Wendy Porter had a stable career working in corporate America, with a steady six-figure salary. But when Porter was diagnosed with cancer six years ago, it changed her perspective on what was important to her and led her to a period of soul-searching. Ultimately, she decided to leave her corporate career behind and start her own business, Crowned for Success. Today the Glendale, Arizona entrepreneur is running her women’s empowerment network for, “Soulful” CEOS on social media. It’s a coaching business that mentors women to reach their highest potential in business, life and relationships.
Porter’s story, as told to The Story Exchange 1,000+ Stories Project:
We are the largest Women’s Empowerment Network for Soulful CEOs on social media. We are a coaching business that mentors women to reach their highest potential in business, life and relationships.
Six years ago I went through cancer. It was during that time that I was forced to slow down after working 10-12 hours a day in corporate America. I went through a soul searching phase, trying to figure out what life is about, and what my purpose and calling in life are. During that soul searching phase I discovered that my passion has always been empowering women and my experience was building, running and operating multi-million dollar companies in corporate America. So I decided to combine my passion and experience and create a company that would allow me to work from anywhere so I could be at home with my 8 and 10 year olds at the time. A company that would make a profound impact in women’s lives across the globe and a company that gave me financial independence and freedom to be my own boss and make my own rules. I built my dream company.
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My definition of success is: happiness. Also making an impact on other people’s lives and their financial freedom. We have built this little dream company into a million dollar company with over a million followers on social media and we have served over 5,000 clients in 29 different countries.
Our top challenge was scaling so fast. It required a lot of hours until I was able to hire talent that could do the job. I hired people whose strengths were my weaknesses. So being able to identify your weaknesses in business is a critical component to hiring amazing talent. Also relinquishing control can be challenging when you’ve been operating as a one woman show. You have to learn not only how to delegate but also how to trust.
My experience with cancer shaped who I am today and inspired me to open my business. My ex-husband of 23 years did not support my business and even mocked me when I expressed how many followers I had on Instagram. He never once asked if he could help me when he saw me killing myself to get my business up and running while working a full time job and being the primary care taker of our 2 young children. Needless to say, he’s now my ex-husband.
It was hard dealing with the opinions of others too; a lot of my friends and some family members thought I was crazy trying to build an online business. They all thought I should just concentrate on my six figure career in corporate America. They didn’t believe in my vision so I used it as fuel to push even harder to achieve success. Not everyone is going to support you or even understand what you’re trying to do so you have to learn how to be your own biggest cheerleader.
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Oprah is definitely a BIG role model for me. She has been through so much in her life and has faced so many adversities and still came out on top. She is real and says it like it is, which I admire in women. She still struggles with her weight even with all her success which makes her relatable to me and so many other women that are working on or who have overcome body image issues. She’s intelligent, ambitious, and strong but still soft and soulful. All qualities I admire in women.
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