#176 The biggest mistakes coaches make, with Sofia Bernardi
Today on the podcast, I’m thrilled to welcome Sofia Bernardi, a mindset and business coach known for her refreshing honesty and dedication to helping her clients. In our conversation, Sofia shares invaluable insights into her journey, the importance of mindset in business and the frequent pitfalls coaches encounter when focusing on scaling their businesses.
Voted as one of the top 30 coaches to look out for in 2021 by the New York City Journal, as well as building a million dollar business by the age of 26, Sofia strives to help women build confidence and create sustainable businesses. She successfully does so with a methodology underscored by simplicity, authenticity and scalability.
Mindset is Key
Sofia believes that 80% of our success lies in our psychology - also known as mindset. She shares her own journey of starting her business at 22, where she felt inadequate to call herself a business coach - or anything else, for that matter.
What gave her the ability to overcome her self-doubt were the tools she’d gained through personal development. She utilised them to build the self-confidence needed to chase her dreams, and encourages us that even without having achieved huge milestones in our careers, adopting a mindset of self-belief and clarity can hugely support us to grow.
Common Mistakes Coaches Make
Having learnt a lesson or two in what not to do in business, Sofia shares the mistakes she personally made when starting out, and ones she sees many other business owners struggle with. She highlights the dangers of dabbling in too many strategies and the myth of instant gratification. Instead, she believes in the importance of consistency and focusing on what feels right for the individual.
Sofia's advice: simplify your approach, choose one or two strategies that feel right and natural to you and commit to them with consistency. This approach not only prevents overwhelm but also builds a strong, sustainable foundation for growth.
Avoiding Burnout and Maintaining Balance
Burnout is a critical issue for many, especially women who juggle multiple roles. Sofia shares her framework for avoiding burnout, which includes staying organised, delegating tasks and creating a business that aligns with your ideal life. She emphasises the significance of putting personal priorities first and letting the business fill in around those priorities. By focusing on alignment and balance, Sofia believes entrepreneurs can achieve long-term success without sacrificing their well-being
Sofia is a beautiful soul and extremely generous in sharing the insights she has gathered through her experiences. She makes things really simple for us as business owners, and I know you’ll be as inspired as I am to embrace your uniqueness and do what’s right for you in your business.
Listen in and get ready to learn all about building a simple, scalable business that supports a life you love.
Full Transcript:
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[00:00:00]
Tracey: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Rise Up in Business podcast. I'm joined by a guest today of whom I've loved talking to. And I know that there's going to be so many little nuggets of gold that you're able to take away and utilize in your business straight away.
I'm delighted to share with you today's episode with Sofia Bernardi. Sofia is a mindset and business coach, and she's such a beautiful breath of fresh air to talk to. And she's so generous in what she shares. And she's so candid and open about her journey and the way she works with her coaching clients.
Sofia is going to talk a lot about the methodology she uses in her business, how [00:01:00] authenticity has been so important in her journey. The biggest mistakes she sees business owners make in the coaching space when they're focusing on scaling And we resonate on so many really important parts of the business journey, especially for women. Really excited to share this with you. And I hope that you enjoy listening as much as I've enjoyed having this conversation with Sofia. Let's dive in.
Sofia. Hello. Welcome to the podcast.
Sofia: Hello, thank you so much for having me.
Tracey: It's my pleasure. We've been talking about this for a while, so I'm so happy to have you on the podcast because I know that my listeners are gonna get so much value out of the little nuggets of gold that you're about to share with them. First of all, I just want to really focus here on something I find so powerful in what you do.
You're a business coach, but you're a mindset coach. I don't think you can have a really successful business if you don't do the work on your mindset. That's my personal view. So when you and I started working together a little while [00:02:00] ago, I thought, gosh, this is just magic. Mindset and business coaching all in one.
Can you tell us about that? How did that start?
Sofia: Yeah, I totally agree. I really believe that 80 percent of success is your psychology, right? Also known as your mindset. And it all started because when I started my business four and a half years ago, I had just turned 22 years old. I was not in a position to be a business coach or anything else for that matter.
