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

Julie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

I didn’t set out to own a business. I worked at a small college as a professor, career services director, and dean of students and thought “I’m ready to play bigger.” I told my girlfriends at a ladies night out, got introduced to someone in their network, and was then quitting my job within the month to start on a new adventure born from connection. INTRODUCTION. I started as a subcontractor for a woman who was doubling her client load, so I hit the ground running as a coach & trainer. I went to my accountant immediately who I typically only saw once per year at tax time and asked her what to do. She told me that I needed to start a business officially, and that the first thing was to create a business name. “Can you help me think of a name right now?” I asked. Within 3 minutes, we had a name. The next steps for me were to how learn how to make a free website & hire someone to make me a logo.
COACH. I figured that if I was a coach I should have a coach, so I got one. During one of the first sessions she asked me to write down how much money I’d like my business to make. I wrote a stretch goal of $250,000/year. She also asked me to come up with a theme of the quarter. I chose “risk-taking & bravery.”
I found my first unpaid gig which would put me in front of people, and spoke about bravery. Unbeknownst to me, in the audience was the county manager. At the end of my talk, she asked me start working with her executive team of 40 people. I was overjoyed. That ask created the momentum I needed to fill my calendar beyond the subcontracting work. And it was certainly a learning curve where there expression “creating the plane as your are flying it” it. One day I was asked to submit proposal for the RFP to run a leadership academy, and I had to run to my computer to google RFP! (Request for Proposal, and now I know is very common language in my business.)
MONEY. Looking back over the past 12 years, revenue has increased every year and we’ve quadrupled that original monetary goal. With that first paid gig, I gave a discount before they even opened their mouths. I made invoices in Microsoft Word. We’ve come a long way. The 3 biggest leaps of faith I’ve experienced in my business have been around money. The first was raising the minimum program contract from a $200 to $300 minimum. Today, the minimum is $3707. The second was stopping to charge per hour, and instead have a ½ day and full-day rate only. The third was about raising prices. To do this, I talked openly with friends in my industry regarding what they charged for events and travel, and changed my prices to match them. These leaps were scary; I was afraid my clients & potential new clients would say no. One week after raising the rates, I shared the price with a new client, trying to hide the nervousness in my voice. He said, “Is that all?” I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
THE PEOPLE. I started off with one unpaid intern to have a team of 2. Then I transitioned to having a string of part-time assistants, and now have one really competent executive assistant who really operates like a business manager. In the business office, we now also have a bookkeeper (who might be more like a fractional CFO) and social media manager, but everyone is remote. For facilitation for the first 8 years, it was the “Julie show.” That morphed into a small team of facilitators that I am now honored to call colleagues. This was not part of the original plan, but developed along the way. We are now a team of 8. That’s how so much of it has worked: see a need or relevant direction & make it happen. We’ve also brough in a diversity consultant and a strategic planning consultant (even though we provide this service ourselves) to help guide us forward.
MILESTONES ALONG THE WAY. These were crucial scaling up moments, and this list would have been like gold to know about when I was starting out. Here they are in order, mostly:
• Paid for a website & someone to build it
• Got QuickBooks
• Started using Outlook instead of a paper calendar
• Got scheduling software
• Made some promotional videos
• Learned from the Small Business Development Center
• Got email management software
• Took some training in “authentic selling”
• Asked a group of trusted colleagues to be my advisory panel to give me business advice 2x/year
• Got a CRM (Customer Relationship Management software)
• Started having an intranet of shared files for the business office
• Stopped scheduling my own meetings, appointments, and managing my email inbox
• Committed to taking Julys and Tuesday afternoons off
• Joined EO (Entrepreneurs Organization)
• Made a facilitator portal for our facilitators to share content
• All the while prioritizing still being a student & learning the craft, attending conferences & workshops, learning pods, getting certifications, and listening to a business or leadership book per month.

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.

Lancaster Leadership clients range from aspiring leaders to CEO’s. Although we work with thousands of people annually, we specialize in coaching, training & facilitating for teams who believe in growth, community, and being purpose-driven.

Our services include:
In Person or Virtual
Strategic Planning*
Includes phases 1-6 which is essentially 2.5 days of time. Phase 1-5 may take a minimum of 2 weeks and maximum of 3 months. Final document provided. 1-5 year plan.

Leadership Training & Culture/Team Building*
Retreats & Trainings. Training on over 40 topics. Full & ½ day options. Email for a list of topic options.
Leadership Academy. 9 days of leadership development over 50 topics spread over 3-9 months. <20 participants/cohort.

Women’s Leadership Summit
For anyone who supports the elevation & empowerment of women. Topics change yearly. Offered 1x/year in Flagstaff, AZ. Full day, approx. 100 attendees.

