Annemarie Segaric – Background

* Please tell us about your education and professional experience, before starting your career as a life coach.

I studied Operations Research & Industrial Engineering at Cornell University. From college I went on to have about 6 jobs in 7 years! All of these were doing one form or another of business process improvement and business analysis consulting work. I consulted for the IRS, financial institutions, telecommunications companies and media & entertainment companies. I knew I wasn’t in the right field (I figured this out between jobs 3 and 4!) but I didn’t know what my passion was. I finally discovered coaching while browsing the Learning Annex course catalog looking for fun classes to take.

* When did you start your business?

I started my business in June of 2001. I worked at it part time while I kept my “day job” and worked with clients and took coaching classes at night. A little less than a year later in May 2002 I left my full time day job and started coaching full time.

Life Coach & Motivational Speaker

* Tell us about your business, the services you provide, and the changes you’ve made, if any, in the past year. And why did you decide to make those changes?

Most of my clients are corporate professionals who have done well “on paper” but are miserable in their jobs. I work one-on-one with clients who want to make a major career change but feel stuck because they don’t know what they want to do or because they are overwhelmed by the process ahead of them. I take my clients through a 9-step career change process that I’ve developed called The Career Changer©. All of the work I do is one the telephone, which allows me to help people all over the country, really all over the world. I’ve also written the pocket booklet, “107 Tips for Changing Careers While Still Paying the Bills” available on my website www.segaric.com. Twice a month I send out free career change tips in my online newsletter, Working Effortlessly. Most of the changes I’ve made with my business have occurred within the last 4-6 months because of my daughter. I have decided to reorganize how much time I’m available for the different kinds of coaching I offer. Right now I am only working with a handful of select clients and will keep that number low while I offer more group coaching, teleclasses, and online resources in the form of e-versions of my booklet and e-mailed courses. This will allow me to maximize the number of clients in total that I can help while I spend more time being a new mom and enjoying Isabella!

Balance & Challenges

* How have you been able to balance your time between your family and your business?

It’s not always easy. What helps me most is being very, very flexible. This is sometimes difficult given my structured background! I thought I’d be able to get right back into coaching after a month or two off after Isabella was born since all of my client interactions are phone-based. I clearly didn’t have a clue about what it was like to be a new mom! Both my business and family are in constant change. This means that I’ve had to learn to worry less about planning out the future to the nth detail, and focus more on being in the moment—whether I’m with my family or I’m working. This shift in mindset has given me the most sense of balance I’ve ever had.

* What are the most demanding challenges you face running your home based business?

The most demanding challenge is not isolating myself. It’s very easy as women to feel we can do it all…even if logically we don’t believe that to be true. So I continue to work at reaching out to others for help, support, and advice. This is especially important as I work at growing and marketing myself and my services. It’s not my strongest skill and for a while I thought I could just do it on my own. Now I know that’s why there are experts in every field…to help you with things you don’t like and are not so good at so you have more time for the things you DO like and ARE good at!

* Do you have any family members helping with the business, or helping you in other areas, while you run your business? If yes, how?

All of my family helps out in one way or another. My parents and in-laws babysit when my normal babysitter is unavailable and I have client calls. My husband provides excellent advice and is a patient sounding board for all of inspirations and ideas.

Rewards and Advice

* What things do you find personally rewarding and satisfying as an entrepreneur? What have been the rewards, risks, and trade-offs?

I love the freedom and flexibility to do what I want and how I want to do it when it comes to growing and creating my business. I also find it very exciting while extremely difficult at times to see that how well I do and how happy I am as a small business owner is a 100% direct result of the efforts I make and my attitude while making these efforts. Having the ball always in your court is very empowering but can be frightening at times! This itself creates tremendous reward and risk at the same time because I am solely responsible for the outcomes I see.

* What advice would you give someone who is planning to leave the corporate world to become self-employed?

Take baby steps!! Most people I work with have known for a long time that they are not meant for the corporate world but don’t end up doing anything about it because they think it’s an all or nothing venture. They often feel, “Well if I really do what would make me happy, I’d have to leave my job, sell my stuff and suffer through never having any money.” Not so!! Successful career changers realize making a move from the corporate world to being self-employed is a transition…it does not have to happen all at once. Try things out on the side and keep your day job. These individual steps may not feel like much but each one is bringing you that much closer to your dream.

For more information about Annemarie Segaric and her services, please visit www.segaric.com. She is the author of: “107 Tips For Changing Your Career While Still Paying the Bills”.