Today we’d like to introduce you to Kachina Gosselin.
Kachina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Let’s gloss over the complicated childhood growing up with a single father in Woodstock, New York and skip to the part where I got a scholarship to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) one of the most prestigious technical colleges in the country.
Growing up I didn’t have peers who attended and graduated from university. After spending years preparing for the opportunity, I arrived at college feeling a little lost and unsure what major to choose. So, in true fashion, I chose the hardest, and most intriguing, course I could find: Aeronautics and Astronautics.
I mean, they had Mars rovers in the basements of the lab – How cool is that?!
As an undergraduate, I worked on the Mars Gravity Biosatellite, a project over ten years in the making, designed to send mice into space. The purpose was to study the impact of Martian gravity on them so that we could better understand how it would affect humans. But before it could launch, when I was a senior, the program was canceled due to budget cuts.
That event was the catalyst that changed my whole career path (though in retrospect the transition was probably inevitable).
I came to the decision then, without a doubt, that I had to be an entrepreneur.
I knew the journey to become my own business woman would be a challenge, to say the least. I had absolutely no one to look up to back then as a role model. But that wasn’t going to stop me. I was young, ambitious and driven. I taught myself to code in more languages, and like other techies in my graduating class I moved to San Francisco where I dove head first into the world of startups.
And what an adventure it was!
At just 23-years old I was working with newly launched startups and being introduced to cutting-edge technologies. But there was a downside, many of the business deals I witnessed were all flash and no substance. I began to see that startups in the valley operate as much on hype as they do on good business sense. I didn’t feel like I was learning as much as I wanted to.
At the same time, I felt a lack of deeper meaning in my work and my life.
So, I began to volunteer and travel in search of purpose.
First, I traveled to Haiti to learn about community-driven humanitarian efforts. Then to Bali to work on ocean conservation using virtual reality and 3D scanning tools. Finally, I visited Nepal where I was recruited to manage the Humanitarian Maker Faire. Each project was short-lived.
What I learned is that good intentions can only take you so far. You need good business sense to see any worthwhile venture reach its potential.
When I was in the fast-pace scene of the Bay, I thought that everyone else must have figured it out and felt the only one struggling. I had spent my life trying to stand out from my peers, after a while it took a toll on me.
I decided to try something new. Instead of following the motto “moving fast and breaking things” (a popular idiom in the valley) I would focus on “moving slow and doing things right”. And so, I began to build towards a new vision.
One of coaching six and seven-figure entrepreneurs to use personalized systems to streamline and scale their businesses so that they can have serve more clients at a higher-level. All with less stress and more freedom than ever before.
In early 2017, a family crisis took my best friend to Texas and, without hesitation, I chose to move with him. Having never been to Texas myself it was quite the transition – but one I am very grateful for. Now, in beautiful northern Dallas, I am serving high-impact individuals as a world-class systems coach.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I am grateful every day that I get to wake up and run my own business.
I have the pleasure to work from home with my puppy, Luna, sleeping in my lap. Most days are spent studying new processes and reviewing systems as I work in collaboration with my clients. It’s a luxury to have so much freedom, and I am fortunate to want for nothing.
But no, I’d have to say that it hasn’t always been so easy.
I would say that I didn’t choose entrepreneurship. It chose me.
It’s not a journey for everyone. There were many times that I was uncertain of my path. I was living in one of the most expensive cities in the world where being indecisive was costly. There were times that I could barely afford to pay rent.
I have always valued freedom more than money. So, I lived in a hip (read: illegal) circus warehouse in San Francisco, traveled when I could make time for it, and learned a lot about myself. The memories are priceless.
But they don’t pay the bills.
So, after a while I buckled down and began to focus on growing my freelance career. It didn’t take many clients before I was earning a decent wage working out of cafes from my laptop. Yet I wasn’t satisfied.
I knew that there was plenty of opportunity to build something bigger than myself. First, I needed to raise my ambitions. I thought long and hard about what made me unique and started selling a new offer at a higher price.
Within a few months, I had enough clients approach me that I could earn just shy of $20K per month, just me working for myself.
Finally, I had made it!
Somehow, the thought depressed me.
Just imagining the life I’d have to live to fulfill that workload made me want to burn it all to the ground. But I had just started “feeling like a success”.
Instead what I felt was that I had betrayed myself …
Why had I worked so hard for something I didn’t even want?
I was back to the drawing board. It was just like when I realized I had pursued a major in an industry that I never intended to work in.
Each stage of business growth brings its own unique challenges.
