Scaling Through Service: Melahni Ake’s Blueprint for Lasting Impact

 In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Rexhen Doda sits down with Melahni Ake, founder of Everyday Leaders Professional Coaching and Consulting, to uncover the strategies behind building a purpose-driven and sustainable coaching business. From her beginnings in medical device sales to becoming an 8x bestselling author and certified Maxwell Leadership coach, Melahni shares her insights on scaling through collaboration, leading with integrity, and preparing for growth without losing alignment. Learn how to plan for expansion, invest in the right people, and create lasting impact in your coaching journey.



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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melahni-ake-everydayleaders/
Website: https://www.everydayleaders.com/

Transcript

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Melahni Ake 0:00

Yeah, I have a team that, you know, can help me with certain projects. And so I have a virtual assistant. But I'm really, like I said, I don't take on more than I think that I can handle until I'm ready, until I have the right people on board. And so when I'm working with my clients, I know specifically like when they're ready to grow. So I know how do I plan for that, right? It's all about that strategy. Um, because I'd hate for somebody to call me tomorrow and say, hey, we just brought through three new facilities and we're gonna need 150 people trained.

Davis Nguyen 0:30

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Wynne and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Rexhen Doda 1:01

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Sewards Podcast. I'm your host, Regin, and today's guest is Melanie Ake, founder, community builder, and strategic corporate partner who helps leaders align purpose with performance and turn everyday actions into lasting impact. She's an 8X best-selling author, guest host, and certified Maxwell leadership coach. Melanie built everyday leaders professional coaching and consulting to equip organizations, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits with practical systems for growth. And it's a pleasure for me to have her on the podcast today. Welcome to the show, Melanie.

Melahni Ake 1:38

Thank you, Regin. This is really an honor to be here.

Rexhen Doda 1:41

Thank you for coming. It's an honor for us as well. I wanted to ask you about your beginnings as a coach. And um, I know with Everyday Leaders Professional Coaching and Consulting, it's been nine years right now that you've been working and running this business. Wanted to ask at the beginning of it, what inspired you to become a coach and start your own coaching and consulting business?

Melahni Ake 2:03

So before I started my own business, I was doing medical device sales and leadership. And so I was doing a lot of coaching with clients, with research physicians, and with sales teams. And so I felt in alignment when I started to decide, hey, I think I can do this on my own and just kind of explore how this was going to be. I joined the John Maxwell team with just kind of the idea to help me become more equipped at the things that I saw maybe I could create for the next step of my life. And doing that, I felt very much in alignment with the philosophies of a faith-based leadership coach. And so I just started to serve the community that I was surrounded by. And when I say that, you know, transitioning from a corporate role to becoming my own entrepreneurial business, it was tough. And so figuring out you can't serve everyone. So I had to really focus on where I needed to serve, which was healthcare. So I went back to that space and really started to develop startup businesses, startup medical device companies, and also relationships that I had in the space that needed my help and that support as now an entrepreneur. So that's really what kind of pushed me to the next level.

Rexhen Doda 3:21

And you said it so beautifully that you can serve everyone, and we'll get to that in a little bit. But when it comes to the people that you're serving right now, we do have two audiences in this podcast. One audience is made out of coaches that are listening and learning from other coaches like yourself. And the other audience is actually a borrowed audience for all of the guests that we've had on the show before. So we might be reaching out to your target audience as well. So how would you describe your ideal client profile? Is there a certain industry, demographic, psychographic? Do they have some common goals or other commonalities?

Melahni Ake 3:56

Yeah. Um my who I serve is really healthcare leaders. So CEOs of where I live in Indiana. So a lot of these CEOs have multiple sites. So maybe satellite offices that are doing specialty clinics, maybe surgery departments, or they do orthopedics or cardiology, or private practice offices that have multiple facilities, not long-term care organizations that are building practices, that are buying long-term care and rehab agencies. And really, it's to create common ground, consistency across the brand, maybe recreating their brand strategy of how they want to show up differently in a real competitive market. And so I'm someone that goes in and helps them think differently and then really challenge the status quo to the marketing portfolio. And so we do a lot of things of telling their stories. You know, as a podcaster, it's great to be able to help my organizations maybe create an educational podcast so that they can start telling their own story. So being a resource for my customers has been a big game changer.

Rexhen Doda 5:05

So wanted to ask you when it comes to working with you, what's the engagement like? Is there a certain program uh that these clients go through? Is there program length? Uh, is it one-to-one coaching or is there also group coaching? What does that look like?

