Path to Empowerment: Exploring Leadership and Financial Empowerment with Dr. Maria E Nemeth Ep. 123

Say you're a coach, one of the first things they ask is, did you go to an ICF accredited school? So you enter our program, you have a first course, and this course has to do with you transforming your life because we cannot coach another human being. Past the point, we haven't gone ourselves.

Welcome to FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS. How do people end up becoming an entrepreneur? How do they scale and grow their businesses? How do they plan for profit? Are they in it for life or are they building to exit these and a myriad of other topics? Will be discussed to pull back the veil on the wizardry of successful and FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS. My book, RELENTLESS is now available everywhere books can be bought online, including Amazon, and BarnesAndNoble.com, try your local indie bookstore too. And if they don't have it, they can order it. Just ask them. The reviews are streaming in and I'm so thankful for the positive feedback as well as hearing from people that my memoir has impacted them positively. It is not enough to be resilient. You have to be RELENTLESS. You can go to TheRelentlessBook.com for more information. Thank you so much. Dr. Maria Nemeth is an expert in leadership excellence, personal and professional development and financial empowerment, whose work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Inc Magazine. We talk about what it takes to become a coach, her publishing journey, and why she has an interest in financial empowerment, especially for women. Now, let's get right into it.

I was a psychologist. I mean, I still am. I was a, a clinical psychologist, but I discovered many years ago that psychotherapy wasn't for me. What really I love is coaching, so I became a master certified coach with the International Coach Federation, and I opened up a coach training academy, the Academy for coaching excellence. And yes, I love working with leaders. I love working with entrepreneurs of any kind.

And tell me more about your interest in financial empowerment specifically.

I became really interested in financial empowerment, Natasha, out of a difficulty I had about 40 years ago when I loaned someone $35,000 on an unsecured promissory note. And it was a Ponzi scheme. It was a scam. I lost the money and I knew I had to wake up. And so I started designing courses I knew I had to take. And so that's how financial empowerment for me started. And I'll tell you something. I love working with entrepreneurs because I think that entrepreneurs are the heroes of our economy and with an entrepreneur. If you want to eat a fish tonight, you have to catch it today. There's no working around it and I have been with coaching with entrepreneurs now for so many years. I've actually been working with people, Natasha for about 52 years. I tell people I was a child prodigy, but I love working with women entrepreneurs because I know how difficult it is for us, to really get our businesses going.

Well, let me ask you about that. This is something I wasn't gonna talk to you about, but you brought this up and in my mind I'm thinking why is it, I feel like I have my own answers, but why do you think that only 2% of women owned businesses are doing a million dollars in revenue or more? 2%.

Well, I heard that statistic and it really astounded me. As a psychologist, I could give you all kinds of reasons that we are expected to have a lower ceiling, that we were taught that men are the ones who handle money and not women.

Is that still being taught? I think it is.

It is. It's kind of like under the surface. But you can tell it's there, and I don't think there are many women role models. You know, when guys open up a business, There's so many other men around that they can talk to who are earning lots of money, and they can be mentored, they can be just supported. You know, there's all kinds of support programs out there for people to join groups where they support each other to have business and make money, et cetera, et cetera. And so few women are in those groups.

Well, for instance, the group Kalika and I are in, in LA we actually have a high amount of women in that 30% of our chapter, I think is-

Oh wow!

Women, that's still 30.

Yeah.

It's not quite there. Okay. Well, so we'll move off that topic, cuz that could be its own podcast.

I tell you it really could. Yeah, we could talk about it for three hours, you know?

Yeah. What led you to writing the book, the Energy of Money?

Well, I had, by that time, led so many seminars. The first ones I led were called You and Money: Would it be okay with you if life got easier? And I taught people how money is energy. You know, Joseph Campbell money is congealed Energy. You can hold it in your hands and do something with it. Now, of course, nowadays we don't even hold it in our hands, do we? We see it as a blip on a computer, but it's still energy. And the definition of energy is the capacity to do work in physical reality. And so I began working with people and I developed so many different tools and processes, and I decided to put them all together in a book so that if someone never could be in a seminar with me, they could have this book to guide them through to their own personal transformation.

