Q1: Why did you decide to start a coaching business?
The boldest moves and greatest successes experienced in my life, career, and business were a result of the knowledge and awareness gained from working with a coach. Starting a coaching business though wasn’t something initially embraced. In my first business, I dabbled in it but didn’t commit.
What I lacked in my first business to be a coach was confidence brought about by doubts, worries, and fears. Doubts in my ability to transition my corporate background in leadership, problem solving, and mentoring into the skillsets needed to be a successful coach. Worries that I didn’t have the “right experience”, personal results or resume to be credible. Fears about my ability to help others achieve the results they were looking for.
It wasn’t until I was Producing and Hosting my TV Show, that I made the decision to start a coaching business as a second time around entrepreneur. Working in broadcasting with no experience and overcoming a fear of visibility and being on camera, supplied not only the confidence but a compelling belief that the previous doubts, worries and fears could be removed. An intense desire to help women in an expanded way overcome their career or business challenges, a realization of how far I’d come, and what I’d overcome to be Hosting a TV show provided the confidence that starting a coaching business was not only something I could do, it was also something I wanted to do, and I fully believed I could do.
That first time around, I didn’t want to coach because I didn’t believe I could do it.
With this second business, I chose coaching as a business because of its ability to help women move through their challenges and achieve transformational changes, regardless of what the challenge was. It was a business that truly put me in control of my day and provided me with the time freedom and flexibility desired at this point in my career path, while also providing an opportunity to help others create an impact. A career path initially met with resistance is now something that makes me feel alive and on-purpose.
Q2: How does your business differentiate itself from other coaching businesses?
My business differentiates itself from other coaching businesses in a few ways. First, my specialty is working with women 40+. This focus is due to my biggest risks, transitions, failures, and successes experienced all happened after 40. There’s specific, and sensitive, needs that many women in their 40’s have that hold them back from pursuing paths, dreams or goals that I can relate to, understand, and empathize with. Tenure in their career or business. A predictable income. Less desire for risk, specifically when it comes to changes that can negatively impact their family. Belief that at 40, they’re “too old” to start pursing what they truly want or invest in exploring who they are. Fear of failure and being judged by others for stepping off what others perceive to be a logical, or “best” path for them.
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Second, I leverage my background in adult education, training, process and systems design, and root cause problem solving. This diverse knowledge and skillset allow me to approach coaching, and seeing the challenges women are facing, with multiple perspectives. The adult education expertise helps me to re-frame program teachings and adapt my delivery of the information in different ways to support the specific and diverse learning needs, preferences and strengths of clients.
Third, I focus on the combination of mindset and visibility. For business owners to grow their business, they must become more visible to their desired audiences. With the move of business practices and audiences into the online space over the past few years, there’s become an exponential need for mindset growth and skillset development related to visibility, specifically on camera. Being visible on camera brings with it a whole different set of doubts, worries, and fears. I’m grateful to be able to incorporate mindset practices with a specific focus on visibility so that women entrepreneurs can feel more comfortable and confident on camera, positioning themselves as they expert they are so they can grow their business easier, simpler, and faster.
Q3: What are the most common problems faced by women starting or running their own business and how can these problems be overcome?
One common problem faced by women starting or running their own business is not having full, honest clarity on what they truly want from, or out of, their business. It’s crucial when starting or running a business to have clarity on what it is women truly want to work towards. To identify a goal for their business that inspires, if not, scares them. There are two reasons for this: inspiration and focus.
Often, women set their business goals on results or outcomes that don’t inspire them. They think too small, not allowing themselves the space to be honest with themselves or admit to themselves what it is they truly want. Thinking small isn’t inspiring, so when challenges are faced, there’s less desire to overcome them and forward movement stops. When women are crystal clear on what it is they truly want, allow themselves to connect with their imagination and dreams they’ve pushed aside, that’s where inspiration is felt as a positive emotional connection. A dream goal is inspiring. It’s also where women will experience infinite growth. Achieving the dream gaol can be many years to decades off, such is mine, however the emotional connection provides the source of intrinsic motivation that’s needed to build the qualities of resilience and persistence to continually push through obstacles and move ahead.
When women are clear on what they truly want to achieve in their business, it’s easier to reverse engineer the steps needed to achieve the goal, breaking actions down into smaller pieces that are less overwhelming and simpler. Actions and efforts are more focused, consistent, and there’s less potential for business ideas to be changed, abandoned too soon, for women to become distracted by perceived trends, or making comparisons to similar businesses.
In my first business, I lacked clarity on what it is I was working towards at the end of the day. I knew who I wanted to help, however didn’t have a picture of what I wanted to create. The result was continual pivoting of my business concept and “how” I was going to help others. Writing content. Empowering girls. Coaching. Leadership development. Just some of the business ideas tried and tossed aside. Because I wasn’t clear on what my business was, I couldn’t communicate what I did to others clearly, meaning others didn’t know if they needed to hire me, or how to refer me.
Q4: What are the key elements of a successful business?
Two key elements needed to create a successful business are a strong network and boundaries. Even if women are building their own business, it’s built easier, simpler, and faster with the help and support of others. Strong networks that are diverse in the knowledge and type of support that can be accessed are crucial for success.
When building networks, women entrepreneurs need to be strategic. Who will be needed to help grow the business? Who will be needed to support the woman herself as she grows her business? For women with a clear goal on what they want to achieve, when the steps are reversed engineered, what knowledge/skillsets and support will be needed to accomplish the specific step? Knowing the specialized knowledge or support that is or will be needed to grow their business can help women to be more intentional when growing their network, connecting with others they feel aligned to, and identify who they want to develop a relationship with, trust, and hire.
