain trust. But I think as you're starting out, I don't know that necessarily that's the the best use of resources.

Kevin: 22:29

Yeah. And I'm also really related to uh still overrated, underrated. Also, as a business owner, you probably had a lifetime of advice by now. Some of it great, some of it bad, probably a lot of it unsolicited. So, what's the most overrated piece of business advice you've gotten so far? And what's the most underrated?

Arienne Ischer: 22:46

I don't, yeah, gosh, overrated.

Kevin: 22:49

Overrated be like a cliche cliche piece of advice that you're like, yeah, that's like overhyped.

Arienne Ischer: 22:55

Overhyped, man. I don't honestly, I don't know that we've received it.

Kevin: 23:02

Yeah.

Arienne Ischer: 23:03

I guess maybe No, see, that's not even No. I mean, I don't know that we've used any advice that was overrated or underrated. I mean, everything that we've we compartmentalize really well, I can compartmentalize really well. So anything that anybody's ever said to me, I've really taken to heart and seeing how it works for us or taking bits and pieces of it. I I don't know that I have one.

Kevin: 23:23

How about underrated then? Something that someone said that what that underrated is like kind of like something that you wish people So you've probably gotten advice or discovered a piece of like wisdom through just working in the business, right? And this is a piece of advice that maybe that you wish you knew when you were younger or wish more people took seriously more.

Arienne Ischer: 23:46

Bet on yourself. Do it. Bet on yourself is really important. You know, have confidence in what you're doing and and after your dreams because I mean, if you set the table, it's it's feed you. And you know, being in that area of discomfort is when you're in the area of growth. And so, you know, take take time, bet on yourself, spend spend time training and learning and filling your cup with all the information that you need and invest in that because you know it it can make all the difference in the world.

Kevin: 24:17

Cheeky question. Is there anything that you could have said to I don't know, Ariane that was going back to a corporate job, like who got like before you took that last corporate job? Is there anything you could have told yourself at that time to like dissuade yourself from taking that corporate job at the time? And there may be nothing, but I'm gonna go.

Arienne Ischer: 24:35

I don't think so. Yeah, I do not think so because you know, I was coming out of the cosmetology world and was like, ooh, this is a big girl job, you know. I'm I've you know, like this is so exciting. And I don't think you could have convinced me otherwise to do anything different, but you know, in all honesty, it it gave the way to be exactly where I'm at. And I have some great relationships from the insurance industry, some great relationships that I still have today and carry forward. And I still have great relationships from the cosmetology industry, and even in that corporate job, like I said, the the position it it taught me so much more business sense, and I got to bring all of that into this, and so you know, I no regrets.

Kevin: 25:23

I love that. Arian, how do people find you and connect with you?

Arienne Ischer: 25:28

We have a website, shinecareer collective.com. Uh we've got social media, LinkedIn, Facebook. So any one of those, it's great.

Kevin: 25:38

Well, Arian, as I'm looking through my notes, it's kind of interesting looking at your story because uh a lot of times I feel like we have this idea that like we pick one thing, we stick with it forever. But like it's kind of interesting with your career because you start off in cosmetology, insurance sales, and then recruiting, and now you have your own practice right now, too. And I don't know, just my thoughts. I don't think that younger Arian would have ever realized that she would have like this coaching practice and all that too, which is pretty crazy. But also, it's really kind of cool seeing your evolution in all areas of the business. Like, oh, like you're thinking about how do we evolve the marketing to external sources, how uh your pricing has evolved over time and stuff, and how you're thinking about scaling. So that's my long-winded oh yes, and then when the last thing I forgot to mention is like the how these one-on-one conversations are. You you talked about coffee and clarity as one of your main offerings. I feel like sometimes like these conversations like are pretty underrated. That's my long-winded way of saying, like, hey, I appreciate your work, it matters and thank you so much for sharing your time, your stories, and wisdom on this podcast today. Thank you, Kevin. I really appreciate that, and I'm happy to have been a guest.

Davis Nguyen : 26:56

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.