Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erin Randall. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Erin, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I would be lying if I said that I had not occasionally thought about this. A frustrating day with a client, more “no” than “yes,” learning how to do something for my business that has no tie to how I do my actual work–all of these have resulted in me thinking that perhaps working for regular job might not be so bad. Someone else can design pitches and proposals and thinking about how to budget for training. After all, I’m a coach, not a business manager.

And then, then I come to my senses. I remembered the flood of ideas that I had the minute I went into business for myself, what it felt like the first time I won a major organizational coaching client because of a program I designed, and when people began signing up year after year for Magnesium. Yes, this is hard work, but I don’t care. There is so much joy, so much personal satisfaction on this side that I would not trade for anything. I made Ad Meliora Coaching, and in turn, it has made me. I make and continue to make my own happiness.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Ad Meliora Coaching (“ad meliora” is Latin, meaning “to better things”) is a bespoke coaching and consulting practice. I’m all about happy people doing great work. My clients range from some of the world’s biggest companies to tier-one research universities to small businesses. I also work with individuals who have determined that they are worth their own investment and want to do the hard, internal work to move forward. While the bulk of my work is coaching, I also do a lot of teaching, mentoring, and facilitating. I help my clients ask the hard questions about themselves and their organizations and have the hard conversations. I help to move people from being stuck to finding their way forward.

There is so much to love about my work, but some of my clients’ accomplishments have included landing major foundational grants that change the trajectory of their careers, earning massive promotions, charting a new path for themselves, and changing how they conduct their lives. I love to see people change from reacting to responding, completing what they set out to do.

What has surprised me about myself and my own work is how creative I have become. Since launching Ad Meliora Coaching, I’ve created and launched my own products, gone deeper into writing and being of greater service to others. If you had told me in the spring of 2020 where I would be now, I’d have thought you were kidding. Now, seeing how far I have come, I’ve begun targeting bigger, more audacious work, seeing what else I can make a reality.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Three things helped me to build my reputation: delivering high-quality work, speaking about my work, and publishing my work.

1. There was no better way for me to build a reputation than to deliver high-quality work at the date I agreed to meet. That meant careful listening and great questions–I need to deliver the RIGHT high-quality work–and making certain I have the tools to do so. I’m mindful about taking on clients and organizations that I can serve, have a library of graphics and work to back me up. But excellence never goes out of style.

2. When I say “speaking about my work,” I mean two things: giving talks around the world at different meetup events and conferences and facilitating space for other coaches to practice their work. I do a lot of thought leadership, writing about different coaching topics that I publish on my site, and then speaking about those topics. This was so helpful in making me think more deeply about those topics, but also in helping me to develop my own speaking skills. And when I do speak on topics, I often tie that work back to my writing, which is my third point.

“Speaking about my work” also includes public practice of those skills. In the spring of 2020, some fellow coaches and I began holding Agile Coaching Circles, a safe, virtual place for people to practice their coaching skills. We quickly went from circles in North America and Europe (two circles) to five circles around the world. In these circles, we sometimes teach, demonstrate, and provide feedback on particular skills. There is no self-promotion, no trawling for potential clients, so this is truly a way for our community to see us living our values while practicing our skills. This resonates strongly.

3. Lastly, I write and publish regularly on various coaching topics. I’ve always been a decent-enough writer, but in July of 2020, I started blogging again. I was good for about ten months, but then fell off. So, as part of Magnesium 2022, I set out to create a monthly blog post replete with graphics, Mural boards, facilitation plans, and exercises. I load that content to a shared folder, and then provide access to any who’d like that content. The regular writing has served as a way for me to show my work, show my thinking on bigger topics, for me to build a library of graphics and Mural boards that I use with clients, and to build connection with my community.

These blog posts continue to grow. I see the analytics on the work, I see people reach out, I see people share the content on LinkedIn. They help me to bolster my speaking, they help to establish me as a thought leader. I’ve begun to field inquiries as to, “Hey, ever thought about writing a book?” I will, one day, but not yet. Which reminds me–I need to come up with my next topic for a blog post.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My business is self-funded. I used money that we’d saved up to weather this particular storm. There are benefits to this, namely that I retain my autonomy and independence, but it also means that I have to be extra outgoing in building communities and networks, in getting out there and showing my work, and in knowing that I’m foregoing some things like guidance and advice that might be there if I had investors. But for me, self-funding was the right decision, and it continues to be.

I field this question a lot from others, about how we handle the money side of things, and I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that other than our mortgage, my husband and I had no debt. If we had had credit-card debt as I built Ad Meliora Coaching, that might have sunk me before I got off the ground. But because our financial hygiene was good and we had the practice of not carrying debt, I had options. Credit-card debt would have removed that.

I also have a good relationship with our accountant. I’ll ask questions, regardless how ridiculous or “how is it that I don’t already know that” they might sound. I learned to set aside time each month for sorting expenses, that I need to consider a self-employed 401k (SEP), that good equipment is worth the investment. Yes, I still make mistakes, but I make fewer now than when I began this work.

I’m incredibly lucky in that my husband not only encourages me, but he believes in my work. There have been times that I have been very down, and he tells me to just keep going. I’m not quite three years in, and most of my business’s profits are put right back into the business or reinvested in ongoing training. That will continue a bit longer, but we’re starting to see the day where what we’ve invested in me and my work will contribute to our overall financial health once again.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.admelioracoaching.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinrandall/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQBTf3Xysy-bn-dlQitGkQ

Image Credits
Photo credit: Jama Pantel Photography; Magnesium Graphics: Star Street Creative