New Business Ventures and New Challenges
I’m 98% thrilled and 2% petrified to share my new venture as a self-employed marketing and communications consultant and coach. I’m an entrepreneur! After over 20 years of experience helping companies introduce new products, launch new businesses, create memorable brands, and capture their target market’s attention, I’m now doing it for myself. Roughly half of my family runs successful businesses, but there’s a certain security to working for others. And that so-called security kept me firmly entrenched in the corporate world. That is until now.
Work and Hobby
I’m one of the fortunate few; I love what I do. I’m not one who needs or wants the limelight, so collaborating with others to strategize, prepare and implement the steps needed to achieve a goal is highly satisfying to me. Technology and social media have made marketing an even more interesting field. And I find myself listening to podcasts and audiobooks, reading blogs, and following experts on, you guessed it, marketing and entrepreneurship. You can only fill your days with so much of this content before you start wondering why you’re not doing it for yourself. At least, that was the case for me.
New Businesses, New Industries, New Products – Oh, My!
When the law firm I was working for put me at the marketing helm of launching a new business and software-as-a-service product, my lack of confidence in doing it for my own business haunted me. Here I was putting together strategic plans for a variety of industries, managing blogs, providing direction and input for digital campaigns and hesitating on the one thing I knew I needed to do.
Active Listening
Still, more motivation was to come in the form of becoming certified as a business development coach. I’d tinkered with different types of coaching, mentored others formally and informally, and led leaders. But I found myself in a formal coaching certification program, and suddenly everything came together. My joy in helping others, my finely honed ability to listen and hear exactly what others mean (and not just what they say), and my interest in business marketing strategy led me to pick up several coaching clients. They seemed to just gravitate towards my collaborative style.
Coaching Others Meant Coaching Myself
Here I was guiding people to achieve their goals. And these were professionals—attorneys to be exact—accustomed to doling out advice and not so used to taking it. Working with their strengths, overcoming their skepticism about social media and marketing, and working with their faith in building relationships was fulfilling. I gave them simple steps to take and worked with them through any challenges. Coaching others made me realize I had to take my own advice. And here we are, stepping outside of my comfort zone in so many ways!
What to Expect
I’ll be sharing more about this new adventure of mine here on this blog along with some resources and techniques I’ve found helpful along the way. Subscribe if you’d like to follow along! And thanks for your interest in my latest business-building work.