From Polished to Powerful: Showing Up Fully as a Coach with Charlotte Ferreux

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with Charlotte Ferreux, CEO and Founder of Charlotte Ferreux Coaching, for a deeply honest conversation about identity, burnout, and evolving as a coach without losing alignment.

Charlotte shares her journey from consulting and organizational leadership into heart-centered one-on-one coaching, the burnout that forced her to pivot, and the courage it took to let go of an old professional identity. She opens up about relaunching her podcast, embracing non-traditional modalities, and finally showing up more fully and authentically online—even when fear, self-doubt, and judgment crept in.

This episode explores what it really looks like to build and scale a coaching business sustainably, trust your intuition, expand beyond rigid niches, and give yourself permission to pivot. If you’re a coach navigating growth, capacity, authenticity, or the pressure to “fit a mold,” this conversation will resonate deeply.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotteferreux/
Website: https://www.charlotteferreux.com/

Transcript

Charlotte Ferreux 0:00

Like I said, I'm shifting. I still will always do one-on-one coaching. That to me is like it's just a heart-connected service that I will always do. Playing around with different group options right now. I like I mentioned before, I like relaunched my podcast. In letting go of my old identity, I also did had to shift kind of like the verbiage and how I was showing up. My clients always knew everything that I had to offer, but in terms of what I was sharing publicly, I wasn't always sharing like all the different things that I was doing. There was this like little part of me that was like holding back, like, well, because I live in a small town, or I, you know, like people know me how they know me. Like, what would they think? You know, there was all those like little like doing different modalities that weren't the conventional performance-based, like, here's how I show up.

Davis Nguyen 0:42

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 Wayne, 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, go discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Pedro 1:13

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is Charlotte Ferrault, CEO and founder of Charlotte Ferreau Coaching, an elite performance coach who helps individuals and teams shift from the inside out. With experience leading and consulting for billion-dollar organizations like Lululemon Athletica, she's built a reputation for high impact, one-to-one coaching and leadership development at a global level. Her background spans executive leadership, high performance coaching, and building fully virtual international businesses. Drawing on decades of experience across retail, hospitality, and personal development, she helps leaders perform at their best while building organizations that scale with clarity, culture, and purpose. Welcome to the show, Charlotte. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Great to have you. You know, Charlotte, I like to backtrack a bit. You go back to the origin story. So let's rewind a bit, okay? Every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, you know what? I guess this is what I'm doing now. Right? So when was that for you?

Charlotte Ferreux 2:25

Yeah, great question. I feel like I had a multitude of those moments, but I I think honestly, before I became certified as a high performance, the first part of my um certification was high performance coaching. And um, that was back in 2015. I was actually going through the program itself, like as a as a coache. And I had a moment that I was just like, I need to be doing this. Like this, it was just kind of like came in the calling of I'd already been doing consulting, and that was my big focus. So I was already infusing coaching in. I just didn't know fully that that's what it was up until that point. And I was like, I need to do this. I was in a huge pivotal moment in my life. I'd just become a single parent of two children. And everything inside me was like, you need to step into this. And that was that. I jumped in and became certified and shifted kind of the trajectory of what I was doing at that point.

Pedro 3:22

Why not add more to the pile, right? You're already having a single parent. Let's add coach in a different career, right? I love that. I mean, that's a challenge by itself. And and when did it shift, you know, from I'm helping people to I'm building a real business around this?

Charlotte Ferreux 3:38

Well, I mean, because I already had a business foundation of it and consulting and coaching, although they're different and have different results, you're still utilizing somewhat of similar skill sets within them, right? And so it was easy for me to kind of pivot or add in a new, I guess, revenue stream at that point, right? And so the the offers could be tied in together and could be done separately. So it was very seamless for me to add it in. I also got just incredible opportunities working with the coaching community that I was working with. And I got brought into a third-party coaching company as well. And so I was able to expand my expertise worldwide and just really when I when I get into something, I want to know like the depths of it. I want to do it like none other. I just become very like obsessed with things. And um, so I definitely at that point shifted more into coaching and did less of consulting at that point. But um yeah, it was just like my heart's calling, just and it always has been since then, of what I'm meant to do and how I meant to serve in a certain capacity.

