#021 - stephanie ward. Marketing coach to entrepreneurs
Helping you get clear about your business goals & generating marketing ideas that fit.

Stephanie says.....
 'Don''t Wait. Take Action. Get your courage up and move forward but stay connected to your why.  Why did you start your business.
Nicholla speaks with Stephanie Ward a Marketing Coach for Entrepreneurs who want to create a meaningful and prosperous business. Stephanie helps her clients attract and maintain a steady stream of cool clients. She does this by helping Meaningpreneurs (small business owners who find their work meaningful) get clear about their businesses and then generating marketing ideas that are a superb fit for them.

Her passion is to help Meaningpreneurs make a living doing work they love. She does this by combining her business and marketing background, her coaching skills, as well as her own personal experience. Her formal education consists of a Master’s degree in Communication and BBA degree in Business Management.

Stephanie is an Okie (that's someone from Oklahoma, Tulsa to be precise) who has lived in the Netherlands since 1999. She started her company, Firefly Coaching, in 2002 and serves meaningpreneurs all over the world.

She offers a Free Special Report, 7 Steps to Attract More Clients in Less Time, at her website http://www.fireflycoaching.com

This is a conversation about her journey from corporate America to her Coaching company in Holland. She shares her insight and knowledge into what she thinks make a great entrepreneur and how her own experiences have help her become a recognised marketing coach entrepreneur.
Inside this Episode

  • Question 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your Entrepreneurial Journey and How your particular journey into starting your own ventures came about? Stephanie had a corporate career before her venture into entrepreneurship.  After moving to the Netherlands she continued with her corporate job but she was not excited any more by her occupation and she was commuting two hours a day to get to a from work so she searched for a coach to help her find a new and better match for her skill set and unexpectedly discovered coaching as a way for her to channel her skill set and make a living.  She continued to work full time and went to coaching school at night for two years.
  • Question 2: Tell us a little bit about what you do and Why you love what you do? Stephanie helps business owners have a steady stream of cool clients. She helps them figure out which marketing tools will work for them in their business so that they will achieve their goals for their business.  She does all this because she loves connecting with people, new ideas and marketing which support her vision, that people can make a living doing what they love.
  • Question 3: What does the word 'Meaningpreneur' mean? Stephanie made this word up and for her it represents the kind of person she loves to work with.  People that do what they do that brings meaning and passion to their work causing a more possibilities and opportunities.  You will do better at something if you are passionate about it.
  • Question 4: How did you come up with the name of your business, 'Firefly Coaching'? Stephanie explains how a coach helps a person turn on their internal light which is what a firefly has.  They have an internal light. Thus the name of the business. She explains more in the interview. 
  • Question 5: Can you give us an insight into day to day business activities? How do you organise your day and how do you prioritize? Stephanie's driving approach to her day to day activities is to keep her 'to do' list to 3 BIG MUST Do items only per day and then around she works in content sharing, social media management, networking events and client management. 
  • Question 6: Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur? Stephanie says their isn't a pattern there is a more of a collection of skills or characteristics that are sort of like a formula.  Stephanie shares those elements to that formula.
  • Question 7: What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur? Stephanie's top 3 skills are a) Marketing b) curiosity and c) resilience. She shares her explanations in the interview. She also clarifies why when someone says 'your show or work is fabulous' you shouldnt take that to heart either. Weird as it was, Stephanie made sense.  :)
  • Question 8:  What is the best piece of business advise you have ever been given?  And how is that working for you right now? Stephanie shared a really awesome point in this question and it was to do with not being perfect before you put yourself out there.  It was a great point and one that will reasonate with lots of people.
  • Question 9:  How (if ever) did you rise above failure or struggle? What action did you take? Stephanie says its important to see failure or struggle as an opportunity to learn and find the lesson in the moment.  If we want to be an entrepreneur then failure will happen many times and we need to have a mechanism in place to deal with it and how to get the most out of the moment. In her own coaching career she does face her own challenges and does embrace a learning mentality and ask for help when you need it.
  • Question 10: Who is your ‘go to person, book or quote’ that gets you pumped and helps you refocus when you are feeling de-motivated or low?  Stephanie says the book called 'Lovin What is, by Byron Katie' . She also shares her thoughts on just letting go for a while and do something different to refresh your mind and reignite your own inner motivation.  Distance from something for a moment really does open your mind and help you find solutions to what you may not have been able to see before.
  • Question 11: Where do you see yourself and your businesses in the next 10 years? How will they have evolved? Stephanie takes her que on this answer from Jason Fried book 'Rework' (link below).  Stephanie tell us she will focus on the roots of what she does and that is work that she finds meaningful but she doesn't know what form it will take as marketing will evolve. She is open to new ideas and methods which she can embrace.
  • Question 12: If everything was taken away from you and you had to start again where would you start? Stephanie said if she had to start again then she would start with creating a product which she could share and offer to her ideal clients and start to build that list which is so important in the development of building your ideal client community.  List building is a core activity of any development of a community. Email is not dead.  Its the only way you know you have permission to email someone. 
  • Question 12:  Closing question:  What would you say to those ladies out there that are on the edge of taking the plunge into being an entrepreneur? Stephanie says, 'Don''t Wait'. Take Action. Get your courage up and move forward but stay connect to your why.  Why did you start your business.
Show Notes
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