Michelle Ward, PCC, has been offering dream business guidance for creative women as The When I Grow Up Coach since 2008. You may have seen or heard her in New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, Etsy, Newsweek, USA Today, the Forbes Top 100 Websites for your Career List or 150+ other media outlets. She’s the co-author of The Declaration of You, which was published by North Light Books, and the teacher of Create Your Dream Career and Ditch Your Day Job, which were watched by tens of thousands of people live on CreativeLive. In this episode, Michelle talks about the two years and seven months that it took her to train as a coach and go full-time with her business. We dig into the question of “how do I discover what I want to do, and then how do I actually make a real income doing it?” and Michelle’s advice, stories, and insightful perspectives on such a tough question are both helpful and comforting. She’s the real deal, and everything she shares from behind-the-scenes of her own business, plus the experiences of her many, many clients is invaluable. She also talks about her experience as a two-time breast cancer survivor, and especially how it felt to get her first diagnosis at age 33, when she was only a few years into running her new business. This entire conversation with Michelle was so open and refreshing, and I can’t wait for you to get to know her and fall in love with her, too! (more…)