Laura Kåmark
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold, Make Waves podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I’m your host, Laura Kåmark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business mindset, productivity, and of course, the website and tech behind the business.
Let’s go ahead and dive in to this week’s episode.

Hello, and welcome, everyone to today’s show. For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is Laura Kåmark. I’m a website and tech integration specialist who works with coaches and consultants that love their work but NOT their website. I’m so excited for my guest today. Alecia St. Germain. Alecia is a certified Immunity to Change coach and founder of the conscious edge, a leadership and personal development company focused on empowering female entrepreneurs. After training more than 10,000 Real Estate entrepreneurs, Alecia knows the strategies and tactics are only a small part of creating wealth and happiness, merging methodology, methods of science and spirituality, she helps her clients uncover and transport form their unconscious blocks. So they can confidently make money, reclaim their time and step boldly into their roles as leaders. Alecia, I’m so excited to have you today. Welcome to the show,

Alecia St. Germain
I’m so excited to be here, it’s gonna be a lot of fun.

Laura Kåmark
Can you start off by sort of telling our listeners a little bit more about what you do and how you got into this line of business.

Alecia St. Germain
So my journey started out as being a real estate investor. And I had the fortunate opportunity of training other adults how to be real estate investors as well. So I’ve always been in the entrepreneurial space. Most of my life are most of my adult life. And one of the things I noticed in training so many people is that they could have the best techniques, the best strategies, and they could not get themselves up to the plate, even though they literally had the keys to the kingdom to create wealth. And it got me really interested in what is going on behind the scenes. So I came across a coaching methodology based in psychology, and it perfectly explained like, Oh, this is why people are struggling. And so I really, that launched me into an a completely different business completely different direction. People thought I was crazy, like, oh, my gosh, you have everything that looks good on paper. But my soul was like calling to me like this is you’re meant for more, you’re meant to really upgrade people on another level. So I became a certified Immunity to Change coach and started my business, new business and coaching people and my passion has just evolved to female entrepreneurs, because it just I’ve always had that space. In my heart, even in real estate, I was helping females and really have that soft spot for females. But like, I just think we get to be wealthy. Oh, I love that. That’s, that’s where I

Laura Kåmark
can you explain a little bit what Immunity to Change is. So

Alecia St. Germain
Immunity to Change is this concept that our brain is like an immune system and an immune system is a beautiful thing, right? It protects us. But there are situations in immune systems where the body will actually start to attack itself. So much like an immune system, our brain has self protection. And it was designed because like primally we that’s how we stayed alive. That’s how we evolved because we don’t have the same defense mechanisms that other creatures in the world have no horns, no spitting them in them. It was really our brain. And one of the things to do is hide or fight or be silly and what they do they call fawn like we look at them, it’s trauma responses. And so when you perceive that something you’re doing some big goal, something you’re excited about, is is dangerous. On the unconscious level. The brain says, ooh, you know what, this doesn’t feel safe. This feels a little familiar to maybe fourth grade or third grade when that girl made fun of us or whatever it was. I think we should go watch Netflix and take a nap or I think we should go clean something because there’s something else way more important. So it’s a way that the brain self protects. And that’s what we call that we have this immunity to change because we’re uncomfortable with change. Doing our behavior in a way that feels risky based on our previous experience. So that’s part of the work that I do, you know, a significant part. But other things as well we can do to address that. But it’s really about overturning that and getting your unconscious in alignment with what you want now, as an adult, someone who’s out there working on your mission. So,

Laura Kåmark
I’ve been working with you as my mindset coach, since I believe it was around March of 2021. And I know for me, the thing that kind of held me back was this, like, the scary part of being visible. And so what that translates to is not wanting to email my list, not wanting to put anything, publish anything on social, not because that felt scary. And we discovered that’s my immunity, trying to say, Hey, this is scary. So I’m gonna go do other things. Like clean or procrastinate brand, I do

Alecia St. Germain
a lot of that too.

