We were lucky to catch up with Kelsey Tetzlaff recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kelsey, thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
The first thing I would ask you is, which one?
My life as a creative entrepreneur/mindset business coach, supporting creative entrepreneurs building THEIR businesses, has been a number of sweeping, 60-foot waves of pure risk.
So let’s start with the first one that started the ripple of all the others, which was in 2016, right after I graduated from a kushy private university in New York City and had picked up a high-paying job in the fashion industry, selling $5,000 handbags to the upper east side elite.
As a deeply feeling person, I could never really separate my heart from my work. I wanted to be in the fashion industry because I love how fashion communicates who someone is – fashion is also packed with history – and as a writer, I am fascinated by how we choose to tell our stories.
That said, this high-paying job that checked the boxes of what my family expected of me just wasn’t IT. Every morning I experienced frequent panic attacks, I felt drained mentally, emotionally, and physically after work every day, and even though my performance was great and my income was lavish, I was deeply depressed and unhappy.
I was promised a future after college that I realized I didn’t want.
On my days off I would write about this struggle, which soon turned into a blog called Kelsey’s Day Off about my journey as a creative, deeply feeling and motivated person, feeling absolutely trapped, while trying to just survive in the toughest city, and one of the toughest industries, in the world.
I decided enough was enough – I was 22 and didn’t want this to be my life anymore. I quit the job with nothing lined up, and since I had a fancy degree from an expensive college, I was reassured that I would land a different job immediately.
Nope. Six months into voluntary unemployment I faced not only the disapproval of most of my family and friends, but I felt like an absolute failure because I couldn’t get a corporate job or any job paying over minimum wage. So I kept writing about that.
I shared online because I felt like it – knowing I wanted to create and contribute something useful to the world, but having no idea how to monetize that desire. Entrepreneurship wasn’t even a thought in my mind.
Slowly, people started noticing my blog and becoming frequent readers. I began accidentally creating a community and making friends with other creatives who were just like me – full of hope that maybe one-day things could change, that there might be a reality out there where we get to work for ourselves and get paid for sharing our gifts.
I helped them feel seen by sharing the realities of what it’s like to create your own path. That it’s messy, terrifying. Freedom costs everything, but despite not having money or a corporate job, I was so energized by helping others feel less alone.
At the same time, I began dabbling in personal growth work, meditation and going to a weekly energy work circle. Needless to say, I realized this risk was messy, but I had to keep trying.
Later, I picked up a luxury sales job that allowed me to work part-time, threw myself at unpaid internships in the wellness and marketing industries, took on yoga front desk jobs, customer service jobs…
I decided to USE the system as it used me. I wanted to absorb everything I possibly could that would help me build the life I wanted. I worked 4 days per week, just enough to feed myself.
On my “off time” when I wasn’t writing, I put myself in rooms that scared me, talked to entrepreneurs way above my pay grade, interviewed wellness gurus, and authors, read books from cover to cover to just LEARN about how I could create a more freedom-oriented, heart-centered life.
That risk turned out to be the most important step I’ve ever taken in my life. What it led to of course, were many more risks, like saying YES to living in Guatemala with a circus for one month, starting meditation circles on my roof in Brooklyn, speaking to multi-million dollar corporations about mindful living, leaving New York during COVID to be nomadic, and taking my business on full-time because I knew it was time even though I didn’t feel “ready”.
What risk has led me to are some of the scariest and most beautiful moments in my life. Risk has pushed me to trust myself and my gifts, develop discipline, find my place as a leader, and exceed my own capabilities…
Risk has led me to living in 4 different countries, learning about different cultures, meeting incredible people, and finding peace within myself.
I am now going on year 3 of nomadic life, running my mindset business coaching business full-time, LOVING the work I do, cultivating an easeful work/life balance, and working with creatives who are ready to be the next generation of leaders in our world. Without these risks, none of this would have been possible.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
In 2020, coaching became a natural extension of what I was doing before, which was lots of in-person mindfulness-based workshops, meditation circles, and the occasional one-off client, or friends that would ask me for advice. Leading up to this, I was just focused on teaching creative, realistic solutions for busy New Yorkers and hopeful creatives to live their lives with intention and confidence. Simultaneously, I was figuring out what I was doing, what I was good at, and why I felt called to teach and lead.
During COVID, I pivoted fully into the coaching industry because I lost all of my jobs temporarily, and there were a number of budding creative entrepreneurs wanting to work with me, curious about how to recover from burnout from the 9–5s they just lost, feel more grounded during the pandemic, and have the discipline to start their businesses or get their projects off the ground as I did.
