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Name: Susan McVea

Business: Susan McVea Consulting

Location: Vancouver, Canada

Industry: Professional Services

Reason for starting? After spending 20 years in a lucrative corporate sales leadership career, a life threatening health condition forced me to walk away. Literally choosing between my life and my job. I spent 1.5 years being instead of doing. Re-evaluating what success meant for me and my family. I realized this was an opportunity for me to serve others and use my skills and experience to help other women who were struggling to build their dream businesses. I decided to start my business not intending for it to be a business, but a way to serve others, impact my community and create balance in my life. So I could actually do something I love and am really good at without impacting my family and my health.

Related: Read about another business coach here.

How do you define success? Success is personal. Success is evolving. Success means you call the shots and live life unapologetically in line with your values and priorities.

Biggest success: In about 6 months of growing my online business I’ve achieved $100K in sales revenue. But the reason why that’s my biggest success is not the dollar value. It’s that I’ve been able to help almost 40 amazing women in their business journey. I’ve realized so much about myself on this entrepreneurial journey. Honoring my health and family priorities has meant asking for help early on. Without the support of my coach and team I know I wouldn’t have been able to help all of these women. I’m so blessed to have that opportunity and do something I love while I help other women do what they love.

What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? Being brand new to the online space and having my Facebook profile for about 1 year now, figuring out social media marketing was like learning a brand new language. Balancing building a business while learning how to do it was hard. I realized I needed help and support so I wouldn’t burn out. I hired a coach so I could learn faster. I also hired a virtual assistant team so I could focus on my areas of strength.

I was in a major car accident that left me with chronic pain and illness. Balancing my life and business is always a struggle. As a recovering workaholic, I truly love what I do, but what I do is not who I am. As a result, I’m always looking for ways to make my business feel easy and fun. I invest in systems and structures and support. For me it’s worth the cost to save time, but more importantly to save myself.

Related: Turning Setbacks into Triumphs 

Who is your most important role model? Oprah has had the biggest influence in my life. I remember coming home from school to watch her on the TV. She taught me a lot about how to be a better person and it’s through her that I realized my purpose in life was to help and serve others.

[box_light]Website   Www.susanmcvea.com
Twitter   www.twitter.com/susanmcvea
Facebook   www.facebook.com/susanmcvea[/box_light]

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Edited by The Story Exchange