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

Gregg, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

For me, the number one key to creating my business was authenticity. I had to not only feel that providing a service that solved a problem was essential but it also had to be true and genuine to who I am as a person. I know for many small business owners and entrepreneurs that problem solving is the most important aspect to your work, and to a certain extent I would agree. However, knowing yourself – meaning your strengths, weaknesses, abilities, gifts, and personality are equally important to creating a brand that fits your target audience. In the beginning, I truly do not feel I spent a lot of time doing enough work on myself and was purely focused on building a business that had tremendous value and was something that my prospective clients wanted and needed. However, I was quick to discover that I had my own limitations to growth and sustainability because I wasn’t”t as aware of my own needs and abilities to make my business a success. My advice for anyone who is wanting to create a business that serves others is to start by asking yourself some simple but potentially hard questions: What do I love to do? What am I good at? How can I serve others in a meaningful and impactful way that matches my values? What are my core values? How can my work benefit me? Spending time building your self-confidence, resiliency and values can be the difference between a struggling practice and a successful one.

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

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with questions. As a child, I would walk up to complete strangers and ask them open-ended questions – just because I truly wanted to know their answers! I find it remarkable that I get to do this as my work and through the organic evolution of holding space and asking heart-centered questions, I found the answers people shared told a story. A powerful, honest, raw, and sometimes vulnerable story about their human experience. As the pandemic ripped through our lives, the birth of The SpeakEasy Method took shape. What I found was a process that enables those who have always wanted to share their story with the world but struggled with how to get started do so in a unique, efficient, and powerful way. ​
I have helped dozens of people fulfill their dream of becoming a writer and author by enabling them to write with their voice in a collaborative way which produces the foundation of a first draft that is full of honesty and energy. I am so excited to also see how The SpeakEasy Method unlocks creativity and self-awareness beyond anything I have experienced before. My authors have commented how “their story doesn’t stop” once our recording sessions end and they feel inspired to write and express themselves like never before.
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It is my wish to help you bring your writing dreams to life and to share your incredible message and story with the world and I look forward to accompanying you on your own writing journey – wherever it may take you!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Without a doubt, the most effective strategy for me in growing my clientele for The SpeakEasy Method has been to solidify my target market. This really comes down to creating an “avatar” of who this person is, what needs they have, what problem they need help solved, and what we can do for them. In creating this avatar, I went though a three step process called the PVP test, which asks the following questions:

P: Personal Fulfillment – How much do you enjoy dealing with this type of customer? Rate yourself on how much you enjoy working with this market segment.

V: Value to the Marketplace – How much does this market segment value your work? Are they willing to pay you a lot of money for the work you provide?

P: Profitability – How profitable is the work you do for this market segment?

Going through this exercise has truly been beneficial for me as I have built out and solidified who my work targets in order for my business to be successful.

Have you ever had to pivot?

For nearly twenty years, I had a career that I absolutely loved but also felt unbelievable connection within. I was a licensed massage therapist who had built a very successful practice with a steady clientele along with personal gratification and satisfaction that gave me a reason to get out of bed each day. Unfortunately, at the beginning of 2018, I started noticing that my fingers were getting more and more numb and I couldn’t feel what I was doing like I used to and I began to worry that my body was giving out on me. After reluctantly going to get them checked, I was diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel syndrome and was advised by my doctor that I needed to stop my current line of work. His fear was that I would have long-term disability and not have full functionality with my hands and wrists if I continued the same level of work. After two surgeries to repair the damage, I made the hard decision to retire but was left with a gaping hole in my life. Not only was my financial security in jeopardy but I also felt that my personal happiness and sense of fulfillment was also being taken away. I went through a period of slight depression and anxiety as I recovered from my surgeries and needed to figure out what was next. I began to do some self-reflection work on myself which started with asking myself some simple but hard questions: What do I love to do? What am I good at? How do I want to serve others? How can I benefit from doing these things? I struggled to find answers at times but soon became interested in hearing what others would have to say to these questions. So, I soon began the process of interviewing random people asking them these along with other meaningful questions but found it fascinating that each person had a different answer to these similar questions. It was from this experience that I found connection through other people’s stories and I learned so much about them but also about myself along the way. This level of connection mirrored the same energy I felt during my days performing massage therapy and I soon developed this work into what is now The SpeakEasy Method. I wake up each day with the same feeling of excitement that I get to do what I do in just the same way I felt during my days in massage therapy and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thespeakeasymethod.co

Image Credits
Gregg Gonzales