Q1: Why did you decide to start a coaching business?
Starting a coaching business has always been part of my career vision as I first learned about coaching through my father who was a coach during his whole career but that’s not how my career started.
I started as a tax auditor for one of the big four and I worked for the Financial Ombudsman in Mexico, where I started my career. However, after completing my MBA at Manchester Business School I worked setting up small businesses across Europe and for almost 10 years with a top global Financial Services brand before I started my marketing consulting for start-ups and now my coaching business. For all those years, helping others to start new projects, new businesses or careers has been at the core of my career and my passion.
When I started my career, coaching was reserved for a few. High-level executives or sports professionals would benefit from leadership or performance coaching to maximise results. Most people would only know about mentoring if they wanted to progress in their careers. Even today, we see how mentoring and coaching are used interchangeably when they are very different. Mentoring provides guidance and is directional at its core. Working in a corporate environment I had many mentors in my career and I mentored others based on my own experiences.
Coaching is very different as it is non-directional and therefore opens more opportunities to go deeper across any area of life, which is why I’m so passionate about it. Thankfully, I see that things are changing, and coaching is becoming better well-known and available to everyone. More recently, during the pandemic people had some time to pause and more were able to discover the personal and professional transformational benefits of coaching.
In the same way, I have personally experienced the benefits of positive forward-thinking to achieve maximum potential and goals. The more I learned, the more that I felt a responsibility to share the benefits of professional coaching with others. I want as many people as possible to build a business that lights them up with clarity, a strong mindset and to take action on their plans. For me, creating a safe space that can bring people success not only at a professional but also at a personal level is what motivates me every day in my coaching practice.
Q2: How does your business differentiate itself from other coaching businesses?
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
As a coach, I want to help others step into a grandiose vision of themselves and their lives. I’m here to make a difference in my clients’ lives and their businesses. I’m all about creating a safe and positive space that can enable transformation, change and renewal with ease.
If I were to summarise what differentiates my coaching from others, I would highlight three key points:
- Builds trust knowing that I’m a trained professional coach. When you are transforming minds and trying to rewire how a brain works through coaching you have a great responsibility. I take this very seriously and for this reason, is that I trained with an organisation recognised by the ICF (International Coaching Federation) and Association of Coaching. In the same way that you wouldn’t just go with anyone to take a tooth out, you wouldn’t go to anyone to rewire your brain. As a professionally trained coach, I want to provide peace of mind to my clients. They know that I have been professionally trained and continue learning to bring into our coaching sessions relevant tools and strategies such as Positive Psychology and neuroscience that can deliver a personal and professional transformation.
- Leverages both my skills and experience. Having worked in both corporate and new businesses I have first-hand business skills experience having solved many of the challenges that anyone can face when looking to progress a career within an organisation, move to a different company or even to a new sector. Furthermore, I understand how your whole life is impacted when starting a new business. For example, I have had to shift from a corporate mindset into an entrepreneurial mindset. My unique experiences while actively listening to my clients’ thoughts allow me to develop a personalised plan.
- Empowering leaders through my AMA Model. This proprietary framework enables me to bring the best out of my clients and allows them to gain more clarity on the path to follow while feeling alive, confident, and full of joy. It removes any self-limiting beliefs that may be blocking success and delivers a clear action plan to execute without burnout. My focus is on unlocking for my clients their passion, potential and unique strategies while helping them build a strong mindset for long term success in their careers or business without sacrificing their well-being or that of those around them.
Q3: What are the most common problems faced by women starting or running their own business and how can these problems be overcome?
I want to recognise and celebrate that there has been some progress for women. It is encouraging to see that more women are breaking the glass ceiling across different sectors and inspiring others to follow them. The UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy released earlier this year that women make up nearly 40% of board positions, compared with 12.5% 10 years ago.
For many years men have dominated the business world, and there are some obstacles that women may face more frequently.
However, becoming an entrepreneur is not easy for women. Evidence does suggest that for women, there are some additional challenges. Take for example funding, a recent study by think tank Findexable found that only 1.5% of the best-funded private Fintech businesses globally are founded solely by women and receive 1% of the total Fintech venture funding. Not so long ago I would hear stories of women arriving to a VC fund only for the men leading them to ask where the male co-founder was.
As a result, some women would look for alternative funding methods and others will keep working on their pitch until they engage others with their vision. To overcome this challenge, I work with clients to understand first what is within their circle of control. For example, they can focus on building their resilience and improving their communication skills to deliver a confident pitch.
Another common challenge that women face is the impact that building a new business has on their personal lives and own well-being. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to meet women close to burnout or already burned out by trying to wear not only all the hats within a business but also all the hats at home. In this case, I work with my clients to achieve a better balance in their lives. First, by appreciating the support network that they may have already. Second, by identifying where additional support in the form of a team member or even a partner can bring to alleviate the workload.
These are only a couple of challenges that women face but it motivates me to also see how women are lifting each other up more than ever.
Q4: What are the key elements of a successful business?
