Part 2: Behind The Curtain - How We Co-Coach In The Scalable Freedom Mastermind Without Clashing

We're back for Part 2 of my conversation with Nivek Harrison, our incredible online business manager and longtime co-coach here at Swift Ventures. If you haven't already caught Part 1 of this conversation, make sure you go back and have a listen because there was some absolute gold in there. 

In this second half of the conversation, Niv and I continue to discuss what co-coaching looks like day to day at Swift Ventures, Niv shares some broader thoughts on AI integration and building trust within the team. We also discover a few more insights into Niv's daily rituals as a co-coach and how she manages her energy in the throws of a busy schedule.

We dive into the human element of coaching in an AI-driven world, exploring why empathetic support can never be replaced by technology and how our clients use AI for basics but come to us for strategic, complex, and deeply personal guidance. 

The conversation covers the importance of trust and ownership in co-coaching relationships, including why your co-coach needs to be genuinely invested and care about the business as much as you do. 

Niv shares her personal rituals and boundaries for managing her energy, plus how the flexibility of the mastermind model allows us to adapt to real life while maintaining high standards. We also explore the concept of circular leadership in today's fast-moving business environment and how learning alongside clients has become more valuable than trying to stay five steps ahead.

Key Takeaways from This Episode:

• AI handles the basics but human co-coaches provide irreplaceable nuanced, empathetic support 
• Trust and ownership are essential. Co-coaches must feel invested and care about the business as much as you do 
• Establish rituals and boundaries to protect your energy so you show up recharged for clients 
• Hire for specific strengths and complementary skills rather than trying to know everything 
• Everything in co-coaching comes back to trust and communication

Co-coaching at Swift Ventures has made our business stronger, our client experience richer and the journey a whole lot more fun and rewarding. I know you’re going to love this conversation.

Connect with Nivek Harrison:



Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevirtualchapter/

Podcast:Effortless Online Systems

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LINKS:

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Scalable Freedom Show. I'm your host, Ellie Swift, ex-corporate marketer turned CEO, seven-figure business coach for coaches, creatives and consultants, and program creator of the Mastermind model. I've coached over 1,000 women to make six multi-sticks and seven figures using my signature scalable freedom method. Here I'll give you exact business strategies and lifestyle inspiration to help you do the same. Let's dive in. Hello my friend. I'm so excited to be here with you for two reasons today for this episode. The first is because today is part two of the episode that I'm doing with my incredible co-coach and online business manager, Nevet Harrison. So many of you messaged me and told me how much you loved the episode last week, so I'm really excited to share part two with you. And secondly, because I'm so, so excited to share with you that the doors are now open for a very limited time only for our program, The Mastermind Model. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about this right now, and I'm gonna share another message at the end just to remind you about this. But I just wanted to go into a little bit of information for you before you kick off the episode. Because if you're somebody who listens week to week, you will know that this has been coming. We haven't launched this program for 18 months purely because in that time I went and had a baby and been in first year postpartum. And so I'm really excited to be back sharing this because it's a program that we have had 200 plus students through and we have the most incredible, insane amount of testimonials. So let me just tell you a little bit about what is available right now, only for the next seven days. So the Mastermind model is the instant access program that's helped over 200 students create, sell, and deliver a scalable mastermind. This is the business model that supports you to fast track to 50k plus months. Get ready to create a high-ticket recurring revenue in less time without burning out on a one-to-one or a done-for-you model. So this is the program that is essentially your one-stop shop to create, sell, and deliver an incredible scalable mastermind. My students and I have built multi-six and seven figure businesses, generated client retention above 60%, and created consistent monthly recurring revenue of 20K to 100k plus. Now, if this is what you want in your business, keep listening. We've had the most incredible results from our students. And I know that if you're listening to this and you're considering the program, it's because you are either considering incorporating a mastermind for the first time into your suite of offers for 2025 or 2026 because you know it's time to scale and you want more recurring revenue in less time. Or you're already running a mastermind, but you want to know that you can actually create something that's going to get even more exceptional client results and also something where you can retain your clients and you can continue to refill and scale it to something that is a really serious asset in your business that makes you those 50K plus months. So here's what a mastermind gives you. It's a model that helps you make serious bank. It's a model that gives you the opportunity to still run a premium experience where you can go deep with your clients to help them get the best results. And it's a space for your clients to learn and grow through relationship with their peers. It's a model that gives you more time because your role is both coach and facilitator. Your people learn and grow through their relationships with others as well as with you. You spend less time repeating yourself through one-to-one, and instead you get to share information in a group setting, which creates more impact, more lifestyle freedom for you, and more recurring revenue. So in the mastermind model, I teach you the mastermind model framework. Here is what I will help you do: create a mastermind that you love, is scalable for your business, and is set up to help your clients get the best possible results as the first thing. Secondly, sell your mastermind powerfully, whether it's to your existing clients, past clients, or brand new potential clients. I'll teach you the method designed to increase your sales rate and attract the right clients to your mastermind experience. And the third is deliver an incredible best practice mastermind experience that creates raving client feedback, repeat signups, and industry credibility. Now, if you go ahead to ellift.com forward slash model, you will see so many testimonials, case studies, proof of clients getting incredible results, whether it's a first-time mastermind, people coming in with small audiences, people who have increased their retention rate, people who have increased their engagement rate, people who have gone on to build businesses where they have doubled, tripled their monthly recurring revenue, people who have had 100k plus launches, the list goes on. I'd really encourage you to go and check out those testimonials because I know that it's one thing for me to say that this is an exceptional program. It's a whole other for you to see those results from our students. So the final thing that I want to share with you here, in addition to sharing about this program, and again, go on over, check it out at elyswift.com forward slash model, is that for the first time ever, not only do you get the chance to join the mastermind model, but you also get the opportunity to join the backend membership called the Mastermind Society. Now, this is where you get everything in the Mastermind model plus 12 months of support with me. This is the only place where you get ongoing access and support from myself. That includes two times QA calls per month, one with me, one with my OBM and co-coach Niv, who you'll hear from again today, a private podcast each month where we share with you the QA that comes from those calls, behind the scenes of what I'm doing in my mastermind, what's working well, what I'm adjusting, what I'm changing to fit market demands, needs, and ongoing industry changes. Questions answered Monday through Friday in the portal, a community of humans scaling their mastermind alongside you, and quarterly how does she do that interviews with incredible mastermind leaders that you get to learn from. This is truly the most incredible membership experience that I've been working behind the scenes on for the last few months to create for you. It's the exact space that I wish existed for someone who is both a business owner and mastermind facilitator to really have that feeling of being held whilst running a mastermind and the opportunity to retain, refill, and continue to show up as a mastermind leader. We offer a 14-day money-back guarantee. So this essentially becomes completely risk-free for you. Jump on over to elyswift.com forward slash model. Make sure you join us because there are a whole host of bonuses that you don't want to miss out on for a very limited time over the coming days. Enjoy this episode. Something that I think is really useful to add as a benefit of having support or co-coaches in your business because the recommendation I always give is if things are starting to feel heavy on the front end and there's an element of I can't scale to this next level because I can't hold this much space on the front end, that is usually a sign that you need somebody supporting you on the front end, i.e. a co-coach. There's so many different ways that you can bring them in. That's like really a story for another day. But if things are feeling heavy, a sign to bring in a co-coach. One of the benefits that I see, so context of this is that for 10 years before I started my own business, I worked in marketing and communications agencies. When you sit in an open plan office and you're working with other people all day, every day, you bounce ideas and strategy, marketing, comms, messaging, sales, the best ideas come out of those brainstorms. They come out of like, yeah, let's do this cool strategy, this idea, this whatever. And again, we support high levels. So we give a lot of those recommendations to our clients, like really bespoke, really tailored, really specific. You know, some of the campaign recommendations we've given over the years have generated hundreds and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars for our clients, like specific things. And, you know, something I love about that is that we get to brainstorm together. It's one of the downsides of our industry and the way we're all set up as individuals in our home. And yes, you know, we come together in these masterminds to be able to brainstorm. But having a co-coach with you, someone else coaching your clients with you, where you can brainstorm strategy, brainstorm campaigns, brainstorm a new funnel idea, like that shit is so gold. And we do that a lot, right? So I love that I get to be like, okay, I've got this cool idea for this client. What do you think about it? Or, you know, for me, coming back into the business early days of postpartum, I was like, I'm really, really leaning more into you as being my second brain during this season. If I'd not had as good a sleep the night before or whatever else, like I really, really lent into you during that time. And I kept saying to you, like, hey, I'm really leaning into you here because I'm in a season where I'm just needing that extra support. And so having that is huge. And I think that we create better ideas and show up better for our clients because we have the ability to do that behind the scenes. Is there anything about that process that you would add?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

I don't think so. I think it's one of the things that I really love is getting to go, hey, this is what I'm thinking. What are your thoughts? What are we missing? I like this. What do you think? Like, I personally really enjoy that process. It feels really expensive for me as a process, and it feels like it's we're getting a great result for our clients in doing so. It's really interesting if we think about like 2025, the age of AI, where we're going right now, is I do think there are a lot of people who are leaning on ChatGPT or some version as their quote-unquote co-coach right now. And like, I am the biggest proponent of AI over here. Let's not get anything wrong about that. And also, I think there are ways that you can be doing that that are actually letting your clients down because you're not giving them necessarily expertise, you're giving them a summarized version of what ChatGPT has told you. Yeah. Like, yes, great. Train your AI to be really supportive to help you. And it's never going to replace having a great co-coach that you can have those conversations with, that you are continuing to expand with, who is in there having conversations with your clients, who understands the nuances that each client have, the different, you know, the ways that they learn, they evolve, they are best supported and held accountable because it does look different. And they're the things that you can't really train an AI to do particularly well unless you're going to invest a whole amount of front-end time and energy to do so. And you're going to have to do it for every client over and over again. And that in itself is going to be taxing and a hell of a lot less fun and just having another person in the business that you can have these conversations with.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

