The Business of Life with Dr King
Dr Ariel Rosita King brings on a variety of International guests from various countries, cultures, organisations, and businesses to talk about turning
problem into possibilities! Let's turn our challenges in opportunities together!
The Business of Life with Dr King
Bridging Brain and Brand with Shauna Van Mourik (Canada)
What if your marketing felt as genuine as your work—and actually performed better because of it? We sit down with Shauna Van Mourik to unpack how a neuroscience lens, a translator’s ear, and a values-first strategy can turn vague messaging into clear demand and sustainable growth. Shauna bridges the science and the “woo” with uncommon fluency, showing how affirmations rewire neural pathways, why specificity attracts more of the right clients, and how to define success on your terms so your business fits your life, not the other way around.
Shauna Van Mourik shares a powerful case study of a psychotherapist who eliminated misaligned corporate gigs, added $40K in eight months, niched into work she loves, and created passive income that supported new family life. We dig into the mechanics: a brand refresh rooted in identity over aesthetics, a visibility plan that prioritised community, and the operational systems that turned a surge of leads into calm delivery. You’ll also hear how a German client went from a trickle to a waitlist by targeting a dream client profile, then shoring up back-end structure to handle demand without burning out.
We map ’Shauna Van Mourik's two service lanes—done-for-you execution and a high-touch coaching path—plus her five-phase framework: brand refresh, marketing strategy, community building, conversion that flows without constant launches, and long-term sustainability planning. And we tackle the future: why AI is best treated as a thinking partner that sharpens ideas and returns time to human work like listening, judgment, and care. Expect practical insights on alignment, clarity, and momentum you can maintain.
If this conversation helps you see your brand and growth plan with fresh eyes, follow along, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show.
Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King
Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....
The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
Original Song, "Teach Me to Live one Day At A Time"
written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King
Dr King Solutions (USA Office)
1629 K St, NW #300,
Washington, DC 20006, USA,
+1-202-827-9762
DrKingSolutons@gmail.com
DrKingSolutions.com
Welcome to the business of life. Today we have a very special guest, Lady Shauna Van Morick. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. So could you please introduce yourself to our audience? We're so excited to have you here today.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. So indeed, that's my name, Shauna Van Morick, and I'm a brand and marketing guide. I help people who are in the service space, typically coaches and psychotherapists, with their branding, with their marketing in a way that actually feels aligned, in a way that doesn't feel outdated, soul sucking, and really trapping you in a box. That's not where we're going. We're going into an expansive space where you're feeling aligned and full in all the ways that you're showing up. And it helps with conversion too. It's kind of the point.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. This is so important. Can you actually start by telling us why did you just start to go into this particular field and concentrate on these particular types of people?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I actually have a background in psychology and neuroscience, which gives me kind of a leg up when it comes to making sure that the words that my clients are saying are being communicated clearly to their audience. We need a translator in there. So my ability to understand this neuroscience world and my ability to truly translate it into everyday verbatim without the jargon, without the mess, helps a lot for clarifying that message. The other part of this I like to kind of lean into is when you think of coaches and when you think of therapists or psychotherapists, usually you think of two different worlds. You usually think of a therapist as being someone who's very rooted in science, neuroscience. We're looking at um actual methodology that is trackable, et cetera. Some coaches may tap more into the woo. We're looking at the woo universe, we're looking at chakras, we're looking at mindset. And the thing that I love to do most is not only translate from those practitioners to their audience, but between them. Because if somebody doesn't quite understand as a neuroscientific world, I can use the woo terminology to explain what's going on in your brain. But same thing can happen both ways. Because a lot of the things that you hear about the universe, a lot of the things that you hear, if somebody talks about mantras and affirmations, you might go, oh, that's fluff. But actually, you're rewiring the neurons in your brain. And I can start explaining to people how that works as well. And so that's kind of where I come from in choosing this niche, this space, to really kind of shine a light on the most important things that we have. And that is, of course, ourselves, our humanity, our wellness. So I hope that answers your question. Uh, I'm a bit of a philosopher, so I like to kind of dive deep real quick.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. We're very happy for you to dive deep. Please tell us more.
