A Q&A with a GVSU alum who is making her mark in the business world and beyond
By Kayla Sosa
Veronica Kirin is an international entrepreneur coach and hosts an online community called the Audacious Entrepreneur Sandbox. She is also the author of the book “Stories of Elders.”
CEI: Let’s start off by talking about what makes you an entrepreneur.
Kirin: I identify as an entrepreneur because I create and maintain my own income. My titles are entrepreneur coach, speaker, author. Those are the three ways that I’m making money right now, those are my income streams.
CEI: What does your work look like as an entrepreneur coach?
Kirin: I coach audacious entrepreneurs who are building their empire in order to change the world. So, people who are very service-oriented and very passionate and they have huge dreams. They’re thinking way bigger than this next new client or this next new product. They’re thinking about a multi-leveled, multi-tiered, 10-year, 20-year, 50-year plan. They are literally building an empire.
I work specifically in the space of “scaling,” because you cannot have a multi-tiered business without scaling your business.
My zone of genius is working with people who have really big ideas and connecting all the dots and making a map that lasts a lifetime.
CEI: What is “scaling” and its importance in business?
Kirin: Business scaling is developing your business model so you work yourself out of your business, to some extent. A lot of entrepreneurs start their businesses and they revolve everything around themselves. They’re doing all the social media, they’re doing all the sales and marketing and the actual work for the business. And so when it comes time to, say, take a vacation or have a family, they can’t. Because otherwise their business suffers, or one of the other ones suffer.
Scaling means that we shift the business model so that things are being delegated. The work is no longer being done by just one person, or just a team of people. And eventually they can step out and stay in the idea space, if they want to, or leave completely. It gets them out of the work and back into the dreaming.
CEI: How does your coaching expand beyond business?
Kirin: I am a business consultant and life coach combined. So, one client today, she’s not utilizing me to my fullest potential and thus she’s not using her spend on a coach to its fullest extent. She’s not getting her bang for her buck, effectively. And so I told her today, my life-coaching moment was, you have to find a reason every single day to message me. And if you do, you get a piece of chocolate. It basically coming down to, she doesn’t know how to ask for help. She admits that, and it’s not just me, it’s her whole life, but I am the person who’s going to say, let’s put training wheels on and make that happen so that you grow in other spaces. So that’s the life coaching side. But then the business coaching side says, here’s how to do your social media. So, it’s more about the doing than the personal development part.
CEI: What’s the importance of having both business and life coaching blended together?
Kirin: An entrepreneur’s life is pretty much tied to their business, in that their business can actually taint their mood. But in the same vein, if something is going on with their life, it will take the business. I am available to work in both spaces so that if a client has something going on in their life, we can work through that and they can still have the benefit of having a coach and their business doesn’t take a hit because of it.
CEI: Any advice for entrepreneurs based on your experiences?
Kirin: The biggest lie that entrepreneurs are telling themselves is that they are the only ones who can do what they do. While they may have a special sauce, they can bottle it and teach it to a team and grow. If you stay in your business and do it all yourself, you’re going to just burn out. That was my biggest ‘aha’ moment, that was what changed everything.
I love telling people, if you already have an idea, you can do it. You wouldn’t have the idea if you didn’t already have the things that you need within you in order to execute it. It may seem daunting, it might seem scary, it might be something that’s never been done before, but you have what it takes to do it.
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