You know, someone asked me the other day, are you getting way less questions in your Slack channel now that people can just rely on Chat GPT for really great, you know, sales and marketing and messaging advice? And I answered it and I said, you know what? I really thought that I was going to. Like I truly thought that that was going to be the case to the point where, and gosh, this is just the most transparent podcast episode, which I love so much. Like, so my strengths find a strength is futurist. Like I can think two to five years ahead of what my business needs. It's why I got Jane in the business when we did. Like, I'm good at that shit. Like, that is a huge strength. And I started thinking, okay, so what's it gonna look like when we don't need our Slack channel? Because people would just be, you know, relying on ChatGBT. Like started playing with what that looked like, how we would reinvent things, fully have a plan mapped out in my mind for that reality. Haven't shared it with you because it's not been the reality. But the actual reality is that we're getting the same, if not more, questions than we ever have, but they're better questions. We're not getting like basic questions because those questions are being answered by AI. We're getting really high-level strategy questions, or we're getting our clients who will be like, hey, I've worked with AI to develop these ideas for messaging. What do you think? And then a lot of the time we'll make recommendations of like, that's beige, that's not it, that's really like boring, that's not you at all, that's, you know, that's not unique enough. Because AI is giving you, again, you can train it really well out of this, but it's still giving you something that is not seeing you as clearly as the person that's coaching you. And so that's something I've really loved is that I feel like the quality of our coaching is getting better because we've supported our clients with learning so much around AI that they're using it really well in their businesses. And then they're bringing in these really cool high-level questions of like, we're all using ChatGPT as part of the process. And then they get to lean on us for the bit that they're paying us for, which is like the higher level strategists, the people that really see them, understand their business, can give that nuance.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

I think for a lot of people, and certainly a lot of conversations I was having even six months ago, was what does it look like with AI? Everyone's just going to be able to open Chat GPT and get what they need. And it just hasn't been the reality at all for our space. Like you said, it's almost busier in the best ways because we're getting almost like clients have got so much of the ability to answer a lot of questions for themselves with Chat GPT on the front end and then come in later in the process, which I think is really supportive as well, because you know, we're not running an emergency service, we're not available on the spot. It might be 24 hours before you get a response or it might be across the weekend. So if you can move things forward with the help of AI, fantastic. And if that means you're coming in slightly later in the process at a more deeper processing, like you're further through the thought process to come in and ask the question, we're able to support in in much better ways.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, it's really cool. I'm loving, I'm loving that integration. We're also working with AI as part of like our success plans now. So, for example, you know, I send through a success plan to a client and I'll say to them, so I worked with AI on this section, and then this is what I did. Because again, it's smart business to incorporate it in our processes to deliver better results for our clients. So I'm using it in everything that I do, and then I'm also adding on the marketer, strategist, coach, consultant lens that makes everything really unique, you know, for that client. And I think that the reason we're getting more questions than ever is because our clients are, you know, getting better results and ever advancing their businesses forward. And so they're doing really cool stuff and really in that process of being like, yeah, I need lots of support around different things because I'm moving things forward so quickly.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

The thing that came up for me as you said that was we're being really transparent when we are using AI with clients. And I think this is where I've certainly seen coaches get it really wrong is they've just started using AI to give answers, information, plans, whatever it is to their clients. And they haven't been transparent in the process that this is being generated with AI. Two reasons that I think it's concerning. One, it's not fair to your clients. They're paying for your expertise. They want to know where you essentially come into the process versus, well, I just paid you to join a mastermind and I could have done it in Chat GPT myself. Two, some clients aren't going to be okay with you sharing all of their information with an AI model, with a large language model in any way, shape, or form. So I think the fact that we are continually really transparent about one, how we use it in the business and two, how we use it as part of coaching and those plans in particular. This is how you create trust as a coach in the AI age.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, I so agree with that. It's so cool to play with how masterminds are going to keep changing with AI. And ultimately, you know, as I was putting together a lot of the information, like, you know, you're you're receiving this right now, like we're in a launch. I think you're getting this episode right now, maybe the week before we launch or the week off. It's been so interesting, really playing with the language and messaging for this launch of what I believe about masterminds in this time. And it's so exciting because the community and the energy and everything about a mastermind, it's like, this is more than ever, this is why this is such an incredible business model, because the conversations that people are having in these spaces are the conversations that you're not seeing on the front end. It's it's people being like, hey, like what is actually going on right now? Can someone just give me a clear read on how concerned I need to be, how not I need to be, like what I need to do, what I need to double down on for my business so that I'm really future-proofing myself, being part of other masterminds as well as running my own. I know that that's where those conversations are happening. Like people want the community and the human more than they ever have right now.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Absolutely. I think it's one of the things that is going to make mastermind models continue to stand out in this AI age because we know information is just getting more and more readily available. The mastermind model is what takes you from information course model to something that people actually want, to something that can't be replicated by AI in this current season because it is so personal. It is you as the coach, it is your co-coaches, it is the people you curate to be in the room with you for that mastermind. I absolutely think we're in a season where masterminds are going to be so incredibly popular because they do fulfill a need that AI just isn't going to.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Exactly. And then you get to integrate AI, like you get to be really smart about how you integrate it and like what that looks like to make your clients' experience better and better and better. Okay, so can we talk a little bit about leadership and energy? And I'm really curious around this because I know my processes. I talked about this a little bit in the private podcast that we did actually. I went pretty deep on, you know, some of the things that I do as a leader, as a facilitator, to take care of my energy, to show up. Because when you are serving people at a high level, we get these questions all the time. I answered one just a couple of days ago in our Slack channel around how do you hold this ongoing space when you're coaching on calls and between calls? Like, what does that look like? And I know that for you and I, we both do a lot in business, we show up for a lot in business. And I also know for you and I that we have really healthy off-time, downtime boundaries, personal lives. And I also know for each of us that we've found things along the way that have supported us to do that. Would love to know for you, like, how do you think about being co-coach? I mean, I guess there's the benefit you could argue if you were listening, of like, Nib doesn't hold as much responsibility because she's not the business owner. But then I would also conversely argue that you also have the stress of like, am I supporting in the way that is right for the business? Whereas I don't have to carry any of that because I can just fucking do whatever I want because it's my business, you know? So, so I think that there's a you know, double-edged sword or whatever you'd say here. So I would love to just know in terms of like your overall perspective as someone who cares, as someone where it's not your your business, but you show up as though it is. Like, how do you think about being a leader as a co-coach? And I use the word co-coach rather than support coach, really intentionally, by the way, because it's all about how I want Niv to position herself, how I want her to feel positioned, how I want our clients to perceive her. I don't know the specificity of the question that I'm asking. So feel free to answer this however you'd like.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