SPEAKER_00:Well, to tell you more, I suppose I could let you know that the reason I do what I do in the capa capacity of a brand and marketing guide really stems from the place of, well, communication. Communication as people, connection. How can we really reach out and make a positive impact on a world? How can we change the world for the better? Making people feel okay in their skin. That's why I help the people I do. Not just because I'm good at it, because I understand where they're coming from linguistically, but I'm talking about what they're actually doing, how they're empowering people, and for some people, really healing them. There are a lot of people out here in this world who have suffered so much, usually in silence. If I can get the word out that this person can help you and then can help you help others, that ripple effect, that's the type of worldwide change that I want to see happen. Just people coming together, healing one another, and really stepping into the community that once was. I think that our modern world, especially where I am, I'm in Canada, um, the Western world, I feel like there's a lot of individualism. And I would really like to see that together come true again.
SPEAKER_01:That makes a very, very big difference. I really love what you're talking about. Can you tell us? Um, let's say a client calls you up and you decide that you and the client have decided to engage with each other. Can you tell us more about the process and how do you start and what do you look at and what end goals you have?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And I think a really important distinction here is less so the end goals that I have and more so the end goals that they have. I'll explain further. I take branding and marketing from the perspective of holistic service. So in the past, you would see a lot of this. Here's a box that is branding and marketing. You need to fit in this box to achieve success. And success was prescribed. It meant the Lamborghini in the penthouse. It is my opinion that my success looks different than your success, than my neighbor's success. I don't want a Lamborghini in a penthouse, Rand. I want a cottage and a and a garden, and maybe a little lake outside with a with a forest, and you know, like it's a whole different story. So my since my goal and my vision of success is different, the path to get there will likely look different too. Also, and this is really important, who I am now and where I am rooted in the present matters. You cannot tell me that the same plan will work for a mother of three running a business, taking care of a home, as a single dude in corporate. It's not gonna work the same way. So we need to have both of those things in mind when we're creating a plan that will indeed work to help that person fulfill a really just a full life. I'm a lifestyle entrepreneur. We're not supposed to live for our business. Our business is supposed to support our life. And so that's how I approach these things a little bit differently. Find out what do you want? Where are you coming from? And then from there, use best practices and strategies that have been proven to work and plug it in where it makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:That makes sense to you. Of course it does. I mean, I also love the fact that it's a it's a VIP service where it's not, of course, a one-five one size fit-all, but where are you now and where do you think you'd like to be? And I love that because I think that's so important. That's so important. Could you please give us um one or two stories of the clients that you've had, where they started, and then how um through what you do together, they were able to get to whatever endpoint that they wanted, or if not endpoint, at least to a point of the success that they wanted.
SPEAKER_00:This is like one of my favorite things to do, actually, because I am one of those people who goes to amusement parks and I don't have to ride the ride to get the thrill. I can watch other people experience the joy and feel just as excited and elated. So when I get to celebrate with my clients, same thing. I get super jazzed. So one person in particular, I absolutely love to tell her story because it really embodies everything that I do. And she is just one of those uh, she's been with me for a little while now, and she was running her psychotherapy practice, but also doing kind of like corporate sit-ins where she would consult and direct and host workshops and things like that. She didn't love doing those things, but it fed her business and it was a good monetary uh extension for her. Now, she was trying to figure out how to reduce or eliminate that side while not losing any of that revenue in her business. And through the, first of all, we did a brand refresh. We completely reinvented her brand. Um, and again, I want to clarify a little bit. When I talk about brand, a lot of people think fonts, colors, logo. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about your actual brand identity, which is really housed in who you are, the foundational meat and potatoes of your business. So we really refreshed that, narrowed in on things, started this visibility campaign, then started connecting with local people. And slowly but surely over the course of a year, she was able to completely stop that side of her business. She increased her revenue by$40,000 in the span of eight months. And she was able to really hunker down on the things that made her happy. In fact, she even was able to niche down further in her practice and explore the world of coaching in conjunction with her psychotherapy, which is a really important distinction when it comes to the types of clients you may or may not get and the types of services you are allowed to provide. Because a practitioner has many rules that guide what they're permitted to do, whereas a coach has a few more liberties. And so even though navigating those two spaces can be a challenge at times, it's definitely for her way more rewarding. It also allows, has allowed her, we're in like step like five of this whole process. She's even been able to get to the point where she's earning passive income through her coaching part of things. So she's able, she's been able to celebrate her new family. She recently had a child, and she's been able to just kind of take a step back while not losing out on her income as much. This has been glorious for her lifestyle and her just joy in general.