Laura Kåmark
And so in working with you, and identifying, that was, what it was, and how we can overcome that was really just, I mean, it was mind blowing for

Alecia St. Germain
me. Oh, that’s, and that’s, that’s the best part of it. And, and it’s really about doing it, there’s lots of ways to do it. But what I love about it is the Immunity to Change methodology is that we identify ways of retraining the brain that what used to feel unsafe is no longer unsafe. And we do it in very slow, small steps in ways that aren’t going to trigger you to you know, run away so to say or whatever, whatever it is you normally might do when something you’re afraid of something like procrastinate

Laura Kåmark
when something so how are you working with people now? What are you Joe, I

Alecia St. Germain
run, I run a group program, actually called people pleaser, powerhouse entrepreneur, because I do tend to work with a lot of people pleasers, which I was very resistant to using the word people pleaser because I thought it was weak. And here’s the thing I have learned I’m a people pleaser. And I’m Alicia, I’m a people pleaser. And here’s what I’ve learned. There is no part of people pleasing that is weak, the amount of grit that it takes and resilience that it takes to keep showing up to help others and the there’s so many beautiful parts that come from being a people pleaser, you’re sensitive, you’re empathetic, you understand the needs of other people’s people and their emotions, sometimes even better than they do. Where we get trapped as we try to control other people’s emotions. So we do a lot around setting boundaries. And we talk a lot about really being responsible for our own actions and our own feelings, but not other people. So it’s really powerful. It’s it affects people. I feel like I’m going off on a tangent here, but it’s okay. It affects people in ways like not charging enough for your whatever your services are. In even if you’re making money in your business, and you’re doing well. I think there’s a point where people know this is not sustainable. For me. It looks like working way more hours on things and going outside of I think what you call scope creep going outside of what what was contracted and doing more. And it can it can show up in a lot of different ways like burnout and and undercharging getting procrastinating. So there’s a lot of things that we do in the program to work

Laura Kåmark
through that. Oh, and then they get to come out on the other side.

Alecia St. Germain
The other side? Yeah.

Laura Kåmark
It’s beautiful thing right there.

Alecia St. Germain
I love that so much coming out is really leaders becoming the leaders of their business really, where they’re setting the standards of what it looks like to work with them. And really that that self worth piece that gets to come out?

Laura Kåmark
Oh, absolutely. You know, setting those boundaries and being comfortable to set the boundaries and understanding your value and your worth. That’s huge. I mean, I see that so often, with friends, colleagues, clients even that they’re not willing to, they don’t understand their value and their worth, and they want to just they want to help everyone, but it’s how to help someone else. By lowering your cost. What’s that doing to you? Right? And that’s what’s that doing to your business? It’s not sustainable. And I’ve been guilty of that. Absolutely.

Alecia St. Germain
We all have. We all have. It’s how we are trained. And I really think women are societally trained to serve and to put yourself last and what’s Amazing is the transformation that happens when you learn to really take care of your own needs. So there’s an element of self care and what you need to sustain your business where you can actually show up better for other people in your life, whether they’re your clients, or your family, or your friends, or whoever it is, you actually can show up better. But there’s a retraining, that has to happen.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. I would love to talk to you a little bit about some tech things just because I am a website and tech lover, and we actually originally met because we were, uh, you were referred to

Alecia St. Germain
me, I hired you for my tech. Yeah, exactly. Like in your

Laura Kåmark
website. So I would love to know, like, before we had worked together, talk to me about like that first website that you had, how did? Did you build that yourself? Did you hire someone, I want to talk

