Coaching The Freedom Of Self-Employment: Tom Volkar

We continue to interview inspiring and successful entrepreneurs here at Yes to Me, and this time, I didn’t have to look far for the perfect interview guest. Tom Volkar, Career Coach from CoreU Coaching and Delightful Work has been a steady commenter at Yes to Me. Just like myself, he helps new and aspiring entrepreneurs to have the business of their dreams. He recently made a community call, which attracted many bloggers. (Photo by leefotos)

1. Tell us a bit about your business and why you started it.

I began my career as a soloprenuer in 1998, first as an inspirational speaker and corporate vision consultant. This was soon after closing an earlier entrepreneurial, entertainment business that resulted in me losing everything, including my home. My marriage of 19 years ended then when I refused to go back to a 23-year career in sales.

Once again, on the trail of pursuing work that I loved, a guy came out of the audience, after a talk I’d given and asked if I’d ever done any coaching. I coached his wife on discovering career fulfillment and found it far more satisfying than speaking; thus my coaching business was born.

I started the speaking business because I valued doing what I loved more than anything. Yet if I hadn’t walked down the corridor of speaking, the coaching door may not have serendipitously opened.

CoreU Coaching was initially a life coaching business where I delivered every kind of coaching imaginable, including: corporate executives, relationship coaching and coaching for supervisors in manufacturing plants. But the clients, who always gave me the greatest thrills, were budding entrepreneurs who were preparing to make the leap to self-employment. So In September 07, I began writing my Delightful Work blog, which is dedicated to that community. I coach, write and create courses and programs to support those who want to be their own boss.

2. What were the three biggest challenges when you were starting off as a new entrepreneur?

My first entrepreneurial enterprise in 1992 was for a brick and mortar business. The challenges were different than for my coaching business. I successfully raised 2.5 million dollars, so it was necessary to get dozens of lenders, investors and vendors to buy into in my vision, since it was never done before. My biggest challenge in that business was in finding and presenting existing business models that gave these supporters confidence.

In my coaching business the challenges were more internal and consisted of trusting myself and working through the underlying fears that developed around the lack of time and money. In chronological order here were my biggest challenges.

1. Not completely following my core values, allowed me to be lured by projects that looked financially promising but were not authentically aligned with who I was.
2. I fought prevailing wisdom to niche myself for far too long because I thought it would limit the work I’d receive and cause me to earn less.
3. I allowed my fear of learning technology to get in the way of my business growth.

3. And how did you work through these challenges?

Values Un-aligned Projects – I worked through this one the hard way, by continuing to say yes to opportunities that looked good but did not turn out well for me. If we beat our heads against the same wall long enough, the pain awakens us. Lesson learned: Not everything works for everyone in the same way. If you have to fight it to work it, the resistance will stop the money from flowing.

Committing to a Niche – After yet another misguided decision in challenge one, I finally said the hell with it and made a sacred vow to commit to marketing myself as an expert only in the area that brings me most alive. That is inspiring and encouraging the leap to the freedom of self-employment. Lesson learned: Committing to one niche does not limit the work we receive. I am still presented with opportunities to coach in other areas. But commitment allows us to approach mastery in the area we care about the most. And mastery leads to greater propsperity in fulfillment and in finances.

Fear of Technology – I worked through this fear using Emotional Freedom Technique and a decision-making technique that I learned in Eckhart Tolle’s, The Power of Now. Essentially I had to release limiting beliefs about my ability to learn technology, while at the same time accepting that the Internet had become an essential component of business building. Lesson Learned: Even though we are more naturally suited to learning some concepts than others. Our resistance is unnaturally created by fear not by original makeup.

4. What is the best part of being an entrepreneur for you?

Total autonomy is the best part of being an entrepreneur. I view employment as mental and emotional slavery. Each of us holds the key to remove our own shackles. Having the total freedom to decide what I work on, the projects I create, the self-determination to work when I feel like working and to work in service to who I most want to serve: that is the liberty of entrepreneurship that I hold most dear.

5. Any advice for people who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap?

There are four essential realizations that are required understanding.

1). No one can build your unique business like you can. Your best guess about what that is, is far better than any outside expert’s opinion. Tap the expertise of those who have actually been in the arena, for their encouragement, methods and tools. But look to yourself in matters of decision-making.

2). Quit dreaming and thinking – instead act. Find a way to get into action, even if it’s part time. You cannot see what doors may open (like the doorway to my coaching) until you walk down the corridor. Get out of your own head and into action. You can always adapt on the fly. It may not seem comforting but no one ever figures it all out first. That’s a myth.

3). Carefully choose your sources of support. Advice from others, even from those who love you, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. They can’t see things from your perspective. They aren’t aware of your desires and strengths. No one else can intuitively understand what you know about yourself. For support, find a community of budding entrepreneurs who are feeling what you’re feeling.