Pedro 4:45

I like how natural it sounds like, how organic it sounds, because you're doing consulting and at the same time, when you're at least what I hear is like when people are doing consulting, sometimes they block, they have those obstacles, you know, cult people and mindsets and all of that to implement the systems and all of that. So I like how natural and organic that sounded. You know, it's just a natural path, the next step, it sounds like. But you know, one thing that got me curious in our audience is like after you got rolling, right? Who are the people that kept showing up? I know you had your client base, but were there any trials and errors for you to get, you know, your crew to understand who you really coach?

Charlotte Ferreux 5:26

Yeah, and I feel like that's continuously ongoing. And you and I were sharing before, um, you know, I'm in a kind of a big pivot. So how you introduced me was a little bit more from like more the leadership and like high performance organizational standpoint of what we were doing with coaching. But then there's me as Charlotte Fro, you know, and and how I work with my individual clients and the different modalities I work with them. So I think for a very long time I worked in kind of a two different personas almost, but always under the same umbrella in terms of what I was doing to help people shift from within. Um, I'm doing less now uh around specific organizational leadership, coaching, and all of that, and more working one-on-one with different modalities. And so I would say it's a constant pivot. One thing that's always remained true is my values and how I show up as a coach and you know, what I help people ignite around performance, around shifting from within, around subconscious change, around truly getting to the root of shifting and not just superficial results. So it's I'm less about the like, let's just, you know, kind of that peak performance, like get you results right in the moment, if it's not going to have significant sustainable impact over the long term. I've always been, I guess, molded as a coach, and that came from my high performance background, that it's always about sustainability and maintaining that change from within. And then every other certification, every other, you know, thing that I've pulled into, even down to I'm a yoga, you know, um, yoga teacher as well, infuse everything into um helping a person become their very best, most aligned self, most influential self, most performing self. And so I can work with any person that wants to be coached that has a goal or wants to kind of shift from within. And so I can kind of not move my niche, but my niche is just a little bit broader in that way.

Pedro 7:22

Okay. I mean, that's the coaching side. Now let's talk about the part nobody escapes marketing. Yeah. So how do people usually find you, Charlotte?

Charlotte Ferreux 7:32

Top way first and foremost has always been word of mouth. I get I build really strong long-term relationships with clients. Sometimes I won't hear from them for a year and a half, and then I'll get a call and it's like, hey, I need you again, or I need to like work with you again. So the results that I've helped people achieve has been what has created the biggest ripple for me. If I were to look at like everything, but I'm very consistent on social media. I've got a podcast, I've got, you know, getting my voice and my intentions and my just everything that means anything to me out so that because you never know who's going to hit what part of your journey and story. Some people work with me because I mean, not just the results, but also like, you know, relatability of story. It could be a, you know, single mom of two children and being an entrepreneur and balance, whether you believe in balance or not. But just, you know, people wouldn't know that if I didn't share that. And I think a really big part of our gift is the activation of our voice and help and having people hear why we're in service the way that we are and not just waiting for something to kind of come our way.

Pedro 8:38

Interesting. Okay.

Charlotte Ferreux 8:39

Mm-hmm.

Pedro 8:40

I mean, let's talk business for a second. So people find you either through your podcast or a referral, you know, as you mentioned, and they resonate with your work, and eventually they want to know what working with you actually looks like, right? So everyone builds their coaching business a bit differently. So when someone actually becomes a client, Charlotte, what does that experience look like right now?

Charlotte Ferreux 9:02

So like a one-on-one or a group, or doesn't matter?

Pedro 9:06

Let's say I'm Pedro, I wanna, you know, work with you. You may have different, I'm not sure if I'm the ICP, I'm not sure if you have different ICPs or different programs. Just want to understand how you structure the business.

