From Overwhelm to Confidence: André Guzman's Journey with Makicuna Coffee
Through personalized business coaching, André Guzman transformed his coffee import business, Makicuna Coffee Ltd. He moved from hesitant decision-making to confidently executing a strategic growth plan, ensuring the success of his venture while maintaining balance in his family and professional life.
About the client & Objectives
About the Client
André is the founder of Makicuna Coffee. Makicuna Coffee source and import high-quality green coffee from Ecuador and Colombia, offering full traceability of the product and a direct relationship between producer and roaster.
Objective
André approached me looking to devise a growth strategy, enable confident decision making and support him as a solo founder with the rollercoaster of running a burgeoning international business.
Service
Coaching Approach
During six sessions, André created a new Business Plan and Financial Forecast, evaluated investment options, and recruited his first employee. He implemented habits to support his energy levels and performance. I introduced him to models and tools, including Internal Family Systems.
Aligned Decision-Making
The decisions made were aligned to André, avoiding the pressure of societal conditioning. We explored scenarios before making decisions, giving André confidence despite initial uncertainty.
Strengths and Relationships
We examined André’s strengths and weaknesses, enabling him to enlist support in challenging areas. Reconnecting with past successes helped guide his venture. Observations helped André understand how he shows up to clients and suppliers.
Focus on Key Tasks
We unpacked key relationships with his business partners, offering insights to strengthen these relationships while honouring his business needs. I also challenged André to focus on the important tasks that he, like all of us, overlooked or avoided.
Outcome & Results
Outcome
André has made significant strides in his business, now employing his first salesperson who is also assisting with the development of the company website and business processes. With a deeper understanding of how to optimise various aspects of running his business, he has also established good habits to maintain his mental health. André’s attitude has evolved, he is much more confident in his own success, he is making big decisions that may be unconventional and risky but will enable him to be there for his young family and yet expand his business.
Client Feedback
- “The coaching with you has been a lot deeper than I thought it would be. I thought we’d just focus on Strategy and Finances. But you’ve really helped me get clear with decision taking. Previously I’ve been hesitant to move to decisions and now I can see that I have been making decisions. I feel lighter. I know it’ll all be fine. I have been thinking back to the Benevolent CEO [/ the Parts/IFS] model that you introduced me to – it’s really been helping me.”
- “Coaching has been so good for me”
- “It’s brought in a lot of change”
- “Claudia, my partner, has seen it’s been good for me”
Improvements & Overall Impact
Outcomes
- André now has his first employee, a sales person, this recruit is also supporting the development of their website and business processes.
- André has a better understanding of how to optimise himself for the different aspects of running the business. He has good habits that will look after his mental health.
- André is operating more strategically and spending time on the key success metrics for this business
- André’s attitude has evolved, he is much more confident in his own success, he is making big decisions that may be unconventional and risky but will enable him to be there for his young family and yet expand his business.
Overall Impact
André has shifted from a place of overwhelm and anxiety to a place of calm, confident and assertiveness. He now has a strategically informed expansion plan that he is confidently implementing.
Future Plans
As André is in a good place and clear on his strategy and the actions to get him there over the coming months we have stopped our sessions for now but he is keen to return when the time feels right. This is not unusual and can be a very effective way of utilising coaching especially now that he understands the value of coaching and therefore when it’s best utilise the support.
Take Action!
If you’d like to explore how coaching will challenge your assumptions and enable you to operate more effectively and authentically — reach out.