I think one of the things you touched on is like, well, does your co-coach have an investment level? And while sure, on paper I don't have an investment level, if your co-coach is not invested, what are you doing? They are not the right fit for you. Because if you've got a co-coach who has a belief of like, well, it's not my business, it's not my problem, you're not getting a great result. And this has been reflected back to us so often. And I know we've spoken about this on past episodes as well of like, yeah, it's not my business. And I care as much about our clients as if they had signed a contract with me, not you. Because I just do.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

And you're somebody who cares genuinely. So you recognize the impact, the gravitas of that.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Exactly. And that's what you want in a co-coach. You want somebody who has that level of care for your clients as if they were their own on paper. Because at the end of the day, sure the client hasn't signed a contract with me. I don't ever want to be the reason a client doesn't continue to work with Ellie. Yeah. Right? Like that would that would be absolutely devastating to me if you turned around and went, This client's given me feedback that they're not re-signing because they don't like you. I'd be like, what have I done? I have made a- I mean, I would never deliver it in that way, just for the record. But so because of that, when I come into this, I'm not coming into this going, oh, I've got a coaching call for Ellie today. I'm coming in going, I've got a coaching call with this client today. The same as I would for any coaching call I was having in my own business. Like I am bringing that same level of intention, of respect, of care, because at the end of the day, that's how I treat them. I treat them all as if they were my client, just as much as they are Ellie's. There is no difference. And I wouldn't want them to have a different experience if they were, you know, signing directly with me for whether that's an OBM retainer or any other work. I want it to be a really, really similar experience. And so I'm showing up to those coaching calls almost. With an extra layer of I'm showing up for Ellie and the client.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

I love that so much. And for the, for those of you that are listening who run your own businesses and masterminds, your job in all of this is to make it easy for your co-coach to be able to do that. So, you know, I always talk about the business as though it's our business because I know that that gives you a certain level of ownership. I know some people don't because they almost feel like they shouldn't, because they don't actually want to put that level of responsibility on their team. But actually, you don't think about it in that way, right? You you want to have that ownership. Like on it.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Because I think that's the result, that's where the results come from. The results are coming because we care. We both care really, really deeply about clients. Because if I didn't, if I had a very different attitude about it, I wouldn't show up as well. I can't imagine doing it because in any job I've ever done, like showing up quote unquote for work. There is a time and a place to show up and just do the job to a certain extent. I can't imagine not giving it 100% because that's just who I am. And so I think when you're looking at like, who do I need, who do I want to support me as a co-coach or a support coach, or even, you know, as an OBM or a VA in your business, you want somebody who cares as much about the business as you do, because that's where you're going to get really amazing results out of them. And it means like we're having really open conversations of like, this is what's happening in the business. This is the big picture. This is how I'm feeling. This is what I'm seeing. This is, this is what the budget looks like this month for this launch. Like we're really transparent about all of those things. And yes, some of that comes from we've worked together for so long now. It's it comes with the territory. And some of that is also just genuine respect for each other.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Totally. So I know this is kind of moving beyond the coach conversation, but I think you just touched on some really useful things. Like, what does that allow you to do when, you know, in this instance, it's me sharing really transparently around where the business is at, the direction, the vision, all of it. Like, what does that allow you to do? And have you been in situations where you don't have any of that information? And how does that impact how you show up?

