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

Steven, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Day to day the world can seem like a tough place, but there’s also so much kindness in the world and we think talking about that kindness helps spread it and make the world a nicer, kinder place. Can you share a story of a time when someone did something really kind for you?

Connecting with people, new and old, has always been something I have enjoyed and not shied away from. I learned from a young age that people can come and go in our lives with the relationships lasting a short amount of time or a lifetime. No matter the length, the relationships serve a purpose and teach us something.

After I left Corporate America to start my own company, it was interesting who was supportive in my new adventure and who was not. As you mentally plan out your path forward you think about your network and how their support can help accelerate your brand awareness. My most intimate circle of friends who I saw or spoke to weekly were obviously amazing cheerleaders, however that next ring of friends and co-workers who I assumed would be very supportive, was where a large percentage completely disappeared, and the silence was deafening.

I had to let that disappoint go in order to keep moving forward with this new company, that I am so passionate about. It was in this space that one of the nicest and most unexpected things happened.

In the midst of my launch and posting on LinkedIn and Facebook, a dear high school friend reached out and said she had been following my launch on social media and was excited about what I was creating. Mind you, we hadn’t really spoken much since high school, except for the occasional Facebook likes on our respective pages.

Even with so much time between our last visit, she said she was going to recommend me for a guest speaker opportunity at her place of employment. Being a new business owner, an opportunity to speak and practice your craft while getting paid, is GOLD. My friend submitted my information, the person in charge of selection called me, I submitted a bid, and I was SELECTED!.  

A person I had not spoken to in over 20 years was kind of enough to think about me for an opportunity that allowed me to do something I love. That is lead a group of people in an engaging conversation to help them recognize the power of understanding and utilizing their strengths at work.

It was a great lesson and reminder that how we impact other people can have a lasting impression, and no matter how long it has been since you spoke, an earlier positive impact can manifest positive things any time later in life. While I did find disappointment with a handful of people, I realized that my love of making connections means there are a lot more people out there supporting me on my new adventure than I previously imagined.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

After leaving a 22-year career in the consulting industry, I made the decision to get my coaching certifications so I could help leaders and teams who are facing adversity and not meeting their goals. As a leader in my corporate life, the thing I enjoyed the most was helping people recognize their strengths so they could find creative ways to solve their problems.

As a coach, I get to help individual leaders who are struggling with mid or late career transitions, who are wanting to prevent or are already experiencing burnout, struggling to find joy in their success, or that their values/purpose are misaligned with their current path. Utilizing tools and methods, I get to be a part of their self-awareness journey as they discover the answers on how to move forward within themselves.

With teams, I get to breakdown why results are not being met by tapping into the areas of strengths, communication styles, and their levels of trust, conflict, commitment and accountability. These are run through interactive workshops after receiving baseline information from qualified assessments.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2019, I fell to floor in my hotel room with what I thought was a heart attack. I laid paralyzed on the floor for 3 hours before I could finally move again. After speaking with medical professionals, I learned I had suffered a major panic attack, which can mirror the symptoms of a heart attack.

I soon found out I was dealing with anxiety and depression due to severe burnout from work. For many years I pushed the feelings away, but my body finally said, “ENOUGH”! It was a wakeup call to make some important changes in my life.

With the help of my amazing therapist and a coach, I learned to identify and articulate my values, advocate for myself by setting and honoring clear boundaries, and making time for the things that bring me joy.

Over the years I had created rules, some clearly real in the industry that I worked in and some self-inflicted, that lead to the burnout. I worked in an environment where saying “no” to additional work was considered career-limiting, being “available” at all hours and on vacation was the norm, and being vulnerable was either considered a weakness or brave.

With my confidence restored in what I was willing to do and not do, it made navigating work and life much easier.
Even if that meant facing known consequences, I owned the decision and because of that I was comfortable with whatever would come next.

It is because of my rise back up that I had the confidence to start my own company, playing by the rules that suited my life, my well-being, and my purpose.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Starting my own company was a major pivot from the collaboration and back office support I had at a major consulting company.

First, there was no one else but me to do all of the tasks. I became the person talking with legal while operating as the founder, the accounting department, the sales team, the marketing team, operations lead, customer service, etc…

While in my leadership role at the consulting firm, I had people in each of those roles to collaborate with, who owned major tasks to help move things along.

Taking on all of these roles at first was eye-opening and at times difficult. As I started to get steady income I began to look at where spending my time was most important and where it was taking away from the opportunity to grow.

I am not an accountant and have no desire to be one. That was the first thing to be taken off my plate. Through a referral from a friend, I enlisted a firm that helps manage the accounting responsibility for small companies and entrepreneurs. This freed me up to do more of the creative work, sales work, and delivery of services.

While the transition was very scary at first, I have learned to be adaptable and offload tasks when it is appropriate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.buildyouralliance.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-urban-buildyouralliance

Image Credits

James Edward Photography