The Colonel's Daughter - Lauren Schieffer

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Lauren Schieffer, Founder of The Colonel's Daughter, located in Bonner Springs, KS, USA.

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

My passion is helping organizations build their next generation of leaders. Whether it's training, keynotes, or longer-term consulting partnerships, I use my Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership to help transform the way managers think, make decisions & behave toward the people they lead. I am most effective with small to medium-large companies, agencies, and associations.

Tell us about yourself

My entire life, people have been telling me to stop talking! Now, I've found a way to make money doing it! I am The Colonel's Daughter – in every sense of the term. It is so much more than a brand - it's who I am, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. My father was a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force. He stood six feet, six and a half inches tall and was 285 pounds lean. (Dad had a personality that entered a room five minutes before he did.) Just about everything I think, believe, teach and stand upon, I learned either from my father or from other significant leaders I had the privilege to learn from because of who my dad was and what he did for the Air Force.

Because I believe the C-Suite that brought us out of the 20th Century and bled into the first two decades of the 21st Century is lost to convenience, power, position, and personal profit, I am committed to building a brand new generation of leaders who are focused on integrity, compassion, empathy, inclusion, and personal accountability - leaders who put significance over success. THAT's what wakes me up in the morning.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I have worked for myself for 25 years. Initially, as a Sales Director with a global cosmetics firm, achieving top-tier status in just 2 years, and then as a keynote speaker, author, and consultant. The business accomplishment I am most proud of is earning my Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). It is the highest earned designation that is awarded by The Global Speakers Federation. There are fewer than a thousand of us globally.

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

It is being able to turn it all off. When you are both the president and the product, it requires real discipline to turn everything off, unplug, and walk away from the office. Doing so is essential every now and then, though, to avoid burnout.

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

Understand that starting up is hard work. It will require more hours and energy than you feel you have to give. Keep at it. There comes a tipping point when suddenly the "engine" starts, and the systems start working the way you want them to.
Make sure your business excites you so much that you would do it for free. I'm not saying you have to do it for free, but if it doesn't excite you when the hard work gets harder and the grind gets heavy, you'll resent the effort, the customers, and the company. So make sure it's something you LOVE doing.
Know when to get help. There may be times when you say, "I can't afford to hire (or contract with) someone right now, so I'll just do it myself - but know when the value of your time outweighs the cost of hiring help.

All that you send into the lives of others comes back into your own, so focus on giving, and the money will follow. Don't focus on the external trappings of success. Focus instead on significance - that is how many lives you touch and the manner in which you choose to impact them. Because how we impact others is a choice. As my father, The Colonel, said, "Anyone can be successful. Choose to be significant."

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://laurenschieffer.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063335401264
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenschieffer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LSchiefferCSP
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenannschieffer/

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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