So let's talk about the writing of the book. So this first edition was published in 1999.

Yes.

And I'd love to know, because the publishing industry has changed dramatically over the course of even the last 5 years, 10 years,

yes

but 1999, so, What kind support did you get from your publisher and did they give you like a developmental editor? I just wanna know what it was like.

Sweetheart. Ok. Way back then. Okay. I will recount for you.

It's a completely different experience.

It is, it was.

Hearing it right from you would be great.

Well, to make a long story longer. To make a long story short, I wrote a book before The Energy of Money. It was called You and Money and I self-published it. One day I was talking with a woman at a conference with, Hema Cho was there, I can remember, at the time. And I helped her out for a couple things. She said, what do you, what do you do in life? I said, well, among other things, I've just written a book. She said, let me see it. So I gave it to her. She took it to her boss, and her boss was the head of Sounds True. Which is a tape publishing company. At that time, she loved the book. They threw me in a sound booth for three days and shoved sandwiches under the door and asked me everything that I knew about money.

It sounds like solitary confinement.

It was. It was, but it was fun. It was fun. But then this woman, Lisa Simon, she had a friend who's an agent, and she said to this agent, would you like to listen to the tape? The tape won something called an Audi for the Best Self-Help Tape for 1999, and the agent loved it. Women? Women, women. Women. And she said, I betcha we can get a book out of this. I said, well, I already have a book. She said, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Let's go to a big publishing house. So, We went to a big publishing house and they loved the tape, they loved what they heard, and they offered me a deal. I think I got $80,000 as down payment. They gave me an editor. Incidentally, this editor, really interesting. You know, we're doing the book, doing the book, and I'm writing and writing and writing and writing, just kind of getting everything out about what I knew about money. She calls me one day. She says, Dr. Maria. I said, yeah. She says, I can't work on this book anymore. I said, why? She said, because it's making me sick.

Okay.

It's making me look at my relationship with money and I can't take it.

Then that book was for her.

It was, and so I had to hire another editor, but we got the book out. It was pretty much a hit, and I think it was a year and a half later. I get a phone call from Oprah's team and they say, Dr. Nemeth, we love the book. We think it has a lot to offer. Can you be on the Oprah Show in 72 hours? And of course I said, who is this? Because I thought it was a girlfriend kidding me. She said, no, no, no, no, no. So 72 hours later I was on the show. They had taped me working with a mother and her daughters getting there values together. There's a values exercise that I do. And they played some of it and I was on the Oprah show.

What did that do for your business in your career at that point? What year was that? Cause that could have-

2001 something.

Did they have enough books in print? Did you have a challenge in fulfilling?

No, believe it or not, there was a modest bump. This was so interesting because. I don't know if you've seen or read the Energy of Money book, but it's considered to be a classic. I mean, there are some spiritual leaders that use it in their churches, but it had a hard time getting off the ground. You know, the company Valentine even paid me Natasha to go around the country. They flew me to Chicago. They flew me to Denver to have book signings.

Yes. Was it before it's time? Do you think it's a little too early?

Maybe. Maybe.

Yeah. And how many additions have you done to the book so far? There's more than one, right?

I think there's more than one.

Yes. So I'm wondering, you know, it's a classic.

I mean, we've only sold, I mean only I'm grateful for this, but we've only sold about a hundred thousand copies.

I mean, that's an incredible amount, especially today because the publishing is, I don't know if you know this number. I don't know why I know all these facts, but yeah.

I love it.

An author typically sells about 250 books in the lifetime of their book. The typical author.

What?

These days? Yes. That is a fact. There are a lot more authors and it's more democratized, and people are using books in different ways, and they're not all coming outta traditional publishing houses, so there's a reason why that is.

Wow.

Were you able to build a business with this book, or were you able to just really build up a business that had already begun at that time?

At that time I was simply, coaching people. I had a thriving practice.

One-on-one.

