By Lindsay Field Penticuff
Andrea Liebross saw a need—a need for professionals across a variety of careers to have support, and not necessarily support with their budget, marketing or metrics, but support with how they reset something she refers to as the “messy middle.”
Liebross, a business coach, keynote speaker, author and founder of She Thinks Big based out of Indianapolis started her business in 2018. Prior to that, she worked for a clothing company’s recruiting, hiring and training department.
“It was a clothing company that sold direct to customers through showrooms,” she says. “I was recruiting people to open showrooms in different cities; 99% of those people were women. … These women were starting these successful, profitable businesses, but things started to feel heavy and complicated.”
Liebross helped them work through what she now calls the “messy middle,” and she really enjoyed it.
“There was a lot of dealing with people’s feelings, and they were starting to feel guilty because they weren’t spending enough time with their families, or they were starting to feel frustrated that the person they hired wasn’t working out. I took that knowledge, plus my academia background, and sort of meshed it to create this business.”
Liebross, who has a bachelor’s in history and psychology, as well as a master’s in speech pathology, quit her job with the clothing company and hired herself a business coach to figure out “next steps.”
“Through that experience—exploring why I stayed at the other job for so long and what I really loved about it—I figured out what I really love and started this business,” she says.
Design is one of the many industries Liebross works with, individuals she believes get into the profession because they truly love design, not necessarily because they wanted to start a business.
“I’m not really coaching people who have a business because they are only in it for the money. I am coaching people who actually love the work or the service they are providing, and that kind of person is not getting into it because they want to be a business owner. That’s the side work that comes with it,” she says. “The people I coach, 99% of them also have other responsibilities in their life – kids, spouse, aging parents, dogs. They are doing this because they want to have time for that.”
Liebross’ role helps people mesh who they want to be as a human with the work they want to do.
“We are talking business, but life is fair game,” she adds. “Life is intertwined into all of this, and your life is really what should be leading all of this.”
She does this by helping believe again—believe in themselves and the work they are doing.
“I’m really big about helping people see that belief is just as important as budget, marketing and metrics,” she says. “And they have to believe that things are going to work and going to happen.
“I help them shift from being reactive to being strategic, or from being exhausted to being energized, or from being more of an owner/operator to being a leader. And when they make those shifts, their margins improve, their timelines kind of calm down, their teams function, and then that designer feels more herself in her business than ever, and I think that sort of belief in action.”
This belief requires an interior designer to identify clarity, including understanding who they are, and staying grounded and focused on what they value and their principles; not just people pleasing.
“There’s a lot of that happening in interior design—wanting to please everybody,” she says. “So, with designers, we re-orient from ‘I have to do more’ to ‘I have to lead different.’ And when they realign their energy and beliefs, their success accelerates without demanding more sacrifice.”
Understanding an interior designer’s beliefs also allows them to return to a freedom—of sorts—in how they lead.
“We do a lot of work on how you want to lead, not how you want to be in the trenches,” she says. “When you’re stuck in [the trenches], you can’t see what’s going on, and that’s where I come in sometimes, giving you not really information, but insight into what’s happening.”
Additionally, this allows designers to rediscover their creativity.
“You’ve got to balance that energy to protect your creative bandwidth,” she says. “In order to have that balance of inspiration and organization without stifling that creativity, you’ve got to build simple structures that will support your workflow.”
From finding balance and energy to resetting the workflow processes and belief in your everyday work, Liebross is poised to help support interior designers get back to the work they fell in love with from the get-go.
To learn more about her processes and how Liebross helps designers shift their mindsets so that they can lead strategically and trust their teams, be sure to watch our interview with her HERE.
You’re also welcome to reach out to her.
“I welcome you to schedule a power hour with me or an activator intensive, which are two easy ways to get some little doses of coaching with not a huge commitment,” she concludes.
