Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in coaching but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Claire Read, founder, and CEO of ProSocial Dynamics, LLC., located in Denver, CO, USA.

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

ProSocial Dynamics, LLC, was created to fill a need for teams that are mentally healthy and resonant. Based on the Nobel prize-winning work of Dr. Elinor Ostrom, ProSocial helps teams to understand their negative, emotional triggers, how these impact trust and psychological safety thus infecting the entire team culture. We work with teams and their leaders either at start-up or when a team seems stuck with members unable to fully relate to each other or their shared purpose. Within a short period of time, ProSocial brings members into an understanding of their own emotional triggers and provides them with a framework to design their own self-governance charter. This allows them to identify the elements of the culture they want and provides a self-designed pathway to achieving it.

Tell us about yourself

ProSocial Dynamics, LLC sprang out of my knowledge of Dr. Ostrom when she started her overseas research in the 1990s, developing a systemic approach to governing the commons. The Prosocial method evolved from the thinking that Drs. Ostrom, Sloan Wilson, and Hayes advanced as they deepened their understanding that team space is a common property space. The system that emerged allows any group or team to understand their shared purpose and connect with it deeply. This, in turn, becomes a systemic process firmly embedded in what Dr. Ostrom termed the Core Design Principles. As the founder and CEO of ProSocial Dynamics and as someone with deep experience of team life with all of its complexities, I became passionate about the beauty, simplicity, and power of this method and joined the Prosocial Institute as a facilitator. I am energized and excited over the difference this method can make in team performance and wellbeing.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Founding ProSocial Dynamics was a major step led only by my experience and firm belief in its power. To date, we have applied Prosocial with teams both in the U.S and overseas. With the increasing importance given to teams, it's beautiful to see these teams come together and function in such committed ways.

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

For me, the hardest part of being a business owner is the ongoing need for marketing. I have to constantly keep in mind that it is an honor and a privilege to extend Dr. Ostrom's work now that she is deceased and can no longer help us. I am not selling anything. I am offering clients the opportunity to witness a process that is able to bring groups, teams, communities, and societies together in a way that creates a solid framework for cohesion, collaboration, and cooperation. It is a sacred trust.

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

Do not go it alone; make sure you have a colleague partnering with you. A solopreneur's life is a lonely one, and while accountability groups are great, having someone to share the journey with you is priceless. Make sure you have a business plan and a strategy in place and have a clear map of what it is you want to create and that your purpose, why do you do it, and who you serve are also clear in your mind and your business/marketing strategy. The third tip is to make sure you have a sufficient amount of capital in place and have a good understanding of the financing sources available to you.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Over the years, Prosocial has become a way of life for me. Governing my thinking and acting , Prosocial helps me to help groups and teams in ways that are ethical, values-based, and sustainable.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://prosocialdynamics.com/HOME
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairereadphd/

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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