Today we’d like to introduce you to Steliana Economu.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in a very small village in Eastern Europe, on the Romanian Black Sea Coast – pre-Internet era – and after graduating from college, I felt incredibly frustrated with the lack of opportunities my local job as Economist offered. I left my hometown Constanta at 21 years old so I could get a jumpstart on doing things I cared about at a bigger scale. I first moved to the capital, Bucharest with my first HR job for Kraft Foods, and when the opportunity came to move to Amsterdam for an internship at Nike European HQ, I immediately said yes.
In the next 20 years I followed my passion for understanding different cultures and for unlocking people’s leadership potential through my Talent roles at Nike, Vodafone, and Shell International.
Before becoming a mother, my job involved extensive international travel, and I enjoyed that. I got to coach people from more than 20 nationalities and delivered more than 10,000 hrs. of leadership training across the world, from Lagos to Calgary, Houston, London, and the Hague.
But everything changed in 2012 when I became a mother. After few months of heavy transition to the new role I realized that being a mother is not only about dealing with the day-to-day issues of your child. Becoming a mother is actually a promotion, in the leader role of the new family and you share that leadership role with the father, in the family team.
Inspired by that insight I launched the blog Mothers as Leaders and by 2019 my first book: Mothers as Leaders was published. When I received the Global Corporate Award for contribution to feminine leadership at the WIN Conference (Women International Network), I knew I had to do more for helping mothers lead in society. I left my corporate career at Shell and in 2020, I launched my coaching and training business in The Netherlands and founded its learning community: Mothers as Leaders.
In 2021, my family had the opportunity to relocate to Houston, The Woodlands and started my new adventure while launching the ‘Mothers as Leaders’ coaching practice in The Woodlands.
Since 2022 I have been helping working parents to develop the Positive mindset and the mental fitness required to navigate career changes, family transitions, and heavy leadership roles, through a structured 2-months coaching program: Thrive with positive Intelligence.
In the autumn of 2023, I was invited to hold a series of six Mothers as Leaders training sessions hosted by The Woodlands Township for its residents.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. I launched my coaching and training business in March 2020 when the whole world was on lockdown. I had to cancel several face-to-face speaking engagements and training session and reorient myself into doing virtual engagements and webinars.
Financially the first year of entrepreneurship was tough, and in 2020, I could see how my business plan didn’t fit the reality.
What helped me was the genuine passion for the topic of Mothers as Leaders and my willingness to write about my struggles in articles for Thrive Global or LinkedIn, it attracted exciting virtual speaking engagements for Employee Resource Groups within larger organizations.
The other challenge was when my husband told me that his job was relocated from The Netherlands to the US and I had to adapt again.
Only one year after my coaching business started in The Netherlands, I had to pause it and restart later using the same concept in the US, Texas,
I had to use the first 6 months of settling in Texas to gain my International Coaching Federation – PCC level certification and most importantly to get to know the Texas working moms, their struggles, and challenges. This is what led me to partner with The Woodland Township to create the 6 Mothers as Leaders training classes.
The main challenge has been though the same struggle most working moms experience – finding the time to be there for your children when they need it most without sacrificing your career aspirations. Entrepreneurship brings flexibility, but that means you are always working, either for your business or for your family.
Still, the lessons I gained in the past 3 years of balancing family with entrepreneurship have helped me in better supporting my coaching clients on Time Management, Reframing Mother’s guilt and chartering a new career.
We’ve been impressed with Mothers as Leaders LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We provide holistic and systemic leadership coaching and training on career development, managing organizations, teamwork, diversity & inclusion, and mental fitness because we believe that positive change can only happen when we address the entire system and not only women.
Steliana about Mothers as leaders:
My biggest joy comes when a reader sends me a sweet message while they are reading the book Mothers as Leaders and are touched by the stories. I got this one yesterday: ‘Steliana, I am almost done with Tanya’s story, and I am just in awe. My heart aches for what she went through. My lunch break is almost done, and I don’t want to put your book down’ (Jesi, working mom, The Woodlands)
What I am also proud of, brand-wise, is that the ‘Mothers as Leaders’ mission, initially launched in The Netherlands is making its mark to the Houston audiences too.
In the first 2 years, while still based in Europe, I was invited to speak to Employee resource groups and working parents within Salesforce, Microsoft, Shell, Renault, and the likes. But here, I had the opportunity to reach the wider community through The Woodlands Township and through other non-profit organizations. For instance back in May, I was invited to speak about Inclusion, Diversity, and Bias to the Toastmasters Texas regional conference, and now I am in discussion with some of the private schools based in the North of Houston.
If you are interested to bring the positive message of combining leadership with parenthood and inclusion, you can get in touch to discuss and plan a speaking engagement on the 2024 calendar. My topics are highlighted in our mothers as leaders blog and in the speaking brochure: https://www.stelianaeconomu.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SpeakerOffer_vers3-1.pdf
Beyond the public speaking events, I work with a select number of professionals both in a one-on-one and a small-group setup through our flagship 2-month program (Thrive with Positive Intelligence). Over the past 2.5 years, we supported professionals and working parents from across the world to grow their mental fitness, remove self-doubt and to take charge of their career and life. Lately, we see more fathers registering than we see moms😊
What does success mean to you?
For me success is when I see the positive changes taking place in my client’s life after only 3months of PQ coaching: I get a smile on my face when I receive happy emails about new promotions, job offers. and happy family holidays. One of the CEOs I coached even showed me his P&L increase in the past 6 months, which was double.
On a macro level, My dream is to reach 1 million people across the world. Last month I took a small step with a TEDx talk: Parenthood – the best MBA in leadership might help.
Pricing:
- One-on-one Coaching 1hr: 275 -350 USD
- Mothers as leaders Book 19.90 USD
- Thrive with positive intelligence – 2 months, 7 sessions, 1190 USD
- Keynote Speaker Sessions 3500 -6000 USD
Contact Info:
- Website: mothersasleaders.com; stelianaeconomu.com
- Instagram: Steliana_mothersasleaders
- Facebook: Mothers as leaders
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steliana-van-de-rijt-economu-icf-pcc-actc-5740a81/
- Youtube: Steliana van de Rijt
Image Credits
Alina Stefan
Mindy Harmon
Erin Urban
Sjors van de Rijt
WIN
