Welcome to the That’s What She Said interviews –an exciting series to learn about the woman behind the business. You’ll be meeting amazing women who are sharing their gifts with the world through their work. These are the people who inspire me with their creativity, heart and tenacity.

I want you to know them too.

Meet Corrina Gordon-Barnes

Corrina Gordon-Barnes is a self-employment coach who enables talented people around the globe to enjoy the impact and income they deserve. She leads the step-by-step Turn Your Passion To Profit programme for groups and individuals and through home-study. She’s the author of Turn Your Passion To Profit: a step-by-step guide to getting your business off the ground and has a monthly business column in Om Yoga & Lifestyle Magazine.  Her work has also been featured in Cambridge News, The London Paper, The Ecologist, Caduceus, Permaculture Magazine, Diva Magazine, The Vegan, Earth Pathways Diary and Health 24. And, even Anthony Robbins has referred to her as “an articulate and passionate agent for change”!

I first met Corrina in 2010 when I fell in love with her blog.  She instantly became a resource for me as I grew my own business. Over the last few years our online interactions have grown into Skype meet-ups. And now, Corrina and I have a real, genuine friendship.  We connect every two weeks via Skype and talk about everything from marriage to smoothies to business. We keep it real with each other.  We refer clients to each other. We support each other when times are sticky and celebrate when we’re rocking it out. It’s pretty damn cool when online relationships develop into true friendships like this!

You can learn more about Corrina here.

What She Said . . .

1. I encourage women to build their business by being in their element.  What’s your element?

My element is clarity. I love taking something complex – like marketing! – and making it simple. Self-employed people tend to come to me when they’re overwhelmed by possibilities, foggy about where to get started and unclear on who they are truly here to serve. I ask the just-right questions that give them light-bulb moments; the fog lifts and clarity is what’s left. They’re then able to help more people and receive a healthy income doing what they most love.

2. From your early twenties to today, how has your relationship to yourself changed?

I’ve become more grounded. In my early 20s, I consciously discovered the spiritual path; at first it was blissful and exhilarating but eventually it spun me out and I lost my footing. I went off into a world of my own. This past decade, I’ve come to know a deep and unconditional sense of safety. I now have a solid daily connection with Source and that connection keeps me calm and present and moving forward at a sustainable pace. I’ve also got serious about fitness, healthy eating and my clothing style so my body is a pleasure to live with these days – and from a business perspective, this has a knock-on effect on my confidence on stage, networking, and even on Skype calls. 

3. What are the three most important decisions you’ve made in your business so far?

 1.  Deciding to make money. Like many of us, I love this work so much I’d do it for free and in the early days I was really just running an expensive hobby; I was using my “business” to share ideas and connect with people and I received a trickle of money back in response. I realised it wasn’t fair on my partner to expect her to shoulder the majority of our expenses and it also wasn’t fulfilling for me. Impact and income go hand in hand because they’re both the result of focusing on serving people and running a needs-based business. Many of my clients come to me because they’re not convinced they can make money by following their passion. We absolutely can – yes, even in a recession – because income is a natural by-product of creating products and services that meet real needs. We then have to allow the money in, which can actually be a challenge because there’s that voice inside which says we’re not good people if we accept good money for doing our heart-led work.

 2.   Deciding to take on help. I now have an in-house Tech Genius (Daniel) who’s a God-send. He handles all my back-end tech matters which frees me up to create content and strategise. I write the blog post; he formats it and sends it out. I create a program; he sets up the payment systems and infrastructure that enable me to deliver it.

 3.    Deciding to connect every day with Source. All my business decisions are guided – from setting prices, to choosing the next product to offer, to knowing which networking event to attend. This connection gives me an unconditional sense of safety which doesn’t depend on how many clients I have, or how much revenue came in last month. And the irony is, more clients and money flow in when we don’t “need” them to.

4. What disappointment has given you the greatest gift?

I developed RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) right in the middle of writing my first book. It was physically painful but also emotionally distressing because I adore writing and the prospect of not being able to type freely again was unthinkable. I was also teaching my first big group program and couldn’t communicate with those participants as much as I thought I should. It became a great gift because it forced me to implement certain practical boundaries for myself. I put RSI Guard software onto my computer which I still use; it freezes my keyboard every 20 minutes so I have to take a short comfort break. It also got me rethinking email use and what constituted “enough”. I communicated new expectations with my clients – namely that I check email just once a day and only reply if absolutely necessarily. I see email and social media use as one of the greatest time-drains for self-employed people so I’m grateful I can model a different, more liberating way of interacting with our inboxes.

5.  What do you wish you had known when you first began your business?

I wish I’d known that I could do less. I wish I’d known about the concept of niche because when I got clear about that, I stopped wasting time. In the beginning, I was creating all these different offerings for all these different people. Now, I’m super focused on who I call my Tribe and everything I do is to serve them.

6. What’s in your “biz tool kit” that you use every day?

 I love Gmail – it makes email easy and most days I achieve the nirvana that is Inbox Zero. I use Buffer to pre-schedule tweets so I don’t waste time playing around on Twitter. I have a very simple paper diary and a one page day plan I write up the night before so I’m strategic about what tasks to prioritise. It also helps me get realistic about how many hours there are in a day! I use the Eat the Frog approach (Brian Tracey) to do the most important tasks first and beat the procrastination beast.  I have wonderful Daniel to bounce new ideas around with and I send him all those tech tasks I don’t want to do. And I use PayPal daily – I don’t mind the fees because it takes the stress out of client payments. 

 7.  If you had $10,000 to spend on your business right now, how would you use the money?

Great question! I’d get Jo Bradshaw  to design bespoke images for all my products and services and all my blog posts going forward. She’s a client of mine and very talented.

8.  What is your six word business memoir? (Adapted from Smith Magazine’s Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure)

Market Well, to Help More People.

9.  What special project are you working on right now?

I’ve launched a new masterclass: How to Blog to Get Clients. I love blogging and understand how powerful it is when we know what we’re doing and we make our blog work for us in our business sales cycle. Many business owners don’t have this enjoyment or understanding so this course demystifies blogging. Participants will discover why and how to blog, the elements of an effective blog, and how blogging leads to paying clients. It’s a 4-week online course and enrollment is now open.

Corrina Gordon-Barnes helps self-employed people to find clients and earn a healthy living; she works with coaches, complementary therapists, designers, editors and other service professionals. She’s the author of Turn Your Passion To Profit: a step-by-step guide to getting your business off the ground and lives in Cambridge, England. Find out more and say hello at http://youinspireme.co.uk.

A special give-away!

To celebrate the wonderful work that Corrina is up to in the world she is giving away a copy of her Getting Clients Starter Kit – If you’re wondering whether to niche, not sure how to set your prices, and keen to help more people become your clients, come along to Corrina’s virtual classroom where you’ll find three audio classes and transcriptions to get you started.

 UPDATE:  Marcie Scudder is the winner of the “Getting Clients Starter Kit”!

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