People We Adore: Alison Proffit

A: Hi my name is Alison Proffit and as a holistic business coach, I help soulful entrepreneurs shift from feeling stressed and misaligned by helping them fall in love with and find JOY not just in WHAT they do in their business but also HOW they do it. Oftentimes the work centers around the sales, pricing, and marketing aspect of their business. I always integrate mind-body-spirit practices into our work and the outcome is they feel more aligned, connected to their values, and authentic in how they do everything in their business - even when they are Selling!

I sometimes joke that my destiny, to be helping small business owners in their path to financial success, was in front of me my whole life because it's literally in my last name Proffit! To help people remember how to spell my name I say remember this- " It's Proffit - spelled like making money but with two f's because more financial success is better!"

The journey to doing the work I do as a holistic business coach through my business Proffit Coach is not linear at all but it is a pretty amazing journey nonetheless.

I spent almost two decades working in the Human Resources field in a variety of industries. Through that journey I saw many people in jobs and careers that didn't necessarily bring them a whole lot of Joy. I now call a J.O.B. a Joy Optimization Blocker! I also started to lose my joy for the work I was doing, the further into my corporate HR career I got. I was actually encouraged by one of my leaders to pursue my passion and strength of coaching. The idea of starting my own business regularly popped into my mind but it seemed like a pretty tough path to making money.

You see, when I was 15 years old my mom started to pursue massage therapy as a career venture. She changed careers and went from doing therapeutic massage part time out of a home office space, to a full-time business working out of chiropractor offices, and then eventually she rented an office that she ran her business out of with a full book of business that was mostly gained by word of mouth. Money and profits always seemed to be difficult to come by even when she was really busy. She hardly raised her prices over all the years that she ran her business even though she had a massive impact on peoples healing and wellbeing journeys. My mom is also a part of my why.

After I completed my professional coaching training certification in 2017, I had a plan to start an executive coaching practice while I continued to work in the HR field and earned a consistent paycheck. Well, the higher powers decided that my plan wasn't the right one and just a few weeks after finishing my program, I ended up getting let go from my HR job.

I didn't start Proffit Coach until October 2019. In between the time I tried to start this business and when I finished my coaching program I had:

• Moved 9 times - with the first move being across the country from Pennsylvania to California
• Was let go from 4 different jobs
• Tried to unsuccessfully start my business 4 times
• Changed careers 2 times
• Left a toxic, emotionally and financially abusive marriage.

There were many opportunities for me to practice the coaching skills I learned in my own life and of course there was some therapy in the mix there as well.

The second career change in that period of time was the thing that shifted everything for me. As I was leaving the relationship, I was unemployed, out of money, knew nobody where I was living in Northern Colorado, and did not have a car of my own. I ended up taking a sales job at a global digital marketing company called Constant Contact. I had no idea what I was doing but they assured me they could teach me how to sell.

Sure enough they did. It turns out I had the ability to sell within me the whole time I just needed to learn some key skills. I worked there for one year and was pretty successful but the yearning in my heart and soul to start my own business would not be silenced. This job also stirred up inside of me a passion for helping small business owners. I loved hearing their stories, what fueled them to follow the dreams of creating a business from their passions, and I saw very clearly through our conversations that I had a lot of valuable insights to offer.

Armed with very little financial safety net, and a set of new skills in the area of sales and marketing I marched out confidently into the world and started talking to small business owners about digital marketing strategy. I uncovered and then openly shared how I could help them in this skill area while also bringing my coaching and two decades of business knowledge. I was so excited that I closed three sales and was profitable in my first month! I had no website, no business cards, and hardly any financial capital invested in this business launch.

I soon discovered that the majority of the people that I was working with and even just connecting with didn't necessarily have a marketing issue but rather they had a sales issue.

It felt like looking at a previous version of myself. When I used to:

• Feel icky about sales conversations
• Be nervous about coming off as pushy or annoying
• Avoid overcoming objections if they said no when I made my offer to them
• Feel uncomfortable putting a price tag on what people should pay me for the knowledge/ wisdom I had to offer that would provide value to them.

