Jen Coffel sits down with Trisha Bowers and Andrea Herran on this episode of The Science of Business Development. These powerhouse women share their experiences building successful companies and the lessons learned along the way.
Andrea works with small businesses ensuring that they grow through their people. She helps them by defining and improving upon their culture and other HR initiatives. Trisha is an area manager at Wintrust Mortgage where she and her team work dailly to help people achieve home ownership.
Each shares their own stories of how they got to where they are today. For Andrea, her HR inspiration came from her parents. From them she learned about the human side of business:
“If people aren't working together, aren't happy with what they're doing, aren't enjoying what they're doing, it doesn't matter if they're good or not.”
While Tricia’s parents were real estate agents, the real catalyst to her endeavor into the mortgage industry stemmed from an experience she had working at a martial arts school. At the time she would put together retail purchase agreements for parents that wanted to put their kids through a 36 month black belt program. A chance encounter with a bank president one the phone kicked off a chain of events that led Trisha to where she is today.
The two women share with Jen the challenges they faced along the way, how they overcame them, where they found their inspiration (including some book recommendations), building relationships, and the advice they have for others starting their own business.
Tune in and listen to these accomplished women share the science behind each of their successes.
Jen Coffel is the CEO of Engaging Speakers, a successful business coach, a philanthropist, and a best-selling author of four books. She has been featured on Inc.com, ABC News, and the Chicago Tribune. Jen has been mentored by speaking icons like Jack Canfield, Nick Vujicic, and Sandra Yancey, and has spoken on stage to over 10,000 people. With two decades of business experience, Jen built her first four businesses to six-figures each, all in under a year and all in different industries. She has now helped over a thousand entrepreneurs build their businesses, with many reaching six-figure and seven-figure revenues. Jen has an innovative and down to earth speaking style audiences love. Her speaking topics include: “5 Secrets to Transform Your Business Into a $100k Profit Center" and “Leveraging Speaking to Get All the Clients You Want in Half the Time.”
In her previous career, she developed the largest team in Illinois for a billion-dollar direct sales company, personally generating over $25 million in sales and raising over $1 million in donations for nonprofits. But she is most proud of founding her own international nonprofit, Handing Hope, which brings comfort and smiles to children battling cancer in twelve states and three countries around the world. Jen resides outside of Chicago with her four incredible teenagers: Madison, Luke and Lindsey (twins), Abby, and of course the family dog “Raider.” She stays active between speaking engagements by spending time in nature with her family, reading every book she can get her hands on, and serving in her faith-based ministry, “Beautifully Transparent.”
