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Woman On Top - Grace Yvonne Attard

For the first 35 years of her life, Grace Yvonne Attard did the responsible thing.  Being a first born and being of Chinese descent, living on a predetermined path was not only expected; it was SO expected that one step off the road most travelled would be met with criticism and oh yes, lots of comparison to others who did "better".  So there she went, Yvonne Lee (so she was named at the time), moved from Hong Kong to Toronto at the age of 13 and went for four years to a girls boarding school, then went to University of Toronto and completed her Honours Economics and Psychology degree and then went to work for an investment company, law firm and, yes, you got it, a bank... for her general management training for two years.  Of course, this was all planned because two years in the work force made it an ideal entry point into the MBA program at University of British Columbia.

During the MBA program, Yvonne met Dave, her husband and they decided to live in Vancouver and had both of their children there.  They had a good life - they had good jobs, good friends, lived in a good neighbourhood.  You might as well have put a white picket fence around their little townhouse on Kits beach.

But something was grating on her, something felt out of place, there was a part of her that was missing.

When Yvonne, Dave and their two girls, moved back to Ontario for family reasons, that feeling of emptiness grew and Yvonne recalls being completely miserable: "I was SO sick of the hamster wheel.  I had always taken the road designed by others and felt that I had given my creativity, my potential, my interests over to the "shoulds" in society, like "what should a good mother do", "what should a good wife do", "what should a good employee do".  I remember going from work to home and back to work and that's all I would do.  There was little joy, just responsibility.  That just had to end.  Good enough was no longer good enough."

So it happened.  Yvonne changed her name to Grace, quit her stable, well-paying government job, got trained as a coach and started a coaching and consulting practice for entrepreneurs called enSpire Coaching Inc.  And this is where the growth began.  Into the second year of running her practice,  Grace realized very quickly that home-based business owners and entrepreneurs were not only abundant in the Halton region, but more importantly, they were hungry for community, hungry for the fine balance between being an independent business owner AND belonging to something and being with like-minds.  Was there a place she could create, dream up, make from scratch for all these entrepreneurs to belong to?

It all started 4 years ago as just a wish when Grace created a vision board. On it, she remembers pasting on a quote that said, “if you are an entrepreneur, then you are in the club” and that's exactly what she has created. She remembers thinking "I had to create a place for people like me, small business owners, to belong to and feel part of a community.  I remember feeling so alone, like nobody in the world gave two hoots about my business, or my clients or how I was doing and I desperately wanted to be with other people who wanted to learn about themselves, change and grow..."

And so it has begun. e-Spot™ was born in January 2010, a home for entrepreneurs everywhere who want to grow themselves and their businesses.  There was just a huge gap in our community for this physical space.  And the goal of the e-Spot™ is to fill that gap. It is a spot that will help entrepreneurs excel....where entrepreneurial dreams comes true. And enSpire Coaching works right inside the walls of e-Spot™ where Grace continues to run her coaching practice. 

And Grace, well, she no longer feels empty.  Life now feels full, full of abundant relationships, abundant positive energy, limitless possibilities.  When asked what her biggest learning was during this transition, Grace comments, "I realize now that we are each born to fully express who we are,  If we don't give ourselves permission to do this, whether it's through our businesses or not, we cheat ourselves out of a fulfilling life AND we do a disservice to our community, which needs us to offer up our very best.   Like many of us, it's still a work in progress, but I think I've finally found my path".

*****

With over 15 years of business experience in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, Grace Yvonne Attard is a well-recognized marketing strategist and business coach in Canada.  As a 2006 Oakville Business Excellence Award nominee, and a 2008 RBC Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award nominee as owner of e-Spot™ and enSpire Coaching Inc., Grace provides strategic facilitation and coaching to entrepreneurs across Canada and in the US.  She is a well-sought after inspirational speaker and continues to work with groups in seminars and workshops on a number of topics – leadership, business excellence, strategic visioning, personal and professional fulfillment. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or for more information about her companies, visit www.e-spot.ca or www.enspirecoaching.com