We recently connected with Alice Shikina and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alice thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

I absolutely do take vacations! I think rest and recharge is very important when you run your own business. As entrepreneurs, we work very hard. Most times, we work around the clock and even over the weekends. It is important to recharge, since we work so hard. I try to take multiple short trips throughout the year. My ideal is to take a 3-day trip every other month. This year, I took a one-week vacation to Vancouver to see my family. Then, I traveled to Ohio for two weeks and did some work while there. Now, I am leaving to go to San Diego for three days and I have another 2-4 trips before this year is out. Most of my trips are within 2-3 hours’ of driving and I do still do some work, but I try to get away completely from work on some days as well.

Alice, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a mediator and negotiation coach. I mediate several different types of conflict: divorce, workplace conflict, landlord/tenant cases, personal injury, probate and family conflicts. I also coach people who either have an acute coaching need: divorce, asking for a promotion or raise, hiring, etc., or professionals who want to get more out of their businesses by investing in themselves. I run a small group coaching program for 8-weeks, where we role-play difficult conversations and closing of sales. It is so much fun!

The main problem I solve for my mediation clients is that I help them resolve their conflicts. People come to me, when they are unable to resolve the problem on their own. Communication is no longer happening. When I join in, I create space for communication to occur and more importantly, for LISTENING to occur. With deeper listening, comes greater understanding. When parties begin to understand one another, they can work together to get to a resolution.

I am unique as a mediator, because my background is in theatre and not law. By studying acting and getting a degree in acting, I am very good at reading the room, understanding human emotion and how to affect the emotions of others. I am also very good at navigating through anger. I can help bring calmness and peace into the room, even when tensions are running high.

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

I wasn’t always a negotiation coach, but I definitely thought like a negotiator years before it became my career choice. I once worked for a company that decided to lay off everyone in the CA office, and relocate and rehire everyone in PA. At that time, I was already working as a graphic designer for a remote client. After I got my severance offer, I thought about why it would behoove the company to keep me as an employee. I prepared my arguments: 1. I could work from home, thus saving the company money.
2. I was already working remotely with the client, so nothing would change. They would not have to train a new person.
3. The client loved working with me, so it would be a seamless transition.
The new manager declined my offer to work remotely. I spoke with the VP and got his take. He thought it was a great idea, but wanted to defer to my manager, who declined a second time.
I spoke with the client, who agreed to go to bat for me. I also spoke to another VP at the company who valued my work. After all these people spoke on my behalf, the manager finally agreed to a 3-month trial period. Although I was not initially thrilled to get such a short trial period, my remote position did end up lasting for eight years, so I consider it a huge win. I was able to take care of my small children while working from home!

Have you ever had to pivot?

As a mediator, it is difficult to get clients via word of mouth. For two years, I tried networking to find clients. I kept coming up empty-handed. It finally dawned on me that most people do not know that their friends or family members are looking for a mediator. Since I enjoyed networking, I had to think about how to pivot my business slightly in order to make networking productive for my business. I started taking negotiation classes and I also watched and learned during my mediations. Shortly thereafter, I added negotiation coaching to my services. I finally started getting referrals during my networking meetings. It became a substantial part of my business and it was something I really enjoyed doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: ShikinaMediation.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shikinamediation
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceshikina/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdyJNi_Ake9bk2u1_dbVrhg
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/shikina-mediation-and-arbitration-oakland