Alexandra Holcbarova has one goal for next year: to make seven figures in her coaching business so she can bring her long-held motherhood dream to life.
Three years after joining TCI, Alexandra Holcbarova is super clear and very specific about her goal for 2021: “I want to have one million and forty thousand dollars revenue,” she says.
“It’s all counted and it’s all achievable. I’m working seventeen hour days and I’m going to get it so I can get a surrogate mother and have a child.”
Alexandra has faced fertility heartbreak for years since an ectopic pregnancy saw her told she would never conceive naturally. That led to multiple unsuccessful rounds of IVF which left her “super ruined,” she says.
“It almost destroyed my partner and our life together. You feel you failed in life because women are meant to bring children into the world. You feel not enough.”
Now, at 42, Slovakian-born Alexandra plans to achieve her motherhood dreams via a $100,000 surrogate in the Ukraine, where surrogacy is a legal commercial practice.
“I am very late with being serious that I wanted a baby, it took me 42 years and it’s the first time I really feel I am going to get it because I really want a child,” she says.
“I definitely would love to have a big family and coaching is a big part of that.”
The Perth coach—who lives in Perth with her partner Bradley Terrey—found TCI in 2018 when she was in a “dark” place and is now leadership and performance coach focusing on people’s thinking and behaviour.
Coaching is a natural foil for Alexandra’s business background. She was the first woman ever to become one of Red Bull’s famous marketing Muskeeters, owned a successful catering and events business in Europe and launched her own tourism businesses in Thailand and the Bahamas.
Now her coaching skills and entrepreneurial experience combined with her fight to be mentally and physically strong means she has the tools and knowledge to support others through life and business crises.
“Thanks to TCI I have amazing tools in my hands which means it’s really nice to work with clients and get the results.”
Why coaching?
Going back, I was coaching a little bit for an American cruise company. I didn’t know coaching is a thing. I was getting results and thought, ‘That is interesting.’ When I moved to Australia, I didn’t have an idea what to do, I didn’t have a visa so couldn’t find a job, I did some volunteering and thought I should study something, learn more things and connect with more people. I saw something about TCI and thought, ‘I will try, that is another option and opportunity to travel a little bit’ and I signed up.
How has TCI and coaching changed you?
Well, first personal development. It felt like it has to be part of my life. I can’t imagine not having it for even a day. When I am not listening to videos and reading something I feel I am not moving ahead. It’s like an addiction, you know.
What are you loving about your journey?
The personal development is one thing, and then there’s the fact that when you need a tool to grow your business or look at yourself, if it’s in marketing or personal development, whatever it is, you always find what you’re looking for.
What makes a great coach?
Coming from the heart and being present is the most important thing. When you train you are deep listening, that’s what changed my coaching practice. Instead of focusing on whether I am a good coach, focus more on the client. I was more focused on the modules and the second when you really move into the client’s world and are listening deeply, are there for them and super honest, you always say the right thing.
“I stopped studying for a couple of years when I was sad and couldn’t find that energy to go back. It’s nice to connect with people at TCI who care about you, nobody was telling me ‘You need to finish your course’, there was no pressure. It was more personal and that was what I appreciated and I got back to where I needed to be."
Tell us about your business and what you're creating with it.
My business is called The Mentoring Effect. I changed my niche a few months ago to teamwork and leadership again and I’m good in that environment. I have four clients one on one and am opening the course in January for 20 people for group coaching.
What was the big turning point with your coaching journey?
Knowing I can get the lifestyle I want. I want to give my family and my baby my time. I don’t want to give them money, I want to have money and I love money and I know I have to earn a lot, but that is so I can have time. I know how important that is for kids. I remember riding bikes with my dad and how much that gave me.
What’s been the most successful marketing strategy?
Just going and talking to people about what I can give them. I just love it. That is probably the most impactful. I did seven or eight months of marketing that didn’t work, you need to be building the trust offline rather than online, meeting people and giving them a taste of what you do.
What have you loved most about your journey with The Coaching Institute?
It's everything. I can contribute and people give me the love back. It’s always positive and always supportive and there’s feedback. I love the mentoring support. When I get someone I can see has results, I want to get that and somebody is showing me how to do it. Why get only 100K when people are getting a million, they know how so why not find out and do it?
What do you know about yourself that you didn’t pre-TCI?
The realisation that I can change everything in my head and I am just one thought away from getting the desired outcome and results and dreams. That’s the big thing, to understand the thinking is the thing that was stopping me.
What challenged you the most at TCI?
Definitely my assessments were difficult. I’m a good student but I have difficulty sitting and filling out the documents.
Advice for other fabulous TCI coaches?
Don’t stay stuck on the small things and creation and innovations and improvements. Get out and tell people what you do. That’s been the biggest change in my business. If people don’t know what you do you can sit on your computer and send emails, they don’t care. It’s not growing your business. You need to be offline with people, they need to experience and connect with you, it’s always quicker and better.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I would love to take the business global, definitely international. I want to take it to Slovakia and translate it there. There’s a lot of people trying to do coaching and I would love to show them what is possible and what they can use.
“The community is so positive, so nice, you feel like you belong. I felt like I don’t belong anywhere in Australia with no family, no friends, and I couldn’t even cry on my mum’s shoulder. It’s great to have those people around, the community of coaches are amazing people and they are all here to help."
Alexandra loves every water sport, driving V8 cars and having friends over to cook for them. “I don’t like an empty house,” she says. “I love to be challenged all the time, everything that is really scary I will do.” She’s kite surfed, jumped out of planes, “anything that will give me that strange adrenalin addiction.” She has “lost count” of how many languages she speaks, and says life isn’t about learning facts but putting things into practice and experiencing them.
Being a mother is often the number 1 reason you fail in this industry