This is part of a series called "One Entrepreneur's Journey," where I'm talking with solo entrepreneurs about their successes (and failures) along the path of entrepreneurship.

In this interview, I spoke with Lynda Monk, a registered social worker and life and wellness coach with Creative Wellness, whose services and programs support balanced living and well-being among those who help others.

Tell me a little about your business.

My business is Creative Wellness, and I'm a registered social worker and life coach.  The majority of my work is supporting people who give a lot of themselves to others - helping professionals, leaders, busy professional women - to really step back and see how they're caring for themselves.  How are they tending to things like life balance, stress management, what's fulfilling and satisfying in their lives?  The real heart of it is the art of self-care, what's beautiful about taking care of oneself.  So often people get busy and, without even realizing it, start neglecting their own needs and well-being, so my business is about helping them put that back on the radar and make caring for themselves a priority.

How did you get your start as an entrepreneur?

I got my start ten years ago.  I was working as a social worker in a hospital, and while I loved my work as a front line social worker, I'd been doing that for almost ten years in a fairly high risk, high trauma work environment - child protection, children's mental health, working in the intensive care unit and emergency department of a hospital.  While I liked that work, I really started getting more interested in how that type of work impacts the people who are getting out of bed every day doing it.  How do social workers, nurses, doctors, other professional care givers take care of themselves while they're doing the type of work that's really caring for and tending to the emotional needs of others?

I decided instead of doing that work, I wanted to create my own business where I could support the people who are doing the work and help them prevent professional burnout and really tend to taking care of themselves while they're in service to other people.  I left my job, and I left the community I was living in, relocated, and created my business.

Let's talk a bit about strengths and weaknesses.  What do you think are your biggest struggles as an entrepreneur?

Well, I would say weaknesses, one is that I give a lot away for free.  For example, I produced a CD last year, and it cost me about $4,000 to produce, and I've given hundreds of them away.  I also wrote a book earlier this year, and again, the book cost me about $2,000 to self-publish, and I've given many of those away.  I give away lots of free coaching sessions, and so I think really claiming the value in these things and just paying attention.  I think there's a weakness there around the amount of stuff I give away for free.

There are people who I consider to be very successful, and they don't necessarily wait until everything is perfect to take action.  They just take action.  They figure it out as they go, and they make mistakes, and they correct the course.  I think I could benefit from doing more of that.  I'm a real take action person.  If I say I'm going to do something, I put a plan together and get it done, but I think for my big vision, my big dreams for my business, I can hold back a bit, kind of waiting until a bit more of it is organized.

So, those are sort of weaknesses or areas of growth.

What do you think you're getting right so far as an entrepreneur?

I think my strengths are that I'm pretty self-aware.  I do my work with my own coach.  I'm a regular journal writer.  I really try to be paying attention to what's working, what isn't, and I'm a visionary.  I really put a vision in front of myself and get down to it.  I think my greatest strength is that I really take my business seriously.  As an entrepreneur, you're working for yourself, and from the moment I started my business, I created a schedule for myself, and it's ebbed and flowed with the reality of my life, but I show up.  If I've written in my day planner that I'm working from nine to four, I'm at my desk working from nine to four.  I keep regular office hours.  My business is part of my daily life, and that's really easy for me.  I think it's a real strength.  I'm highly self-motivated.  I don't need external feedback or external pressures to put me into action.

What's your advice for new entrepreneurs?

I'm thinking of entrepreneurs that I've worked with in my coaching practice and often see a theme of getting lost in the small details.  "How will I set up my filing system?  What will my letterhead look like?"  They'll get mired down in all of that before they really get cracking.  I think it's really helpful, especially starting out, to start at the bigness.  "What's my vision here?  What's my purpose in the world?  What do I really want my work and my business to accomplish?  What impact do I want this business to have?  Who am I here to serve?"  Get really connected there, and then figure out the how.  We often come at it backward.

It really is.  When you start a business, you think in reverse.  You start by going to the office supply store, thinking that that's where it begins.  In the beginning, in the first few years, I spent so much time at the office supply store, thinking that the answer was there.  Now I know that all that is just stuff.  The answers aren't there.  It's funny to think about it. 

Right, and the other thing is the importance of being organized and systematized, this notion of setting up systems that work.  That helps to have a sense of mastery so that the focus can be on the work, not all of the fiddling around.

The other piece, when I first started my business, I thought I knew what people would want.  What I had to learn the hard way is that the best way to know how I can be of service to people and to know what they want and what's really important to them is to ask them.  I have way more conversations now with my clients about what's up with them, challenges they're dealing with, problems that they're having, solutions they're looking for.  How can I be a possible solution for them?  I really engage in conversations that are much less about me talking about what I do and much more about what they want.  That's made a huge difference.

Also, getting around other really successful entrepreneurs, people who are on fire about their businesses and their work in the world, that kind of inspiration and faith is so important.  Really seek that out.