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

Tracie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

I didn’t realize until recently how my prior (read: corporate) job had set me up for success as an entrepreneur. I was in charge of moving people from office to office and from building to building within large corporate office campuses, sometimes one at a time and sometimes hundreds at a time week over week.

A-ha! I discovered why I was a great relocation/project manager and why I’m a great coach and business owner now.

I’m great at helping people navigate change.

Nobody ever wanted to move their offices. Their desk was their comfort zone. They knew where their friends were, where the breakroom was, and how to get from their desk to the car at the end of the day as quickly as possible.

The same happens with women entrepreneurs. Our comfort zone is the checklist. The current clients and friends we spend time with. The way we do things now.

Being BOLD requires leaving that comfort zone for something you’ve never done before. Success and fulfillment requires this BOLDness. Growing a business requires BOLDness.

I’m grateful for the 17 year training ground that was corporate America, and (I said this yesterday to a friend) I’m glad to have been freed from The Matrix. <grin>

Tracie , 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 spent 17 years growing my corporate career while at the same time creating my young family. in 2006 my first husband was diagnosed with cancer and, four years later, leaving behind me and our two toddlers, he died. I had never heard about life coaching but I knew that I needed to do something to learn how to take care of myself as I navigated the grieving process. I found a health coach and dove into the world of personal development. Learning to become a coach allowed me to take my love for helping people into the world of Entrepreneurship. I’d spent 17 years helping corporate employees manage change, and now I could create a business out of it. Becoming a life in business coach and focusing on community and BOLD action has changed my life completely. It’s so interesting how tragedies shape our lives for the better sometimes. Learning to be resilient is one of the biggest lessons of life.

In 2019, I opened an in-person event space called Gather. The goal for Gather was to bring people together for networking, workshops, author events, and all kinds of group activities. When the Covid-19 pandemic began and we all started lockdown, I realized that the goal of Gather was not to bring people together physically but to connect people. Our ability to connect over Zoom for those next couple of years revealed the truth, that Community can be built wherever you want it to be.

The value of holding space for people to grow is something that everyone needs. We are not designed to go through life alone and we are way more likely to be successful when we include other people as we create our futures.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I was an early adopter of Social Media. Tom from Myspace was my friend! :)

I was told by a mentor many years ago the key to using social media in your business. Be social! Say Hi.

Social media for me is not an advertising mechanism, it is a connection tool. When your goal is to connect with people, you can have success on social media. So, make friends. ask questions. ask for help. allow yourself to be authentic and the more people get to know you the more they will like you. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will like you. but your people will.

That’s it, that’s the key. Be social on social media.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

As I mentioned earlier, coaching helped me to learn about the world of personal and professional development. I still remember the first personal development book that I read, the author was Matthew Kelly and in his Australian accent, I can still hear him say, “Become the best version of yourself”. Since then I’ve read (or truly, listened to) dozens upon dozens of personal and professional development books. The ones that always help me the most are those that are about who we are becoming; how to be authentic and how to show up in a world that needs more authenticity. Brene’ Brown, Mel Robbins, and Gabrielle Bernstein are a few of the key women who have influenced me to be my true self so I can attract the people who are meant for me in my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tracieroot.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracieroot_coaching
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tracie.tree.root
• Linkedin: https;//www.linkedin.com/in/tracieroot
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TracieRoot

Image Credits
Yvette Bracket Photography