Charlotte Ferreux 9:20

Yeah, so I have like my different offers. And usually, again, if somebody is coming in and let's say they come in through my website or they come in, they see a link, and maybe it's a smaller offer. There's no real touch point to me within that. It's a click to, you know, start to work with. Um, but anything that's like, oh, I want to work specifically, like whether it's one-on-one or higher touch point or anything like that, I usually will have a touch point session with that person to really get to know what it is that they're looking for, what results they're looking for. I'm a huge believer that I'm not the right coach for every single person. And I, if not me, then I will help you find the person that you're meant to work with. And I don't believe as a coach and just taking whoever just cause. It's not money will always come. I'm a I'm a big trust and like figure out the alignment, make sure that energy and that the offer is the right one so that the client gets what it is that they want, and I can create the most exceptional service that I can do energetically. And so whether that's a discovery call or we just jump on and we have a conversation, it's a real frank, like, you know, what are you looking for? Like, let's figure this out. And then usually having some time to think on both ends and whether that's me sending follow-up and you know, here's the next steps or here's some different options. And I let, I always let people know. If not now, if it's meant to be, it happens. I have a very real flow, I guess, to my own sales process. Whether I have some of my team members working in with me and they're part of that process, especially when we're doing work with organizations, it was a little bit different on that end. But it's really about figuring out that alignment and giving the client space to figure out if that's truly energetically what they want to step into. And, you know, it should be a hell yes, maybe with a little bit of fear and hesitation, but it should still be like a solid, like, I'm not trying to pull them, push them, coerce them. It's that's not the process that I step into, especially with one-on-one clients. Yeah.

Pedro 11:20

Yeah, that that fear and hesitation is key, right? Because that shows commitment. If it's there's no sure, there are no stakes, people won't show up, won't put in the work, unfortunately. Yeah. I mean, your work seems pretty hands-on, right, Charlie? So you're talking about one-on-ones, we're talking about sometimes discovery calls and different programs. How do you think about capacity so you don't stretch yourself to a thin?

Charlotte Ferreux 11:46

I've ebbed and flow throughout all of this, especially when we were doing more of organizational and one-on-one, kind of having this two split parts of my business. It legit got burnt out 100% at the end of like all of the organizational work, which I'm trying to think back to timeline, might have been end of 2023, beginning of 2024. I had a real like moment within myself that was like, something's gotta shift here. I built the exact thing that I had said that I wanted to build. I scaled it with the coaches and scaling the coaches and the team from the inside and, you know, doing all of that. And I had a moment that I was like, I'm still caught in an unfree system right now. And this next level, I need to shift the things that don't work for me, that didn't bring me joy in the process and really figure out where I was holding back. And so this last year was me shifting, pivoting all of my offers, like, you know, again, kind of moved away from the organizational coaching, which we were doing amazing work with. I just again needed to focus more in on smaller, more aligned, and I don't mean smaller in terms of volume, was more smaller just in terms of team, process, systems, all of it, right? Yeah, that when we get burnt out and doing service-based work, it doesn't matter what field that we're in. I mean, and and I utilize my own practices as a coach, you know what I mean? And like I do a very good job with my disciplines and my habits and and all of that, but life it life life, you know what I mean? Um, I deal, you know, with all the same things kind of so many other people do, but you know, balancing kids and co-parenting and aging parents and you know, and then building your business and clients. Like, I think the the greatest gift I gave myself was permission to pivot whenever I needed to pivot. Which actually gives you more capacity over the long term. So what I'm pulling in now, like I've created space in my nervous system, like I re-regulated myself, and now I'm actually ready for a different expansion than I was ready for a year and a half, two years ago. So it's actually it's quite amazing a process to go through, my own process.

Pedro 14:03

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna, yeah, I first of all, being so vulnerable and so open about it. I mean, I have to commend you because this is the type of stuff sometimes we see coaches not mentioning, right? We're talking about everyone's blockers, we're talking about everyone's, you know, mindset and all the obstacles they have to overcome. But we're just humans, right? And I love the fact that you're so open about it. And I'm gonna jump on that boat, okay? I'm curious about where you're taking all this, you know? Yeah. Looking ahead, where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about? Well, let's keep the burnout out of the way.

