Your Launch Blueprint
Once you are clear on your story, your prospective customers' stories and your business' most compelling story, you can create a blueprint for your business that weaves those stories into the very foundation of your business. So that every decision you make and all the actions you take build upon that solid foundation.
I started this business with one class in a church hall on a Saturday morning. It grew into a thriving business with two studios, 10 teachers and 100+ students each week.
2. Age 48
My 2nd business took everything I had learned in the previous 11 years to help other creative business owners to start their businesses with less unnecessary effort.
3. Age 51
This third business feels like my legacy business - where I will get to do work that will leave my mark on the world. I am SO excited for this chapter of my body of work.
1. Age 37
In 2005, after being an attorney for a decade, I started a business called The Creative Groove Studio offering music, art and dance classes for toddlers and a preschool prep program for 2-3 year olds. It grew from one class a week in a church hall to a business with 100+ students each week, a staff of 10, two studio locations and a revenue of $200,000+ per year.
I learned a lot from building that business - I learned what worked incredibly well (I was very clear on my story and my customers' stories which meant that my business story resonated) and I learned how much I got in my own way (no business strategy or planning whatsoever - always working in react mode).
I worked incredibly hard because I wasn't clear on the things that only I could do. For years, I did everything in the business - from the $10/hour jobs to the $300+/hour jobs. It felt like I never switched off. When I started to hire staff, I overpaid everyone because I valued their time way more than I valued my own.
I knew that there had to be a way of building a business that would allow me to be more ME - utilizing my strengths (my natural skills, talents and passions) while recognizing and addressing my weaknesses (it's absolutely OK to not overpay your staff!).
During the decade when I was building Creative Groove Studio, I pursued my interest in coaching. I became a Master Life Coach trained by Martha Beck, a branding strategist trained by Reach and, most recently, a Quiet Power Strategy certified business strategist trained by Tara McMullin (formerly Tara Gentile), author of Quiet Power Strategy and creator of The What Works Network.
It was this final training - the Quiet Power Strategy training - that was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. It showed me how to get clear on my Quiet Power - story telling - and to create a strategy that weaves that Quiet Power through every aspect of my business.
Whether it was as a child who wrote plays and performed them with my friends or as an attorney telling a story from the facts that supported my clients or as the owner of a studio offering children's classes or as a stand-up comic or as a life coach supporting a client to write their next chapter or as a business coach showing my client how to write their most compelling business story, the theme that connects all of the roles I've played is a passion for stories.
It's how I view the world and it's how I make sense of it.
It's also how I make sense of business and it is the perspective I use to teach business strategy.
I'm so excited about this chapter of my body of work as it brings together so many of the adventures and passions I have been pursuing for the past decade or so.
As a Master Life Coach and a Quiet Power Strategy® business coach, when you hire me you get two coaches for the price of one. Because the more I do this work, the more I learn that the business stuff and the life stuff are completely intertwined. You can't work on one without working on the other.
I can help you to create a successful business by being more you.
While also helping you to get out of your own way.
So that you can reach your full potential and so can your business.