SPEAKER_01:That's a fantastic story. May I ask are most of your clients within the North America, America, and Canada, or do you have clients all over the world? And if so, can you give us an example perhaps of a client that's not in North America?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. The majority of my clients are in North America. However, I have worked with people from Germany, New Zealand, and let me see if I can remember. I feel like there was a uh a third prominent location that I had had a few clients from. It's I've lost it, but there is another third location where I've had more clients come from than others. Um let me see. I think I can probably speak to the German client pretty well. This was another brand refresh. Uh, we had a lot of really amazing calls where we learned a little bit more about not just their right fit client, but their dream client. And when they were able to take the right fit client and really understand the relationship with them versus their dream client, they were better able to gear their messaging to that dream client. That didn't mean that the right fit client didn't come. That meant that they came even more because they were being so hyper-specific. And in that journey, they were able to take their business from having a trickle in their pipeline to having a wait list. And that was a huge deal for them. In fact, they got to the point where they were saying, okay, listen, you now need to help me with my business structure, like behind the scenes, because I don't know how to regulate this. And that's something that I do support people with uh in my business in a different capacity because we have two veins in the business. The one business is more done for you, the other business is more done with you, and it's more program-based and uh high-touch coaching consulting. Uh, so that was really fun to experience as well because they were just I think that I think they were shocked. I think they were shocked, which was beautiful and I know a little scary at the same time. Uh, but in the end, once we got the background systems and automations in place, I their demeanor was such that I could see them leaning back. Like this didn't actually happen, but you could see, but you know, when the shoulders drop and they go, oh, right. I could just see them leaning back into a hammock and asking the person for a drink. You know, just they looked like they were on cloud nine, uh, which was beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:I really love that. Can I ask about, I mean, how long was that journey? And can you tell us about the second part of the business? I think it's so important to say that once once they were able to um have more clients, all of a sudden they realized that the structure um could not support the success that they were having after you did the rebranding, of course, and you worked together to get their right client and their dream client. And then they found that the structure didn't really allow for um all these people that were coming in. So can we talk more about also the second part of this business that you're talking about? I think it's so important, the fact that you actually support in both ways.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And I'm actually really excited to talk about that because this this part of my business is relatively new. It's about a year and a half old. The other done for you stuff, I've been in that space for over a decade now. But for a year and a half now, I've been really structuring things in a way that's a little bit more bespoke, a little bit more of a hands-on situation. Uh, there are two kind of approaches to the coaching consulting. One is a one-on-one. This is really intensive. This is one of the um, you you have to be a hundred percent involved, and we achieve results a lot faster because this is all we're doing. Because we want to create that shift right away. Uh, the other part of the coach and consulting, and this part I'm I, you know, you're not supposed to have your favorite child, but of my services, this one's one of my favorite child children. Um, this is something that's a lot more accessible. This is actually a program and it's a group program with a lot of one-on-one done for you involved, but it is very much intended to be a group dynamic. And this is where we actually take you through five phases where we do the brand refresh, where we do the marketing strategy, where we actually build up a community. And this community is really important because you've got to remember that just if you have if you have your brand and then your awareness and your strategy, but you don't have a community and you jump to the sale, you're gonna have a really hard time selling. You want the community so that you can talk to warm and hot leads, people who already know, like, and trust you. So then, of course, after you've built your community, you're moving into conversion. The conversion is one of those situations where I'm a bit of a, they call me a crunchy mom. So I am all about green living, I'm all about sustainability, reusing things around the house in my in my business. And that extends to my mindset about business. It needs to be sustainable. So this conversion is not about a one-time event, something that you have to constantly launch in order to get clients. This is about making sure that you have a flow of clients at your door. The final phase of this program is all about, again, I say sustainability. This is about a when-then. We create a map for the future so that when this inevitably happens, this good, amazing thing, then this is what you do. And you are prepared, not only with the actions, but with the connections you need in order to outsource to people and tools that will support your continual business growth. I don't want to see you reaching a bottleneck, a wall, or a plateau that's gonna stop you from taking the next step. There's a lot of coaching involved in this, a lot of making sure that that growth mindset is in place because that's gonna be the thing that allows you to find the proverbial gap between the trees while you're skiing downhill instead of running straight into the trees. Uh, so that's I guess that's it in a nutshell for that side of the business. Um, and it's, as you can see, I'm very passionate about it.
