This isn’t your ordinary “meet the team” or “new owner” article. This is the story of an accomplished leader and entrepreneur acquiring a new business on the eve of a global pandemic. It’s a story about tenacity and team building. And, (*spoiler alert*) it’s also a story about you.

Chapters & Highlights

Chapter 1: Voted Least Likely to Own the Family Business  

Two years ago, just days before COVID-19 changed the world as we knew it, Korina Busse purchased Essential Impact. And if that name sounds familiar, it’s because her parents, Dave and Marj are two of the company’s original three founders (Dave and Marj Busse, and Carollyne Conlinn.) What you might not know is that prior to purchase, Korina had never been involved in the family business, and certainly had no plans to buy it and become the new owner.  

“The funny thing is, I was the only one in my family that intentionally never worked for my parents. Even as a kid, I never let my parents coach any of my sports teams. I refused. 

Don’t get me wrong, my parents are amazing and played an important role in my life, but I valued my independence. I was held capable from a very young age, and that was celebrated in our home. My dad says that my first sentence was, ‘I do it myself.’ 

I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I was determined to do it my own way. My siblings still cannot believe that I bought my parent’s company. Never in their wildest dreams did they think I’d consider it, let alone actually do it.” 

Chapter 2: You Know What They Say About Assumptions… 

It would be easy to assume that her road to ownership was smooth sailing. But Essential Impact wasn’t just given to Korina. She fought for it, and she was up against some stiff competition. 

 “Yes, I’m the daughter of two of founding partners, but this wasn’t just handed to me. This was a rigorous five-year process. We worked with lawyers and consultants to help us create transition plans, navigate financing, and develop contracts. I also wasn’t the only player on the board. I was bidding against other proposals including two major organizations in the financial sector. 

Proposals included everything from businesses looking to buy and take over the operations, organizations prepared to buy the coaching model and turn it into a learning and development division of their human resources department, and there were also individual coaches who wanted to continue offering the services and programs that had made Essential Impact so successful. 

What set my proposal apart was that I wanted to build a team. 

For context, when the founding partners first put Essential Impact on the market, they were doing everything. Marj, Dave, and Carollyne were juggling the business, running the day-to-day operations, coaching, facilitating in-person coach training, developing curriculum, and building the award-winning Excelerator Coaching™ Model. They were driving all of it. 

I proposed building a team and shifting the organization structure towards a managed business. 

My vision was to utilize the excellence of the coaches and contractors who were already working for Essential Impact, and bring in new talent to own the operational side of the company. 

That was the way forward – building a team of rock stars and empowering them to go out there and do what they do best. Whether that meant coaching, facilitating, marketing, or business development, we needed a team of people passionate about their work and who wanted to take Essential Impact to the next level.”   

Chapter 3: The Contract Before The Storm

In the end, it was Korina’s passion for team building and her vision for the future of the company that helped secure her bid. On Friday, March 6, 2020, the contracts were signed and the purchase was finalized. The original founders stepped out, and Korina officially stepped in as the new owner of Essential Impact. 

But five days later, the pandemic took the world by storm and changed everything. In less than a week Essential Impact lost 95% of its revenue.

“When I purchased Essential Impact, I literally bet the house on it. Anytime you buy a business, there’s the chance you might fail. I didn’t go into it blindly. It took three years to get to March 6, 2020. A lot of time, effort, consideration, and negotiation went into the process. 

Fortunately, I have a high tolerance for risk. Even in crisis – perhaps especially in crisis – it’s in my nature to ask, ‘What’s the opportunity here?’ And if I’m going to fail, it’s going to be because I actually fail, not because I give up. There’s a big difference between failing and giving up. 

When COVID hit, for me, that was go-time.   

In the original transition plan between ownership, I’d agreed to spend the first two years observing, and learning the day-to-day operations. I was meant to contribute to the business in the background, but that plan went out the window pretty quickly. We scrapped the transition plan and made the critical pivot to change our business model.” 

Chapter 4: The Question that Turned Crisis into Opportunity

Up until the spring of 2020, Essential Impact primarily partnered with organizations to provide in-person coach training, team coaching, mentor coaching and strategies for developing coaching cultures. However, with COVID-19 causing economic uncertainty for many industries, Essential Impact’s biggest clients were either shutting the doors or pausing learning and development programs. Korina shifted her attention away from organizational coaching and focussed instead on coach training courses and certifications offered to the public. 