Alecia St. Germain
about that. Okay, so So that’s super funny. So I had one of these hangups and a lot of entrepreneurs, when they’re first getting started in something where they feel like they have to have a website in order to be legitimate. And if anybody is listening to this, who’s just starting out, please, please, please, you do not need to have a website. It unless you are driving traffic to that website as a way of acquiring leads, nobody is seeing your website, and even if they’re going and checking you out to see if you’re legit. If that’s like a whole leadership thing, like you get to show up and lead people and you’re who you are as a person, your charisma, your what you have to offer your mission, your heart, that is what people are buying, they are not buying your website. So number one, I have to say that police. So I hired, I felt like I had to have a website or I wasn’t legit, because I have a perfectionist like looking good conversation that my little unconscious likes to talk in the back of my head. And I hired someone to teach me to build a website, rather than just hiring someone to build the website. And it really came from feeling like I needed to have control. So I couldn’t even tell you what I did, she set up some of it for me, she showed me how to run it. And it felt like everything was piecemeal together. And so part of why I hired you was because I was spending too much time building the website and not enough time doing the thing I’m gifted at which is coaching. Yeah. Which is so many people. So many people do that, like do stay in your lane, do what you’re gifted at. Hire someone like Laura to build your website when you actually know what your offer is.

Laura Kåmark
Yes. That I think that’s such a key point, right there is that. And again, I see this all the time where people are so focused on like, you know, designing their own logo for this first website so they can launch their business. I’m like, no one cares what your logo looks like. No, it doesn’t matter. Just go get clients. Go figure out what it is because your offer is going to change. It’s going to tweak around, it’s gonna you’re gonna do pivots, it’s you’re gonna figure it out as you go along. And once you figure out what you’re doing what you’re offering, and it’s validated, which just means people are buying it. That’s when you can go back and say, Okay, now I’m ready. I’m really clear on what I offer the magic and transformation I bring to my clients and I’m ready for my to have a website that reflects that.

Alecia St. Germain
Yeah. And then you hire someone like Laura who can do it and do an amazing job. I always felt like my, my tech was like, I had a vision for what the customer experience was going to be like, and then my execution was like left of center. And then when you did, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is even better than my vision.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, that makes me so happy.

Alecia St. Germain
But seriously, No, it’s true. What I’m

Laura Kåmark
gonna go back to talking about your business now, we’ve talked about the tech I love all that. What were some of the fears and doubts that you had when you first were starting out in your business?

Alecia St. Germain
So that’s really interesting, because when I started my business because I had already had a business and I I’ve seen this happen over and over again with people who have had success in their life and then they like do a second act. You think it’s gonna be easy, like, oh, you know, I hired a coach. Number one I hired a coach because I I had this moment where like, I knew I had the coaching service certification, but I did not know how to get clients. And so I knew I needed support and I found a coach that was going to help me learn to attract clients. So number one, like you have to invest you in hiring coaches to and I’ve had coaches the entire time, I’ve had business different levels of coaches. But I think where my fear really set in is it was harder than I thought. And it took longer than I thought it should. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like, am I actually supposed to do this, but one of the things that has always supported me was realizing that there’s something bigger than myself that I am here for something more than it. And I would always go like, Please God, oh, my gosh, just send me some confirmation. I’m supposed to do this. Like every time something didn’t work. And I can tell you, I’ve failed so many times. And then I’d like get an email from a client who’s like, oh, my gosh, this work. Thank you so much. This is so great. Or I just always got that immediate thing. And I think, and I don’t mean to be like, No, I’ll just go there. Like, I’m definitely a very spiritual person. And having that faith and knowing that the struggle is part of the process, I think has carried me through it. But I definitely had my fears that I wasn’t like it wasn’t going to work.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that so much the struggle is part of the process. Totally, because it is. And that’s the thing, I feel that not everyone talks about

Alecia St. Germain
it well. And here’s the thing I would say is, if you were handed a business, all the business you ever wanted, and you were not the leader that was ready to take on that business, it would crumble. And so every single challenge that you go through is part of your growth. And it’s like you’re being called to go through this real life leveling up, in order to be the leader that can actually hold the amount of business that you desire. So it’s happening for you the struggle is happening for you.

Laura Kåmark
I heard something really interesting years ago that stuck with me that was talking about launches, how, when you do your first launch of something, it’s just like having your first baby and that goes through all the steps of childhood, where it’s like a newborn, it’s messy, you’re trying to figure out what’s going on like it. Typically a first launch is not this, like overnight success. But also the importance of that first launch is getting the backend set up and having everything in place and just and then you just keep relaunching it and keep relaunching it keep relaunching it tweak as needed. And then it goes through like it goes from the infant stage to the toddler stage to, and it’ll just keep growing. And, again, if that first launch was this huge success, and 1000s and 1000s of people joined, you wouldn’t be ready for that you wouldn’t be prepared. It wouldn’t just work.