Virtual/via Zoom
Group Coaching for your Team*
Group coaching is for teams can benefit from some time scheduled together for critical thinking & dynamic discussion, value cohesion and are inspired to develop with their team. Cohorts of 2-14 participants, 2 hour sessions.

Group Coaching Intensive for Leaders of Leaders
Offered only 2x/year, this 5-month program is a collective of experienced cross-industry leaders who build authentic connection and create future-focused strategy together. Different topic each time (Resilience, leadership presence, trust building, etc. Cohorts of up to 15. 2 hour sessions.

1-on-1 Leadership Coaching for Individuals
For leaders who want to be optimally effective at work. With a seasoned coach for 8 or 12 sessions. 1.5 hour sessions.

Online Women’s Leadership Academy
A self-paced course with videos and a guidebook. Including the 13 most-requested leadership topics with actionable & practical tools for being a successful leader in the workplace.

360-Feedback Tool
A facilitated strengths-based leadership assessment, The Extraordinary Leader, by Zenger Folkman, providing feedback & a plan forward.

* means that it is a program for your organization or team. Individuals may sign up for all the other programs.

We have a clients for life philosophy and customize programs based on need, so some work exceeds what’s listed here. For example, meeting facilitation, leadership team meeting revamp, communication plan, performance & feedback academy, and diversity and inclusion programming.
What sets us apart is our “personal development is professional development philosophy” where we work toward true transformation. Our programs are highly engaging.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I was just listening to an EO Women’s Panel & they were asking how many of us, all founders of our businesses, have “so many great ideas daily.” I had both hands raised, and apparently that’s common for entrepreneurs. The problem for me is not failing to pivot, but wanting to pivot too frequently. For this reason, I have asked my business team to consistently slow me down in the moment and ask these 4 questions: Is this idea in alignment with our mission?
How much time will it take (for Julie & team)?
Does it make financial sense?
Is it energy giving for now and later?
One of the two biggest necessary pivots was when Covid hit. We had our 9th Women’s Summit planned for April 2020. Being that large, in-person gatherings were not happening, we postponed. And then made it online, which took a lot out of us, cost too much time & energy, and wasn’t what folks were craving. So we put it on hold for 4 years (we are bringing it back April 2024). In its place we created a Group Coaching Intensive for remote cohorts of 15 leaders of leaders. I am proud to say we are now up to offering our 15th cohort.
Another huge pivot, and by far the most devastating and heart wrenching was when my dear friend and lead facilitator suddenly died in a mountain biking accident on Mother’s Day 2023. She was a beautiful soul and we were the thinktank together working to solve big culture & leadership challenges for our clients. I was heartbroken. And I needed to step into immediate action that included communications, taking over her programs, honoring her, and making many public decisions. I cried with her family & clients, and tried to lead with vulnerability but also hope. It was hard, and she is still with me every day.

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

First and foremost, having a quality product. Our main KPI (key performance indicator) is returning clients, so quality matters the most. Our brand of facilitation is highly engaging and works toward personal transformation, and people don’t seem used to that. A common refrain is “I wasn’t looking forward to this, and it wildly exceeded my expectations.” Beyond engagement, we like to think of ourselves as “pushers with heart.” We shine light on strengths we see, but also onto the challenges or blind spots. We are 90% a word-of-mouth business where we rely heavily on our clients to spread the word of their success with us. They fold us into their networks for which we are grateful. We have developed niche markets because of these networks that include dentistry, engineering, national parks, transit, higher education, probation, aging, local government, healthcare, medical devices, and more.
Also, it’s exciting for us when our clients change employers, move up in leadership and take us with them. This has taken us for doing work just 2 miles from our office in Arizona to all 50 states and even Scottland and the country of Georgia. Truth be told, plenty of that work has been virtual, but it’s really rewarding to have such a far reach.

People mentioned but not by name:

Andrew Dies

Astrid Alvarez

Autumn Layden

Blue Russ

Brandon Frye

Cheryl Eckert

Courtney Broughton

Cynthina Seelhammer

Daniel Guendel

Diana White

Eliza Estabrook

Erin Widman

Jeannie Duncan

Jim Wittekind

Jo Ann Panke

Johanna Klomann

Katie Wittekind

Kayci Cook

Kayla Jacobson

Lauree Battice

Lisa Leap

Mary Ellen Arndorfer

Matt Kent

Nicole Kiddoo

Nicole Lance

Sharon Tewsbury-Bloom

Sofia Ayad

Vicki Stickler

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lancasterleadership.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lancasterleadership/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LancasterConsulting
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lancaster-leadership-consulting/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lancasterleadership4675