Meet Doreen Amatelli, who is right on the verge of launching her redesigned business. I spoke with Doreen about her journey to rethink and reinvent her business and how she plans to take it in a different direction.
She started her first business as a career coach in 2004. She says, “It fit my lifestyle, it was very flexible, it allowed me to work at home and out of the corporate rat race. So I thought that was exactly what I wanted.”
She built her coaching business into a successful, full-time practice. “I did have a thriving practice where I was having my ideal clients come to me very focused on their career development and career aspirations, initially. But then they’d get laid off and our coaching went from being very strategic and open ended and adventure-filled, to very tactical. Clients would say ‘That’s great that I have all these dreams but I really need to get a job by next week.'”
What’s Next?
Within four years of starting her business, Doreen started to think, What’s next for me and my business? She says, “There is a little bit more of me that I wanted to give. I’m in my early 40s and I feel I want to say something: I want to be more informative. I want to share the tools and information I’ve learned over the years with more people. And that’s where my redesign started.”
Because of the changing needs of her clients and her own changing needs, Doreen started to explore new possibilities. She was still 100% committed to personal development topics, but as she puts it, “It’s just the model in which I deliver the services that is changing for me.”
She knew what she didn’t want, but wasn’t sure what she did want. It was a confusing time for her and she did a lot of journaling and working with her own coach to sort through the issues. “I just felt confused and I felt kind of lost — like there was a little bit of a grieving process in there for me. Here’s that dream that I thought I finally found and basically told the world about it, and now I’m not wanting to do that dream business anymore.”
Her Redesign Journey
In her journey through the business redesign phases, she came to realize that she loved when she worked with clients who were open to exploring themselves and what they wanted. Experience had taught Doreen a way to guide them through this process. She also discovered that she loved to teach most of all. “There are tried and true practices that have worked for my clients — and have worked for me, too — why not share that? I wanted a business model where I could impart that knowledge on a regular basis and provide those guidelines and tools to people on more of a massive scale than just one-on-one.”
It took her six months to find clarity on the services she’d offer and her exact target audience. Now she’s positioning herself as a workshop and seminar leader, offering workshops within corporations, and to the public through associations and groups.
Is her redesign process over? “I wouldn’t say I’m finalized, not ready to Put the Pen Down yet. It’s still a work in progress. I’m pursuing my dream but with a lot more experience and realism behind it. My feet are on the ground even though I can see the dream out there that I’m still committed to.”
Is she giving up coaching? Not exactly. She’s taking everything she’s learned as a coach and taking it up a notch. She says, “It’s almost like I gave myself a promotion.”
