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Hello! My name is Lyndsie Barrie and when I’m not helping Fempreneurs, you'll find me napping or enjoying the great outdoors! I’m a small-town girl from Dawson Creek, BC who loves camping, road trips and is still adjusting to my new empty nest life!
Together with my business partner Vera we help women solopreneurs create better marketing and more profit through our community and coaching. We care both passionate about making it easier for Fempreneurs to follow their heart and stay the course with a support team of real, live human women.
Following our hearts is what led each of us to start our business and to build our communities. Lyndsie started the YYC Fempreneurs Community in 2019, which is how she met Vera, who ended up hiring Lyndsie to help her with her marketing strategy. Vera felt called to start a community of support for women solopreneurs, which eventually became the Fempreneurs Success Collective.
After getting to know each other for two years, we began co-creating events for Fempreneurs. We made the exciting decision to combine our coaching expertise and communities so we can help more women build their dream businesses. We’re so grateful that you are part of our community!
From Mompreneur to Marketing Expert
I stumbled upon some very powerful yet simple marketing secrets in 2015 while I was writing and marketing my first book. The most valuable secret is this: MARKETING IS JUST CONVERSATION.
At the time I was working with my first ever business coach, an investment that was the scariest financial decision I ever made, and also one of the best. Without the wisdom, course correction and business growth blueprint I received from my coach, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
At age 17, a month after graduating from grade 12 in Dawson Creek BC, I was living in Vancouver. My older half-sister was in Amway and invited me to learn about the business. As I learned about passive income and read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, I saw visions of my future. I was speaking on stages. I was coaching women, helping them achieve higher levels of success. Although I didn’t build an Amway business, the seed had been planted: I knew I would be my own boss and have time and financial freedom.
At age 21 I became a home owner and at 23 I became a mom. Only one of those life events was planned. Then a little over a year later, I was a single mom running my own mobile hairdressing and esthetics business in Grande Prairie, AB. I had the time freedom I had dreamed of, and I was my own boss, but I always felt broke. My financial management skills needed work and I had no clue how RRSPs or TFSAs or RESPs or the stock market worked.
When my son was a toddler I booked an appointment at my bank to get some answers. I wanted to start a RESP for him and a RRSP for myself because one of my hairdressing clients advised me to. I left that meeting with the “Financial Advisor” feeling more confused and like I was late to the savings game. About five years later I learned why that Financial Advisor didn’t care to help me.
In 2010 my boyfriend and I rented our our homes in Grande Prairie and moved in together in Cochrane, AB. While I was searching for my next career (I didn’t want to be a full-time hairdresser anymore - I wanted a new challenge and to earn more money) doors began opening. Eventually one of those doors opened to becoming a Financial Advisor at a large international investment firm.
I discovered why the Financial Advisor I had met with years before didn’t care to help me: her compensation was commissions and I had little money to invest.
Three years into my Financial career, was let go. After crying for 12 hours seeking advise from my mentors I started my own Financial Consulting business. Many of my clients followed me because they had a relationship with me - not the investment firm. This was my first marketing Aha! moment.
By prioritizing the relationships over selling to make commissions I positioned myself as someone who truly cared about my clients.
The two best things about getting fired from that job were:
I became an entrepreneur again - no more boss nagging at me about not hitting my commission targets.
I was able to be myself on social media - my posts didn’t have to pass compliance inspection anymore.
When I started my mobile hairdressing business at age 21 I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have women encouraging and guiding me because they wanted me to be successful. Fast forward to 2014 when I started my next business, I did not have the same luck. So I did something about it.
Searching for like-minded entrepreneurs landed me at a conference where I met my first business coach. It took me a few months to wrap my head around investing that kind of money in a coach when I felt broke all the time, but once I did, my mindset and income began to soar. Each session with my business coach left me feeling ready to take the next steps. I was no longer filled with doubt. I knew I was on track to changing my life and that of my young son. Because I took a leap of faith and hired this business coach, I was able to achieve two huge, life-changing goals:
Write my first book
Use the free power of social media to connect with dream clients and over 1000 like-minded entrepreneurs
During this time I received invites to many in-person networking events from my new entrepreneur friends, and I began holding my own events. I learned how to properly plan and market an event and unlocked the marketing power of putting out a super clear, niche message. However, I didn’t feel like I was having the impact I was meant to have. Something was off, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other, asking for feedback, and learning how to do things better next time.
It’s true that “figuring it out as you go” is a solid business growth strategy, but I’m an impatient person. I was (and always will be) looking for short cuts.
That’s why we hire coaches. We want their short cuts. Their blueprint. My coach had also written 3 books and I believed him when he said that becoming an author is a shortcut to success.
By 2018 my new book and online marketing success was inviting questions from female entrepreneurs in my circle. They saw that my book was on the shelf at Chapters and that I had added International Speaker to my LinkedIn profile after landing a dream speaking gig in Maryland, USA. I began teaching marketing workshops to share my short cuts.
The vision for my future became crystal clear while at a retreat called the Hoffman Process. While lying in bed the first night at the retreat I clearly saw what I would do over the next 6 months, and for many years to come:
I help Fempreneurs create an online presence they’re proud of so they can attract their dream clients and have the lifestyle and fulfillment they dream of.
Today my business looks a lot different than it used to because I have a business partner, the one-and-only Vera Ilnyckyj. I am so lucky to have found her and even more lucky to be able to dream, create and celebrate with her every day. Together we can deeply serve 20x more women solopreneurs than we can alone.
Since partnering with Vera my business and marketing coaching skills have exploded. Having someone who is always in stride with you, sees your blind spots, wants the same things you want and holds you accountable to getting the highest priority stuff done is life-changing. It’s honestly not something I ever though I’d find.
Please remember that we’re here to help you see your blind spots. We’re ready to step in and be your personal accountability and confidence-building team - CLICK HERE!
