Meet Delaine, a counselor-turned-entrepreneur whose journey from balancing motherhood with career demands to building a coaching practice is both inspiring and relatable. With years of experience guiding women entrepreneurs, she has made it her mission to empower them to find financial freedom and confidence in their businesses. Through her work, she transforms uncertainty into strategy and fear into growth. Humans of Fuzia is featuring her story to inspire our global community of 5 million members—women (and allies) committed to lifting one another up. Her story reflects the spirit of “He for She” and “She for She,” reminding us that true success lies in creating space for everyone to thrive.
Q: What inspired you to start your entrepreneurial journey?
Delaine: Solace Coaching has been around for a while, but my journey into business started in a very unplanned way. I was a clinical counselor for many years, and with three young children under the age of seven, I realized that traditional therapy hours—nights and weekends—just didn’t work for me. By chance, I was introduced to someone who owned a software company and needed salespeople. They thought, “You’re good with people, you’d be great at this.” That’s how it all began. It wasn’t intentional at first, but it grew into something much bigger.
Q: Who do you typically work with, and what is your mission?
Delaine: My mission is to empower women entrepreneurs to gain financial freedom through business. Most of my clients are women who’ve been running their businesses for a couple of years. They’ve seen some success, but they don’t fully understand how it happened or how to repeat it. Many are afraid of losing momentum and returning to corporate jobs. That’s where I step in—to help them build confidence and sustainable growth strategies.
Q: What changes do your clients experience once they start working with you?
Delaine: One of the first things they realize is that without a sales process, they don’t truly have a business—they just have an expensive hobby. That’s often a wake-up call. Once they see the importance of revenue systems, their mindset shifts, and they begin to embrace the idea that it’s not only okay to make money, but essential if they want to keep serving others.
Q: Have you ever struggled with imposter syndrome? What advice would you give to others facing it?
Delaine: Imposter syndrome has become a buzzword in recent years, but I view it more as a lack of confidence, something I’ve seen often as a therapist. Growing up in a small town in Northeast Georgia, the mindset was simple: if you’re not good at something, learn it until you are. That’s how I approached business—I figured things out, mastered them, and then shared my knowledge with others. My advice would be: don’t sit in fear. Take action, learn, and build competence.
Q: Looking back, what would you have done differently when starting out?
Delaine: I wish I’d had access to more mentors, especially women in leadership. Years ago, there were very few women in executive roles, and even today, those numbers are low. I would have loved to give my younger self both business knowledge and mindset support for being a woman in a male-dominated industry.
Q: What challenges do you see in the coaching industry today?
Delaine: Coaching has become a buzzword, and there are many self-proclaimed experts out there. I believe real coaches are those who bring either formal education or at least a decade of experience in the industry they’re serving. Otherwise, it’s just clever marketing.
Q: What legacy do you want to leave behind?
Delaine: My purpose is to help women become financially free through entrepreneurship. Whether it’s through my book, my magazine, retreats, or networking groups, everything I build is centered on community and visibility for women. I don’t just want to add another seat at the table—I want to build bigger tables and bigger houses, so there’s room for all of us.
Q: How do you define success for yourself?
Delaine: Success, to me, is about accomplishing my most recent goals. I set big goals and smaller steps along the way. Without that, I get stagnant. I’ve also learned that work-life balance doesn’t really exist for entrepreneurs—but life-work integration does, and that’s what I strive for.
Q: What’s the most underrated part of being an entrepreneur?
Delaine: The fact that you’ll never get fired again. You may face setbacks, go broke, or even go bankrupt, but no one will ever have the power to devalue your knowledge or dismiss you from your own business. That’s incredibly liberating.
Q: What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs?
Delaine: It depends on where you are in life:
- For Gen Z, experience is everything—learn the foundations of running a business and always have a strategy.
- For Millennials, build something around your passions. Without that emotional connection, burnout is inevitable.
- For those in their 40s and above, remember that starting something new doesn’t mean starting over. You have transferable skills and knowledge that put you ahead.
Q: What exciting projects are you working on right now?
Delaine: My newest project is my podcast, Power Your Voice. It’s a platform where female entrepreneurs can share not just their business journeys but also their personal struggles, relationships, and wins. It’s all about embracing the reality of life-work integration and creating authentic conversations.
“Entrepreneurship is about freedom—not just financial, but the freedom to create, to grow, and to build something bigger than yourself.” – Delaine
Want to be featured?
If you’d like to be featured in the Humans of Fuzia series, email us at fuziatalent@fuzia.com.