The only thing I had really you know, quote unquote accomplished at that time that I felt in a position to help people with is I had really gone from this place of having so much fear and self doubt and, no idea what to do with my life and all of those sorts of things to learning certain tools, uh, in the personal development space.
space to really conquer that fear and build that unstoppable confidence in myself. And so at the time I didn't have any amazing business results or any, you know, huge financial milestones or anything like that. But what I did have was finally the confidence to go off to my dreams. And that was a [00:03:00] step ahead of, you know, some people that are where I was, which is not having the confidence or the clarity to go after their dreams.
And so I started as a mindset coach and that's how my business grew so rapidly to begin with. And. As the business started to really grow, I just naturally had a lot of coaches then come to me saying, how are you doing it? Like, I'm a coach too. I'm following the same process as you are. We're in the same program.
Why are you growing? And I'm not and all the things and very slowly through that just coming naturally to me. I transitioned to helping coaches. People to grow their business. I thought, Oh, I'll just teach them what it is I do and what it is. I know mindset being, you know, a piece of that for sure. And I didn't really want to let go of the mindset piece because that was what supported the business to grow.
And so I've paired that with the strategy, knowing that that's very, very supportive if you want to actually enjoy the journey of business rather than hate it.
Tracey: You've just said something that I just want to [00:04:00] dive into, and that is the journey. So thank you for sharing that about your journey and for providing that context. That's so inspirational for so many people. And I know that. There'll be people listening to this thinking, Oh my gosh, that's me. I don't have the clarity or is it the confidence that's holding me back?
Oh my gosh, look at what Sofia's achieved. Look at what Wow. The journey. It is the journey, isn't it? I've never been a person to say I'll be happy when, or I'll be successful then when it's the journey.
Sofia: Yeah.
Tracey: So when we talk the work that you do, and you teach people what it is that you've done to experience such a beautiful journey and such organic, authentic growth, you talk about. Your methodology and when I listened to you on your podcast and I listened to you, when we talk, the theme that comes consistently through is simple, sustainable, scalable.
Sofia: Yes.
Tracey: This is powerful because I often find that we overeat the pudding a lot as business owners. We [00:05:00] make things more complicated than they need to be. Social media, the digital age. Oh my goodness. We get caught up in all the noise and all the things and we have to be doing all the things and. We all know how that ends and it doesn't end well.
So when you talk about the way you work with your clients and you talk about creating scalable results in business in a beautifully aligned way. That would magnetise so many coaches to you. Many that I know that are magnetised to you. And your website is testament to your results and the quality and the feedback that people give in terms of their experience with you.
But what I want to talk about is the mistakes that people make, because I see a lot of mistakes in the work that I do with people who grow way too fast, but that's from a legal perspective. So I would love to hear from you on sharing with us some of the biggest mistakes you see coaches making when they're focused on growth and scaling, where is it that you see them most [00:06:00] commonly fall into error?
Sofia: Yeah. It's a really great question because the reason why I speak about simple, sustainable and scalable is because of these mistakes that I see that stop people from creating that. And I also want to preface in my answer that a lot of these mistakes I'm going to share are also mistakes that I've made at one point, and that's why I believe them so thoroughly.
One of the big mistakes that I made and that I see a lot of people make is dabbling in too many things. You know, I had this core belief in the beginning of my business that there was some magical secret to success. And so you best believe I went on this mission to find it. And I invested in so many programs and courses and masterminds and containers to find this missing secret. Now I'm a big fan of investing in yourself. That is not what the message here is to not do that. Like the reason I am here is because of investing in myself and showing up fully for that. However, if you're doing it [00:07:00] from the lens constantly of like, you don't have enough and there's something missing rather than actually doing the work and applying what's in front of you.
That's a big mistake that I see. And sometimes it can take time. Uh, like it did for me to find your person, like find your coach and find your approach, but once you do find them, it's so important that you trust the process. You trust your coach and you trust yourself, right? This is really, really important because if you just dabble in everything, so you dabble in having one, two, three, four different offers, you're on every single social media platform in the beginning, you're doing all of the strategies trying to find the thing that's just going to get you that instant gratification.