Charlotte Ferreux 14:42

You know, like I said, I moved away. And not to say I'm not saying I'll never take on an organizational client again. The right clients come to me. If I feel it, I'll say yes to something, right? But I'm not pushing that side of my business. And and the focus really is about um me more in the digital aspect of being able to kind of share more and give more and provide more. I had really in that burnout stopped than, you know, I wasn't doing my podcast as much. I wasn't sharing organically as much online. Like I was just so tapped out, like my just all of it. And so now re-getting that spark, but also in that time, my level up happened. Like all the new modalities that I work with around subconscious change. And I do a lot, you know, just around, you know, connecting performance, but also that subconscious work together. It allowed the new me, the elevated me to come through my marketing, to come through all the things that I was sharing. And that change, especially in this last year, has been like outstanding. There are moments that I'm like, I can't believe I allowed a new identity to come out of me in this kind of way. And I think sometimes we get caught in our own hamster wheel. We keep doing the same things the way that we're doing it because the mechanism works and it delivers us results, which we need obviously to live in life. And this next phase that I went into, I had to let go of a lot of that and really fall into okay, I know I can perform, perform, I know I've got grit, I know I've got ambition, I know I can get shit done. But can I surrender? Can I trust? How much faith do I actually have? And can I let things go and see what actually shows back up on my plate? And that's the playground that I've been playing in. And if I didn't allow myself to do that, I don't know that I could serve my clients at this next level the way that I can now because I've actually gone through it. The integration has been so real through me. And that's what people feel in terms of my energy. It's not just the words, it's not just my coaching techniques and the insights and blah, blah, blah. There's a real significant energetic shift that has happened. And that's been the biggest blessing and the scariest moments that I think, and I say scary, I mean like legit moments like I'm not going after something right now. Like, do I trust that something is going to like that things are gonna land the way that they need to land? And they did it, you know. So it's beautiful. It's a beautiful process.

Pedro 17:05

Yeah, I can't tell just by the way you're you're telling me the story, you know, and how eventually I I I have to wonder whenever you're in the dis most coaches are in the discovery call. They're thinking sometimes, oh, am I is gonna check my certificate? Am I certified or not? Blah blah blah. No, and actually they're trying to resonate with you, right? With the story behind behind the person. And that type of skin in the game you had, I mean, this is like French kiss, you know. I really like it. I mean, e it's so powerful, obviously. And you know, of course, whenever we're aiming toward the next chapter, there's always something we're refining in the process. Totally. Yeah. So why are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business?

Charlotte Ferreux 17:46

Yeah, I mean, I um like I said, I'm I'm shifting. I still will always do one-on-one coaching. That to me is like it's just a heart-connected service that I will always do. Playing around with different group options right now. I like I mentioned before, I like relaunched my podcast, all like in in letting go of my old identity. I also have to had to shift kind of like the verbiage and how I was showing up, like in terms of, yeah, again, I I often would joke, like my clients always knew everything that I had to offer, but in terms of what I was sharing publicly, I wasn't always sharing like all the different things that I was doing. There was this like little part of me that was like holding back, like, well, because I live in a small town, or I, you know, like people know me how they know me, like what would they think? You know, there was all those like little like moments of like, you know, if I'm, you know, utilizing like, you know, Reiki or like, you know, doing different modalities that weren't the conventional performance-based, like, here's how I show up, you know, and just very like, not stiff, but just polished and professional. And this next level has been how raw, real, and authentic can I get? And it required me to let go of what does it look like to not be polished and professional all the time and like to do that when you need to with certain clients, but in terms of how I was stepping into my online presence, you know, I've got kind of a different story that I tell on Instagram and then very, very raw and real on TikTok. And then I'm very, you know, a little bit more polished and on LinkedIn. So I've got kind of three different personas that I showcase different sides of my personality on and just really understanding my lane. And that's what I've really been working in on is focusing in on my one-on-ones and then opening up these new streams that soon will be launched. I'm also a master trainer when it comes to coaching. So a big part of this next level will also be helping coaches truly step into their mastery. I've I've worked with, I've had so much experience that I really feel like that's a huge benefit that I could give now is helping other people not just be good coaches. Like there's so many coaches, and it's not regulated, and I've kind of got not beef around that, but it's it's to really like our time that we spend with our clients, like that's nothing to joke about. And some people are a little wishy-washy around that, but like you're whole you're holding information of somebody's life that they might not even be sharing with their partners. And so just really like, you know, just bringing more into the coaching space around that and just being so masterful in our work. I was very blessed to be mentored by somebody who that was their approach always. And that was my beginning point of coaching. And so um I won't ever let that part go. So that's what I'm carving out is like how I'm showing up, what offers are going to be connected into teaching people how to be incredible coaches as well as coaching themselves. Because if you hear in my story, I do my own work. I don't just teach and facilitate a process that I'm like, hey, this is for you. I live, breathe, breathe, eat every single thing that I teach and I coach outwards.

