Scaling Your Coaching Business with Carey Peters

In this episode, Lauren welcomes back Carey Peters—actor-turned-entrepreneur, co-founder of Health Coach Institute (HCI), and the coach who taught her how to coach. This is a raw, unfiltered conversation that veers beautifully off-script, touching on everything from voice training and stage presence to psychic downloads, the brutal realities of scaling to eight figures, and why menopause might be the greatest gift of midlife.Carey brings over 20 years of business-building wisdom, having co-founded Holistic MBA and HCI, which graduated over 40,000 coaches and achieved one of the biggest exits in EdTech history before she stepped away in 2025. Now working privately with founders in the $1-5 million revenue range, Carey shares what she wishes she'd known before building her empire, why most coach training schools are failing their students, and how one to three strategic adjustments can completely transform a business.This conversation is part masterclass in business strategy, part spiritual journey, and entirely Carey—bold, honest, hilarious, and deeply human. If you've ever wondered whether you should scale or stay small, whether that seven-figure dream is worth the 80-hour weeks, or how to coach with your whole heart while maintaining boundaries, this episode is for you.Key Points Covered:• Voice as a Tool: Carey discusses the importance of vocal training for speakers and coaches, drawing from her theater conservatory background. She emphasizes that voice, like clothing and physical embodiment, is an emotional communication tool that requires technique to appear natural.• Unconscious Competence vs. Conscious Teaching: Carey reveals she's terrible at teaching stage presence because she has "unconscious competence"—she knows how to do it naturally but can't break it down. However, she's an excellent business teacher because she had to learn it step-by-step without natural skill.• Psychic Coaching & Soul Connections: Before client sessions, Carey receives "full downloads" of what's happening—sometimes relatives come through to chat. She's unsure what's actually happening ("Am I the avatar of a 12-year-old girl in the year 2312?") but trusts what she hears and follows it.• The Terror Barrier: New coaches hit what Carey calls "the terror barrier"—full-on terror when entering sessions. The scripts in her programs weren't meant to be permanent crutches but "training wheels" to ferry coaches through that initial fear until they gain 1% more confidence.• The Massive Gap in Coach Training Schools: The biggest players in coach training (especially private equity-owned ones) fail catastrophically at one thing: sharing student success stories. With 40,000 graduates between Holistic MBA and HCI, there should be 20,000 stories showcasing return on investment—but PE-backed schools don't understand information marketing.• Students Are the Stars, Not the Founders: When PE investors pushed to make HCI an "institution" rather than "the Carey and Stacy show," they missed that the answer was making students the stars. The #1 objection to enrolling is "Will I make my money back?"—and only student stories prove that convincingly.• The Woman Problem in Coaching: 95%+ of coach training students are women, yet most major schools have no female faces representing the brand. Women need to see other women who've done it, who understand the unique layer of self-doubt, need for permission, and patriarchal limitations wired into female nervous systems.• It's Only Been 50 Years: In 1974—when Carey was born—women in the US were finally allowed to get their own credit cards without a man. That's only 50 years ago. Women are still emerging from under "the crust of patriarchy" and need female role models who understand that journey.• The Simplest Possible Strategy: Founders in the $1-5M range need to answer "Why do I want a $10M business? Do I even want that?" before diving into strategy. Often they need just 1-3 adjustments to scale—not a million things—plus the simplest possible structure to support creative minds.• You Need CEO Eyes: Between $1-5M revenue, you can't afford a CEO but desperately need one. You need external perspective on operations, hiring, structure, and risk management because when you're in it, you can't see clearly. Mistakes get exponentially more expensive.• The $3.5M Ceiling: Carey and Stacy hit $3.5M two years in a row and realized the choice: learn to become operators, scale back to an exclusive high-ticket model, or "shoot for the moon." They chose the latter, selling to partners who'd achieved a $750M EdTech exit—Carey's "MBA she never got."