Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey Renee Rogers.
Hi Casey Renee, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I actually started my career as a professional Broadway performer. I spent years on the road doing national and international tours, chasing the dream I’d had since I was a kid. It was exciting, glamorous from the outside, and exactly what I thought I wanted. Then something weird happened: I got the thing I’d spent years working toward, and I realized I didn’t actually want the life that came with it.
People talk a lot about following your passion, but they don’t talk nearly as much about what happens when your passion becomes your job. Performing stopped feeling like this magical thing I got to do and started feeling like something I had to do. I was exhausted all the time. I was constantly traveling, never really lived anywhere, never had a stable community, and every other part of life got pushed aside in service of the career. The more successful I became, the more replaceable and ambivalent I felt. At some point I realized I didn’t actually miss performing, what I missed was connection. I missed feeling like I was making an impact in some small way.
Between theater contracts I worked as an assistant for a dating coach in New York City, and that’s where everything clicked. Watching people change wasn’t just fascinating, it was addictive. I saw people have breakthroughs over the course of a single weekend that changed the trajectory of their lives. I knew almost immediately that coaching was what I wanted to do, just not dating coaching. So I got trained, started from scratch, and slowly built a practice one client at a time. I’ve now been coaching full time for over eleven years, working both with corporate leaders through organizations like BetterUp and in my own private accountability coaching practice. Looking back, it feels like I didn’t really leave theater. I just found a different stage. Instead of helping people escape into someone else’s story for two hours, I get to help them change their own.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Honestly, it hasn’t been a smooth road at all. I’d argue the first few years were almost entirely uphill.
The funny thing about coaching is that it’s one of those professions where there really aren’t any shortcuts. You can read every book, get every certification, and take every training under the sun, but eventually you just have to sit across from another human being and figure out how to help them. That takes reps. Soooo many reps. I look back at some of my coaching sessions from my first few years and physically cringe. I wasn’t terrible, but I definitely wasn’t the coach I am today. If I’m being perfectly honest, I feel like it took me about 3 years before I felt like I had any business charging people. Experience teaches you things no classroom ever will.
The other challenge is that coaching is a trust business. Most people don’t wake up thinking, “You know what I need today? A coach.” And unfortunately, there are enough people making big promises with very little substance that healthy skepticism is completely understandable. I actually hired a coach early in my career and had a pretty disappointing experience myself, so I get it. It made me realize that if I wanted people to trust me, I couldn’t just tell them I was good, I had to earn it.
Today my practice is built 100% through referrals. I don’t really market at all anymore. My clients send me their friends, partners, coworkers, and family members because they’ve experienced the work (and their own transformation) firsthand. That sounds effortless now, but it took years of patience, consistency, and more than a few moments where I was embarrassingly close to throwing in the towel. Looking back, I’m incredibly glad I didn’t. There’s something deeply satisfying about building a business one person at a time, simply by doing good work.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Coaching with Casey Renee Rogers?
I call what I do accountability coaching because it’s a lot more hands-on than what most people picture when they think of coaching. My job isn’t just to help someone have a great session once a week. My job is to help them actually change their life.
One of the biggest differences is time. I schedule 90 minute sessions because I’ve found that the first 45 minutes are often just the runway. That’s where people unpack the obvious stuff. The real breakthroughs usually happen once we’ve gotten underneath the original problem and started talking about the thing that’s actually driving it. Ending a session right when someone is having that realization has never made much sense to me, so I simply don’t.
The support also doesn’t stop when the session ends. Every client gets a detailed recap after each session with the biggest insights, action steps, and homework so nothing gets lost once real life starts again. We check in throughout the week, they have direct access to me between sessions, and if something important comes up, they don’t have to wait until next Tuesday at 2:00 to talk about it. Life doesn’t happen on a coaching schedule.
I work with all kinds of people, but I especially love working with entrepreneurs and small business owners because they’re usually trying to build something meaningful while also trying not to lose themselves in the process. They need more than motivation, they need structure, accountability, honest feedback, and someone who’s willing to challenge them when they’re getting in their own way.
I’m also pretty selective about who I work with. I keep my practice intentionally small because I want to be genuinely available to my clients, and I only take on people I truly believe I can help. I’d rather work deeply with a handful of people than spread myself too thin trying to work with everyone. I think that’s a big part of why my practice has become entirely referral-based. People get results, they tell someone else, and that’s how it’s grown for the last eleven years.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I moved here from New York about a year ago, and while I’ll always love New York, I don’t miss the winters or the pace. I think I spent so many years operating at full speed that I forgot there was another way to live.
One of the things I love most about the Bay Area is that it feels like you don’t have to choose between city life and nature. On any given day I can be working with clients, grabbing great food, hiking through the redwoods, or watching my kids explore a park, all without feeling like I’m constantly rushing to the next thing. That balance has been really good for me.
What I like least is the traffic. Ugh. Everyone hates traffic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://caseyreneerogers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casey.renee.rogers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaseyReneeRogers/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseyreneerogers/
