Is there value to building a community for the reluctant entrepreneur?

Community, support, networking, friends, peer groups. All different names for the structures we build or create around us to help us get our business off the ground. In this episode, we explore two sides of building community—how to start building if you don’t have it, and if you don’t believe this is necessary, the case to start investing in support from the beginning of your journey.

Diana shares her experience with rebuilding Hawthorne Union’s community after relocating. Jacen shares his experience working with clients who have support but are hesitant to ask for what they need.

In this episode we referenced:

·  “Many hands make light work,” is a classic English proverb.

· Hawthorne Union Resources

· An ICF Chapter, is a local gathering of professional coaches in major regions.

· Chamber of Commerce is a government entity that supports business owners, and in this episode, we refer to utilizing your local city chamber of commerce.

· SCORE is a non-profit that offers workshops and mentorship to small business owners.

· Jacen is an obliger in the personality model, Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies. 

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

How does a reluctant entrepreneur find their worth?

Love Odih Kumuyi comes back on the show to give us a taste of Unsiloed’s origin story. In this episode, we talk about the current state of DEI, how Love transitioned her “project” into her business, what she learned from the experience, and the realities of success.

As an attorney and Equity, Inclusion, and Justice scholar-practitioner, Love founded Unsiloed with a singular mission: To help organizations make psychological safety and human-rights part of everyday culture, for everyone. As a two-time immigrant, she understands firsthand the challenges of being 'othered' and is keen on using creating spaces that feel accessible. Formerly the Associate Dean at Cornell University, Love worked in dynamic capacities with corporate organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), U.S. Peace Corps, law firms, and universities across the globe. She’s passionate about driving systemic change with empathy, fostering learning, and facilitating dialogue — all in an effort to redefine human relations, promote inclusion, and build psychologically safe workplaces where people can thrive. She is an adjunct professor at New York University, a certified Psychological safety trainer and coach, mediator, and restorative justice practitioner.

In this episode we referenced:

· Love’s previous appearances on Season 1, Episode 16, and Season 2, Episode 2.

· The impact of the Buffalo Grocery Store shooting.

· You can connect with Love and her writings on LinkedIn.

· She also shared her email: [email protected]

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

How can facing fears help you with selling your business?

Jacen and Diana ran into fellow Hawthorne Union member David Malizia in Boston, and we turned on the mics to get his take on The Reluctant Entrepreneur. David is our resident sales expert and coach, and he shares some of his knowledge about the perception of sales to non-sales-minded business owners, how to price/value your product, and confidence building.

You can read more about David on the About page on Hawthorne Union’s website, and more about our Sales coaching and training programs here.

In this episode we referenced:

· David Malizia’s first appearance on Cross Street Coaching, Episode 11

· Sales may be considered one of the oldest professions, but what exactly was being sold is up for debate.

· We refer to elbow patches on blazers as elbow pads and shoulder pads, however, the rumor of it being back in style for 2022 is unconfirmed.

· Zig Ziglar’s quote, which we referenced in the last episode as well -- “Sales is the transfer of enthusiasm.”

· HubSpot’s Buyer Persona tools.

· The World’s Greatest Showman is a movie released in 2017.

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

Can we learn from Failure as much as we’d like?

Diana and I discuss what happens when The Reluctant Entrepreneur encounters failure, which is a very common entry point for entrepreneurs to start to utilize coaching as support. Most of our previous failure maps out how we internally relate to potential failure for our business endeavors. Our emotional connection to our products and our success further compound how we process and can prevent us from properly learning from failure.

How we talk about failure, or potential failure, is what causes us to play a zero sum game. We also don’t place as much value on the things we haven’t struggled to obtain even though we desire to avoid pain and discomfort.

In this episode we referenced:

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

What is it you actually do again?

We’re talking product-- or the output of your entrepreneur journey. What is it that you sell? We start with passion and then move into the marketability of your products or services. Passion for the reluctant entrepreneur falls into place when your product can provide a solution for a problem no one knew they had or didn’t know they could solve.

A lot of successful well-known products aren’t always the very first to market, it’s being able to bring their own personality or their take on it and allowing people to view it in a new light.

In this episode we referenced:

· Listen! Mentor Coaching for Coaches – a bite-sized mentor coaching book Diana and I collaborated on.

· Zig Ziglar’s quote, “Sales is the transfer of enthusiasm.”

· Hawthorne Union’s Continual Coach Education is an example product that fills a need but isn’t our most successful offering.

· Diana’s experience with big online retail, Chewy.com’s personalization in Customer Service vs the big Amazon.

· Ravelli tripods vs Amazon Basics

· TRX Straps legal battle against knock-off products

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

Money

We have a strange relationship with money, and there are plenty of factors that contribute to that including socially or culturally, on top of the usual suspects of gender and family history. Diana references a 2021 study on the current Gender Gap (The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion), and we talk about how confidence and the ability to ask for concessions could play a factor in the Reluctant Entrepreneur’s journey.

