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

Hi Dawn, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I am in the business of Coaching & Speaking. I do this through writing, teaching, small group and 1:1 coaching. In the coaching industry the focus is quite often getting people to hit a certain goal. Most people believe that if they hit a certain goal that they will then feel successful. This just is not true. We can make all of the plans we want but sometimes life has other plans. Instead I teach and empower women to know what to do when things are not going the way they want. I encourage women to build up and fortify themselves internally. If you are strong in mind, soul and spirit, no matter what life throws your way you will be able to handle it. Effort matters and starting over is okay. As a coach I do not believe that we should mislead people to tell them that we can guarantee that they will hit a certain goal with our guidance. We should not make those types of guarantees. It is more important to help them grow. Personal growth brings so much more and spills over into every area of an individuals life. Instead of me just helping you to start a business, why don’t I help you learn how to persevere? That way when the business gets hard you will still keep going. Otherwise you may just start the business and not go much further than that. The goal should not just be starting the business but to build it and to keep going no matter what. The transferable skill of persevering will serve in so many other areas of their life. Marriage, health goals, financial goals and so much more.

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 am by definition a late bloomer. I say that proudly. I started most things in life later than the average woman. I didn’t get married until my late 30’s and I did not become a mom until my 40’s. By the ‘standard life schedule’ people looked at me and said I was behind. I looked for more women like myself and I did not see them represented in much of the media I consumed. Most women my age were on their second or third child, mortgage and in some cases husband. That is not a knock but I could not find too many people that I could relate to. I was convinced that I was not the only woman in this unique stage of my life but I just had trouble finding them. I decided to start sharing my story through social media, speaking engagements and slowly but surely more and more women started to reach out and tell me that they could really relate to my story. There was a population of women that were just like me and finding them and starting to connect with them was one of the most amazing feelings in the world. I carried shame for so long for being a late bloomer. I was just talking to the wrong people. I was not an anomaly. I was normal, and I needed to share my story so that more women would not carry the shame that I did. I started sharing some of my story just through social media and things really began to take off. When I started to share about my battle with infertility is when things really began to shift. I was shocked by how many women were going through similar situations. I started a prayer list. I offered to pray for women who were also battling infertility and the responses were overwhelming. Women were adding their names to the list from all over the world. I got DM’s and emails, they just started to pour in. I kept the list confidential and asked a few friends at the time to pray with me in agreement that these women would see the desires of their heart and have children. The results were astounding and it was just proof to me that sharing my story was way more powerful than keeping it to myself. So I started to share even more. My husband and I started a podcast where we shared about the ups and downs of marriage and it was well received. I then went on to write a book about my story and it hit the Amazon Best Seller list and that is when there was a real shift in my brand. Up to that point I did group coaching and 1:1 coaching but after the book I started another podcast and started to book more and more speaking engagements. The main products I currently offer are group coaching, key note speaking, podcasting and various types of digital content.
My brand’s motto is
‘You are not too late.
You are not behind.
It’s okay to start over.
Start where you are with what you have, because…It’s Time!’
It’s time for you to live the life that God has called you to live and not to live your life based on what you think other people want for you. It’s time for you to stop living according to all of the things that happened to you and start to live from who you were created to be. All of the mistakes you’ve made or the bad things that have happened to you do not define you. Use them to your advantage to make you stronger. Take the lesson, move forward and keep going. I think I am set apart as a coach for this one perspective. You do not need to change who you are to be successful. You need to embrace it. Shame and success cannot co-exist. Acknowledge your past, embrace who you are and be confident as you use the lessons learned to move forward. I believe that every woman on this planet has the potential to use her story to not only propel herself forward but to also help other women to do the same. We should not keep our stories to ourselves, we need to use them to help others move forward and then turn around and help even more women. I am most proud of overcoming shame and the opinions of others and my hope is to help other women do the same.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In my personal battle with infertility I had to continue to show up for the many people around me that were having babies. I could not check out of my life and I had to celebrate the people that I loved. I learned in that period of my life how important it is to show up for other people who are living the answers to the prayers that you are still praying. That period of time taught me how to stay connected. The strength that we are so often looking for is found in the communities that we are connected to. However, when things get tough we tend to unplug from the very communities that we need and isolate ourselves. That is when we become weak and it takes us even longer to bounce back. I had miscarriage after miscarriage and with each one I learned to process and walk through what I was dealing with in a healthy way. I learned to take the time that I needed to walk through my feelings, but the most valuable thing I learned was not to stay there. One of the most effective things you can do to get yourself out of a funk is to bless someone else with the very thing that you are in need of. By that I mean encouraging someone who is down even when you yourself feel down. Be the thing for someone else that you yourself need. Sow seeds in the lives of others. You will never be disappointed. Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from adversity and one of the ways to recover quicker is to take the focus off of yourself and help someone else. If I could give some helpful advice to anyone that is going through a hard time it would be this… find someone going through an even harder time and find a way to make their life better. It will strengthen you and empower you and truly help you to bounce back and develop a level of resilience in your life that will serve you in so many ways.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I think that everyone that owns a business should have an email list. It is the single thing in your business that can nurture and grow your brand faster than anything else. When I first started my email list it seemed like the hardest thing to do. I did not know how I would grow it. Then with practice and time it has become the single most powerful tool in my business. I keep my list warm and I send out weekly emails. I am constantly sharing it on social media, speaking events and any chance I can and letting people know all of the benefits of joining. Think of it as your insiders club where the elite clients get to know everything first. It is also the one way that you can always keep in touch with all of your clients. Social media followers don’t actually belong to you and from time to time even the best websites can crash. Email is one of the most consistent reliable ways to communicate to a large audience of people that is likely to be available whenever you need it. Emails can be used for updates, sales, product launches, giveaways and so much more. It is one of the quickest ways to get people familiar with your brand, your voice and make them feel like they are an integral part of your business. My email list get all of the updates first. Then I go to the Socials. So if you see me announce something on my socials, be sure that my email list already knew that was coming. I give my email list the white glove treatment. Every week I get subscribers who respond directly to my emails with questions, testimonials, product inquires and so much more. I think every business needs an email list even if you only have 5 clients. We all start somewhere so start your email list today and continue to nurture it and watch it grow!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.iamdawnbrown.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/iamdawnbrown
• Youtube: https://Www.youtube.com/@iamdawnbrown

Image Credits

King Krown Media