GET COACHING WITH... {{ WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR { SHIFT+CONTROL } }}
ANDREA HOLLAND BY ANDREA HOLLAND
POWERFUL. WHITE. MEN. When I launched my business almost a decade ago, white men of influence were the target audience I tried most to impress. Why? Because they were the high-ranking, executive professionals who had the money and power to sign off on the coaching programs and services I offered. In other words: rich white dudes were the decisionmakers with the dough. So I aimed for them - without, honestly, even realizing it. Much of my career until that point had been dominated by older white men; men who were my friends, my bosses, my bosses’ bosses, and my colleagues. And, many are still some of my most prominent clients and biggest allies and supporters. As a brown-skinned woman working in a professional world run predominantly by white men, I never questioned if white men were even the audience I wanted to serve. Like air, they were simply everywhere and having access to them was always beneficial for me...so, it was natural that I sought their approval when I was my most vulnerable as a newly-minted entrepreneur. Today - almost a decade later - guess who dominates my list of high-ranking, executive clients who have the money and the power to sign off on the coaching programs and services I offer. Black women. Yes, my black queens. It makes me so happy to say this. Yes, the world has 90
ROCHESTER WOMAN ONLINE : APRIL EDITION 2021
changed in 10 years: women today have greater influence and access to advanced levels of professional roles than ever before - so there are more women and women of color in need of the type of coaching I offer. I also recognize that their appearance in my book of clientele is due in large part because I worked to attract them. I adore every single one of my clients.
The white men, black women and every other definition of person who works with me are truly gems; they are multifaceted and shine incredibly brightly in the work they do. The truth is: my clients have only diversified because I have. I have evolved...and it wasn’t by chance. See, when I first started out, I was wound up tighter than a 4c coil. I had big goals and I was CERTAIN that getting approval from white, male executives
would bolster my success - so that’s who I targeted in all my branding: my professional headshots, website language, sales approach and social profiles. Every part of the way I sold my brand catered - knowingly or not - to white males. And, it worked - just like it always had throughout my career. There was a challenge, though: limiting myself to only that brand identity was exhausting. Yes, I could be all the things my clients at that time needed me to be, AND I could also be funny, soulful, caring, honest, unapologetically smart, curious and free. But, being those things sometimes came with a price: questions about my value and the prices I charged (I was no more or less expensive than my counterparts), challenges to my coaching methodologies (I’d had 15 years of experience in professional communications & marketing at that point, so it wasn’t my first time at “the rodeo”), and audible doubts about my ability to “mesh well” with certain types of clients (that was more of a coachability issue on their part than an identity issue on mine, I later realized). The audience I was working so hard to impress was accepting me...with strings attached. And, the strings were starting to choke me. It was time for a change; a re-branding. I needed to show up in my business as I wanted to be. I worked with a friend on a fresh new start for my website, my social profiles and more. In that effort, I freed myself to be who