That's a big mistake that I see what has really worked for me and really supported my clients, and this is where the simplicity part comes in, is stripping it right back and mastering a select number of things. So instead of having three different offers, start with one and really grow that and get a lot of people in it.
[00:08:00] Because if you're half doing it, adding another offer is not the solution. Like there are lessons that still need to be learned there in order to create the growth that you're after. So start with one offer and nail that. And I was able to grow my business to over a million dollars, just having one offer, and I think that that's really important.
And I just see so many coaches over complicating it. Same with social media platforms. They're following so many coaches. Someone's saying TikTok's where it's at. Another says Instagram. The next person says Facebook groups. Another person says Facebook ads, and it's very confusing. And I'm just going to like, spill the secret for everyone. There is no secret. All of those platforms work. So just pick one and double down on it. It's not that one is better than the other. It's going to come down to what feels good for you, which is why I talk about alignment because I used to do this coach hopping and dabbling thinking I was missing something.
And what that meant was I was sometimes doing strategies that didn't feel good. [00:09:00] I was sometimes showing up on platforms that I didn't love showing up on, like dancing on Tik Toks. It's not what I like doing. And yet I was doing it at one point because that's what you had to do. Whereas when I started to really trust myself and go all in on one process that actually felt good for me, that's where things started to work.
So that's a really big mistake that I see.
Tracey: So much, so much gold that you've just shared. I'm loving this. Keep it simple, strip it back, focus on one thing at a time. There'll be people listening to this, nodding along, thinking, Oh my gosh, Sofia's just described me. I'm doing all the things and I feel really nervous and this feels really uncomfortable.
You said the secret is there is no secret. Do what feels right for you. So let's talk about that. Doing what feels right for you. It's easier said than done though, isn't it?
Sofia: A hundred percent because you know, this can so easily be misinterpreted. So let me clear this up. It's this nice balance of do what feels right for you and in terms of like, trust your gut feeling, like if you [00:10:00] don't want to be dancing on Tik Toks, please know that there is another way to grow your business as an example.
But then the flip side to this is the also growing your business is uncomfortable at times. It's going to be hard and you're not always going to feel like doing certain things in your business. And so when you have the right approach and you have the right support, you're going to know what tasks are more money making or needle moving tasks.
So for example, like, definitely in the legal space. I can imagine, Tracey, some people probably don't want to send this uncomfortable email to a client about, you know, ending a contract or whatever else. But sometimes we just need to do those things. Right? And so it's this nice balance of, you gotta create a business model that you actually love and you want to show up for, and if you want to grow your business, you also have to be willing to lean in when most people lean out.
Tracey: You've done it again. There's so much in that. You have, and I'm aligned and resonating with everything that you're saying here, [00:11:00] which is one of the many reasons I wanted to have you on the podcast, because I know that my listeners are going to be aligned and resonating with this as well. Leaning in, identifying what it is that you love, that's the first thing. And I feel like sometimes we need permission, particularly as women in business, we need permission to do that because I almost feel like there's almost some guilt around loving my business too much, or I only want to do things I enjoy. That's not how we were programmed. We can do hard things as women.
We can do all the things you can, but there's a difference between grinding and hustling all the time. And there's a season for that in business. Absolutely. But there's nothing wrong for striving for getting up every day and loving your business and loving showing up and loving doing what it is that you do.
That's the place to focus on. According to what you're saying as a coach, as a service based business owner, strip it back, pick something you love, work out what you don't want to do, i.e. dance on TikTok. That's me. I've never danced on TikTok. I've been told I have to, I've refused. I've been criticised [00:12:00] for it, but now people are coming around and people like your lovely self are agreeing that it's okay not to do things that aren't right for you. Knowing what those things are is really important. I'm hearing you say this, knowing what they are
Sofia: Yeah, and that's why, you know, sometimes you do have to try a few things to figure out what do you actually like, what don't you like, which is why I don't have regrets in it, but something I do now with my clients to help prevent, I suppose, taking so much time to figure that out is, the blessing in my journey is that because I've invested in so many different coaches and learned so many different strategies, I'm actually in a position to educate my clients on all of those ways.