There comes a time in any business where the best investment you can make is hiring a coach. Someone who’s been through similar challenges and come out the other side. It was clear that’s what I needed to advance.
For me the timing was perfect.
Just as I started working with my coach, I got tendonitis.
Out of nowhere, I went from being just fine to not being able to code anymore. My hands hurt from simply holding my phone. I felt like an idiot. For someone making an hourly wage as a developer, it was a show stopper. My whole operations needed to change or my business would fail.
Though I didn’t feel like I was ready at the time, I hired a team.
Within six months, I was taking home a solid six-figure income while working fewer than 15 hours a week. I had learned to trust others to deliver on my behalf, hire properly and lead a team of dedicated contractors. I remained the main point of contact for my clients and they barely noticed the change in hours.
But they saw the results. With proper systems in place, my clients now received a higher-quality product and more responsive service. At the same time, my quality of life drastically improved. It was like day and night.
I felt I was onto something that other solopreneurs in service-based businesses, agency owners, as well as some startup founders, would benefit from. And so, Founders Path was born. I designed my program to teach entrepreneurs to become a systemized CEO. Fully in charge of their business and their life.
Founders Path leverages my technical skills that I spent years honing at MIT and in the Bay Area. Finally, I found something deeply fulfilling and meaningful to pursue. By serving as a coach, I get to give back to fellow business owners that want to reclaim their lives while pursuing their ambitions.
So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into Founders Path story. Tell us more about the business.
Founders Path provides a unique personalized roadmap for your business to achieve what you define as success. I work alongside my clients to set up the systems with the intention to discover their “zone of genius”. By focusing on their strengths, we find that our clients become more confident, and as they streamline and scale their businesses, they move into a leadership role.
In a society that heralds individual accomplishments too many of us get caught up in trying to do everything all on our own. We judge ourselves by impossible standards and burn the candle at both ends until we burn out.
In know, I’ve been there myself.
We’ve all heard the old adage to “work smarter, not harder” but few of us know how to put that into practice. By default, we work IN the business not ON it.
That’s what I’d like to change.
With so much riding on the success of their businesses, I want the entrepreneurs I work with to feel at ease knowing that their company is not completely dependent on their presence.
I like to remind my clients that without strong business foundations in place they ARE the business. Meaning if they get sick or burn out that their business will likely suffer as well. In the worst-case scenario it may even collapse.
Hopefully they put systems in place before that happens.
As a business coach one of the things that I teach my clients is how to move up the Leadership Ladder: from being a freelancer who does all the work alone, to a manager holding the team accountable, to becoming a CEO who can truly lead. After working together, my clients are able to take their dream vacation (that they never made time for before) without worrying about whether their business can sustain (for at least a short period!)
Ultimately, I coach entrepreneurs to become better leaders. In the end they have more trust in themselves and their team to execute their vision – and to overcome future challenges themselves. Our program is different from others out there because it’s not about learning some fancy software tool or a single process. It’s designed to teach fundamental principles that help them adapt and scale at any stage in the growth of their business.
Other programs typically sell systems that worked at only one stage of business. They overcomplicate the process or suggest steps that are out of sequence. This can be frustrating, depressing or down-right dangerous for many business owners.
While what I do can be rather technical at times at the core, I help my clients discover how to build a business around their life. I ask questions like,
Why did they get into business in the first place?
What’s their definition of success?
Maybe they want to travel the world as a digital nomad (like I once dreamed of) or maybe it’s being more present with loved ones and financially supporting their dreams (my new definition).
Remember: You get to decide what success means to you. It’s different for everyone. And it’s okay if it changes too. I believe there’s more to life than the hustle and grind and that work should be a means to an end…. not an end in and of itself.
For me, I’ve found joy in building a life for myself in Dallas. My business provides a stable and loving home, and allows me to be there for my loved ones. And I have the freedom explore all my passions.
It would be great to hear about any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve used and would recommend to others.
To change your life let yourself slow down and escape the daily grind. As a starting point I recommend downloading Headspace and practicing meditation. Then read Atomic Habits to learn how tiny changes in our lives, from our habits, choices and values, can add up to remarkable results.
But most of all, I want to thank:
My father, who is industrious and carefree in the right measures. He keeps me humble and reminds me of my roots. Everything I do is for him. My best friend, Andrew, for showing me how to find courage and wisdom in self-reflection. He has been there for me through it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.founderspath.io
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/founderspathio
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kachinagosselin
Image Credit:
Andrew Cottingham, Abigail Allen
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