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Start:ME Spotlight:
Hannah Coker
Organization
Wholehearted Business Consulting
Community
Clarkston
Bio
Hannah is a management consultant who works primarily with women and social entrepreneurs to help them start-up, scale, and grow
You've been a Start:ME mentor for several years now, what keeps you coming back?
"It’s great to see the cohorts come together and work though the business planning process together"
I love helping the entrepreneurs along their journey. It’s great to see the cohorts come together and work though the business planning process together, and it’s fun to see where they take their businesses after the program has wrapped up, with all that they have learned from the program.
You like to work with heart-centered businesses. Can you define that for us and why do you think it is important?
"Businesses need to care more about their impact on the world around us, and not just from a feel-good marketing campaign perspective, but from a real impact perspective."
Heart-centered businesses are those who want to make a difference in the lives of others and also be financially successful. I think it is important for more businesses to be built with the heart involved. I believe that you can both make money and do good in the world at the same time. We are human, and we care about the businesses we build and the lives we impact in the process. It’s ok for our humanness to show up in our businesses and be core to those businesses. Businesses need to care more about their impact on the world around us, and not just from a feel-good marketing campaign perspective, but from a real impact perspective. We can do better, and we must do better for the survival of our planet and the people we impact. Those better, kinder actions can be woven into every business decision we make. Those are the types of businesses I most want to work with and help to grow.
You are an entrepreneur yourself! Can you share a little about what you've started and how those experiences help you mentor other entrepreneurs?
"I learned a LOT in my first year. By analyzing my results, and learning from my fellow artists who have been doing this longer than I have, I am able to be more strategic about how I approach my business. "
A couple of years ago I began painting again, after a 25 year hiatus. Last year, I started showing my work at arts festivals around town, which was really big step for me. My dream of being a “real artist” was squashed so long ago, that I never even got to the point where I had a dream of presenting or selling my art at arts festivals, so it was pretty overwhelming. I learned a LOT in my first year. By analyzing my results, and learning from my fellow artists who have been doing this longer than I have, I am able to be more strategic about how I approach my business. One thing I learned is that business building is an iterative process. We all have to start somewhere, and by being brave enough to take the first steps, putting ourselves out there and starting before we feel ready at times, seeing what happens, taking that information and then crafting our next steps purposefully, we begin to build momentum. From these expierences I've learned that it’s important to observe where we can get in our own way, what beliefs we have that hold us back, and to do the work to change our belief systems and address our tendencies to self-sabotage, so that we can show up and contribute what we are capable of. I try to pass these lessons on to the Start:ME businesses so that hopefully we all can stay true to building a life and business that we love, where our offerings are well received and we are sustained both emotionally and financially.
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