Alecia St. Germain
Everybody would see the typo in the emails, or they wouldn’t get the welcome letter or whatever is happening on the back end, and you’d have this big mess to clean up. So it’s like you’re only sent what you can handle. Exactly. And so you have to keep stepping through it over and over and over again, trusting that this is your purpose. This is your thing you’re supposed to do. Even if it doesn’t look exactly like what you envision your I always find the theme stays the same. The theme, the theme of what you’re supposed to do. Ooh,

Laura Kåmark
can we dive into that a little bit? Oh,

Alecia St. Germain
yeah. So so I’m more recently in my journey. So there’s always an evolution that happens and more recently on my journey, I was like, searching for some kind of profile to bring into my program. And I was like, looking at, you know, disk and some of the more corporate stuff. And I’ve never worked in corporate I’ve always been like no corporate snap for me. I don’t like to be told what to do. Or very short time I was respiratory therapists and I was like, No, I don’t like working for someone else. And so I started looking at more spiritually based ones like human design and anagram and I was like, nope, those aren’t right and years ago, I’d had something called a soul profile read for me and it’s based on your name and this this name that you’re given at birth by your parents, like whatever you believe God Spirit, something higher than yourself, gives your parents your name and encoded in your name is your sole destiny. And included with that are challenges, talents, goals, like what you’re here for. And so as I found this person gave me this reading years ago, Ariella Indigo and and then this opportunity to come up came up to get certified and I was like, again, this is the universe like telling me this is your path. So I’m certified. And as I’m doing readings for every single one of my clients, and we’re kind of merging the spiritual piece. There’s always a theme that comes spell word for people, whether it’s like, they’re an excellent communicator, and they’re meant to be a speaker or writer, or someone who’s meant to be a healer or someone who’s if even if it’s like, they’re a coach, you know, there’s a certain level of healing that people get from coaching, or they’re a therapist, or there’s someone who is, you know, meant to be a nurturer or a mother or whatever it is, like, there are certain things that come forward. And they’re always so true for people. And I would say some people get like a big breakthrough in like an aha, like, oh, my gosh, I never thought of that. But a lot of people get like, oh, you know what, I used to believe that about myself. And then that’s where society gets in the way our, you know, experiences we had as a child getting away, and we create that immune system. So it’s really cool to see like this merge between, like, what you’re destined to do, and then what is put on you by society, what you learn. And then we go through this whole process of like, unraveling that and like putting it together in your business and helping you be the leader. And so I didn’t know my business would take that turn, like even just a year ago, six, you know, like, yeah, I would say about a year ago, I would kind of always knew, like, when I had my reading done, I’d love to have this in my program, just to know it was an option. Right? So it will always look different as you evolve is my point.

Laura Kåmark
That’s so cool. I love that I love the different themes. How you can help someone see what that theme is. I know for me, we did a reading recently that came up teaching was my theme. Yep. And so now I’m working on looking big picture at my business and seeing how that does.

Alecia St. Germain
What you know, now and every, and everything that you have learned up to this point, is for that purpose. Yes. So it’s none of it’s wasted. Your your time. And anything you’ve ever done is never wasted. Teaching is a theme for me too. So when I look back at my life, when I was a respiratory therapist, I became a, like a clinical instructor. When I was a real estate investor, I became a trainer. Then I became a coach, you know, and I so it just, it’s the same. Yeah.