Yes. One-on-one. Sometimes I had some coaching groups. I coached couples. At one point I even had a wait list to get into my practice, so that was just thriving.

And was this in Sacramento?

Yes, in Sacramento. Okay. And, I flew up here and left my life down in Los Angeles. I was an associate clinical professor and you know, all kinds of things. But I moved up here, started the coaching practice, and about 23 years ago, some colleagues came to me and said, Maria, you know a lot about coaching. Why don't we start a coach training academy? Now, Natasha, let me tell you something. At the time, way back when all you had to do is hang out your shingle saying, I am a coach.

Sure. Are you a published author? Have you always thought you had a book inside of you? Have other people told you you've got to write a book? If so, I highly suggest you work with us at Poignant Press. We can help you write, figure out the best publishing path, and market your book to a bestseller status. Go to poignantpress.com. That's P-O-I-G-N-A-N-T-press com. I mean,

-and you have coach.

Even today, people are saying they're a coach, even if they don't have the skill and the mastery. But I digress. Keep going.

No, no, no, no, no, no. I just, well see, you and I are on the same page. I saw that coaching is just as potent as psychotherapy because with psychotherapy, what you're looking at is healing. After you're healed, the question becomes, what am I gonna do with the rest of my life? And that's where coaching comes. But I saw that coaches had almost no training or very, very little, like two weekends. And you're a coach. And let answer this question, if you were to see a therapist and they told you, well, I had two weekends. To study.

Moving on.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. And of course I had a lot of righteous indignation about it really? So I said, we are gonna have the best academy. We really have a very rigorous course of study because coaching is a profession, and when you're a coach Natasha, you're holding people's lives in your hand. And how they end up living their life. In part has to do with how you coach them. It's a big responsibility. So, At our Academy, we have a wonderful and rigorous course of study.

What's the time arc? So before you answer that, I'd like to ask this question.

Sure.

So someone with a wealth of knowledge, 20 plus years. Let's just take me for example. I'm not a coach. I don't tell people I'm a coach. I know that there is an art and science to it that I might be almost getting ready to be able to consider. And so I have all of this knowledge in various pockets.

Yes.

If I went out and did start coaching without this training, you know, what are the challenges that I might face, and what are the repercussions to the people I'm coaching?

You could coach a person in the wrong way. They could end up being in a worse place than they were. They could start crying and emoting, and you wouldn't know how to handle it. We teach coaches how to work with people. Even in difficult situations, you might start practicing psychotherapy without a license. And finally you could get sued, you know, a civil suit.

There you go. And then for someone like me, let's just take me as the example. If I were to learn to be a coach in your program, what would that look like?

First of all, we are accredited through the International Coaching Federation, which is a big deal. It took a long time to get accredited because I want people who graduate our program to be able to get the ICF certification. Because that's what businesses are asking for. Now, if you wanna go into a big business. Say you're a coach, one of the first things they ask is, did you go to an I C F accredited school? So you enter our program, you have a first course, and this course has to do with you transforming your life because we cannot coach another human being. Past the point, we haven't gone ourselves. And so we teach you some. Valuable things to look at for yourself. And

This reminds me, Dr. Maria of 22 year olds that are trying to be life coaches. Maybe that's my ignorance speaking. You can hear in my voice, but if they haven't done that reflection.

No.

Okay. Keep going. Sorry to interrupt.

No, no, no, no. It's okay. And at that point, you still don't enroll in our academy? You take the first coaching course, I call it coaching "One-O-One", but it's the first coaching course, and you learn some of the tools that you experienced the course leaders doing with you in the course. You begin to see how to do this with other people, and it's only at that point that we have you consider. Now, do you want to become a professional coach? Because you're going to have, two more intensive seminars, you know, four day seminars. You're gonna be learning about coaching and ethics. You're gonna be coaching observation groups where a well-trained mentor is going to observe you. You're gonna go through six observed coaching segments. So that by the time you, we're gonna teach you how to enroll people in your practice. Hello. That's huge. So that finally, when you graduate and take a written test from ICF, you have your ACC certification, which is huge. And then if you wanna go on with more hours, you get your PCC.