4). Don’t let the search for the perfect pre-existing career slow you down. You may not find perfect, pre-existing, authentic work created by another. You may need to blend all of your special strengths, peculiarities and values together, to build your own empire.

My Takeaway

I totally agree with the importance of authenticity! I also like his advice on how to choose the supports and advice with care. The moral encouragement from friends and family is nice, but if they are not entrepreneurs themselves, do take it with a grain of salt. That kind of free advice can cost you a lot in terms of your time or missed opportunities. So thank them with grace, and find other entrepreneurs and real pros for advice.

If you like this article, you might enjoy my eBook on spiritual entrepreneurship. Click here for free, immediate download

Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship, Part 2, Polish Your Niche

From passion to business ideas

So in Part 1 of this Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship series, you went inside to realize your passion. You made a list of things you love and why. That is your niche. (Image by Patrick J Lynch)

Starting a business is really simple. You now develop that niche to something people love to pay for. It doesn’t have to be something that EVERYONE wants to get. A long tail market is sufficient if the product or the service can be promoted on the internet.

So, in my case (again, I’m using my own real life experience as an example), I decided to become a life coach with my passion for personal development. I paid several thousand dollars for the professional training course. I set up a sales page on this Yes to Me blog about my programs. (The page is currently taken down.) Here is a post that I wrote in one of my marketing efforts.

Can you take failures and learn from them?

Starting a business is really simple. Note I didn’t say easy.

I failed completely as a life coach. In fact, it was worse than a failure. It was more like a sad stillbirth. It never really took off. Failures would mean something I did wrong in my practice or business development. In my case, I just got no paying clients.

Looking back, I can think of some reasons why I failed as life coach:

1. I did not market it well – I didn’t define my niche clearly and appropriately.
2. I did not make enough marketing efforts.
3. I gave up too quickly.
4. I am meant to do something else.

In all my honesty, I can’t say it’s because I don’t have the skills to be a successful coach. Again, if I had clients and they left me quickly or something, then I can assume this may be the case. But in my case, so few people really got to know me as a coach. So it’s more of a marketing problem than skill problem, I think.

Another potential problem is – well, by now I know quite a few life coaches, but not as many people who are hiring or have hired coaches. I myself didn’t have a coach before (I hired one this spring to summer when I realized this.) So, I wonder if my passion for personal development was polished enough to the point that people would love to pay for when I decided to do coaching?

More questions to contemplate to find your winning niche

Is your niche polished to the point that it is marketable? That is, is it something worth paying for?

If not, a few more questions you might want to ask yourself are:

• Are there services or products you gladly pay for and you wish to be the provider of? Can you become the provider? Don’t write off your interests too quickly as outrageous.
• Are there any qualities about yourself and your life that you perceive as your weakness? Are there service or products that can improve them, or can you think of some new services that can improve them? Can you provide them?

The reason you might want to check your “weakness” is that if you can see it as weakness, you are probably not too far from solutions. People who are truly clueless don’t even know their weaknesses.

While I was “searching for my soul” to define my new life path, I had the opportunity to have my Akashic Record read. I was so impressed that I decided to learn how to do it myself. This is when I was still thinking of becoming a life coach, and on the conscious level, I thought this was just one more thing I’m adding to my learning. One the deeper level, however, I must say I knew something . . .

I always knew words and ideas came from thin air when I wanted to write. And when I started to meditate daily last year (I had been meditating on and off for over twenty years or so, but I made a clear decision to do this daily after reading the Secret), I got the idea to move to Portland, Oregon, which I obliged. The relocation really opened up a lot of space within me and let me be myself. All these events were leading me to this psychic stuff . . .

So thanks to the wonderfully structured training my teacher gave me, I now offer Akashic Record Reading. It’s something I paid happily, so I know there are people who would pay for this service And it beautifully fits with my passion for personal development and my love of working with various people.

Polishing your niche is an ongoing effort

It’s not something you do once and for all to become an entrepreneur. You need to keep becoming a successful entrepreneur. I currently spend half my time learning more and developing my skills further. I can already offer accurate reading and make my clients happy, so possibly I can use the time to take in more clients to make more money, but I don’t think that is a wise approach.

Also, I think a lot how I want to develop my niche further. For example, do I want to keep this business to myself or do I want to partner up and carve out a bigger niche? I don’t have a written business plan – I prefer to keep things fluid at this time – but I do have ideas how to serve more clients.

Are you finding a niche you can market? Then read on to Part 3.

Related reading: Why I Couldn’t Become An Entrepreneur Earlier How I missed out the opportunities before. Learn from my mistakes and fears.

