We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sherry McClurkin, MS a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sherry thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?

Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know and don’t know that you don’t know it. I learned the hard way I didn’t know what I needed to know about the financial side of running a business. I founded and ran a small business with a handful of employees for 6 years. I was proud of my business, the quality of customer service we provided, and my ability to supervise the employees while also doing direct customer service myself. I was proud of the small building I found to lease for my business, how I decorated it, and the warm and welcoming ambience I created. With my employees’ blessings, I implemented a no-benefits yet high percentage of sales income plan for them. I was proud of how much money my employees made, and I knew I paid them more than other local businesses providing a similar service.

Using my highly honed hindsight, I know now the financial problems started the moment I chose to grow my business from solo to employees. I leased the building with my own money. There wasn’t a plan to build up funds first then later lease the building. I didn’t think that way. Decorating the building was another huge expense I didn’t plan for, didn’t save for; I simply spent my money. My initial vague idea was to sublease out the unused offices and charge enough for rent to cover my initial building expenses along with the monthly expenses. Sounds pretty good; yet I struggled to find renters, and I struggled even more to charge that level of rent. I feared I wouldn’t have any renters if I charged that much, so I chose to lower the rent and subsidize the rest each month.

My first “employees” were interns. I thought interns were a great way to see if having employees is what I wanted. I loved having the interns, training them, building up their skills and confidence. I loved that the interns could provide the much needed free and low cost services while I focused on higher tier customers. The truth is the interns harmed my financial situation; they took me away from doing the volume of direct customer service truly needed.

I could go on. I made many financial decisions over those years that were not helpful because I didn’t know better. I was caught up in how good it all looked and felt from the outside, how much it meant to me to provide the services and do so from my own business with well paid employees. I also harbored fears around money and lack of money I wasn’t ready to recognize, yet those fears greatly influenced my decisions.
That business closed due to the financial problems, and I ended up hurting people I never wanted to hurt. My employees depended on me for their jobs, and I let them down. The customers depended on my business for their services, and I let them down. I also let myself down in many ways, and I’m still recovering from the impact.

The other side to this is I absolutely know better now. I learned from my mistakes, and that’s the key; always learn from mistakes. I am much more tuned into the numbers of a business, instead of being afraid to even look. The past 2 years have stretched and grown me in ways I could never have imagined. I am, honestly, a completely different, much wiser, and much more aware person.

Probably my biggest takeaway from this experience is to not do it alone; find mentors, get support, ask questions of those who’ve already done it successfully. Also, be brave enough to ask the questions whose answers I believe everyone else already knows, believing the answers are obvious to others but not to me. Don’t stop asking questions until I understand what I need to understand. The expression “I don’t know what I don’t know” is real. I think its corollary is “I can’t know everything, and that’s as it should be”. While this experience was immensely painful, I am grateful for the person I am now.

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.

I am a Trauma-focused, Emotional Intelligence & Mindset Expert. I use Coaching, Speaking, & Writing to help Christian women heal the emotional roots of guilt, shame, and the not-enoughs and not be driven by expectations, anxiety, insecurity, and busyness. So instead, they can find a quiet and focused mind, fulfilling relationships, purpose in their days, and their true Identity as authentic, Christ-centered calm, confident and empowered. I do this using my simple, proven 5-step method based on neuroscience, my 10+ years as a trauma therapist, the Bible, and my own journey away from anxiety, insecurity, and fear.

I’m especially passionate about helping Christian women who had a difficult childhood, whether something happened to them directly or they were surrounded by challenging family problems. It’s helpful if a potential client did some emotional healing already and is looking for deeper healing.

I grew up in an alcoholic family, so my emotional needs weren’t met much and often not even welcome. Most of the emotional energy in my family was spent on the alcoholic or staying out of the way of the alcoholic. I learned well how to wear the mask of all’s good, even though I was far from okay.

My childhood grew in me, at first, a strong desire to protect children, so I made sure every child I came into contact with knew they were precious, treasured, and cherished (and I still do). Those were things I didn’t receive, and I carried those emotional wounds. I went to college straight from HS because I didn’t know what else to do; and then failed out of college. I married because it was expected, yet it was not a good marriage. I had no career ambitions because I was in survival mode. Once Jesus Christ grabbed me and showed me the power of a good therapist who was also a Christian, my life completely changed. I realized my true passion is in helping women, so I ran back to college and earned the degrees and licenses to be a trauma therapist, and did that for over 10 years.

I switched to coach, speaker, writer to I reach even more Christian women and do so in a Christ-centered and science-based way using all my training, advanced-level knowledge, 1000s of hours with clients, my own journey, and more.

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

I thought I knew what I was getting into when I switched from trauma therapist to coach, speaker, writer. I was so wrong. As a therapist in a major metropolitan area, advertising wasn’t really necessary. As a coach, speaker, writer, I have to advertise; I must keep showing up in public spaces; and it’s vital I keep talking about what I do and the transformation my clients go through. So I had to learn all about marketing, email lists, social media engagement, and their buzzwords. As a trauma therapist, I’d only give a high level overview of what I did because most of the conversation would stop once I said I was a therapist; people don’t quite know how to take that and are worried I’m picking up on their stuff. I rarely talked about the results my traumatized clients received because I stuck hard to the confidentiality therapists are bound to.

I find it amusing that over and over I don’t realize how the rules and restrictions I was legally bound to as a therapist need to be unlearned to succeed as a coach, speaker, writer. Most recently, I ran into a strong “I’m not doing that” feeling when my business coach spoke of sales calls. I finally recogized my reaction and reluctance were because those types of calls are not allowed as a therapist. Another example is testimonies and success stories that most businesses rely on. Those are also not permitted as a therapist, at least not where I was licensed, yet are very important as a coach, speaker, writer.

The differences between being a trauma therapist versus a coach, speaker, writer were not obvious to me, and I wasn’t prepared for them. Luckily, I have a good sense of humor and can laugh at myself, which is what I’ll do when the next unlearning shows up.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

As a trauma therapist, keeping in touch is unethical, and brand loyalty was primarily the relationship built while meeting with the client in sessions. So this is another area where I’m more of a newbie. Gratefully, several coaches I considered working with and reached out to are wonderful about keeping in touch, so I’ve learned from them. The coaches I eventually invested in routinely reached out to me, checked in, and engaged with me. A simple hello or are you interested in my next webinar are wonderful examples of keeping in touch and foster brand loyalty. Those coaches invested in me before I ever invested in them and without my spending one penny with them, and that means a lot. I am growing my ability to do the same for others in my capacity as coach, speaker, writer. I prefer to use texts, emails, and DMs; and I am growing my social media presence. My goal is to offer content that inspires and challenges. I also want to show the possibilities and give hope for real change that makes a big difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www..SherryMcClurkin.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sherry.mcclurkin
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-mcclurkin-brain-tamer/
• Other: Calendar Link for virtual chat: 15withSherry.net