Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and leadership development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Erica Pieczonka, Founder and Principal Coach of Dream Lab Coaching, located in Broomfield, CO, USA.

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

Dream Lab Coaching offers holistic leadership coaching to growth-seeking women leaders. Nothing is more fulfilling to me than seeing powerful women leaders change the world. My mission is to help these leaders get out of their own way so they can boldly conquer any mountain and blaze any trail.

Most leadership coaching focuses exclusively on work performance and misses the mark on evoking sustainable change. I take a whole-person approach to coaching, empowering my clients to build a foundation of joy, fulfillment, and success across ALL areas of their lives. This is how true success and real transformation are realized. You can't show up as the leader you want to be when you don't take care of yourself.

Tell us about yourself

I created Dream Lab Coaching to help women ditch the hustle, define success on their own terms, and become the leaders of their life. After 7+ years as a Director in the Fortune 200, I found myself burned out and unfulfilled. I found my true north again by refocusing my life, working on what made me come alive and committing to habits that supported my well-being. My greatest joy is helping my clients create a life and career they love.

I am also a researcher, science nerd, and bookworm at heart. I bring an evidence-based approach to my coaching methodology, combining the best tools across positive psychology, neuroscience, organizational psychology, and cognitive psychology to help my clients expand into the best version of themselves.

Every day I wake up motivated to make a difference in the world. To show leaders a better way to approach their teams and their lives. One that gives them a sense of purpose, wholeness, and joy.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Though I can't take credit for it, my biggest accomplishment (and joy truly) is witnessing the transformation my clients achieve in our work together. I continued to be inspired by their willingness to confront their self-imposed limits and courageously experiment with new ways of doing and being. I hold the space for change with compassion and accountability, but ultimately they create lasting change by taking risks and learning from them.

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

In the past, my work focused primarily on my areas of expertise. Now, I have to wear many hats. One of the hardest things for me was marketing: sharing my story, creating a website, talking about my offers in an appealing way for my audience, starting a blog, having more of a social media presence, learning SEO... the list goes on. Going into entrepreneurship, I had an idea that this would be the case, but I underestimated how much time I would spend on these activities. I have learned to make it fun, ask for help, and have a learning orientation vs. focusing on perfection. Messy action is better than no action!

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

  1. Change your relationship with failure. Mistakes are inevitable, particularly at the beginning of entrepreneurship. Don't waste precious time beating yourself; instead, start to see mistakes as a gift to your growth. We learn best from experience. The more we show up for our business, the more we learn what works, and the faster we grow.
  2. Know your why and come back to it often. This is critical to running a business that aligns with what is important to you. Customers are ultimately attracted to who you are and the movement you lead. Being grounded in your why allows you to authentically demonstrate the meaningfulness of your brand so your people can find you.
  3. Get help from leaders and coaches you admire and want to learn from. Inevitably, there will be a lot you don't know when you start your business. Identify where you need help, and hire someone to support you in improving in that area. Marketing was that thing for me, and hiring a marketing strategy coach was the best gift I gave myself. I feel so much more empowered to share my work and am making a greater impact because of it. Don't wait to get help!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.dreamlabcoaching.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erica_pieczonka/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-pieczonka-phd-63624a10/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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