If you like this article, you might enjoy my eBook on spiritual entrepreneurship. Click here for free, immediate download

Making A Brand Out Of Adversity: Stephen Hopson

(Photo by Leefotos)

Become the next interviewee for the Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series!

This is the second post of the Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series. Before I introduce today’s great interviewee, however, allow me to report the surprise comment I received regarding the first interview. My intention for this interview series is to learn the insider stories of successful entrepreneurs that inform and inspire my readers. And Christine O’Kelly gave us such a story! When I read Nathalie’s comment, however, I realized I also created a potential goal for some aspiring entrepreneurs. Yes, I’d be honored to interview you when you become a successful entrepreneur! Stay around, learn whatever you need from me and other entrepreneurs, and make your dream come true. For me, this is like a miracle gift for my effort, to be able to offer something you can look forward to.

How can we turn adversity in life and in business to success?

Another miracle, a synchronicity, was taking place that day when I published Christine’s interview. I heard about Stephen Hopson at Andrea’s blog and emailed him earlier. He emailed me back just when I posted the interview and commented on Christine’s post for that day. Her post was about the lies we tell ourselves that effectively keep us broke, lazy, and stuck in where we are. So I disclosed one of my own lies, that public speaking is tough for me because I have accent. Christine commented back mentioning Stephen, who is a professional motivational speaker despite the fact he is deaf. So Stephen joined the discussion in her comment section. It was like the dots here and there in the big blogosphere came to connect at that miraculous moment.

Through that discussion (you really should check it out – Stephen almost took over Christine’s comment section), I learned how I can turn my perceived disadvantage to an advantage that sets me apart from the crowd. He said, “We can turn whatever so-called disadvantages that we might have and turn them into assets. Like my speaking despite being born deaf. I’d be crazy not to use that gift, right?” Can you believe this — he actually used the word “gift” for his disability. I was shocked. I’ve been writing about the importance of expressing ourselves in business, the “I Factor,” and yet this was a revelation for me. The result (one of it – more to come, of course) was my recent post, Is Becoming An Entrepreneur Harder Than Surviving In A Foreign Country?

So here we go, Stephen Hopson of Adversity University. Check out the video clip of his speaking demo, too. It includes the story of his spiritual awakening, which led him to quit his high-paying job on Wall Street.

1. Tell us a bit about your business and why you started it.

Obstacle Illusions is a LLC that was actually legalized in November of 2007 in an effort to turn my speaking and life coaching into a business platform to teach people who are ready to explore and overcome adversity because no one is immune from it – adversity does not discriminate. My services include fun and passionate presentations so that the audience can come to the conclusion that overcoming the impossible is truly possible if they have the heart to persevere. In essence, I teach people the power of transforming adversity into success.

2. What were the three biggest challenges when you were starting off as a new entrepreneur?

• Learning ways of getting my name out there, creating opportunities to be called upon to give powerful keynote presentations for organizations seeking inspiring speakers with a powerful message.
• Defining my target audience
• Defining and honing my message

3. And how did you work through these challenges?

There were several ways I went about doing this including but not limited to writing several articles, submitting stories for books like Chicken Soup for the College Soul: Inspiring and Humorous Stories About College, creating an Adversity University blog and networking with other speakers, bloggers, authors and entrepreneurs. The defining of my message was created through working and reworking a central message, eventually arriving at dealing with and overcoming adversity as my main theme for everyone has some form of adversity in their lives; therefore, it applies to everyone, regardless of who they are or where they’ve been in life. It’s a universal theme that touches everyone.

4. What is the best part of being an entrepreneur for you?

Having no one to report to, setting my own hours and doing what is best for me, rather than slaving away at the beck and call of an organization that might not allow me to pursue my life’s mission in the manner I was called by God to do.

5. Any advice for people who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap?

Those who take the risk and take a leap of faith in the unknown are usually rewarded immensely for their faith. Following your intuition and trusting your instincts are the best ways to move forward. Be open minded and let others help you but understand that ultimately the decision is yours to make. Only your inner spirit knows what’s right, not others. Be willing to make a stand for authenticity and you will be rewarded far beyond your wildest imagination. See obstacles as opportunities in disguise and know how to surrender, not give in. There’s a big difference between the two. Giving in is like giving up whereas surrendering the outcome is trusting that what’s meant to happen, will happen. Do what your heart asks of you and trust that you will be led to the right opportunities, the right people, the right path to take. Keep trying but don’t bang your head against the wall for that won’t serve you.

My Takeaway
Thank you, Stephen. I understand the challenge of marketing, and I am impressed he has created such a powerful brand for himself. He is truly a one-of-a-kind man who heightens our spirituality. And I promise I stop banging my head against the wall – my next door neighbor will be glad, too.

If you like this article, you might enjoy my eBook on spiritual entrepreneurship. Click here for free, immediate download