• Top Line vs. Profit: "Seven-figure coach" typically means $1M+ revenue but only $200-300K profit. Turnover looks glamorous; profit margin is what matters. Carey emphasizes founders often bring on team too quickly, destroying profit margins unnecessarily.• The 90% Profit Margin Secret: One-on-one private coaching with the right clients (working 1-3 years at premium rates) offers 90% profit margins. Carey coaches six days per month—far less work than building an empire but potentially comparable income without the stress.• Lifestyle vs. Empire Building: Empire building is 70-80 hour weeks for years with enormous risk and pressure. Lifestyle businesses offer work-life balance while still requiring real work. The question isn't which is "better" but which aligns with your actual goals and values.• The Hustle Culture Lie: Anyone teaching "get to seven figures without hustle and grind" is selling bullshit. Building to millions requires enormous work, mistakes, pivots, and grinding—there are no shortcuts. The person teaching the system worked their ass off to create it.• Would They Have Made More Coaching Privately?: Looking back, Carey wonders if she and Stacy would have actually made more money over the years doing high-ticket private coaching instead of building HCI. It's a legitimate question founders should ask themselves.• The CEO Struggle Is Universal: Watching accomplished CEOs with impressive backgrounds still struggle with operations, org charts, managing people, and daily business decisions was eye-opening for Carey. Even "experts" don't have all the answers—everyone is figuring it out.• The "New Level, New Devil" Reality: Whatever level you're at in business—starting, scaling, exiting—there's always a new challenge. It doesn't stop. Everyone has the same beating heart and needs connection regardless of their revenue numbers.• Brian Franklin's One-to-One Model: Carey credits executive coach Brian Franklin for teaching her the simple but powerful model she now uses for private coaching—focusing on lifestyle business principles rather than empire-building complexity.• The Menopause Superpower: As estrogen drops, the biological imperative to please disappears. Carey describes no longer tolerating family dysfunction, relationship drama, or anything that doesn't serve her. The "veil lifts" and you genuinely stop caring what others think—it's freedom.• Built on Big Wounds: Great businesses are often built from big wounds. For Carey, part of her drive to build HCI came from "I don't matter, so if I achieve a lot, I'll be seen as important and valuable." Letting go of HCI allowed her to realize: "I matter no matter what. I don't have to do anything."• The 2025 Energy: Having left HCI in early 2025, Carey describes it as a "nine year" (endings, completions, letting go) leading into a "one year" (new beginnings). Her intuition shows something new is coming, though she doesn't know what yet.• Surrender & Motherhood: When Carey suspected she was pregnant at 40+, terrified and spiraling while driving to LAX, she heard a clear voice: "Surrender." She knew immediately she was pregnant and had to have the baby. Her daughter became "the best thing I've ever done" and the catalyst for becoming the person she needed to be.• Soul Destiny in Coaching: Carey believes deeply (whether right or wrong) that there's a soul-level reason she meets each client or student. It feels sacred and special. Even recording videos for 40,000 HCI students, she felt she loved the person watching and wanted them to "mostly feel loved."• The 1.2 Billion Woman Market: With 1.2 billion women currently going through menopause globally, it's a massive underserved market. Lauren's tight specialization in menopause coaching is precisely why it works—it's specific, there's enormous demand, and it's what women in that age group are constantly discussing.• The Male Menopause Coach Success: One of Lauren's graduates is a male VP in financial services who trained as a menopause coach after nearly divorcing over his wife's menopause experience. He now charges $20-30K for relationship coaching—far cheaper than the six-figure divorces his colleagues would face.• Fall in Love With Your Clients: A phrase Carey and Stacy taught that initially confused Lauren like "a brick." Now Lauren tells her students the same thing: "Fall in love. Make your heart meet their heart. Connect with them where they are." By week 17-18 of each cohort, Lauren keeps tissues nearby because she doesn't want it to end.• The Prize of Not Caring: At 51, Carey has reached the point where she doesn't care about proving anything, needing recognition, or...