And so the way that I teach my clients is I teach them, these are all of the ways you can attract your audience. These are all of the ways you can nurture, and these are all of the ways you can convert because I've done them all and they've all worked for me, which is what I mean by there's no secret because they all work, but the answer isn't to do them all. And so I share them [00:13:00] all and then I give my recommendations, you know, pick one thing here or pick two to three things here and so forth. And that way, you know, my clients can feel deeply supported knowing that they understand what business is, how it works, all of their options, and they're creating a marketing strategy that truly feels good for them because where I've gotten trapped in the past is I've been in programs that are telling me, this is the only way you can grow. There is no other way. And the truth is, we're all different. We have different values. We have different stages of lives. You know, we have different personalities, we have different strengths, and you should play to your strengths, not your weaknesses.
And so, I don't want to box my clients, knowing and respecting that they are all so beautifully unique and different. And so I educate them on all of the ways, but I get them to simplify by not doing all of them, picking just to select number and that way they all walk away with a clear and aligned marketing strategy.
And that's where that word alignment comes from is that [00:14:00] no one's boxed them in, they've chosen it. So therefore it feels good.
Tracey: And something I want to pick up on something you said earlier as well, just off the back of that, you said, move away from wanting instant gratification and consistency. And so I've written down here, consistency is key and certainly that's a value of mine in my personal life and it serves me in business as well, but consistency is key.
So whether it's in personal life at the gym or with your health regime or whatever else it is, when you're learning something new, but what I'm hearing you say is that once you have chosen or selected or identified your passion points or your love, or what lights you up or where you want to focus, then get in, do away with instant gratification, because that can send us spiraling, going around, around in circles, trying to do all the things to get that instant hit, but settle in, buckle down, consistency is key. So can you talk a little about that and how you work with your clients in the context of the consistency, because [00:15:00] business is hard, right?
We all get to a point where sometimes we think, I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, I don't want to do this anymore. It's not working.
Sofia: Yeah. And so this is, you know, one of my favourite conversations because I'd much rather just be the mean guy and be really honest and direct rather than have people come into my world with these really unhealthy expectations and then I need to navigate that. So I'd rather just be spit it out now and then the aligned people will come my way because what would be great for me to say is that business is all easy. It's so fun. It's a walk in the park, you're going to have no challenges. You can just do this post and make so much money. There are moments of all of those things that I said that get to be true. You know, I've written a nine word post and made $10, 000 in a day for it, but is that my reality every single day?
Does that mean that doesn't come with the flip side of having many posts that flop and get no engagement or interaction? You know, there's always the flip side and I just want to be honest with that. But if I was to have this instant gratification and [00:16:00] really unhealthy expectations and, you know, I joined a program, did the post they said, and it flopped and then gave up, that's just not the way to grow a sustainable business model that stands the test of time, you need to be willing to show up in the great times and the not so great times.
In fact, even more so in the not so great times and so consistency is key because if I had jumped to conclusions based on the first time of doing something, Oh, that didn't work. So I'm never going to do that again, I'd be missing out on some pretty incredible clients right now and a really incredible life, to be honest.
So this is where consistency is key is, we're all going to suck the first time we do something. It's about staying in the game. And, you know, I think people misinterpret people's marketing online, unfortunately, or there's a lot of false marketing out there as well, but we don't have these unhealthy expectations in different areas of our life.
For example, we all know you don't go to the gym once and walk out with a six pack. So why do you think the same thing about your business that you do a post once or you [00:17:00] show up for a week and you're meant to be rolling in these $10, 000 months? I think it's really unhealthy. And so, the way that I see it is if you want to create anything extraordinary in your life, whether it's an extraordinary relationship with your significant other, whether it's a healthy relationship with your children, whether it's having a great body and really great health, you've got to work for that.