SPEAKER_01:I can see that you love it. And I'm sure that your clients and the people that you have go from point A to point B and go for what they think and happen to actually um being successful in what they like? I'm sure that for them too, your passion makes all the difference in the world. Uh may I ask Yes. May I ask, how do people usually find you? Um and how how do they start to engage with you, especially since you do have so many clients, you have several types of businesses. How does that usually work? Do you have a website? Do you um do you actually go to do speaking engagements? Do you have a book? How how do we find you?
SPEAKER_00:I love that you asked that because the real answer is all of the above, which can be a little complex from behind the scenes. Um, I do have a website, it is shawna lee.com, L-E-I-G-H is the Lee part. Um I have to because that it's funny because my middle name is Lee, but it's spelt like Leigh. I don't. I just like to let people have a have a laugh at that. Um and you're more than welcome to check that out. But I think the better place for you guys to hang out with me is online. Pick a social media platform that you love, except for X. I don't hang out there. Um I just say hi. Say hi. I'll be there. I show up everywhere. My main hub is LinkedIn. That's where I'm at most most often. And I have a team who helps me in that capacity to make sure that I don't miss out on anybody. Um, and then yes, you're uh you also mentioned a book. I'll see if I can bring it up here. I actually have this book here. It's called let's see if we can make this work. Uh maybe, maybe not. Ah, got it. Mastery Unleashed. So I have a chapter in this book, and it is essentially the story of it's a story of authenticity and stepping into your authentic power within your brand, within your marketing. And uh, as my business name uh implies, uh really coming through it with a sense of marketing confidence that will help take you to the next level.
SPEAKER_01:I really love that. Thank you so much. This is so important. May I ask? I mean, you you've been doing this for 10 years and you've been able to see even before you started what the future was going to bring. Because, you know, mentoring um is not necessarily new, but many people getting mentors and looking at mentoring and coaching when it comes to uh businesses and especially when it comes to professionals is is new. But you you thought of this 10 years ago. What do you see happening in the future um in general for this area? And then how are you and your business going to address what you think is going to be coming in the future? That's a super fun question, by the way.
SPEAKER_00:Just super, super fun. Everybody's talking about it. AI. It's the thing, right? This is the hot topic. I remember when it first became widely public available publicly available. It has been for a long, long, long time, everyone, but when it became widely publicly available, there was a lot of skepticism, a lot of nervousness, a lot of uh trepidation around the world of AI. Is this gonna take my job? How am I gonna navigate this space? I don't want to touch it. Um I am one of those people who say, let's try, let's see what happens, let's see what happens. And I'm glad I did. Uh how because in hindsight, I would have been left in the dust. And so what I know now is that AI is a tool. I use it very much like a thinking partner. This allows me to really dive deeper into the intricacies of my ideas, of forward thinking analysis, um, and it empowers me to make choices that are not only in alignment with who I am now, but in alignment with where I want to be. This has gone full circle. I encourage people to really step into the world of AI, learn what you can. It is going to change things. But if you stay on top of the curve, if you stay ahead of the game with again that growth mindset, that willingness to learn and explore that space, you're going to stay a step ahead of the rest. So, what I would say to everyone is to not not just with AI, but with everything, keep an open mind. Watch how things move, and don't let your preconceived notions put a block up for something that could be an amazing opportunity. You'll notice actually, and you'll notice in my book, there's a there should be a quote. Uh, I probably can quote it verbatim without looking for it. However, it's keep the door to possibility open because you never know when opportunity will walk in. And that that is what's kept me ahead.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. That's fabulous. And we're going to end on that note. Um, thank you. The 30 minutes went by so fast. I think we need to have you back again. I want to thank you for coming. And for our audience, remember if I'm not for myself, who will be for me? If I'm only for myself, what am I? If not now, then when? That was by the great philosopher Hillel. And I've added if not me, then who? Thank you once again for joining us for the business of life with Dr. King.