I learned that sales can be joyful and feel really aligned when we realize that we can approach it through the lens of our top values. I also came to understand that there is a lot that goes in to why entrepreneurs struggle with pricing - there tends to be a lot of inner work to be done around self-worth and value.

It is not just a mindset thing though. A lot of times there are skills missing. So I bring a hybrid approach, which is very informed from a career spent in HR, where I am moving between being a coach, a teacher, a consultant, and a soft place for you to safely land with both your fears and your dreams. Helping small business owners and their teams gain the confidence to bring their whole selves to what they are doing in all the areas of their work and to ask for the value that they are worth.

My top personal values are "Connection, Joy, and Faith" and these are woven through everything I do in both life and business. A part of my mission is to provide spaces for the community connection to happen which is where the Soulful Entrepreneur Summit and Community come into play. Each year there is a multi-virtual summit where soulful entrepreneurs gather to learn, connect, and grow together in a fun and engaging environment. We also hold other events both online and in-person throughout the year!

I really want to leave an impact on this world and help business owners like my mom (who we are sadly slowly losing to Alzheimer's Disease), and maybe even you, to see the great value of the gifts that you are providing to the world through your business. You deserve to make more money, feel aligned with how you do that, and to not feel so alone in the journey to what I call Soulful Success. This is where the tagline of Proffit Coach comes from which is that Joy Is The Best Business Strategy™

A: Vulnerability is a superpower that I have had for many years. I have found that vulnerability creates a thread that connects us with each other.

In February 2022, I was sexually assaulted by a friends husband. I started seeing a trauma therapist within a few weeks after it happened. At the time I was a 41 year old woman with no previous experience of this kind of traumatic experience but I did have quite a bit of knowledge about PTSD and trauma just from research I had done for various purposes over the years to support people in my life both professionally and personally. What I knew is that it is common to isolate, feel shame, and not talk about the situation sometimes for fear of being a burden to others.

Since talking to others is literally a huge part of my life, this "not talking to others about what was actually happening" felt so foreign to me. So I was uncertain if it was the right thing to do or not I decided to talk to other people about what happened and how I was trying to move through it. I felt like each time I shared the story I reclaimed more of my personal power back and allowed me to shine light on a very dark situation. What I found through this sharing is that it unintentionally created a space for people to share about their story. There were people who had never spoken openly about their experience and they were inspired by what they described as my bravery and courage that they began to share a part of their story with the world too.

A few months into my healing process, I decided that I had to focus more energy on my healing and it was becoming clearer as each day passed that I could not give my business the attention and care it needed while I was healing from this experience.

In August 2022, I took a corporate HR job. This felt like a huge risk since 2017 was the last time I was in a full time HR role and I really did not feel excited about returning to that kind of work. During the interview process for this job and once I started in the position of course people wanted to know why I decided to step away from my business to reenter the HR field. I decided that I was going to just be honest with people from the get go, even though my old self would have been very hesitant about sharing that much about my personal life as the HR Leader of the organization.

The decision to be vulnerable and open with my new team and the employees that we supported proved to be a good one. It created connections with people and they were able to see me not just as the HR person but as a human being. One that is messy, just like the rest of them!

A: I am able to leave my house for the self-care or de-stressing, I love to take a scenic drive into the canyons and mountains here in Northern Colorado where I live. Blasting my music and taking in nature and slowing down my breathing and my thinking.

If I am at home or don't have the time to head out for a drive, I love a long hot shower while listening to soothing music, meditating, and just reflecting on all of the glorious gifts from God I have been blessed with in this lifetime.

Third Eye - I very much move from a place of Intuition and Faith in my life. The more still and quiet I become the more I am able to tune into the messages from the Holy Spirit and God. When I move from a place of adhering to the guidance I get from this place so much magic unfolds. Operating from the third eye requires that the rest of me is cleared and unblocked so I do my best to stay aware and conscious of the energy I am feeling and surrounding myself with.

We can't wait to share Laura's live interview with Alison- check it out here.