You've actually got to work for that. That shit's not easy, and the same goes with your business. You've got to put in the time. You don't have to burn yourself out. That's not going to help you to be consistent, but you do need to put in the love, the time, the energy, the effort, just like you do with those other areas of your life that you know, takes work to create something amazing.
Tracey: I love your high-vibing energy when you talk about this. And for those that are listening rather than watching, Sofia's face just lights up when she talks about this. It comes so naturally and easy and you just light up and you're such a delight to talk to, all the time [00:18:00] throughout all of our conversations and discussions, and this is your passion.
This is your soul's purpose. It really is, sharing this with people. I want to close out by talking about burnout because this is something again, yes, men suffer from this, absolutely, but more so in my experience, it's women because we've got 50, 000 tabs open in our head. We carry the mental load. We're doing all the things, we treat rest as a reward rather than a responsibility, we give ourselves a hard time and put so much pressure on ourselves. And something that you stand for is to do all of this with no burnout.
Can you talk about that and just give some insight here because you've shared so much gold, so many little nuggets of gold here, and this is so uplifting. I would just love to get your take on this and to get some context around your approach to this, your thinking on this and your mindset around how it is that we can avoid burnout trying to do all the things.
Sofia: Yeah, so this is a really important conversation and I've not experienced burnout, but I know plenty of people that have, and I know that it's a very serious [00:19:00] conversation. It's something that actually happens to a lot of people. So that's why I speak into it because I just want people to know that you can create an incredible life and incredible business without the cost of your mental health or your physical health and exhaust yourself to the ground. And I've seen a lot of people come and go in this industry. They've had these big skyrocketing wins. People that I used to compare myself to when my mindset wasn't quite strong enough in the beginning, I'd compare like, how are they doing so well only for a few months later or a year later, they're just not in business at all because the way in which they created that wealth, caused them to completely need to shut things down, and when I saw that unfold in real time, that was a big wake up call to not only not compare because you just never know the full picture, but also why there's no rush, no need for instant gratification.
I'd rather build this really strong foundation, go at a pace that feels really good, and that's actually what's going to get me the results that I'm after, but also to hold those [00:20:00] results. So, what really supports me as someone, by the way, who is very much a go getter, very driven, very highly motivated, like I have above average goals, I would say, like, I really want to create as much as I can, if that makes sense in terms of freedom and impact and income. So...
Tracey: Sorry, how old are you?
Sofia: I'm 26.
Tracey: Yes, definitely above average goals. Definitely very high goals we set for ourself over here. Absolutely. Yes.
Sofia: Yeah. So I just want to preface that, you know, I think some people think, well, if I want to have these big goals and big results, I need to burn myself out and actually working hard is the way to get there. But what I've really learned is actually working smarter is the way to get there.
So, to answer your question, the things that have supported me to prevent burnout is one, always working with a coach so that I have the support and I have a process to follow. And this just makes it easier. So something I like to say is you can do hard work, you can do guesswork, or you can [00:21:00] follow a proven framework and I'd rather follow a proven framework.
So that's one thing. And the second thing is to be highly organised, you know, when you're organised, you don't have as many tabs, you know, I know us women, we have a lot of tabs just by default, but we can reduce some of those tabs, right, by being organised and this is something I've noticed you're very good at Tracey, you've got boundaries. You've also got a lot of organisation in the back end of your business. And those sorts of systems and processes allow you to prevent burnout much more than if you're juggling a million things and doing it all yourself. I think delegating as well can be really helpful, not just in your business, but in all areas of your life, you know, getting support, whether that's a cleaner or whether that's a virtual assistant or whatever it might be, you know, we don't need to do it all ourselves.
The last thing I would say is really when you're creating your business, you really want to look at what is the life you want to [00:22:00] actually create? Like, what do you want it to look like? And then you want to make sure all of your decisions in your business reflect that. And I think that that really helps you to prevent burnout because if you're enjoying what you're doing, you know, you're going to feel good about it, but also you're going to be mindful.
Okay, if spending time with your kids is important or your partner or whatever it might be, put that time in your calendar first and the business fills all the time after, rather than the other way around because let's be honest to business owners, we're always going to have something to do.
