326. From a Best-Kept Secret to a Sold-Out Success

Michelle Evans

She reached the top four percent of executives in Microsoft in just a few years. Viewing her as one of its high potential employees, the company assigned her a coach to help chart her path. So, what made her quit one day and start her own business that very night?

Michelle L. Evans walked away from Microsoft in 2012 after a successful 16-year career spanning many industries. Now she shows experts and entrepreneurs how to stand out. Her clients’ biggest challenge is that they’re really good at what they do but feel like they’re the best-kept secret around. Michelle shows her clients how to go from being best-kept secrets to a sold-out success, with a customized visibility strategy to attract clients to grow their business.

How Did You Start Using Your Talents?

“I think I fell in love with marketing when I was 14 or 15 years old when I was in high school in the Junior Achievement program. We created and marketed products, ran a student store, and shared our ideas.”

The Most Impactful Turning Point?

Although Michelle had studied business in high school and college, and knew she wanted to run her own business. It was a career coach for high potential executives at Microsoft who helped her crystallize her entrepreneurial dream. The global giant provides coaching to elite executives ranked in the top four percent. “This coach was amazing. She started putting me through assessments, asking me questions I had been avoiding in my own life for a long time. It really helped me reawaken the desire to have my own gig,” Michelle recalls.

The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?

“Once I started reflecting on the pieces of my life that I loved—and the pieces I was tolerating but didn’t love—things really snowballed. I started seeing that I was not a victim of my circumstances. Nobody was forcing me to work 15 hours a day, that was my own choice. My coach led me through an exercise that forced me to say what it would take to get me to a 10. I quickly saw it might take me losing my job! Staying there could have been so easy! Yes, the job was stressful and the work was hard, but it is so easy to stay stuck in that mode. I really needed a kick in the butt to get out of it.” When that kick came, she recalls, “I went home that night and opened my own business.”