SPEAKER_01 24:00

I think one of the big things, if we look at the business overall, is that your transparency with me about what's happening in the business, the direction of the business, the goals, all of those things means as somebody who is, you know, for all intents and purposes, employed as a contractor in the business, I'm not showing up from a place of fear of that everything's going to change tomorrow. I have a lot of certainty in our relationship and where we're going, even in big transition seasons. And so I think when we think about like, well, how do I make my team members feel safe? That's a really big one. Cause for a lot of contractors who are working with you in any capacity, safety for them is huge. And so when we're not telling them things and we're not open with our team about what's happening, and they're hearing it when you talk about it online for the first time. I've done that. You've done it with little things, never with big things. But like hearing about big changes online or hearing about, you know, you're taking a break. This happened to a team member of ours. A client posted online that they were taking a two-month break from their business. And my team member was like, What does this mean for me? I didn't know. What am I doing? Have you seen this? Like, I got a message of like, have you seen this story? What's happening here? And I'm like, great question. Let's find out. How did nobody know about this? And so creating that safety is really important because it means that they can actually show up without that fear of like, is this temporary? Is this all going away tomorrow? Even like feedback. Does this person like me the way I coach? Like, I think one of the things we all have seasons where we second guess how we're showing up, how we're supporting our clients. And you, again, on your intuition, you have this really intuitive way of knowing, Niv second guessing herself this week and she needs a little bit of love. And you give me that little bit of love. And it's never because I've said something, but it's because you know. And so, even that, like that feedback with your team, all of those things create safety, and safety is going to get you like really epic results from any team member in any role in the business because they're showing up from a place of just absolute joy, not fear.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

So I just recorded a podcast episode with Emma Campbell last week, as you know, Niv, that's gonna come out after these episodes come out with you and I. And it's so cool what you just spoke to because the conversation Emma and I have, those of you listening, you're gonna love it so much. It's all about team and how you can create really great virtual team. And basically, Emma and I came into the conversation going, I said to her, I was like, I want to talk to you about how to run good virtual team. She was like, I wanted to talk to you about how to run good virtual team because she's like, I do most of my stuff not like in person, and you're somebody who I see doing it well. And I was like, fun. So we just rift on that. And I shared a whole bunch of examples of how we do team culture stuff. And she said that the number one thing she could see that we did well, which is the number one thing for any team to function well, which is what you just spoke to, is psychological safety.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Yeah. It's huge, especially I think in the online space for subcontractors, non-traditional employment. People need a degree of safety so that they can show up. Like I can show up for you and for Swift Ventures as a business because I don't have an extra pressure of like, oh my gosh, if something changes next week, I need to replace this whole amount of income. And so I also need to be doing all of these extra marketing activities over here. Like, I don't have that pressure because we are really transparent at every stage of the process about everything that's going on. And so I like I do not think it can be understated. Like, bring your team into everything, whether it's a co-coach or a VA, like over-communicate the heck out of what's going on because your team are gonna love you for them.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

I share this again on the episode with Emma as well, but I just want to touch on it here. So for me personally, like I've been in first year postpartum, and there is obviously so much going on in that season. Hormones, you know, moments of sleep deprivation, like lots of times where I've been like, gosh, I'm not the leader that I want to be right now. And something that I've recognized is that, you know, this has happened alongside a time in the online space where we've needed to continue to elevate our standards at a really exponential level to make sure that we continue to be the leaders in our field. And I've had moments where I'm like, I want our standard to increase in this particular area, but I'm not being the living, breathing example of that. And how do I get my team on board with being like, I want us to elevate our standards here, but recognizing that I'm actually the one probably letting the team down in that area. And the answer to that has just been like absolute transparent, authentic communication and basically saying that, like, hey, I want us as a business to do better in this particular area. Also recognizing that as I say this, I'm kind of not showing up in that way right now. But like, that's the goal and this is where we're at, and I'm gonna communicate it anyway. And also, you know, I had a conversation a few months ago where I basically said to you, like, hey, I just don't think I'm being a good leader right now, and I just want to lay that on the table. And it was a really funny conversation because in hindsight now I can recognize that I was just hormonal as fuck. Because I think it was at the time that I was giving up breastfeeding or around then, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

