Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Abbie Mirata. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Abbie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
The most important key to becoming successful is defining success, as early as possible. And not what the world tells us success is, but what success really means to you. When we see all these stories of people who’ve worked like crazy and all of a sudden realize they want to be home more, they want to travel more, they want more time with their kids so they “walk away” from that corporate job……… it’s because you never knew what success was in the first place. Why did you ever need all that money or the title or the recognition if what you wanted was to engage with life more. I see teachers, restaurant servers, construction managers and all sorts of other “lower” or “blue collar” workers who have investment properties, go on vacations, hang out with friends and spend time with their families because from day one, they understood that success wasn’t in a paycheck or climbing a corporate ladder. Success was just being happy. Following a passion. Doing something you love because you love it no matter what it pays and then figuring out how to live within your means, save, and be grateful for the present moment rather than chasing a brass ring you won’t reach because your the one who keeps moving the target.
Define real success – picture the human you want to be in 10 years – not the job, not the paycheck, the human. What you may find once you really figure that out – you’re already there.
Abbie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I describe myself as an Intrapreneur. Currently, I own a brick and mortar business, I’m a consultant and coach, and I’m a Sr. Director of Learning and Development for a corporation! And yes – I sleep. That’s probably the biggest question that I get. Several years ago I got disenchanted with “corporate America” and like all aspiring Entrepreneurs, I quit. I found success, my income was fine, but I wasn’t happy. So I went “back to work”, but with an entirely new outlook. I have never found more joy or felt so aligned than right now.
As a coach through my Intrapreneur Project program – I help people either fall back in love with their corporate job by giving them the mindset and skillset to manage their reactions and emotions to the chaos that happens around them OR to give them the mindset and skillset to properly transition into the world of Entrepreneurship. Too often we jump with no parachute. My job is is to give my clients a new lens and way of looking at things. My motto is Change your words, change your lens, change your mindset, change your world. I help people leverage their existing situation, build the skills you’ll need to be an Entrepreneur and put them into practice before you just jump ship without a lifeboat. A byproduct of this coaching and training is the realization that you may be just fine where you are – you just need a new way to look at the world.
My hope is to keep passionate, driven, human centric leaders INSIDE corporate. We are losing great people rather than working towards helping people create change in themselves and in their organizations to influence change on what it means to be an employee and to be an organization.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My biggest pivot was a personal one, but had a huge effect on my ability to move forward and look differently at my business and my capabilities. As my son was nearing the end of 8th grade, he approached me with the request of going to live with his father for high school. The largest challenge in this – his dad lived 2000 miles away from us in Florida. I said yes – so began 4 long years of change, prioritization, challenge, time management and creative planning. This coincidentally began my journey of leaving my corporate job, starting my own business and all the things that came after.
I had to learn resilience, grace, gratitude, empathy and forgiveness. I had to completely change my mindset around what was important and what wasn’t. Choice were no longer hard ones – my son wanted me in Florida, everything stopped and I was there. Nothing was more important. I learned the real meaning of connection. I ended up with a strong bond with my son because we took nothing for granted and had to be so truly present and intentional. I learned we had a better relationship than people with a “traditional” family set up. We learned that days on calendars didn’t define holidays. We committed to never going 60 days without seeing each other and while that meant a lot of time on a plane for me – we never once missed our commitment. Happy ending – my son now is back in AZ living at home and going to college here! Big win for mom!
As I coach other professionals, lead my employees and broaden my business – I take all these skills and put them into play. I am in full control of my time and my commitments. I know that I am resilient and I’ve learned to trust in my gut and move forward with messy action. I was able to pivot in my career while dealing with all this because I knew that I could. Because if I could do this as a mother and come out on the other side. I could do anything and not be afraid of hard choices that may not make sense to others. I knew I could create a commitment and a plan and stick to it. And I knew that I could push the status quo of what others thought was right or normal and be successful doing it my way.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
In my coaching business, referrals and word of mouth. Funny enough – in my brick and mortar – very similar. I really tried social media. But I’m not a content creator, I’m not a heavy user of social media myself – so I struggle to make the time and feel relevant in producing stories, posts, ads, etc…… I also feel like my ideal client – spends very little time there anyways and doesn’t find credibility in the size of a following or all influencers.
For our physical business – being out and part of the real community is where we have found the most success. Dropping off samples, participating in community events, donations and volunteer work. We teach our staff to truly care about our customers and do the right thing and we let our customers then speak for us.
For my coaching/speaking business – I do utilize LinkedIn quite heavily, definitely more so than any other social platform. But I’ve grown my coaching business quite a bit simply through referrals and connections. The truth is, by defining success the correct way and not feeling this overwhelming need to “scale quickly” but focus more on doing what I love with only people who light me up – I’ve easily been able to attract not just new clients, but the right new clients. I have people who recommend me, people who reach out after hearing me speak, people who simply engage with me via posts and eventually the conversation naturally leads to a new coaching client. I had to learn to turn off all the noise, all the social media and all the conditioning telling me how I should run my business and start trusting my intuition and find a process that worked for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.abbiemirata.com
- Instagram: @abbiemirata
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbie-mirata-2020289/
Image Credits
Emily Kim