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

Christine, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I’ve been asked this before and I probably I went against practical advice. It’s too long. It’s not completely obvious what I do. It may sound a little silly to some. And I considered changing it for all these reasons, but I chose a name that made me happy.

That was really the bottom line. I was going to have to look at it, see the logo all the time, and I went with something that spoke to me and resonated with the energy I think I put out in the world.

Paper Doll Communication doesn’t scream coaching and training but for me communication is at the core of all our relationships, personally and professionally, so having the word ‘communication’ in there was important. I am a huge paper person. I print way too much still! But I really believe in the power of putting things on paper–our ideas, our goals. All this swirled into the name.

Paper dolls were a favorite of mine when I was little. When I think about paper dolls, I think about patterns, simple joys, and the many layers of a person. And it reminds me that we are all connected, like a paper doll chain.
My grandparents called us “doll,” “doll baby,” and “baby doll,” so for me “doll” is a term of endearment. On my business card it says, “Hey, Doll!” and people love it! Despite how “unprofessional” or unexpected my business’s name may sound, it has a joy to it, and it sparks with the right people. It tells them something intuitively about who I am. I am confident about what I bring to the table professionally and this shows my openness, and my soft, feminine side, which is one of my strengths.

It was an asset when I would promote my services at in-person events. Women always wanted to know what it was about and were attracted to the logo. Had  I had a big sign that said, “Horstman Consulting” or “Life/Career Coaching,” I bet most of them would have walked on by.

I chose the title of my book  Deal with It, Doll! Coaching Yourself Through Crisis, to be in alignment with my company name and add just a little more spark of sass. I love that my cover designer drew from Rosie the Riveter to inspire female empowerment and can-do gumption.

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?

I am an author, career and life coach, and corporate trainer. I spent many years as a general manager in several different industries and my favorites parts of the job were staff development–hiring, training, and developing new managers. The training that I do now focuses on emotional intelligence, communication, and soft skills. Soft skills are the key to success no matter what you do.

I always joke that I work with people from 15 to 50+ to help them figure out who they want to be when they grow up. My private coaching clients come to me to gain clarity around their strengths and their goals so they can articulate who they are and what they want with confidence. For teens, that’s learning how to name their strengths, explore their interests, and determine potential majors to explore. For adults, we spend a lot of time on positioning and strategy and, often, exploring what’s holding them back.

I’m playful, intuitive, and empathetic by nature, but I bring my sales and strategic mindset and experience to my coaching, and I think my clients really appreciate that balance. The feedback I get the most from both coaching clients and training attendees is my knack for wording–of knowing what to say and how to say it and empowering them to do the same.

During the pandemic I decided to write a book and share more of the lessons I’ve learned as a coach and through my journey with chronic illness. My business tagline is “personal development, professional support” and I wanted to share more about who I am and why I really understand what it takes to be intentional, develop resilience, and the process of reinventing your life when the going gets tough.

“Deal with It, Doll! Coaching Yourself Through Crisis” has been well received and I’ve enjoyed sharing about it on a variety of podcasts and speaking on the topics of “What’s Essential,” developing resilience, self-care, and work-life balance. The book focuses on uncovering what is essential to each of us in order to thrive and be successful.

Coping with one health crisis after another–cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and, most recently, long COVID–has equipped me with a toolbox for coping with stress and change. My hope is that “Deal with It, Doll!” helps others do the same.

Clarity can be the gift of crisis. Crises, both big and small, highlight what’s most important. They make what’s essential more obvious. Ideally though, we’re building our resilience and toolbox as we navigate the natural shifts and changes so that when life throws us a curveball–and it will!–we’re better equipped to handle it.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Oh my gosh, everything about my life now is about having to pivot. My chronic illness made it hard to work for someone else. My body was so unpredictable. I have several autoimmune issues and there were time periods when I would wake up and I couldn’t move. I still don’t know how I may feel one day to the next, but I’ve learned to live with it and manage it better because I did pivot both professionally and personally.

Chronic illness is super challenging professionally. There’s so much time spent managing your health and going to appointments, let alone all the actual sick days. When I first decided to go on my own it was after a disappointing experience where I was promised flexibility. I kept trying to put myself back into the box of before I got sick. Doing the jobs I had done before, in an environment like I had been in before. Scaling someone else’s business. Going into an office most days. And my health was getting worse.

I finally took a big step back and some downtime to reassess and realized I could still do what I loved and was good at, but I needed to flip it and focus on helping individuals scale and create control over my own schedule. The pandemic was a blessing in disguise for me because working virtually is so much easier on my body. I did most of my coaching and some of my workshops/trainings virtually, but with the pandemic that became 100% of the time and I was able to work more.

But even before the pandemic, my husband and I kept talking about what was working and what wasn’t as I tried to navigate work, home, and my health. We pivoted as a family as well and that has been hugely supportive for my professional life. We downsized our house, we moved back to a community where our son had more support and independence, we shifted household responsibilities so that I did fewer physically taxing tasks.

I share a lot about my journey of embracing my “new normal” while still hanging onto my core self and identity in my book, “Deal with It, Doll!” What I learned is that the antidote to resistance is acceptance. Once you accept where you are, you can move through it, past it, and come up with the right solutions.

I had to stop thinking in the back of my mind that when I was better, life would get easier. I had to build a life around the idea that this may be the best it’s going to be now, and it may even get worse. The magical thing that may give others hope, is that once I embraced it–once I built from reality and acceptance, not longing for the past and hoping for the future–I was gifted with more than I could have expected.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

To stop freaking out about social media. Like so many people, I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I found it overwhelming and stressful trying to learn how to engage and grow that way. I finally got back to basics. I started my career in sales and was a sales manager for years. I know how to sell. I focused my time on in-person events and opportunities to connect with people face-to-face. I emailed and called people. I did it the old-fashioned way.

I try to maintain a presence on social media. For me it’s a great way to stay connected to people and every now and then I am surprised by the followers I have attracted and who are engaged with my content. It’s really nice, but mostly it’s a way for those who have heard me speak, attended a training, or I met at a networking event, to stay in touch and continue to learn about me and my work.

Social media also helps with referrals from my personal network. I get messages all the time from people saying that they need help with a resume, or want to return to work after being home, or they reach out on behalf of their child who is graduating, and they always say something like, “Isn’t that what you do?” It’s a good reminder that you have to share and put yourself out there to stay on your network’s radar, but, again, for me, social media is more of a reinforcer of my in-person, personal relationships.

The other recommendation I have is strategic, thoughtful pro bono work. Sharing our talents is a calling and I think it is the right thing to do. When you share your talents wholeheartedly, I believe that always comes back to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://paperdollcommunication.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris.horstman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paperdollcommunication/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-horstman-a2203278/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_KOJXqkACsiE52amkZGBLQ

Image Credits
Rosa Poetschke Photography Wayfarist Media