About Me

I’m Marcia Hoeck, and I started my marketing communications firm, Hoeck Associates, Inc., in 1984. Geez that was long time ago.

I started the business when my corporate job moved out of town, thank goodness, because I don’t know that I would have had the foresight to do it on my at that time. The business grew quickly and I had to hire pretty much right away in order to handle the work — which means I made a lot of mistakes right from the get-go.

From 1984 until 2009, I ran that successful bricks and mortar company, headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, with branch offices in Detroit and Phoenix, Arizona. I learned a lot in those 25 years, and I’ll admit that there were many times I just plain didn’t know what I was doing — especially in the early years.

I was searching for help.

Often, there was nothing I wanted more than to have someone I could ask questions of, someone who’d been through what I was going through, someone to help me feel confident in going out and fighting the dragons every day.

But I couldn’t find anyone — everyone who was doing what I was doing, or knew anything about it, was a competitor, and not likely to let me in on any of their secrets. Besides, I got the feeling that many of them didn’t really know what they were doing, either.

Oh, sure, we all knew our crafts, our skillsets, and could help our clients, but as far as running our own businesses were concerned, it seemed “the school of hard knocks” was the only available teacher.

I tried getting a mentor though the retired executives programs, but they were too removed from what I was doing and couldn’t relate — or maybe I just couldn’t relate to them. So I plodded on alone, picking things up out of books, and doing the best I could.

I felt like a fraud a lot of the time, not really knowing how to run a business, doing it anyway, and being afraid someone would find out. (Like who? The business police? An irrational fear, but one I had, nonetheless.)

What did I most want?

Mostly, I wanted confidence, I wanted encouragement — and the knowledge that I could do it. I wanted to have someone to turn to about the little niggling things that came up, like how to handle clients, negotiate with them, what to say to them, how to make proposals to them. I wanted knowledge about how to keep clients from taking advantage of me while still attracting them to me. I wanted to know how to set my own priorities, and what I should really be doing each day, how to balance my work and home life, how and when to hire staff, and then how to manage and keep them after I did. I wanted to know if I was charging enough, or too much, and if I was making enough money for my business to survive in the long run, or until next month. I wanted to know how to get it all done without spreading myself so thin that no one — not my clients, my staff, or my family — was getting the best of what I could offer. And I wanted to know how to stay sane when it was only me, by myself, in charge. I wanted a real person to talk to about all of this — someone who’d been through what I was going through and could relate to my struggles and doubts.

I wanted someone I knew I could call when I needed them, someone who would get to know my business and have my best interests at heart, who would guide me down a proven path.

I wanted a mentor, someone who would have my back, and be there to answer the silly and frustrating questions I wouldn’t dare ask anyone else, and tell me I could do it — whatever it was. Someone who’d tell me if I was doing the right thing. A sounding board for ideas. A helper for planning my approach with clients and my team, someone who could identify my strengths and value, help me craft my offers, and identify my systems.

I used to daydream about this person — and how awesome it would be to work with them.

So what did I do?

I trudged through on my own for many years — without this person, of course — making lots of mistakes, until, at the advice of my then accountant, I put together my board of advisers. I loved my board, and it worked very well for lots of things for many years — but it also made me realize how much I still wanted something more intimate. I found myself “performing” for my advisers (we met in-person quarterly) and they filled my need for accountability and gave me much-needed structure. But there still wasn’t one person I could go to with a “how do I handle this sticky client situation” or “Help! I’ve got an immediate staff problem” type question. They weren’t those kind of advisers.

After that I found masterminding, through which I could share these types of concerns with peers. I loved and still do love mastermind groups, and the amazing challenge these groups can be for moving forward in your business. Sometimes these groups were helpful with the in-the-trenches businessy stuff — but often they didn’t know any more than I did. It felt wonderful to have comrades in arms, though, to share ideas and commiserate with.

In the end, the school of hard knocks was my teacher

I never found what I was looking for — but I developed tenacity, guts (one of my staff called it “balls”), and perseverance. I got good at “acting as if”  — pretending I knew what I was doing, until finally, through experience, I really did. I had lots of sleepless nights, lots of uncertainty, and my learning curve was much longer that it should have been.

And when I got to the point of “knowing” — of having that confidence in myself and my business, there was a huge feeling of relief around it — mixed with frustration that it took so long. I finally had a real sense of freedom in my business. I found myself thinking, “So this is what it’s supposed to feel like to own your own business.” Finally enjoying myself, getting my passion back, and having the time to do the things I started my business for in the first place.

And now I’m filling the role of adviser that I couldn’t find for myself.

In 2009, I sold the assets of my marketing communications firm and turned my attention to filling that need for other small businesses through coaching and consulting. I’ll share what I learned with you so you won’t have to learn from the school of hard knocks. I’ll show you how I drastically reduced the amount of time I spent managing the business (by 70%) while increasing my revenues (by 60%). And how I got the flexibility to get away from the day-to-day stuff to focus on what I love (and spend a solid month at my cottage every year). And how I worked with my team who loved what they were doing too, so they stayed with me and felt great about it.

Anything else you want to know? I’m not just teaching something I learned from a book, I actually did it very successfully for 25 years; I really love this stuff and I love teaching it; I’m married to Todd and have three grown kids (Grae, Jaime, and Jason), two grandchildren (Austin and Sydney) and two doglets (Amazing Grace, an amazing bichon, and Liesl Diesel Weasel Bezo, a miniature long-hair dachshund, who needs a long name); and I won my husband’s heart by juggling. And in the fourth grade, I was the Hula Hoop Queen of the whole block.