We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Harper Spero. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Harper below.

Harper, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I had eight jobs in ten years. Each of those jobs were companies I was passionate about working at but they either didn’t have any job openings or they didn’t have roles that were suitable for me. For each of those companies, I created a role for myself — finding a way in, knowing my value and believing that I could be a good fit for the company.

In being a business owner for almost eight years, most of the services and content I’ve created are based on needs that I personally had and realized there were likely other people who were looking for this as well.

I grew up in New York City so when 9/11 happened I was in high school and immediately decided to start a community service club. We were required to do community service hours but there was no community that brought students together to be of service. This motivated many students to do community service, and surpass the hours they were required to do to graduate as they enjoyed it so much.

In regards to coaching, I launched a group coaching program right before the pandemic began. It was an accountability, brainstorming and strategy group and ultimately turned into a bit of a business support group throughout the challenging early years of the pandemic. It was as valuable to me as it was to my clients.

In regards to my first podcast, Made Visible, I started that because I couldn’t find content online, especially audio format that resonated with me in regards to invisible illness. I’m someone who lives with an invisible illness yet I have a business, friends and thriving life and everything I found online was very depressing. I wanted to create content to showcase the stories of people living with or affected by invisible illness while highlighting others aspects of their lives, not just their illness.

My new podcast, Good Enough For Now was born out of many conversations with my co-host, Stephanie Kruse about our life pivots and the untraditional paths we’ve both taken in life. We realized we were likely not the only ones going through these changes and there were others who could relate and would want to share their stories on the show.

Harper, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always been someone who wears a lot of different hats — I don’t like doing just one thing as I get bored quite easily.

For the last eight years I’ve been coaching — working 1×1 with clients and small groups of women who are solopreneurs and small business owners. My clients often refer to me as their external CMO/COO as they’re really good at what they do in their industry but they come to me for help with accountability, strategy, brainstorming and marketing consulting.

In July 2018, I launched my podcast, Made Visible sharing stories featuring people living with or affected by invisible illness. We recorded 100 episodes and it was featured by Health Magazine, Self Magazine, Well+Good and TheSkimm.

In fall 2020, I launched a series of writing classes dedicated to people living with invisible illnesses. Every other week we have a guest teacher who speaks about writing and their connection to invisible illness. Past guests include Jen Pastiloff, Porochista Khakpour, Ally Hilfiger, Sarah Ramey, Quentin Vennie, and Phoebe Lapine. The class is geared towards newbie writers who are looking to write and share their invisible illness story, often for the first time. I now facilitate a monthly session for past or new students to write with a prompt, read aloud and share their stories. I love holding space for people with invisible illnesses especially as many of them don’t have a community around this shared experience.

In summer 2022, I started working with companies who are prioritizing their employees mental and physical health to create content, community and connection amongst those living with invisible illnesses. We’re creating internal podcasts to feature the stories of employees with invisible illness to share how they navigate life with invisible illness in the workplace and how to create a more inclusive workplace.

I’ve navigated many transitions through my life and career and it’s a topic I don’t think is addressed enough.

Most recently, I am the co-host of a new podcast called Good Enough For Now. Good Enough For Now shares stories of the detours in life, when unexpected challenges happen that lead people to figure out how to move forward and redefine what matters most. Everyone faces bumps in the road of life. We believe that sharing that common ground can bring us together.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Stephanie Kruse and I met during a writing class when I took over as facilitator during the teacher’s maternity leave. During the six weeks, two students complained about the class via email on the same day. One of them was Stephanie, who gave constructive feedback, all of which I agreed with. While I was disappointed to hear the virtual class wasn’t running perfectly, I was grateful for the feedback.

Four months later, Stephanie and I met again in another virtual writing class, this time a small group memoir class where members shared the most intimate, uplifting and heartbreaking moments of their lives. On a group writing retreat ten months later, we finally met in person and instantly connected despite our completely different life stages, extremely different upbringings, and age difference.

As our friendship deepened, we found ourselves aligned as we reimagined our careers and lives. Sharing our stories helped us feel less alone and more relieved that our situations were more alike than different. This realization compelled us to use our voices to tell stories that capture common experiences of transition and reinvention. Our purpose? Helping others—and each other—figure it out, together.

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

The more authentic I am, the more people I attract that are my type of people. When I share my experiences either about my health challenges or business struggles, people reach out. People connect with vulnerability.

My business coaching clients became my Made Visible podcast guests and vice versa.

I don’t try to be anything other than who I am — if people are looking for a direct and action oriented coach, that’s me. If they’re looking for coddling, they’ve come to the wrong place.

I’ve always loved the quote, I’d rather be disliked for who I am than liked for who I’m not.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.harperspero.com
• Instagram: wwww.instagram.com/harper_spero
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harperspero/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harperspero/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/harper_spero
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-enough-for-now/id1640319534

Image Credits
Sophie Mathewson