Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Martin J. Fisher, founder and CEO of MJF Coaching, located in Toronto, ON, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I built a coaching business. Executives and professionals that feel overworked, undervalued, exhausted, and frustrated with the long days and draining routine typical of working a corporate life with no purpose, fulfillment, or joy in their day. They come to me for help, and I empower them to recognize and remove roadblocks, challenges, and life patterns to create a life beyond what they ever dared to dream. One that they love.

Some of these executives and professionals choose instead to hire me to coach them to do what I did. What I was able to do. I left my corporate career life to start my coaching business. Within six months, I had built it up to a five-digit monthly income. I built a life for myself that was purposeful and successful. I now coach them to be coaches and build their successful businesses and purposeful life.

Tell us about yourself

It took me a long time to get to the point where I was able to admit to myself and prepare to leave my corporate life and start fresh. I didn’t know what I was going to do. While I had coached colleagues and staff throughout my career, it never occurred to me that I would be capable of it until my coach asked me, “With all your years of experience, skills, and knowledge…

Why aren’t you coaching?

That’s the moment that changed my life. The next few months, I figured out how and what to coach. How to establish a coaching business and how to build it into a successful career. All this within less than six months. My life shifted from feeling undervalued and unfulfilled to overflowing with gratitude and purpose.

What gets me up in the morning is knowing that I can have the same impact with my clients and on their lives. Being able to change their lives for the better renews my purpose every single day.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

As a business owner, my biggest accomplishment happened when I realized failure was the key to success. Once I was able to shelve my fears and focus on actioning my goals, I became the person I was always meant to be. I also became a true leader. When I hired my first staff and realized the most impact I could have was to be the leader that I always wanted to have.

However, as an individual my biggest accomplishment comes to me when I receive a recommendation or testimonial from a client. Hearing in their words how I changed their careers, their paths, their relationships, their purpose… how their lives were changed for the better will always be my biggest victory.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

As a business owner, you never have a guarantee that the decision you’re about to make is the right one or is even the right time to be making it. When you factor in that you’re now responsible for your employees as well, it puts extra pressure and stress on those decisions. That can affect the outcomes of those decisions as well.

However, when I lean into failure, it can only result in more learning and growth. This brings me that much closer to success. More than not, ever trying or not ever making that decision could possibly bring me.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Be resilient to the naysayers and the tumbles along the way.
  2. Be relentless in believing in yourself and in the possibilities.
  3. Resolve to action your dreams into reality. Never just wish them true.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

You have to want it to make it happen. If you don’t want to do the work, then it’s not for you. But if you want it, it is yours for the taking.
Dream Big - Live Bigger

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://martinjfishercoaching.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mjfcoaching
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martin.j.fisher.coaching/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MJF_Coaching
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjosephfisher/

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.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.