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Leadership Cultivator
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Linda Oien has been an NASE Member since 2002. She owns businessPATHS in
Spokane, Washington.
Tell us about your business.
During nearly 20 years in management and leadership roles, I developed a true passion for leadership. As a result, I chose to devote my adult life to advancing leadership and making a difference for a wide array of businesses, leaders, managers and employees.
For 17 years, businessPATHS consulting has been helping people become the leaders
they want to be, getting employees actively involved in the business, and getting results.
The focus of our services is leadership and organizational development, which include planning, consulting, and coaching projects as well as assessments and workshops focused on increasing organizational, leadership and team effectiveness.
How do you market your business?
We market and promote our business using social media outreach, speaking engagements, radio interviews, book sales, published articles and our website. In addition we are involved with community organizations, and benefit from client referrals.
What challenges have you faced in your business?
Building a consulting practice on my own was a bigger challenge than I anticipated. It took a lot of hard work and determination to keep going, explore new avenues and adapt to changing customer needs. If I were going to do it again, I would partner with other individuals or a consultancy so we could share responsibility for the various elements of the business.
Most recently, our challenges came from the economic downturn. The type of services business PATHS provides are often the first to be crossed off the budget during tight financial times. If I were going to do it again, I would ensure that we had a complement of products and services to better balance revenue opportunities.
What advice would you offer to your fellow NASE Members?
Be clear about what you want to achieve, surround yourself with people whose experience allows them to be great advisors and/or partners, and make sure you consider every hire the most important decision you’ll make during the next 10 years.
Read this article in PDF form here.