We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Esther Gutierrez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Esther, thanks for joining us today. Let’s go back in time a bit – can you share a story of a time when you learned an important lesson during your education?

Entrepreneurship is not easy, but it sure can be fun! And it can feel like all fun and games when you are creating cute Canva graphics but when you get down to the nitty gritty of running a profitable business, things get real really fast. Now you actually have to dig deep inside you and remember your “why” for creating a business so that you can continue to make your business a priority every single day.

I launched my online Life & Mindset coaching business in December of 2021. I was working as a classroom teacher at the time and realized that teaching was not a profession that made me feel happy nor fulfilled. In fact, it did quite the opposite. I finally launched my business after it being an idea that I had pondered for a long time. I knew that I wanted to help people and help them improve their mental health so deciding to be a life & mindset coach was an easy decision.

When I started back in December 2021, I did not know it at the time but I was using my coaching business as a therapeutic outlet to escape the emotional and mental trauma I was experiencing from being in the classroom. However, as time went on, being in the classroom only got worse and my business started to feel more like a burden and an obligation I no longer had the mental capacity for any more. That is when I decided to leave teaching, I knew that being in the classroom was taking away my mental, emotional, and physical health and it was standing in the way of me being able to make my business a priority. So in June of 2022 with no job lined up, I quit teaching. Now at this point, you may be thinking that this is where I say that I quit my job and become a six figure coach. Well… not exactly.

I actually spent the next 4 months hyper focused on breaking into tech sales and landing my first role as a sales rep at a tech company. My mindset was that “once I get a 9-5 that doesn’t drain me, I will then be able to nurture my business.” But the truth was, I wasn’t ready to make my business a priority. So in September of 2022, I landed my ideal role at a tech start up with an amazing flexible schedule and work from home policy so I now had the time, freedom, and security to really do my job and nurture and grow my business. Yet, this didn’t happen, as soon as I landed my new job, I went back to feeling so comfortable by the fact that I had a 9-5 with a steady paycheck so I once again chose to not make my business a priority. I was more so showing up in my business just to check it off for the day and say that I did something.

So now it’s October 2022 and my tech job with my dream working conditions lays me off because of budget cuts. So not even 2 full months of working there and suddenly, I find myself back to square one. So the lesson here is, do not allow yourself to become dependent on a job for a paycheck. If you are an entrepreneur, you have to make your business a priority. The biggest lesson my career choices and experiences have taught me is that there is no such thing as “job security.” You can literally be let go on a random Friday morning with no warning and then you’re left on your own. Instead make time to nurture your own business and build that security for yourself. When you work for someone else, you will never really be in charge and if you’re not okay with that then you need to make sure that everyday you are doing something to nurture and grow your own business so that you can be in charge and create the life of your dreams. Building, growing, and nurturing a business isn’t something you can rush. You have to be patient, you have to make it a priority, you have to show up even when you don’t feel like it. So if you are like me, and you cannot afford to be working in your business full time which means you will have to have a 9-5, my advice is, don’t get too comfortable building someone else’s business and put yours on the backburner instead you be building your own business and securing the lifestyle you want to live while working a 9-5.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been going to therapy since early 2018, so I have been doing the inner work for quite some time now. As I started my inner healing journey and began to see the transformation within myself, I also realized how lonely this journey was. Whenever I brought up certain topics to close friends, they saw it completely differently from how I did. I began to notice that my way of thinking had completely shifted and now I didn’t really agree with their point of view. I began to feel like an outsider. It was about 2019 when I really began to reap the benefits on my inner healing journey, and I became obsessed with trying to help others jumpstart their inner healing journey. I wanted everyone to experience all the wonderful things that come from living in peace rather than survival mode. So about 2019/2020 I came to the conclusion that I wanted to help others and be an advocate for mental health, but I was already at the beginning of my teaching career so pivoting to something in mental health meant having to start all over and possibly having to earn another MA. I knew that going back to school for another degree was not an option I could afford, so I discussed my frustration with my therapist. She suggested I look into life coaching. At the time, I remember I resisted her suggestion, I was tired from having just finished my teaching credential training and having landed my first K-12 teaching job and quite frankly I fell into the victim mentality. I felt that having gone to school to become a teacher was a poor choice I made on my part and had to live with the consequences. I was not happy in my new career and all I did at the time was blame life for being unfair. Then something magical happened in early 2021, I had had enough. I knew that if I kept blaming life and others for my choices that I was never going to create the life I truly wanted. So, I decided that I was going to look into life coaching just like my therapist had suggested. And just like that, my guides, mentors, and teachers began to appear and suddenly I knew exactly what I needed to do in order to launch my life coaching business and help other BIPOC millennials take control of their reality and create the life of their dreams!
I help BIPOC millennials take control of their current reality and consciously create the life of their dreams. I integrate Human Design, Astrology, Subconscious Reprogramming (Psych K) and a sprinkle of Spirituality into my life coaching practice. Human design and astrology provide us with a map of your energetic strengths so when clients come to me about an issue they’re facing, I study their chart to identify what area in their life needs to be addressed so that everything else falls into alignment. My best seller is my three month long one-on-one coaching program, in which I help my clients identify the area of their life that needs tending to, we come up with a plan to help address their needs so they can consciously create the life they truly desire, and they go on to execute that plan as we check in every week to see what is working and what is not so they can have support and guidance as they go onto create their dream life. For clients who are not ready for a long term coaching program, I offer single coaching sessions in which they can decide which modality they want me to use, Human Design, Astrology, or Subconscious Reprogramming (Psych K).

The one thing I am most proud of is knowing that I 100% create the life I truly desire and the proof is in everything I have been able to build once I decided to live in alignment with my soul’s purpose. I want everyone to know that they too have the power to create the life of their dreams! And working with me is not about me giving you any sort of “special” powers, you already possess the magic within, all I do is teach you how to tap into that magic and use it to consciously create and manifest the life you want and deserve to be living.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When you start a business, you will have to get comfortable with having to pivot all the time. When I first started my business, I was doing everything. What I mean by this is that I was posting content every single day, consuming other coaches’ content all day, and basically trying to do anything just to feel productive. I quickly realized that this method of running my business was not benefiting anyone so I had to pivot. I reached out to my business coach and spoke with her about my lack of direction and with her help I came up with a strategy that works for me. I quickly began to feel 100% better about the content I was posting and at the rate I was posting it. I also decided that consuming other people’s content did not inspire me, instead it threw me into a comparison trap. Pivoting in your business is natural and an expected part of the journey. You will come up with many ideas and the ones you try out will sometimes work and if they don’t, you will have to pivot onto the next one. So any time you have to pivot, look at this as a wonderful opportunity to try something new.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn was that you need a 9-5 to have a sense of security. Many times when you are building a business you will be bombarded by messages from other people. One of the big ones I heard was that I needed to have a 9-5 in order to be able to build my business without rushing the process. I had to quickly unlearn this when I was laid off from a job. I had to make the decision for myself that I can grow my business and nurture it even if I do not have a current 9-5. I remember I had put my business on the back burner because I was hyper focused on finding employment but one day it dawned on me that I was financially prepared to not generate new income for about 6 months. So, I essentially had a few months to deep dive into my business without having to clock in and clock out elsewhere. So if you’re currently struggling to find a job and you can afford to go all in on your business, I 100% recommend you use your time and energy to build your own security because 9-5s can be fickle. Having a business that can financially support you and offer you a better quality of life is going to be the best sense of security because you know that you will always come through for yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.estherthemindsetcoach.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherthemindsetcoach/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EstherMindsetCo
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@estherthemindsetcoach?lang=en