And so if we were to put business first everywhere, we wouldn't ever have any spare time for these other areas because our to do list just doesn't end. So, that's what I have to say there.
Tracey: Oh, and thank you for sharing that. I think that's a really lovely way to recap and refresh the importance of the conversation around burnout because it's not set and forget. So even as I'm listening to you, I'm nodding along thinking, yes, that's right. Yes, that's right. Oh, yes, I do that. Oh, gosh, no, I've fallen off doing that.
And these are things that I think we need to be listening to regularly [00:23:00] as business owners and knowing that it's not set and forget. Yes, I'm organised, but it's only as good as I am if I use it. I use Monday. com to schedule my business and to schedule my life, but it relies on me actually sitting down and doing a brain dump to get it out of my head.
It's not set and forget. So these are really lovely reminders. And. I'm someone who has experienced burnout, adrenal fatigue. I've lived in masculine energy 97 percent of the time for year after year after year. So I've done all the wrong things. So everything you've shared resonates and there'll be people that are listening along saying, Oh, that's right.
Yes. I've heard that before. Yes. I must do that. Again, taking the pressure off yourself in your business, based on Sofia's approach around stripping it back, focusing on what lights you up, do one or two things at a time, don't get up in the noise, do away with instant gratification, focus on consistency.
It just lends itself to flow and not always ease, but sometimes ease. Flow is [00:24:00] probably a better word because there are seasons in business where we have to hustle. And there are seasons where we don't. But it's a consistent, sustainable way to build a business and to achieve really stellar success. And I love that we've been able to talk about this because it's such an important reminder for business owners.
Just take a moment, pause, listen to a great conversation between two people who really love this stuff and take what resonates with you and leave what doesn't. Sofia, thank you so much for coming on the podcast to have this conversation. I've really enjoyed having you on, and this has just been such fun having this conversation and listening to what it is that you've got to share.
So thank
Sofia: Thank you so much for having me, Tracey. I just love talking about all of this stuff and really helping people, even if it's in the smallest way to be able to move the needle forward.
Tracey: On that note, can you tell us how can we find you?
Sofia: Amazing. So if you're a podcast listener, you're probably gonna want to listen to more podcasts, so I'm I've got a podcast called Rising [00:25:00] Coaches with Sofia Bernardi. I've just interviewed Tracey on there myself as well. And it's just an incredible podcast to have in your ears to learn different tools and tips and tricks and strategies that you can implement into your business.
Otherwise come say hi to me on Instagram. I'm at Sofia Rose Bernardi, and I would love to hear your biggest takeaway from today.
Tracey: Oh, thank you. We'll put those details in the show notes as well. Sofia, thank you so much.
Sofia: Thank you.
Tracey: Oh, there you have it, everyone. I hope you enjoyed listening to Sofia as much as I loved talking to her. You can see the beautiful soul that she is and how generous she is with sharing so openly and honestly her journey and what's really important to her.
I loved how Sofia was able to break it down and make things really simple for us as business owners. Whether we're coaches or service based business owners getting caught up in all the things. And we all do it, me included, sometimes getting caught up in all the things. I loved how Sofia was able to just dive in and just share how she works with her clients and what's been important [00:26:00] to her in her journey, particularly around keeping it simple, scaling it back, focus on one thing at a time, one or two things at a time, not too many and to really unpack what it is that we want to achieve in our business what our ideal life looks like. So doing away with instant gratification, and really honing in on that consistency is key mantra. I love everything about a simple, sustainable and scalable business and the insights that Sofia was able to share with us, little nuggets to take away and implement, particularly around no two lifestyles being the same, no two businesses being the same. No one's goals are the same. I love that. So things can be unique to you and so to do what's right for you. Oh, I really enjoyed this. I hope you did too.
Thank you so much for listening. I'd love to hear from you over on Instagram and share with me your takeaways from this episode. There's so many, so many, I've really enjoyed bringing this to you. Thank you as always for joining me and I'll catch you next week.
[00:27:00]
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