WOMEN in the SPOTLIGHT
Inside: Women in the Spotlight is a series of interviews that highlight successful entrepreneurs, educators, small business owners, and online influencers with the goal to inspire, educate, and motivate other women in their personal and professional lives. If you’d like to be featured in the series, email YOUR story to: Karenferguson@illuminatecommunications.org
QUESTIONS WITH LYNNE CURRY, FOUNDER OF COMMUNICATION WORKS, INC.
What inspired you to start your own business and how long did it take before it became
profitable?
After running an alcohol, drug abuse and suicide clinic in Nome, Alaska, where a group of teenage peer counselors and I took the suicide rate from 44 times national average to 0 and kept it at 0 for three years, I was ready for something new.
I left northwestern Alaska and worked for the state for three years to teach managers and counselors at other alcohol, drug abuse and suicide prevention clinics throughout the state, and formulated a small business.
I started The Growth Company Inc. in 1978, with two concrete blocks and a salvaged door as my desk and an old IBM Selectric typewriter and the telephone as my communication devices. I lived on ramen, rice and beans, and turned a profit in three years.
What is your background and how did you develop the skills to start your business?
I was a high school dropout who left to work on political campaigns and to write poetry. When I realized I needed more for my life, I submitted a play in lieu of a college application and received a full tuition scholarship to a small Midwestern college that allowed me to attend college for one year in Korea and to graduate in three and a half years with a double major in Philosophy and International Relations and a Master of Arts in Teaching.
In Nome, I applied to an accredited doctoral program that worked with candidates from throughout the country and earned a Ph.D. in Social Psychology before starting my business. As important, I ran a successful human service program, was a 5th grade, 7th grade and high school teacher, and ran a statewide training program for Alaska. After I started the business, I added a SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) and a SHRM-SCP (Society for Human Resources Management, Senior Certified Professional).
What inspires your work and what sets you apart from everyone else?
From early on, I’ve wanted to help heal the world. I grew up in challenging circumstances and at the same time there were some powerful healers in my lineage. When I started my own company, I set healing the world as my mission/vision. Although I hired highly pragmatic individuals, including one analytical man with an MBA who was all about systems and figures, the majority of my staff bought in to the concept of healing the world in the workplace.
I’m highly intuitive and right hemispheric, and I’ve experienced challenges that could have broken me, but instead made me empathetic and nonjudgmental.
How do you advertise your business? What do you do to attract new clients/readers/subscribers, and what do you do to retain them?
I don’t currently advertise. In the 1990’s, when I assessed where our business came from more than 90% came from repeat clients and referrals. I now meet individuals through www.workplacecoachblog.com, twitter (@lynnecurry10) and through LinkedIn. I retain clients by taking them seriously; listening to what they want; delivering more than expected; and acting as a trusted partner.
How do you define success, and has that changed over time?
I’m thrilled when someone is helped. I’m delighted when my writing inspired. I’m overjoyed when a client experiences the results they sought.
How do you stay balanced and healthy in your life and business?
My two collies require me to wake up with joy and to hike two to five miles a day. I love writing and so my work brings me joy. I believe in God and draw comfort and strength from my faith.
Who are your favorite/most influential podcasters/authors/bloggers/experts?
Too many to mention. I love reading.
Think about any particular process, tactic, app, program, etc. that you use that makes running your business (and life) easier, and please share what it is and how it helps you.
Process: I keep a list of what I need to accomplish and each day I decide what’s essential and I don’t sleep until it’s accomplished.
If a young woman just starting out came to you for advice on how to make a living doing what they love, what would you tell her?
Think (and feel) about what you love doing, and balance it with what you can do that makes money and ways in which you can be of service and balance the three of them.
What’s your favorite quote and who originally said it?
“The Sword of Truth” Ephesians.
***
Lynne Curry, Ph.D., is founder of www.workplacecoachblog.com with 2163 subscribers, the founder and CEO of Communication Works, Inc., and was the founder and CEO of The Growth Company, Inc., a nationally respected management consulting company.
Lynne has qualified in Court as an expert witness in the areas of management best practices, human resources, and workplace Issues. She authored Beating the Workplace Bully: A Tactical Guide to Taking Charge (AMACOM, 2016), Managing Equally and Legally (McFarland & Company), Won by One and Solutions (2006 and 2014, Communication Works) and Managing for Accountability (Business Experts Press).
Lynne has written a weekly Dear Abby of the Workplace newspaper column for 39 years (adn.com), and she has three children, three grandchildren, and two collies.
Her faith in God and Christ is important to her. She delights in hiking in Alaska and in writing novels, short stories, and her blog.
Connect with Lynne:
Twitter: @lynnecurry10
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynne-curry-53708760/www.communicationworks.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynnecurryalaska/ and the related page Communication Works Inc.
The view from my cabin window in Moose Pass.
The view from the road in front of my cabin and the collies I hike with every day.