While I was building and legitimizing myself as a coach and business owner, I had SUCH a hard time finding a coach myself because I noticed almost all of them either focussed too much on the hustle and get-rich-quick “secret formulas”, and not enough on the importance of sustainable, long-term solutions, rest, and MINDSET…OR they swung way too far in the spiritual direction, lacking realistic, practical, and relatable solutions beyond just “manifesting success”.
I decided to fill the grey area because, for 5 years, I was building a business completely blind, relying on my tough, disciplined New York problem-solving skills, and my softer, creative side that knows the importance of caring for our minds, bodies, and spirits. Without this balance of mindset and strategy, we’re building our businesses on quicksand. I learned from lots of failures and mistakes.
It’s my mission to help as many creative entrepreneurs as possible achieve their version of authentic success because I see a world where creative people have a spot at the table as leaders and don’t have to sacrifice their humanity to get there.
Over the last 5 years, I’ve developed a 3-part foundational framework that helps my clients:
1. Clarify their business plans, values, mission, and vision to move in the direction of their goals with focus and efficiency
2. Confidently step into their authenticity as a leader by developing an empowered mindset grounded in their values
3. Execute a consistent action plan with accountability to create work/life balance, consistent income, client retention, and community expansion
I work one-on-one with creative entrepreneurs, usually within their first 3 years of business in 4-month, 6-month, and 12-month coaching containers. We meet twice per month at their leisure on Zoom and have lots of in-between session support. We set and track their long-term goals, map and execute quarterly sales plans, balance their daily workflow structures with practical wellness practices, implement simple sales and marketing strategies that are paced WITH them, and of course dive into the mind “gunk” that gets in the way of them feeling like they are worthy of success, recognition, and leadership.
Clients who walk into these containers leave feeling lighter even though they’ve accomplished MORE than they thought possible. The results I see are sustainable, and consistent income, higher client retention, less burnout, and more space for them to be a human being who runs a business they love – not just a business with a human-machine behind it. They’re more confident, at ease, executing from exhale, not worrying about the stuff that doesn’t matter, and focussing on the things that DO matter.
There’s something so special to me about building lasting relationships, even friendships and collaborations, with my one-on-one clients, that I feel really sets me apart from other coaches who seem to just be out there to serve as many people as possible and hit their numbers for the thrill of it.
At the center of all of this is really the vision I see of creating a global collective of creative entrepreneurs who are THRIVING, supporting each other, ditching the starving artist narrative, and paving the way for more creatives to contribute their gifts to the world and get paid well for it.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What I hear a lot from my community members, clients, and friends is that my reputation as a coach is based on realness, resilience, and authenticity. So basically, I’ve just remained honest and open about my journey, and through this, my reputation has developed through just being myself, which takes way less effort than it would if I were pretending to control or “make” my reputation into something that’s just not me.
This began with blogging about my experience of struggling hard as a creative in New York City, and as platforms evolved and shifted, that openness and vulnerability moved to Instagram and my free weekly newsletter, called Weekly Love Letters, where I share personal stories, struggles, and mindset/productivity hacks every Thursday morning.
It’s NOT easy being a business owner, and I feel that a lot of what we see online in the coaching industry is just a bunch of really curated highlight reels that don’t show the realities of what it’s like to be building a business as the human behind it. The building doesn’t really stop, the mind-chatter telling you you’re not good enough doesn’t stop, it’s how you show up to the plate every day that forms the reputation that will most benefit you (and your clients). If we focus too hard on the destination, of showing up a certain way that’s not authentic, we miss all of the wonderful treasures involved along the way.
I live what I teach. I STILL write about things that I personally struggle with as a creative entrepreneur, from personal challenges in relationships and travel mishaps to business pivots, changes, ups and downs…I openly share my journey, because the personal is the professional for many of us creatives. It’s hard to build a business around your gifts because you’re the “person” at the center of it. I’ve always felt it’s silly to sugarcoat that.
From my experiences and my clients, trying to build your reputation based on how you think you “should” show up, will only leave you with the wrong types of clients, because that’s not who you naturally “are”. Your job is to meet them where they are, being fully who you are, and utilizing your strengths, for them to have the most impactful transformation.
So my advice to my clients, really at the center of our work together, is to keep it real with yourself and keep it real with your audience. The people always COME. Your gifts are there because there is someone ready to receive them.
Now, this doesn’t mean I’m completely unfiltered and share EVERYTHING about myself – I’ve had to learn how to set boundaries around my brand image so that I don’t burn out on worrying about the external “image” as I evolve and expand. Things like taking social media breaks once in a while are helpful for this or catching myself if I feel like I’m “trying too hard” to curate the perfect post online.
