Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in consultancy but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Nicole Wright, CEO of Mahone Consulting, located in Ellendale, Tennessee, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I own a consulting and coaching company catering to female entrepreneurs.
Tell us about yourself
I was at an interview set up by the temporary agency I was affiliated with. As I sat in the lobby, I glanced at their organizational chart and noticed that only two women held an executive position. And that was Human Resources and Customer Relations. This infuriated me because I know that there are more women graduates than men. They are just as capable, if not more given their feminine energy. I declined the interview, and I knew that there had to be a way to level the playing field. I started consulting/coaching in 2007, and I was strictly on MySpace. But the opposite effect happened. All of my clients were men! Apparently, I had a knack for helping guys get noticed in the rap industry. With my husband being a music producer, I was familiar with how the game was played. Many of them wanted me to be their manager, but there was no purpose or passion for what I was doing. I was coaching and consulting to a particular audience, and it was lucrative. I began to wonder how these men were able to pay for my services because none of them ever mentioned that they were employed. I suspected that they made money illegally and I decided that I needed to walk away from that business because I didn’t want to tarnish my reputation by affiliation.
Then I remembered how I felt on that interview and decided that I would coach female entrepreneurs so that can transition into a powerhouse CEO and earn six figures in the process. What keeps me motivated is the severe economic disparity between men and women and the fact that we are underrepresented in many industries. I’m on a mission to coach 100K ladies. Is that realistic? I’m not sure, but I will be coaching & consulting for the next two or three decades, so I got time.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
The first group cohort I had is still called the 6-Figure CEO Goddess program. It’s a year-long group coaching program that covers everything from mindset to marketing and execution of various strategies.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
The hardest thing for me is prospecting. The online education space is nearly a $15 billion-a-day industry, so it’s getting extremely saturated, making it harder to cut through the noise.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Develop resilience. You will go through a bunch of 'nos' before you get a 'yes'. To gain experience, I coached for one hour for free in exchange for a testimonial. You build social proof, and those people might end up being your clients.
- Reverse engineer your goals. When you write down the goals like this, it's results-oriented, and it's being proactive in your business instead of reacting to the market.
- Embrace the failures. You're most likely going to get some things wrong as you begin your entrepreneurial journey. The failures are your stepping stones to success. Learn the lesson from that failure, and don't repeat it. You will eventually get things going in the right.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://mahoneconsulting.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mahoneconsulting/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mahoneconsulting/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mahone_consult
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mahone-consulting-co/
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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