Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Elaine Turcotte Alexander, Founder of Courageous Living, located in Kitchener, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I am a Time Line Therapy® Practitioner. I work with clients who have tried traditional therapy, but it didn't give them the relief or the results they were looking for. One of my clients spent $10,000 in therapy benefits before she came to me. Within a few sessions, what she had spent a year and a half working on in therapy was no longer affecting her.
Time Line Therapy® is for people who don't want to talk about the problem more than once. It is not about band-aids or coping strategies. It's about finding the root cause of the problem and undoing it so that it's not a problem anymore. Most of my clients report starting to feel better and seeing results - often after a few sessions.
My clients are usually ones dealing with health anxiety, social anxiety, traumatic memories, fear, anger management, weight loss difficulties, abandonment issues, OCD, addictive behaviour, relationship issues, divorce difficulties, fertility issues, complicated grief (including loss of a loved one through suicide) and more.
Tell us about yourself
I tried life coaching, grief counselling, intensive retreats, and all kinds of different healing modalities, not to mention an entire library of self-help books and podcasts. Some of it gave me coping skills and temporary relief, but it was a slow process. I hated having to talk about it. Having to retell my story was painful, exhausting, and never made me feel any better.
While on a retreat in Peru, I met a woman who eventually became my coach. After our second session, I can't even describe how good I felt. I knew this was something I wanted to add to my practice, to help people heal in the same way she had helped me. It's been six years, and every day, I get to watch my clients unload the baggage they've been carrying from the past. The transformation is incredible, and I'm grateful to be a part of it.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment is staying in business. Nine out of 10 businesses fail. The first few years were incredibly difficult. I was single and trying to make enough money to support myself. I am proud that I survived those first years (and a pandemic) and that I get to help my clients every day. It's a privilege to do the work I'm doing.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
This is my second business. I learned so much from the first one, mostly that you can't just do your thing because you need clients. I'm lucky, I came from a sales background, and I've learned so much about marketing. Those two skills are by far the most important part of entrepreneurship.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Learn as much as you can about sales and marketing. Being the best-kept secret in your industry is not serving you or your clients.
- Entrepreneurship is the greatest self-development program there is. Work on your mindset. The most successful entrepreneurs do.
- Build yourself or find yourself a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. It's lonely, and you need people to lean on when there are hard days... and there are hard days. Hopefully, that tribe will also celebrate the good ones with you.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.courageousliving.me/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elaine_turcotte/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaine-turcotte-alexander-683ba239/
Email: elaine@courageousliving.me
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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