In this case study, we’re going to learn more about my one on one business mindset coaching client Celeste Bakken, the owner of Form and Function Design Co. Celeste is an aspiring Interior Designer in Edmonton. She’s working towards leaving behind her full-time teaching career to pursue her dream of being a full-time entrepreneur and interior designer. She is passionate about helping her ideal clients feel at home in their space and understands the importance of both beauty and functionality.
We’re going to dive into her main coaching goals, the consequences of staying stuck, why she chose to invest in coaching, her results after working together and some inspiring words for her fellow creatives.
Main Coaching Goal
Before every coaching client begins their sessions, I have them share an in-depth look into their goals and how they’re feeling in their business. Celeste shared her current business mindset, what her version of success looks like and what she hopes to achieve in her life.
Celeste shared, “I want to get a clear vision of how I’m going to do this, and in what timeframe. I want to feel confident that I’m always going forward, ever closer to what used to be the impossible of becoming a full-time interior designer.
Currently, my insecurities are holding me back the most. I wonder and worry if people are really going to think I’m worth it? My other big challenge is probably my lack of time. Working full time, taking on project work, and raising three kids is a juggling act. I feel overwhelmed, unqualified, insecure. I have serious imposter syndrome and wonder if I really have what it takes to take my business full time and live out my dream.”
The goals she wanted to achieve during our time together included:
- Creating a clear vision and plan for her next steps forward
- Implementing new systems and processes to streamline her business
- Increasing her confidence in herself and her business
- More financial freedom to create the lifestyle she envisions
- Quitting her 9-5 job and take her business full-time
- Improving her branding, marketing and social media knowledge
- Creating a work life balance of both loving what she does and still having time with her family
The Consequences
Next, we explore all of the consequences and unfavourable feelings that they will continue to experience if they decide to stay where they are in their business. This comparison allows them to see and analyze further proof of why they’re ready to take action.
The consequences of not investing in herself include continuing to:
- Feel a lack of confidence when showing up online and marketing herself
- Believe she doesn’t have enough experience to reach her version of success
- Have a lack of work life balance by having a 9-5 career while trying to get her business off the ground and taking care of her family
- Worry about not being able to have the same lifestyle and financial security if she takes her business full-time
- Stay stuck in her unfulfilling and disempowering 9-5 teaching career
- Let her negative self-talk guide her actions or lack of action
- Compare herself to other more experienced designers
Why Business Mindset Coaching?
Tracey: Why are you seeking these changes?
Celeste: I have generally enjoyed my career in education but I truly feel pulled towards design because that’s who I am. I am ready to have a job that fulfills me and actually increases my confidence everyday. I can’t wait until my kids watch and learn while their Mom runs an amazing business and I’d love to make my Mom even more proud!
Tracey: What do you want to get out of coaching the most?
Celeste: I want to get some insight as to whether or not I do really have what it takes to be a business owner. I worry about the possibility of owning a business that’s all consuming and I don’t want my family to suffer in order to pursue my dream.
“By far my biggest surprise was how helpful the mindset work was for me! My biggest, scariest limiting belief was that entrepreneurship is NOT safe, especially for me.”
The Results and Changes
Tracey: What has changed in your business since working together?
Celeste: When that doubt starts to creep in and I come up with all kinds of reasons why this might not work or why I shouldn’t do this, I now have so many tools that you gave me to change that narrative in my head.
Tracey: How has your overall life changed since working together?
Celeste: I feel much more confident in my skillset as a designer and as a business owner. In social situations, I can now speak with confidence rather than saying things like “Oh, I hope I can make a go of this! I can also now reframe those limiting beliefs that creep up rather than dwelling on them.”
Business Mindset Goals Achieved:
- Working towards going full-time in her business by January 2023
- Updated her website to reflect who she is and what makes her unique
- Investing in branding photography to elevate and uplevel her brand
- Implemented new client experience and payment processes with Honeybook
- Drafted her resignation letter
- Gained clarity on her ideal client to show up more consistently on social media
- Created a detailed step by step plan to map out her steps to going full-time
- Increased her overall confidence in her business
- Shifted her beliefs to those that were empowering and supportive of her version of success
Inspiring Words of Wisdom
Celeste: At the beginning of 1:1 coaching, I believed that it would take me at least a year (maybe two!) to get enough work to leave my full-time job. I now plan to leave my full-time job in a few short months. This TERRIFIED me before coaching and this EXCITES me now! I was worried that coaching wouldn’t be practical. I am a pretty logical, pragmatic person and was concerned that the sessions and the approach would be a little too “woo woo” for me.
By far my biggest surprise was how helpful the mindset work was for me! My biggest, scariest limiting belief was that entrepreneurship is NOT safe, especially for me. This fear that I had held from childhood would have continued crippling my progress. Now that I know it and have named it, I can acknowledge it and prove it wrong.
A successful business mindset journey is not easy for a start-up business. It takes the tiring long path to success.