Melahni Ake 5:20

Yeah, so I start off really as a consultant role, do a lot of assessments for personality behaviors. So disk is one of the formats that I use from the Maxwell group. And then the why, I use uh strength finders because I really think understanding the individuals that are really leading the ship or running the show is critical to understand how to communicate to them. So I start off with that communication process and then what their goals are specifically to the organizations. So a lot of it looks like doing a group workshop based on diving into each of the personalities of the leaders and then working with them on whether they have a three, six, nine, twelve-month goal, what they're going to start doing for their strategic planning. And so then it gets into either, like I said, I work with a lot of agencies that have multiple facilities. So it's executive coaching at that facility level, and then maybe the sub-levels, and then going in for group coaching for the rest of their teams. So setting up masterminds and setting up uh, you know, different types of events, live events that they may want to bring in other vendors and really participate in the experience. So it's really helping them through the process at every level.

Rexhen Doda 6:38

Also, I also wanted to ask you when it comes to people finding you or you finding them marketing-wise, is there a marketing channel that you see working better than the others for you?

Melahni Ake 6:50

You know, marketing is just finicky, right? I am a big one on social media, but I don't really market on social media. I have created credibility in my space because I have stayed serving the clients that I've always worked with. So I don't have to spray and pray, if you will, as we said in sales. A lot of my business comes from referrals. And it's really networking in my own community, but it's people that I've known forever that have said, Hey, I see you now what you're doing. I need your help where I need to be served. So that's really how I've built my business, is from relationships. I mean, that's really the core to how you have sustainable business.

Rexhen Doda 7:30

So it's mostly referrals then for the next one to three years, just to look into the future. Do you have any specific business goals that you're working towards off?

Melahni Ake 7:40

Really, it's to serve the current clients that I have in bigger capacities. So it's doing more with them, helping them have more resources so that because my business always comes from my customers, either internally as they're growing. And so we find more to do with them specifically as we uncover different areas, or if they're referring other friends of businesses or other startups to me.

Rexhen Doda 8:05

So you're thinking about developing new offers in that case? Cool. Um, and that's gonna be within the next one to three years. And do you have any kind of like ideas so far in terms of like the offers that you could be working on creating?

Melahni Ake 8:22

So I think, you know, part of what I do as a leadership coach is to develop the leaders. And so that helps the business grow. So each of my customers, as they're growing, it just it kind of is the multi-level marketing, if you will, for your own business. So as they grow, it gives you more opportunities. Some of my facilities, they're like purchasing different arms of their business. So as a strategic planner, I help them think about in one to three years, how many more offices do you want, which then feeds the channel for what I'm doing. So it's not having a bunch of clients, it's having a few that are really specific to help you target your business so that you can really serve them deeply, right?

Rexhen Doda 9:03

Interesting. And what would you say is kind of like the main challenge in expanding within the current clients? What what would you say is the main bottleneck for you right now?

Melahni Ake 9:12

I think time. You know, I have a network of other coaches that I work with, and so it's bringing them in, being collaborative in it really assessing the needs. Because if you say, Great, a facility is gonna maybe purchase or um or or maybe merge with another group, you may have another 50 people immediately, right? And so one person cannot just help 50 people. So as coaches, you have to have a collaborative network that you can say, hey, what are your structured pricing objectives so that you know, like, here's what you're gonna propose to them as they start buying new facilities. If we need to go here and if we're going to start off with the coaching modules, then here's what we're gonna be able to offer so that you know you're gonna come into it and you're gonna be able to serve them, you know, across the board. Uh, I think that's the biggest growth challenge has been, you know, you want to do it all on your own. And yet it doesn't make any sense when you're trying to grow businesses because they're not doing it on their own. So from the I wish I would have known that from the very beginning, right? Is how do you um really plan for the right collaboration? And so when that happens, you you know who your people are, you know who you can count on, just like having, you know, a seat at the table of of 50 other coaches on your team, you know who's suitable for certain kinds of opportunities. And so that's just that's really how it works. I mean, that's how it works in all businesses, but it's great to be an entrepreneur and kind of control that.

Rexhen Doda 10:43

So if I'm analyzing this right, and correct me if I'm wrong, is hiring then becomes another bottleneck. So you'd need other coaches within your team. If not to work full-time for you, they'd have to be collaborators as as well. So hiring is kind of like one of the challenges.

Melahni Ake 11:00

And making sure like, you know, that when people roll off, right? So if they're not available or they don't have the capacity, so finding the right mix of personalities to s to serve your clients. Yeah.

Rexhen Doda 11:12

It definitely is a challenge, especially when you achieve a certain level of growth as a coach, you definitely cannot, like time becomes a bottleneck. You can only take so many people to coach at at the same time. And right now, is it only you that's doing the coaching, or do you have associates right now or people that you work full time with?

