Our Story

Here’s how Soulful Brand happened…

Ryan and Matt both finished Professional Coaching Courses with New Ventures West in 2009 and soon thereafter got their butts kicked in their own coaching ventures.

Matt built structure and operational efficiency into his coaching business without much strategy, hoping that after he built it, “they” would come—whoever they were.

Ryan sat on a goldmine of content and strategic marketing experience—unclear as to how to share it easily with others—they weren’t coming to him either.

We each had unique strengths and a pile of limiting beliefs:

  • work is hard
  • some day this will pay off
  • work is serious
  • I have to do this alone or it won’t get done right
  • oh crap, I’m running out of money

There we were, providing moral and strategic support to one another—saying how much we believed in each other as talented individuals.

Can you see it?

We isolated as perfectionists and stubbornly stuck to our old ways.

Like peanut butter and chocolate, we didn’t see how we might be a great combo. And then, as we kept in touch as friends and supportive colleagues, we felt a big fat “hello?!?!” from within.

“Why aren’t we working together?” we asked each other.

And shortly thereafter, we got serious about creating a fun business together in which our natural gifts were expressed through our core offering. We decided to work with people we deeply cared about—realizing that in partnership, we were more effective.

Coaches like us face a big mystery: how can I do sales and marketing while staying connected to my soul?

Having gathered insights and answers on our own, we each held pieces to the puzzle of what we knew about sales and marketing and how to make an authentic approach accessible to others.

We already shared a common language around branding given our professional backgrounds. So rather than dismissing our extensive experience and just banking on world peace through meditation and sparkle-ponies, we decided to also get grounded with our offers.

We decided to be spiritual and heart-centered with a professional foundation to connect us to the practical and emotional needs in our community: in essence, developing a consulting business that included coaching.

Ryan had already developed a whole lot of intellectual property and client feedback through his own venture and had landed on a new name: Soulful Brand.

Matt had the desire to dig into the content, simplify it, and create some parameters for how to work with fun and ease.

As we’ve worked with clients, the idea of both of us collaborating on ALL the calls presented itself. So we tried it out and noticed how much more powerful our sessions became!

We each felt able to combine respectful space-holding with our professional expertise in a way we never imagined possible. Matt setting the stage for each call, Ryan leading the focus of the work, and Matt stepping in to call out moments where a word or a tone of voice indicated an area to explore and gain insight.

And just like that, with an adventurous spirit for trying something new and learning from ourselves and others along the way, a Soulful Brand was born!

• • • • •

Read Ryan’s bio, then Matt’s bio.