Lara Galloway, Mom Biz Coach

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As a self proclaimed, fiercely independent, ambitious, and very satisfied IBM executive, Lara Galloway experienced a values shift that led to a new career. Living the life of a successful, double income, no-kids couple, Lara never envisioned herself with children. She had all the accoutrements of a corporate position plus the freedom to travel and lead a jet set existence – then life changed. She began to consider what she wanted her life to look like at age 50, 60 and beyond.  It was then that she and her husband made the choice to have kids and she says “…it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Prioritizing What You Value

Lara now knows from experience how hard it is to create harmony in a mother’s life. She also knows that moms often sacrifice their own needs and desires for the sake of their children putting their own lives on hold for the future.  So this mom on a mission dedicated a new chapter in her career life to helping mom entrepreneurs earn more money doing what they love, while taking care of their number one priority – their families!

She became a certified life coach and combined her business acumen with her new coaching skills to create a community and a tremendous resource for women. Dedicated to helping others succeed, Lara knows that she is not alone as a mom entrepreneur. She tapped into a powerful and growing network of women and created her business: MomBizCoach.

When I spoke to Lara her energy and enthusiasm was infectious. She is truly passionate about supporting moms who choose to be in business as a lifestyle choice. Now a successful blogger and radio show host, Lara’s network has a wide reaching territory including Canada where she currently lives with her husband and three children.

Clarify Goals and Create Harmony

Her coaching and consulting services are geared toward creating harmony for moms that also want to be successful in their business. Lara helps her clients clarify goals, develop a plan of action, and provide them with accountability and support. She customizes a personal development strategy that plays to your strengths, attitudes, and habits to work towards personalized success.

Lara’s coaching approach is comprehensive and includes:

• Taking your business idea from concept to reality
• Personal branding, marketing, and networking
• Making the most of Social Media resources
• Creating a wealth plan and budgeting for it
• Teaching you to “get out of your own way” and sell yourself
• Setting fees and accepting them

Lara tapped into her transferable skills and knew the importance of relying on her former career experiences to propel her forward in her new business venture.  One of the best things she learned from her days at IBM was customer service. She understood the value of returning calls and emails in a timely manner, and how to set (and meet or exceed) customer expectations.

Just Figure it Out!

Lara learned that she can learn how to do just about anything. The start of her career at IBM was working in Public Relations, she then moved into Education and Training in a consulting role, and finally wound up in executive-level sales and project management doing e-business for the automotive industry. She admits to knowing nothing about any part of that last role before she got the promotion, but within a few months was amazed at the new techno-language she was speaking and the e-commerce concepts she now understood.

“So I don’t get hung up anymore on not knowing how to do something. I just go figure it out by doing it. I apply this skill almost daily in my role as mom, entrepreneur, business coach, life coach, and marketing mentor to my clients.”

But what about the steps in-between launching a business and achieving success and financial stability? Lara is entering her sixth year of coaching. When she first started out as a coach, she was all about coaching and had no real interest in or knowledge of how to run a business. She struggled to find new clients, coached only one or two clients at a time and made hardly any money, which was mostly fine since she didn’t have any goals around making money. It was clear to her that she needed the stimulation, challenge, connections with inspiring people and the opportunity to “shine her light” and share her gifts more than she needed the money. Her work fulfilled her ambition, passion, talents, purpose and was an outlet for her creativity that she needed to balance her role as a mom. Then, Lara had an epiphany:

“About a year and a half ago, I made some big changes and got serious about running a business. I realized, to my surprise, that I was an entrepreneur, and I started studying everything I could about entrepreneurship, small businesses,marketing, being a solopreneur, etc.  I created my new brand/identity as the Mom Biz Coach, targeting a  narrower niche of mom entrepreneurs. This focus has completely changed my ability to attract clients (rather than me having to go out and find them like I did before), and as a result, I’ve made more this year in six months than I did in the last three years put together. I have an automated sales/marketing process that keeps my pipeline full of clients and is causing me to consider alternative methods of delivering what I do so that I can manage all of the people who are ready to work with me. It’s so awesome!!!”

You Can Have It All…Once You Know What You Want

In retrospect, knowing then what she knows now, Lara would have worked with a business coach to figure out her niche, her ideal clients, and how to craft her services as solutions to her clients’ problems. Lara shared:

“…I wasted three solid years trying to explain to people what coaching is, and then tried to sell them coaching. I had no real understanding of how I was pushing myself, my thoughts and my great ideas onto other people. It was a sales model that just didn’t work. I wish someone had told me back in 2005 how to focus on my clients. I also wasted a lot of time not setting the proper boundaries around my work time, my family time and me.  I felt guilty about wanting to work and therefore only fit work in when nobody else needed me (i.e. when the kids were napping, sleeping, watching TV, playing outside, etc.).  I also built up a lot of resentment because I wasn’t making my needs and wants a priority, so I blamed my husband and my kids (mostly only in my mind) for my unhappiness back then.”

Starting a new career is a journey and Lara’s experience shows us some common growing pains and pitfalls. In time, she figured it out and is now thriving in her own business and able to help other moms with entrepreneurial aspirations. For those who think you can’t have it all – a great career plus the opportunity to prioritize your family – you have never met Lara Galloway. Explore the possibilities with this mom entrepreneur and design your customized world!

Lara’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Notice your definition of success – does it fit you? Create your own definition of success and work towards achieving that unique reality.
• Check in regularly with a coach or mentor who can keep your grounded and give you honest and supportive feedback and inspiration.
• Whatever you believe is true so choose what you believe carefully. No matter what, believe in yourself!
• Be clear that this is your life and you are in control.
• Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Quote:

“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.” Charlotte Whitton

Resources:

Five minute coaching MOMents on video www.youtube.com/mombizcoach

Talk Radio www.blogtalkradio.com/MomBizCoach

MomBizCoach http://www.mombizcoach.com