Mayra Leen

… and Why I Regret Enrolling in Chris Kenney’s Sales Mastery Program 

Let me start by saying, Chris and his wife seem like really nice people. This is not a personal attack, but something I wish I knew in general before jumping into this coaching world. I feel like a super intuitive person, but obviously there was a major lesson for me here. I’ll share what I’ve learned, background on some of the programs I’ve been a part of, and some tips to help you navigate the coaching world. 

I know I manifested both of the coaching programs I’m currently enrolled into. For better or worse, I accept full responsibility. Side note: I do this intentionally to ensure I do not fall into victimhood where I don’t have power. To me, this experience has been powerfully enlightening and has given me tremendous clarity on what I want to do or better said, what I don’t want to do.  

Background: For years, when I would imagine my dream life, I saw myself with a life coach or some sort of mentor. The day I quit my corporate job, I joined my first group coaching program with Nicole Laino. She’s a down-to-earth, ambitious, super go-getter type girl. I wanted that energy around me. Her group program at the time was only about $5000 for the year if paid in full. I did it, and met a small group of women who were super raw, open, and working on jump-starting their own various businesses. We met twice a week with Nicole and always had tons of access to her. She’s always responding to posts on the Facebook group and providing ideas. She’s engaged with me on social media and I truly feel she cares about her clients as people. 

I joined her program because I wanted to get my app product launched. She has a CRM system and I felt like she would be perfect to help me with my tech app. We have similar product management background, but on our first call, she suggested I focus on my hypnotherapy because I can start bringing in money with that sooner. I listened. 

This is my very first lesson about coaches. They are well-meaning, but at the end of the day, their success stories come from you getting sales and results asap. So soul alignment and life purpose and going after massive dreams are less of a priority at least for “business coaches”. 

The reality is that your coach cannot ever replace your inner guidance and that connection to your source. Life is literally guiding each of us towards our highest path and only you know where life is guiding you. What I know for sure is that if life is guiding you a specific way, it will give you the resources and people and means to bring it into full fruition. No one else can have that faith for you on your behalf, it must come from within. 

Now, that’s not a major boo-boo, she’s been super supportive in having me take a step back and figure out what my soul is calling me to do. In addition, with the price-point of her program, stepping back feels manageable to do and I don’t feel any pressure to produce anything. 

On the other hand, let’s talk about the Chris Kenny Coaching. 

I joined under the false premise of needing to make money asap. First of all, I don’t. I’ve saved and invested, and I’m okay, really. But I was under this energy of needing to get results, I was feeling impatient, and when I Iearned that Chris was a master sales person, I wanted to learn as much as possible and get to selling myself. 

This annoys me so much because I quit a very comfortable, very easy, very pleasant high-paying job, so that I can stay in alignment with my soul. And guess what I did two months into that process? I go back to this money hunting mentality that is absolutely not mine. 

As a projector (for those familiar with human design), we take on other people’s energy. Since I was immersed in self-help groups, courses, and all, I was feeding off this needy, money-hungry energy, and now reflecting back, this is absolutely not who I am at all or who I needed to be.  

My first mistake was signing up under this false energy of lack. 

My second mistake is thinking I would actually get a lot more value. Considering I already had a coach, the only additional value I found in Chris’s program is Julie Cabezas. She’s a phenomenal copywriter that can really help with how you represent yourself and talk to your clients. However, you get maybe 20 minutes of her time per month. Besides that, if you want to learn to sell (which is a great skill), you simply have to attend his launches or accelerators and see how he does it. Literally watch the playbook in action icy following his Facebook group, podcasts, and enrollment periods. 

Honestly, I should’ve paid attention to my gut and the signs. I remember listening to his story about how he met his wife going on a $14K coaching cruise. He cries every time he says it and he tells you he’s going to cry, but I don’t actually know if he does when I pay close attention. After hearing the story for the third time, I sort of rolled my eyes. There’s no way you can actually be emotional about meeting your wife years afterwards. Chris admits most of his clients are women, so telling a sobby love story and watching a man cry (or try to) right before you make your program offer is quite witty. 

Obviously, he doesn’t teach those types of tactics in his Sales Mastery Academy, but he does teach to use people’s emotions by the use of questions. It felt icky when I actually noticed his students doing this to me. He also does free laser coaching on his Facebook group every week. Honestly between watching him sell during enrollment period and the laser coaching on Facebook, that’s literally what he sells to you in the $30,000 program. 

Oh yes, I haven’t mentioned the price, right? 