I think it was sleep deprivation though. Like I said, you were in the throes of sleep being the thing that controls your entire life with a little baby.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Right. And I was just like, I'm not being a good leader right now. And I brought that to you just to share it and just like own it. And you basically laughed at me. That was like exactly what I needed at the time. But also, like the lessons for me and that were huge because it was a real lesson around like self-compassion and having that mirrored back to me from you. But also, you could have said fairly so what I thought was fair. You could have said, hey, yeah, like recognizing you're not showing up as good in X, Y, and Z area, and also that's okay. And that would have been fine as well. But I think that, you know, when we're building these businesses, and I say this from experience, like when we're building these businesses, when we're growing, when we're scaling, we're learning so much as we're doing so. And somewhere along the way, we we take on all this extra pressure of having to look like we've always got our shit together to our team. And when you remove that pressure from yourself, everything gets better. Like everything gets better. Because actually, your team need to know that you're human. Actually, you work better together when you're in transparency. And I think that when you work on your own leadership, you're gonna be better and better at doing that. The amount of times Niv is like, what are we doing here or here? And I'm like, I don't fucking know. But then that I'll follow it up with like, actually. Let me come back to you. Yeah, like let me wait for you. Let me work it out, actually. A lot of the time I say, I don't know, and I'm joking, and I do absolutely know because I'm also a Virgo. But you know, it's like that just knowing that you get to be really transparent is I think just something that is so useful. And when you take that pressure off yourself, it takes the pressure off your team and you just have this way better, more harmonious work environment. I mean, the comments that we got from Tammy when she came into the business, our customer service manager was just the most amazing thing. Like, she basically, what did she say? She came in and she was like, I just can't believe like how like well run and relaxed this business is.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yeah. Relaxed. I remember her saying relaxed. And it was like, oh, that feels that's like great. That is the feedback I want to hear all the time. We will take that. That's exactly what we want. But it's so interesting. Like, I think, you know, I've seen a lot of conversations this year around like building in public as a really smart marketing strategy in this season. And yet for some reason, we feel so uncomfortable doing that with our teens. And we feel like we have to be so perfect before bringing our team into the conversations. And I think if you've got, especially if you've got an established team, you know, somebody you've worked with for a little while, whether that's a VA or a co-coach or somebody you want to bring in as a co-coach, be really open and transparent with them about the things that you don't know or the things that you're unsure about, or the things that you're just navigating in business and life right now, because there's gonna be things that they can pick up, there's gonna be things that they can reflect back to you that maybe you're not seeing for yourself. And so let it bring them in on the journey and taking yourself almost like it's that real ego death. Like come down from the pedestal and be on the same level with your team. You're gonna get really good results from them.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

You know, I've been thinking about this a lot in relation to coaching because the old adage was like, you just need to be a few steps ahead of your clients. However, in the age of AI, in this massive era of disruption, there are so many areas right now where everyone is getting served the new upgrade of how we need to do business at the same time. It's actually not possible for you to be a few steps ahead of your clients in many areas. And the way that I think about this, and I'm really curious to know how you think about this, the way I think about this is I always look at things so big picture, as you know, and I'm always like, well, what's the main message and information that's really important for us to share? So, you know, this year a lot of it has been around how we integrate AI into the business, um, what it looks like at a systems level, what we think's really important, what we think is less important, our perspective around all of it, where to double down, where not to double down. But so often, like clients are bringing things in and they're like, You heard of this? You don't? I'm like, absolutely not, don't know what you're talking about, you know, because it's like it was invented that last week, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Let me just do a Google because I've never heard of this company before.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Because it's brand freaking news. I think that again, we've got to remember that as coaches, that there's so much in this new era that we're all learning together that actually leadership has to be circular right now. It just has to be. Because if you're operating in any way where you're trying to create any kind of hierarchical leadership in this time, you're gonna fall off that ladder real fast because there's no possible way that you can know more at a time when it was released last week. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Everybody's on the same learning curve, right? It's really interesting because I think some of the best conversations we have with clients, particularly like I look at this year, is hey, I've just discovered this thing. Sure, this is brand new to me as well. Let's figure this out together. Only because, like at the end of the day, clients aren't paying you to be some all-knowing God who knows everything that's happening in your piece of the online internet, whatever the whatever section you might be working in. The expectation isn't that you know everything. And I think that expectation is shifting. A few years ago, I do think there was this like, well, I'm signing up with this person who knows everything. Now we're looking for people who adapt really quickly, who are responsive to feedback, who can take a step back and look at the bigger picture. People who can go, okay, well, yes, this is happening. Here's how it applies to your business specifically, to you specifically as a person. Like that's what people are looking for in a coach right now, beyond that expertise status. There are going to be things that you're amazing at and you should absolutely shout those things from the rooftop. But you also don't need to know every new thing that is literally happening every week at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Definitely. Definitely. And this is where hiring for different specialisms is so important as well. Like recognize the areas where you do want extra support and hire for that. So I mentioned Jane briefly. Was it this time last year? No, about 12 months ago. It was actually, yeah. Really close, yeah. Where there was just, again, deeply intuitive niggle of we're gonna be in a time very soon and we're actually probably already here where it is impossible for us to just go organic without really, really good paid ad support. Therefore, the way in which we coach the model that we have, I really want to bring that service as part of the mastermind. Brought Jane in. Like be really clear on yeah, what your promise is and what it's not, and then market to that promise. And when you do that, there's no ambiguity. Like where people get trapped or stuck in their mastermind is that they're marketing to some really broad, vague promise. And so therefore, they think that they need to know everything and find out every single answer under the sun because their client also believes that they are some holier than thou God with all the answers because that's how they marketed themselves. You know, that's where problems are going to be created. So, final question. We kind of started on this, but I just want to know like rituals, practices, energy things that you do, like when you're coming into Slack each day, when you're with clients, like, do you have any anything you tell yourself as you're coaching or facilitating? Do you have any perspective that you rely on? Like, do you only read Slacks in a certain energy? Like, yeah, tell me. I I have literally never had a conversation with you before. So I just want to know if you have any rituals, practices, routines, anything that you do because you very much, you know, you're such a leader when you come into the space. Is that intentional? What do you do there?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