What defines a successful business is a personal view or perspective at a determined point in time and therefore we can all define what it includes in different ways. However, there are some common elements usually found in a successful business.
First, for a business to be successful people must be at the core of what you do. People can mean your clients, your community, your employees or even yourself. Prioritising people is a long-term strategy as it is not focused on immediate revenue but on long-term loyalty to the business.
Second, keeping always in mind the vision that you have developed for your business or idea will always help you stay focused. At the same time, a clear vision can help you stay resilient and positive and move forward even when challenges come up. As a business owner, this means total commitment to stay in flow with your vision while you continuously evolve with it.
Third, having a business plan, or as I prefer to call it Know Your Numbers, can help you manage your business from start does bring a more structured and responsible approach to manage not only your revenue targets but also your expenses and ultimately your profitability. A clear action plan or road map that can be easily followed will enable you to take every step and follow any processes that you may require.
Fourth, consistently and constantly market your message. I find that this one is usually overlooked by many businesses. They are so focused on building the perfect product that they do forget to have a clear brand or message that can help them sell the product. As a new business, this activity may fall into your hands, but I believe that if it becomes a daily practice, it is easier to build awareness and ultimately grow your leads or connections that can convert.
Fifth, don’t forget about yourself and who/what is important to you. Having a successful business is one thing but falling in every other area of your life diminishes the impact of that success. It is for this reason that senior leaders in organisations and successful business owners continuously invest and work on themselves. They recognise how business is only part of their lives.
In summary, always remember why you are building the business, who are you serving and what do you need to do to achieve your definition of a successful business.
Q5: How should women business owners face the fear of failure?
I’m passionate about this topic as unfortunately too many women self-sabotage themselves and miss out on many opportunities for fear of failure. To understand why this is the case we need to know that safety is coded at our core. We instinctively want to avoid anything that causes us pain, including failure and our response, can be fight/flight just as our ancestors used to do. However, this does not mean that we always respond in a protective mode. It is possible to change this. It is possible to develop a growth mindset.
Additionally, recent studies validate how we can build neural pathways through repetition, focus and practice. For example, with my clients, I use Positive Psychology and visualisation to help them see beyond what triggers the fear of failure and is blocking them from taking the next step.
Tip – An easy tool that I give my clients is not to keep the thought of failure in your mind. As soon as you notice it, recognise it, write it down and get rid of the piece of paper. The key is not to allow it to stay in your mind long enough to create a snowball of self-doubt and fear.
The next step is to replace that thought. As women business owners, we may be more protective and overthink all the possible negative scenarios. However, understanding that failure is only part of the road to success and that it will bring a positive learning experience can help us reframe what failure is.
As women business owners, we need to focus more on our positive experiences. Coaching can support us by helping us increase our self-awareness and tapping into our strengths that can help us build our confidence. We can’t allow fear of failure to block our opportunities to achieve success.
Allow yourself to step into your best possible self.
Q6: What three pieces of advice would you give to a woman planning to start her own business?
For women looking to start their own business to simplify, there are three key areas to focus on: awareness, mindset, and action.
- Build your personal brand online. This is in particular important for founders just starting. Whether you are looking for VC funds or want to grow independently, have a clear story that explains why you, who are you helping and what will your solution deliver. When you have limited resources, staying focused on your brand will make it easier to grow key connections and deliver your message to key people. People will help you and finding the right partners who will lift you up and contribute in areas where you have knowledge gaps will make it easier along the way.
- Work on your mindset, clarity on why you are starting your own business and your vision will help you keep a strong mindset. At the end of the day, experiencing setbacks along the journey are just part of the path to success. My recommendation is to grow your confidence and work on any self-limiting beliefs that could self-sabotage your growth. A coach can be that sounding board to help you gain clarity and an ongoing positive mindset impartially.
- Be kind to yourself and know that you don’t need to have everything sorted. Know that VC funding is one option but is not the only option if you want to keep control of your business. A vision will guide your business, but it can also be overwhelming for many new business owners. New business owners must wear many hats but staying focused on just the next steps will help to move forward. In six months, time, you will thank yourself for seeing progress by taking action.
Bio
Marilu Revelli holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business, an MBA from Manchester Business School and is a professionally trained coach, member of the ICF (International Coaching Federation) and Association of Coaching. Marilu has extensive experience helping ambitious leaders to take the next step in their careers and founders set up and grow their businesses. Marilu is also a Marketing professional, with over 20 years B2B experience and Fintech training from MIT. More recently, as a Business Coach and Consultant, she has worked with award-winning Fintech, Regtech and Insurtech brands and their founders to both drive brand awareness to grow their business as well as to develop their personal brand. Additional experience has been in implementing marketing and loyalty strategies for start-ups in the Financial Services sector across European markets. Previously, she worked for American Express for nearly 10 years where she held various marketing and business development roles including leading partnerships with Lloyds Bank, TSB, Alpha Bank Greece, Bank of Cyprus, Starwood Hotels and British Airways among others. Before moving to the UK, Marilu worked for the Financial Ombudsman of Mexico and Arthur Andersen.
