We recently connected with Haley Gray and have shared our conversation below.

Haley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

There are entire schools in other countries that pump out virtual assistants to create social media content, etc. Unfortunately, most of it doesn’t do anything to engage the audience, but it looks pretty on the surface, so people tend to be happy with it for a while- until they realize that they arent’ getting any actual results from it.

In order for most people to do successful lead generation at scale, there are a TON of tools, and skills that have to be developed, and some of these offshore resources just can’t cut it. In fact, a lot of on-shore resources can’t do it either.

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

Haley Lynn Gray founded Women’s Entrepreneur Network with the radical notion that women can harness their unique power and skills to become highly effective leaders and business owners.

She is the best-selling author of Leadership Girl, Fearless Marketing, and a graduate of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business with an MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship and Innovation. She has experience with starting up successful small businesses, growing them, then selling them.

Haley has worked with hundreds of small business owners since Leadership Girl was founded. She has a passion for helping their owners find ways to grow their business, acquire visibility, and transform into the go-to expert in their industry, while saving them significant amounts of money.

Haley is the founder of the 75,000 strong Women’s Entrepreneur Network Group on Facebook.

Coaching and Consulting services include 1:1 work, small groups, and in a variety of different programs. Haley helps clients grow their businesses in a way that makes sense for them, since no two businesses are exactly the same.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My oldest daughter sustained a traumatic brain injury from a fall from a horse in December 15, and had a massive psychotic break right after (or possibly during), she’s had many, many hospitalizations for suicidal ideations, suicide attempts, overdoses, homicidal ideations, and on and on for the last 7.5 years. In the beginning, I devoted all of my time to trying to get her “better” and focusing on getting her where she needed to be.

I had to learn to put myself first, and put my own physical and mental health first. I started to lose some of the weight I had gained- and lost over 160 lbs, while growing my own business, and managing her care.

I was able to obtain legal guardianship, of her, as well as disability, and an entire range of services that are only available through certain government programs, while steadily maintaining and growing my business.

I’ve had to walk a tight rope in helping her, putting my own oxygen mask on first, and growing a business at the same time, and to say it has not been easy, would be an understatement, and yet, here we are on her 30th hospitalization, and working on training her care team on how best to work with her, and help her, and keep her safe, while managing my own interests.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I had to pivot after my daughter’s traumatic brain injury. I sold my home care agency about 9 months after her fall, and pivoted from doing business consulting on the side, with the odd social media management to doing full time social media management, and website building with a side of business consulting.

I had to full- on change everything with my life, my business, and my finances, with very little support from my husband who couldn’t understand why I didn’t just go out and get a real job, and leverage my education.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://haleylynngray.com
• Instagram: darthastewart
• Facebook: darthastewart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleygray/
• Twitter: darthastewart
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1025050584188927 <- Women’s Entrepreneur network.