First things first, turn off your Slack notifications or set them to a specific window. So like I have my Slack notifications on for my work hours and that's it. I do not see notifications come through at seven, eight o'clock at night. Exceptions for launch periods when I know we're busy and we're moving things very quickly, but certainly for coaching spaces, my notifications are not on 24-7. And so I can come into my work day very regulated because I'm not coming in with like, oh my God, look at all these notifications that are on my phone from overnight. I can come in and go, right, I'm ready to check Slack and I'm gonna work through the list. The way I like to do things is usually I will read through everything before I start answering things. Yeah. It's unlike they could let it know, yeah, I want the big picture and there'll be things that I know I can jump in really quickly, and there'll be other things that I'm like, great, I'm gonna sit with that for a little while, maybe while I make breakfast, and then I'll come back and sit down and answer it. So manager notifications is like the biggest thing I can tell you about coaching, especially if you're in Slack or any sort of community. It's really funny. We're setting up a new platform at the moment, and like I'm going through what are the notification settings, what can I keep on, what can I turn off, what can we automate so we only see the things that we need to see and not every little update that's possible. So I think that's a really important piece. When it comes to calls, I do have a little ritual around how I set for calls in full transparency. This year has been very messy for me. We renovated and then sold our house. I have not been in my office the whole time. I have worked from different places. It's really messed with my rituals. No, like at one stage I was working from our kitchen. I'm like, I don't even have a door that I can close. And this feels really frustrating to me as somebody who likes things a certain way. And I'm back in my office for the moment before we move, and it's quite nice. But like normally I have a little ritual where I'm usually gonna make myself a cup of tea or fill up the water bottle, come sit down. I will close my 3,000 tabs that are open and pull up the one client notes dock with like, this is what I need. I'll usually review Slack of like what have been the most recent conversations with this client. And so I can be really singularly focused for those calls. Cause I think that's the key, right? Like when we're coaching, we need to be able to show up like so in the zone for that person, not overwhelmed with other pop-ups and notifications and things coming from other places. So whatever that looks like in terms of quieting that noise, I think that's so important to be able to do it. When I get off a call, the very first thing I do is I leave you a voice note.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Every time, even if I'm running out the door to school pickup, I'm like, before I leave, Ellie needs a voice note because it feels like closure for me to go, okay, we've had the call, I've debriefed on the call, I've made any notes around what follow-up needs to be done. Do I need to share resources? Do we need to, you know, follow up on this specific thing in a different date and time? Like we've done all those notes. And so I think also just closing that out as soon as possible after the calls is really helpful. I know for you, you do it differently. You do a lot of that close out at the end of your week.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

You do it better. I don't work on my processes there.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

So I think you do it better. It works, right? Like you just gotta find what works. For me, it works to come in and be like, here's the update immediately. I love it. Because it suits my brain, right? Like I know that I need to be able to go, okay, this is packaged and done. And you can continue on and move on to the next thing. Particularly, I think, you know, because I'm supporting not just you in the business and the co-coach role, but other clients as OBM. I need to be able to go, okay, well, I can close the lid on this specific thing for this owner and move on. Even if it's your only job is to show up and coach for clients, I still think you need a way to be able to close that down at the end of the day, at the end of the week, whatever that looks like, figuring out what that ritual is, whether it's just like it's one of the things I love about having an office, like walk out and close the door and we're done for the day.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Totally. Yeah. And do you view that as a real like completion thing for you? Like it feels like a real ritual to close the door. Yeah, I must admit, because I'm working a lot of nights at the moment, just because like in this season of mom life, I find that quite tricky. And I've had to learn how to regulate my nervous system in different ways. Like if I finish work at like 8:30 at night, I need to go have a shower and like bring my breath down in a really big, big way. So I love hearing about people's rituals because you will always find that if you're coaching a lot of people, everyone has some sort of ritual around it because you just, you just have to close the loop.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

A hundred percent. And I think that's why like I love being able to do the voice note debrief, like basically immediately after the call, because it means that it's giving me an opportunity to summarize and then go, oh, actually, this would also be good. I want to send this in follow-up. What do you think about this? Like, hey, I said this, I would love your opinion. Like you get that opportunity to really wrap it all up and complete it. And that can be really hard if it's just you right now and you don't have a co-coach. And so figuring out like, well, what is that process? Is it how you take notes and when you take notes? Is it a voice note to yourself? I mean, you could voice note to Chat GPT if you really wanted to, like ways to do it. But I think whatever it is, though those rituals around like coming in and being super present and then being able to close it and move on with your day. And like, I remember having those seasons of life with a little one where I worked late at night and it did feel very disruptive. Like I feel in a much clearer season right now, where for the most part, my work days are pretty steady, give or take pockets of time. I mean, my little guy's sick at the moment, so the last few days of definitely being messy. And with the renovations earlier this year, that was really disruptive. And I was working evenings because I just wasn't getting as much dedicated time during the day. So you get to give yourself a lot of grace in the process as well. Like it's not going to be perfect every day of the week, if only like things are gonna happen. They're always going to happen. And somehow with kids, they know when you just hope like planned out your perfect week and they're like, great, let me give you a virus.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Isn't that the benefit of the mastermind model of business as well? Is that you know, we we work so asynchronously. So a lot of the time we're we're getting to do it in different pockets, you know, other than the calls that we have, we have no commitment to our clients in terms of having to be there in the moment. You know, we have a 24-hour rule, or you know, we say we'll be back with you same day or by the end of the following day. And we are always back with our clients well and truly before that time. So it's so good because you do get to really roll with your lifestyle. Like I think about all the seasons of life that I've got coming for me over the next 10 to 20 years with Sunny. And I'm like, oh, so fun. Like, we're just gonna play with all these different seasons of school holidays and you know, whatever else. Like it's it's all just gonna be one big wild ride where I'll just tweak the model to support me.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