Melahni Ake 11:31

Yeah, I have a team that you know can help me with certain projects. And so I have a virtual assistant, but I'm really like I said, I don't take on more than I think that I can handle until I'm ready, until I have the right people on board. And so when I'm working with my clients, I know specifically like when they're ready to grow. So I know how do I plan for that, right? It's all about that strategy. Um, because I'd hate for somebody to call me tomorrow and say, hey, we just brought through three new facilities and we're gonna need 150 people trained. Wait, we need to talk about this. But it happens, you know. I'm not gonna say that it's never gonna happen. It's just you want to be as prepared as you can because then they're gonna have success. And that's ultimately what you want for sustainable growth.

Rexhen Doda 12:16

Yeah, and for me to better understand this, it could be challenging in this case because it seems like there's a surge of clients that come in and then they're temporary, or would you say that if you hired, for example, like a full-time coach or like an or you had more associates, would that solve the problem? Or is it just like you're temporary would need that to be solved, and then after that you don't really need the full team?

Melahni Ake 12:41

I think you always need a team, right? They may be doing different jobs, and so you have to have people that have a lot of diversity in their coaching. So maybe they run masterminds, or maybe they're running one-on-one, or maybe they have an executive level experience, or they're coming in with new leaders, and so it's really helping to have that mix so that you can pull the right people when you need them.

Rexhen Doda 13:04

So this is something that you're trying to grow within the next one to three years, you try to grow your team and hire more coaches. Interesting. Okay, and to switch topics a little bit because we focused too much on this challenge, but I wanted to understand it for myself as well, is when it comes to investments, and this goes back to that research that I mentioned to you earlier. What have been some investments that you feel really good about? Either you learn a lot or got a good return from, and what have been some investments that you would prefer to have avoided if there's any bad investments as well.

Melahni Ake 13:37

Bad people. It's really hard when you you want to trust the process, right? And I think what you learn is not everybody is on the same page. And so being very careful on who you do collaborate with is so critical. And so I've learned to ask better questions, give myself more time for planning, and really show up still with a full heart, but looking for those pitfalls, you know, earlier so that you can start addressing, you know, that that level of awareness that we teach all of our clients, we also have to have it, right? Yeah. So part of that is like just being aware all the time, making sure that you have a team that you can check in with that's you know, holding everybody accountable to it. Because one wrong move or one wrong investment in a wrong coach or making a wrong decision to take on a new client that can really sabotage the rest of your business. It can it can destroy everything. So you have to be super careful in making those decisions.

Rexhen Doda 14:39

And so these would be the bad investments. What about good investments?

Melahni Ake 14:43

Again, it's people. Right. Um Good people. Right. And helping, I think for me, it's always helping people do the right things in their growth strategy. So I'm really big on consistency. And if I see that um the one area, if I can help people become more consistent in what they do, that gives the biggest returns. And so over time, they have recognized that they have more confidence and more courage to do the really hard things, either as coaches or as clients. And so bringing in those things of like educational podcasting, you know, for companies to be resources for their customers, like that's been a huge game changer. People don't think about that. And yet we are coaching them to do something that's out of their comfort zone. They're running their business, they don't always necessarily know how to market or talk about it, right? So I think that's the dynamic that podcast coaches have to offer additional services that are really within your wheelhouse. So that's that's what I think anyway, it's worked for me.

Rexhen Doda 15:48

Yeah, definitely. I I totally agree with that. Like investing in good people is essential for growth. Like you cannot grow alone. And on the other side of that, it does seem like very simple advice, but it just makes a lot of sense. Like the bad investing in someone that might not be the right fit is just like gonna cost you a lot more money. So for the coaches who want to scale, and we're talking about impact, for the coaches who want to scale their impact. Is there any advice that you'd like to give to these coaches? And this is my final question as well.

Melahni Ake 16:17

Give, give, give, give of your time, give of your resources, teach, do free trainings, like show up in the community and really serve your community. It will come back to you tenfold, triplefold, like a thousandfold. It always does. So to have the most impact, you have to give more.

Rexhen Doda 16:35

Give more. Thank you. Thank you so much, Melanie. You're welcome. Thank you so much for coming to our podcast. For anyone who wants to connect with you or find you, they can go into LinkedIn and look up Melanie Ake, or they can go into the website, which if I'm not mistaken, should be everydayleaders.com. Is that correct? Correct. Correct. We'll put that in the description so people can find that easily. But again, thank you so much, Melanie. Thank you for coming to our podcast.

Melahni Ake 17:02

Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Davis Nguyen 17:03

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.