From the emotional ties that we have to the implications and narratives with amounts, often this holds us back from even analyzing base needs or a financial break-even number.  The second layer is looking beyond base needs, but the sustainment of the lifestyle that we want or currently have.

In this episode we referenced:

· The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion- Christine L. Exley & Judd B. Kessler

· Hawthorne Union Resources

· Diana’s episode of Money Talks – Authentic Coaching Academy (Youtube)

· Prince Charming Isn’t Coming – Barbara Stanny

· Eclectic Co, and the founders were on a previous Cross Street Coaching episode: Growth - Season 3, Episode 7.

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

The Big Risk or: How I Learned to Love the Reluctance in the Reluctant Entrepreneur.

As we continue our theme this season of the reluctant entrepreneur, we dive a little further into what makes entrepreneurship feel risky. There becomes a lot of power in examining how you view risk and the relationship you personally have to the different elements that create risks, such as income, judgment, safety, brand, and recognition. We also compare managing risk with a foundational coaching concept of “treating a client as resilient and whole.”

In this episode we referenced:

· Enneagram type 6 and 7

· Predictive Index

· Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or motivational model is a psychology concept summed up here: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: A Simple Summary - The World of Work Project

· The quote from Anaïs Nin is, “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

· Thomas Delauer is a coach and fitness YouTuber.

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

What is a Reluctant Entrepreneur?

Diana and I are credentialed professional coaches, and this season we’re talking about a specific flavor of business-- those of us who don’t fit into the traditional mold of being a business owner, which we are calling the reluctant entrepreneur. In this episode, we kick off our series, Diana shares where her idea came from her own experiences of starting Hawthorne Union, and what separates this from the common stereotypes of launching a business.

In this episode we referenced:

· Diana’s first appearance on Cross Street Coaching, Episode 10

· Jesse Tout and Paul Sanbar are fellow coaches and featured on the Hawthorne Union about page.

· Jesse was on Season 1, Episode 7 of Cross Street Coaching

· Paul was on Season 1, Episode 6 of Cross Street Coaching

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]

What does using education and experience to lead by example look like?

My guest today is Maddie Gupta, VP of Strategy at VaynerMedia, who comes on the show to talk about her journey as a double major in her industry, and a dual role as a Market Strategist and a leader. Maddie discusses the challenge of leadership in a young industry and how it is a little different than traditional corporate hierarchies.  Sometimes, this is a balance between forging new territory and solid leadership values, when the previous industry leadership models don't directly map on to the new way. She also shares some of her application of soft skills to move her team of creatives forward, and practical experience of the book, Radical Candor by Kim Scott, when she develops others to challenge ideas, even her own!

Maddie Gupta (or Madhurim) is a story-seeker and a storyteller - always on the lookout for ideas, insights, and inspiration. She has over 13 years of experience in the field of marketing and advertising strategy and has had the good fortune of working on iconic brands like P&G, J&J, L'Oreal, Pepsi, Cheetos, McDonald's, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Chase among others. She holds an M.A. in Media, Culture, and Communications ('15) from New York University where she also studied Human Rights, Transnational Feminism, and Marxist theories of Walter Benjamin just to round out the jagged edges of the corporate world. She has an MBA ('05) from MICA - Mudra Institute in Ahmedabad, India with a specialization in Brand Communications and BA with honors in English Literature ('03) from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, India

You can connect with Maddie on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhurim-gupta/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/_madhurim).

What is the emotional impact of moving from SME to Leader?

Mohamed Sharaf Eldin, PCC (https://eg.linkedin.com/in/msharafeldin) is a team and transformational coach operating out of Egypt and very involved with his local ICF chapter. Sharaf comes on the show to talk about leaving a lengthy telecom career to dedicate towards his passion of reach change and leadership. He explains his take on systemic coaching that he is bringing to the Middle East, a holistic view including leadership politics of putting multiple pieces of training, coaching, and group work together. Sharaf also outlines the common folly of leader growth, transitioning their skillset from a SME and using strong communication and conflict management as a leader.

Mohamed Sharaf Eldin is a thoughtful down to earth leader with a passion for changing the world. A prominent author of a hit at the time "The Sacred Bond" a manifesto of relationships. Sharaf is currently the Co-leader of Teams and Groups Coaching Community of Practice in ICF – a volunteer position where he feels he’s giving back to the community.

Sharaf has both the passion and the tools to help leaders and organizations in reaching their full potential in the most effective and productive manner adopting scientifically researched learning solutions that create an engaging and memorable impacting development experience.

You can keep in contact with Sharaf via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maksharafor Twitter and  Instagram: @maksharaf. The group he referenced, the Authentic Coach Academy has a website at http://authenticcoachingacademy.com

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I’m Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach’s point of view.

Contact: [email protected]