We recently connected with Emily Cassel and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience an industry-wide U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.

I started my coaching business at the age of 22 in 2014. At the time, the ecosystem of the industry felt very different than it does today. Many of the early adopters of coaching were highly skilled, trained, and certified, and truly in it for the “right reasons,” operating in integrity and with a heart of service to truly help improve the lives of those we set out to support. But in the pandemic era of 2020 – 2022, it seemed like everyone was ditching their corporate jobs (whether by choice or not), and flooding the online business space, since everything needed to be virtual at the time.

The idea of becoming a coach or consultant seemed like the obvious way to make a bunch of money quickly to many, and the market became relatively saturated. It seemed like everyone was suddenly becoming a “business coach” or another type of “coach” — without any formal training, skillset, or other credentials or integrity.

On top of that, in order to scale service-based coaching businesses, many coaches had begun training other people on their unique “5-step method” to create results, or even training others to essentially become glorified salespeople for their product or service, and call themselves coaches. Needless to say, the market was not only highly saturated, but it was becoming WEIRD, culty, and manipulative.

It was (and still is!) harder than ever to discern who is the “real deal” and who is selling the coaching equivalent of snake oil online…until of course you paid them a few thousand dollars and were actually in a course, program, or working with them 1:1.

Simultaneously, there was a spiritualization of the coaching industry, where everything became about manifestation, energy, and other immeasurable “results” that sound good, but hold no tangible weight when it comes to delivery of the promise of that service, leading to higher rates of buyers remorse, customer disappointment, and ultimately disenchantment of the coaching industry to many people who felt they’d been jilted by a coach who was out to serve their own ego + bottom line, instead of the people whose money was funding their lavish lifestyle.

My solution to this change, personally and professionally, was to step out of my personal brand and build something much bigger than myself. I have ZERO interest in leading a cult following of people, being manipulative with my marketing, or harming people under the guise of helping them – especially when it comes to women entrepreneurs and their businesses!

This industry U-Turn became the catalyst for creating WMNûp — a vibrant ecosystem of women entrepreneurs across the globe, devoted to doing things differently, leading with intention, growing + scaling sustainably, and disrupting their industries to create a category of one.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a business strategist and leadership consultant for women entrepreneurs since 2014. In mid-2022, I founded WMNûp, a new brand with a mission to close the gaps women face in the world (the pay gap, power gap, funding gap, political representation gap, etc.) to create a more harmonious ecosystem for all of us.

WMNûp emerged organically from a series of free monthly MEETûps I was hosting for women entrepreneurs to gather again after the pandemic in my hometown of Charleston, SC. So many amazing women had moved here, and I knew we were all feeling the pull to step out from behind our screens and back into real life connection with one another, since entrepreneurially isolation layered on top of pandemic isolation was really not great for our mental health, creativity, collaboration, or motivation in business, and many of the events and gatherings that had been happening pre-pandemic didn’t have plans to come back.

At WMNûp, we offer intentional + innovative consulting x community x curated events for women entrepreneurs by breaking down industry silos + closing the internal & external gaps that (still) exist for women [like funding, affordable childcare, relevant mentorship, easy delegation to a support team, access to space, strategic skills, leadership development, etc.] so that female-founded businesses are well-positioned to succeed and have equal opportunity to access capital, be visible, disrupt industries, scale sustainably, remain profitable, and build wealth that allows reinvestment and greater freedom of choice for women across the globe.

We believe that building a business as a woman can + should be easier than it is, and we’re on a mission to optimize the way women start, grow, scale, and lead businesses while dismantling the barriers that make it more challenging for women and creating vibrant ecosystems of limitless possibilities for women-owned businesses in both product and service based sectors.

What’s most unique about what we do at WMNûp + what I do as a business strategist for women entrepreneurs is that we serve + support female founders at all stages of development, and in doing so, create a vibrant ecosystem and fertile ground for ideas to take root, grow, and thrive sustainably. Everything we do is centered around community, and serving the actual needs of our members, instead of guessing or thinking we know better. There is truly no hierarchy in our community — only inclusivity, a spirit of collaboration, and resourcing ourselves + our businesses internally through our members.

This means we don’t have an agenda that we put upon our members to manipulate, force, or coerce them into one-size-fits-all solutions — rather, we honor the uniqueness, individuality, and genius of each woman and her business, and know that the best strategy is the one that activates the full potential of the business concept AND the entrepreneur.

We take a holistic approach to solution-seeking, and go deep on both internal and external strategy to ensure our clients create the best possible results for themselves in ways that disrupt, innovate, and set industry trends (instead of replicating everything that everyone else is doing, following trends, and blending in as one of many in their fields).

We constantly bring women together across industries and areas of expertise to break down the silos that often exist in women-centric entrepreneurial spaces, where everyone is actually a competitor in the same industry, or regurgitating the same business models, advice, or methods and in effect creating echo chambers instead of intentional and individual changes.

We have a firm no MLM member policy – which is edgy, but we make a point to uphold this value, because we want to foster genuine + authentic relationships among female founders, have the relevant + supportive conversations that no one is having about the nuances of the entrepreneurial experience, and share transformational resources + trainings to support evolutionary leadership.

What can often happen that degrades the quality of an experience is people selling to one another all the time, instead of being genuinely curious about supporting one another. We DO have an awesome self-promo space in our all-in-one virtual membership platform, though, and plenty of live + intimate virtual events so that our members get to know each other, and can confidently refer, collaborate, and hire one another.

We are devoted to doing things differently — and for us, that means building in member-driven solutions to our membership platform that make it easier + more accessible for WMNûp community members to build momentum + continuously move the needle forward in their businesses. For example, we recently added a feature called VA On-Demand in partnership with one of our members that allows any member to hire support without long-term financial commitments and the preparation that it typically requires to do so, and have immediate access to a Virtual Assistant who can support them in meeting a deadline, completing a project, and expanding their capacity in their business.

When you decide to WMNûp with us + become a member, you’re not just a number. We do our best to really get to know you, your work, and your vision, and make the strategic connections and recommendations to help you grow. It’s a pretty special group of women entrepreneurs, and I’m truly in awe everyday of how it’s all come to life. And there’s still so much to come!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been creating things that my ideal clients actually want and need, and that are fun for me to offer. Channeling my frustrations about what’s happening in the current ecosystem of my industry, or the way things are offered to women entrepreneurs specifically, has given me important insights into creating more optimized, intentional, and solution-oriented offerings that deeply serve and support the desires of women entrepreneurs in my community, both virtually and locally in Charleston, SC.

I’ve done a lot of market research, offer validation, and reflection around ideas BEFORE launching new offers, and I think this really helps to hone in on what offers would best resonate with your ideal clients, regardless of who you serve or what you offer.

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

What’s most helped me build my reputation within my market is integrity, authenticity, and consistency. I think people have an intuitive sense of who’s the “real deal,” and it builds a lot of trust when I’ve continued to show up honestly in who I am, share candidly about my experiences, and continue to show up time and time again over the last 9 years in devotion to my mission of truly serving women entrepreneurs. I don’t do the click bait-y, trendy stuff as much as I try to focus on what’s real, what’s true, and what’s helpful. I trust that a combination of truth, transparency, and tenacity is the most sustainable path to success of any kind. Also, I just genuinely care. My ego’s not driving every decision I make, and I truly care about serving my clients, helping them “win” in their businesses, and am truly excited to do the work I get to do everyday. I think they can feel that in the moments where I’m passionate, excited, and celebrating with them along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wmnup.co
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/wmnup
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/emilycassel

Image Credits
Alexandra Rostad | Little Runaway Photography