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

Alright, Danielle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

After the birth of my first (of 3) children, I knew that something about the way I worked was no longer going to work for me. I left my home before my newborn got up and came home to only complete bath, books, and bedtime. That wasn’t the kind of parent I wanted to be.

I tried working part-time hours – with part-time pay. And yet, my scope of work and results only grew post-baby. I was squishing 5 days of work into 3. For two consecutive years, my team (of 50+ full & part-time employees) achieved their best results ever.

When a respected colleague candidly shared that I’d “never be taken seriously or get promoted working a flexible or part-time schedule,” I knew I needed to blaze a different path. That was when I got the idea to start my own business, where I could make the rules, rather than be bound by someone else’s.

Like many female entrepreneurs, I didn’t feel ready though. So I fell into the common trap that I need “more” experience and skills, so I went back to graduate school – which essentially validated that I already had everything I needed, I just needed to figure out how to package it as a business and take action.

As I graduated, I had to make the decision though, play it safe with a “real” job or take a chance on my own business. I want to tell you that I took a chance on myself. But I didn’t. I took a job, even though my gut said, “This isn’t it. WTF are you doing?” Within 3 months, I knew I needed to change course – for a lot of reasons. So I quit that high profile job at a national nonprofit that everyone looked at as a marker of success.

When people think about taking a business from idea to execution, there are, of course, a lot of logistics to figure out. How do you set your business up? What do you offer and to whom? How do you get clients? How do you price? Those things have never been my problem. I can figure whatever I need to out through research, talking to others, testing out my ideas to see what works.

In retrospect, to go from idea to execution, I had to figure out how to unhook myself from what everyone in my field has traditionally considered to be successful. I had to feel comfortable navigating my own uncharted path and tuning out the people who didn’t get what I was doing. And a big piece of that came from asking myself, what did success really look like for me and creating a business in service of that vision.

What I needed to move beyond the idea phase was being able to say… I am no longer going to measure my success and my worth on someone else’s yard stick. I am going to define it on my own terms.

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

My business boils down to helping you work less and live more (without completely lowering the bar).

As a high-achiever myself, I know how easy it is to work more hours, at the expense of the rest of your life and your health. Once I became a parent, I knew the way I worked had to shift. I wanted to stop overworking, take better care of myself, and help others with that desire too. But I knew I didn’t want to totally give up on my career goals either. I have degrees from both the University of Chicago and Harvard and big dreams for my work in this world!

So my services focus on helping busy people navigate away from overworking with practical solutions and support through:

1) Individual & Group Career & Work-Life Balance Coaching

To stop overworking, you need to know your true priorities, examine your old patterns and adopt new mindsets, and learn simple strategies you can use when traditional work culture tells you to hustle harder and work more to succeed. (Did you know that there’s a productivity cliff at 55 hours? Any hours you work beyond that are actually counterproductive to your creativity and health!)

One of the reasons why I focus so much on the transition to parenthood in my work is because this is often when we want to change how we work! I help use parental leave planning as a forcing function and fresh start to help you WORK LESS. But even if you’re not a parent or have older kids, there’s usually a moment when you know – I have to make a change. I have to do something differently.

2) Organizational Leadership Consulting

My background is in Human Resources, Talent, and Leadership Development. Whether I’m talking to HR Leaders or Managers, there’s a recurring theme: their teams have too many demands on their time, too little capacity, and are dying under the weight of useless tasks – hello back-to-back meetings and 342 organizational priorities!

Together with organizational leaders, I help pinpoint what’s most important to move the needle in their business, clear away the extraneous and superfluous work (chatGPT your formal performance reviews, people), and help build flexible cultures (with specific indicators) that acknowledge that people have a full life outside of work.

I design and facilitate team retreats & learning experiences, offer 1-time workshops, and create leadership cohorts within and across organizations to cross-pollinate ideas and share problems of practice.

3) Group Coaching Program for new Solopreneurs

For people done living by someone else’s rules and looking to take the leap into solopreneurship, I created a group coaching program to make the process of starting your own business simpler and less lonely. It’s what I wished I had at the start of my own journey. It is possible to build a balanced business that works for your life without burning out or going broke.

I offer Solopreneurship Simplified: Launching a Balanced & Sustainable Coaching & Consulting Business in a Do Less Way twice per year – in February and September.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

My network! Don’t be afraid to share what you’re doing with others. Make it easy for them to refer you by drafting emails they can share with people they know too!

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I started, I thought I needed to have a Facebook page, an Instagram page, a LinkedIn presence, Twitter tweets, (TikTok came later!) Holy crap. It’s overwhelming.

Here’s my best advice for you… PICK ONE place where your people hang out and consistently share something of value there once per week.

People are astounded when I share that I only post on one main platform once a week. They feel like I’m always in their feed. You simply need to stay visible in the main places where people find you. And once a week is enough on LinkedIn.

It’s also worth noting that I’m part of a few communities outside of social where I share value – like Slack communities – where I network and get clients from too. So don’t feel like social is the only game in town. Go to the places where your people hang out and connect with them there! Then, track where your clients come from, and keep feeding those sources.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.workingparentsguide.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workingparentsguide/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-pickens-coach/