We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rochelle Seltzer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rochelle, thanks for joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Having started my professional life in graphic design, I founded my design and marketing firm, Seltzer, and owned it for 27 years. I was proud of my team and our work, and the impact of our work for our clients. When the recession hit in 2009, however, I was under a lot of pressure to keep my team employed. That’s when I found myself sitting across a table from a business coach who specialized in working with creative firms. I had never had a coach before, but my gut told me I would benefit from help.

I expected help with marketing and sales — which I got. The surprise was that most of the coaching was focused on me! How did I lead my team? How did I lead my clients? Why wasn’t I visible in our marketing? And as I looked at all of these aspects of my life, I saw many ways I was living small — I was not fully trusting myself, I second-guessed my decisions, I was not making bold moves. And, I gradually came to an important realization: I no longer loved the work I was doing.

I decided to sell my business, even before I knew what I was going to do next. I trusted that I would find my way. And what happened was something I never foresaw.

Another teacher showed up — an expert in creativity. My shameful secret was that I was an award-winning designer, but I was unable to create to express myself. And I knew in my heart that that was something I needed to figure out.

I took a 2-year deep-dive into studying and training with that teacher, and was blown away by all I learned. I created a coaching practice based on all of it, and named it Creative Core Coaching. In time, I wrote my book, Live Big: A Manifesto for a Creative Life, and started my speaking career, too.

My mission is to help other accomplished women to stop living small, learn to tap the creativity inside them, and create the lives they yearn for — to Live Big.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My mission is to help women everywhere understand the transformation power of creativity, understand that they are filled with creativity, and that they can tap and accelerate that rich resource.

My coaching is focused on helping accomplished women, typically in their 40s to 60s, who may be at a crossroads, or figuring out what’s next, or know there’s more to life than the way they are living now, or want to get to the next level in their work, or feel stuck in their lives.

The Creative Core Coaching approach I developed is based on guiding clients to open creative channels that connect them to their hearts and deep intuitive knowledge. When they get to know themselves as never before, their deep desires become clear. They build new levels of confidence and set a course to create the truly fulfilling lives they yearn for.

The first step for many clients is experiencing a workshop or attending one of my signature retreats. Many then engage in continued coaching. Others prefer private coaching from the start. I also offer workshops and programs designed for groups of women in organizations — typically Women’s Affinity Groups or other ERG programs.

This, my second career, is the most fulfilling work I have ever done.

Seeing the ways women create new business or restructure their businesses to be more profitable and make them happier; lead at higher levels, including reaching CEO; show up powerfully in their relationships,; navigate big changes; and create futures they love, is tremendously rewarding.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Looking back, I see that the most significant lesson I learned was to get help. I had to unlearn the idea that doing everything myself was the only way to live and work.

My belief that I had to do everything myself came from my father. He was an immigrant, and fiercely proud of the life and business he built on his own. His message to me was that if you are smart enough and work hard enough you will succeed on your own. What I took from that message was that asking for help would showed I was weak and unable to succeed with my own hard work and intelligence.

So rather than feel that shame, I muscled through and never asked for help in my business. I see now that seeking out advisors, coaches, and other expert help early on would have made a world of difference. It was not until the recession hit, and the universe sat me down in front of a business coach, that I ever invested in help.

That decision changed the course of my life! Ever since hiring my first coach, I reach out for help routinely. I have several great coaches. I hire experts to do things I don’t know how to do or don’t like doing. I especially love getting help with things I am not able to do as well or as fast as someone else! This all enabled me to build my business faster than I ever imagined. And it provides me with time to do things that enrich me.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

While I absolutely love the work I do now, coaching and being an author and a speaker, I have no regrets that I started out in the field of design, branding and marketing.

Having graduated college with a BFA, becoming a professional designer was exciting. I worked in educational publishing, at a science museum, and in an ad agency before deciding to start and build my own design firm.

Although I decided to sell my business after 27 years, when I realized the work was no longer lighting me up, I am grateful for having learned so much along the way and for all of the professional connections I made.

I believe that everything we do as we move through life provides insight and knowledge that is meaningful. I use much of what I learned in my work now. I am delighted to be able to bring my insights and experience to clients who are building businesses or grappling with questions I have faced.

Rather than regret that it took me so long to find the work I most love doing, I am grateful for the path I took.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rochelleseltzer.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seltzerrochelle/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rochelle-seltzer-coach/