The Impact of Your Relationships on Business Success with Laura Kline-Taylor

Catherine A. Wood  00:02

Hey, Laura, welcome to the podcast. Here we are. I know we were I was sharing with this with you before we hit record but I, it feels really synchronistic that we’re recording this episode together to share about you your our journey together and the role that you play in our new emerge mastermind that’s launching at the end of this month because it is a program for new entrepreneurs for new Empath entrepreneurs, and you have been such a part of my own journey as an empathic entrepreneur. And so it feels like just full circle, like completely full circle.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  00:49

Yeah, totally. It makes sense in a different kind of way. Well, yeah.

Catherine A. Wood  00:58

I feel like we’re still finding our footing. Okay, Haley, let’s just like, record out some of that like, like back and forth. Well, why don’t we jump in, and perhaps you can share with our audience a little bit about who you are and your journey to becoming a coach.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  01:19

Cool. Yeah. So who I am, I am a mother of two. I am a wife, I live in Rochester, New York, I use my business name, Laura Klein, Taylor coaching, that’s my maiden name, I identify so much with my surname. But my married name is ro Thau. So if you see a long string of names in the copy, that I just interweave between who I am in business and who I am at home as a mother, sometimes it feels choppy and messy. And sometimes it feels totally integrated and flowing. But I always introduce myself, first and foremost as a mother, especially because who my clients are our working mothers, there are people who are bosses at work and their bosses in business and their bosses at home. And sometimes it’s a struggle, and sometimes it flows. And so I really like to lead with the, I’m on this journey with you sort of vibe and that feels fulfilling to me, and I get the feedback that it also really helps to have some relatability components with my clients. I my my clients are mostly entrepreneurial spirits, if they’re not entrepreneurs themselves, they have this really creative leadership, quality that leads in their work. I live in Rochester, New York, as you know. But I’ve built mostly a virtual business. And now that we’re out of COVID, I’m trying to get a lot more local programs and workshops up and running, which is exciting. Literally,

Catherine A. Wood  03:02

I love I love how you say that in your marketing that you coach entrepreneurial spirits, and spiritual entrepreneurs. I resonate with that so deeply. And I’d love for you to share a little bit about your work prior to coaching because I feel like that part of your career plays a lot into your work with education and training. And yeah, I’d love for you to share a little bit more about about who you work for becoming a mother and a coach.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  03:36

You know what, today is September 5, and 18 years ago today, I got an airplane to move to Madrid. Ah, I always remember it the fifth of September because it was also the day Hurricane Katrina came and I couldn’t care less at the time what was happening in the world because I was so tunnel vision on where I was going on my own personal journey across the globe. And it was that moment. I just wrote an email actually to the first Spanish school that hired me to be their educational director, saying thank you, and all that it set me up for so. After I lived in Spain for three years, I pursued a master’s in international education. And it was sort of something I couldn’t not do. I taught English overseas. And so I wanted to learn all of the theory behind that. And I just pursued a career from that point on in intercultural communication and human development. And it’s just a passion of mine to be curious about how people interrelate and how cultures interrelate and how we can become more curious and open minded by having to live outside of our comfort zones culturally. And that’s just something I’m passionate about as a human but it huli teed me up for coaching, because coaching is human development. And it’s all about how we can step outside of our comfort zone, if not geographically and culturally, just spiritually and energetically as well.

Catherine A. Wood  05:13

That’s something I really appreciate. I don’t know, if I’ve ever shared this with you, it’s something I really appreciate with you, in our partnership, because because of your background in education and training, like I have it that you listen with another layer, that myself as a coach and an economist by training like that, I do not always think or facilitate through like AI. I have noticed about myself over the years that I’m often short with words, and I like think things very literally. And I say it once, and I mean what I say and I say what I mean, and then I just assume that other people understand. And with our partnership, like I’ve come to really trust that if what I say doesn’t land, like if people don’t understand what it is that I intend that I have you to partner with to ensure that the understanding is comes through. And I like I just so appreciate that having that educators listening provides like such a lovely balance to my own listening.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  06:24

That’s cool. Yeah, I, I really, I never thought of it that way either. But there’s like a data, data results kind of way of listening. And then there’s like an educator, teacher way of listening. And it’s a cool balance. Huh?

Catherine A. Wood  06:41

Yeah. I love you. Um, well, let’s, let’s chat a little bit about, like about who we are to each other? Because I think we’ve played a really integral role in each other’s business journeys for almost the past decade now. And iterative, for sure. So many iterations do you want to start or shall I

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  07:12

start with when I hired you on your birthday, I forced ever coach and didn’t know a lot about you. Because I was in such a, like, Coach client dynamic, I had set up this, this dynamic in our relationship, that it’s one direction, I get to be vulnerable and exposed, and you get to see all my life and all my things. But I think I positioned you as the expert, and the professional, the one not to be so available. But then as we coached over the month, it became something that I almost needed, right to feel like, I could grow and trust you and open up further. And so I would ask you questions about yourself and your own training, because I loved your knowing that you were starting off as a coach. And I had this suspicion that you knew something that I wanted to know about coaching and working with humans. So I would like, try to scratch it, your experience when it wasn’t the reason we were meeting necessarily, but I always wanted to go over on our calls to hear about you.

