15 minutes with member Sherene Strahan

Describe your “aha” moment; when did your business idea first come to you?

My ‘aha’ moment went like this: ‘People keep saying they want me to teach them what I know about writing. Aha – I could start a business doing that.’ It was followed by ‘Uh oh – I don’t know what I know, and even if I could work it out, how would I show people and make money from it?’

That was in 2015 and it’s taken me three years to answer that question! Strangely enough, the business I thought I would start hasn’t changed at all: to show people the mindset and skills that will help them master and enjoy writing to market their business.

Describe the “why” of your business

As a former TV journalist, I’m fortunate to have had some wonderful training and experience in writing for an audience. I really want to share what I know so that businesses can reach and serve their potential audience with content that’s worth it for everyone.

List your three biggest business goals? Which of them scare you the most and why.

My biggest goal is to create online courses that will equip, empower and inspire people to write much more and much better for their business. This one scares me the most because I’m not comfortable with the tech side of digital business and I know the learning curve will be huge.

The other two: To do as much speaking as possible to audiences of people who get a buzz from writing and creating great quality content, and to develop a body of work (written and video) that can be a reference and an inspiration to those same people.

Has anything surprised you about working for yourself?

How much I missed collaborating with a team on a shared goal – which is partly why this year I also took on a marketing/communications position. And strangely, despite having a job and a business to fuel, I’m actually more productive than ever before because I have to be.

Once you became a soloist, what about your life changed almost immediately; what changes have been slower to come?

My confidence dropped straight away because I felt isolated and vulnerable. There were plenty of horrible times where you compare yourself to others and ‘know’ in your gut that you can’t do it. Those self-doubts actually led me to make a commitment to do meditation and some physical activity every day so that I could protect me from myself. And meditating has led to the slower and more healthy changes – things like getting better at setting achievable goals and working out the steps that will get me there.

What’s the best part of the life you’re living now you’re a soloist?

I got  serious about achieving my personal and professional goals NOW instead of thinking they would happen ‘when the time was right’. I learnt the time is never right but it’s ok to take action. So last year, after talking for years about having a horse of my own one day, I started leasing my beautiful mare Jess. She’s my joy and my challenge, and I made it happen. I’m really proud of that.

Got a tip you’d like to share with our community about soloism?

Set learning goals for yourself and invest the time/money/whatever you need to make them happen. The rate of change now is massive and we will get left in the dirt if we don’t keep learning.