 “The first thing I did was gather feedback from our customer base. I was curious. I wanted to hear from them and figure out what they needed. 

At the time, our public coaching courses had full cohorts and we had only ever offered in-person training. When we connected with program participants, they weren’t asking for their money back. They were asking when the virtual training would start. 

We didn’t suggest virtual training. Our courses were specifically designed to be delivered in person, so we hadn’t considered it as an option. It was our customers that asked for virtual training. They were asking the question that turned a crisis into an opportunity. And that’s where we started. 

Like so many businesses out there, we had to change direction and figure out how to effectively offer our services in a virtual environment. That wasn’t easy. 

But that’s only half of the story. It’s one thing to recognize an opportunity, it’s another thing to mobilize a team to make it happen. 

As a leader, it’s always been important to me to have the right people in place. The people we chose for that immediate team had to be willing to risk with me. They had to be in it for the long haul. They had to agree that if we were going to lose, it wasn’t going to be because we didn’t try. We were going to try our hardest and only fail if we actually failed. 

At the time I was still a new owner. Yes, I was the daughter of two founding partners, but I had no history of working at Essential Impact and no relationship with the people who did. So not only were we asking them to help us completely change the business from in-person to virtual training, I was also asking them to trust me. 

Part of earning their trust meant I had to be clear about two things: vision and risk. As a leader, once you’ve cast a vision about where you want to go, and you’ve clearly explained the risk, you have to wait and see who wants to play. Who wants to risk along with you? 

In the end, we built a team that played hard and risked big. That whole team – many of whom now make up our Associate Partner team – went all in. They risked big with us. 

It’s a testament to what the three founding partners have created. People believe in the value of coaching, and the service we provide. What an honour and a privilege for me to be able to lead us forward from that foundation.” 

Chapter 5: Back to the Future 

As of today, Korina has been leading the company forward for the last two years. A lot has changed in that time. Her critical decision to shift the focus from corporate to public coach training, and from in-person to virtual facilitation positioned Essential Impact for tremendous growth. A company that, on paper should have closed its doors when COVID hit in March of 2020, not only survived but now is thriving. 

“I’m extremely proud of how far we’ve come. In two years, enrollment in public coach training programs has grown by 129%. We’ve completely transitioned the business model and we haven’t lost the integrity of the product. 

Corporate clients are starting to relaunch their programs and, in some cases, are doubling down on their efforts to support their people and teams through coaching. We’ve hired new coaches and employees to meet the demands of our expanding client base, we’re profitable, and we’ve increased the company’s overall value. 

This year we also built out our 2022 Advisory Board. Eight successful Canadian leaders from across industries have joined us to offer their strategic guidance as we continue to grow and expand into new markets. 

In two years, we’ve accomplished what we’d hoped to achieve in five. None of it has been easy. It’s been a lot of work, and it’s absolutely been worth the risk.”  

While the global landscape continues to shift and change, the future of Essential Impact through Korina’s eyes looks bright. 

“We’ve been helping companies build award-winning coaching strategies for 15 years, and our Excelerator Coaching™ Model has been taught to thousands of people and teams.

We’ve seen the impact. We know how powerful it is. And now, more than ever, we want to take it to the world.” 

Epilogue

Like we said, this wasn’t going to be a typical “meet the new owner” article. As promised, it’s the story of an entrepreneur and leader willing to risk big and build a team passionate about the power of coaching. It is also a story about you. Whether you’ve been with us for 15 years, you were in the first virtual training cohorts, or you’re just joining us today, it’s your commitment to leadership excellence and coaching that allows us to be here. 

Thank you. We’re glad you’re with us and we’re thrilled to finally, officially introduce you to Korina Busse, Owner, Partner, and Chief Growth Officer at Essential Impact. If you’d like to help us celebrate and welcome her to the team, join us on LinkedIn. 

If you’re reading about us for the first time, and you’re curious about coaching you can learn more here, and you’re more than welcome to check out a live coaching demonstration to see what it’s all about.