Laura Kåmark
For me. Yeah, that’s interesting. Yeah, when I was in corporate, I was kind of the go to person who would help train, I would help when people had questions on things, and they would come to me, and I would help train them and teach them sort of like, here’s how you do it, I didn’t do it for them, I would walk them through on the phone with them. And we would do a share screen because this is back before like, vert or video calls. But we could do a share screen and talk on the phone. And I would just walk them through go, you know, click here, do this, go check this. And yeah,

Alecia St. Germain
well, and I would say to listeners, like look back at your life. Look at everything that you’ve ever done in your life, there is a there are clues, there is a theme of something that you always did. And people always came to you for, or you were always good at. And whether it was creativity, or writing or teaching or advice or whatever it was, there’s a theme if you look back and your your past gives clues.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that. I think it’s so cool. I love all that stuff. So I would love to know, what would you say something you’re doing that’s being very bold in your industry, it’s something that’s a little different. I

Alecia St. Germain
think merging like the spiritual and the science is definitely bold, like it feels uncomfortable. And, and I’m okay with that. Like, I’ve just learned to be okay with being uncomfortable. And so that would be definitely a piece because I don’t, I think people oftentimes will like stick to a certain path. And like, this is the way it’s always been done. So this is the way I’m going to do it. But I saw a different way. And so merging that different systems like a system within the spiritual world called soul purpose. And then the immunity you change which, which is within the coaching industry and psychology based. And what’s really cool is I think there’s room for all of it at anybody who says to Me, like there’s one right way to do thing. So I’m like, Okay, we you’re missing out, you know, and so when you get to be creative like that, it’s pretty cool. Yeah, pick the way you want to do it. Yeah. And then coming out to everybody, right being visible about it. That’s I think from so many entrepreneurs is like there’s so many people who have great ideas, and then they don’t take action on them and the number one thing is that visibility because with visibility comes in The the possibility of criticism, and not being liked and being ostracized. And that is so much of what we deal with in the coaching the Immunity to Change coaching. And it’s part of the people pleasing, right? I don’t want people to know, I don’t want to step outside the line. Because if I do, then something bad will happen to me. I might ruffle some feathers, I might ruffle some feathers, right? I think definitely putting being being out there. And just being all of myself is bold.

Laura Kåmark
What would you say that you’re and I feel like this ties very closely to what you just said, but what would you say you’re most proud of when it comes to your business.

Alecia St. Germain
I’m most proud of the difference that I make for other people like being able to just talk to a woman earlier today and seeing her cry, and like, really, honestly see herself as something more. And being worthy. Like, when I see a client breakthrough the worthiness piece and feeling worthy of their business, or achieving a goal to whatever it is. Seeing the success of my clients is the thing I’m most most most proud of, and being able to be a part of that success feels just so good.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. Yeah, your sessions have always been such a like safe and warm and caring environment. I know, we’ve all we all joke within the program, like bring your tissues, because it gets I mean, it gets real, it gets real, it gets deep, you know, you just keep peeling away those onion layers, but holding like a really safe space to be vulnerable.

Alecia St. Germain
And that was that’s so that’s the interesting thing is like, I never set out to set the I mean, of course, they set the container to be safe. But I never thought that that would be something that came forward for people. Until I did a bunch of testimonials for the website, right? I’m like, gotta go get testimonials. So I do a bunch of testimonials. And every single person said like, this is a safe place. And I thought, I mean, that’s cool, like amazing that I’ve made it safe for people. But it wasn’t something I intentionally set out to do. And I realized how many people that’s why this coaching is so powerful is because it does make people feel safe. And so much of what we do out in the world, and being with other people, I realize how unsafe people feel. Well, and

Laura Kåmark
also like looking at the online business space, which a lot of us are all in, it’s you start off and you’re unless you’re hiring someone right off the bat, for a coach, you’re doing it all alone in the beginning, and you’re figuring it out, you’re kind of on your own your family, friends don’t understand what you do, because they don’t live in this little online ecosystem, that bubble that we all live in. And it’s lonely, and it’s scary. And that was like one of the reasons I really wanted to create this podcast because I know I felt that way. And it wasn’t until probably like the end of 2020 where I like found my people and started investing in more programs and coaching. And that next year in 2001, I was able to find support that I had been missing out on. And that was what I really needed in my business was getting more support and places where I could go when I feel scared, or when I need advice or I’m unsure of what to do. And I just need someone a safe space to bounce ideas off of and finding that was just game changing for me. Yeah, your community

