Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Shelby St. Clair, founder, and CEO of The Boss Lady Agency, located in Hawthorne, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
The Boss Lady Agency is a transformational coaching space supporting women as they heal from trauma, step into their power and create the life they desire. The women that I work with are highly empathic, so they feel every hardship to the core, they doubt their abilities to create the success they dream of within their business, and they fear the judgment that may come from those around them. All of this stems from trauma that has now become a part of their belief system, ruling the way they move in life while ultimately holding themselves back.
Tell us about yourself
I'm Shelby, Soul Alignment Activator and Business Strategist of The Boss Lady Agency. I stepped into the world of entrepreneurship in 2012 after attending FIDM in Los Angeles for Fashion Design and Visual Communications. After starting, growing, and successfully running three businesses of my own in 2017, I found myself going through a divorce. My 5 fur babies and I moved back home with my parents, and my journey of self-discovery + healing began. As I began connecting to myself and learning who I was as an individual beneath all of the hurt and pain, I found coaching and thought to myself, "wow, if I had only known about this when I launched my businesses, I would have gotten places a whole lot faster than I did on my own." I remember sitting back and thinking, "what am I good at?" and I kept coming back to leadership, being able to help others get to where they want to be in life by being able to see their vision as a whole with all the steps needed to get there. That's when the AHA moment hit. Coaching would have helped me so much; what if I started my own coaching company? And that's when The Boss Lady Agency was birthed with the sole focus of freedom. I wanted to be able to work when and where I wanted while helping other women do the same.
Now, five years in, I keep myself motivated every day to show up and be a guide for women by looking at my daughter and imagining the life she deserves. I want her to grow up knowing her mama did everything to not only help our family achieve our dreams but to help other women achieve their dreams as well. I imagine the woman I was five years ago, lost, confused, unsure how I was going to come back after going through a divorce, and thinking that maybe I wasn't meant to achieve the life I had always imagined. I want women to know that they are so much bigger than their trauma, and THEY matter!
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Definitely get to sit back and watch the transformation my clients experience. It put me right back into that place when I didn't believe I was worthy of the life I have now. Watching a woman go from not loving who she is, doubting herself, wanting to give up, being afraid to show up, and seeing her shine her light brighter than ever and be the woman she always wanted to become is seriously magical.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Learning how to balance both life and business, the reason I center the work I do with women around trauma is that life has so much to do with how we see ourselves and what we believe we are capable of. As business owners, when we don't know how to handle our emotions, work through things in a healthy way and be open to deep understanding, it can show up in our business by way of not showing up, having resistance, fearing success/failure and so much more. Knowing that you are always in control of not only yourself but also of your life and what happens in it allows you to have a power that a lot of business owners spend most of their careers trying to figure out.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Look inward: What is your relationship with yourself? What beliefs do you have about yourself/your life? How do you get in your own way? What do you have to let go of? And, who do you have to become?
- Connect to your why: Why do you want to achieve the dreams/goals you have?
- Never give up! The desire to start, run and grow a business landed on your heart for a reason. You might have to shift things from time to time, pivot here and there, and find a better way, but there is ALWAYS away if you just believe in yourself.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Write this on a sticky note and place it somewhere that you will see it EVERY SINGLE DAY! What I think and feel determines the decisions that I make, which determines the actions I take.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.thebossladyagency.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShelbyStclair1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebossladyagency/
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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