So You Want to Be a Business Psychologist or Executive Coach in Corporate America? Here’s the Honest and Brutal Truth

This is the honest, no-fluff guide I wish I’d had when I left a high-paying job on Wall Street to launch a business as a business psychologist and executive coach. It covers the real challenges behind career reinvention, the grueling path to mastery, and what it actually takes to succeed in a crowded industry. If you’re exploring this path, consider this your reality check—and encouragement to keep going if you're truly called to the work.

Key Takeaways

• Career pivots are hard. Going from finance to psychology—and from employee to entrepreneur—required years of education, unpaid work, and relentless effort.

• Credibility matters. My background in banking helps me speak the language of business, build trust with executive clients, and stand out in a sea of coaches.

• Getting started is scrappy. My first big client came from unpaid speaking gigs and community engagement, not a fancy sales funnel.

• Education isn't everything, but mastery is. A Ph.D. gave me tools and supervision that shaped my coaching depth—but it’s not the only path.

• Early on, say yes to everything. Over time, experience will help you refine your niche and client fit.

• Serve first, price later. Clients pay for value, not your sense of worth. Anchor your pricing to outcomes, not ego.

• This is a helping profession. If you’re in it for quick wins or prestige, this probably isn’t for you. But if you care deeply about helping people grow—there’s real, meaningful work to be done.

  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  Like most solopreneurs, I often get asked to “pick my brain” and share my experience launching a business and building a successful career as a business psychologist. And honestly? About 95% of these conversations are a bummer. Why? Because people seriously underestimate the amount of mastery, grit, and patience it takes to get here.

I can’t speak for every small business owner, but I’ll tell you this: creating something out of nothing and getting paid well for it is extremely hard. If it weren’t, everyone would be doing it.

So, in the spirit of saving us both some time, I pulled together this article—essentially a long-winded FAQ—based on the most common questions I’ve been asked over the past decade. Consider this my unfiltered take on what it actually takes to change careers and work for yourself.

1. What were you doing before you launched your business? I studied Finance and Italian at Georgetown University and began my career at JPMorgan in their Equity Derivatives Sales & Trading program. It was a highly competitive internship—more selective than Harvard admissions—and I started full-time at the start of the financial crisis. On my second day of work, I watched a significant portion of my floor get laid off.  I stayed at JPMorgan for eight years, eventually becoming a Vice President in Foreign Exchange. My time there taught me how to thrive in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment and build trust through competence.

   
   

2. How did your banking experience impact your work now?  JPMorgan gave me a highly translatable skill set, but specifically there are a handful of core areas that have greatly impacted my ability to achieve success as a business psychologist.

   • I speak the language of business. I understand financial metrics and view companies through the lens of a P&L. That’s what sets me apart in a sea of coaches with psychology credentials but zero business acumen. I can sit in a room with a CEO or board and belong.

   • I thrive in high-stakes environments. Working on Wall Street through a financial meltdown teaches you how to take calculated risks, stay calm under pressure, and develop serious grit. I owned a book of business and thought like an operator long before I became a business owner.

   • I’ve been in the trenches. I’ve had difficult bosses. I’ve faced layoffs. I’ve fought for promotions. I’ve navigated office politics and managed performance reviews. I know what it’s like to be an employee inside a massive organization—not just someone coaching from the sidelines. In short, JPMorgan gave me both business acumen and real-world experience. That credibility matters to my clients, and it’s a big part of why my work delivers value now.

3. What was it like to change careers?   Honestly, it sucked. I went from a coveted job on Wall Street to trying to launch a business in a completely new industry and an entirely different role. These are the hardest career jumps to make: much harder than switching roles within the same industry or staying in the same role at a different company. In those transitions, at least something remains familiar. But going from big finance to psychology, and working for myself was brutal. I had to go back to school in my early 30s while raising a young child. I became an intern again, this time working with patients struggling with bipolar and schizophrenia in the Bronx instead of walking the glossy floors of 383 Madison.

   
   

   Would I do it again? Absolutely. But the journey was filled with doubt, uncertainty, and stress. For MANY years, I worked seven days a week. I spent at least 10 hours a week in class, worked two to three days a week at a tech company scaling their culture, and volunteered as a clinical counselor to earn the hours required for my degree. And that’s not even counting the academic research and writing we had to complete outside the classroom on the path to a Ph.D. It was a long and grueling road.