Pedro 21:00

Okay. I mean I a hundred percent can resonate with the I would say corporate life. I've worked in banking, worked with Ernest Young and sometimes it feels like we're just burying our true selves, you know, we're it's not like we're stiff but sometimes we're trying to adapt, right? And forget who we really are. I'm not sure if that's something that resonates with you, but when you told me that we're not that vulnerable in the corporate world, right? I mean at least this is how I feel it. And yeah, like I said, just thinking out loud like based on what you said. And I want to tap into your experience for a second, you know, because people listening can really benefit from this. I mean you've been in the long in the game long enough to hear all kinds of business advice, you know? Some that sticks, some that really doesn't. So what's one piece of business advice you hear all the time that you think this is kind of overrated or misunderstood?

Charlotte Ferreux 21:59

Oh gosh, okay so many. The one that just pops up first and foremost is that you need to absolutely know your niche and just stay within it. I don't there's some truth to it for sure. I think you need to know yourself and stay within your limits. Do you and your those limits actually isn't a ceiling. It's the more you experience you have the more you grow. But when you are clear on what the outcomes are that you can deliver physically, energetically, verbally, transformatively whatever it is that it is that you're doing that's your niche is what like because when I look at like the grand scale, I've got people in all types of niches do you know what I mean? Like and I think people get really take that very literally and it sometimes holds people back from just get in the game, start to do some work, stop needing this perfect process right at the beginning. You will figure yourself out and you will figure out your business as you keep going but too many people have stopped not even doing the work won't even step forward because they don't have this perfect polished thing that they want to step into.

Pedro 23:02

Okay. And on the other side, you know what's a piece of advice you wish more people actually took seriously advice that people take more seriously.

Charlotte Ferreux 23:11

I mean everything starts and stops with you. So again maybe tied to what I just shared, your ability to just step in and get going is the only thing that matters. If you don't have belief in yourself and you're too much caught into overthinking and overwhelm and perfectionism, you need to you need to be you like there's there's something there that is blocking you from because then our ability as coaches to coach is to be able to help other people unlock those things. But if we're blocked energetically you're stifling the process of the person on the other side at certain potentially at certain parts. And you don't even know what you don't even know. Our job is to rem to be like unblocked and to go and to like move and to pivot and shift and figure things out along the way and trust in that process. That's what I would share.

Pedro 24:00

Get going I love or get coached yeah I love that I felt like you were talking to me I was like yeah Charlotte gets me I'm you know BSing my way around here I should hear her more thanks for the coaching session the free coaching session Charlotte I appreciate it I mean yeah that's so true. And Charlotte if someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work where can people find you and connect with you?

Charlotte Ferreux 24:26

Well my name is one that's quite unique. There might only be one or two of us in this world so CharlotteFurough.com is my website you can find me on Instagram LinkedIn TikTok um just and then my podcast is Shift with Charlotte and it's under most of the most of the major like iTunes and Spotify and all of that. Yeah.

Pedro 24:49

Cool you know there were a few things you share today that really stay with me you know being a single parent and adding coaching on top of that it's like you really like a challenge right Charlotte so yeah go for it. I really like that I mean that's so powerful. I mean I'm a a dad of two boys I I am married but wow if with two it's so hard which it is right being a parent imagine you don't have that type of support so I commend you on that. Thanks for yeah please go ahead.

Charlotte Ferreux 25:23

Yeah I was gonna say coaching made me a better parent coaching continues to make me a better parent. My kids are teenagers now one's just stepping into being a teenager my son is older and they benefit from the coaching. They hear me they see how I show up they see how I am with my clients they watched me in my grind my hustle they watched me when I had to pull back and like take care of myself you know both of my kids you know doing athletics in their own side I'm now actually taking the tools that I use with adults and helping youth you know getting them into meditation visualization eth work like all these different modalities biggest gift ever was I trusted that nudge and stepped into service the way that I needed to and I followed that along. So my kids are better for it 100%.

Pedro 26:09

That's so cool. You know and how and also on top of what I was talking about the the the highlights I would say it's how you naturally evolved you know from consulting to coaching and and also on top of that something that really brings my attention to it's how the fact that you burned out right you had established business you got your aha moment I'm not commending you for burning out I'm just playing this is this is something that I think empowers you you know and being able to own it the way you did just on this podcast saying hey this happened and this is how I dealt with it you know I I really appreciate it. So Charlotte I appreciate what you're doing. I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. It was great having you on thank you so much for having me.

Davis Nguyen 26:58

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 dot com