It’s super expensive and there’s no refunds. (I very kindly asked for a refund three weeks into the program. Unfortunately, he ignored my voice message and 5 days later his super nice employee checked in on me, she tried to schedule a call with us and after being 10 minutes late, he messaged me that he has a strict no refund policy. I have now released it all to the universe knowing it will come back to me multiplied. No worries here.) 

But back to the value, since all coaches work on mindset, what are you really paying for? Plus you don’t actually get much of Chris’s time unless you also do the laser coaching which is free anyway to all his Facebook group. 

I’m not against coaching, but I think it’s important to find someone like Nicole who has reasonable prices and truly cares about you. Option 2 is to just remember that you can be, do, or have anything you want, and you can be your own coach, mentor, guide, lover, and best friend. There’s also super ultra successful people giving their advice and input for free. They’re successful with real enterprises. 

I have found myself in countless programs constantly buying into the idea that if I only read this, take that, do this, I’ll finally get to where I need to be. It’s okay to need support, but ultimately we are each fully capable because who we are right now is enough. That’s the false premise we’re operating under – the idea that we’re not complete and acceptable right now just the way we are. For me, I realized I sort of had this longing to be saved by someone or something. 

If you are guided to someone or something, it has to feel right and not like a solution to a problem because even though that’s what master sales people will tell you they’re doing, they are not solving a problem. And they won’t guarantee results anyway. They are providing some guidance and frameworks that you can use in being your own answer. 

This is what I believe wholeheartedly and although I felt misaligned with the program, I really started to feel uneasy when I expressed my desire to leave and Chris’s right-hand man, Issac Ho, started asking me questions and making assumptions about me that were simply incorrect. He also implied that you always need coaching and you always need help, that people can’t maintain their higher levels without coaches. He made the analogy of a fitness instructor since he started as a health coach. He asked, “what do you think will happen if someone stops going to their fitness instructor?”. I responded, “well, it depends if the instructor taught the person to fish. If so, they should be okay to maintain themselves on their own”. He disagreed. 

That’s when I knew 1000% that I wasn’t with the right company.  My spiritual teachers like Abraham Hicks empower me, tell me I’m the answer and that I can be, do, and have anything I want, and that there are unlimited ways for those things to come into full realization. 

So don’t let anyone (even well-meaning people) ever tell you that you need them.

Do yourself a favor, and just run. Fast. 

You only need yourself and as always, the universe will bring those perfect people that bring you messages, nudge you, guide you, and really support your journey. Trust those people. 

This isn’t about being jaded and never trusting coaches again. My tips are really two-fold as you make any decision: 

1. This is about knowing when your decisions are from a place of hope or from a place of desperation – are you joining because of what you can gain or what they made you feel like you have to lose? 
2. This is about seeing the signs clearly – are these people empowering you, cheering for you, and supporting your decisions or are they trying to influence you, make you feel like you need them, and installing values that are not yours? 

I know the coaching industry is skyrocketing and I’m concerned it’s feeding off of people’s insecurities. Even as evolved and sure as I am, I fell into the trap. I want to be mad at myself, but perhaps sharing my story and helping others will be enough reason for the occurrence. 

Remember, there are amazing coaches like Nicole and then there are salespeople like Chris Kenney. Trust your instincts and if you mess up like me, just trust its all part of the journey and  take the lessons. 

Quick Update: I was almost not going to post this because it felt good just to put this out on paper, but I’m on a ClubHouse chat right now with major real estate investors and fortune 500 CEOs talking about these issues with the coaching industry, over-promising, and money-hungry people who “believe their own bullshit” and are just taking the money without really vetting whether they can actually help people – understanding where they are in their business and what’s the real potential. 

The ultra-successful individuals on this call are explaining how they’ve told people “no” to taking their money because they didn’t feel like that individual was actually in the place to make the money back. In my experience, if the program is high-ticket and taking EVERYBODY that has a credit card, you should just run. Seems like this is a much bigger issue than I thought. I’ve talked to someone who is part of Kelly Roach program, too, and they’ve had an even worse experience than what I shared. At the end of the day, $30,000 could’ve paid off my student loans, car loan, or been the down payment for my next investment property. I don’t want to dwell on it, but seems important for me to share this and take it as a sign to just hit “post”.  

I KNEW 

When I was born I knew 
I was intuitive, connected, 
Playful, and free
But they told me I was wrong, 
I was bad
I was naive 

I believed them 

They told me to listen to 
My parents, my teachers, 
The church, the Bible 

When I finally broke free
I felt lost 

Then I found gurus, teachers, 
And messengers who guided me 

I felt better 

But still the old feelings would 
come up - I don’t know 
I need help. I need saving. 

I bought into the programs
And the coaches and the mentors
They couldn’t save me if they tried 
Because when I was born, I already knew. 

Much love,

Mayra