4. How did I get my first big client? When I launched my business, I quickly realized I had zero professional network in this new field. So I got scrappy.  I joined a paid, women-only entrepreneurship community called Dreamers & Doers. At the time, I was obsessed with the intersection of company culture, mental health, and well-being—topics that weren’t nearly as trendy back then.  That community led me to unpaid speaking gigs. (Yes, I covered my own travel costs.) But those talks gave me exposure. I did tons of them—panels, workshops, whatever I could get.

   
   

   At one of those events, a Chief of Staff approached me afterward. She asked to meet 1:1 to talk about her company’s culture. I took the meeting. A week later, I signed a six-figure contract. That client renewed their contract year over year and I stayed for a total of five years, during which I facilitated 2,000+ executive coaching sessions and helped them scale their culture.

   
   

5. Did you get your coaching certification? Yes. Before committing to a five-year Ph.D. program, I wanted to dip my toes into coaching and counseling. I enrolled in an ICF-accredited coaching program and it gave me an introductory foundation. More importantly, it confirmed this was a career path I wanted to pursue.

   
   

6. What was the benefit of pursuing additional education? The biggest gains were an expanded toolkit, a deep understanding of systems psychology, and high-quality supervision.  I pursued a clinical Ph.D., which meant logging 3,000 unpaid clinical hours. Let me repeat that—unpaid. For comparison, getting an initial coaching certification usually requires about 100 direct client hours. So, yeah. The level of practice and exposure is not even close.  That doesn’t mean people with solely coaching certifications are inexperienced coaches. But practice and feedback matter—a lot. Over five years, I had professors and supervisors dissect my work to the bone. That kind of rigorous, constructive feedback made me the coach I am today.

   
   

7. Do I also need a Ph.D. to get high paying clients? The million-dollar question. And honestly? I don’t know.  Every time someone introduces me to a new client, they mention I have a Ph.D. within the first 15 seconds. So it seems to matter to others. But do you need one? I have no clue. 

   
   

8. How do you decide what to charge? Pricing isn’t about what you think your time is worth. It’s about the value you deliver to the client. Clients don’t care about your perceived value of self-worth.  They care about what they’re getting in return.  It takes time (and a lot of trial and error) to figure this out. But if you’re anchoring your price to you instead of client outcomes, you’re centering yourself in the process. That’s backwards.Want to be sustainably successful? Make it about them, not you.

   
   

9. How can I get my first client? No one likes this answer, but here it is: Make it stupidly easy to work with you.  I volunteered. I worked for free. A lot.  People always say, “But won’t they not value it if it’s free?” That’s a cute line from an Instagram business guru, but it’s not real. People value what’s valuable. Period.  You need experience, reputation, and a craft you’ve actually mastered. That means free coaching sessions, free workshops, or webinars where you actually teach something useful. Lower the barrier to engagement, then ask for testimonials and referrals later.  Build trust first. Monetize second.

   
   

10. Do you turn clients down?  Now? Yes.  In the beginning? Absolutely not—I said yes to everything. And I don’t regret it. Working with the wrong clients helped me refine my ideal client profile and gain real-world experience.  I’ve now clocked 10,000+ hours of direct client work. It took years to develop a clear niche, and you can’t fast-forward through that. It’s part of the process.

    
    

11. What’s your last piece of advice for someone wanting to get in the field? Too many people get into coaching because they think they’ll get paid big bucks to sit around and listen to people’s problems. That’s not what business psychologists do. And frankly, if that’s your dream, please stay out of this profession. 

    
    

    I've had people tell me their dream rate per session before they’ve even figured out who they want to help. That’s backwards.  This is a helping profession. Your job is to serve others. If you’re not coming in with a giver mindset, a service orientation, and a desire to help the client win—this probably isn’t for you. 

    
    

    Also: don’t underestimate how hard it is to get really good at this. The executive coaching world in particular is wildly oversaturated, but very few are truly excellent. The ones who succeed long-term? They serve generously, deliver serious value, and show up with mastery.

If you feel called to this work, trust that there's a path forward—even if you can’t see the full picture yet. We desperately need more people in the field.  When I first started I didn’t have all the answers and I didn’t know where I was really going with a new career.  It takes time, but it’s deeply rewarding to help people grow, lead, and heal in the places where they spend most of their waking hours. Keep showing up. Keep learning. Stay grounded in service and excellence. Over time, your impact will speak for itself.