We recently connected with Ali McColl and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ali , thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

The short answer is yes I am happier as a business owner then I was as an employee! But the long answer is that this is not my answer every single day, because some days are really really hard as a business owner. On those hard days I do think about what it would be like to have a regular job. The first few months of 2023 I was in a major life pivot and it made my business feel stale. I had to really think about if I was going to go look for a job or push forward in my business. I pushed forward in a new way that allowed me to find more energy and flow than if I would have required my business to stay how it had been. This included a name change + rebrand which can be scary as a small business but it has proven to be the right thing to do. I firmly believe the more fluid, intuitive, and curious we are as small business owners, the more fun it gets to be.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began life coaching in 2020 when my then boyfriend, now husband, began to build a coffee shop and I was inspired to step into entrepreneurship myself. At the time I was working in the field of ABA therapy, had always been interested in human psychology and had been on a healing journey of my own the past few years. I went to a retreat for creative entrepreneurs even though I wasn’t one yet, and signed up for the first coaching certification I could find. I immediately started serving clients that same year and within 6 months was able to leave my full time job because I had replaced my full time income.

By the beginning of the following year I had expanded into business coaching, running my successful coaching business online and having a wealth of knowledge absorbed from the brick and mortar coffee shop. This eventually led to me being more passionate about supporting people in their business and creative endeavors over life coaching, which is why I switched this year to full business coaching, including the name change + rebrand.

What really sets me apart from other online coaches is I have experience with both online businesses and brick and mortar. This allows me to use real systems + strategies that many online coaches have never worked with. I also incorporate much of my life coaching foundation including nervous system regulation, human design work, and goal setting to set those who work with me up for success.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

This is a fun one because my business partner is now my husband and we definitely met in a way that makes everyone say “aw”. We literally met in a coffee shop when he was a manager and I was simply a regular, super cute now that we own coffee shops together! We like to say we met in a coffee shop, fell in love in coffee shops, got engaged in the one we met, and now build them together. We started as business partners in our first coffee shop Little Lunch before we were even engaged and since then have created an S-Corp that houses all the businesses we build together. Fun fact, our S-corp is named after our cats because it’s the neutral ground between the coffee consulting he does and the business consulting I do.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

A core value of mine in business has always been embodiment. Ensuring I am practicing what I preach as a coach. As business owners we have power and we affect the lives of many, that is why being authentically embodied is always number one. I am transparent about it in the good and tough times, and it allows others to feel safe with me and thus, gives me the reputation of being an ethical coach & consultant you can trust. My partner embodies the same, so whether you meet us in a coffee shop or come across our businesses online this carries through in everything we put our hands on. A lot of pride is taken in that, because many business owners fear transparency. Instead it is something we build not only our entire business but lives on. A major differentiating factor in the industry!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @alimccollcoaching

Image Credits
Emily Alice, Marissa Vickers, Jen Yingyi