The last thing I’ll note with building a reputation is consistency. My vision hasn’t changed, even though the mediums have changed, my methods are refined, and my niche has narrowed. Yet, I show up sharing the same few messages that reflect my work, I send out a consistent weekly newsletter, and I run all of my client containers in the same structure. This creates consistent client retention, trust, and allows people to get to really know me by shrinking the space between the reputation and the person behind it.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I could share 100. I would argue that every day of being an entrepreneur requires some level of resilience. To share my most prominent moment of resilience is also to share one of my most challenging moments of surrender, trust, and resourcefulness. These things really cannot be separated. So let’s get into it…
In January of 2021, about one year after COVID changed our lives forever, I was living in Brooklyn with my (now ex) partner of 6 years. We made it through quarantine, yet the relationship wasn’t healthy for me. I didn’t know where to go because we were all scared of the virus, so I focussed on building my business and planning an exit that I knew would be extremely heartbreaking, difficult, and risky…but I knew it would happen eventually.
My dream was to live nomadically and run my business remotely, so all of 2020 I built my coaching business with that in mind. Even then, however, I had no consistency with clients. I was just saving as much money as possible, hoping maybe the relationship would turn around, and once I got steady financially, I would leave my partner.
Sigh…of course, things never go the way we plan.
I was working very few hours as a personal stylist at that point, making way less commission money because my clients left the city. Yet, my relationship got to the point where it was truly damaging psychologically for me to stay. I didn’t feel ready to leap, but I had to do it anyway.
One night I blurted out that I was done. I broke up with my live-in boyfriend and had to quickly figure out an escape plan that would feel safe, and allow me to somehow, work through the heartbreak and continue running my business. I had just started leading a 5-month group course at the time, so like anything, it wasn’t good timing, but with these kinds of things, it never is.
It was a civil breakup at first, and then it wasn’t. I was kicked out of my own apartment and had to scramble to move 10 years worth of belongings into a storage unit, while STILL working as a stylist, and somehow running my coaching program. Lesson learned to not run a course while going through something as hard as ending a decade-long chapter of my life.
It’s winter in New York City. I was spending all of the money I saved on Airbnbs, showing up at work, sweating in my mask as I ran back and forth from my job in Soho to Brooklyn to Queens to shovel my things into my 5×7 storage unit.
It was absolutely traumatizing and yet, so many people stepped up to support me. My start to nomad life was really scary – for 8 weeks I was in limbo, sleeping on friends’ couches often, working two jobs, and scrambling to keep afloat mentally and emotionally.
Resiliency cannot exist without challenge. I took a massive risk by leaving my partner, my city, and my job, for the sake of my dream. I didn’t have time to doubt myself. I had to trust the process no matter how messy and absolutely broken I felt. I could have given up right then and there on my business, but I didn’t. Something just kept me going.
I was honest with my students, and the program become a lifeline for ME, just as much as it was supportive for the 7 students who were enrolled. It helped me grow as a teacher and formed my reputation as a coach who keeps it honest and real.
I went and stayed with my grandmother in Florida to decompress. I am not kidding when I say there were several months when I was completely disassociated. Yet, I steadied my routines, formed a beautiful relationship with my grandmother, cooked healthy meals, and worked on my business every single day to the best of my ability (sometimes, this was only an hour). I swam in the ocean, I saved money, and I still showed up weekly for the course I was teaching.
The strength and resilience I cultivated from this chapter of my life taught me that I am 100% capable of anything I set my sights on – that nothing can ever truly hold me back, not a man, not a city, not an amount of money, nothing. It’s empowering.
And I didn’t “push” through this experience in the sense of trying to make a certain level of income every month, my goal was to just heal, make money. I built discipline, slowly over time, and continued sharing my journey online. This story inspired people to come to me naturally, giving me the resources I needed to cover my basic needs and the confidence to travel all over the United States, and to Colombia and Mexico in the months following.
Since then, I’ve created a full-time income as a nomadic creative entrepreneur, supporting creative business owners who are here to make a big impact. The challenges don’t just go away – I’ve wanted to trash my business a number of times- but we learn to strengthen our resilience muscles over time. And I’m still standing.
Truly, resilience builds grit, but not in a pretty way. In my experience, it rarely feels good or exciting. But like anything we love, resilience is necessary to continue moving forward when life throws obstacles in our path. In business, it’s essential on even the smallest scales to keep going every day. Keep choosing your dreams. Keep choosing to believe in the possibilities of what your life could be and embrace where you are right now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kelseytetzlaff.com/
- Instagram: @kelseytetzlaff ; https://www.instagram.com/kelseytetzlaff/?hl=en
- Other: email – kelsey@kelseytetzlaff.com
Image Credits
Jox Gonzalez