Catherine A. Wood  08:30

And I mean, I always appreciate that about the beginning of our journey, because coaching is such an energetic exchange, right? It’s not just one way even if a coach is being of service and holding space for a client, to process and to grow and to become the coach is always being impacted, too. You know, and I, I often, I think, at that point in my journey was still learning, like, how much do I share? How much do I hold back? How much of me do I put in the space versus create more space for my clients process? And that’s something I’ve certainly grown and leaned into over the years. But you know, I heard you say that, like, you felt like I had some knowledge that you wanted. And I guess like the the theme that I hear and that is confidence, like I was supporting you in claiming more confidence and you were absolutely doing that same thing for me, you know, like, i You are my very first client and it took me 36 knows it took me 36 sample sessions 36 invitations to work with me until I got my very first Yes, which was you and that was such a confidence boost for me and I then gets, it’s so much a part of that experience for new entrepreneurs, like, how much do I need to put myself out there in order to claim that very first win? And what is it going to take in order to generate that first client? And who do I need to become in order to generate the result? And like, I always think, like, what if I had stopped at 35? What if I hadn’t asked for that referral, or put myself out there one more time, or made the vulnerable ask? And I think that energetically like that, that is so much a part of the journey for new entrepreneurs, it’s like stepping into their own confidence, claiming that space, discovering who they need to become in order to thrive. And we so often don’t get that when we start our own businesses, we don’t understand how much about business is a mindset journey.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  11:01

And I don’t think we hear enough of the stories of the behind the scenes before the results. For me, I learned from the the experts and the people who were doing it and then compared myself to them. And so that word confidence is really powerful, because I think it’s the confidence that you can, that I could do that while also knowing the humanity that was there. And then like I could relate to that, oh, whether it was you or another coach, I met on the journey, like they didn’t have it all figured out in the beginning to that doesn’t make me different or bad or wrong. That just makes me on this journey. So it was like a cool modeling that we did.

Catherine A. Wood  11:45

Totally, yeah. Okay, so that’s kind of how we started. And then our relationship iterated, as you really made that career switch for yourself. And we both registered in the same coach training program. And then we became colleagues. And in the first iteration of becoming colleagues,

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  12:10

yeah, we became colleagues just because we were both on this journey to coach training. And I remember marveling every time you shared, like a cool new decision you had made for your business, whether it was like higher rates or a different demographic that you were going to pursue. You always spoke about it with, like Glee, and pride. And I that has always stuck with me. But then we became colleagues by way of like, sitting in the same room and training the same cohort of people. And rooming together while we did that.

Catherine A. Wood  12:51

Yeah, so for those who don’t know this, about my, or Laura’s journey, after we both graduated from the coach training program, we stayed on as mentors, and coaches, trainers, and we helped train new coaches. And, you know, they say if you want to master something, teach it. And for me, that part of my own experience, and I know yours to Laura, like it was so deeply supportive training other coaches as we built our own practices, our own personal inquiry, our own contextual lens and listening, and kept ourselves humble along the way. And I think that that’s really important to say, at this point in the, I guess, the journey of the coaching industry, because I see so many people calling themselves coaches, or doing a weekend training and then claiming master coach, and it’s like, you know, our program was a year long, we worked with a coach every week, that whole year, it was in multiple five figure investment, like it was, it was a commitment. And that means something to me, and I I appreciate that about kind of who we are and how we run our businesses is just the level of integrity and reverence we hold for being credentialed coaches, to the international coaching Federation, and our both individual and collective commitments to our own personal growth. Since then, since, you know, 2014 for me and 2015 for you.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  14:33

Yeah, absolutely. The investment was of every kind. And it wasn’t just the honing of the coaching skill set. It was the partnership and the accountability, that having others like you on the team to sort of build the coaching practice and the business side of it, because that was something that had to happen alongside right to to really turn ran into the business that we wanted. So that is completely a necessity in my mind, as far as building a new business is having a group of people around you who are doing the same thing or a year or two ahead or behind just for that. Like the generational growth that can happen with somebody who’s doing the same thing a little bit ahead or a little bit behind.

Catherine A. Wood  15:27

Yeah, and the camaraderie and the accountability and the inspiration that can be created through that experience of building a business and community. And in that collegial way, like, and I think that honestly, that’s such a part of my own passion about running the mastermind is just seeing that, like that third, that third mind, that mastermind that can be created when you bring varying perspectives and energies and gifts together, like just, you know, the, I guess the quote is a rising tide lifts all boats, and like I really, I really believe that. And I’ve experienced that personally. And one of my very favorite stories about you. During that kind of that iteration of our journey was when we were playing a game to get hired. And you were playing a game to get hired that weekend. And I don’t do remember the goal you’d set for yourself.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  16:38

I think it was three. I was gonna get hired by three people that weekend.

Catherine A. Wood  16:42

That weekend. Yeah, you wanted to get hired by three clients in one weekend. Which, you know, like, when we relate to business as a game. Anything’s possible when we take our journeys, our experiences significantly, or we’re attached to the outcome. Like, we don’t necessarily get to have fun along the way, but subject to you and fun. So, yeah, so you were playing a game to get hired by three clients that weekend. And I was so inspired by who you were being in the process. And I know you know what I’m going to share but like you were in the hot tub. Pregnant.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  17:30

They were in the hot tub. I was pregnant.

Catherine A. Wood  17:35

You were pregnant with your feet in, right? No, I

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  17:37

walked over to them. Oh my gosh, you just cold approached them in the hot tub. Oh my gosh. Okay.

Catherine A. Wood  17:45

I forgot that tidbit. So imagine this, y’all like Laura’s pregnant, like very pregnant and a beautiful, pregnant with her second baby. So she’s, you know, been there before. And she’s playing a game to get hired. And so she goes and approaches? Was it a couple in the hot tub?

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  18:05

I knew the mom. I knew she was a mom. But it was a mom with her two boys, like, who were off to the side. And she and her partner. Were very, very expressive with the affection publicly.

Catherine A. Wood  18:23

Okay, and so how did the story go from there?

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  18:28

She looked approachable enough. And I was feeling bold enough that I just sat down and said, Hey, what do you guys do in here and strike up a conversation, knowing my intention was to invite her to a sample session and to explore coaching with me. But whatever I sensed about her and her family vibe, was spot on, because she turned out to be an entrepreneur, married to an entrepreneur. And so she was an ideal client that I never would have met had I not been trying to do this crazy thing of getting hired that day.

Catherine A. Wood  19:05

Oh, my gosh. And you so you got hired by that client? Yeah. And then you got hired a second time by someone that you approached. Again, pregnant, sitting at a

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  19:20

bar. Drinking my ginger ale,

Catherine A. Wood  19:25

Ginger bale. And for me, like that story, sums up so many things like first of all, it sums up the like the the inspiration, the courage, the bravery that’s possible when you lean into, like the collective power of a group container and being challenged to step outside of your comfort zone. One. On a second level, it speaks to me something that I really see that you bring to our partnership that that is not one of my strengths, like having that willingness to just go up to people and approach them and invite them to a conversation, I have become like, like, that’s just not my style, that’s not my vibe, I so much more inclined to harvest relationships and to nurture relationships over time and to, like, attract them to me versus go after them. But you’re, you’re like going after it. And this is such a lovely balance. Like, it’s like that beautiful blend of the masculine and the feminine, which I think that we we balance each other out in different ways. Because I think, in other ways of building a building my business, I think, like, I bring a lot more of the masculine energy of like, doing what I will, doing what I say I’ll do, by when I’ll do it, following through, like, my integrity with my word is something that I’ve nurtured over the years. And, and you on the other hand, like have this like very receptive flow and welcoming and like, just like a grace, that, that I think is like a lovely, just like a lovely way that we balance out energies, which I think is so important when you’re building out a business, like you have to learn how to balance the hustle with the flow.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  21:29

Yes, and to be an action without losing the joy or the opportunity, right, and that thing that people are connected to when they choose to hire you, right? I love that you named the polarity because it is it’s like a dance of polarity. And we and we take turns. But I also love how how delighted you are with those stories, because they make me laugh when you tell them. But had I not had the like healthy sense of urgency. Had I not had other people telling me it was fun. Like that team game dynamic. I don’t know that I would have done it. So I I love that you remind me of these stories, because there’s so much more like the idea that a half moon becomes nine times brighter when it’s full, not two times, right? Because you just add that layer and it just becomes so much more potent and radiant. Thinks possible with a partnership like that.

Catherine A. Wood  22:40

I love that. So then, let’s see. So then our relationship continued to evolve. We I myself first exited the coach training role. You followed, I think, a year after I did, right, yeah. And in that time, I launched the mastermind, the unbounded mastermind, and I think you joined you joined the mastermind when I was in the third cohort.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  23:09

I joined 2021

Catherine A. Wood  23:12

Yeah, July 2021.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  23:13

Yeah.