And that's the key, right? And that's like when we go through the mastermind model with students when we're talking about developing their own unique mastermind. It's not one size fits all. It's not this is how to do Slack. It's not even you have to use Slack. It's like figure out the platform that serves you and your clients and the ways that you want to show up and the timing of that. Maybe you don't want to coach five days a week. That's totally fine. Maybe you hate voice notes. That's totally fine. Like you get to choose what works. And so even for us, I know like one of the things we love about Slack is voice notes. And there's times where that is like every response you'll get from us will be a voice note. Because it works with the season of life. We are doing things, we're dealing with children, we're dealing with life, we're on the go, we're in the car, you're getting a voice note from us because it makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

100%. And you can know that with full certainty that we are only sending that voice note when we can come at you with full truth, best possible answer. And if that's from the car, that's okay. Absolutely. Sometimes it's the best time. It's true. Out from the office and all the ideas come forward, right? So true. I actually do personally think I coach better on the go. And I don't get to do that enough in this season flat. But yeah, it's so true. Okay, I'd love this conversation so much. And I know that, you know, the way we're going to deliver this is in two parts because it's a longer episode. And so we'll do a part one, part two. Is there anything for anyone that's listening who, you know, they run a mastermind, maybe they're working with a co-coach, they're thinking about bringing someone on? I think this, these episodes are really designed to just be a real kind of 360 circular look at how we work together to inspire, to educate, all those things. Is there anything that you would add just as a like leaving note for anyone listening?

SPEAKER_01 44:56

I see the leaving note, whether you're already working with somebody or thinking about bringing somebody in, is that everything is going to be hinging on your trust and communication in that relationship. Like everything. Because even on the days like you said earlier, where we might disagree about an approach or have a difference of opinions, because we have complete trust in each other, because we have really great communication, that's never delivered from a place of like, no fucking if you're wrong. It's never a place of what are you doing? How dare you possibly say that to my client? Like there is just so much trust and structure in our process. So that when there are things that come up, because things are going to come up, nobody's perfect, it's still really open and we can have a really transparent conversation about it and we can go, great, that's really good feedback. I'm going to implement that and move forward. And that's going to give you a really great coaching relationship that your clients are going to feel as well.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

Yeah. Hire the person who is committed to the outcome, not going to be in their shit about like not getting it right or wrong. Yeah, I love that. I actually like my biggest piece of advice right now would be get your co-coach to listen to this episode. Cause I just feel like you've added so much good stuff here, and you are like the ultimate role model of how to co-coach in someone else's mastermind. And so I think anyone listening to you in this instance would be high, high value for them to do that. So thank you for everything you've shared here. I found it so useful as well. Even just to yeah, hear the way that you think about things. It's so, so cool and so interesting. And I know that anyone listening to this will get really good insight, whether it's you as lead coach or anyone that's co-coach as well. But thank you for your time with me. I appreciate it so much and appreciate you in all the ways every day, as you know, as I can never say enough. Thank you so much for having me. I loved this conversation. We absolutely loved recording that podcast episode for you. I hope you love listening in. I know it's nice to hear some of the behind the scenes of conversations that happen in the background between team members in the back of businesses. And I feel so incredibly fortunate that I have the amazing Nivet Harrison as a really big part of Swift Ventures and a really big part of both our mastermind and the mastermind model. Now, if you haven't already, go back and listen to the start of this episode where I share a whole bunch about the Mastermind model and the brand new Mastermind Society that I'm so excited to announce. So for now, you can go ahead and check it out at ellyswift.com forward slash model. Now, both the program and the all-in membership are only available for a super limited time within a week. So when you get this, go on over. You will see that there are also limited time bonuses. I'd highly recommend jumping in so that you get full access to everything. I don't know when this program will be available again. Like I mentioned, it hasn't been available for the last 18 months. My priority in my business is always running our mastermind. And when we do open doors to go all in, open doors, deliver exceptional results to our clients, and then close cart again. So jump on over to ellyswift.com forward slash model, check out this program, come and join us. I can't wait to see you in there and to support you to build, fill, scale your 50k plus per offer in the form of a mastermind in your business. Here's too an incredible rest of 2025 and an even better start to 2026.