We were lucky to catch up with Erin Song recently and have shared our conversation below.
Erin, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
I had been coaching on the side for a couple of years and knew that we had a family move coming for my husbands job! At the time I was a school counselor and high school lacrosse coach. I knew my passion was helping others and there was more inside me than what I was currently doing. In February of 2021, I lost my dad after a good battle with Lewy body dementia. My dad was someone I always looked up to- he was my best friend. The day he passed – I knew there was more to life and I had it in me to create the life I dreamed of living. Helping athletes, teams, and high level thinkers reach their potential through using their mind as an advantage. I was sitting on Spring break from school and felt like for the first time in a long time I had time for myself- I could spend the days dreaming and planning on what I wanted my future business, my future self, and my future life to look like. During that spring break I had a plan- I was going to launch my business. The only problem was I didn’t know what to call it- so I went with the obvious and Erin Song Coaching was born. My first step was to create an email Erinsongcoaching@gmail.com. Once I did that – I felt like it was official. Over the next few weeks and months I began sending out emails to let friends, family, and former coaching colleagues know about my new adventure. I was interested to talk to as many coaches as possible to see how a coach would use mental performance coaching for their teams. I wanted to learn and grow before I put together my first offer/ package. It was during that time that I recognized coaches, teams, athletes, and parents are looking for this type of service so I began identifying my strengths and how I could use them to begin my new journey as a full time Business owner and Mental Performance Coach! Once I started telling people what I was doing- people wanted to know more- they wanted to know how they could work with Erin Song Coaching and what the sessions and experience would look like. So the next step was to create content and sessions that I could personalize for the teams and athletes that were interested. Once I had the first few sessions created for Teams and Coaches that were interested the fun began!!
Erin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I grew up as an athlete- never the best athlete but always grateful for the opportunity to be a part of teams I was on. I played Water Polo, Swam and played Lacrosse. I was always told that my strength was being positive. I wanted to help the people around me achieve the success that they wanted and worked for. I was a Dual Sport Athlete in swimming and lacrosse at Division II IUP where I really developed more than just an athlete but as a teammate, a leader, and as a person. When I finished my athletic career I began my coaching career. I had the opportunity to coach Swimming at Division I, II, and III levels and also had the opportunity to be an interim head lacrosse coach! All of these experiences as a coach only strengthened my desire to help highly driven people achieve their goals. I knew there was more to it than just the skills and plays of the sport but so much in helping a person find an inner drive to what will motivate them to discover what is truly possible.
As I created my Coaching Business I first decided that the foundation of everything I do stems from building relationships, always focusing on the positive, and always remaining grateful. I am thankful for all of the coaches, teams, athletes and parents who have chosen me as the best fit to help them/ their team/ their child become the best version of themselves in and out of sport.
Topics that I cover with teams and athlete are goal setting, confidence, understanding nerves, relaxing under pressure, positive self talk, deep breathing, visualization, team building, leadership, self awareness, mental toughness, and figuring out the why behind what we do!
It all comes from the idea that we need to break it down and focus on the process. If we only focus on the goals and the results we will likely never get there!
I believe that we all have untapped potential sitting inside of us and we have to take on challenges, put ourselves in uncomfortable situations, and do things we do not know if we are capable of in order to truly figure out how far we can go in academics, sports, and life! It is my goal to help people recognize that we can learn and grow from all situations. We may not like an outcome but we can always use it to become better.
I am most proud of all of the athletes and teams I have had the opportunity to work with- seeing the growth in young men and women is truly inspiring. It is awesome to know that they believe in themselves and see a greater potential!
I offer a variety of packages- I work with individual athletes either weekly or 2 times per month. I have worked with athletes up to four years (and counting) and some are good after 6 sessions! I always let individuals know that they are in control of how much they get out of the experience. Do to time and schedule I limit my individual athletes on my roster to 10 athletes at a time in order to make sure that the athletes the attention that I want to give them! While on a package athletes can text and email.
My team packages vary a little more because I want to make sure the team is getting what they want and need and no two teams are the same. I can do 1 session in a season up to 10 sessions. When a team signs on for multiple sessions they also can take advantage of individual office hours where they can meet with me individually for 20 minutes weekly to dive deeper into the topics on their own. The team topics are discussed with the coaches before the season and then we can change and add throughout the season depending on what the team / coaches want. Most teams begin with the power of the mind to get the general overview of how important your mindset is when it comes to you performance in and out of sport.
I offer a leadership package – this is four sessions offered to a leadership group within an athletics department or team. The topics covered are the foundation of leadership, communication, self leadership, and positive leadership. There are some different topics within the larger topics to make it personalized for the group.
Finally I do speaking engagements to larger groups! This opportunity is for a group of people to pick one of the topics. It can be interactive but doesn’t have to be! I have learned that all groups are different and value different things !
Whether I am meeting with an individual, a team, a group, or an athletic department my goal is to leave the meeting/ session knowing that the individuals there got stronger mentally. They will have at least one (if not multiple) actionable things to do to use daily to grow themselves and their team!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
At first I felt like I had to be original! I had to make up all of my own content- so I would get an idea and then see it somewhere and scratch the idea. Then I realized it has all been done before- goal setting, confidence, self awareness are all topics that have been taught and built. I realized it was not what I was teaching but how I was teaching it- my delivery that was the most important I stopped worrying about the what and I started focusing on the why. That is when I noticed the game changed. My sessions became more authentic. I stopped trying to be so radically different in my messaging and started being so radically authentic with my messaging. I went from worrying about sounding too much like someone else and went all in on knowing what my strengths are and producing the messaging from my heart. I was talking with another entrepreneur and they recommended the book “Steal like an artist” which had some amazing reminders but the greatest reminder was that I wasn’t the only one who had struggled with the concept of wanting to be so super original. Once I unlearned the idea that I needed to come up with something different I was able to focus and learn what set me apart doing what I love from my heart!
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best source of new clients is doing a great job with my current clients. A majority of my new clients have come through word of mouth or a referral in some way. It is important to stay consistent. Keep in touch with all of my current clients. Support them through their season in whatever way they want. I would also say that using social media to highlight my brand with daily posts and weekly videos is a fun way to let people know about me and what I do!
Contact Info:
- Website: Erinsongcoaching.com
- Instagram: Emcsong
- Linkedin: Erin Song
Image Credits
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