Catherine A. Wood  23:15

I think we were in the third cohort then. And and I, I mean, I love I love the energy you bring to a room I think like as a participant. I always love like your willingness to just put your process on loudspeaker and let people in. I think that that like willingness to be vulnerable and transparent, invites others vulnerability and willingness to participate you know, it’s just like such an inviting energy and then when you graduated, I was so ready for more partnership and wanting to Yeah, wanting to like rely on someone else in my facilitation of the program to really break up with that idea that I had to do things on my own and I invited you to jump on board and and be a co coach with me in the mastermind and and then our relationship iterated again.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  24:27

Yeah, we became co facilitators. It almost like repeated the pattern, right? Like when I hired you as the coach and facilitator of the unbounded mastermind. It supported my exiting the coach training program, right because it was a structure that allowed me to transition out of this other structure that had been so supportive for me but with with an energy of more humanity I I really was longing for more of the business strategies that I hadn’t developed in the coach training program, even though I could have what I focused on was community and developing the coaching skill set. And what I was missing was some really basic relatable skill sets, for entrepreneurship for business building, having a background in education with parents who were educators, I knew the academic world really, really well. And I didn’t, I was the first entrepreneur to step out into that into that role. And I was missing some things. And so the mastermind community really filled in some basics that I didn’t even know that I was needing. And so that sort of realigned some things that I was looking for before I could, before I could really claim the six figures, and then step into that new level of partnership with you.

Catherine A. Wood  26:11

Yeah, I appreciate you speaking to that. And, you know, for our listeners, if you haven’t already listened to the first episode, where I interviewed Laura, we chatted all about Laura’s work in the coaching world, and all the work that she does with cycle wisdom. So well, we’ll link that in the show notes in case you’d like to tune into that episode. It’s really interesting. But energetically, when I brought Laura into the role as the CO coach, in the mastermind, I was also creating space for me to step into the next iteration of my business yet again, because, you know, we all know that when we want to scale and grow a business, once we’ve reached a level of stability, we have to create space to remove ourselves from the day to day operations of our business and and having partnered with people in the past, and having experienced some challenges, and a whole lot of learnings on that journey, like I was really interested in. Gosh, like dipping a toe. Again, in partnering with someone who I knew shared the same values, shared the same integrity, had the same level of training and commitment to their own personal growth that I did. So you were such a safe place for me to lean into my next edge in business. And I think for Empath entrepreneurs, that’s such an important reminder, because relationships are the lifeblood of our business. And I say this a lot. But, you know, our businesses will only thrive to the degree that our relationships do and for Empath entrepreneurs, it’s so important to nurture values aligned relationships over time. And most of our relationships don’t end we iterate, we reinvent, we change roles, we change the dynamics, like so many of my clients have become friends. One of my early clients was one of my bridesmaids like, that’s I think that’s just such a gift of who we are in the business world as we are endless relationship. And so I think that our partnership really models that level of reinvention in relationship. And I think I’m just putting this together for myself, but it also models a level of transparency and, and vulnerability that is available inside of empathic relationships because, you know, we can heal or reinvent or handle any conflict inside of relationship.

Laura Kline-Taylor Roethel  29:06

Yes. And we, as human partners have had our opportunity to practice what we preach, right, like we’re not always, like, perfectly partnered. And I think that when we can sort of talk through something and have difficult conversations, knowing that we’re in a safe place, it just allows for a greater depth of relationship to to open up and so it’s it’s delightful and something I’m so grateful for in our partnership, that there’s nothing that we can’t get through together because of our training and we kind of trust that that is at the foundation, but also the the years of relationship and the degree to which we practice. I

Catherine A. Wood  29:50

wish I had had that wisdom when I first started out like that, you know, as I would let go of relationships along the way. I discover what I needed to keep relationships, what I wanted in order to reinvent those relationships to iterate and evolve in those relationships. And I think that, you know, that’s just something you learn as you practice being a heart centered entrepreneur and allow your, the journey to unfold. So cool. So, this has been lovely. I think. I just want to leave our listeners with a couple of invitations. So if you want to, just to experience like a little bit more of being with Laura and myself as you consider whether the eMERGE mastermind might be a fit for you, we have one more non networking power hour that’s coming up on Monday, September 18, at 12 noon, Eastern Time, we will link to the registration in the show notes in case you’d like to join us. We’ll also include the link for the eMERGE mastermind in the show notes in case you’d like to learn more about our brand new offering for early entrepreneurs in their first one to three years of business. Enrollment for the program closes on Friday, September 22. And we begin the last week in September. We would love to have you join us if you’re looking for your next support structure or container to find your footing as an empath entrepreneur. We love talking about this stuff. Clearly. We’d love to support you along your way. And thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you next week. Thanks for being here. Laura. Hi.