Alecia St. Germain
community is so important for especially for females, like we just need to be in community. But also, I think you hit on a really good point around investing versus so many people look at things as an expense. And I just don’t see anything that you’re investing in your website is an investment it is not a cost because it helps you get more clients. Once you know how to use it. Like once you have a strategy around it. It helps you to build the relationship and you can create an experience you know, we use the tech you set up the tech for our community. And we do so many cool things that make it so high touch because of the tech we have a specific purpose for it now. And being able to give people personalized coaching that’s housed right in a portal for them which is I just I’m in love with it. It’s super cool, but it’s this idea that when you are spending money in your visit business, it is not an expense. It is an investment and if you don’t think Think that you can make that investment back, then what are you doing in your business? You know what I mean? If I’m just gonna spend $5,000 or $3,000 on coaching or building some building out a membership, or whatever it is, if I don’t think I can get a client to pay for that, then I’ve got a self belief problem. Yep. And so it’s shifting your mind from that expense that it’s gone to. It’s an investment that will return tenfold.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah, I mean, investing in coaching with you is gotten me from never emailing my list to being visible regular

Alecia St. Germain
being regular. Yeah. And doing a podcast and doing a podcast.

Laura Kåmark
I don’t can get more visible? i Yes, you probably I probably could, I could go on TV. Well, see,

Alecia St. Germain
visibility is like people. So we redefined visibility. It’s like, people can hear your voice. And really, yours wasn’t even so much visibility. Remember, it was like that your voice didn’t matter. My voice didn’t matter. Yep. So and what does that do for your business that brings more clients? So, yeah, salutely

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love this. I would, there’s one more question that I would like to ask you that I ask everyone who comes on the show. And that is what is one piece of advice you would give someone when they’re first starting out, that would help them in their business, be bolder, be louder, and make waves.

Alecia St. Germain
My advice is there is something that you do really, really well. And if you are yourself your most authentic self, and you put yourself out there, and just be you, which is hard, right, but just be you. That is the brilliance that other people love you for. And sometimes it’s easy to overlook what that superpower is because it’s it’s so come so natural to you, that you don’t even realize you do it. So it’s like really stopping and taking that awareness, you don’t even realize you do it. And when you start to recognize yourself for that value that you bring, that is what people are paying you for. It isn’t all the other stuff. It’s just being the most you that you can be now yes, there’s a lot of strategy and put around it. But let go of perfection. Let it be messy. learn along the way. And if anybody is just if anybody is judging you for not being good enough, so to say. You don’t want them as clients anyways, they will make your life miserable, because it’s hard as they’re judging you. They’re judging themselves times 10. So have compassion said like, just let it be messy. Be yourself. recognize yourself for what you’re really great at. And that is what people will love you for.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. Alecia, I could sit and talk to you all day. We’ve had many calls that go very long. But we are going to wrap this up today, where can our listeners find more information about you online.

Alecia St. Germain
So where I want to send everybody is actually to the mapping process that I use for immunity to change because it’s going to help every single person who’s sitting sitting there going like, Okay, what’s my next cut and doesn’t matter if you’re new or you’re like, already built your $500,000 business, there’s always like another level that you’re going to hit a plateau. And so I’m going to send you to the mapping that we use to reveal what big assumptions you’re making about the way the world works and yourself that are stopping you from getting to whatever your next cut or your next level is in your business, whatever that looks like. So go to consciousedge.com/bebold. And that will take you right to that mapping training. This is the same training that I use with my clients inside of the program. And it will be very eye opening for a lot of people.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, awesome. I will link that up in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for being here. This was so much fun.

Alecia St. Germain
Oh, thank you for having me. Definitely love to talking to you, Laura. And I’m so excited that you’re being visible.

Laura Kåmark
Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out the show notes at LauraKåmark.com/podcast. And if you’re ready to grow and scale your business, and your current website is outdated and doesn’t reflect the magic you bring and the results you get for your clients. Go to Laurakamark.com to find out how I can help bring your vision to life. Thanks so much for listening. I’ll see you next week. Bye now.