Hi I’m Stasha, the Period Coach. If you are a business coach with women clients, period coaching is an important tool to add to your skillset. Helping your clients navigate their way through their cycles with ease and grace is life changing. For them and for you.
So how do period coaching and business coaching fit together?
Let me tell you a little of my story.
I started off as a certified holistic health coach working with female athletes. And these women all had period problems. Having spent the last 20 years trying to sort out my own endometriosis, I’ve learned a lot about periods. I applied this knowledge to my sessions with my clients, and guess what? They had fewer period issues, and started feeling way better.
As a result, I decided to focus on period coaching, doing hormonal balance coaching for women. And that morphed into business coaching, as a lot of my clients were business owners. Now with endometriosis, a week – two weeks – or sometimes even three weeks out of the month are essentially useless. Fatigue, brain fog, pain. So I realized that I’ve got about 2 weeks a month that I can run a business. I had to figure out a way to run a business that’s profitable in half the time. I experimented on myself and on my clients (who were all up for it by the way), running a business in flow. And as a result their productivity went up, the bottom line increased, profit margins were up and the employee retention rate improved. This really proved how the menstrual cycle is such a powerful force in your business. And how period coaching is a valuable tool.
I then worked for Ryan Eliason, a multi-7-figure business coach in the US, doing both group coaching for his masterminds and one-on-one coaching for his 5-figure courses. This gave me a brilliant foundation in pure business coaching.
I took what was breaking me – the endometriosis – and turned it into an asset. I now run The Period Coaching School, helping people who want to incorporate period coaching into their businesses, and helping them run their business with flow. Whether it be menstrual flow or moon flow. Helping them get more done in less time, make more money, get more free time, get more life, get more enjoyment, and actually enjoy the work in their business.
I noticed with my very first hormonal balance coaching clients who had businesses that sometimes their PMS showed up in different places than, say, a woman who works a nine to five or a normal job. There’s a lot more mindset issues when you’re running your own business. When you have a hormonal imbalance, this can show up in a variety of ways. If your clients are saying things like “Oh, I don’t know what to do. I just felt paralyzed or I felt frozen, or I felt like I couldn’t get anything done. I couldn’t cross anything off the list. I couldn’t find the words. I couldn’t figure out the branding….” and it’s happening regularly – a few days out of the month every month – it’s a clear indicator that there’s some business PMS happening.
Keep an eye on a recurring re-niching and rebranding patterns. Brain fog and fatigue are both really common PMS symptoms, and sometimes people don’t notice them. But when they’re running a business, they tend to notice them more and blame themselves for not getting things done. Knowing about the hormonal imbalance and what your cycle does and how it transforms your body throughout the month is vital. Once you know where you are in your cycle and in your business you can plan for it.
It’s important to create business plans and systems that are congruent with your vision. I‘m a firm believer that the menstrual phase is one of the most crucial phases for your business, because it’s the time when you connect to your vision, your big picture. If you’re using your menstrual phase to really connect with that vision, then you can map out your business. It’s a lot easier to be discerning, to make decisions, and to avoid running off the rails. When you know where you are in your cycle you know exactly what you need for your business today, and what you’re going to need tomorrow. You’re in action, not reaction.
An Overview of the menstrual cycle and how it relates to business
Here’s what a cycle looks like. There are five phases – Menstrual, Follicular, Ovulation, Luteal, and Deep Luteal.
Menstrual is five to seven days long and is the time where we have very base hormones. Energetically it’s the winter phase. So the behind-the-scenes work, the plotting, planning and visioning is perfect for this phase.
Follicular is about seven days long. It’s the spring phase, the hormones are rising and the energy is growing.It feels like a big boost, and we’re more confident and capable. So it’s tech and systems time.
Ovulation is usually three to four days long. This is our summer phase. Estrogen and testosterone are at their peak, and so is our confidence and our verbal skills. Think networking, webinars, video recording – getting all the “outer” things done.
Luteal is the late summer phase. Think of those long days when we’re bringing in the harvest. We’re still getting work done, but we’re tying up the loose ends and preparing for winter. Feathering our nest, getting ready for the Deep Luteal and Menstrual phases so we can roll into the next couple of weeks easily.
Deep Luteal is the final phase. In these four-ish days before menstruation we’ll see signs of PMS if there’s a hormone imbalance. (And 90% of menstruators have hormonal imbalances – just sayin’). This is the autumn/fall phase, where it’s time to start turning inwards, truly starting to rest, starting to relax. The days are getting shorter. The nights are getting longer. We have a little bit of energy and it’s a good time to do the mundane things and prepare for when the follicular energy hits. So we don’t have to think about a thing in follicular except for knocking out really quality work.
How do we start to include period coaching with our clients?
It starts with charting, and checking in where they are in their cycle.
We want to give our clients as much confidence and as many tools as they can to really succeed at being in business. One of the methods I use is the what, why and how method – I call it the “What would Hermione do?” Because Hermione’s smart and thinks things through.
We start in the What phase – this is the luteal phase. What’s working, what’s not working, doing your reporting, your numbers. What are the programs that are working? What are the programs that aren’t working? What is the marketing that’s working? What’s not? Really going through and assessing.
The Why phase is the menstrual phase. Why is it working, why is it not working, taking the time to really look at that. As the hormonal shift happens, we’re going to be less attacking and doubtful and self-flagellating. And often we can step back and see the bigger picture.
The How phase is the follicular phase. How are we going to take what’s working and make it better? How are we going to take what isn’t working and make it work – or do we get rid of it? Do we automate? Systemise? Delegate?
And then it’s our ovulation phase, our doing phase, where we have that boost of extra confidence. The time to have the tough conversations, to eliminate something if you need to. “Kill your darlings” as they say in the writing industry
A period coach is a visionary, a pioneer, and early adopter. And as a business coach with a period coaching certification, you really have an upper level to everyone else in your field. There are so many ways and directions that you can go with business coaching and period coaching, so many niche areas. For example, mindset business coaching for clients with PMDD, or perhaps menopause and visibility. I mean, menopause is when a woman has absolutely no more value to society. If you can’t make babies, you’re useless right? That’s the messaging we get!
One of our very first students to graduate does launching in flow as her business. She teaches women how to launch their programs, their businesses, whatever they’re launching, in line with their cycles so that they can have a really chill, lazy launch.
Does this sound like you? Would you like to live your life in flow and teach others to do the same? Then I invite you to join The Period Coaching School, our collaborative community of like minded people. You’ll learn the tools and systems to create a business in flow for yourself and for your clients.
Head to https://periodcoachingschool.com/apply, pop your email and your name in, and you’ll get a link to schedule a call with me, and a link to a quick two question survey. We’ll have a chat to make sure that this is a good fit for you. And together let’s change the world!