What do those acronyms mean?

Professional Certified Coach, I think the first one is Associate Coach Certification. I think it's like, and then if you still wanna go on, you get your master coach credential, which is what I have at the time. It was like 25 under hours of coaching, which was pretty much what I had to do to get my PhD. So there are things you can do to perfect the craft.

I'll tell you this. I've learned quite a few things talking to you today, but I'm just reflecting back on a couple of people that have coached me and I can just tell you now the disappointment I had in them. Probably if I have to, I reflect back. It's on me. I didn't know about coaching certifications. I didn't ask about this coaching certifications. And had I known and asked, I may not have made the choices that I made and that I wouldn't necessarily have had the disappointment that I've had. So thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry. So sorry.

It wasn't, nothing was horrific, but I just looking back and thinking. Boy, that was a waste of time and money.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And do you teach these coaches then how to run a business? Because that's a completely different skillset.

No, I know. I know. It is. It is. And have to say that we do not teach coaches how to run a business. We teach them how to get clients. Yes,-

do you then,

and we teach them that they have to have insurance.

Is it errors and admissions, general liability? What kind of insurance does?

Yeah, I think it's general. Yeah. It's errors and admissions, general liability. You can actually get it from the same place that used to license me as a clinical psychologist. I'll tell you, the cost for a license for a clinical psychologist has, I mean, it's thousands of dollars a year. Because people become so litigious and for coaches it's like $275 a year.

Interesting.

But let me tell you something, I think coaching right now is where psychotherapy was about 70 years ago, and it's not regulated through any state or federal. But Natasha, I think it will be in the future, I hope it will. Because you know, we need to have. Safeguards. We just do, I'm, I have to put it that way. It's such an intimate

Yes.

Process.

Are you going to raise your hand to be part of that legislature and I mean, you're right there in Sacramento, so you can just walk right up and make your case heard.

Well, if it were that easy. But fortunately, I am married to a woman, her name is Rita Science, who was the director of three major state agencies.

You've got it in.

Yeah, exactly. So she's teaching me a lot about politics. Right. And I've learned that it really takes a lot, to get legislation.

Lastly, let's talk about your team at the Academy. Are you managing them? Do you have somebody in place to manage them and the business? How does, what does that look like?

Yes. Yes. I manage them. We have a dean of students. She's fabulous, fabulous woman. She's a minister who left her ministry to come and work with me, and she bargained for workers who, I don't know the official name, but she's tough when she needs to be. We have someone who's the director of admissions into the Academy. We have a whole cadre of well-trained mentors and we have course leaders. And we are two things. We are now reaching out for fiscal sponsorship because we want to put in place a coaching scholarship for women of color to become.

Yeah.

Well trained coaches.

Are you all in person or are you distributed remote?

We're distributed. I'll tell you. When we used to have a big office and a course room and but pandemic, right? So within two months we had to pivot and put everything online. But I'll tell you, Natasha.

It's a blessing, right?

It is a blessing because I can, we can see people from all over the world now.

Yep. Yep. So my question is then, how do you keep your team engaged and bonded? What kind of activities or exercises or in-person meetups do you do with them?

We have something called a list of Shared Agreements, how we're going to interact with each other and we look at that before meetings. We have something, called the Coaching Arena, which is your way of centering in on what you're going to contribute of value to the team. And thirdly, we have something I call the Green Lens, which is a way of seeing people that instantly builds trust. There are just five parts of this lens. The first one I'll just tell you is this person I'm talking to is a hero, whole and complete. They have goals and dreams and a desire to make a difference. They have all of their own answers. They are contributing to me right here and now, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. And whenever you see people through that lens, you immediately create a sense of trust. For more information, go to the show notes. We are listening to this podcast. Want to know more about me, go to my website, NatashaMiller.com. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you loved the show. If you did, please subscribe. Also, if you haven't done so yet, please leave a review where you're listening to this podcast now. I'm Natasha Miller. And you've been listening to FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS.