Interview with a Client: Barbara McCollough of Surrogacy Success

Share

Sometimes, to learn a bit more about our own businesses, it helps to learn about others’ businesses, and the challenges they face. Today, my client Barbara McCollough of Surrogacy Success in Boston, Massachusetts, has agreed to an interview. Enjoy!

MH: How would you describe your business? BM: Surrogacy Success provides psychological, emotional, and relational support to people undergoing the surrogacy experience. We create informational programs — information people need to be able to go through the surrogacy process — delivered through teleclasses, teleconference calls, a forum, and 1-on-1 consultations, when needed. We help the parties through the surrogate endeavor with each other, sharing experiences and information, and providing support.

MH: Will you define surrogacy for us? BM: Surrogacy is a form of assisted reproduction where a woman carries a baby for a couple, either a heterosexual or gay couple, or a single intended father. I haven’t worked with single intended mothers or lesbian couples because it’s easier for women to achieve this without undergoing such an extensive process. Within the field, the technical term for the people I mostly work with is “gestational carrier,” because the baby is not genetically related to the woman who becomes pregnant, and both the egg and the sperm are fertilized outside of her body and then transferred into her womb, so she literally is just the carrier. The other form of surrogacy is when the egg belongs to the woman who carries the baby, and that’s technically called traditional surrogacy.

MH: What are the challenges you’re facing right now in your business? BM: We’re going through a period of rapid growth. Because we’re in a big joint venture with one major client, where our growth is tied to their growth, and business is growing to fill a need in the market, we need to grow the business to a level that hasn’t existed before.

MH: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about growing your business? BM: I think what I’m learning about is structure. Having the foundation in place is a really important piece, in terms of being able to keep up with growth.

MH: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned through our work together? BM: I’m learning a lot about structure, planning, and being able to be flexible – all of those things together. I’m also learning a lot about entrepreneurial mindset and how to craft a business around my own vision and my own nature, while at the same time taking advantage of the opportunities of the market. I think that has been a really important piece of my work with you.

Can I speak to what I’ve gotten specifically from you? What I would say is that one of the things you are very gifted in is, you have an unusual capacity to really listen and you don’t have a cookie-cutter approach. You have such an incredible background — you’ve already walked the walk. You’re not like a lot of consultants out there who know a lot theoretically, but they haven’t necessarily done the very thing that they’re consulting with. And it means a lot to me that you’ve had this experience. So much of what you teach and coach around has to do with your experience and your own success, and your own mistakes — you’re honest about your mistakes — and that you’re so generous about sharing all of this, and the benefit of it.

I’ve always felt my business is an unusual one — but you listen way beyond even what my level of knowledge was about the business that I’ve been doing for the last 10 years, and so you offer solutions when I wouldn’t have even known there was a problem. And that’s been invaluable to me.

I would have been in a very different place right now without your guidance. I really needed the — in a way it is — hand holding, but it’s a very specific support around some very basic things that has helped me to expand, and to imagine stepping into a much bigger role. Well, actually, to step into it. I think you’ve helped me to step into very shaky shoes.

MH: What are you looking forward to with your business? BM: I can see a time when I have confidence about the structure that I’ve put in place, that I have the right people in the right roles, and that I feel really good about it so that I don’t have to be as closely involved. I’m looking forward to having that time of confidence, and on the path of growth, so I don’t have to micromanage.

MH: What inspires you about your business? BM: I feel really inspired to be able to experiment and to be creative about service delivery and about assessing my clients’ needs. In my case it’s about the clients of my client, but to assess a need and to come up with really creative ways to delight the customer. That’s a challenge and it’s inspiring and I think that, with the kind of business I’m in, it also feels like it’s providing a service that really isn’t out there yet, so that the surrogacy journey can be a much more life-transforming, pleasant journey.

MH: One last question – what do you think is the most difficult thing about business, for you? BM: I think it’s making the transition from being a therapist, coach, and social worker to stepping into the metrics of business — the bottom line and the structure. It’s a form of leadership but it’s also – being a business person. For me that’s what it is, it’s actually becoming a business person. And although it’s the hardest thing, it’s also the most exciting thing.

Barbara is now working on her business website and ezine. I’ll announce them here when she’s ready to launch! In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about surrogacy, visit Circle Surrogacy or contact Barbara directly at Barbara at surrogacysupport dot com. Tell her Marcia sent you!