We recently connected with Andrea Emerson and have shared our conversation below.
Andrea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
When I found out I was pregnant with my second child I noticed the impending change in my family life was mirrored by a desire to make a change in my professional life. I felt stuck in my non-profit management role where I was praised for my effective team leadership and people skills, but couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that it was not the work I really wanted to be doing. I remember sharing my news with my best friend and also telling her I hoped I was carrying twins so that I could leave my job.
“Why would you need to have twins in order to leave this job?” she asked.
Her question clarified what I hadn’t been able to clarify on my own yet: I wanted something external and somewhat out of my control to force my decision. It felt too scary and vulnerable to admit that I wanted to do different work and then to figure out how to achieve that.
In hindsight, this launched me into a journey of paying attention to what I wanted professionally and pursuing what I really wanted to be doing. Soon after I was nominated for an executive leadership development cohort for women in my organization. The experience helped me immensely and fueled a desire to create learning opportunities for others. I negotiated for a training and development role within my organization, which was a welcome change, but as I kept paying attention to my professional desires I knew a bigger risk was in front of me: leaving my in-house training role to find ways to provide leadership and professional development to a broader clientele. It took a bit longer for my to work up the courage to make this larger leap, but thanks to the encouragement of a mentor I decided to launch my own leadership coaching and consulting business in August 2020.
I’m now in my fourth year in business and I continue to learn through the ups and downs of being self-employed. On the tough days, what keeps me going is knowing that the journey to listen to myself has been worth it and I can’t imagine returning to a role where I’d have to ask someone else to approve my vacation time! And on the days when I get to listen to a client celebrate their wins, or facilitate a team learning process where participants are open and responsive, I am reminded what an honor it is to do this kind of people-centered work.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I made my career pivot into leadership coaching and consulting because I believe when leaders are connected to their authentic selves and their values, they are able to foster healthy and productive connections with those they lead. It’s a key element in shifting an organizational culture. For me that work takes on a variety of forms, from coaching an individual leader or team, to facilitating workshops and cohorts that empower rising leaders to influence their own teams effectively out of their core values. I help clients create learning experiences that can address the people and culture issues in their organization that keep them up at night. I’m most proud of customizing my workshop and cohort offerings to truly meet the needs of my clients. I want potential clients to know that investing in leaders and organizational culture is always worth it because the news cycle is littered with examples of leaders and orgs behaving badly and what that costs.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
My best sources of new clients has been sharing what I’m doing with contacts and asking for introductions. I’ve also had a “yes, and..” approach in that if someone has approached me about a project, I’ve been open to it even if it’s outside of my comfort zone. I’ve worked to find ways to include my areas of expertise in the project and the result has been learning and growth for me, as well as engaging and dynamic trainings and workshops for my clients.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Just a couple of months after launching my business and informing my employer that I leaving my position to pursue leadership coaching and consulting full-time, I found out that a colleague who had verbally offered me a role on a project ended up offering the work to a mutual colleague. The most difficult part was that this was done without any communication with me and I found out when our mutual colleague excitedly announced new work he was a part of and I immediately realized it was the work that I had been offered.
It felt like a devastating blow so early in my business. After taking some time to process what I had experienced, I knew the part I could control going forward was to reach out to other colleagues and inquire about opportunities to partner with them. every single one of the people I reached out scheduled a call with me and I’ve gone on to partner with all of them in some capacity.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fullpalettecoaching.com
- Instagram: @fullpalettecoaching
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-emerson/
Image Credits
Becca Blevins