To build a successful business, there’s sometimes the idea that business owners always need to be “on” and available to their customers. This can result in women working extended hours, feel overwhelmed, not feeling like they have the time freedom they thought they’d have, and feeling like they’re not visible or in front of the people they really want to be: themselves and their family. Boundaries are important for business owners to maintain their overall health, increase focus, and prioritize themselves. In my first business, there was a lack of boundaries. The result was working more hours in a week than I previously had in my corporate career, activities taking longer than needed as there was no sense of urgency, being easily distracted (hello social media scrolling), and burning the candle at both ends. Enter burnout. Today, boundaries are easily created without feeling guilty as they are based on my values and having a clear goal. If there’s an invitation or request to take part in an activity, I assess the activity against my values and goal. If aligned, it’s considered. If not aligned, a polite decline or alternative date is suggested, if possible. A booking calendar is used to book off dedicated “me time, eliminate the back-and-forth of manually scheduling, and to clearly communicate to others when I’m not available.
Q5: How should women business owners face the fear of failure?
In market research I completed at the end of 2021 and start of 2022, the women interviewed identified failure as one of their top fears. Impact on family and their financial security were high on the list of why women were afraid to fail.
To face the fear of failure, women business owners need to understand that, in simple terms, their fears are rooted in the subconscious mind. The brain wants to automatically do two things; converse energy and keep itself safe. Fears are a way for the subconscious mind to keep it safe. Unfortunately, giving into fear results in women creating a habit of letting their fears control them.
When women are considering taking steps in their business that are new and outside of their comfort zone, the outcome or results of those steps are unpredictable, not understood, or unknown. Conscious doubts or worries women have in their confidence to succeed, or their capabilities to create the results they want are negative thinking that gets impressed onto the subconscious mind, felt as fear, and expressed through behaviours such as taking no action, deliberating on a decision for far too long, and giving up on exciting ideas. The expression of these behaviours results in slow, little or no business growth.
One way women business owner can face their fear of failure is to change their perception of fear and what it truly means. Fear means growth. Fear means there’s an action that women are emotionally connected to and want to take. If they weren’t emotionally connected to the action or the outcome of the action, the fear would not exist.
Another way women can face their fear of failure is to reflect on the source of the fear and understand if the source is valid. Is the fear of failure rooted in something that is true, or something that is perceived to be true? If true, what steps can be taken to eliminate, or reduce the fear of failure? If not true, shift the focus onto what proof exists where women have succeeded and not failed.
Fear exists in the presence of the growth. To grow, personally or the business, it may help for women to identify that when they experience fear it means they’re considering acting on something that will help them to grow. And if they don’t grow, the likelihood that their business will fail is greater.
Q6: What three pieces of advice would you give to a woman planning to start her own business?
Advice I would give to a woman planning on starting her own business is based on the failures experienced in my first business attempt, that I learned from, and took different actions on with my second business which has resulted in night-and-day results.
First, when looking at other entrepreneurs, what they’re doing, the success achieved, or how they’ve built their business, be aware that you are seeing them where they are today in their journey. Today has been created from the culmination of years of steps, overcoming challenges, struggles, and I’m confident in more than a few tears shed. Where others are in their business today is not where you will start. What they may make look easy is a result of hours of practice, failures, and a persistence to keep going.
Second, avoid comparison toxicity. No two businesses are the same. Each woman brings to her business her own unique knowledge, skills, experiences, personality, and intentions. How a woman plans to reach her audience, the words she uses to talk about her business, and what she believes about her business will influence her actions, communications, relationships, and how others connect with, and perceive her. It’s okay for a woman to compare herself to another business when the intention is to help her distinguish herself and the value she does have to offer from a perspective of abundance. This is research. Toxic comparisons are when the focus is on what’s missing or what a woman doesn’t have which comes from a perspective based on lack.
Third piece of advice is to ask for help, often, and before its needed. No business is truly created alone. Its grown based on the collective help and support of others. Help comes in a lot of different ways. It could be:
- Specialized knowledge from an expert.
- Asking a peer to make a warm connection.
- Free coaching sessions or downloads from websites.
- An accountability partner.
Asking for help can result in three things:
- A solution being found and/or implemented faster and easier.
- A new relationship, network growth or partnership.
- The person providing the help feeling valuable and aligned with their purpose doing what they love to do.
Starting a business can be a lot of work, and the destination of that business years away from achieving. This journey is a marathon. It’s an easier journey to take, and more fun, when there’s others that have been included, and a part of it, every step of the way.
DANIELLE JOWORSKI BIO
Danielle Joworski is a Mindset Coach, Visibility Consultant, and TV Host of The C-Suite and In Studio on Rogers tv in Canada. Her work focuses on emboldening women 40+ who feel stuck, stalled or settling in their work to feel more confident becoming visible in what they do so they achieve the career path and success they envision for themselves at this point in their career or business easier, simpler, and faster. She blends her corporate backgrounds and experience in leadership, change management, and adult education gained from working at Fortune 500 companies like H.J. Heinz, Campbell’s Soup, Johnson & Johnson, and Toyota, with her successes and failures gained as an award-winning entrepreneur. With a vision of a world where a woman’s career path and success are limited only by her imagination or reach of her voice, Danielle’s skillsets and passions allow her to create supportive environments where women feel safe to explore their potential and learn how to replace their doubts, worries, and fears of being seen and heard with belief, courage, and confidence in who they are and what they do. Danielle is a natural introvert, a wife and mom of children with two and four legs, advocate, and champion for women 40+ wanting to make bold changes to become more visible in their career or business, speaker, international podcast guest, and high heal fanatic.
